Galactica Producer Talks Season Three
Written by Scott Collura
Saturday, 11 March 2006
The Cylons have retreated from Caprica! Baltar is President! The Colonials have settled on New Caprica! The Pegasus Number Six nukes the fleet! It’s a year later! Starbuck is married! Things are far from peachy on New Caprica! The Cylons have returned! Baltar surrenders! Admiral Adama has a moustache again!
Yes, this evening’s season two finale of Battlestar Galactica was chockfull of major plot twists, and it also ended on a big time cliffhanger that has already got fans of the Sci Fi Channel show dividing into two separate camps – the love-it or hate-it types, of course. Have showrunner Ron Moore and his writing staff ruined Galactica with the seemingly extreme changes to the show’s dynamic that took place in tonight’s finale? Or does this episode simply augur even bigger and better things to come for the hit series? Now Playing spoke to Moore recently about the season finale, as well as where the denizens of the Galactica universe will find themselves in season three.
“The end of the season is quite a shake-up,” acknowledges Moore. “The Cylons show up and all hell breaks loose. Essentially, season three is going to deal with the Cylon occupation of the Colonials on New Caprica. The sort of archetype that we’re talking about is like Vichy France: There’s a Colonial government run by President Baltar that is collaborating with the Cylons, while the humans put together an insurgent resistance against the occupation. It’s a pretty big twist.”
Apparently the Cylons’ offer in tonight’s finale to leave humanity alone, as voiced by Dean Stockwell’s new Cylon character, was a less than genuine one. But don’t worry about the Colonials too much – they do have the crews of the Galactica and the Pegasus looking out for them, of course.
“Adama and the Galactica and Pegasus are gone, and they’re sort of trying to get their act together to figure out a way to come back and rescue [the Colonials],” continues Moore. “And season three will start off in that world of the Cylon occupation.”
None of which is to say that Battlestar Galactica should be renamed Occupation New Caprica. No, never fear, for Adama, Roslin, and the rest of the gang will eventually resume their search for Earth. But the Cylons will continue to get plenty of screen time as well.
“We do eventually plan on getting them back out into space, and also another major thing that’s going to happen in the third season is we’re going to do an ongoing Cylon story where we’re going to be cutting over to the Cylon world for the first time and running a complete arc within the Cylon,” reveals Moore. “It’s still coming together, but [the occupation arc] will probably be three or four or five episodes… probably four episodes. We’re still kind of stroking out exactly how these kinds of things will fall, but I don’t think it will take quite as long as it took us to wrap up the arc at the beginning of the second season.”
James Callis’ President Baltar (né Vice President Baltar, né Doctor Baltar) continues to be one of the most interesting characters on the show – and if you don’t agree with that statement, you really should watch tonight’s episode again. Moore certainly agrees, and as he explains, Baltar’s recent journey towards the dark side has only just begun.
“He was the weak link that let [the Cylons] do a lot of things,” says Moore. “And then sort of the larger question [is how do] the Cylons see him in terms of their theology and their religious aspects? There’s the question of how many of the Cylons themselves actually believe that [Baltar figures in their theology]. Remember, we only have the Six in his head who’s really said directly all these things about Baltar being a special one in their eyes, that he’s the guardian of the new order, etc., etc. How much of that is his imagination, how much of that is a direct manipulation of him… and even if you assume it’s a direct manipulation, how many of the Cylons themselves believe that? One of the things [we’ve discovered] in the latter half of this season is that there are different points of view even within the Cylon world.”
Pitting Baltar against Roslin has been just one example of the Cylon manipulation of the new president, but there was much more to the election – and to Baltar’s recent behavior overall – than just that.
“It’s also sort of, in a different way, part of the plan of moving Baltar to a darker place and making him into more of an antagonist,” says Moore.
Not that we’re ever going to see Baltar sitting up in that high chair, living among the Cylons, like in the original series… right?
“I wouldn’t be so quick to say that,” chuckles Moore. “I don’t know… That’s still a possibility.”
Moore’s What ifs: The Return of Starbuck, Ship of Lights, and More
Written by Scott Collura
Monday, 13 March 2006
In the first part of our interview with Battlestar Galactica executive producer Ron Moore (click here to read it), the showrunner discussed the controversial season two finale of the Sci Fi Channel series, as well as where Galactica is heading in year three. Today, as we conclude our chat with Moore, Now Playing throws out some “what if” questions at the producer… Like, for example, what are the chances of revisiting more of the episodes from the original ’70s Galactica with the new show, as was done earlier this year with the story arc about the Battlestar Pegasus?
“I’ve thought about it. None of the other episodes seem to lend themselves as easily to translation as ‘Pegasus’ did,” Moore says, while also acknowledging that the original series featured several iconic images and moments that even non-fans remember from their younger years – moments like the return of the Pegasus in “The Living Legend,” the ship of lights from “War of the Gods,” and the last stand of Starbuck from Galactica 1980’s “The Return of Starbuck.”
