BSG Red Carpet Interviews
MeeVee reporter and Slice of SciFi Contributing Journalist Marjorie Kase was at the big “Battlestar Galactica” fan event two nights ago standing out on the red carpet, hoping to snag some important interviews. She was fortunate enough to get executive producer Ronald D. Moore, Edward James Olmos (Admiral Adama), Mary McDonnell (President of the Colonies), Jamie Bamber (Apollo), Katee Sackhoff (Starbuck) and Lucy Lawless (D’Anna Biers) to step up to the mike and answer a view of Marjories questions.
TVSquad did a story on the event and you can catch it HERE. You can also look at some great pics of the red carpet HERE.
Ron Moore Interview:
You’ve already started shooting the fourth season. Is there a definitive ending yet?
We have mapped out in detail half the season. In general terms, we’ve talked about what the ending of the show is. We all kind of know what the shape of that’s going to be. We have a general sense of these events will happen, and this where we’re going to end up, but we haven’t specifically lined up where say, each individual character is going. We just know the general parameters.
Have you thought about which Earth they’re going to reach?
Oh yes, I’m pretty sure what Earth they’re going to. I was just on the set yesterday, talking to a couple of writers and we had a new idea that it could be this other time too. That would change a lot of our assumptions about what we’re doing, but we’re still in a place where we’re trying to be free and open to ideas.
Tell us about the new movie coming out midseason.
It’s called Razor. It’s a storyline that delves into the Battlestar Pegasus quite a bit - back to the beginning, seeing the Cylon attack, what happens to Pegasus during the Cylon attack, and events that were talked about in backstories when those episodes were originally broadcast. It moves through time actually, sequentially. You get up to the point where Lee is in command of Pegasus and then you start dealing with his first mission as commander of the Pegasus. Eventually things that are said and done in Razor set up certain things that happen in the fourth season.
What were some of your influences when you first started the show?
When I was first contacted about doing Galactica, it was February 2002, just a few months after the 9/11 attacks. I watched the original pilot [of the first show] in that context, I realized that if you’re going to do a show about this apocalyptic moment, [a] genocide that happens in a heartbeat, suddenly it’s just about this core group of survivors that run away from their implacible enemies, the audience is going to bring all their emotions of that event of the world they live in. If were honest with that and you tried to really be truthful about what it means to live in those kind of times, you had this unique opportunity. That was really the biggest influence.
And then I would say there were films like Black Hawk Down that were very influential. Blade Runner is hugely influential - to everyone in the genre, Das Boot. There was a naturalistic style as to how they portrayed men at war and sort of what warfare was all about, not being over-stylized and glamorous but really giving you this down-to-earth realism.
You must have received a ton of feedback in the beginning from hardcore original fans. Did you find it mostly positive or negative?
There was a fairly large reaction that we were redoing the show at all and it was very negative. I had an incident once, I got invited to something called Galacticon, which is a convention for original Galactica fans. They booed and hissed when I got up on stage and showed them clips of the new show before they aired.
Did you tell them to “Get a Life?”
No [laughter], they asked me if I would change the show though.
Did you?
They said, “Would you heed what we’re saying and make the show more in our keeping?” and I said no, I won’t. [laughter] This is the show. You don’t have to watch the show, but it’s the show. I’ve interacted with fans for a long time because I was at Trek for a long time. It’s always interesting to hear what they’re saying, what they’re arguing about, what their bitches are and what they love. It’s fascinating, but I always try to keep a firewall up to say it’s not a democracy. It’s interesting stuff and I like hearing feedback from the audience. This is what we’re going to try to do and just hope that you like it.
Mary McDonnell Interview:
You play such a powerful female role on the show. Do you get a sense Roslyn’s having an impact on the Hollywood community?
The truth is over the last season the characters have become more known. It took a while, but I think she’s very appreciated. And now that we’re going to end, I’m getting even more feedback because people don’t who want her to go away, saying they like her symbol and they like her struggle, and they like her position and they like to be able to bounce of of her and sort of figure out their ideas about female leadership at this time.
When you found out that Roslyn had cancer, did you know ahead of time whether she’d live or die?
