Ron Moore has updated his weblog with some answers to questions:
February 27, 2006
Q & A
"I've never understood Roslin's rationale for wanting to abort Sharon's baby in "Epiphanies". Why did she see the hybrid baby as a threat to the fleet? Dr. Cottle mentioned that the blood sample was 'odd', but how does that translate to dangerous? I've never been able to appreciate this episode because I couldn't really understand the character's motivations."
The idea was that Laura saw the upcoming birth of the baby as representing a risk to the fleet. She didn't know exactly what that risk was, but as Adama put it, "If it's good for the Cylons, then it's probably bad for us." The complicating factor was that Laura knew she was dying and that the presidency was about to be turned over to Baltar, whose judgement and abilities she had grown to have less and less faith in over the course of time. Faced with her seemingly imminent demise, Laura felt she couldn't gamble by leaving the decision of what to do with the child in the hands of Baltar and opted for the safer -- if harsher -- choice of aborting the child immediately.
"How were you able to deal with ramping up to more episodes per season? I recall hearing that HBO's "The Wire" even had to take breaks to ease new writers into the fold. BSG has a different model, with ads and other pressures... Maybe we will we see more character studies, which are more contained within themselves?"
We did take a month long break in between eps 10 & 11 in order to catch up on scripts. Doing 20 instead of 13 makes a big difference in terms of stamina and quality control. When you're concentrating on 13, you can essentially make each of them special and each of them gets a lot of attention. With 20, you're spreading yourself out more and trying to keep more balls in the air at once. I won't say that's the only reason why we had a couple of shows that I wasn't happy with this season, but I'd be lying if I said it wasn't a contributing factor.
"Will there be anymore episodes that reflect one from TOS? Also, I don't know if this has been asked yet but here it goes. In the mini series, part one before the attack, as Six and Baltar were leaving the Ministry of Defense, Six told Baltar that she was meeting somebody, a person/cylon walks up to her after Baltar leaves and Six says "I was wondering when you would show up". Who was she talking to??"
We don't have any plans for redoing any more episodes from the original series. "Pegasus" was the one that translated the best and the others all seem too distant from our structure and universe.
In the miniseries, the presumption was that Six was meeting with another humanoid Cylon on Caprica, and I was using that moment to do a cut to the original series Cylon aboard Galactica. We've talked about various possibilities over the course of the last couple seasons as to who she might've been meeting with at that moment, but nothing's really grabbed us (although, there was a mad moment when we considered revealing that she was meeting with Laura! We talked about working that in as the reveal in the "Epiphanies" flashbacks, but we couldn't come up with any rational justification for why Laura wouldn't have reacted to the Shelley Godfrey Cylon in "Six Degrees of Separation").
The rest: http://blog.scifi.com/battlestar/archives/2006/02/#a000277
Tuesday, February 28, 2006
Websites
Hi all - I've been slowly but surely adding links to the side here --->
There's a number of good sites out for Galactica, and I've noticed a lot of internal networking between them, and have been surprised to see this site linked a number of times. So, if you know of or have a site that you'd like to see linked through here, let me know, and I'll see what I can do, so that a more comprehensive news and media listing can be formed and organized.
There's a number of good sites out for Galactica, and I've noticed a lot of internal networking between them, and have been surprised to see this site linked a number of times. So, if you know of or have a site that you'd like to see linked through here, let me know, and I'll see what I can do, so that a more comprehensive news and media listing can be formed and organized.
Monday, February 27, 2006
Trailer for Lay Down Your Burdens
Caprica City, a German Galactica site has just posted up a one minute trailer for the upcoming season finale, Lay Down Your Burdens Part 1.
Warning, spoilers.
http://www.caprica-city.de/downloads/trailers/bsg_2x19_teaser.wmv
It's simply amazing.
Warning, spoilers.
http://www.caprica-city.de/downloads/trailers/bsg_2x19_teaser.wmv
It's simply amazing.
Nomination for Golden Reel Award
Galactica was nominated for another award, this time the Golden Reel Award, which is presented for Sound Editing for Television.
NBCand UNIVERSAL
PresentB
ATTLESTAR GALACTICA
"Flight of the Phoenix"
Produced by: David Eick
Directed by: Michael Nankin
NOMINEES
Music Editors: Michael Baber
David Bondelevitch, MPSE
ADDITIONAL CREW
Composer: Bear McCreary
Scoring Mixer: Steve Kaplan
Music Re-Recording Mixer: Mike Olman
Each year the MPSE presents the MPSE GOLDEN REEL AWARDS, in which we acknowledge the year's best work in the various areas of sound editing: Dialogue & ADR, Effects & Foley, and Music.
Saturday, March 4th, 2006Thge Beverly Hilton HotelBeverly Hills, California
The Complete Nomimees for Best Sound Editing in Television: Short Form – Music
BATTLESTAR GALACTICA – “Flight of the Phoenix”
COLD CASE – “Frank’s Best”
CSI: CRIME SCENE INVESTIGATION – “Snakes”
DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES – “Sorting Out the Dirty Laundry”
EVERYBODY HATES CHRIS – “Everybody Hates Halloween”
MEDIUM – “The Song Remains the Same”
SIX FEET UNDER – “Everyone’s Waiting”
NBCand UNIVERSAL
PresentB
ATTLESTAR GALACTICA
"Flight of the Phoenix"
Produced by: David Eick
Directed by: Michael Nankin
NOMINEES
Music Editors: Michael Baber
David Bondelevitch, MPSE
ADDITIONAL CREW
Composer: Bear McCreary
Scoring Mixer: Steve Kaplan
Music Re-Recording Mixer: Mike Olman
Each year the MPSE presents the MPSE GOLDEN REEL AWARDS, in which we acknowledge the year's best work in the various areas of sound editing: Dialogue & ADR, Effects & Foley, and Music.
Saturday, March 4th, 2006Thge Beverly Hilton HotelBeverly Hills, California
The Complete Nomimees for Best Sound Editing in Television: Short Form – Music
BATTLESTAR GALACTICA – “Flight of the Phoenix”
COLD CASE – “Frank’s Best”
CSI: CRIME SCENE INVESTIGATION – “Snakes”
DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES – “Sorting Out the Dirty Laundry”
EVERYBODY HATES CHRIS – “Everybody Hates Halloween”
MEDIUM – “The Song Remains the Same”
SIX FEET UNDER – “Everyone’s Waiting”
Word From Jeffery Carver
The author of the Battlestar Galactica miniseries novelization, has posted up a word about how the book is doing:
Full entry here: http://starrigger.blogspot.com/2006/02/boskone-and-news-about-galactica.html#comments
One pleasant result was encountering some fans who had already read Battlestar Galactica: the Miniseries. The feedback was all good. Perhaps the nicest was from a young woman who happens to be a Commander in the US Navy, and who is about to become captain of a guided missile destroyer. She said she thought I'd captured the feel of the story very well—and I took that as significant praise, coming from someone who actually knows what it's like to run a military vessel. (The only ones I have ever been aboard have been museums, rather like what Galactica was scheduled to become before the pesky Cylons interfered.)
And finally, I came home to see an email from my editor, telling me that Galactica has sold to a British publisher and has had a book club sale. Given that my biggest rationale for writing the book was to get my name back in front of the public (I didn't know then that I was going to enjoy Galactica so much), this is very good news indeed. More readers, and—who knows—maybe even a little more money, in the long run.
Full entry here: http://starrigger.blogspot.com/2006/02/boskone-and-news-about-galactica.html#comments
Sunday, February 26, 2006
More About the Galactica Comics
Comic Book Resources has posted up an article about the upcoming Galactica comics, and a talk with it's writer, Greg Pak.
GREG PAK MAKES FRIENDLY WITH THE TOASTERS IN “BATTLESTAR GALACTICA”
Posted: February 23, 2006
The Cylons were created by humans. They rebelled. Now there are less than 50,000 humans alive and in search of the fabled planet Earth. Oh, that’s the GOOD news. The remaining humans need to find a way to survive, despite their differences, and the Battlestar Galactica, the colonies’ last warship, is humanity’s last hope. Every Friday on the Sci-Fi network, fans race to their televisions to watch “Battlestar Galactica,” a thrilling update of the seventies cult classic, and fans have made it the network’s #1 program. Dynamite Entertainment announced their plans for a “BSG” series last year, and this May, fans will get their first taste of the series in a 25-cent issue #0, much like the way the company drew in readers with “Red Sonja,” Writer Greg Pak, who’s been making a name for himself at Marvel Comics, is writing the series and spoke to CBR News about working on the book, his plans and how he got involved.
For the uninitiated, “Battlestar Galactica” is the most acclaimed science fiction program in years, and as Pak explained, it’s a layered series as well. “ ‘Battlestar Galactica’ tells the story of a rag-tag fleet of starships containing the last known remnants of the human race. Led by Commander William Adama and President Laura Roslin, the survivors are on the run from the robot Cylons who wiped out their home planets -- and on a quest to find the legendary thirteenth human colony, a planet known as Earth.
“The comic book fits right into the continuity of the television series, providing an untold adventure that takes place between the first and second seasons -- right after the return from Kobol and right before the arrival of the Battlestar Pegasus.
“In our first issue -- an introductory “0” issue, priced at just a quarter -- the Galactica discovers a group of human survivors in a small Medivac ship under attack by Cylons. Adama suspects a Cylon plot. But Roslin points to the Sacred Scrolls, which contain an ancient prophecy: “The dead shall return in an ark of fire.” Who are the “Returners”? Will they unite or divide the fleet -- and heal or break the heart of Commander Adama? During the course of the series, we’ll discover more about the origins of the Cylons, learn about an underground group of human saboteurs trying to prevent the Galactica from reaching Earth, and follow our flawed heroes as they struggle with their harrowing responsibility to make life-and-death decisions in times of terrible crisis.”
“Adama’s absolutely my fave. He’s the heart and soul of the show -- his struggles epitomize the show’s biggest themes and all of the emotional threads ultimately trace back to him. He’s also a great character to write because so much of what he’s thinking or experiencing isn’t verbalized, which opens the door for subtle but powerful scenes which turn on small nuances of human interaction and curt but evocative dialogue loaded with subtext.”
Some writers have said that working on licensed properties, especially ones such as “Galactica” that have such vocal fans, can be difficult because of constraints. “Continuity-wise, it might actually easier to work with “Battlestar Galactica” than some comic book properties,” posits Pak. “You can watch a few sets of DVDs and see everything there is to see in the Battlestar Galactica universe. But for some comic book characters, there might be forty to sixty years of monthly comics to wrap your head around, often with conflicting storylines and character histories. It’s pretty exciting to come into a universe like this at such an early stage.”
Pak’s partner—perhaps Viper wingman is the correct term—in crime on “BSG” will be artist Nigel Raynor and of his skills, the scribe says, “Nigel Raynor is the penciller. He has a great feel for panel-by-panel storytelling and is doing a tremendous job of capturing the emotional tensions of the first storyline. And he draws a mean Cylon Centurion.”
So, if you’re overwhelmed by the veritable onslaught of superhero comics, want something new or are just plain curious about “Battlestar Galactica,” Pak implores you to check out the series, “Because it’s the comic book tie-in to the 21st century’s greatest science fiction television show -- and it works within the continuity of the show to explore our characters in stories which can’t be found anywhere else.
“Because we’re doing our best to provide the most satisfying issue-by-issue reading experience we can with an overarching storyline which will pay off enormously in the long term and individual issues packed with tons of story, action, and character development.
“Because it continues the most emotionally shattering storyline from the television series’ first season. Because it will reveal things about the Cylons that have never been revealed before. Because you won’t believe what they let us do when you hit the last page of Issue #0. And because old and new fans alike have never seen anything like the climax to Issue #3.”
Read the Full Article Here
GREG PAK MAKES FRIENDLY WITH THE TOASTERS IN “BATTLESTAR GALACTICA”
Posted: February 23, 2006
The Cylons were created by humans. They rebelled. Now there are less than 50,000 humans alive and in search of the fabled planet Earth. Oh, that’s the GOOD news. The remaining humans need to find a way to survive, despite their differences, and the Battlestar Galactica, the colonies’ last warship, is humanity’s last hope. Every Friday on the Sci-Fi network, fans race to their televisions to watch “Battlestar Galactica,” a thrilling update of the seventies cult classic, and fans have made it the network’s #1 program. Dynamite Entertainment announced their plans for a “BSG” series last year, and this May, fans will get their first taste of the series in a 25-cent issue #0, much like the way the company drew in readers with “Red Sonja,” Writer Greg Pak, who’s been making a name for himself at Marvel Comics, is writing the series and spoke to CBR News about working on the book, his plans and how he got involved.
For the uninitiated, “Battlestar Galactica” is the most acclaimed science fiction program in years, and as Pak explained, it’s a layered series as well. “ ‘Battlestar Galactica’ tells the story of a rag-tag fleet of starships containing the last known remnants of the human race. Led by Commander William Adama and President Laura Roslin, the survivors are on the run from the robot Cylons who wiped out their home planets -- and on a quest to find the legendary thirteenth human colony, a planet known as Earth.
