The SciFi Channel is delivering a birthday present to me: the 4th season of the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica series will be available for streaming ten hours before its airing on the SciFi Channel, and it all kicks off on April 4th.

For those who don’t know, the theme is the same as the original show: A rag tag fugitive fleet on a lonely quest for a planet called Earth. The only exception is that the Cylons are now no longer just mechanical “toaster” looking machines; they can also look like humans.

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So that I don’t spoil it too much, I will only say there are 12 models. Seven of which are the most often seen. Four of the final five models have been revealed. No one knows the identity of the last Cylon model.

As for what I think of the show, I think it’s some of the finest scifi TV that’s been on in a long long time. The series is very different from the original in that it’s much more real. The Battlestar Galactica is a old ship and it shows it. Most of the fighters look like they have actually been in battle. Instead of cellphone-like communicators, there are wired handsets on the battlestar, and no computer networks because the Cylons are expert hackers. Also, since the Cylons look like us now, things can get complicated. It brings a little of the current war on terror into a different world; it’s a instant season ticket, and you won’t want to miss a week!

So what if you missed the series so far? Well, you can get seasons 1, 2.0, 2.5 and 3.0 on DVD, and there’s also a movie between season 3 and 4 called “Razor”, also available on DVD. You can even stream full episodes from the scifi website, or you can download them via Amazon Unbox.

To catch up, visit the “What the Frak is Going On” Page on the BSG Wiki or the SciFi channels flash video page.

Also due to start filming this spring, is the two hour pilot for Caprica, which is said to be like a scifi version of Dallas. Set 50 years from the current series, Caprica is supposed to show how the Cylons came to be; the Cylons used to serve human kind, but obviously they rebelled. Look for the Caprica pilot sometime this Fall.

So what do you think? Are you looking forward to a new Battlestar season starting?

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