So Say We All
Page 75
It just became this ugly cycle of constant stress and constant straining trying to just get Syfy to stick with what they had agreed to. That was a big source of frustration. They’d agree on something and change their minds, or they would pass the buck and say, “Yeah, we approved this, but now New York has weighed in.” Weeks would go by and you’d get really far into the creative process, and then New York would suddenly wake up and say, “Oh, we hate all this. We don’t want to do any of it.” So we’d start all over again. It was maddening.
MARK STERN
I guess the bottom line is that it took an attack on some really cool themes and ideas, which is one of the things I loved about it. But it did it in a way that didn’t connect to you emotionally, didn’t feel compelling. The thing about Battlestar that was part of its secret sauce was you could talk about all those different things, you could talk about spirituality and mandalas and destiny, and cycles of love and whatever, yet every now and then a Cylon would pop up and try to kill you. It was a struggle of survival. It was a struggle to get somewhere safe. Those two elements really balance each other well, giving you something that was smart, erudite, and thought-provoking, but also emotionally compelling. Caprica just wasn’t able to achieve this.
RONALD D. MOORE
The whole situation was crazy. They were only sort of supportive, like they were with Galactica in the beginning. Caprica wasn’t really the show they wanted to do, but they had green-lit and then they were pregnant with it, but they kept messing with it. Then they just gave us a hard time about the ratings all the way through. In fairness, okay, the ratings were not stellar and we were on the bubble, but I felt—and I’m pretty sure David did, too—that we had earned the right to get a little slack.
We had created Battlestar Galactica for them. We had put the channel on the map in a way that it had not been before. We had delivered the goods and we had earned the awards and the acclaim and we’d made something that was really, really special. And it felt like, at the end of the day, none of that counted as they punted us out the door at the first opportunity. It just felt like we had earned the right to get a second season, and they wouldn’t give it to us. That was very frustrating.
Following the short-lived Caprica, there was Battlestar Galactica: Blood & Chrome, a ten-part webseries that would eventually air as a two-hour 2010 movie on Syfy. Designed as a pilot for another prequel series, it cast Luke Pasqualino as a young William “Husker” Adama during the first Cylon war.
RONALD D. MOORE
The idea of doing another show had come up while I was on Caprica and still at Universal. I had some conversations with Mark Stern about was there another series. “Is there another show, another spin-off? What else can we do?” And it was really funny. Like I keep saying, they didn’t love us while we were there, but once Battlestar ended, there was a sense of them suddenly having the attitude of, “Well, we do kind of want to keep this going somehow, so can we keep talking about another project?”
So there was Caprica and then they started talking about another show, and I said, “Well, the thing that would interest me, that would be different, is there is this block of time. There is this story in our past of the first Cylon war.” And my idea was to do the story of the Galactica during the Cylon War, and what that meant to me was, you would start with the Galactica’s commissioning and you would take her through the Cylon War sort of episodically, and mixing up the timeline. Not doing it chronologically and changing the cast a lot. There were a group of fighter pilots at the beginning and there was her original commander, but she would kind of like mix it up. And you would have actors talking to the camera; we were going to break the fourth wall, like they’re being interviewed. And it would be their memories of being aboard the Galactica.
It’s really about the ship and the people that went through her halls over the course of the Cylon War, with their different perspectives, battles they won or lost, people who died, cowards, heroes, traitors, all that kind of stuff, and do it in this sort of nonlinear kind of way. I really liked that idea, but they were less enamored of that idea, and it sort of didn’t go anywhere. But then they kept talking about it. Like, “We still want to do this other thing.” And they never quite wanted to pull the trigger on, “Let’s talk about a story.” Or “Let’s really get a formal pitch together.” It kind of limped along. And then, eventually, Caprica was canceled, my deal ended with Universal, and I decided I didn’t want to. I was going to go work on some feature projects for a while, and eventually go to Sony.
DAVID EICK
I’d just been through a lousy breakup and was on the plane, probably on my third Scotch, and started sketching out a story about a woman who crushes a man’s heart by betraying him. I swear, that’s the stupid origin story for Blood & Chrome. I knew that generally the network was interested in another prequel and there had already been discussions about what that might be. Perhaps by that point the notion of “Young Adama”—a fairly obvious concept—was already swimming around in my head with the booze.
I jotted down some ideas about how that premise might inform some critical aspect of Adama’s worldview—his sense of brotherhood with those who are loyal; his sense of caution and distrust among potential enemies. But the real opportunity, in the minds of the folks at Syfy and Universal, was to use the BSG brand to break into a new form of programming. In this case, they wanted a BSG spin-off that could premiere on Xbox—I’m serious—and in success spin out into a weekly series on the network. That meant the concept needed a “game-ish” vibe, something that would feel at home in that medium.
They wanted an action piece—not too dense or mythological—so the pilot story was designed to be a hundred minutes, broken into ten ten-minute cliffhanger segments (“game chapters”), that would ultimately work as a standalone movie with enough of a final cliffhanger to tease another movie or one-hour series or whatever.
