For those who have been spending the first half of Battlestar Galactica's final season expecting to see deceased presidential aide Billy Keikeya again - perhaps in a shock revelation as the show's final cylon - then we've got some good news and bad news for you. The good news is, the writers want to bring Billy back as well. The bad news, it's not going to happen.

Speaking during one of the latest podcast commentaries, executive producer Ron Moore explained,

I think we [the writers] were all kind of intrigued about bringing the Billy character back, he was one of our favorites and long dead and it would be kind of cool to see him again in the last season... But there was some scheduling conflict with the actor Paul Campbell, and he wasn't available.

Okay, we'll admit it - This doesn't mean that we have no chance of seeing Billy again; Moore has been known to mislead fans on his podcast commentaries, after all (*coughStarbuck'sdeathcough*). But if he really wanted to keep any potential Billy reappearance a surprise, it's unlikely that he'd start bringing up the subject at all.

If you're wondering why he brought up the subject, it's because the role that equally dead character Elosha played as Roslyn's hallucinatory spiritual advisor in "The Hub" episode was originally going to be filled by a ghost Billy. When Campbell's lack of availability changed that plan, writer Jane Espenson detailed the amount of work that created to fix the script:

In a hallmark of what I consider really fine writing, I just did a global search and replace on the name. I did not change the lines. The only thing I did... I added 'Cue the celestial trumpets.' That one phrase that Elosha has was all I did to change it.

As Moore says in response, "There you go. That's how finely detailed this stuff is."

Battlestar Galactica Commentary Podcast [Scifi.com]

As we reported before, Frank Pike is involved in a virtual affair with the wife of the one character he shouldn't cross, Roger Fallon. Fallon is the ship's therapist, but also the producer of the reality TV show following the crew, so he toys with the crews' minds at will. If I didn't know any better I'd say this had the makings of an classic space soap opera. And of course, something shocking happens to Pike at the end of the first episode.

[The Hollywood Reporter]

There are three strands in the Virtuality pilot, and only one of them relates to virtual reality as such:

1) The ship, the Phaeton, is nearing a slingshot maneuver around Jupiter, which will either send it back to Earth or send it hurtling forwards to its destination of Eridani. This is the "go/no-go" decision point, which will decide the crew's fate once and for all. At the same time, the ship's doctor, Eyal Meyer, has Parkinson's Disease, which throws an extra wrinkle into the tough decision. Should the ship go forward and risk not having a doctor on board? If they don't go, it may be 20 years before humans can try again — which may be too late. There are also glitches with the ship, and emergency repairs may cost one character their life.

2) The crew are all spending time in virtual reality "modules," including everything from a restful seaside scene to a Civil War battle where Confederate troops attack Union soldiers, only to fall into an ambush. In all their "modules," a mysterious figure known as the Green-Eyed Man shows up and kills the humans in gruesome ways. (Unlike in The Matrix and other scifi classics, being killed in VR doesn't harm you in real life, but it's jarring.) Is the Green-Eyed Man a hack by one of the crew members? A computer glitch? Or something else? Everybody suspects Billie, the computer geek — until she's raped by the Green Eyed Man, in a brutal and horrible scene.

3) Even as the crew is stressed out by the experience of being in deep space alone for 10 years, and losing themselves in VR entertainments, they're also being watched. In particular, the ship is one huge "reality TV" show, which is broadcast back on Earth. The ship's computer whiz, Billie, becomes the "host" of the show, which is struggling with declining ratings — so she has to find ways to increase the show's "drama" to make it more compelling viewing. There are interview segments interspersed with sequences where Billie films the crew arguing. The crew have to take part, or risk breaching their contracts — which could mean their families back on Earth lose their preferential housing. (There are tons of hints that Earth is one huge ecological cesspool, and liveable dry land is at a premium, with long waitlists for housing.)