“The comic book fits right into the continuity of the television series, providing an untold adventure that takes place between the first and second seasons -- right after the return from Kobol and right before the arrival of the Battlestar Pegasus.
“In our first issue -- an introductory “0” issue, priced at just a quarter -- the Galactica discovers a group of human survivors in a small Medivac ship under attack by Cylons. Adama suspects a Cylon plot. But Roslin points to the Sacred Scrolls, which contain an ancient prophecy: “The dead shall return in an ark of fire.” Who are the “Returners”? Will they unite or divide the fleet -- and heal or break the heart of Commander Adama? During the course of the series, we’ll discover more about the origins of the Cylons, learn about an underground group of human saboteurs trying to prevent the Galactica from reaching Earth, and follow our flawed heroes as they struggle with their harrowing responsibility to make life-and-death decisions in times of terrible crisis.”
Cover for Battlestar Galactica #0
“Adama’s absolutely my fave. He’s the heart and soul of the show -- his struggles epitomize the show’s biggest themes and all of the emotional threads ultimately trace back to him. He’s also a great character to write because so much of what he’s thinking or experiencing isn’t verbalized, which opens the door for subtle but powerful scenes which turn on small nuances of human interaction and curt but evocative dialogue loaded with subtext.”
Some writers have said that working on licensed properties, especially ones such as “Galactica” that have such vocal fans, can be difficult because of constraints. “Continuity-wise, it might actually easier to work with “Battlestar Galactica” than some comic book properties,” posits Pak. “You can watch a few sets of DVDs and see everything there is to see in the Battlestar Galactica universe. But for some comic book characters, there might be forty to sixty years of monthly comics to wrap your head around, often with conflicting storylines and character histories. It’s pretty exciting to come into a universe like this at such an early stage.”
Pak’s partner—perhaps Viper wingman is the correct term—in crime on “BSG” will be artist Nigel Raynor and of his skills, the scribe says, “Nigel Raynor is the penciller. He has a great feel for panel-by-panel storytelling and is doing a tremendous job of capturing the emotional tensions of the first storyline. And he draws a mean Cylon Centurion.”
So, if you’re overwhelmed by the veritable onslaught of superhero comics, want something new or are just plain curious about “Battlestar Galactica,” Pak implores you to check out the series, “Because it’s the comic book tie-in to the 21st century’s greatest science fiction television show -- and it works within the continuity of the show to explore our characters in stories which can’t be found anywhere else.
“Because we’re doing our best to provide the most satisfying issue-by-issue reading experience we can with an overarching storyline which will pay off enormously in the long term and individual issues packed with tons of story, action, and character development.
“Because it continues the most emotionally shattering storyline from the television series’ first season. Because it will reveal things about the Cylons that have never been revealed before. Because you won’t believe what they let us do when you hit the last page of Issue #0. And because old and new fans alike have never seen anything like the climax to Issue #3.”
Read the Full Article Here
New Video Blog
David Eick has posted up a new video blog, entitled Giving Battlestar Galactica It's Props.
Review: Downloaded
TV Squad reviewed Downloaded:
Battlestar Galactica: Downloaded
Posted Feb 24th 2006 11:53PM by Keith McDuffee
Filed under: Sci-Fi, Cable, OpEd, Battlestar Galactica
Forget everything I said about the flashback trickery of episodes past. This week's show makes up for any issues I may have had before. An amazingly revealing episode with several twists I never saw coming. The perspective we get from the Cylon end of the spectrum is one I had never considered, and I'm excited to see how it plays out in the episodes to come, both in the finale next week and beyond.
This was the Cylon-Human baby birth episode we've been seeing advertised for weeks now, though there is birth in other forms as well; we see several examples of Cylons being "reborn" into new bodies once their old ones die. Though we also see a birth of a different kind, one of a revolution within the Cylon collective.
I'd have to say the biggest surprise, for me, was that the Number Six we see on Caprica, the one who Baltar knew, has visions of Baltar in the same way Balter has visions of her. How could such a thing simply be a coincidence? Could it be that the nuclear blast caused it, or are they merely so similar in personality that it's no wonder they'd see visions of their true love?
Why are there only 12 Cylon models? I wonder if they'll ever reveal the reason why their technology prohibits more. And with so many models, it seemed very odd not to see them all there on Caprica, as only five of them show up (unless anyone went through the trouble to slow-mo the scenes in the cafe, as maybe they showed more?) One interesting piece of obscure trivia: Sharon is Number Eight of the twelve models.
As for the hybrid baby, that was a clever twist itself. It'll be interesting to see how the writers take that part of the story, now that the baby is somewhat conveniently stashed away from the knowledge of Baltar and the Cylons. Clearly the President doesn't trust Baltar on the matter at all, as she would have offered up the true whereabouts of the baby otherwise.
"Boxing" a Cylon; putting them in cold storage. A term we fans of Galactica will surely see more of in seasons to come, much like the ever-popular "frak." We'll also surely see more of the resistance on Caprica, as Starbuck and others clearly think they're all dead.
The other important part of this episode: as there are Humans who believe the Cylons may not be all bad, there are Cylons who believe the same of Humans. The majority of the Cylons believe they are in the right, just as the Humans believe they are right. Though, on both ends of the spectrum, there are those who know that nobody's right, and nobody's perfect.
Except for this episode, that is. Perfect.
Current fleet population: 49,579 (or 1 if you count the hybrid baby)
Battlestar Galactica: Downloaded
Posted Feb 24th 2006 11:53PM by Keith McDuffee
Filed under: Sci-Fi, Cable, OpEd, Battlestar Galactica
Forget everything I said about the flashback trickery of episodes past. This week's show makes up for any issues I may have had before. An amazingly revealing episode with several twists I never saw coming. The perspective we get from the Cylon end of the spectrum is one I had never considered, and I'm excited to see how it plays out in the episodes to come, both in the finale next week and beyond.
This was the Cylon-Human baby birth episode we've been seeing advertised for weeks now, though there is birth in other forms as well; we see several examples of Cylons being "reborn" into new bodies once their old ones die. Though we also see a birth of a different kind, one of a revolution within the Cylon collective.
I'd have to say the biggest surprise, for me, was that the Number Six we see on Caprica, the one who Baltar knew, has visions of Baltar in the same way Balter has visions of her. How could such a thing simply be a coincidence? Could it be that the nuclear blast caused it, or are they merely so similar in personality that it's no wonder they'd see visions of their true love?
Why are there only 12 Cylon models? I wonder if they'll ever reveal the reason why their technology prohibits more. And with so many models, it seemed very odd not to see them all there on Caprica, as only five of them show up (unless anyone went through the trouble to slow-mo the scenes in the cafe, as maybe they showed more?) One interesting piece of obscure trivia: Sharon is Number Eight of the twelve models.
As for the hybrid baby, that was a clever twist itself. It'll be interesting to see how the writers take that part of the story, now that the baby is somewhat conveniently stashed away from the knowledge of Baltar and the Cylons. Clearly the President doesn't trust Baltar on the matter at all, as she would have offered up the true whereabouts of the baby otherwise.
"Boxing" a Cylon; putting them in cold storage. A term we fans of Galactica will surely see more of in seasons to come, much like the ever-popular "frak." We'll also surely see more of the resistance on Caprica, as Starbuck and others clearly think they're all dead.
The other important part of this episode: as there are Humans who believe the Cylons may not be all bad, there are Cylons who believe the same of Humans. The majority of the Cylons believe they are in the right, just as the Humans believe they are right. Though, on both ends of the spectrum, there are those who know that nobody's right, and nobody's perfect.
Except for this episode, that is. Perfect.
Current fleet population: 49,579 (or 1 if you count the hybrid baby)
New Images from the Finale
Gateworld has posted up 8 new images of Lay Down Your Burdens Part 2:
Looks like they've got some new costumes and are off the ship:
http://gateworld.net/galactica/s2/graphics/220_gallery.shtml
Looks like they've got some new costumes and are off the ship:
http://gateworld.net/galactica/s2/graphics/220_gallery.shtml
Saturday, February 25, 2006
New Commentaries
SciFi.com has posted up two new commentary podcasts, one for the missing Captain's Hand and the one for Downloaded, and they can be DOWNLOADED here:
EPISODE 218: "DOWNLOADED" Teaser Act 1 Act 2 Act 3 Act 4 or Full Episode
EPISODE 217: "THE CAPTAIN'S HAND" Teaser Act 1 Act 2 Act 3 Act 4 or Full Episode
EPISODE 218: "DOWNLOADED" Teaser Act 1 Act 2 Act 3 Act 4 or Full Episode
EPISODE 217: "THE CAPTAIN'S HAND" Teaser Act 1 Act 2 Act 3 Act 4 or Full Episode
Nebula Nomination!
Two of Battlestar Galactica's episodes from Season 1 have been nominated for a prestigous Nebula Award, which is one of a couple highly sought after awards in the field of Science Fiction. Here's the article from the SciFiWire:
Nebula Nominees Named
The final ballot for the 2005 Nebula Awards was announced on Feb. 24 by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. The Nebula Awards are voted on and presented by active members of the SFWA. The awards will be announced at the Nebula Awards Banquet in Tempe, Ariz., on May 6. A list of the nominees follows.
Novels: Air by Geoff Ryman, Camouflage by Joe Haldeman, Going Postal by Terry Pratchett, Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke, Polaris by Jack McDevitt, Orphans of Chaos by John C. Wright
Novellas: "Clay's Pride" by Bud Sparhawk, "Identity Theft" by Robert J. Sawyer, "Left of the Dial" by Paul Witcover, "Magic for Beginners" by Kelly Link, "The Tribes of Bela" by Albert Cowdrey
Novelettes: "The Faery Handbag" by Kelly Link, "Flat Diane" by Daniel Abraham, "Men are Trouble" by Jim Kelly, "Nirvana High" by Eileen Gunn and Leslie What, "The People of Sand and Slag" by Paolo Bacigalupi
Short Stories: "Born-Again" by K.D. Wentworth, "The End of the World as We Know It" by Dale Bailey, "I Live With You" by Carol Emshwiller, "My Mother, Dancing" by Nancy Kress, "Singing My Sister Down" by Margo Lanagan, "Still Life With Boobs" by Anne Harris, "There's a Hole in the City" by Richard Bowes
Scripts: "Act of Contrition"/"You Can't Go Home Again" by Carla Robinson, Bradley Thompson and David Weddle, Battlestar Galactica; Serenity by Joss Whedon
Andre Norton Award: The Amethyst Road by Louise Spiegler, Siberia by Ann Halam, Stormwitch by Susan Vaught, Valiant: A Modern Tale of Faerie by Holly Black
Best of luck Galactica!
Nebula Nominees Named
The final ballot for the 2005 Nebula Awards was announced on Feb. 24 by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. The Nebula Awards are voted on and presented by active members of the SFWA. The awards will be announced at the Nebula Awards Banquet in Tempe, Ariz., on May 6. A list of the nominees follows.
Novels: Air by Geoff Ryman, Camouflage by Joe Haldeman, Going Postal by Terry Pratchett, Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke, Polaris by Jack McDevitt, Orphans of Chaos by John C. Wright
Novellas: "Clay's Pride" by Bud Sparhawk, "Identity Theft" by Robert J. Sawyer, "Left of the Dial" by Paul Witcover, "Magic for Beginners" by Kelly Link, "The Tribes of Bela" by Albert Cowdrey
Novelettes: "The Faery Handbag" by Kelly Link, "Flat Diane" by Daniel Abraham, "Men are Trouble" by Jim Kelly, "Nirvana High" by Eileen Gunn and Leslie What, "The People of Sand and Slag" by Paolo Bacigalupi
Short Stories: "Born-Again" by K.D. Wentworth, "The End of the World as We Know It" by Dale Bailey, "I Live With You" by Carol Emshwiller, "My Mother, Dancing" by Nancy Kress, "Singing My Sister Down" by Margo Lanagan, "Still Life With Boobs" by Anne Harris, "There's a Hole in the City" by Richard Bowes
Scripts: "Act of Contrition"/"You Can't Go Home Again" by Carla Robinson, Bradley Thompson and David Weddle, Battlestar Galactica; Serenity by Joss Whedon
Andre Norton Award: The Amethyst Road by Louise Spiegler, Siberia by Ann Halam, Stormwitch by Susan Vaught, Valiant: A Modern Tale of Faerie by Holly Black
Best of luck Galactica!
Thursday, February 23, 2006
Nowplaying Previews Downloaded & Interviews Ron Moore
Nowplaying Magazine has posted up a nice, detailed look at tomorrow's episode, Downloaded. It's got some spoilers and things like that, and is worth reading.
The Cylons Take Over Galactica
Written by Scott Collura
Thursday, 23 February 2006
It’s hard to believe we’re almost done with the second season of the Sci Fi Channel’s Battlestar Galactica already. But if it seems as though these episodes are coming and going so quickly, it’s largely because of the quality of each installment of the hit show. Things never get boring on the good ship Galactica (or the not-so-good ship Pegasus for that matter), and that mandate has never been more true than in this Friday’s episode, the long-anticipated “Cylon POV” segment.
