Battlestar Galactica: The Final Ten

Sci Fi has released a trailer for the final ten episodes of Battlestar Galactica. The 90-second clip teases the conflicts resulting from the first half of the season, which ended in mid-June and climaxed in a human-Cylon alliance to find an "Earth" that seems to have been destroyed and abandoned.

As in the past, Sci Fi has mixed in old footage from the first half of the season with new stuff not yet seen. In addition to all of the regulars, the trailer, interestingly enough, gives facetime to Richard Hatch's character, Tom Zarek. And it has an exchange already being extensively quoted around the net, in which Laura Roslin (Mary McDonnell) says to Adama (Edward James Olmos), "If you're a Cylon, I'd like to know." And Adama replies, "If I'm a Cylon, you're really screwed." Well, yeah.

The biggest mystery, of course, is who the twelfth Cylon is and how that revelation will impact both races. The secret was originally intended to be revealed during the mid-season finale in June, but its was decided to push it back to the final ten episodes – so expect the revelation to come early in the slate of episodes, with the the balance of the season dealing with repercussions and the resolution of the human-Cylon-Earth storylines. (The net is rife with rumors that the twelfth Cylon's cover has been blown, but it's clear to me from past encounters that Battlestar's creators are more than capable of planting a red herring or two. Your best bet, folks, is to wait and see.)

The final ten episodes begin airing on Friday, January 16.