The show's most freaky character — sort of a cross between Gaius Baltar and Brother Cavil — is Roger Fallon. He's the ship's therapist (and may have to take over as doctor if Meyer is incapacitated.) But he's also the producer and director of the ship's "reality TV" show, which places him in a weird conflict of interest. He's supposed to be listening to the crew's problems, even as he's urging Billie to create more "drama" to boost the show's ratings. He's a manipulative snake, who's a famous self-help guru with a book that's almost as popular as the Bible back on Earth. We're clearly supposed to hate him and yet find him oddly compelling. His wife, Rika, is having a virtual reality affair with the ship's captain, Frank Pike. (Yes, the captain is really named Pike.)

Other simmering subplots: Manny and Val, a gay couple, have been stuck on galley duty and hate cooking, plus they're bad at it. Another married couple, Alice and Kenji, are having sex in weird spots all over the ship and trying to keep it secret for some reason. (Plus it seems as though Alice had an abortion so she could go on the Phaeton's space flight, and her sister just had a baby back on Earth.) Billie is adjusting to being the host of the "reality TV" show, and her VR module is a hilarious scenario where she's a Joan Jett-esque rock star who's also a superspy. (And her band are all super-spies too.) Another character, a scientist named Jules Braun, is having the computer create a virtual reconstruction of his dead son, Shawn.

Bottom line: It's a bleak and disturbing look at the effects of a long space trip on humans, as dark in its own way as Battlestar Galactica. It sort of reminded me of the underrated film Sunshine, in the focus on psychological drama in cramped quarters, plus the dangerous repair sequence and the fact that the ship has a hydroponic garden. But the "reality TV" aspect adds a whole extra sardonic layer to the cake. [Thanks to Lukas for the heads up]

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Moore just signed a deal to write and produce an original science fiction movie trilogy for United Artists, the resurrected production company that wants to create its own home-grown franchises. No word on what the trilogy will be called, or what it's about. New UA CEO Paula Wagner worked with him 10 years ago, when he co-wrote Mission Impossible II, which she produced.

As for Eick, he just signed a two-year development deal with NBC/Universal, on the heels of his failed Bionic Woman reboot. He's going to work on reinventing another, as yet unnamed, Universal franchise. But he's also working on two other projects, which scarcely sound science fictional at all: AKA, a "family adventure" that he describes as Little Miss Sunshine meets Thelma And Louise, and another series that's "sort of a modern-day Hart To Hart." [Hollywood Reporter and Variety, via Wes]

Says Hollywood Reporter:

[Virtuality] is set aboard the Phaeton, Earth's first starship. It revolves around its crew of 12 astronauts on a 10-year journey to explore a distant solar system. To help them endure the long trip and keep their minds occupied, NASA has equipped the ship with advanced virtual-reality modules, allowing the crew members to assume adventurous identities and go to any place they want. The plan works flawlessly until a mysterious "bug" is found in the system.

"It's very much about what's fantasy and what's reality; what we do to escape our lives and what actually institutes our lives; are these things very different," [Universal] president Katherine Pope said.

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Speaking at a press conference, Moore explained the seeming change of direction:

The writers had worked out what the arc in the back half [of the fourth season] was already... I think [the strike] actually benefited the show in some ways in that... we started to think about things that we could change, things we could make better. And when the strike was over... we wrote the second half of the season all over again.

It's devastating... don't watch this program; it's not an easy ride.

Battlestar Galactica Panel [UGO.com]

Here's a complete list of episode titles and writers for the first half of the season.

Starbuck: The first few episodes of season four are "all about Starbuck," says Jamie Bamber. She believes she's only been gone a few hours, but it's been seven months for everyone else. She's not the same as she was before, and may actually be dead. And not only does she claim to have been to Earth, but she has photos which she took from Earth orbit showing the pattern of the stars — matching the pattern they found in the Temple of Athena. She insists she's not a Cylon, and Ron Moore has pretty much confirmed it. But the President suspects her. It doesn't help her case that her Viper is in pristine condition.

