Ron Moore Blog/January 20, 2005

==Transcript==
" How did you transform the characters from TOS to TNS? Did you just sit down and
Think “Well I’ll make Adama a veteran commander on the verge of retirement, instead of a Moses figure”. What did you use for inspiration for Adama and other characters, Baltar in particular. Some authors, for instance, will raid the diaries of real people."
I would never raid someone's diary for inspiration unless it was within reach.
The beginning of the process involved thinking about the characters as pieces within the larger context of the show: The commander, his son, his son's friend, the loyal second in command, and the traitor. They were the inner circle of the original show, the core characters that made the drama work. Understanding how they interrelated and how they moved the show forward was essential to understanding the show itself. After that, it was mostly a matter of thinking about them and their interactions with one another -- what's an interesting father/son dynamic? What are the issues peculiar to this relationship that set it apart and what are the common chords we all understand?
Adama's journey was tied to that of his ship. Galactica herself was, in my mind, a glorious old bird from another time. I could appreciate the heroic lines of her shape and the triumphant step of the original theme, so when it came time to think about what the new Galactica would be, I essentially felt like we should treat her like the original ship suddenly transposed to this this setting -- an old, proud, handsome woman about to take a well-deserved retirement after a long and successful career, only to be suddenly recalled to duty. Adama would reflect his ship -- an old, proud, warrrior about to fade away into retirement.
"Do Chief Tyrol, Dualla and Lt Gaeta have first names? And if so, what are they?"
Only the Chief has a first name so far: Galen.
"Why couldn't you have done this series as a 40 yr after TOS instead of redueing it ?"
I wasn't interested in the continuation story. I saw more to be gained by going back and retelling the tale from the beginning than by picking up the story 20 or 40 years later. I personally never thought a continuation was a bad idea, but it simply didn't interest me as a writer.
"Col Tigh , you took a military man and turned him into a drunk . A strong dedicated man and made him self absorb, incorrigable . Why?"
I wanted a new dynamic between the CO and the XO. Typically, the second in command is a kinda thankless task (just ask Commander Riker) and tends to fall into the "I agree with everything you just said, sir" category except for carefully delineated objections and arguments. His "command decision ability" isn't really the core of the character, since that primary role is assigned to the commander. So the task is make the character of the XO and his interaction with both the crew and the commander interesting on its own. I was definitely influenced by the character of Cmdr. Eddington played by Kirk Douglas in "In Harm's Way," who was both a drunk and morally challenged to say the least. However, I loved the fact that his CO, (John Wayne) valued him as an officer, kept him aboard ship and even promoted him eventually. I thought that relationship between the heroic captain and his flawed friend would be an interesting one if it were translated to the Galactica universe.
"Would you be willing to clear up Colonel Tigh's "Jesus" comment in the miniseries. As you probably know, many people have formed outrageous theories based on this one word."
I've seen a couple of postings on this topic, and truthfully I don't know what it's in reference to. It definitely wasn't in the script and I don't remember it in the show, but if it really does exist I'd say it was just an adlib on the set that made it into the final cut.
"My question has to do with the music. While I am a fan of the original series more out of nostalgia than anything else, I still think the original theme music is extremely evocative and powerful. I'm assuming you decided to go in a completely different direction with the score in keeping with the tone of the new show. Still, there are moments where I just wish the Battlestar theme would ring out or at the very least be hinted to -- if only to signal some glimmer of hope for these characters in the midst of their desperation. (Like in "Water" when Boomer is on the Raptor and finds what they have been searching for.) I realize the mini-series had a nod to the Stu Phillips theme as the "national anthem" during the flyby, but I can't help but feel that something is missing. I have the same feeling on shows that feature the Enterprise without the Courage fanfare.
Can you discuss the thought process behind the decision not to re-use the theme and how you and your staff came up with the musical direction of the series."
You pretty much hit it on the head when you said I just decided to go another direction. In fact, when I first pitched the series I made a specific point of saying we weren't going to go with a lush, orchestral score because it had been done to death. Michael Rymer, who directed the miniseries, and David Eick, my partner, had a tremendous amount of input into the score and worked directly with our composer, Richard Gibbs.
"My question is are you going to have a story arc that follows clues to the fable lost 13th colony?"
Yes, and by the end of the first season, you'll have an idea of how that will play out.
"in what sense religion (particularly as it relates to current events) has informed the inspiration behind the series and to what extent, if any, this relates back to how it informed Glen Larson's series."
The religious angle was something that evolved after the first draft of the miniseries. In that draft, I had mentioned, almost in passing, that Number Six believed in God and that really intrigued Michael Jackson (the executive, not the singer) who was working at the studio at the time. He suggested making it a bigger part of the show and also to more strongly play the Al-Queada/Cylon parallels. Both comments surprised and delighted me and I was more than happy to go in both those directions. The Colonials in the original were always mentioning the "Lords of Kobol" and I decided to make that literal rather than figurative and give them a polytheistic religion and the Cylons a monotheistic belief system. I found the clash of those two belief systems to be fascinating in our own history and thought it would be an interesting conflict in the show.
"This question is from the gamers...Are there any other military ships in the fleet? I know there are no other capital ships, but I was wondering if there were any minor military vessels remaining that would be the equivalent of destroyers, coast guard cutters, etc.? "
I always thought that the Colonial Fleet would have a variety of vessels for various purposes. The battlestars formed the nucleus of fleet, with battlegroups around them, much like modern day carrier groups. Battlestars are different in that unlike carriers, they also carry heavy weapons of their own and fight other opposing capital ships -- in a sense, they are a combination carrier/battleship. But there might also have been dedicated heavy gun ships and smaller carriers as well.
"It seems like Vipers are being blown up in large numbers--how many Vipers are on Galactica (I believe TOS had 4 color coded squadrons) and how are they being replaced if they can't be repaired? Is there a factory ship that makes them--or can Galactica make them from scratch?"
We haven't stared building new Vipers yet, but that's something I hope to start tackling in the second season. We're definitely keeping track of the numbers of ships and pilots and hopefully, the continuity will all hang together.
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