RICHARD'S LATEST
22 February 2002
Hello everyone,
By now, many Battlestar Galactica fans have heard the wonderful
news that Vivendi Universal's Universal Home Video division is releasing
all of the original Battlestar Galactica episodes in a DVD
box set. Right now, only Region 4 (Australia, New Zealand and South
America) will be able to purchase these DVDs, based on their regional
coding.
(These DVDs won't be viewable in other regions. For example,
U.S./Canada DVD players are Region 1, not Region 4. Furthermore, the
U.S./Canada television screen format is NTSC, where Australia is PAL.)
I hope these Region 4 DVDs are given the best treatment, from clean
video/audio transfers, to quality extras, such as interviews, still
images, and voice-over discussions by those that participated on the
show.
With regards to the planned Region 4 Battlestar Galactica episodes
on DVD release, DarkHorizons.com
published an article on 21 February 2002, stating the following:
"Battlestar Galactica (DVD): After the announcement of the "Battlestar
Galactica" Region 4 DVD set the other day, various sites in the UK & US
contacted Universal Home Video in their countries with the response
back that apparently the original US masters of the show were in such
bad condition that any DVD would require everything to be remastered if
they were to be released. I got in contact with Universal's Aussie
branch yesterday to try and find out what's going on. A rep confirmed
that things are still not entirely finalized, they're planning to use
Australian masters of the shows which were reviewed recently and are
apparently "perfectly fine" for placing on disc, though in a few spots
some elements were unusable and they may have to resort to
borrowingbits from the US copies for those pieces (indeed MichaelDVD
indicates the Aussie transfers are so good that Universal in the UK may
be using them when they release the set there). Nevertheless things are
proceeding well."
"I asked about the possibility of the Richard Hatch-made trailer
appearing and as much as they'd like to include it the matter of cost
and approvals will probably prevent it. Universal has a big back
catalogue of series which they're really hoping to develop sets for and
titles like "The Six Million Dollar Man", "The A-Team", "The Bionic
Woman" and "The Incredible Hulk" just might be getting the disc set
treatment sometime in the near future."
I hope that Universal Home Video is watching the petition at http://www.petitiononline.com/bsg2001b/
(available via BattlestarGalactica.com). Fans are indeed interested
in seeing the original Battlestar Galactica episodes released,
uncut and unedited -- and with quality extras -- on DVD around the
world, not just in Region 4.
All the best,
Richard Hatch