Sci-Fi Channel offers "director commentary" MP3s

As reported by MAKE magazine, the Sci-Fi Channel is now offering a supplemental podcast for each episode of the new Battlestar Galactica, featuring real-time director's commentary from Ronald D. Moore, executive producer. Basically it's like the commentary feature on a DVD, except you not having to wait a couple of years for the actual DVD to come out; you load the commentary file to your iPod, hit play when the phrase "The Cylons Were Created By Man" appears on-screen, then pause it whenever a commercial break comes on. And even better, the whole thing's hooked up to an RSS feed, so that commentaries can be automatically delivered to an MP3 player a few hours before the episode airs.

Man oh man - this is one of the coolest damn uses for podcasts I've heard of yet. Kudos to Mr. Moore for embracing communicative technology so warmly (he has a blog as well, where he regularly answers fan questions and spills the dirt about the latest productions), and for using this tech in innovative ways to allow his audience to be an active part of the show. I was already a fan of Moore when he was a lead writer on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine; this just seals the deal.