Product Description

All will be revealed as the thrilling final episodes of Battlestar Galactica 4.5 land on Blu-ray™ Hi-Def. From their initial action-packed battles against the Cylons to their desperate attempts to find the fabled 13th colony, Earth, a determined band of human survivors has captivated audiences everywhere with their desperate quest to find a new home for their dwindling numbers. Join them now as the fleet journeys into the furthest reaches of unexplored space and faces a crucial decision that will change all of their lives irrevocably. This epic 3 disc set contains over 10 hours of intense, groundbreaking bonus features, including extended episodes that never aired — a must own addition to every fan’s collection. Relive the anticipation, the action and the excitement of this groundbreaking series that is destined to live on as “one of the best dramas on TV.” (Time Magazine)

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #6508 in DVD
• Brand: Universal Studios
• Released on: 2009-07-28
• Rating: Unrated
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• Formats: AC-3, Color, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, Subtitled, Widescreen
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, French, Spanish
• Number of discs: 3
• Running time: 763 minutes

Customer Reviews

Spoiler-free review for BSG 4.5 on Blu.
Not everyone watches the show when it airs, and if you're one of those people or if you'd just like to know what's on the discs, then this review is for you.

First, let me just say that I absolutely loved the finale. I also believe that the final half of season four was perhaps the strongest of the series (definitely the bleakest). This show had always been a drama with a scifi setting, and while some folks didn't like the fact that it became much more dialogue driven and less focused on action, I loved it. There are ten episodes (finale being a three-parter, but aired as two episodes, so you could say 11 episodes) spread across 3 discs. Here's a breakdown of the EXTRAS on each disc with my opinion of what's useful and what could have been airlocked.

Disc One:
"The Journey Ends: The Arrival" is a look back at the series with the cast and crew. Worth watching.
"What the Frak is Going On With Battlestar Galactica" is a quick 8-minute summary of the show through the first 3 seasons. It's concise and hilarious.
"A Disquiet Follows My Soul Unaired Extended Episode." Better than the broadcast version, and definitely the version I'd recommend.
"Evolution of a Cue" is a behind-the-scenes look at composer Bear McCreary's creation of music for a specific scene (with Roslin). It's incredibly detailed and if you're a fan of the music on BSG, I couldn't recommend this one enough. Actually, even if you're not a fan of the music it's still very interesting.

Disc Two:
"David Eick's Video Blogs" is a collection of 11 3-5 minute video diaries with the cast and crew covering a range of topics. Some are funny and some are just fun to watch. Definitely worth watching.
"Islanded in a Stream of Stars Unaired Extended Episode." Much better than the broadcast version. I wasn't a huge fan of this episode when it originally aired, but this extended version definitely fleshes out the story a lot better and also fills in a few gaps.

Disc Three:
"A Look Back" is another collection of videos(6) with the cast and crew. Not repetitive in the least, this is also well worth watching.
"...And They Have A Plan" is a quick 4-5 minute sneak peek at what the upcoming movie, "The Plan" is all about.
"The Musicians Behind Daybreak." Bear McCreary is again on-hand to discuss what went into creating the epic score for the finale. Even better, we're introduced to the various musicians (and their instruments) who have worked on the score from the very beginning. And once again, this one comes HIGHLY recommended.
"Daybreak Unaired Extended Episode." The finale the way it was meant to be seen. This contains all three parts, and along with extra scenes, it was also re-edited a bit. I highly recommend watching this and forgoing the broadcast version.

Across all discs you'll find deleted scenes (some are very interesting while some are just filler that should have been deleted, and they are presented in SD), audio and podcast commentaries (they're all worth a listen), along with U-Control. U-Control is an interactive feature that offers little facts about the show/characters which you can access as you watch an episode. Frankly, I found it completely useless. I haven't tried the BD-Live content as yet.

It should be noted that you should watch the entire series before watching any of the extras because they do contain massive spoilers.

There is, however, one glaring omission from this box-set: "The Face Of The Enemy" webisodes. While they are available elsewhere online, they should have been included in this set. They answer a question or two (from season 3) and greatly flesh out a certain character's motivations in these final episodes. I'd recommend finding and watching them before watching the episode, "The Oath." While this exclusion is noteworthy, the strength of the rest of the content in this set more than makes up for it. And perhaps we could see them available through BD-Live one day?

Visually, BSG looks gorgeous on Blu. You do notice the intentional grain a bit more at times, but colors pop and lines are well defined (CGI looks better as well). On the audio side, the DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track is simply fantastic. Technically, this set is remarkable.

If you've come along for the ride this far, there's absolutely no reason to not pick up this final half-season to see how this story ends. However, as to be expected, the finale won't please everyone. Whether or not you like it, at least we were given a proper conclusion, which is a rarity in today's television landscape. They told the story they wanted to tell, and left it up to their audience to decide...and that's exactly what I did.

A wonderful conclusion to the best show to ever grace our television screens.

There must be some kind of way out of here...
SPOILERS BELOW. DO NOT READ UNLESS YOU HAVE SEEN ALL OF DAYBREAK!


