Battlestar Galactica - 'Blood & Chrome: The Unrated Edition' Coming on DVD and Blu-ray/DVD Combo **UPDATE: Extras**
Post-series telefilm tells the story of young William Adama on Galactica during the first Cylon war
Posted by David Lambert
11/08/2012
An all-new chapter in the Battlestar Galactica saga, Blood & Chrome takes place in the midst of the first Cylon war. As the battle between humans and their creation, the sentient robotic Cylons, rages across the 12 colonial worlds, a young, talented fighter pilot, William Adama (Luke Pasqualino, The Borgias), finds himself assigned to one of the most powerful battlestars in the Colonial fleet: the Galactica. Though Adama quickly finds himself at odds with his co-pilot, the battle-weary officer Coker (Ben Cotton, Alcatraz), the two men must set their differences aside when a routine escort mission with an enigmatic passenger (Lili Bordán, Silent Witness) turns dangerous and becomes a pivotal one for the desperate fleet.
Tomorrow (Nov. 9th), the Machinima Prime channel on YouTube is releasing the first of 10 parts of Universal's production, Battlestar Galactica - Blood & Chrome. Originally conceived as a spin-off series that would take the place of Caprica, the concept wasn't picked up as a weekly show in the end. However, the story - which surrounds William Adama's days as a young Viper pilot on the Galactica, during the original Cylon war (and long before he became the battlestar's commander) - was developed as a telefilm which will debut first online in ten parts. During the next four weeks, the entire story is going to be available to view that way. Then, in early 2013, the 2-hour (with commercials) Blood & Chrome telefilm will air all together on the Syfy channel, as a final (as far as we know for now, anyway!) post-series bow for 2004's re-imagined Battlestar Galactica.
Today Universal Studios Home Entertainment announced that on February 19th, they will release Battlestar Galactica - Blood & Chrome: The Unrated Edition on DVD and also as a DVD/Blu-ray Disc Combo Pack. Running 94 minutes, the production is displayed with an anamorphic widescreen aspect ratio, English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound on the DVD and English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio on the Blu-ray, and both formats have subtitles in English, French and Spanish. The single-disc DVD version costs $29.98 SRP, and the 2-disc Blu/DVD combo package is priced at $34.98 SRP. The BD/DVD combo also includes a digital copy of the feature, and an UltraViolet version of it as well (either must be redeemed by 4/30/2015). Here's a button link to pre-order this title from Amazon, followed by Machinima Prime's trailer for the item, then package art for both versions:
UPDATE (11/9): The pre-order entries at Amazon are now displaying a pair of extras for each version of this title. One is a Featurette titled "Blood & Chrome: Visual Effects," which is described thus: "Discover how the ground-breaking use of visual effects brought the world of Battlestar Galactica to life like you've never seen before!" The other is a group of Deleted Scenes: the DVD release will have 6 such scenes, and the Blu-ray version will have 13 total (including 7 exclusive to Blu-ray). This info comes from Amazon, not the studio, but we have no reason to doubt it. Stay tuned and we'll update you further if we find out anything more!
The production value on this so far has been quite high, IMO. At first I wasn't sure if I would like the casting of Adam, but I've been pleasantly surprised by Luke Pasqualino's acting so far. Ben Cotton can be a bit over the top in his portrayal of Coker/Koker, but other-wise he's been doing good in his role.
One thing I have not liked so far is the 'snake' creature in Episode 6. That was one thing in BSG that made it great, no ridiculous alien or animal creatures. I remember James Edward Olmos saying that if Moore, or any of the other heads of BSG ever introduced Aliens or weird creatures he would leave the show.
