SciFi Channel favorite series Battlestar Galactica has received an order for a fourth season of at least 13 episodes, reports E! Online. The show is wrapping up its third season now, and new episodes will go into production this summer, with a tentative broadcast date of January 2008.

Co-executive producer David Eick said, "While we never had any doubt that SciFi would get behind a fourth season of Battlestar, it's thrilling to finally make it official, and for Ron and I to continue using this great genre to investigate the darker corners of society, politics and humanity."

As with the classic series from the 1970's on which it's based, the new Battlestar follows the adventures of the last survivors of a space-faring branch of humans.

The setting and the names of many primary characters have stayed the same, but the rest is completely rewritten and grounded in a darker reality. There are food and water shortages. Only officers have even the illusion of privacy. Death is around every corner and the characters react to this in varied (and usually unhealthy) ways. Everywhere on the walls are photographs of those lost in the attack on the home colonies. But, just as the first series was known for cheese, the new one has proven to be lactose-friendly from time to time as well as soap operatic in its ongoing storylines and relationship woes.

As the series gears up for what could have been the final few episodes, it will be interesting to see what the producers pack into the mix. Will Apollo and Starbuck work out their feelings for one another and abandon their marriages? Will we discover the mystic purpose (if any) behind Baby Hera? Will the entire show become moot because they find Earth?

Probably not.