“Downloaded” finally presents us the world of Galactica as seen by the Cylon androids, the enemies of the human Colonials who are typically our series leads. It’s an idea that’s been brewing for some time, says executive producer Ron Moore, and it will feature some familiar yet nonetheless surprising faces.
“The episode is essentially following two Cylon characters,” he explains. “It’s going to follow the character we’re calling Caprica Six, who is the Six that Baltar was involved with in the beginning of the miniseries, and she’s the Six that was killed when his house was destroyed. She wakes up and is reborn. And then we’re also following Boomer, the Cylon that was shot on Galactica by Cally. And it’s the same thing. We follow her and she is reborn. And it’s essentially the story of those two characters. … I don’t think all the main cast is in the show. The A-story takes place primarily on Cylon-occupied Caprica, and there is a B-story on Galactica.”
It makes complete sense, of course, that both Caprica Six and the Galactica Boomer (or Sharon) would be reborn into new bodies – even though audiences have generally taken it that both characters were dead and gone. But they’re also changed creatures as a result of the experiences they had in their former bodies, with Six still lamenting the loss of her love Baltar, and Sharon refusing to give up on the life she had when she was conditioned to believe that she was human. Hailed as heroes of the Cylon for their part in the Colonial holocaust, the two meet on Caprica and take a path by episode’s end that certainly isn’t expected of them. And “Downloaded” itself perhaps takes an unexpected path too, as many fans have always believed that the “Cylon” episode would take place on the heretofore unseen mysterious Cylon homeworld rather than on plain old Caprica. Moore warns, though, that we won’t be seeing that particular planet any time soon.
“That episode will not have that, and we still don’t have any plans to do that,” he says. “My
instinct is kind of not to go there. I feel like I don’t have a great clear vision of it; at this point if we tried to do something there it would look very familiar and not as interesting as it is in your imagination.”
Afterall, the Cylon world must be fairly similar to a Caprica or Kobol, right? The Cylons are, more or less, humanoid. “It still has to be a place where bipedal creatures can walk around and do things,” laughs Moore. And that makes sense, too. How disappointing would it be to go to the Cylon homeworld and find that it looks a lot like the outside of a Canadian shopping mall? Or that the Imperious Leader still sits in that really high chair in that really dark room, where the production budget really can’t afford props? Besides, fans thought they weren’t getting this episode at all up until a few weeks ago.
“In fact, it was never off track,” says Moore. “I’d seen that speculation and I was wondering, ‘Why do they keep saying that?’ There was probably some confusion because we were talking about doing a clip show at one point for budgetary reasons. They’re much cheaper to produce and we were having huge cost overruns, but when we split “Resurrection Ship” into two pieces and got another episode out of it, we didn’t need to do a clip show. So that was the episode that got kicked out, and “Downloaded” just moved down the line sequentially because there was an extra episode before it.”
The mention of a clip show (a “greatest hits” sort of segment that relies largely on footage from past episodes) sounds abhorrent, but Moore sees it as a viable option – and in fact he sites several current successful shows that have made the idea respectable again.
“It was a possibility,” he says. “The lion’s share of the reason was that it was strictly money [and] budget. Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. Part of it was also seeing the success clip shows have had. Desperate Housewives and Lost have been able to have entire clip shows, and they don’t even have the pretext of some kind of framing device where characters think back or whatever. They just put up a whole bunch of [past scenes] and get really good ratings for it! For a show like this that has so many serialized elements to it and complicated stories, there is value to at least considering the idea of putting up a show that does nothing but catch up audiences. There’s still costs because whenever you use a clip you have to pay the actor and director and the writer of that particular episode. So it’s not a freebie, but it’s certainly substantially less than a full-blown episode.”
Click here to read the second part of our interview with Ron Moore about Battlestar Galactica, where he discusses reviving the Battlestar Pegasus (without blowing it up an episode later) and… curing cancer!
The interview mentioned is here:
Galactica: Curing Cancer and Saving Battlestars!
Written by Scott Collura
Thursday, 23 February 2006
In the first part of our new interview with Battlestar Galactica executive producer Ron Moore (click here to read it), we discussed tomorrow’s “Cylon POV” episode “Downloaded.” As we continue our discussion here with the showrunner, we take a look back at some of the plot threads that took place earlier this season. First up: President Laura Roslin’s recovery from terminal cancer.
“The question was how do we deal with her ongoing illness and resolve that storyline,” recalls Moore of the episode “Epiphanies.” “Baltar finds this connection between certain Cylon cells and how that can be used to cure Laura’s cancer. It [doesn’t] necessarily take off the table the possibility of the cancer coming back. It’s essentially gone, but I’m sort of holding it on the table that it could recur, it could come back. It’s cancer and sometimes you feel like you’re clean and it can come back at some future point.”
For a standard sci-fi TV show it wouldn’t be so surprising for a character to be cured with a script-writer’s snap of the fingers, but for Galactica, which depends greatly on its “realism” (albeit in a sci-fi world), it’s a far trickier plot twist to pull off.
“This particular storyline just really couldn’t drag on indefinitely,” continues Moore. “There was a point where it starts to become false, because you realize, ‘Is she dying or isn’t she?’ It was a terminal prognosis and she’s either going to die or they have to do something about it. And I didn’t want it to be [a cure] from within Colonial science, or some new alien who would show up, or some sort of deus ex machina device. And there was a nice symmetry to the fact that the unborn Cylon child, which is where the blood comes from, that there was something in that that would then be used to help Laura. And that Baltar would be the one to figure that out. All the puzzle pieces seemed to play out pretty well, so I like the way that worked itself into the storyline.”
The episode is interesting because it can also play on a couple of other levels. For one, it’s Moore and Co.’s stab at addressing the stem cell issue debate – “In fact, in the early stages of the script we were using the term stem cells,” he says – but it also ties into Laura Roslin’s religious side. She is seen by many of the Colonials as a sort of religious prophet, and her recovery from the near-death experience of cancer is a second coming, if you will.
“There’s a lot of weight in terms of people saying part of Laura’s authority comes from the idea that she might well be the prophet that is talked about in some of their scriptural references,” says Moore. “And if she’s dying that sort of cements the idea, and if she’s not dying that raises more questions about her legitimacy, about whether they should listen to her in the first place. So it does put things into a different light.”
Playing the “religious card,” as Laura herself would call it, has also allowed the Galactica writing staff to shine a not-
always-pleasant light on the religious right of our real world. Take last week’s episode, ‘The Captain’s Hand,’ which saw a debate break out among the Galactica fleet over the topic of abortion – that’s about as real-world an issue as it gets, and it’s something the Colonials must deal with just as us Earth-folk do.
“We’ve established that people from the colony of Geminon tend to be religious, and they have a sort of fundamentalist agenda,” says Moore. “And that sort of political fallout [will be seen in] future episodes. In episode 17, which is “The Captain’s Hand,” a significant B-story is going on that has to do with abortion has to do with the [Geminon people] applying political pressure because they supported Laura as a religious leader and now they want their agenda to be moved forward.”
Moving forward here, as well, Moore also touched on a more fanboy-centric topic during our talk. The topic of the Battlestar Pegasus came up, a throwback to the original Galactica series that has been handled in a much different manner on the modern show. For starters, the Pegasus has actually lasted on the new series for more than two episodes!
“Yeah, I sort of felt that one of the safe assumptions that the audience would have going into that episode was, ‘Well, obviously by the end of this they’re going to destroy the Pegasus or get rid of it in some way,’” laughs Moore. “And I just thought we’d definitely subvert expectations and go in a different direction. So right from the get-go it was, ‘We’re gonna keep the Pegasus around.’”
The same cannot be said for that Battlestar’s commander, however, Admiral Cain.
“She was doomed from the get-go!” Moore laughs again. “Which is interesting: There was never any serious discussion of any other way to go. It wasn’t until we cut it all together and watched it that we really realized what a great job [Cain actress] Michelle Forbes had done. We all kind of went, ‘Gosh, it’s a shame we killed her.’”
Since the Admiral’s untimely passing, the Pegasus has had several replacement commanders in a short spate of time. “The Pegasus sort of has a string of bad luck in terms of its commanders,” chuckles Moore. But so far it’s the hard-ass Cain who’s been most interesting to explore as a character for the writing staff (well, with the exception of the newest CO, Apollo, that is).
“I see [Cain] as a very complicated person who had a very different take down the road that Adama went down,” Moore offers. “But at the same time she was faced with a very different set of circumstances than Adama was faced with. She was literally on her own and she made some hard choices that she felt had to be made, and they were all in service of the same idea that Adama was dealing with, which is survival and striking back at the Cylons. And I think some of the things that she sanctioned were horrific and morally questionable, to say the least, but I don’t think she was a mustache-twirling villain. I just think she was someone who made a different call.”
Rest in peace, Admiral Cain. And Commander Fisk. And Commander Garner… and check back here soon for more from our Ron Moore interview.
The Cylons Take Over Galactica
Written by Scott ColluraThursday, 23 February 2006
It’s hard to believe we’re almost done with the second season of the Sci Fi Channel’s Battlestar Galactica already. But if it seems as though these episodes are coming and going so quickly, it’s largely because of the quality of each installment of the hit show. Things never get boring on the good ship Galactica (or the not-so-good ship Pegasus for that matter), and that mandate has never been more true than in this Friday’s episode, the long-anticipated “Cylon POV” segment.
“Downloaded” finally presents us the world of Galactica as seen by the Cylon androids, the enemies of the human Colonials who are typically our series leads. It’s an idea that’s been brewing for some time, says executive producer Ron Moore, and it will feature some familiar yet nonetheless surprising faces.
“The episode is essentially following two Cylon characters,” he explains. “It’s going to follow the character we’re calling Caprica Six, who is the Six that Baltar was involved with in the beginning of the miniseries, and she’s the Six that was killed when his house was destroyed. She wakes up and is reborn. And then we’re also following Boomer, the Cylon that was shot on Galactica by Cally. And it’s the same thing. We follow her and she is reborn. And it’s essentially the story of those two characters. … I don’t think all the main cast is in the show. The A-story takes place primarily on Cylon-occupied Caprica, and there is a B-story on Galactica.”
It makes complete sense, of course, that both Caprica Six and the Galactica Boomer (or Sharon) would be reborn into new bodies – even though audiences have generally taken it that both characters were dead and gone. But they’re also changed creatures as a result of the experiences they had in their former bodies, with Six still lamenting the loss of her love Baltar, and Sharon refusing to give up on the life she had when she was conditioned to believe that she was human. Hailed as heroes of the Cylon for their part in the Colonial holocaust, the two meet on Caprica and take a path by episode’s end that certainly isn’t expected of them. And “Downloaded” itself perhaps takes an unexpected path too, as many fans have always believed that the “Cylon” episode would take place on the heretofore unseen mysterious Cylon homeworld rather than on plain old Caprica. Moore warns, though, that we won’t be seeing that particular planet any time soon.
“That episode will not have that, and we still don’t have any plans to do that,” he says. “My
instinct is kind of not to go there. I feel like I don’t have a great clear vision of it; at this point if we tried to do something there it would look very familiar and not as interesting as it is in your imagination.”Afterall, the Cylon world must be fairly similar to a Caprica or Kobol, right? The Cylons are, more or less, humanoid. “It still has to be a place where bipedal creatures can walk around and do things,” laughs Moore. And that makes sense, too. How disappointing would it be to go to the Cylon homeworld and find that it looks a lot like the outside of a Canadian shopping mall? Or that the Imperious Leader still sits in that really high chair in that really dark room, where the production budget really can’t afford props? Besides, fans thought they weren’t getting this episode at all up until a few weeks ago.
“In fact, it was never off track,” says Moore. “I’d seen that speculation and I was wondering, ‘Why do they keep saying that?’ There was probably some confusion because we were talking about doing a clip show at one point for budgetary reasons. They’re much cheaper to produce and we were having huge cost overruns, but when we split “Resurrection Ship” into two pieces and got another episode out of it, we didn’t need to do a clip show. So that was the episode that got kicked out, and “Downloaded” just moved down the line sequentially because there was an extra episode before it.”
The mention of a clip show (a “greatest hits” sort of segment that relies largely on footage from past episodes) sounds abhorrent, but Moore sees it as a viable option – and in fact he sites several current successful shows that have made the idea respectable again.
“It was a possibility,” he says. “The lion’s share of the reason was that it was strictly money [and] budget. Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. Part of it was also seeing the success clip shows have had. Desperate Housewives and Lost have been able to have entire clip shows, and they don’t even have the pretext of some kind of framing device where characters think back or whatever. They just put up a whole bunch of [past scenes] and get really good ratings for it! For a show like this that has so many serialized elements to it and complicated stories, there is value to at least considering the idea of putting up a show that does nothing but catch up audiences. There’s still costs because whenever you use a clip you have to pay the actor and director and the writer of that particular episode. So it’s not a freebie, but it’s certainly substantially less than a full-blown episode.”Click here to read the second part of our interview with Ron Moore about Battlestar Galactica, where he discusses reviving the Battlestar Pegasus (without blowing it up an episode later) and… curing cancer!
