Product Details

• Actors: Edward James Olmos, Jamie Bamber
• Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, Subtitled, Widescreen, Box set
• Language: English
• Subtitles: English, French, Spanish
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
• Number of discs: 3
• Rated: Unrated
• Studio: Universal Studios
• DVD Release Date: July 28, 2009
• Run Time: 763 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0026RHR6U
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #28,809 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

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)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Spoiler-free review for BSG 4.5 on Blu., August 28, 2009

By 

Rago - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Battlestar Galactica: Season 4.5 [Blu-ray] (Blu-ray)

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.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Just wish the Blu-ray packaging matched the DVDs., September 12, 2009

By 

S. Dennon "T-dot" (Detroit, MI) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Battlestar Galactica: Season 4.5 [Blu-ray] (Blu-ray)

Like many BSG Re-imagined fans, part of my growing-up was watching the original TV series (1978-79) as that story line developed, lurched around, rresumed (1980), and then came to a grinding halt; never fully satisfied with the end game. Initially, the BSG Miniseries (2003) and then Season 1 (2004) seemed just weird and unfaithful to the original, but with repeated showings on SciFi (now SyFy) it became an acquired taste, and then eventually an addiction. Friday Nights became planned around BSG airings. Eventually Seasons 1 through 4.0 became available on DVD editions as the only available near-HD format for collecting - until Season 4.5 became available. This presented a bit of an irritating dilemma for Season 4.5: buy it in DVD format to physically match the previous seasons, or buy it in Blu Ray to get the latest HiDef version. I chose the Blu Ray edition.

Unfortunately the packaging for the Blu-Ray BSG discs is rather bizarre. The DVDs came in nice, orderly, single-disc individual cases packaged in a boxed set, around 5 discs cases per box - nice and organized. The 4.5 Blu-Ray discs came in a single folding case with 3 discs mounted on spindles, and Disc 3 is sort of offset but underneath Disc 2, so you have to remove Disc 2 and set it aside to get to Disc 3. It gets my vote for Worst Packaging Ever - very inconvenient to use, at least relative to the orderly DVD box sets. It makes me wish i had chosen the DVD version of 4.5, which (presumably) nicely matches in style and packaging format with the other DVDs.

The Blu-Ray discs play just fine, meeting all expectations of the HD Blu Ray format. The previous season DVDs also play very nicely on a high quality Blu Ray player which does the proper upscaling. I do not see any significant and compelling advantages in replacing previous BSG DVDs with Blu Ray versions. Again - I am 50-50 on purchasing Season 4.5 as a stand-alone Blu Ray edition. I would have been much happier if the disc packaging had matched the form and convenience of the DVD sets. If I had not been purchasing the DVDs all along in previous seasons, I might have held off and gotten all of them in the Blu Ray format when that became an option after Season 4.5.

As far as content - if you were happy with the re-imagined BSG series and finale, then you will be happy with either the DVDs or the Blu Ray discs themselves. Mix and Matching though (as I did) is not very optimal, and I strongly prefer the convenience of the original DVD set packaging over the complexity and inconvenience of the newer Season 4.5 Blu Ray disc packaging. How hard would it have been to match?

Nitpicking at the inconvenient packaging aside, the re-imagined BSG series is epic, and the Blu ray edition is crystal clear (notwithstanding the production itself, which was always notable for sometimes grainy, shifty camera angles and such for a dynamic, "live" effect), and occasionally stunning, particularly when watching massive explosions and such frame-by-frame in "war scenes".

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant show, but the blu-ray box (UK version especially) may be the better deal, November 9, 2011

By 

K. Gordon - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Battlestar Galactica: Season 4.5 [Blu-ray] (Blu-ray)

One of my favorite television series of all time along with 'The Wire'
and 'Breaking Bad'.

Like 'The Wire' this is a complex, Dickensian study of human nature,
not afraid of asking big questions, and meticulously plotted like a
great novel, so that each episode is a chapter in a much larger whole.

Just as 'The Wire' used the overly familiar cliché' world of the cop
show to jump off from and shatter our preconceptions, and 'Battlestar
Galactica' uses the sci-fi series, and the idea of human versus robot
wars the same way.

This is thinking person's sci fi, in the tradition of Arthur C. Clarke,
or Isaac Asimov. It's about why we are how we are, what it means to be
a human being, morality under constant pressure in times of war,
fathers and sons, impossible loves, metaphors for modern and recent
politics and real world situations.

My wife, far from a sci-fi fan was hooked after 3 episodes, and we tore
through 5 years of shows in just a few days. It's that addicting.

The acting is all at least quite good, and some cast members are
remarkable, creating characters full of depth, complexity and
contradiction. The writing is terrific, allowing the characters to
change and grow, but always in ways that make sense, creating seemingly
inexplicable conundrums, only to find surprising, sometimes shocking -
but ultimately logical and satisfying - ways to explain where they've
taken us. The special effects are generally very impressive for TV,
even if they're not really why you watch this show.

It also has some of the most tense episodes of television I've ever
seen, and some of the season enders left me completely wrung out and
blown away. I was sad to get to the last episode, just as one is sad to
finish a great book.

I haven't bought it in other forms, so I can't compare, but generally
the blu-ray set (the non-Cylon box) is quite complete, and well packaged.
However, I have read accounts that quality control was a bit of a problem
and I didn't escape the bugs. On a couple of my discs there was
a slight 'pulse' to the image at times. At first I thought perhaps
it was a strange, but intentional, lighting effect, but looking at it carefully
it seemed more a reproduction problem.

This isn't just the intentionally added grain, a look I don't love, but accept
as an artistic decision.

Since then, I've read similar comments from others, so I'm not crazy
(or at least not in this case!). So, if you do order this, you might want
to make sure it's returnable, and try to do a quick quality check the best
you can. Of course, if the problem is intermittent, and mostly in the later
discs, as was in my case, by the time I saw it it was way too late
to ask for an exchange.

None-the-less, for me, the quality of the content way over-rode the
occasional image problems (and I'm a perfectionist - my wife
never noticed the pulsing until I pointed it out.).

As for season 4.5, the ending, the one let down for me in the series
was the very last episode. Certainly no disaster, but for perhaps the only time,
some of the answers felt disappointingly flat and simplistic.

But that wasn't enough to take away from the tremendous esteem with
which I hold the show. One that is surely worth your time, from begining
to end.

As far as getting the individual seasons on blu-ray, it looks as though
you can do better buying the box set, although prices fluctuate
quickly here on Amazon and elsewhere, so I'd advise you do the math
and figure out the most reasonable way to own the complete set.

Also, Amazon UK currently has a region-free complete blu-ray box set for
about $100 with shipping. It seems to have all the same extras as the US box set.
Well worth considering as long as the price holds up.