And at one point, Starbuck gets locked up in the brig and has to break out. She may take the president hostage. There are lots of clips of her freaking out and shouting that the fleet is heading the wrong way, and they're going to have to kill her to shut her up. She worries she's been brainwashed or turned into a infiltrator..

At some point, Starbuck gets enough trust back to be put in charge of a Das Boot-esque ship called the Demetrius. She finds out about the prophecy that she's the herald of the apocalypse. Oh, and a leaked call sheet says later in the season, she finds a crashed Viper with her own dead body in it, and she puts fake dog tags on the body and lights it on fire, and Leoben is with her.

(Side note: Bamber mentions in the above clip that even Ron Moore and the other writers had no clue what was going on with Starbuck coming back from the dead, until they started working on season four. What the frak?)

Col. Tigh: We know, from preview footage, that he's incredibly paranoid about being found out as a Cylon — and he's scared that Starbuck knows. He insists in one clip that he's not going to let those bastards program him to go against his principles. But we've also seen preview footage of him pointing a gun at Admiral Adama in the CIC, and one source suggests he may actually shoot the Admiral non-fatally. He gets some scenes with his dead wife Ellen, which may just be dream sequences, and also screams for her in a pool of water. And at one point, the Cylon Six and Ellen sort of blend together. He did not pick this frakking life. Oh, and he's not hearing that frakking song any more. Thank the gods.

Baltar gets his own cult of worshippers. And maybe takes a non-Cylon lover. But even though he becomes a religious leader, he also preaches that the gods don't exist. (See clip.) (Maybe he preaches mono-theism?) And at one point, he gets captured by some fanatics who threaten to slit his throat, so he can give his life so God will save an innocent child. He chooses to give his life to spare the child's, and it gets as far as his throat actually getting cut. At some point, he meets up with the Caprica Six, and somehow he can see the Gaius Baltar that she sees in her head. The two of them even interact.

Anders has similar issues with being a Cylon. And when he's out flying in battle, he runs into a Cylon fighter, which scans him with its "eye" and refuses to attack him in the clip we featured a while back. (And we're guessing he's the hidden Cylon who "jumps ship" in the first few episodes.) Anders tries to come out to Starbuck as a Cylon, sort of, by telling her that he would still love her if she was a Cylon. But she doesn't react in the yay-Cylons the way he was hoping. And this causes a split between the two of them.

President Roslin is Starbuck's biggest doubter, judging from the clips. She seems to be asking Bill Adama at one point whether he's willing to risk his own death just to avoid losing her again. And Lee Adama seems to be accusing her of being power-mad and ruthless in another clip. She questions Cylon Six about the final five, and Six says they're in the fleet. Six can feel they're near. Meanwhile, her cancer comes back, and in episode six, "Faith," she's stuck in a sick bed next to Emily, played by Deep Space Nine's Nana Visitor, who annoys her by listening to all of Baltar's radio broadcasts religiously. But the two bond eventually.

The Cylons decide not to attack the human fleet any more, because the final five Cylons are on board and may not be able to resurrect. This supposedly leads to friction between Six and the other human-looking Cylons.

Six, meanwhile, gets a new incarnation this season, called Natalie, who wants to lead a Cylon revolution. Six opposes Brother Cavill because she decides his treatment of the Cylon raiders is unethical, and encourages the robotic Centurions to kill the other skin jobs. We've featured clips of her leading some of the robotic Centurions into a room full of other skin-jobs. There's a rumor that the Centurions are going to rise up against the human-looking Cylons in episode four, "Escape Velocity," because the skin jobs tried to restrict the Centurions' free will. The "skin jobs" debate what to do about the Centurions, and Brother Cavill says they're tools, not pets. Cavill gets a new love interest, whom he makes out with.

The second episode of the new season is called "Six Of One," and includes the Caprica Six and her mental version of Baltar.