MICHAEL TAYLOR
(writer, Blood & Chrome)
This was after Caprica. David Eick came to me and said we had an opportunity to write a webseries, because that’s what it was conceived of at the time. I was able to bring in David Weddle and Bradley Thompson to help plot it out. Once they got the script, they saw that it could be a pilot. I actually wrote a thirty-page outline for a first season and into subsequent seasons, and it brought back some of the old cast. Honestly, it would have been just fucking insanely cool, but it didn’t happen. It at least got to be a fun TV movie. I had more of a sense of that being almost like a World War II movie, with elements of propaganda films and a basic war story and wartime espionage. And characters being used by higher powers, possibly for good reasons, but still being used. A lot of classic themes of a lot of movies I love. That was a real cool experience.
DAVID EICK
When the network saw the script—codeveloped by myself with David Weddle, Bradley Thompson, Jonas Pate, and Michael Taylor, with the teleplay written by Taylor—they really flipped. But at about the same time, the Xbox deal was falling apart. Rather than abandon the project, Syfy elected to proceed with it as a traditional pilot, which meant we could bail on the “ten cliffhangers” structure, which was frankly a bit contrived.… The bad news was we were still stuck with the “experimental budget” we’d been saddled with.
This forced us into another design conceit, which was to use the expertise in green-screen CG we’d spent the past decade perfecting to substitute for all practical locations and most practical sets, which are two extremely expensive categories of production. We had digital photos of all the BSG sets—taken years earlier, before we dismantled everything—and used those as a guide. The result was a pilot shot entirely on a green-screen stage, including vast epic shots of frozen tundras along with all the spaceships and robots and monsters. At six-hundred-plus visual effect shots, nothing on television like it had been attempted before—or since. It proved to be a totally different look from BSG or Caprica and gave Blood & Chrome a gleaming, hypervisual style unto itself.
I was there for two months in Vancouver on a kind of disco stage where everything, in a way, was virtual. All the sets were these very spare kind of jungle gyms, and everything was flown in digitally with the help of a remarkable visual effects coordinator, Gary Hutzel, who ran his own ship, which was sort of created with Ron on Battlestar.
DAVID EICK
Once the network saw it all put together, their enthusiasm was off the charts. Michael Taylor, Jonas Pate, the director, and I set about breaking season one, and a pickup seemed imminent. Then, I think, the reality of Caprica’s poor showing in the ratings began to set in. The network seemed to slowly sour on the BSG brand, almost like they just wanted a break from it. Maybe it was to prove Syfy’s programming independence of the BSG moniker.
MICHAEL TAYLOR
Sort of interesting, in some small respect, is that after Battlestar, the network auctioned off all the props. I got a prop from Razor, like the backup knife that Admiral Cain had as a young girl to try and ward off Cylons. I’ve got the old rusty knife. I think it was the backup prop. When it came time to do Blood & Chrome, we had to rent back props from fans who had bought them.
Currently in development at Universal Pictures is a new feature film of Battlestar Galactica that would reboot the franchise yet again. An attempt by the studio to once again capture the excitement and stratospheric grosses of Star Wars clearly proving once more that this has all happened before and will all happen again. Lisa Joy, one of the creators of Westworld with her husband Jonathan Nolan, is writing the film for the studio.
RONALD D. MOORE
They’ve talked about it for years. They talked about it while I was still at Universal, much to my surprise. One of the worst days I had at Universal was picking up the trades and seeing that they were talking about doing a Battlestar Galactica feature film, and reading it in Variety at my desk. That’s how I found out. They never called. All of these fiefdoms at Universal are very, very separate, so the feature people had nothing to do with the TV side, and they had the rights from Glen Larson, or still had an option on the rights from Glen Larson, or something. Some convoluted thing. So they were on a completely separate track and they made that announcement, and it was a shock.
I was very upset. I just went home. Syfy called me up and they were like, “Oh, we’re so sorry. This wasn’t well handled.” And I was like, “Fuckin’ A, it wasn’t well handled. What are you talking about?” It’s, like, you’re gonna do a reboot of the show? We’re on the air! It might have been during Caprica, but it was right there toward the end. I said, “The body’s not even cold yet, for fuck’s sake.”
As has been proven since Battlestar Galactica ended its run, that “body” has yet to cool off even some ten years later. Its impact, influence, and importance continues to be felt not only by the fans, but by the cast and crew who were brought together to bring it to life in the first place and find their bond stronger than ever.
EDWARD JAMES OLMOS
(actor, “Admiral William ‘Bill’ Adama”)
The connection I felt and feel with everyone involved with the show is something I’ve never felt before, and I’ve been in some great ensembles. This became something else; we went to another place. The feelings were real. We lived it. Okay, we’re actors and we have to do that. That’s part of the whole experience, and you hear it from everybody. I mean, Hill Street Blues, ER, The West Wing—they all have incredible feelings about their relationship to one another and to the show. But because of the nature of what we experienced and where we took it in respect of the responsibility of really understanding that we were documenting human behavior in one of the most difficult situations known to humankind: the extermination of humanity.
