Ron Moore Blog/January 30, 2005

==Transcript==
"Will there be any development between characters on what distinguishes a Sagitaran from Caprican, Virgon, or any of the 12 Colonies? Did they develop seprately their own cultures and even different religions on their worlds? I'm glad the element of different worlds or nationalities was kept in the show."
This is an area we didn't get a chance to get very far with in the first season, and I'm hoping we explore more fully in the second. I think that some of the Colonies have developed very different cultures and attitudes from one another and that it's rich ground for us. We alluded to some differences here and there, but mostly we talked about the "Federal" (for lack of a better word) governmental structures. We do know that there was a sizable opposition to the Colonial government. Leoben claimed to be an arms dealer supplying freedom fighters or terrorists, depending on your point of view, and Tom Zarek was the jailed leader of a sometimes violent opposition, so it stands to reason that there are a wide variety of views, some of which come into violent conflict with one another. It's also worth bearing in mind that one of the uses for which the Cylons were originally used by the Colonies was as soldiers in their wars against one another.
"I'm part of the nitpick brigade, but since the Colonies are obviously modelled after the US system of government, right down to the line of succession, are legislative and judicial branches? If so what are they called and will we see any manifestation of either branch take shape as series progresses?"
In Episode 11, "Colonial Day" we'll see the reinstatement of the Quorum of Twelve, a political body established in the original series, which seems to be a cross between a US style Senate and the UN Security Council, where each Colony has a single vote. Presumably there was also a larger representative legislative body and some kind of separate judiciary. There is also a religious body, (unnamed thus far) that acts in some advisory capacity to the government, along the lines of the British House of Lords. Although we haven't dealt with it yet, Elosha was probably a member of this body.
"Do you listen to music while you write? If so any specific bands or cds? Does effect what you write about? If not you, then do any of your writers listen to music? If so, again, any bands or cds?"
Years ago, I would never listen to music of any kind while I wrote, but in the last years of Deep Space Nine, I started listening to Sinatra and the rest of the Rat Pack and I got hooked on music as a background and inspiration while writing. The trend continued at Roswell and Carnivale, and now I sometimes even have the TV on, with CNN or some classic movie playing. I don't have a favorite to listen to, as the mood seems to change with the specific script or show I'm working on. My tastes are pretty eclectic anyway -- everything from Okinawan house rock (sort of jingle jangle honky-tonk), to electronica, the Beatles, Bach, standards, and my wife has recently turned me on to the glories of funk.
"In the last two episodes it is noted by the priestess that the the thirteen tribes left Kobol about "2000 years ago" and the initial esitmate of the age of the ruins is the same, but nothing is concrete of course. This is where I have a problem: They were obviously a star faring civilization to leave Kobol to being with. To do so requires information technology. Why is their history of that time so sketchy and lacking of concrete records? Yes it was 2000 years in the past but come on, it's not like they only had papyrus to write on. "
I've been presupposing some kind of cataclysm or crisis that occured soon after mankind settled on the 12 worlds which either wiped out the knowledge base or had it deliberately destroyed for some reason. This doesn't seem that implausible when one considers that a tremendous amount of knowledge from the Greco-Roman tradition was lost after the fall of the Roman Empire and plunged the western world into the so called Dark Ages. Clearly, the Colonials did not fall all the way back to papyrus, and they do in fact, know that they are descendants of refugees from Kobol, hence the term "Colonies." They must have possessed star-faring technology at the time of the exodus, but I don't know how far we'll go into this specific backstory in the series, however.
"I have a question regarding the actress who plays Starbuck. How did you come across Katee Sackoff? I don't think I've ever seen any of her other work and was wondering what was it about her that caught your eye? She's quite talented, and she seems to have made the role her own."
Katee was also a regular on the short-lived, but critically acclaimed series, "The Education of Max Bickford." Katee auditioned for the role along with many other actresses, and simply blew them all away. Sometimes we get lucky.
"Granted that a season two at this point is just ink on paper punctuated by a big question mark, but I have a “practical” question to ask. Should the series move forward, to what extent would you want to explore the practical issues of life in the fleet–you’ve touched on the basics of food, fuel and water, but how about problems such as finding enough doctors to treat the population, providing life support on ships not originally intended as passenger vessels and dealing with the inevitable fiefdoms arising on these mix and match metal life rafts? "
I would very much like to continue exploring these issues in the second year and beyond. I'm intrigued by playing the situation as realistically as dramatically possible and I think these sorts of questions are wonderful material for the show.