Honestly, I had moments where I didn’t know. The truth is that they can decide anything at any moment. [When] Ron and I had our first lunch, when he offered this to me, that was one of my first question: What about the cancer? Does she get cured? Basically he said, well she probably doesn’t, but she’ll go into remission. It won’t be a constant thing for years on end. I try not to ask too much about it to be frank, because I don’t really want to know. I want to respect the unknown of that in the acting because people who have cancer don’t know. Do you know what I’m saying.
You’ve already begun filming your part yet for the upcoming season. Was it weird to be back knowing it will be the last?
It wasn’t weird to be back. It was very exciting. Even more exciting to be back and to know that we’re all getting to earth together. Even though everyone’s sad, everyone’s sort of very very excited.
What do you envision Earth to be like?
I would like it to have clean air and lots of water and be very green and I’m just so afraid that it’s not going to be, you know what I’m saying? I don’t know what he’s (Ron’s) got up his sleeve.
Katee Sackhoff Interview:
In addition to Battlestar you’re also playing a new role in The Bionic Woman. What was the first thing that came to your mind when you realized you’d be shooting two shows at once?
Holy shit, I’m going to be tired.
How is the actual shooting going to work? Are the sets close by?
Yeah, they’re shooting on the same lot, so I’ll be doing a lot of running. [Laughing] They’re talking about getting me a golf cart.
Your character on The Bionic Woman is EVIL, do you get a sense that there’s any good in her?
I don’t there is any good in that woman. Sarah Corvis is a nightmare and she is the quintessential nemesis. She’s perfect.
Can you tell us how many episodes you’ll be in?
More than one, less than 15. We’ve only been picked up for 13.
Edward James Olmos Red Carpet Statement:
“I don’t think honestly, the powers that be will understand exactly what this show is doing until about 20 years from today. When they look back and they start to realize what kind of a mirror Ron and David created.”
Jamie Bamber Interview:
What would your ideal Earth be like?
“I would like to get to earth and find Raquel Welch in a loincloth with a big hairy dinosaur about to gorge her and Apollo to step in and suavely dispatch said dinosaur, then link arm and arm and swim off to a cave. That’s what I would like.”
Was it really hot in the fat suit?
“It was melting hot. It was cool, a lot of fun and it was hard work. I enjoyed the acting challenge, but it was really restrictive as well.”
I bet you appreciate Eddie Murphy a little more now.
“Suddenly, Nutty Professor, I can’t get enough of Eddie Murphy, preferably when he’s fat and when he’s female.”
Lucy Lawless Inteview:
Do you recognized more for Xena or BSG? Still have that huge lesbian following?
“Oh Xena. You bet, I count on it. I love em. They’re the most loyal fans, the most politically active, socially active fans. I can’t even tell you how highly I speak of them.”
How would you end the show?
“You want them to find Earth somewhere and I want those cylons to settle down and be very happy and populated.”
Thank you,Lucy Lawless,we loves you !
Yup, I agree with sil, we do love ya Luce!! Can’t wait to see yo back on BSG!
xX
Battlestar Galactica 2000 was the worst piece of unbelievable emasculating sci-fi yet.The reason it couldn’t last was because it alienated the hetero-sexual male population as well as the rest who like their males ‘masculine’ and useful.
According to this series, the people must have evolved from hyena’s not apes. A species on the verge of total extinction and the story-line goes out of its way to show that 50% of the populace as wasteful, redundant parasites. There is not a single positive attribute of the males that the females don’t actually do better than let alone do just as well. And in nature, where survival of the species is on the line, that means it goes the way of the appendix.
Any law of nature would say, get rid of the redundant mouths to feed and water and support. Even my Grade 8 students said that according to the series the best way for the humans to increase their chances of survival, since child-bearing and protection of those bearing the children isn’t a priority in their ‘universe’, would be to throw all the men out of an airlock after collecting enough sperm to freeze. The most common comment in class is “it doesn’t make sense.” Just entertainment inspiring PC, not science as my wife puts it. Ah well.
There just is no point to there being men in the program. Even the ‘saviours’s role-models are a giant dominitrix woman and an effiminate squealing(literally) spineless little man best known as Bridgette Jones’ queer friend. If that doesn’t summarize the series in a sentence, nothing does.
No-one believes a humanoid species is in danger of extinction so long as the women who can give birth to maybe a dozen off-spring within a 20 year span are actually given the same risk and death rate as the men who could sire hundreds of children over 3 times as many years. The laws of nature and science have no meaning to the producers and writers of BattleStar Galactica. It is just another political correctnees entertainment platform for feminizing an already male-redundant sci-fi genre.
