648 replies to this topic

[mysfit101]

Yo Ron

Stand alone eps did not do well in Season 3 ie they were not popular/didn't work and weren't recieved all that well. How much of an impact did that have on the decision to end the show after season 4?

BSG rocks so say we all

mysfit

[Alex_Vance]

One of my favorite characters is Leoben Conoy, and his potential has a possible seer. That and his relationship with Kara Thrace.

I was wondering if you are going to go further into his character in the upcoming season, or if he will play a vital part?

And will Kara and Leoben be explored further, if not in a romantic sense? Even if only for the connection they do share?

[JoelTDahl]

MrTerry,

Athena -- having once been working with the Cylons, and having linked into their "water fountain" computer system a few times afterwards -- surely knows all about Caprica Six's mission, how Baltar was involved in the genocide of the 12 colonies, etc.

Question: why did the prosecution in Baltar's trial never try to put Athena on the stand to testify against Baltar (and also charge him with collaboration in genocide)?

The only possible explanation that occurs to me is that perhaps Cylon testimony would be inadmissible in a Colonial court. There are two problems with this explanation. First, the "legal system" used in Baltar's trial seemed to be kind of thrown together and rule-bending as it is (what problem would they have with bending the no-Cylon-testimony rule if they thought that Athena's testimony would get the result that they wanted?).

Second, even if Athena couldn't testify in court against Baltar, "Occuprice" clearly established that she and Adama had become close friends. You'd think that Athena would have told Adama about Baltar's involvement in the attacks on the colonies at some point. Admissible in court or not, Adama's certain-knowledge of Baltar's attacks on the colonies makes it seem likely that he would not have voted for acquittal. I can buy that Lee's testimony swayed Adama in favor of acquitting Baltar of crimes committed on New Caprica, but not that it would sway Adama to vote for an acquittal when he privately knew on the word of a trusted friend (Athena) that Baltar was involved in the original attacks on the colonies.

More generally, why hasn't the fleet used Athena for intel -- general facts about the Cylons and the way they work, even if not their current plans, which Athena isn't privy to, since she hasn't "linked in" in awhile -- more than they have?

Can you kill off every character except the Athena/Boomer/Eights, and make the entire fourth season feature Grace Park exclusively? Preferably without clothes? Thanks.

Finally, I just wanted to say kudos to you and Eick for deciding to quit on Battlestar while you were ahead. I look forward to season 4 and will miss the show deeply when it's gone, but I'd rather you guys quit at the top of your game, rather than beat a dead horse. I admire your creative integrity in ending it when the story needs that, rather than dragging it out to make more money. Even though "All Good Things . . . " was one of the top three episodes of the TNG series, I thought that overall, the seventh season of the show was not up to par with earlier seasons. I'm glad to see that BSG will be going out in a blaze of glory, and not stumbling on like a risen zombie, as TNG did for awhile.

I was unable to let go of Star Trek, and that made me do crazy things like see every episode of Voyager and Enterprise, and even try to come up with rationalizations for why Nemesis could have been a great movie . . . but time proved that something new came along. That was Battlestar. As hard as it is to admit, something new will come along to replace Battlestar too.

Thanks for a great four seasons,

Joel

[whaa]

ron: after BSG ends, will you mark the significance of the event by returning to a shorter haircut?

[Roslin_is_gorgeous]

Is there any reason why we seem to get more exposition on what Adama, Starbuck, Baltar and even Lee go through and the reasons for the decisions they make yet we get very little too nothing about why Laura (one of the most controversial characters on the show) chooses the actions she chooses?

One example would be why she decided to take Hera away from her parents and another would be her anger towards Baltar.

I think it would be interesting to see her reasons behind these events explored a little more as for those of us who don't analyse the character to death she can often come off as a little cold.

[question79]

MrTerry-

I was wondering if there was ever any discussion in the writers' room about how the interactions between Kara and Leoben play into and/or deviate from the idea of rape fantasy (by which I mean the old trope that you see in so many romance novels where a woman resists having sex with a man until she is forced into it and then she immediately gets into the sex and falls for the guy). What do you think about this in terms of Kara/Leoben? And will we ever get to learn more about the reasons Leoben held Starbuck captive on NC? I think it was one of the most fascinating plot lines on the show and I would love to learn more!

Also, why do you think it is that it is so important to Roslin's character that she was 43rd in line for the presidency but it doesn't seem to matter at all to Adama's character how far down the chain of command he was? Do you think this has to do with the way the show was written or does it have more to do with how the actors interpreted their characters (pretty much every interview with Mary McDonnell mentions the 43rd in line thing which makes me think she is talking about it a lot). Or do you think it is some other reason?

Thanks so much!!

[JAB285]

Hello Ron,

If you were able to go back and change anything about the show, what would you change and why?

The fan interaction on this site has been very intense at times. I remember you warning you wife before she joined this board. In retrospect, has you and your wife's experience with the board been positive or negative?

I'm looking forward to season four with sadness and anticipation.

Thanks for the ride.