Meanwhile, the Boomer version of Sharon is back in a big way, and does something to shock the other Cylons in one of the clips we've seen. Also, at some point the Cylons un-box the Lucy Lawless Cylon to find out what she knows. But two Cylon models may get wiped out altogether by Six's coup. At the same time, someone (Six?) wants to unite all the Cylon models.

Admiral Adama has a crisis of faith, maybe revolving around Starbuck's return. He's tired of turning away from the things he wants to believe in.

Lee Adama didn't take this job to help someone undermine the president. And he's made a decision that he can't explain, but which he knows he has to do. He does not return to active flight duty this season.

Does Lee Adama's new life path have something to do with the spoiler we reported this morning, that Tom Zarek leaks classified information to "a new colleague" for nefarious purposes?

Romo Lampkin comes back at least once during the first 10 episodes, and again during the last 10. And it sounds like his voice in that one promo clip telling someone they're a beacon of hope, and hope should be extinguished.

Cally is rumored to die in the third episode, "The Ties That Bind," probably by suicide. And the Cylonitude of her husband may be what drives her to it. (And it may not be coincidence that we reported this morning a leak that "someone" finds out the identity of three of the secret Cylons in that same episode.)

Misc.: There are all sorts of rumors about what happens when the fleet finds Earth. It's in ruins. It's in our 22nd century. There will be some kind of snakey plot twist. "Everybody's dying in season four, and I wouldn't be surprised if the ship was blown apart," says Edward James Olmos. There's a rumor the name of the thirteenth colony in the scriptures is "Cylon." Oh, and we totally predicted back in November that the final Cylon wouldn't be one of the big characters. (And that poll's still open!)

Probably the best part of the episode, aside from discovering that Admiral Cain is having girl-on-bot love with a Number Six model Cylon, is the character Kendra Shaw. A Starbuck-esque macho girl, Shaw becomes Cain's right hand after the Cylon attack. We watch a lot of the action in this episode unfold through Kendra's eyes: she sees Cain slowly degenerate into vengeful madness after the Cylon attack (and the discovery that her lover is a Cylon spy), and then she becomes Lee Adama's XO after he takes charge of the Pegasus in the wake of Cain's death. Wracked with guilt for her role in a massacre of civilians protesting the Pegasus takeover of the fleet, Shaw tries to honor Cain's legacy with bravery but not to fall prey to her appetite for violent destruction.

The episode centers on what happens when an exploration crew goes missing and Pegasus sends out a rescue mission to find them. Of course, they discover a hidden nest of Cylons — but not the ones you're expecting. They've come across a group of old-school Centurions who have survived for decades guarding a creature they call "God." This sets off Commander Adama's own flashbacks to the first Cylon war, when he found the lab where "God" was made during a series of experiments in human-Cylon hybridization.

You'd think all the flashbacks and digging into BSG's past would be boring fansturbation, but instead it makes for riveting, character-driven action. The legendary old Centurions and their God make for creepy-cool spectacle, while the sparks that fly when Starbuck argues with Shaw over battle plans are just plain good drama. Admiral Cain's shadow is cast across the whole story, as it should be. Her choice to embrace war over survival is the dark foil to Adama's more rational choices. What propells this episode into a brilliance that transcends space opera is that we come to sympathize with Shaw's loyalty to Cain, even as we reject Cain's idea of justice. This moral ambiguity is what has always made BSG such a strong show. Whether grappling with Cylon love or human cruelty, Razor delivers. It will renew your hopes for season four of the show, set to begin (hopefully) in April.

• Everything You Need to Know About Razor. Here's the crucial background from season two episodes that shed light on the plot twists in Razor.
  
  
• Everything You Need to Know About the Flashback Webisodes. SciFi has aired a series of two-minute webisodes that flash back to the first cylon war. Here are the ones you must watch.

• Gay Cylons Can Be Your Allies and Friends. Will you still think so after tonight's episode?

• Leaks from Starbuck's Mouth for Season 4. Here's what Katee "Starbuck" Sackhoff told fans at a recent convention. You'll want to know after Razor.