It’s long been the norm for every modern sci-fi series to have one alpha male who is allowed by the women to be a man, while the rest of the males are there for 3 other purposes.
First, to show how redundante men are. That women are at least as good if not better than men at everything that matters. Men are never better than women at anything imortant to the survival of the species.
Second, to show how men need women more than women need men.
Third, comic relief to remind the world it is the men who are morons and the women possessing of wisdom and common sense.
BattleStar Galactica just didn’t have enough of the remaining share of the female dominitrix and effeminate male masochistic viewing audience anymore. And it just isn’t politically correct to try to put out programming that would appeal to the heterosexual masculine male nor the females who like their men that way.
Good riddance to BattleStar Galactica and all the rest of the sci-fi today. When we were boys, every one of us would watch these programs, today, we can’t even get our sons especially, but even daughters, to watch even if to encourage them to try harder in science class.
The hypocrisy of women beating up even throwing down and forcing sex on men on prime-time TV did not escape my own kids attention either. Sci fi has become no more believable anymore, than ‘Creationism’ and the 6 day universe in science class. Good riddance.
It’s a sad time when none of us science teachers subscribe to the sci-fi channel anymore.
To end on a positive note, some of us did buy the entire original series dvds, and this latest series had some fantastic special effects and some otherwise inspiring story-lines provoking thought. Outside the pc agenda of course. I also still find the acting first rate if not exceptional. In fact, the only beef, unfortunately big enough to loose all us old fans, is the male-redundancy political correctness.
The great thing for this type of forum is that like a Republican National Fundraising Campaign, it isn’t likely to hear from the people who left the Party. Totally and blissfully ignorant and dismissive of the lost fans and why. Claiming ‘universally popular’ because you only hear from your own niche.
Fare well sci fi. We’ll miss you.
If it weren’t for your show, my daughter would never have taught me the modern meaning of the word ‘tweak’. lol.
At least, as she says, unlike the rest of us, I took her advice and at least spoke up for those who’ve given up.
Maybe it’ll be a little therapeutic as my wife says.
She’s a Phys Ed and Social Studies teacher.
My daughter plays American football, so we’re not the ‘barefoot pregnant in kitchen generalization’ either.
Though I suspect you’ll continue to dismiss we silent millions who tuned out.
Cheers
How easy for you to twist the gender equality of Battlestar Galactica into a medium for the suppression and subjugation of all males. You miss the point at which the series thrives and that is to negate roles as having gender bias. This series alone places women in roles that they can be accomplished in and be seen as equals; the admiral and the president each the heads of military and government respectively, seek each others consul and intellect with a view to protecting and preserving the human species. They are as equals and are the better for it; ever emphasizing the ideal that together we stand and divided we fall. Further still it is a triumph of the series that both male and female alike develop as individuals that defy stereotype. This alone frees the narrative to aspire to loftier ideas, not weighed down by sexism. Go deeper still and the hotshot pilot, a role only ever the true preserve of men, is freed further from the shackles of sexual submission and objectification by not been slighted as a being promiscuous because she has several sexual partners, but be regarded in the same light as her male counterparts for the same behavior. Flip that same coin and the men in this universe are allowed to emote, to feel and not be shunned for that; they are expected to bear the burdens but not to suppress them as so many men are in life and consequently suffer greatly (suicide in males is higher now that at any other time in history). The role of guardian, giver of care and protection to the young, once entrusted to and a conserve of women is allowed here to men.
In the end you can look at this show however you see fit but it is unfailingly apparent that Dirk Benedict is your bastion of truth; a man I should hasten to add has proven deeply sexist as well as two faced. Thinly veiled is your machismo and male posturing and no allusion to your wife and daughter to validate your opinion can be taken seriously when all too apparent is your bitterness; the loss that is the 70’s show. A show that was cheesy at best, sexist at worst and in the end best left in the past.
I doubt that you are among millions for if that were true this generations Battlestar Galactica could not exist. Besides, your voice is not being heard as you clearly wish it were. Sci-fi is alive and well because in its truest form it is not about swaggering hotshots, no, indeed it is about exploring real people and real issues and no other show sci-fi dose this like Battlestar Galactica.