The interview mentioned is here:
Galactica: Curing Cancer and Saving Battlestars!
Written by Scott Collura Thursday, 23 February 2006
In the first part of our new interview with Battlestar Galactica executive producer Ron Moore (click here to read it), we discussed tomorrow’s “Cylon POV” episode “Downloaded.” As we continue our discussion here with the showrunner, we take a look back at some of the plot threads that took place earlier this season. First up: President Laura Roslin’s recovery from terminal cancer.
“The question was how do we deal with her ongoing illness and resolve that storyline,” recalls Moore of the episode “Epiphanies.” “Baltar finds this connection between certain Cylon cells and how that can be used to cure Laura’s cancer. It [doesn’t] necessarily take off the table the possibility of the cancer coming back. It’s essentially gone, but I’m sort of holding it on the table that it could recur, it could come back. It’s cancer and sometimes you feel like you’re clean and it can come back at some future point.”
For a standard sci-fi TV show it wouldn’t be so surprising for a character to be cured with a script-writer’s snap of the fingers, but for Galactica, which depends greatly on its “realism” (albeit in a sci-fi world), it’s a far trickier plot twist to pull off.
“This particular storyline just really couldn’t drag on indefinitely,” continues Moore. “There was a point where it starts to become false, because you realize, ‘Is she dying or isn’t she?’ It was a terminal prognosis and she’s either going to die or they have to do something about it. And I didn’t want it to be [a cure] from within Colonial science, or some new alien who would show up, or some sort of deus ex machina device. And there was a nice symmetry to the fact that the unborn Cylon child, which is where the blood comes from, that there was something in that that would then be used to help Laura. And that Baltar would be the one to figure that out. All the puzzle pieces seemed to play out pretty well, so I like the way that worked itself into the storyline.”
The episode is interesting because it can also play on a couple of other levels. For one, it’s Moore and Co.’s stab at addressing the stem cell issue debate – “In fact, in the early stages of the script we were using the term stem cells,” he says – but it also ties into Laura Roslin’s religious side. She is seen by many of the Colonials as a sort of religious prophet, and her recovery from the near-death experience of cancer is a second coming, if you will.
“There’s a lot of weight in terms of people saying part of Laura’s authority comes from the idea that she might well be the prophet that is talked about in some of their scriptural references,” says Moore. “And if she’s dying that sort of cements the idea, and if she’s not dying that raises more questions about her legitimacy, about whether they should listen to her in the first place. So it does put things into a different light.”
Playing the “religious card,” as Laura herself would call it, has also allowed the Galactica writing staff to shine a not-
always-pleasant light on the religious right of our real world. Take last week’s episode, ‘The Captain’s Hand,’ which saw a debate break out among the Galactica fleet over the topic of abortion – that’s about as real-world an issue as it gets, and it’s something the Colonials must deal with just as us Earth-folk do.“We’ve established that people from the colony of Geminon tend to be religious, and they have a sort of fundamentalist agenda,” says Moore. “And that sort of political fallout [will be seen in] future episodes. In episode 17, which is “The Captain’s Hand,” a significant B-story is going on that has to do with abortion has to do with the [Geminon people] applying political pressure because they supported Laura as a religious leader and now they want their agenda to be moved forward.”
Moving forward here, as well, Moore also touched on a more fanboy-centric topic during our talk. The topic of the Battlestar Pegasus came up, a throwback to the original Galactica series that has been handled in a much different manner on the modern show. For starters, the Pegasus has actually lasted on the new series for more than two episodes!
“Yeah, I sort of felt that one of the safe assumptions that the audience would have going into that episode was, ‘Well, obviously by the end of this they’re going to destroy the Pegasus or get rid of it in some way,’” laughs Moore. “And I just thought we’d definitely subvert expectations and go in a different direction. So right from the get-go it was, ‘We’re gonna keep the Pegasus around.’”
The same cannot be said for that Battlestar’s commander, however, Admiral Cain.
“She was doomed from the get-go!” Moore laughs again. “Which is interesting: There was never any serious discussion of any other way to go. It wasn’t until we cut it all together and watched it that we really realized what a great job [Cain actress] Michelle Forbes had done. We all kind of went, ‘Gosh, it’s a shame we killed her.’”
Since the Admiral’s untimely passing, the Pegasus has had several replacement commanders in a short spate of time. “The Pegasus sort of has a string of bad luck in terms of its commanders,” chuckles Moore. But so far it’s the hard-ass Cain who’s been most interesting to explore as a character for the writing staff (well, with the exception of the newest CO, Apollo, that is).
“I see [Cain] as a very complicated person who had a very different take down the road that Adama went down,” Moore offers. “But at the same time she was faced with a very different set of circumstances than Adama was faced with. She was literally on her own and she made some hard choices that she felt had to be made, and they were all in service of the same idea that Adama was dealing with, which is survival and striking back at the Cylons. And I think some of the things that she sanctioned were horrific and morally questionable, to say the least, but I don’t think she was a mustache-twirling villain. I just think she was someone who made a different call.”Rest in peace, Admiral Cain. And Commander Fisk. And Commander Garner… and check back here soon for more from our Ron Moore interview.
Wednesday, February 22, 2006
Podcast
Not the official one, but something that I've been contemplating for a while is having one through this website, something along the lines of what the Signal has become for Firefly.
Just out of curiosity, would there be any interest in this? It won't be happening for a while, but if people are interested, I'd start working on something.
Just out of curiosity, would there be any interest in this? It won't be happening for a while, but if people are interested, I'd start working on something.
Saturn Awards
Okay, a while ago, I reported that Galactica was nominated for five Saturn Awards, a major award for the Science Fiction genre. The Saturn Awards site is now back up, and here's what's been nominated:
BEST SYNDICATED / CABLE TELEVISION SERIES
Battlestar Galactica (The Sci Fi Channel)
The Closer (TNT)
The 4400 (USA)
Nip / Tuck (FX)
Stargate: Atlantis (The Sci Fi Channel)
Stargate SG-1 (The Sci Fi Channel)
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR ON TELEVISION
Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje (“Lost”) (ABC)
Jamie Bamber (“Battlestar Galactica”) (The Sci Fi Channel)
James Callis (“Battlestar Galactica”) (The Sci Fi Channel)
Sam Neill (“The Triangle”) (The Sci Fi Channel)
Terry O’Quinn (“Lost”) (ABC)
Michael Rosenbaum (“Smallville”) (The WB Network)
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS ON TELEVISION
Catherine Bell (“The Triangle”) (The Sci Fi Channel)
Claudia Black (“Stargate SG-1”) (The Sci Fi Channel)
Erica Durance (“Smallville”) (The WB Network)
Allison Mack (“Smallville”) (The WB Network)
Michelle Rodriguez (“Lost”) (ABC)
Katee Sackhoff (“Battlestar Galactica”) (The Sci Fi Channel)
BEST TELEVISION RELEASE ON DVD
Battlestar Galactica, Season 1 & 2.0 (Universal)
Frankenstein (Lionsgate)
House, Season 1 (Buena Vista)
Lost, Season 1 (Buena Vista)
Smallville, Season 4 (Warner)
Star Trek Enterprise (Paramount)
Best of luck Galactica!
BEST SYNDICATED / CABLE TELEVISION SERIES
Battlestar Galactica (The Sci Fi Channel)
The Closer (TNT)
The 4400 (USA)
Nip / Tuck (FX)
Stargate: Atlantis (The Sci Fi Channel)
Stargate SG-1 (The Sci Fi Channel)
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR ON TELEVISION
Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje (“Lost”) (ABC)
Jamie Bamber (“Battlestar Galactica”) (The Sci Fi Channel)
James Callis (“Battlestar Galactica”) (The Sci Fi Channel)
Sam Neill (“The Triangle”) (The Sci Fi Channel)
Terry O’Quinn (“Lost”) (ABC)
Michael Rosenbaum (“Smallville”) (The WB Network)
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS ON TELEVISION
Catherine Bell (“The Triangle”) (The Sci Fi Channel)
Claudia Black (“Stargate SG-1”) (The Sci Fi Channel)
Erica Durance (“Smallville”) (The WB Network)
Allison Mack (“Smallville”) (The WB Network)
Michelle Rodriguez (“Lost”) (ABC)
Katee Sackhoff (“Battlestar Galactica”) (The Sci Fi Channel)
BEST TELEVISION RELEASE ON DVD
Battlestar Galactica, Season 1 & 2.0 (Universal)
Frankenstein (Lionsgate)
House, Season 1 (Buena Vista)
Lost, Season 1 (Buena Vista)
Smallville, Season 4 (Warner)
Star Trek Enterprise (Paramount)
Best of luck Galactica!
Cinescape's Review for Captain's Hand
Cinescape has finally posted up their review for The Captain's Hand:
BATTLESTAR GALACTICA : The Captain's Hand
Sledgehammer and Spanner
GRADE: A
Reviewed Format: TV Show
Network: Sci-Fi Channel
Original Airdate: 17 February 2006
Cast: Edward James Olmos, Mary McDonnell, Katee Sackoff, Jamie Bamber, James Callis, Tricia Helfer, Grace Park
Creator: Glen A. Larson
Developer: Ronald D. Moore
Writers: Jeff Vlaming
Director: Sergio Mimica-Gezzan
Before I get to the review proper, I'd like to take a moment to look at the title of this piece. A sledgehammer and spanner are the tools Commander Barry Garner uses to repair the damaged manifold that allows Major Lee Adama to save the Battlestar Pegasus. It's simple enough--two tools employed to perform a task. So often, in shows of this genre, the tools are advanced devices that glow and whir and apply hitherto unhypothesized energies to accomplish arcane aims that boggle the viewers mind with their complexity. Every time STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION's Geordi LaForge whipped out the aforementioned array of technological trinkets, I'd often think, "What if he forgot to charge the battery on that handheld microphasic do-dad?" The short answer is that the warp core breach, or whatever it was, would blow up the Enterprise years before Counselor Troi's helmsmanship did the job. The quintessential difference between the series where writer Ronald D. Moore got his first gig and the one where he now labors rests in the realm of noise. What do I mean by noise? I mean anything that stands between the sender of the signal, Moore, and its recipient, the audience. For years, we've been told that science fiction requires nonsensical trappings to adhere to its tenets, but Moore has proven that philosophy dead wrong. The use of understandable tools to attain a conceivable result removes the noise to often overlapping the signal and allows the viewer to understand Garner with a speed and immediacy that brings the drama of the scene home. It's a human moment instead of a technological accomplishment. For this alone, BATTLESTAR GALACTICA deserves an ovation.
Sermons aside, "The Captain's Hand" could easily be played along to Queen's "Another One Bites the Dust" as yet another unfortunate Pegasus CO finds his command terminated by an untimely, and uniquely, non-violent death. Like Admiral Adama's attempt to replace then Captain Adama as Galactica's CAG, the decision to place the Pegasus's chief engineer in command, was an error in judgement. It is perhaps interesting to note that the elder Adama consistently misjudges the people he places in positions of power. In this error, he's not alone. Both Adama and President Laura Roslin have elevated Gaius Baltar to positions of authority that greatly expand the scope of the selfish man's misdeeds. While Adama's scar unknowingly testifies to that mistake, Roslin's likely to discover the depths of her error as the election moves forward.
Though the TV Guide logline would have us believe the story is that of missing Raptors, this episode is essentially about Scylla and Charybdis. Both Lee Adama and Roslin find themselves between the Greek's eloquently mythologized rocks and hard places. Both individuals take steps that place them in opposition to powerful forces that will alter their futures. At its heart, BATTLESTAR GALACTICA is about these choices. It could be the right to abortion or the necessity to be fruitful and multiply. It could be adhering to the standard of technobabble or fighting convention by striving for dramatic clarity. It could be knowing when to pound a problem with a sledgehammer or twist it with a spanner. Either way, it's always hard and you have to give something up, but its worth it.
BATTLESTAR GALACTICA : The Captain's Hand
Sledgehammer and Spanner
GRADE: A
Reviewed Format: TV Show
Network: Sci-Fi Channel
Original Airdate: 17 February 2006
Cast: Edward James Olmos, Mary McDonnell, Katee Sackoff, Jamie Bamber, James Callis, Tricia Helfer, Grace Park
Creator: Glen A. Larson
Developer: Ronald D. Moore
Writers: Jeff Vlaming
Director: Sergio Mimica-Gezzan
Before I get to the review proper, I'd like to take a moment to look at the title of this piece. A sledgehammer and spanner are the tools Commander Barry Garner uses to repair the damaged manifold that allows Major Lee Adama to save the Battlestar Pegasus. It's simple enough--two tools employed to perform a task. So often, in shows of this genre, the tools are advanced devices that glow and whir and apply hitherto unhypothesized energies to accomplish arcane aims that boggle the viewers mind with their complexity. Every time STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION's Geordi LaForge whipped out the aforementioned array of technological trinkets, I'd often think, "What if he forgot to charge the battery on that handheld microphasic do-dad?" The short answer is that the warp core breach, or whatever it was, would blow up the Enterprise years before Counselor Troi's helmsmanship did the job. The quintessential difference between the series where writer Ronald D. Moore got his first gig and the one where he now labors rests in the realm of noise. What do I mean by noise? I mean anything that stands between the sender of the signal, Moore, and its recipient, the audience. For years, we've been told that science fiction requires nonsensical trappings to adhere to its tenets, but Moore has proven that philosophy dead wrong. The use of understandable tools to attain a conceivable result removes the noise to often overlapping the signal and allows the viewer to understand Garner with a speed and immediacy that brings the drama of the scene home. It's a human moment instead of a technological accomplishment. For this alone, BATTLESTAR GALACTICA deserves an ovation.
