Sci Fi Wire: "Battlestar" Ending Next Season

SCI FI WIRE has just released the following statement:

The producers of SCI FI Channel’s Battlestar Galactica confirmed that the upcoming fourth season will be the show’s last. Executive producers Ronald Moore and David Eick said that it was a creative decision to end the acclaimed series with the upcoming 22-episode season.

“This show was always meant to have a beginning, a middle and, finally, an end,” Eick and Moore said in a statement on May 31. “Over the course of the last year, the story and the characters have been moving strongly toward that end, and we’ve decided to listen to those internal voices and conclude the show on our own terms. And while we know our fans will be saddened to know the end is coming, they should brace themselves for a wild ride getting there: We’re going out with a bang.”

In November, a special two-hour Battlestar episode, “Razor,” will air. The fourth season kicks off in early 2008.

At last month’s Saturn Awards, Edward James Olmos said that the upcoming season would be the show’s last, prompting Eick to say at the time that no decision had been made. “I promise you that when Ron and I make a decision about Galactica’s future, we’ll let you know,” he said then.

This statement indicates that the show was not cancelled by the Sci Fi Channel, but its end was determined solely by its creators. Battlestar Galactica was once scheduled with the Stargates in the strongest Sci Fi Friday line-up the Channel had ever known, but was moved to Sunday nights to finish out its second half of Season Three.