"Are you using military advisors and if so from what branch? "
We don't have a full time military advisor on staff. However, we did have an advisor on set during the miniseries, who also put the principal actors through a "boot camp" before shooting. I can't honestly remember his name or service branch (sorry if you're reading this!) As far as the scripts go, Bradley Thompson, David Weddle, and I provide a lot of the military technical details based on our own knowledge base.
"I'll second the question - why is it that the paper in the Galactica universe has the corners cut off, even the tractor fed printer sheets! i just want to know."
This is a closely guarded secret of the show and certainly not a wacky design element that someone came up with during the miniseries.
"Don't know if this has been addressed elsewhere already: Do Apollo and Helo already know each other at the start of the show? I recently reviewed the mini and noticed that in the Ready room scene where Apollo is introduced and told he will fly Husker's Viper, when first introduced, Helo waves and Lee gives him one of those "oh, hey!" looks of familiarity, then when Lee isn't thrilled about flying his dad's Viper, Helo is the only one who *doesn't* look confused, he just smiles and turns back around."
I don't think they knew each other prior to the pilot. Lee probably had never set foot on the Galactica before then. I think the look was something improvised on the set.
"You mentioned that the reason that the Galactica was so low-tech was that it was designed to fight the Cylons, who could possibly infiltrate it's systems, and that this was one of the reasons it survived. If that is so, then who were the other ships designed to fight? The 120 ships alluded to are a big force just for border patrol. Are there aliens we should know about? "
The first Cylon War came very close to wiping out the Colonies, and so when the Armistice was declared, the government maintained a large standing military force for quite some time, just in case.
"Mythos. Every science fiction show that stands the test of time needs to develop its own Mythos. By this I mean, its own unique cultural identity. For instance Star Wars has its Jedi, its Force; Star Trek has its Prime directive, beaming, and warps speed. As a writer you are aware of this and having worked in the Star Trek franchise are rather qualified in it. What will are your thoughts and insights into the development of Mythos in this new BSG child that you are tending to and caring for?
Especially, since there seems to be heavy pressure to incorporate the original mythos themes of the show, will this be a guiding blueprint for thought, or just a framework to create? "
The mythology of the new Galactica is heavily influenced by that established in the original. I've always approached this project with an eye toward taking the original material and making it work in a new context. I still try to do this whenever possible. Does it make sense that there would be a star system with 12 inhabitable planets? Not really, but that was in the original and at some point I decided to run with that as another nod to the old show. The mythology of the old show centered around Kobol and the thirteen "tribes of man," so I've kept it as the centerpiece of ours. Not every single element is the same and not every element is even intact, but the roots are there. The point was to make another version of Battlestar Galactica, not just use the name.
"I was watching Wing Commander last night with my wife and she made a comment that the Kilrathi fighter looked pretty similar to the Cylon Raider. I know that some of the production staff from Wing Commander went on to begin production on the DeSanto continuation, but is there in fact any sort of link here? I mean I first thought Droid Fighter from Star Wars: Episode One, but that seems to be some kind of common design going on. "
"Wing Commander" is frequently mentioned to me as a possible influence on the show, but I've never actually seen it. While it's possible that other members of the production team were influenced by it, it wasn't something that figured into my thinking. My own design influences were things like "Das Boot" "Blade Runner" "Alien/Aliens" and a stack of documentaries on the modern and history US and Royal Navies.
"My questions: Can the show explain a little more about their technology, for example how fast are the FTL jumps. It seems the fleet barely moves when not jumping, if the jumps are only light speed and not multiples of, some of the sublight ships could conceivably catch up (the ones not destroyed by cylons)"
An FTL Jump is nearly instantaneous, essentially moving a ship from point A to point B without travelling through the normal space-time continuum, presumably by bending space around the ship in some way. The analogy I used during production was to imagine three dimensional space as a flat piece of two dimensional paper. To get from one side to the other, you can travel in a straight line across the page, or you can gently bend the sheet in half and cross from edge to edge virtually instantly. How this is accomplished and what is the basis of this technology outstrips my technical brainpower.
In fact, I feel faint just coming up with that explanation...