Sermons aside, "The Captain's Hand" could easily be played along to Queen's "Another One Bites the Dust" as yet another unfortunate Pegasus CO finds his command terminated by an untimely, and uniquely, non-violent death. Like Admiral Adama's attempt to replace then Captain Adama as Galactica's CAG, the decision to place the Pegasus's chief engineer in command, was an error in judgement. It is perhaps interesting to note that the elder Adama consistently misjudges the people he places in positions of power. In this error, he's not alone. Both Adama and President Laura Roslin have elevated Gaius Baltar to positions of authority that greatly expand the scope of the selfish man's misdeeds. While Adama's scar unknowingly testifies to that mistake, Roslin's likely to discover the depths of her error as the election moves forward.
Though the TV Guide logline would have us believe the story is that of missing Raptors, this episode is essentially about Scylla and Charybdis. Both Lee Adama and Roslin find themselves between the Greek's eloquently mythologized rocks and hard places. Both individuals take steps that place them in opposition to powerful forces that will alter their futures. At its heart, BATTLESTAR GALACTICA is about these choices. It could be the right to abortion or the necessity to be fruitful and multiply. It could be adhering to the standard of technobabble or fighting convention by striving for dramatic clarity. It could be knowing when to pound a problem with a sledgehammer or twist it with a spanner. Either way, it's always hard and you have to give something up, but its worth it.
Finale Soundtrack Article
Soundtrack.net has posted up several images from a recording session where the finale of Season 2 was recorded and provides some insights to that.
Today "Battlestar Galactica" composer Bear McCreary held a strings and piano session at the Warner Brothers Eastwood Scoring Stage in Burbank, CA. The session was to record music for the upcoming two-episode "season finale", which - according to McCreary - will leave fans yelling at their screens, due to the cliffhanger aspect.
There is just over 50-minutes of score over the two episodes (a 60-minute, and 90-minute finale), with only 16-minutes requiring strings. McCreary conducted the 21-piece string session, which included a cue that ran the entire act (approximately ten minutes).
"I had 36-hours to write 55-minutes of music, for a 2.5-hour long monstrosity - and only five days to produce it all," explained McCreary. Score mixer and music co-producer Steve Kaplan made sure that the pre-records worked with the strings, and fans of the show are sure to be clamoring for some of these cues when La-La Land Records releases the soundtrack in June.
The first part of the final airs a week from Friday, with the 90-minute second-part airing on March 3, 2006.
There is also a podcast from the session, which you can hear here.
See the article and image at Soundtrack.net.
Today "Battlestar Galactica" composer Bear McCreary held a strings and piano session at the Warner Brothers Eastwood Scoring Stage in Burbank, CA. The session was to record music for the upcoming two-episode "season finale", which - according to McCreary - will leave fans yelling at their screens, due to the cliffhanger aspect.
There is just over 50-minutes of score over the two episodes (a 60-minute, and 90-minute finale), with only 16-minutes requiring strings. McCreary conducted the 21-piece string session, which included a cue that ran the entire act (approximately ten minutes).
"I had 36-hours to write 55-minutes of music, for a 2.5-hour long monstrosity - and only five days to produce it all," explained McCreary. Score mixer and music co-producer Steve Kaplan made sure that the pre-records worked with the strings, and fans of the show are sure to be clamoring for some of these cues when La-La Land Records releases the soundtrack in June.
The first part of the final airs a week from Friday, with the 90-minute second-part airing on March 3, 2006.
There is also a podcast from the session, which you can hear here.
See the article and image at Soundtrack.net.
3 Gateworld Galleries
Gateworld.net has posted three galleries for the remaining episodes of the season. The first is the Captain's Hand, which has already aired, with nine photographs. The Captain's Hand. The next is Downloaded, with eight photographs. Downloaded. And finally, there are nine photographs for Lay Down Your Burdens, which looks like we've got some action here. Lay Down Your Burdens, Part One.
Tuesday, February 21, 2006
Two Video Blogs
Mainly because I haven't noticed them until now, there are two more David Eick video blogs online.
Monday, February 20, 2006
Captain's Hand #2
Just a random tidbit, the Captain's Hand is currently at number 2 on the iTunes download chart for the day. You can download the episode here.
Saturday, February 18, 2006
TV Squad's Review of the Captain's Hand
TV Squad has posted up their review for last night's episode:
Battlestar Galactica: The Captain's Hand
Posted Feb 17th 2006 11:36PM by Keith McDuffee
There was a lot of way-paving in this episode, especially with regards to the future of the presidency. Baltar sneaks in for some significant lines, ones that finally, once and for all, show that his name will be on the election ballot when the time comes, right there next to the madam.
Another thing to consider is the new law put into effect regarding abortions. My first thought is that this will likely affect the Cylon baby, once it's born. Will they try to apply this new law to that case, as it'll be a hybrid child?
This episode worked well in making the viewers feel satisfied with the end to Commander Garner's (was that his name?) command of the Pegasus, and then the promotion of Lee to Commander.
It also looks like the Lee and Duella relationship is real and possibly here to stay for at least a while. I think a lot of people don't like the pairing because they want to see Lee with Starbuck, which is likely something we'll see come and go throughout the series.
Next week it looks like we see life through the eyes of a reborn Cylon, and episode I, for one, can't wait to see.
Current fleet population: 49,579
Battlestar Galactica: The Captain's Hand
Posted Feb 17th 2006 11:36PM by Keith McDuffee
There was a lot of way-paving in this episode, especially with regards to the future of the presidency. Baltar sneaks in for some significant lines, ones that finally, once and for all, show that his name will be on the election ballot when the time comes, right there next to the madam.
Another thing to consider is the new law put into effect regarding abortions. My first thought is that this will likely affect the Cylon baby, once it's born. Will they try to apply this new law to that case, as it'll be a hybrid child?
This episode worked well in making the viewers feel satisfied with the end to Commander Garner's (was that his name?) command of the Pegasus, and then the promotion of Lee to Commander.
It also looks like the Lee and Duella relationship is real and possibly here to stay for at least a while. I think a lot of people don't like the pairing because they want to see Lee with Starbuck, which is likely something we'll see come and go throughout the series.
Next week it looks like we see life through the eyes of a reborn Cylon, and episode I, for one, can't wait to see.
Current fleet population: 49,579
Friday, February 17, 2006
No Podcast Tonight
There will be no podcast for the Captain's Hand tonight, because of technical difficulties, according to the official site.
Ron also mentioned it in his weblog:
February 17, 2006
Podcast delayed
Sorry all -- I'm travelling and couldn't get the podcast on "Captain's Hand" out in time for tonight's broadcast. I'll do it over the weekend and get it uploaded next week.
It's a good ep and I'm very curious to see the reactions.
Ron also mentioned it in his weblog:
February 17, 2006
Podcast delayed
Sorry all -- I'm travelling and couldn't get the podcast on "Captain's Hand" out in time for tonight's broadcast. I'll do it over the weekend and get it uploaded next week.
It's a good ep and I'm very curious to see the reactions.
Thursday, February 16, 2006
Finale to Run Long
Just in from the SciFi Wire:
SPOILERS
Galactica Finale Goes Long
SCI FI Channel will air a special expanded episode of its original series Battlestar Galactica as the March 10 season-two finale, starting at 10 p.m. ET/PT. In the expanded finale cliffhanger, the outcome of the presidential campaign hinges upon a core debate: whether or not to abandon the search for Earth when the Galactica crew discovers a habitable planet. When the election begins to swing in favor of Baltar (James Callis), a man whom Laura Roslin (Mary McDonnell) is convinced is a Cylon collaborator, the incumbent president must decide whether or not to take drastic measures for the greater good. The Galactica finale will follow the season finales of SCI FI's other hit original series, Stargate SG-1 at 8 p.m. and Stargate Atlantis at 9 p.m.
SPOILERS
Galactica Finale Goes Long
SCI FI Channel will air a special expanded episode of its original series Battlestar Galactica as the March 10 season-two finale, starting at 10 p.m. ET/PT. In the expanded finale cliffhanger, the outcome of the presidential campaign hinges upon a core debate: whether or not to abandon the search for Earth when the Galactica crew discovers a habitable planet. When the election begins to swing in favor of Baltar (James Callis), a man whom Laura Roslin (Mary McDonnell) is convinced is a Cylon collaborator, the incumbent president must decide whether or not to take drastic measures for the greater good. The Galactica finale will follow the season finales of SCI FI's other hit original series, Stargate SG-1 at 8 p.m. and Stargate Atlantis at 9 p.m.
Wednesday, February 15, 2006
4 Saturns
Quickly, Battlestar Galatica has been nominated for 4 Saturn Awards. The Saturn Awards website is currently down, so I'm not sure which ones they have been nominated for, but I'll update shortly on that. Revenge of the Sith and Serenity have also been nominated, as well as Stargate SG-1 and the Triangle.
Tuesday, February 14, 2006
BSG Toy Pictures and Brokendown Cylons
Rebelscum has a ton of new images, including some of the new Battlestar Galactica toys that are coming out. Take a look here: http://www.rebelscum.com/TF2006/tf06-hasbroTS/default.asp
And, if you like humour, check out this very funny image of a cylon: http://community.livejournal.com/bsg2003chatter/83329.html#cutid1
And, if you like humour, check out this very funny image of a cylon: http://community.livejournal.com/bsg2003chatter/83329.html#cutid1
Kara Thrase& Malcolm Reynolds: United?
This article from Comingsoon.net has some very interesting news: Starbuck and Mal (Katie Sackhoff, Battlestar Galactica and Nathan Fillion, Firefly, Serenity) are both in talks to star in the upcoming sequel, White Noise 2.
Nathan Fillion (Serenity, Firefly) and Katee Sackhoff (Battlestar Galactica) are in talks to topline Rogue Pictures' White Noise 2: The Light, says The Hollywood Reporter.
In the sequel, directed by Patrick Lussier is directing, a man's family is murdered, but he is brought back from the brink of death. The man realizes he has changed and can now identify those among the living who are about to die. When he tries to save people from their fate, he discovers there is a price to paid for interfering with the natural order.
Matt Venne wrote the script for the film.
Dammit, that means that I actually need to see that now.
Nathan Fillion (Serenity, Firefly) and Katee Sackhoff (Battlestar Galactica) are in talks to topline Rogue Pictures' White Noise 2: The Light, says The Hollywood Reporter.
In the sequel, directed by Patrick Lussier is directing, a man's family is murdered, but he is brought back from the brink of death. The man realizes he has changed and can now identify those among the living who are about to die. When he tries to save people from their fate, he discovers there is a price to paid for interfering with the natural order.
Matt Venne wrote the script for the film.
Dammit, that means that I actually need to see that now.
Saturday, February 11, 2006
TV Squad Review
TV Squad has posted up their review for last night's episode:
Battlestar Galactica: Sacrifice
Posted Feb 10th 2006 11:12PM by Keith McDuffee
Filed under: Sci-Fi/Horror, Cable, OpEd, Battlestar Galactica
Lee is one cool character, and I'm glad he's still around. two close calls within, what, three episodes? How many times is this guy going to have to stay away from the light? It was nice to see him back and mopey-free.
I wonder why Sharon is helping Galactica. My only guess is that she's doing whatever it takes to stay alive so her baby can be born, which makes the most sense. It's most likely a plan that all the Cylons had all along, that a Cylon-Human hybrid would survive. Then again, like what's been said in this episode, she may be playing them hard.
Billy made a larger-than-usual presence this week, and I wouldn't be surprised to have see him make a play for vice presidency once the elections came around. He was sort-of dweeby, but he knew how to negotiate. That said, will he really be missed?
You know, Baltar was strangely and totally missing in this episode. You'd think he'd be all over this situation, seeing as the Cylon baby was at risk and the President was highly involved with all that went on.
As for Starbuck shooting Lee, it sure seems to be that they all need some work in close combat training. Maybe they're spending too much time in the fighters on patrols.
I was a bit surprised that the terrorists were so easily fooled by the dead Sharon trick, seeing as there was no tell-tale pregnant bump in the sheet. Oh well, that's nitpicky me for you. Though, seeing as they obviously had a good look at the insides of dead Sharon, shouldn't they have figured out that they all have LEDs in their spines by now?
