"Battlestar" finale in works for a while

By Kimberly Nordyke

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - The executive producers of Sci Fi Channel's "Battlestar Galactica," which will kick off its fourth and final season next year, said plans for the show's demise have been in the works for more than a year.

Ronald D. Moore said he and David Eick started thinking about the show's end midway through the second season but that the idea really gained traction somewhere in the middle of Season 3, when the characters reached the algae planet and got a clue to finding Earth.

"We thought, if we don't start paying this off and really revealing those secrets, we'll be moving in the wrong direction and get to a place where it felt like we were jerking off the audience," Moore said during a conference call with reporters Friday, a day after they announced the hit show would end.

They said the network was supportive of their decision.

"This is a decision that took some time to arrive at," Eick said. "There was a number of questions internally and a creative agenda we wanted to serve, and we all had to collectively decide when to be definitive about it, and that time is now."

As for the cast's response to the news, Eick said it was mixed, with some expressing surprise and others who were more understanding. He added that the cast is approaching the fourth season differently knowing that it's their last.

Moore and Eick were vague on their plans for the series' final episodes, but Moore did say that viewers will "get to see Earth" by the end of the show. He added that most story lines will be tied up in the finale but believed there was "value to leaving some things open to the imagination and unresolved." Moore also said there are no plans for a feature or miniseries beyond the finale, but he added, "Never say never."

The producers also are talking to Lucy Lawless about reprising her "Battlestar" role as D'Anna Biers, but nothing is definite.