Last night, on Sunset Boulevard, LA, there was an exclusive Battlestar Galactica Press Screening and Q&A with show-runner Ronald D. Moore and some of the cast.
Sci-Fi Heaven had several people at the event, this is the first of our coverage, and it contains no spoilers about the final mid-season episode (“Revelations”) due to an honorable pledge of allegiance to Ronald D. Moore.
Summary
“I arrived without a ticket. At first I took photos of the scene. I took photos of Tricia’s and Mary’s arrival through the crowd. I am sure that they did not turn out very well.
After Mary arrived, staff start allowing Emmy ballot holders and press into the theater followed by fans that got their tickets reserved.
After the bulk of the crowd entered the approximately 800 seat theater, I noticed that the staff was giving the armbands without checking names or anything else. I gambled on the slim chance of getting an armband and a chance at a live Battlestar Galactica Question and Answer session after the show. The only thing I was risking was the chance to take bad photos of Katie and Ron Moore arriving.
I hopped in line and urged a few of the people I knew that did not have tickets to follow. For a while, I thought that my gambit would have worked if only I got in line sooner. There were so few armbands left.
But then one of the staff, a man in a suit, walked down to the end of the line with three armbands left. I held out my arm and he put the band on it. He also banded the man behind me, who drove all the way from Long Beach.
P.s. To the guy who just needs Tricia Helfer’s and James Callis’ autographs for his homemade poster, you should have got in line. Remember, sometimes you have to roll the hard six.
– – –
I respect Ron Moore too much to spoil the mid season finale. He made all of us swear not to leak out any of the events that happen in this episode. Besides, someone else is bound to talk. Here are some of the highlights from the Q & A session.
Katee Sackhoff: Starbuck has been through an emotional rollercoaster this season. She is acting how she thinks people think she should act. She has been second guessing herself.
Mary McDonnell: Laura Roslin’s mind is expanding as her body is fading away. She is experiencing things she never has.
Tricia Helfer: “I say the words that are written for me.”
Ron Moore: “Usually”
Tricia Helfer: She generally considers herself a bit of an agnostic. But playing Six has helped her open her mind to faith. Through the series she has kept asking the writer for info on the Cylon god and the one true god.
Ron Moore: Gave his usual talk about the different approach to science fiction. The naturalist approach was part of the original deal.
Katee Sackhoff: “I still like using the real word” instead of Frak. Normally she says “F” instead of Frak or dropping the F Bomb since she tries to be a role model but sometimes nothing beats a good F Bomb.
The flight suit is “hell on earth”. It retains no heat. The actors wear them on a cold sound stage placed in a box for hours at a time. People will give them water but there is no pee zipper.
Mary McDonnell: The relationship with Adama has had a big impact on how she plays Roslin. Roslin started as a very lonely character, without any boyfriends or girl friends. The character has completely changed with this relationship and she praised Eddie quite a bit.
Tricia Helfer: She and Katie were on the set unil midnight last night and she has to get up at 4 AM to fly back. She just read the final script (to the entire series) on the plane. She said that while it made most of the cast cry (Mary, Eddie for example), it felt like someone punched her in the stomach. She was not around any of the cast when she read it to share her feeling.
Mary McDonnell: Upon reading the final script, seh says everything makes sense. It is one complete story.
Ron Moore: The Final Five do not have any numbers as the other Cylons do. There is no direct correlation between all the instances of 12 on the show. While it is symbolic, there is not a Greek god to correspond to every Cylon for example.
While he considered scenarios for Earth, most were eliminated pretty quickly. Bu the version they went with was decided early on.
Katee Sackhoff: She enjoyed playing the different moods of Starbuck. But she could not pick her favorite. She enjoyed playing Starbuck emotional and the drunk stage was also fun since she could do anything.. She mentioned that she had to ask her friends why she was feeling depressed since there was no reason to. She discovered that playing Starbuck as depressed was effecting her own mood.
A woman in the audience asked Mary McDonnell if she minded her writing Mary in as her ballot for President. Mary responded, “No, as long as she can pick Hillary for her VP.” Mary danced a little jig in her chair.
Ron Moore: The final episode was not formed in his mind when he wrote the first episode. He started thinking about the finale in very broad strokes in mid season one.
He had alot of difficulty writing the finale episode until he remember that “It’s the characters, stupid.” He wrote that on the white board at the office. Once he started writing the finale with the focus on the characters, instead of just the plot it came naturally. The finale eureka moment came while he was in the shower.
Mary McDonnell: She felt that the story was something different back when she read the script to the mini series. It made her tingle from head to toe.
Ron Moore talked about the reason for polytheism versus monotheism. The put the line “God is love” in the mini series because he thought it was an interesting thing for a robot to say. He did not know what it meant. To which Tricia interjected that this is the reason she had such a hard time with the Cylon religion to begin with.
Ron got a note from the Network that they liked the religion angle and that he should play it up since it fit with the whole 9/11 angle. Ron said that it is very rare for a network to request more religion so he went with it.
The polytheism versus monotheism came from the Cylons were already established as monotheist from Six. The Original Series has alot of old mythology (include Greek) for the Colonial names. It was not a stretch to make them polytheistic. That also played well into the clash of civilizations and the one god driving out the many gods.
Caprica is shooting as we speak. It is a 2 hour back door pilot. It has been for at least a week since Katie and Mary both at least have visited the set. It neighbors the BSG set. Mary came in wearing her hospital gown and pulling her IV stand and was not immediately recognized. Katie said that the cast of Caprica treat the cast of BSG as their parents. Mary agree with it and said that she could have been but was surprised that they treated Katie that way since she was so much younger.
The talk of additional BSG TV movies is both real and rumor. There are plans to get together for another project a la Razor but they are still talking about it.”