I can picture Ron Moore in a round table discussion with his writers after the end of their strike allowed for a full final season of BSG.
"There must be some kind of way out of here," he probably muttered to David Eick, referring to the trap they set for themselves by rushing to finish the series in a dignified fashion at the end of 4.0. I'm sure the fear that there would be no further episodes pushed the team to find a degree of closure in finding Earth in a hurry and by writing things like Mr. Gaeta's line, "known constellations are a match." Combine that with referring to actual names for the constellations (i.e. Sagittarius instead of Sagittarion) as their "ancient names" in the tomb of Athena in Season 2, killing off your heroine without a concrete plan to explain her return, and pigeonholing the writers into finding a planet to call Earth at the series end, and the result of trying to end the show a second time without the plan that guided Mr. Moore thus far may as well include Fonzie water-skiing.

These abundant, but individually forgivable issues turn into major plot holes when the second Earth, our Earth that we are standing on now, is not the one they were referring to all along. They chose to show that the second Earth was truly ours with our continents, and even our Times Square... but apparently our real constellations are something of a paradox as both planets wouldn't have the same view of them. The names of the colonials' ancient constellations of the past somehow was to spring up again to become terms from our ancient past rather than their modernized versions of the words. By placing them 150,000 years in the past, we guarantee that absolutely no one from the fleet will successfully teach mankind living on Earth anything about civilization, language, or culture, as the sloppy time-line is set about 100,000 years too early for that to be a possibility. Not even Hera/mitochondrial Eve gets a happy ending as her life ended quite young according to National Geographic. Most of the continents that the 30,000 spaceship-dwelling survivors would have dispersed between were devoid of humans or protection, yet they chose to leave every trace of their technology and conveniences on a collision course with the Sun. If it is not the logic or minutiae of these incongruous events that should give a viewer pause, than it is the abandonment of the ultra-realistic characters' personalities and souls that should concern us.

Admiral Adama chose to leave his only surviving family member behind for good after spending the last 4 years trying to keep him close; his son is left alone to "explore" the globe on foot after his soul-mate turns out to be no different than Harvey the pooka, vanishing into thin air. The soul of the fleet, Kara Thrace is abandoned by Mr. Moore just before she can have an appreciable end to her story. No version of the word "frak" can define how uninspired and cheap the story becomes when arbitrary snap decisions must be used to determine the fate of an entire story that has already ended once. Albeit the first go at finding Earth left us with empty stomachs, but at least it retained a semblance of dignity for the exceptional staff that tirelessly worked on BSG for almost 5 years.

Let me make this clear: I love Battlestar Galactica. It had an incredible run, which included countless moments of brilliance and art from its amazing actors, inspired directors, and visionary writers. Unfortunately, as BSG has told us on numerous occasions through its plot lines, those visionaries can be wrong; can let us down. Ultimately, it is up to us to carry on and decide what makes sense for ourselves rather than listening to those who would rather drop the ball at the finish line rather than following Starbuck's mantra of "fight 'em until we can't." I challenge any and all fans to rewrite Daybreak, or alternatively the entire of Season 4.5 so that we may find a more logical, fitting, and challenging end to what may be one of the greatest television shows in recent history until its final moments. So say we all.

Love the New Series, Love BluRay, but this set is a Travesty. BEWARE!
This is the reason the BluRay goes for LESS now on Amazon than the DVD!
I was so excited to see BG on BluRay, I was disappointed I had already purchased too many seasons on DVD to justify getting the entire series on Bluray, so this was my only option to get a season I didn't have. (Although other seasons look GREAT when the DVD version is Upscaled!!)
Oh my God I was so disappointed with the BluRay :( I don't know where to start.
The beginning...I put the first Disk in the player and waited with anticipation for the splash screen. It came up..Crystal clear digital lettering, a nice interface. But in the side window, the worst, ugliest video played. It was like looking at 2 different standards. I thought, "My God its like watching a TV station from 100 miles away". The picture was grainy, the colors washed out, it had static. Is this the look they were going for? It made no sense.
I tried playing an episode.
Oh Great, every time you play an episode, Moore has to pop his head up again giving you his 10 minute dissertation on how great this is going to look. HE is digitally clear, bright and the color saturation is perfect!
Then the episode starts. GRAINY, WASHED OUT, TINTED. I tried it in the BluRay and the PS3...Same thing. I wanted to give Moore a slap on his face for the incessant boasting!
I decided there must be a problem with my setup. So I took it to BestBuy. They told me it had to be my $5 HDMI cable. But it looked exactly the same on their $50 Dynex cable (who pays $50 for Dynex anything?) Even their better cables, same thing! Even they had to admit, it wasn't pretty! I thpought he was joking in the commentary, but now I think it actaully was shot with a Retail Store cam.
That is just part of the problem. As I mentioned before this irritating intro by Moore comes up every time you do something with the disk. And its like he is laughing at you for being a sucker and paying the extra 10 bucks or more. He should be apologizing!
Also, when you are watching an episode and you realize you have seen this one already, you can't exit to the main menu. I had to reboot the disk on the Sharp player and the PS3. You are trapped in the episode! Sometimes it just goes blank at the end of the episode and the player can't even shut down. I never had that happen with any other BluRay.
With all this, I won't even go into his wife's babbling and child worship on the commentary track. That one kid of their's should be named PatPat (I swear its the kid version of the guy from Sat. Night Live. Somebody get this kid a nutritionist...please!). And I don't have much appreciation for Moore's cursing on the commentary either. Just doesn't add anything to the content for me.
Anybody want to trade me a DVD version?