Moore Talks Season 3

In the aftermath of last night's episode, Ron Moore has spoken with Nowplaying Mag about Season 3:

Spoilers if you missed last night's episode.

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.”