We were in Vancouver, so we kind of cocooned ourselves off into totally our own space. That’s why it came out the way it did. From the opening scene of Starbuck running through the hallway of the ship—a scene that never seemed to stop. If you look at that scene, you’re going to say, “Holy crap, there’s no edits. It just keeps on; characters are introduced and then move off and another character comes on.” But you felt that right from the beginning there was a tremendous understanding; that we all understood as a unit.
JAMIE BAMBER
(actor, “Captain Lee ‘Apollo’ Adama”)
The show was like making an independent film where our voices as actors were appreciated and heard and we weren’t just hired and told to stand in the right place and say the words. We were on this journey with everyone else and we were all there to make it better. So it really taught me a lot of things about this business and storytelling and acting and responsibility to those around you. For me, it was right place, right time, right moment in my career. But also an experience the like of which I haven’t had since in terms of the media and the public response and the way it seemed to just fire people’s bellies.
TRICIA HELFER
(actress, “Number Six”)
I’d been acting for a year when I got the show, and for me personally it was a brand-new experience. I definitely got lucky having an amazing experience as the first one that didn’t sour me on the business. The show represented a combination of things, between the incredible writing and the story that is actually there, and knowing you are doing something special. And knowing you are doing material that, even though it’s fiction, has a heavy core to it. It means something.
When you are talking about the annihilation of human rights and what it’s like to be in war and what it’s like to be fighting for your lives and all that type of thing, it hits you heavier. To have that and to know you are doing good material, but also mixed with a team that’s just really bonded together. We became really close and it became a special project for us all. Children were born during the beginning of Battlestar and during the run of Battlestar. You’d all have birthday parties and the kids’ parties and Sunday barbecues. Just amazing.
RONALD D. MOORE
The show is bigger than all of us. It really touched people and challenged them. It’s not like any other program. It was and is unique. It’s just a special piece. When you watch it, you’re sort of pulled into this other world and it’s nothing like Star Trek, it’s nothing like Stargate, and it’s nothing like Star Wars. It’s its own unique animal, and people really responded to it and got emotionally involved with those characters and the story. It just really touched a nerve.
TAHMOH PENIKETT
(actor, “Captain Karl ‘Helo’ Agathon”)
Deep meaning. Resonance. Love. These are the words that come to mind when I think about the show. Absolute joy. I had such a deep and ever-growing bond with this group of individuals that I had the pleasure of working with on the show. The beautiful thing about it is that it continues to grow. Many of us are still very, very close. I don’t think anyone had the foresight to be able to tell what this thing would become and how meaningful it would be for all of us and how it would bind us all together in a sort of way.
AARON DOUGLAS
(actor, “Chief Tyrol”)
I’ve got about a hundred credits, give or take a few, which means that I’ve done a lot of TV shows and films, but I don’t keep in touch with anyone from any other show like I do with Battlestar. Not even remotely close. The genuine love and the genuine affection that we all have for each other and for the show and for our shared piece of it, is something remarkable. For some reason, the fans have that same shared love and camaraderie and sense of family that we do.
GRACE PARK
(actress, “Sharon ‘Boomer’ Valerii”)
For myself, it evokes an era of a time when things were more innocent, though I’m sure they’ll always be more innocent in the past to some degree. But the five years that spanned the time we shot the series I grew a lot as an actor. There were a lot of challenges and growth, but also the people that were a part of it from onscreen, behind the scenes, the creators, producers … It was jelling with everyone finding out how we were going to be with
each other, how Eddie was leading us, how talented and supportive the crew were. It just seemed like a really special time where these things were coming together. And we really had no idea how good it was going to be. I’m sure Eddie will say that he knew or Mary will say that she knew, but it was definitely my biggest job to date and I really had no idea. Eddie had to tell us multiple times to get ready, that this was going to be the best thing we would do for forty years, so we should make it special.
How much more special can you make it than just to be as present as you can be? Meanwhile, these things are being thrown at you and you’re doing your best to juggle and stand on all these balls and remain balanced; keep your head above water. It was just all these things at the same time. People would say, “You were the actor that grew the most,” and I was like, “That’s meant as a compliment, I suppose,” but the way my brain works, it’s like, “Oh, that means I was the shittiest at the time.” I guess I got less shitty?
KATEE SACKHOFF
(actress, “Kara ‘Starbuck’ Thrace”)
Truthfully, Tricia Helfer was just at my house for four hours hanging out. We are a family. I see Michael Trucco all the time and James Callis. I’d see Bamber more but he had to move to France. We’re a family and I think part of it was the fact that we were all in Vancouver. It was a really good place to be. There was no judgment. It was a completely supportive environment where everyone from the grip to the director to the art department to the AD department … every single person on that set was respectful of the process that the actor needed to go through and the freedom that it required, and the time that it took. We created something really great, because everybody sort of respected that. It was really great.
Battlestar Galactica is the biggest gift I could possibly have ever given to my career. I never dreamed that the show would give me a career. Battlestar was the fourth or fifth series that I did, and I never dreamed that some remake of a sci-fi show that some people remembered and some people didn’t at all would actually give me a career in the sense that it’s had this longevity because of this character. That’s something that people in this business fight for.