“The ship of lights I’ve thought about [revisiting,] but we’ve sort of at this point developed our own mythology and theology in terms of what the religious beliefs are and what the back story is,” continues Moore. “And the ship of lights feels like it’s a different thought than what we’re doing in the show. That was all about quasi-divine beings showing up, and you had the good ones and the bad ones, and there seemed to be some larger godlike chess game that the people on Galactica and the Cylons were caught up in, and I think at this point that just introduces a whole other complicating factor into what we’ve got because we’ve got so much going with the religious aspects of the show and the backstory of the Lords of Kobol and the tribes… So I don’t think we’re going to go there.”
In the case of Galactica 1980’s final episode, and its only good one, a revisit to the heartbreaking “The Return of Starbuck” – which saw Dirk Benedict return to the show long enough to get stranded on a planet along with a Cylon who he befriends – has not been ruled out.
“As for the Galactica 1980 episode, it’s more interesting,” says Moore. “I’m not sure… We might do something along those lines at some point. That episode is all predicated on the two fighter pilots down; it’s Wings Over the Pacific. It’s the two shot-down pilots who learn to trust one another in their situation, and it’s a very familiar story. I’d be willing to try it if we had a really interesting twist on it.”
Moore also wants to continue to explore the universe of Galactica in ways that the original show never quite got around to, including taking a look at life in the fleet from the “everyday Colonial’s” perspective every once in awhile. We’ve gotten a look at the non-military aspects of fleet life occasionally, as in the prison ship-based “Bastille Day” and the criminal underworld-themed “Black Market,” but, according to the producer, getting off the deck of the Galactica and onto the other surviving Colonial ships is harder than one might expect.
“The perspective of somebody, just sort of the day in the life type of show from someone else, that’s always a possibility and sort of a classic way to go,” he says. “We always want to do things off of the Galactica and in the civilian fleet more, and we talk about it endlessly and explore it periodically. It’s just difficult in terms of production, and we’re held back by money and stage space because we have to build or find another civilian ship and it’s always proven difficult.”
“Bastille Day,” the season one episode that featured the debut of the character Tom Zarek, is an example of how difficult it can be to create an entirely new environment on a TV budget.
“‘Bastille Day’ was the most we ever spent on another ship that wasn’t Galactica or Colonial One, and it was very expensive,” laughs Moore. “It was a hugely expensive episode for us in the first season and we just haven’t gone back to try and do that again since, mostly for that reason. We don’t have an ability to create large, complicated civilian vessels, so we have to make some rooms and find locations that are good stand-ins for the other ships. On ‘Bastille Day’ there was a lot of location work. We did some of that on our soundstages, but a lot of it was on locations that they found where we could kind of bring elements in. You just end up spending up so much of your resources in the art department and production and realize that you don’t have a lot left over for anything else. And it just keeps biting you in the ass all the way through the season, so we haven’t had a chance to do much of that.”
But, with that said, Moore thinks that episodes that do explore new aspects of Colonial life are essential to the continued creativity of the cast and the crew.
“We tend to get [uninterested] … if we don’t keep mixing it up and trying different things with all the different characters,” he says, before adding that looking for new and interesting things to do script-wise does not mean that he’s getting tired of working on Galactica. “I haven’t gotten bored yet, so that’s a good sign. I don’t know… I’m really attached to the show, and it would be really hard to leave it at this point. And we’re still pretty young in the life of the series.”
So for how long will Ron Moore be steering Battlestar Galactica?
“Ask me that again in like two more seasons,” he laughs.
Not that we’re ever going to see Baltar sitting up in that high chair, living among the Cylons, like in the original series… right?
“I wouldn’t be so quick to say that,” chuckles Moore. “I don’t know… That’s still a possibility.”
Ha ha, I predicted this in the other thread before I even read this. Cool.....
quote:
In the case of Galactica 1980’s final episode, and its only good one, a revisit to the heartbreaking “The Return of Starbuck” – which saw Dirk Benedict return to the show long enough to get stranded on a planet along with a Cylon who he befriends – has not been ruled out.
“As for the Galactica 1980 episode, it’s more interesting,” says Moore. “I’m not sure… We might do something along those lines at some point. That episode is all predicated on the two fighter pilots down; it’s Wings Over the Pacific. It’s the two shot-down pilots who learn to trust one another in their situation, and it’s a very familiar story. I’d be willing to try it if we had a really interesting twist on it.”
yeah, that was an awesome episode, the only good one of the BS 1980 crappola, I agree.
Hmmmmmmmmmmm, okay... I guess that I got the whole thing, since it's through iTunes. It was easier to make that, then putting it on dvd, and getting it out to the stores.
:::>^..^<::: ~*~The Journey is more important than the end or the start~*~ :::>^..^<:::
You go for it. I'm going to add the miniseries next... but, I haven't decided when. I've got time.
Knowing me, I will probably get them all on dvd, sometime down the road.
I wish that I could get the OG BSG through iTunes. That would rock... but, can't.
:::>^..^<::: ~*~The Journey is more important than the end or the start~*~ :::>^..^<:::
03-19-2006 03:50 AM
I'm going to add the miniseries next... but, I haven't decided when. I've got time. 