Current fleet population: ~49,585
Battlestar Galactica: Sacrifice
Posted Feb 10th 2006 11:12PM by Keith McDuffee
Filed under: Sci-Fi/Horror, Cable, OpEd, Battlestar Galactica
Lee is one cool character, and I'm glad he's still around. two close calls within, what, three episodes? How many times is this guy going to have to stay away from the light? It was nice to see him back and mopey-free.
I wonder why Sharon is helping Galactica. My only guess is that she's doing whatever it takes to stay alive so her baby can be born, which makes the most sense. It's most likely a plan that all the Cylons had all along, that a Cylon-Human hybrid would survive. Then again, like what's been said in this episode, she may be playing them hard.
Billy made a larger-than-usual presence this week, and I wouldn't be surprised to have see him make a play for vice presidency once the elections came around. He was sort-of dweeby, but he knew how to negotiate. That said, will he really be missed?
You know, Baltar was strangely and totally missing in this episode. You'd think he'd be all over this situation, seeing as the Cylon baby was at risk and the President was highly involved with all that went on.
As for Starbuck shooting Lee, it sure seems to be that they all need some work in close combat training. Maybe they're spending too much time in the fighters on patrols.
I was a bit surprised that the terrorists were so easily fooled by the dead Sharon trick, seeing as there was no tell-tale pregnant bump in the sheet. Oh well, that's nitpicky me for you. Though, seeing as they obviously had a good look at the insides of dead Sharon, shouldn't they have figured out that they all have LEDs in their spines by now?
Current fleet population: ~49,585
Wednesday, February 08, 2006
NPM Review of Scar
NowPlaying Magazine has posted up their review of Scar:
Battlestar Galactica - “Scar”
Written by Scott Collura
Tuesday, 07 February 2006
Four weeks ago, the Battlestar Galactica stumbled upon a rich deposit of much-needed metals and ores in an asteroid field which will be the key to replenishing their diminishing core of Vipers. With the mining ships of the fleet assigned to harvest whatever they can from the asteroid belt, it falls to the Galactica and her Viper pilots to protect the miners from the hit-and-run attacks of the Cylon Raiders that have been showing up on the scene. In particular, a nasty fellow the Galactica pilots have come to call “Scar” seems unbeatable. And the grudge Scar holds against the Colonials may just be the result of a previous run-in Starbuck had with a Cylon Raider.
The implication here, of course, is that Scar is the reincarnation of the Raider Starbuck hotwired last season when she found herself stranded on an inhospitable planet and in desperate need of a way home. Yes, as Sharon reveals in this episode, the Raiders – which are essentially the Cylon version of beasts of burden – do get reincarnated, or downloaded, or whatever you want to call it, after death. So this could be Starbuck’s downed Raider, which would account for its apparent grudge against her and her pilots. Or it may not be. We’ll never really know, and it ultimately doesn’t matter, because whoever or whatever Scar is, the only certainty is that it won’t stop until it’s destroyed.
Like last week’s episode, “Scar” is a distinctly non-arc outing for Galactica, and it’s nice to have these kinds of segments and to take a breather from the heavy multi-episode stories that tend to dominate this series. Of course, this episode still relies on what has come before – Starbuck’s affair with Anders, Kat’s drug addiction, Scar’s is-it-or-isn’t-it back story – but it’s also the kind of episode that a new viewer can jump in on and not feel overwhelmed by plot details. Ultimately, “Scar” is about Starbuck and Kat’s battle with the titular Raider, Starbuck and Kat’s’ battle with each other, and Starbuck’s battle with herself, all of which are plotlines newbies should be able to tune in to cold.
The continued and increasing presence of Kat is great, but also worrying, because she seems like the perfect character for the writing staff to kill off at some point in place of having to sacrifice a major player. Still, her conflict with Starbuck, where she proves that she can actually out-bitch Kara, makes for an interesting counterpoint to Starbuck’s own internal struggle. As Kara points out, the reason why Kat is always riding her is because she’s afraid: afraid that people will notice how scared she is, and afraid that she’ll wind up just like the recently dead pilot Reilly’s girlfriend – “some little forgotten picture that nobody really remembers.”
Starbuck is scared too. Scared that she can’t go on without Anders, who she left all the way back on Caprica and promised she’d return to – or is that lied to? She’s afraid that Anders is dead now, and that she and Apollo and everyone else she cares about will wind up dead eventually too, the result of a lucky shot from Scar or one of its brethren. But the dead who have all gone before are remembered, we realize, even if it’s in a way that might seem disrespectful to some, but is the only way people like Starbuck and Apollo can cope with. Apollo can’t remember the lost Viper pilots’ faces once they’re gone: “There was Flattop, who bought it on his thousandth landing,” he half-laughs. Kara says she doesn’t even remember their names. But she does. A-
Battlestar Galactica - “Scar”
Written by Scott Collura Tuesday, 07 February 2006
Four weeks ago, the Battlestar Galactica stumbled upon a rich deposit of much-needed metals and ores in an asteroid field which will be the key to replenishing their diminishing core of Vipers. With the mining ships of the fleet assigned to harvest whatever they can from the asteroid belt, it falls to the Galactica and her Viper pilots to protect the miners from the hit-and-run attacks of the Cylon Raiders that have been showing up on the scene. In particular, a nasty fellow the Galactica pilots have come to call “Scar” seems unbeatable. And the grudge Scar holds against the Colonials may just be the result of a previous run-in Starbuck had with a Cylon Raider.
The implication here, of course, is that Scar is the reincarnation of the Raider Starbuck hotwired last season when she found herself stranded on an inhospitable planet and in desperate need of a way home. Yes, as Sharon reveals in this episode, the Raiders – which are essentially the Cylon version of beasts of burden – do get reincarnated, or downloaded, or whatever you want to call it, after death. So this could be Starbuck’s downed Raider, which would account for its apparent grudge against her and her pilots. Or it may not be. We’ll never really know, and it ultimately doesn’t matter, because whoever or whatever Scar is, the only certainty is that it won’t stop until it’s destroyed.
Like last week’s episode, “Scar” is a distinctly non-arc outing for Galactica, and it’s nice to have these kinds of segments and to take a breather from the heavy multi-episode stories that tend to dominate this series. Of course, this episode still relies on what has come before – Starbuck’s affair with Anders, Kat’s drug addiction, Scar’s is-it-or-isn’t-it back story – but it’s also the kind of episode that a new viewer can jump in on and not feel overwhelmed by plot details. Ultimately, “Scar” is about Starbuck and Kat’s battle with the titular Raider, Starbuck and Kat’s’ battle with each other, and Starbuck’s battle with herself, all of which are plotlines newbies should be able to tune in to cold.
The continued and increasing presence of Kat is great, but also worrying, because she seems like the perfect character for the writing staff to kill off at some point in place of having to sacrifice a major player. Still, her conflict with Starbuck, where she proves that she can actually out-bitch Kara, makes for an interesting counterpoint to Starbuck’s own internal struggle. As Kara points out, the reason why Kat is always riding her is because she’s afraid: afraid that people will notice how scared she is, and afraid that she’ll wind up just like the recently dead pilot Reilly’s girlfriend – “some little forgotten picture that nobody really remembers.”
Starbuck is scared too. Scared that she can’t go on without Anders, who she left all the way back on Caprica and promised she’d return to – or is that lied to? She’s afraid that Anders is dead now, and that she and Apollo and everyone else she cares about will wind up dead eventually too, the result of a lucky shot from Scar or one of its brethren. But the dead who have all gone before are remembered, we realize, even if it’s in a way that might seem disrespectful to some, but is the only way people like Starbuck and Apollo can cope with. Apollo can’t remember the lost Viper pilots’ faces once they’re gone: “There was Flattop, who bought it on his thousandth landing,” he half-laughs. Kara says she doesn’t even remember their names. But she does. A-
Tuesday, February 07, 2006
New Gallery of Downloaded Pics
This site, linked through All About Tahmoh Penikett has several new images from the upcoming episode Downloaded.
Monday, February 06, 2006
Another Marathon
Tune in on February 7th from 8 am to 4 pm to watch the 8 latest episodes of Season 2. There's a trailer for the event on SciFi.com
Lawless to join Galactica Cast
The Scifi Wire has posted up this article, stating that Lucy Lawless will be joining the Galactica cast as a regular.
Lawless Joins Galactica Cast
SCI FI Channel announced that Lucy Lawless has joined the cast of its original series Battlestar Galactica in the upcoming third season. Lawless will become a recurring cast member, reprising her role as D'Anna Biers in a 10-episode arc. The third season begins production in Vancouver, Canada, in April.
Lawless (Xena: Warrior Princess) first appeared on Galactica in the episode "Flight of the Phoenix," playing investigative journalist Biers, who arrived on the Galactica to do an expose on alleged crew misconduct that resulted in the death of four civilians. Eventually, the audience learns that Biers is actually one of the human-looking Cylon agents, who was sent to Galactica on a covert reconnaissance mission.
Lawless' second guest appearance will air on Feb. 24 in the episode "Downloaded," which gives viewers their first real glimpse into the Cylon world. (The second half of season two of Galactica premiered Jan. 6.)
Lawless joins a Galactica cast that includes Edward James Olmos, Mary McDonnell, Katee Sackhoff, Jamie Bamber, James Callis, Tricia Helfer and Grace Park. The series is executive produced by Ronald D. Moore and David Eick, who was instrumental in originally casting Lawless in the role of Xena. Battlestar Galactica, from NBC Universal Television Studio, airs Fridays at 10 p.m. ET/PT.
Galactica Reference in Dilbert
Many thanks to Battlestar Blog for pointing this one out:
Click on image for full version.
iTunes + TV = Sucess
Reuters is reporting on the status of iTunes television show downloads, which have become a large sucess for the shows through a pay per download viewing.
Networks' iTunes gamble paying off
Mon Feb 6, 2006 3:56 AM ET
By Chris Marlowe
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Television networks took a leap into the unknown when they started selling their shows on Apple's iTunes online store, but even in these early days, it's starting to look as if that faith in digital downloads was well placed.
Apple CEO Steve Jobs welcomed Walt Disney Co. and Pixar Animation Studios content to the service in October. Now there are 40 different series, each episode of which costs a standardized $1.99 to purchase, and more are on the way.
Nobody will disclose numbers for these television downloads. It's easy, however, to keep an eye on the iTunes download chart, which usually shows NBC's "The Office" as the top full-length program, followed by ABC's "Lost" and Comedy Central's "South Park."
He was confident that the downloads were not eroding audience or invading any of the existing windows, due primarily to their portable and on-demand nature.
"The DVD potentially will get affected, but the revenue as it relates to the studio is higher because of the cost being so much lower and the price points being the same while you're getting a larger percentage of the revenue," Silverman said.
NBC on January 10 added more programs to iTunes, making a total of 13 NBC Universal-produced shows available, including NBC's "Law & Order," USA Network's "Monk" and Sci Fi Channel's "Battlestar Galactica."
Read the full article here: Networks' iTunes gamble paying off
Networks' iTunes gamble paying off
Mon Feb 6, 2006 3:56 AM ET
By Chris Marlowe
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Television networks took a leap into the unknown when they started selling their shows on Apple's iTunes online store, but even in these early days, it's starting to look as if that faith in digital downloads was well placed.
Apple CEO Steve Jobs welcomed Walt Disney Co. and Pixar Animation Studios content to the service in October. Now there are 40 different series, each episode of which costs a standardized $1.99 to purchase, and more are on the way.
Nobody will disclose numbers for these television downloads. It's easy, however, to keep an eye on the iTunes download chart, which usually shows NBC's "The Office" as the top full-length program, followed by ABC's "Lost" and Comedy Central's "South Park."
He was confident that the downloads were not eroding audience or invading any of the existing windows, due primarily to their portable and on-demand nature.
"The DVD potentially will get affected, but the revenue as it relates to the studio is higher because of the cost being so much lower and the price points being the same while you're getting a larger percentage of the revenue," Silverman said.
NBC on January 10 added more programs to iTunes, making a total of 13 NBC Universal-produced shows available, including NBC's "Law & Order," USA Network's "Monk" and Sci Fi Channel's "Battlestar Galactica."
Read the full article here: Networks' iTunes gamble paying off
Galactica on Your Phone
It looks like Battlestar Galactica has made a move to games - on your mobile phone, according to this article. Avaliable for download now, you play as a beginner pilot and can go through 20 different missions.
Battlestar Galactica makes the leap to mobile phones
In-Fusio announced the launch of an action-game based on the popular SCI FI Channel TV series, Battlestar Galactica. The Battlestar Galactica game is available for download now worldwide, excluding Japan, for Java enabled handsets.Starting as a rookie pilot, players take over the controls of the Colonial Viper Mark VII high performance fighter, and are quickly drawn into the ongoing interstellar war. Fighting their way through 20 stunning, action-packed levels and a variety of missions, players will be put to the test as they battle head-to-head with the deadly Cylons.
The Battlestar Galactica mobile game will be available for a wide range of popular Java phones at operators worldwide.