"Did the colonies have outposts, bases, or trade partners outside of the 12 colonies. Did they even explore other systems. The colonies could have had observatories, listening posts, or even scientific research teams exploring other planets beyond the colonial system(s). They could encounter any of these which could lead to supplies, raw materials, food, fuel etc. "
I think that's probably true, but part of our premise is that the fleet has Jumped far out into unexplored space in an effort to elude the Cylons, so we won't be encountered any other outposts or colonies.
"1) What is the "dradis"? Is it like sonar or radar?"
It's our version of radar.
"2) In the MS, what does "krypter, krypter, krypter" mean? Is it like an SOS?"
It's our version of "mayday, mayday, mayday."
"3) What's the acronym "CAG" stand for?"
Commander Air Group, meaning the senior pilot in charge of all aircraft in the group embarked aboard ship. I know that the nomenclature sounds anachronistic, but my reasoning was that terms like this would most likely live well beyond their origins and still be in use even when the "planes" involved were actually spacecraft.
"Are there any similarities between your reconception of the BG universe and where you might have gone if you'd been given the reigns of Voyager? "
There are similiarities in the premise of the two shows, so yes, there are things I'm applying here that I would've like to have done in Voyager, i.e., lack of resources, the development of unique cultural and civil institutions, and internal strife among people trapped aboard ship(s) without any reasonable hope of finding sanctuary anytime soon.
"What made you decide to show glimpses of the current episode at the end of the opening credits? Oh, and could you please stop doing that? (:"
This is a trick that "Space: 1999" used to do and I proudly stole it from them. And, no, I won't. Nice try, though.
"Does James Callis' uncanny resemblance to Alexander Siddig in almost every way ever freak you out?"
Not until someone on these boards mentioned it, now I'm totally freaked.
"I have a friend who has a son and they both enjoy watching the new Battlestar Galactica. But it is a very frustrating thing when he cannot allow his son watch the show when there are sex scenes and constant sexual innuendo scattered throughout the episodes.
The standard of the stories are superb and I would have to say it is one of the finest sci fi series I have seen in a long time. BUT IT DOESNT NEED SEX TO GET THE VIEWERS. Call me a little old fashioned but I nor others that I know really appreciate having to endure sex scenes that really do not further the story in any significant way. In fact I think they are rather pointless."
First of all, I'm sorry your friend can't watch the show with his son, but I always intended this series to be for adults. I have two small children, and I wouldn't dream of letting them watch the show -- mostly because of the violent content. Second of all, I disagree that the sexuality is intended to be exploitative or that it's somehow not integral to the story. We're presenting adult human beings as adults, and their sexuality is a key part of their lives. Baltar's sexual weaknesses, Sharon & Tyrol's forbidden love affair, and Starbuck's promiscuity are part of who and what they are. I think the only reason this gets the kind of attention is does is that we're not used to seeing sex treated maturely in science fiction -- nine times out of ten, any sex is either something to snigger at or to make fun of. Somehow it's okay to fetishize sex by putting women in S&M; leather "space" outfits or have Carrie Fisher run around in harem clothes (not that there's anything wrong with that), but to portray two mature adults simply having sex is somehow controversial in sci-fi circles.
I'd also point out, as I have many times before, the strange standards of American audiences, who can become red-faced with indignation over nudity, but find no problem with slasher films or chains-saw massacres. I mean, Galactica's premised on a massive genocide, and the pilot deals with violent, shocking deaths over and over again, but people get upset about the sex? Weird....
"It's probably been asked before, but I'm curious as to whom is in the picture in the Viper Pilot's briefing room, facing away from the camera . . . the one the pilots, including Commander Adama, touch when they enter and leave? This is touching, and is a wonderful human element to the story. So who is it?"
There was a scene cut from "33" where we saw Laura being given her copy of the photo along with a card that said it was taken on the roof of the capitol building on Aerilon during the attack. The photo was inspired by the famous shot of the fire-fighters raising the flag at Ground Zero that became iconic. I thought the Colonies would have their own version of this -- a snapshot taken in the moment that becomes a symbol of the day they can never forget and of all they had lost. The photo itself is of a soldier falling to his knees (possibly shot or simply overcome by emotion) as he stands on the rooftop over looking the devastation of his city, while the Colonial flag waves at the edge of frame. The inscription below the photo on Laura's plaque reads, "Lest We Forget" in itself a reference to the inscription on the watch presented to John Wayne's character in "She Wore a Yellow Ribbon."
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