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 their website. You can also look at some great pics from the red carpet.
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 Interview:
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
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.