Source
Battlestar Galactica makes the leap to mobile phones
In-Fusio announced the launch of an action-game based on the popular SCI FI Channel TV series, Battlestar Galactica. The Battlestar Galactica game is available for download now worldwide, excluding Japan, for Java enabled handsets.Starting as a rookie pilot, players take over the controls of the Colonial Viper Mark VII high performance fighter, and are quickly drawn into the ongoing interstellar war. Fighting their way through 20 stunning, action-packed levels and a variety of missions, players will be put to the test as they battle head-to-head with the deadly Cylons.
The Battlestar Galactica mobile game will be available for a wide range of popular Java phones at operators worldwide.
Source
Sunday, February 05, 2006
Marathon
SciFi has announced that they will be screening 6 episodes on March 6th in this update at SciFi.com:
Starting at 9AM/8C on Tuesday, March 6, tune in for a six-episode Battlestar Galactica marathon! It will consist of episodes 214 through 219, to get you ready for the March 10 season finale.
Starting at 9AM/8C on Tuesday, March 6, tune in for a six-episode Battlestar Galactica marathon! It will consist of episodes 214 through 219, to get you ready for the March 10 season finale.
Saturday, February 04, 2006
TV Squad Review for Scar
TV Squad has posted up their review for Scar:
Battlestar Galactica: Scar
Posted Feb 3rd 2006 11:21PM by Keith McDuffee
Sometimes when a show uses time shifting in an episode, it adds something. It makes sense. We already know I took issue with the last two episodes using this trick, and now they do it again. However, unlike that past two times, this episode just didn't gain anything from it.Here we had a completely Starbuck-centric episode, one that showed us her continued feelings toward Enders and hightlighting her reasons for being enthused to head back to Caprica to take back their planet. As an episode that stood to spread out the primary plot of the season, I think it worked well.
Two big happenings tonight. First, we learn that Cylon Raiders are also capable of reincarnation, just like the humanoids. Second, we finally see some Apollo-Starbuck action, though it doesn't happen like either of them would ever had wanted. What Starbuck learns about the Raiders is definitely something for them all to consider dangerous since, as she also learned, they learn by dying and never need retraining.I really liked the Scar storyline and how a Cylon Raider could actually have personality and individuality. It's strange to think that what's essentially a mass of metal and guts could be a living, breathing thing.One thing that had bothered me in the past about this show was how little attention was paid to the dead. We hear of pilots biting it all the time, but they seemed to be casually brushed off. In this episode, we see more of the shrine of the fallen, and get attention paid to the dead in Starbuck's toast. The writers definitely need to do this every once in a while, giving us viewers a sense of what it means to lose one of the very few left of their population.
Current fleet population: ~49,593
Battlestar Galactica: Scar
Posted Feb 3rd 2006 11:21PM by Keith McDuffee
Sometimes when a show uses time shifting in an episode, it adds something. It makes sense. We already know I took issue with the last two episodes using this trick, and now they do it again. However, unlike that past two times, this episode just didn't gain anything from it.Here we had a completely Starbuck-centric episode, one that showed us her continued feelings toward Enders and hightlighting her reasons for being enthused to head back to Caprica to take back their planet. As an episode that stood to spread out the primary plot of the season, I think it worked well.
Two big happenings tonight. First, we learn that Cylon Raiders are also capable of reincarnation, just like the humanoids. Second, we finally see some Apollo-Starbuck action, though it doesn't happen like either of them would ever had wanted. What Starbuck learns about the Raiders is definitely something for them all to consider dangerous since, as she also learned, they learn by dying and never need retraining.I really liked the Scar storyline and how a Cylon Raider could actually have personality and individuality. It's strange to think that what's essentially a mass of metal and guts could be a living, breathing thing.One thing that had bothered me in the past about this show was how little attention was paid to the dead. We hear of pilots biting it all the time, but they seemed to be casually brushed off. In this episode, we see more of the shrine of the fallen, and get attention paid to the dead in Starbuck's toast. The writers definitely need to do this every once in a while, giving us viewers a sense of what it means to lose one of the very few left of their population.
Current fleet population: ~49,593
Scifi Updates
Nowplaying Mag's Review of Black Market. Finally
Nowplaying Magazine has posted up their review for Black Market, which aired last week.
Battlestar Galactica - “Black Market”
Written by Scott Collura
Friday, 03 February 2006
As President Roslin returns to good health, she decides it’s time to take on some of the issues of the fleet that have been ignored in recent weeks. First up: the growing black market that has come to control many of the precious commodities that keep the Colonial survivors going. Obviously Roslin is on to something, as Fisk, the recently appointed commander of the Battlestar Pegasus, barely gets a chance to settle into his new job before being garroted by the sketchy underworld types who he apparently had dealings with – and ran afoul of. Roslin and Admiral Adama, wishing to quell this trend towards criminality before it overwhelms the fleet, assign the Admiral’s son Lee to investigate the situation, not realizing that the young Adama already has ties of his own to the mob.
I love this concept – Lee Adama, the golden-boy pilot, heir apparent to the great William Adama, the hero of heroes known as Apollo, has turned into somebody you’d find in a Raymond Chandler story. Ever since his brush with death a few episodes back, Lee has become one morose dude, and “Black Market” is Lee’s episode and Lee’s alone to allow exploration of this development, with very little in the way of B-story or subplots to distract from the character’s film noir-esque inquiry into the whos and hows of the black market. From his heretofore unknown liaison with a femme fatale and his pained memories of a lost love on Caprica to his grey-area resolution of the black market situation and his dubious final dealings with the mob boss, this is definitely not the smiley Richard Hatch Apollo of yesteryear.
Which isn’t to say that Richard Hatch isn’t here, because he is. Yes, Tom Zarek is conveniently and creepily onboard the ship where Lee’s lover – who’s also a hooker whose services Lee pays for, by the way – lives, and he of course has just the right information that Apollo needs to locate the scary Phelan (Bill Duke), the sort of underworld boss figure whose measured justification of his actions almost makes sense. As usual Zarek isn’t given quite enough to do here, but whereas his motivations last time we saw him in the two-parter “Home” were too obviously on the wayward side, here the writers have moved him back into the ambiguous ground between light and shadow. No one knows who Tom Zarek serves except for Tom Zarek.
Speaking of the self-serving, Vice President Baltar has taken a turn for the dark himself since last episode. No longer content to let others (real or otherwise) push him around, Baltar seems to have finally chosen a side in the Cylon-Colonial War other than his own. His tense confrontations with Lee and President Roslin in this episode show a side to the character we didn’t think he had.
But the guts of “Black Market” are found in Apollo’s story, in his discovery and semi-resolution of the titular situation as well as his attempts to deal with the regrets that he still has from his former life before the Holocaust. Some fans have been complaining lately that Battlestar Galactica is becoming too “flashback heavy,” but if those glimpses of the past (they’re practically non-narrative and almost literally flashes) continue to flesh out the characters as they do here and in last week’s episode, then I say keep flashing away. A-
Battlestar Galactica - “Black Market”
Written by Scott Collura Friday, 03 February 2006
As President Roslin returns to good health, she decides it’s time to take on some of the issues of the fleet that have been ignored in recent weeks. First up: the growing black market that has come to control many of the precious commodities that keep the Colonial survivors going. Obviously Roslin is on to something, as Fisk, the recently appointed commander of the Battlestar Pegasus, barely gets a chance to settle into his new job before being garroted by the sketchy underworld types who he apparently had dealings with – and ran afoul of. Roslin and Admiral Adama, wishing to quell this trend towards criminality before it overwhelms the fleet, assign the Admiral’s son Lee to investigate the situation, not realizing that the young Adama already has ties of his own to the mob.
I love this concept – Lee Adama, the golden-boy pilot, heir apparent to the great William Adama, the hero of heroes known as Apollo, has turned into somebody you’d find in a Raymond Chandler story. Ever since his brush with death a few episodes back, Lee has become one morose dude, and “Black Market” is Lee’s episode and Lee’s alone to allow exploration of this development, with very little in the way of B-story or subplots to distract from the character’s film noir-esque inquiry into the whos and hows of the black market. From his heretofore unknown liaison with a femme fatale and his pained memories of a lost love on Caprica to his grey-area resolution of the black market situation and his dubious final dealings with the mob boss, this is definitely not the smiley Richard Hatch Apollo of yesteryear.
Which isn’t to say that Richard Hatch isn’t here, because he is. Yes, Tom Zarek is conveniently and creepily onboard the ship where Lee’s lover – who’s also a hooker whose services Lee pays for, by the way – lives, and he of course has just the right information that Apollo needs to locate the scary Phelan (Bill Duke), the sort of underworld boss figure whose measured justification of his actions almost makes sense. As usual Zarek isn’t given quite enough to do here, but whereas his motivations last time we saw him in the two-parter “Home” were too obviously on the wayward side, here the writers have moved him back into the ambiguous ground between light and shadow. No one knows who Tom Zarek serves except for Tom Zarek.
Speaking of the self-serving, Vice President Baltar has taken a turn for the dark himself since last episode. No longer content to let others (real or otherwise) push him around, Baltar seems to have finally chosen a side in the Cylon-Colonial War other than his own. His tense confrontations with Lee and President Roslin in this episode show a side to the character we didn’t think he had.
But the guts of “Black Market” are found in Apollo’s story, in his discovery and semi-resolution of the titular situation as well as his attempts to deal with the regrets that he still has from his former life before the Holocaust. Some fans have been complaining lately that Battlestar Galactica is becoming too “flashback heavy,” but if those glimpses of the past (they’re practically non-narrative and almost literally flashes) continue to flesh out the characters as they do here and in last week’s episode, then I say keep flashing away. A-
Friday, February 03, 2006
Battlestar Reviewed at EW
EW Online has this article:
The future, as we've been led to believe, is free of the ills that plagued humanity in the 20th century. There is no poverty, no war; our only pursuit is the betterment of ourselves and the exploration of brave new worlds. In other words, it's kinda boring.
As a writer-producer on various Star Trek shows since 1989, Ronald D. Moore helped propagate that vision of the future. But living under Federation rule kindled something in him, because one of his first post-Starfleet projects is the brazen Battlestar Galactica.
When Galactica first left the TV dry dock as a four-hour miniseries on Sci Fi, it was derided by fans of the original 1970s TV series — you remember, the one with that weird silver robot and pop culture's first Richard Hatch. Now that we're in the middle of Galactica's second season, it seems those traditionalists (Starbuck as a woman? Egads!) have shut up and started watching one of the richest dramatic enterprises on TV. In fact, it's now Sci Fi's highest rated show.
Moore and his co-executive producer David Eick didn't jettison everything from the original: This Galactica still follows the ragtag fleet of ships — manned by survivors of a devastating attack on humanity by the evil, robotic Cylons — as they try to find planet Earth. This fleet is still commanded by now-admiral Adama (Edward James Olmos). There are still pilots named Apollo (Jamie Bamber), Starbuck (Katie Sackhoff), and Boomer (Grace Park). There is still the traitorous Dr. Baltar (James Callis), who secretly aids the Cylons.
But the producers added something never to be found on the bridge of the starship Enterprise: conflict. Real, ugly, human conflict. Some Cylons now look exactly like us and have even been programmed to think that they are human, and our friends. (Much of the first season revolved around Sharon ''Boomer'' Valerii's slow realization that she is, indeed, a Cylon — a fact that the audience knew all along. Très Hitchcockian.) Adama's second-in-command, Colonel Tigh (Michael Hogan), is an alcoholic. The President of the Colonies, Laura Roslin (Mary McDonnell), had terminal breast cancer, and — in a delicious twist two weeks ago — was saved by the blood of an unborn hybrid-Cylon baby she had previously ordered killed for being a danger to humanity. Such plot points might not fly without the right actors on board, but this nimble ensemble soars.
Where Star Trek was about strength, Galactica is about weakness, and nowhere is that more evident than in Baltar, a respected scientist, played to the Shakespearean hilt by Callis. His girlfriend — known only as Six (Tricia Helfer) — was the Cylon who used Baltar's connections to pave the way for the Cylon attack. Plagued by guilt, and not just a little bit insane, Baltar has evolved into TV's most complex villain: a man who continues to do wrong not out of malice but because he's just too spineless to do what's right.
Galactica does take the occasional misstep (a mystical/religious prophecy subplot flew directly in the face of the hardened reality of the show), but it succeeds where most science fiction fails: It makes the characters' battles with each other as vivid as the explosive battles in outer space.
Grade: A-
Source
The future, as we've been led to believe, is free of the ills that plagued humanity in the 20th century. There is no poverty, no war; our only pursuit is the betterment of ourselves and the exploration of brave new worlds. In other words, it's kinda boring.
As a writer-producer on various Star Trek shows since 1989, Ronald D. Moore helped propagate that vision of the future. But living under Federation rule kindled something in him, because one of his first post-Starfleet projects is the brazen Battlestar Galactica.
When Galactica first left the TV dry dock as a four-hour miniseries on Sci Fi, it was derided by fans of the original 1970s TV series — you remember, the one with that weird silver robot and pop culture's first Richard Hatch. Now that we're in the middle of Galactica's second season, it seems those traditionalists (Starbuck as a woman? Egads!) have shut up and started watching one of the richest dramatic enterprises on TV. In fact, it's now Sci Fi's highest rated show.
