I think we've all been sucked into a television marathon at some point in our lives.  Perhaps my most shameful secret is that, years ago, I became completely addicted to Making the Band due to MTV's clever marathon scheduling.  This is shameful because it was back in the show's O-Town days, and not during its current Diddy incarnation.  Who could resist watching creepy Lou Pearlman throw five guys into a house, then forcing them to sing and dance to wannabe pop hits?  It was riveting stuff, believe me.

One marathon that nobody needs to be ashamed of watching is the complete run of the Sci Fi Channel's Battlestar Galactica.  Starting today, from 8am to 6pm, the network will be rerunning nearly every episode of the series to prepare for the show's fourth season premiere.  The marathon will wrap up on Friday, just in time for that night's brand new episode, "He That Believeth in Me."

The only bizarre thing about this Battlestar Galactica marathon is that the Sci Fi Channel decided to kick it off with the third episode of the series, "Bastille Day."  They're not showing the miniseries or the first two episodes of season 1, all of which are kind of important if you're watching the show for the first time.  In addition, the network will also be skipping over the "Razor" TV movie.  Surely they could have fit those in instead of showing their four-hour daily dose of Star Trek: Enterprise episodes.

The schedule for the marathon is as follows:

Monday

Season 1's "Bastille Day" through "Kobol's Last Gleaming - Part 1"

Tuesday

Season 1's "Kobol's Last Gleaming - Part 2" through season 2's "Flight of the Phoenix"

Wednesday

Season 2's "Pegasus" through "Lay Down Your Burdens - Part 1"

Thursday

Season 2's "Lay Down Your Burdens - Part 2" through season 3's "Unfinished Business"

Friday

Season 3's "The Passage" through "Crossroads - Part 2"

Strangely, one episode that's missing from Friday's lineup is "Taking a Break From All Your Worries."  The episode finds Gaius Baltar (James Callis) undergoing an intense interrogation, and is rather important to the remainder of the season.  This is an inexplicable omission, especially when the network could have skipped over "The Woman King," which is an episode we all wish we could forget.  If you want to see that missing episode from season 3, you can instead catch it at 1am on Tuesday, April 1.

While this marathon may not be the ideal way to watch the series, I'd highly recommend it to anyone wanting to catch up with Battlestar Galactica.  Just make sure to clear a lot of space on your Tivo for the remainder of the week.


- Don Williams, BuddyTV Staff Columnist
(Image courtesy of the Sci Fi Channel)