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By Jon Lachonis

"Battlestar Galactica" will return with all new episodes April 4, but the uninitiated will get a chance to catch BSG fever March 28 when SciFI channel plans to air two half-hour specials “Revisited,” a sort of catch up pieces, and “The Phenomenon,” a look at the enormous popularity that has built up around the show including a bunch of stars waxing over its awesomeness.

This will be the final season of "Battlestar Galactica," and one haunted with a bit of controversy.  First is the fact that Sci Fi will be splitting the final season into two pieces that will air in 2008 and 2009.   Next is the controversial twist ending of the third season that message board pundits claim will be difficult to turn into a meaningful story thread.

For those who have forgotten, that twist was that four of the regulars found out they were Cylons, and had been all along.  When we last left them, they were returning to their posts still loyal to the fleet, but the implications of their discovery will no doubt have to be executed in an appropriately pleasing story arc for some skeptical fans to accept that this was more than just a one-trick-pony; a singularity of surprise that cannot possibly be woven into a larger plot.

As for Sci Fi’s attempt to milk it, the network actually saved a little face with the writer’s strike.  Originally, Sc Fi was going to split the season anyway, an attempt to milk the franchise in the eyes of hostile fans and snarky bloggers.  The strike has now made it virtually impossible to do it any other way.

That extra time can be used to cure one final dilemma for the "Battlestar Galactica" crew.  While they have publicly states that the Galactica will find Earth this season, they’ve declined to comment any more about what they will find.  Not only because they don’t want to spoil it further, but according to Ronald D. Moore himself they just don’t know. Accusations of “making it up as you go along” have long dogged serial buddy ‘Lost’ while the same tactic has been the most endearing quality of shows like ’24.’

Whether it works out for Galactica, or not, we won’t know until the Galactica pulls into orbit around the blue dot and touches down.  Whatever the crew finds, though, will be indelibly etched into every facet of the show for all of eternity, so let’s hope Moore was pondering it long and hard in the picket lines.