Moore and his co-executive producer David Eick didn't jettison everything from the original: This Galactica still follows the ragtag fleet of ships — manned by survivors of a devastating attack on humanity by the evil, robotic Cylons — as they try to find planet Earth. This fleet is still commanded by now-admiral Adama (Edward James Olmos). There are still pilots named Apollo (Jamie Bamber), Starbuck (Katie Sackhoff), and Boomer (Grace Park). There is still the traitorous Dr. Baltar (James Callis), who secretly aids the Cylons.
But the producers added something never to be found on the bridge of the starship Enterprise: conflict. Real, ugly, human conflict. Some Cylons now look exactly like us and have even been programmed to think that they are human, and our friends. (Much of the first season revolved around Sharon ''Boomer'' Valerii's slow realization that she is, indeed, a Cylon — a fact that the audience knew all along. Très Hitchcockian.) Adama's second-in-command, Colonel Tigh (Michael Hogan), is an alcoholic. The President of the Colonies, Laura Roslin (Mary McDonnell), had terminal breast cancer, and — in a delicious twist two weeks ago — was saved by the blood of an unborn hybrid-Cylon baby she had previously ordered killed for being a danger to humanity. Such plot points might not fly without the right actors on board, but this nimble ensemble soars.
Where Star Trek was about strength, Galactica is about weakness, and nowhere is that more evident than in Baltar, a respected scientist, played to the Shakespearean hilt by Callis. His girlfriend — known only as Six (Tricia Helfer) — was the Cylon who used Baltar's connections to pave the way for the Cylon attack. Plagued by guilt, and not just a little bit insane, Baltar has evolved into TV's most complex villain: a man who continues to do wrong not out of malice but because he's just too spineless to do what's right.
Galactica does take the occasional misstep (a mystical/religious prophecy subplot flew directly in the face of the hardened reality of the show), but it succeeds where most science fiction fails: It makes the characters' battles with each other as vivid as the explosive battles in outer space.
Grade: A-
Source
Matthew Bennett on SG-1 Tonight
Matthew Bennett, who plays the Cylon Aaron Doral in Galactica, will be guest starring in the episode Ethon, which airs tonight at 8. More information about the episode here: http://gateworld.net/sg1/s9/915.shtml
Another Ron Moore Update
Ron Moore has updated his blog yet again:
February 02, 2006
Great Moments
There are things you hear in childhood which imprint themselves on your heart, in your brain, and upon your soul.
When I was a child, my parents used to take my brother and I twice a year to Disneyland. The behemoth that is Disney today certainly doesn't need me to sing the praises of the happiest place on earth, so I'll spare you fond memories of vacation days spent journeying aboard the Submarine Voyage or Flight to the Moon. However, I was recently downloading a compilation of soundtracks from the park and came across the original recording of Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln, one of the first of the audio-animatronic shows that would become a defining characteristic of the theme park experience.
The original track presented a speech by Lincoln that was actually a compliation of several different speeches and writings by the sixteenth president and presented a robotic version of him delivering the oration against a handsome backdrop of the US Capitol building while accomapanied by appropriately stirring music. The show was a particular favorite of mine and my father's, both for the theatrical experience and for the nakedly patriotic content of the speech itself. The sentiments and the philosophy it expressed were no less riveting for the nakedly manipulative presentation and the venue in which they were showcased. It was the kind of show that made you want to enlist in the armed forces on your way out the door (and if the Pentagon knew what it was doing, it would've had a booth in the exit lobby like the one in Times Square).
Several years ago, the original speech was replaced by a more pedestrian reading of the Gettysburg Address, and I pretty much stopped going to the show, disappointed that a unique piece of work had been supplanted by something so familiar (if inarguably brilliant in its text). But when I found a recording of the original speech and heard it for the first time in a long time, I was struck not only by the fact that something so well remembered could still touch and inspire me, but that the content of the speech itself was something I had so completely inhaled and made part of my political outlook, and also by the fact that Lincolns words seem particularly relevant now, during a time of tumult and debate over the role of the law in a time of national crisis and war.
It's probably also worth noting that more than a little of the politics of Battlestar Galactica can be traced back to these passages originally written by the rail-splitter from Illinois:
"The world has never had a good definition of the word 'liberty.' The American people just now, are much in want of one. We all declare for liberty. But in using the same word, we do not all mean the same thing.
"What constitutes the bulwark of our liberty and independence? It is not our frowning battlements, our bristling seacoasts -- these are not our reliance against tyranny. Our reliance is in the love of liberty, which God has planted in our bosom. Our defence is in the preservation of the spirit which prizes liberty as the heritage of all men in all lands, everywhere. Destroy this spirit and you have planted the seeds of despotism around your own door.
"At what point shall we expect the approach of danger? By what means shall we fortify against it? Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant to step the ocean and crush us at a blow?
"Never.
"All the armies of Europe, Asia and Africa combined, could not, by force, take a drink from the Ohio, or make a track on the Blue Ridge, in a trial of a thousand years. At what point then, is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer that if it ever reach us, it must spring from amongst us; it cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we ourselves must be the authors and finishers.
"As a nation of free men, we must live through our times or die by suicide. Let reverence for the law be breathed by every American mother to the lisping babe that prattles on her lap; let it be taught in the schools, in the seminaries and in the colleges; let it be written in primers, in spelling books and almanacs; let it be preached from the pulpit, proclaimed in legislative halls and enforced in courts of justice; and in short, let it become the political religion of the nation. And let the old and the young, the rich and the poor, the grave and the gay, of all sexes and tongues and colors and conditions, sacrifice unceasingly at its altar. And let us strive to deserve, as far as mortals may, the continued care of Divine Providence, trusting that in future national emergencies, He will not fail to provide us the instruments of safety and security.
"Let us not be slandered from our duty by false accusations against us, nor frightened from it by menaces of destruction to the government, nor of dungeons to ourselves.
"Let us have faith that right makes might, and in that faith, let us, to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it."
-- Abraham Lincoln
February 02, 2006
Great Moments
There are things you hear in childhood which imprint themselves on your heart, in your brain, and upon your soul.
When I was a child, my parents used to take my brother and I twice a year to Disneyland. The behemoth that is Disney today certainly doesn't need me to sing the praises of the happiest place on earth, so I'll spare you fond memories of vacation days spent journeying aboard the Submarine Voyage or Flight to the Moon. However, I was recently downloading a compilation of soundtracks from the park and came across the original recording of Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln, one of the first of the audio-animatronic shows that would become a defining characteristic of the theme park experience.
The original track presented a speech by Lincoln that was actually a compliation of several different speeches and writings by the sixteenth president and presented a robotic version of him delivering the oration against a handsome backdrop of the US Capitol building while accomapanied by appropriately stirring music. The show was a particular favorite of mine and my father's, both for the theatrical experience and for the nakedly patriotic content of the speech itself. The sentiments and the philosophy it expressed were no less riveting for the nakedly manipulative presentation and the venue in which they were showcased. It was the kind of show that made you want to enlist in the armed forces on your way out the door (and if the Pentagon knew what it was doing, it would've had a booth in the exit lobby like the one in Times Square).
Several years ago, the original speech was replaced by a more pedestrian reading of the Gettysburg Address, and I pretty much stopped going to the show, disappointed that a unique piece of work had been supplanted by something so familiar (if inarguably brilliant in its text). But when I found a recording of the original speech and heard it for the first time in a long time, I was struck not only by the fact that something so well remembered could still touch and inspire me, but that the content of the speech itself was something I had so completely inhaled and made part of my political outlook, and also by the fact that Lincolns words seem particularly relevant now, during a time of tumult and debate over the role of the law in a time of national crisis and war.
It's probably also worth noting that more than a little of the politics of Battlestar Galactica can be traced back to these passages originally written by the rail-splitter from Illinois:
"The world has never had a good definition of the word 'liberty.' The American people just now, are much in want of one. We all declare for liberty. But in using the same word, we do not all mean the same thing.
"What constitutes the bulwark of our liberty and independence? It is not our frowning battlements, our bristling seacoasts -- these are not our reliance against tyranny. Our reliance is in the love of liberty, which God has planted in our bosom. Our defence is in the preservation of the spirit which prizes liberty as the heritage of all men in all lands, everywhere. Destroy this spirit and you have planted the seeds of despotism around your own door.
"At what point shall we expect the approach of danger? By what means shall we fortify against it? Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant to step the ocean and crush us at a blow?
"Never.
"All the armies of Europe, Asia and Africa combined, could not, by force, take a drink from the Ohio, or make a track on the Blue Ridge, in a trial of a thousand years. At what point then, is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer that if it ever reach us, it must spring from amongst us; it cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we ourselves must be the authors and finishers.
"As a nation of free men, we must live through our times or die by suicide. Let reverence for the law be breathed by every American mother to the lisping babe that prattles on her lap; let it be taught in the schools, in the seminaries and in the colleges; let it be written in primers, in spelling books and almanacs; let it be preached from the pulpit, proclaimed in legislative halls and enforced in courts of justice; and in short, let it become the political religion of the nation. And let the old and the young, the rich and the poor, the grave and the gay, of all sexes and tongues and colors and conditions, sacrifice unceasingly at its altar. And let us strive to deserve, as far as mortals may, the continued care of Divine Providence, trusting that in future national emergencies, He will not fail to provide us the instruments of safety and security.
"Let us not be slandered from our duty by false accusations against us, nor frightened from it by menaces of destruction to the government, nor of dungeons to ourselves.
"Let us have faith that right makes might, and in that faith, let us, to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it."
-- Abraham Lincoln
Thursday, February 02, 2006
Ron Moore Update
Ron Moore has posted up another update on his Galactica weblog:
February 01, 2006
Q & A
"Having watched Star Trek for many years, and now an avid Galactica watcher; I have noticed unlike the Star Trek shows of the past...we know little about how Galactica works. We don't know much about her engines at all, what powers the ship..weapons. Is this an intentional effort to steer Battlestar Galactica away from the technobabble Star Trek would often be muddled in and focus time exclusively on the characters of the show? Will we learn and see more of Galactica in the future?"
It's a pretty deliberate choice not to reveal very much about the technical specs on Galactica. Partly it's a way to clear out a great deal of technobabble that tends to swamp action scenes and leach drama from what should be intense moments, and partly it's a way of preserving flexibility in terms of storytelling. The more we define the capabilities of the ship, the more we limit ourselves in terms of exactly what the ship can and cannot do in a given situation. Now, you can't really avoid establishing parameters as the show develops and having some sense of the limitations is a good thing to maintain continuity, but a little of it goes a long way.
"I got a quick question that may have been asked...but I was wondering what plans (if any) you have for Boxey? Now that Sharon's been killed...is he living alone? With Lee? With Kara? In an airlock? Any plans to develop him more or was he just a throwback to the original???"
Boxey is currently seeking his lost daggit and won't return until he finds it.
"With the US State of the Union [last] night, I was wondering whether or not Madame President gives anything similar on the state of the colonies - are we getting more politics a la "Colonial Day"? Maybe some elections soon? Your podcasts have seemed to indicate that we might . . ."
I don't know if there's an equivalent to the State of the Union or not, it's something to think about for the future. However, there will definitely be more political intrigue this season, leading up to the presidential election itself -- which is going to be a doozy.
February 01, 2006
Q & A
"Having watched Star Trek for many years, and now an avid Galactica watcher; I have noticed unlike the Star Trek shows of the past...we know little about how Galactica works. We don't know much about her engines at all, what powers the ship..weapons. Is this an intentional effort to steer Battlestar Galactica away from the technobabble Star Trek would often be muddled in and focus time exclusively on the characters of the show? Will we learn and see more of Galactica in the future?"
It's a pretty deliberate choice not to reveal very much about the technical specs on Galactica. Partly it's a way to clear out a great deal of technobabble that tends to swamp action scenes and leach drama from what should be intense moments, and partly it's a way of preserving flexibility in terms of storytelling. The more we define the capabilities of the ship, the more we limit ourselves in terms of exactly what the ship can and cannot do in a given situation. Now, you can't really avoid establishing parameters as the show develops and having some sense of the limitations is a good thing to maintain continuity, but a little of it goes a long way.
"I got a quick question that may have been asked...but I was wondering what plans (if any) you have for Boxey? Now that Sharon's been killed...is he living alone? With Lee? With Kara? In an airlock? Any plans to develop him more or was he just a throwback to the original???"
Boxey is currently seeking his lost daggit and won't return until he finds it.
"With the US State of the Union [last] night, I was wondering whether or not Madame President gives anything similar on the state of the colonies - are we getting more politics a la "Colonial Day"? Maybe some elections soon? Your podcasts have seemed to indicate that we might . . ."
I don't know if there's an equivalent to the State of the Union or not, it's something to think about for the future. However, there will definitely be more political intrigue this season, leading up to the presidential election itself -- which is going to be a doozy.
Wednesday, February 01, 2006
New Images from Sacrifice
Gateworld.net has 10 new images here: http://www.gateworld.net/galactica/s2/graphics/216_gallery.shtml
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