What2Watch: Battlestar Galactica Heads Home For Keeps

 
Katee Sackhoff in SCIFI's 'Battlestar Galactica'
Sci-Fi

The weekend kicks off with the start of the fourth and final season of Battlestar Galactica (SciFi, tonight at 10), which is definitely not lacking for publicity. The series has really redeemed the reputation of televised space-based science fiction, which has been in disrepute (one man's opinion here) since the end of Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Answers to many of our questions will likely not come until the second half of the season airs, and that will be fall at the absolute earliest. Tonight, Starbuck reintroduces herself to the Galacticans, who are as surprised as the rest of us to find out she isn't dead, and Baltar deals with his freedom and new stature. The ubiquitous ad for the coming season shows the cast in a tableau based on Leonardo's depiction of the Last Supper, with the "resurrected" Starbuck playing Jesus. So anyone who has a problem with the religious content in BSG is probably not going to like where they are heading in the final episodes.

Ghost Whisperer (CBS, tonight at 8): In the first post-strike episode, Ned asks Melinda to help his girlfriend, who believe she is being visited by the spirit of her father.

Canterbury's Law (Fox, tonight at 9):Elizabeth deals with her jury tampering indictment and takes on the case of two teenage girls accused of murder, a defense that gets complicated when one of the girls takes issue with her strategies.

Numb3rs (CBS, tonight at 10): Now that the strik3 is ov3r, Numb3rs has n3w 3piosd3s. A bust of a meth lab goes as planned, but Don has a notion to arrest a bystander who turns out to be significant.

NCAA Basketball (CBS, Saturday, 6 p.m.): The first national semifinals to ever match four #1 seeds will feature Memphis against UCLA beginning at 6 p.m.; Kansas and North Carolina tip off at about 8:30.

Date My House (TLC, Saturday 8:30 p.m.): I think dating my house might be illegal in a few southern states. At any rate, this new series allows potential home buyers to take over a house for a certain length of time to see if they want to "marry" it. Tonight, a home looking for an owner hosts a karaoke party.

Rock Docs (VH1, Saturday 9 p.m.): The Night James Brown Saved Boston deals with the events of 40 years ago, when a James Brown concert telecast throughout Boston was credited with helping to calm the city after the Martin Luther King assassination. Concert footage is included.

Torchwood (BBC America, Saturday 9 p.m.): Gwen looks into a teenager's disappearance and finds that there is a much more ominous situation taking place.

Trading Spaces (TLC, Saturday 9 p.m.): A brother and a sister trade rooms. Did anyone else have a sister who used to change the look of her bedroom every two weeks, depending on which teen idol she was worshipping now? I would find this scary.

Saturday Night Live (NBC, Saturday 11:30 p.m.): Christopher Walken, the most unlikely of this show's perennial hosts, returns to the SNL stage a few days after his 65th birthday, with Panic at the Disco as the musical act.

Rock of Love 2 (VH1, Sunday 11 a.m. and 9 p.m.): Bret meets the parents of Daisy, Ambre and Destiney, and will presumably ask two of them why they couldn't spell when it came time to name their daughters.

Celebrity Fit Club (VH1, Sunday noon and 8 p.m.): Dustin Diamond slinks back to camp but then threatens to have his lawyer shut down the production when Harvey blasts him. Why would Diamond want to end the only show that will have him?

Big Brother 9 (CBS, Sunday 8 p.m.): Adam resumes his reign as head of household. I'd compare him to Forrest Gump, except that comparison would apply equally well to everyone else in that house.

Everybody Hates Chris (CW, Sunday 8 p.m.): Chris needs money for a Run-DMC concert, so he signs up for a scholarship fund; Rochelle uses a minor injury to avoid her usual workload at home.

King (History, Sunday 8 p.m.): Tom Brokaw narrates this look at the life of Dr. Martin Luther King and the movement he led. Even though it was 40 years ago, King was so young when he was killed that a good many of his contemporaries are still around to pay him tribute, and many of them show up during these two hours.

Wire in the Blood (BBC America, Sunday 8 p.m.): The season premiere finds Dr. Hill journeying to Texas to testify as an expert witness in the case of an Iraq veteran accused of killing his family. A British treatment of both Texas and the U.S. military sounds potentially condescending, but this is a quality show.

King of the Hill (Fox, Sunday 8:30 p.m.): Peggy is desperate to sell a house but the weird current occupants are a stumbling block, so she moves ringers in to play the parts of the current owners.

Cold Case (CBS, Sunday 9 p.m.): Lily and Valens head to West Virginia to hunt down the main suspect in the 2007 disappearance of a woman who went missing from her engagement party.

Iron Chef America (Food Network, Sunday 9 p.m.): Ken Oringer engages Cat Cora in culinary battle. Stop picking on the girl!

John Adams (HBO, Sunday 9 p.m.): Adams becomes the first person, but hardly the last, to find out that the vice presidency can be pretty useless; the growing tension between Adams and Thomas Jefferson culminates in the election of 1796.

Oprah's Big Give (ABC, Sunday 9 p.m.): The four remaining contenders travel to New York to see to the last wishes of two dying parents. Yikes.

The Game (CW, Sunday 9 p.m.): Tasha's night out with her new coworkers leads to an insulting incident; Kelly's and Jason's counseling effort is hampered when the therapist turns out to be starstruck by Jason.

The Tudors (Showtime, Sunday 9 p.m.): Anne believes it's now time to consummate the relationship; Henry seeks a way to further limit the church's power in England.

America's Port (National Geographic, Sunday 10 p.m.): This new series examines all the activity surrounding the Port of Los Angeles. In the debut, divers search for a missing man while a freighter requires assistance from the port pilot.

Ax Men (History, Sunday 10 p.m.): The Pihls and Brownings deal with deadlines; the men worry about impending layoffs.

Dirt (FX, Sunday 10 p.m.): The staff goes all out to cover a major awards show, but finds surprising hot stories backstage.

Here Come the Newlyweds (ABC, Sunday 10 p.m.): Season finale: The winner is announced after one final challenge. This series did well enough, and I could see ABC using it again to fill in for a doomed show or give an existing show (like Brothers and Sisters) a midseason break.

Keeping Up With the Kardashians (E!, Sunday 10 p.m.): Khloe goes out on blind dates; Kendall hires a handyman to help with chores. I'll bet he's going to "help" with "chores."

Tracey Ullman's State of the Union (Showtime, Sunday 10 p.m.): Tracey takes on a couple of Hollywood pals: famous divorcee and environmentalist Laurie David; and famous divorcee turned blog empire builder Arianna Huffington. Also, Padma the pharmacist performs a Bollywood tribute to erectile dysfunction. Will it last for more than four hours?

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