[Zorya]

I quite enjoyed the political storylines. The tension inherent (IMO) between democratic values and a people at war (and fighting for their survival) fascinates me - democracy seems like such an important social value, and yet what good is a societal value if the society is wiped out? But what good is a society that has lost its core values? Are you going to explore this tension more as the fleet nears earth (and presumably some members of the RTF are going to have some sort of issues with that) or do you feel like you've told what needed to be told? Seems like democracy doesn't work for the RTF anymore (if it ever did) - is that the impression you wanted to give? Am I asking too many questions?

That, and can I buy you a whiskey sometime (assuming Mrs Ron doesn't kill me for asking . . . . )

Oh, and just to keep with my persona, can we get more Lee, less towel? Bunnies everywhere will thank you!

[Meissa]

Mr Moore ~ truly excellent show and I like many others after the discussion with Mrs Moore pre/post Maelstrom have decided to go spoiler free for the end of last season and all of season 4.

What security measures are you considering in order to protect the integrity of the show through this last season in order to keep as much of the season a surprise as possible or are you going to do like was mentioned was the show was ending for S3 and continue to think about releasing the scripts prior to the airdate to make sure the factual information is released?

[jasin]

What..if anything is/or will be, canon to the BSG Universe outside of the 4 seasons? Novels, comics, so on...

Have you thought of updating Buck Rogers or Flash Gorden?

Also why is there so little liscencing done with BSG items here in the US?

[robbmann]

It strikes me that Helo and Lee Adama are very similar to each other in that each hold strongly to their inner convictions--each may be counted on to do what they feel is "right" regardless of the personnal consequences (hold a gun to Tigh's head, marry a Cylon, etc.). However, Admiral Adama seems to respect this in Helo while finding it disloyal in Lee--is this strictly because of familial conflict, or is there some subtle difference in how they carry out their convictions?
Also, I just wanted to add how impressive Michael Hogan has been this last season--nailing two of the best scenes in the entire run (the death of Ellen and "My name is Saul Tigh" is the season finale).

[lurkerking]

What is Doc Cottle's first name?

There's a crisp 5 dollar bill with your name on it if you say "Rusty."

[robotmonkey]

Hi Mr Moore.

At what point in season 3 did you decide to make those four characters cylons? Specifically, starting in which episode was that info known by the writers and possibly hinted at in advance of the finale revelation?

Also, any possibility of a miniseries or TV movie to wrap up Galactica after the fourth season, or is the series definitely done after the next 22 episodes?

Thanks, really looking forward to the last season!

[VictimBoomersRevenge]

Dear Mr. Moore,

I've got quite a few questions on my mind, and have neither the time nor the endurance for scanning the former Q&A-threads to see if they've been asked before. So, if you should by any chance choose to answer any 1 of these, I'm confident that you will ignore the ones that might have already been answered by you before. In any way, thanks to you and your wife for being so cool as to do this (and the - very informative and often times also very funny - podcast, too...). And please forgive me my english, as this is not my native, every day language. Okay, here's my questions:

1) I was a bit put off by the way that the women who were giving birth to a child (Athena and Cally) were ending up solely as mothers, as far as their participance in the storyline was concerned. I mean, as soon as they had a baby, both these really great characters were put away into their cabins and ended up as nurturing fulltime mothers, who seemed to exist just for the sake of their children, what - in my eyes - seemed a little bit too patriarchal to me (even if it was not intended that way). Will we get to see a change about that in the upcoming season, and will either one of their roles expand beyond the traditional nucleus-family-baby-and-husband-relationship-scheme?

2) The show has touched and dealt with so many of the Bush, Jr.-administration-/post-9/11-U.S.A. politics, topics and discourses, but there still is the sexual minorities/non-heteronormative-sexuality/desire issue that of yet is (at least openly) untouched. Is there any chance, however small, that there will be an episode, or story element, in the next season, that will - in an open way - deal with that question?

3) Will we get to learn what Gaeta's secret is (by this I mean the thing that Baltar whispered in his ear in "Taking a break from all your worries")?

4) I suppose the story element with the organic basestars and Cylon Raiders is now, after the thing with the Cylon ability of projectioning, officially dropped? And if so, was that due to production costs, or was it a story-related decision? Will we get to know more about the Cylon projectioning ability?

5) Will Season Four reveal the 40-years-of-absence-fate of the Cylons, and what happened to them inbetween the time after they left the 12 colonies and went out into space, and their returning and attacking the colonies?

6) (This one's been asked before, more or less, but just to underline the urgency for an answer concerning this:) As (the old) Boomer was the character I found the most fascinating one in the first few episodes of Season 1 (although it quickly became clear to me that she would end up as being portrayed as victimized), I was wondering if we would get to see more of Boomers internal struggle of being a Cylon on the one hand, and still feeling some connection to the humans, if not even feeling human herself, more or less. Will that internal conflict be revisited and maybe even resolved in season 4?

7) Will we get to see more Athena-and-Boomer scenes like the one in "Eye of Jupiter"? That would be like sooooooooo cool...

Thanks again to you, Mr. Eick and every one involved in the making of the show, for putting up one of the best TV series I've seen so far, and for getting me hooked onto TV Serials again, after years of absence from watching them (other than cartoon shows, like SIMPSONS, South Park and Ren and Stimpy). In my opinion, BSG by far out does "Star Wars" and any of the Star Trek shows, because it deals with human (and cylon) problems, emotions and (inter)actions in a more grown up, realistic and respectful way than any of the afore mentioned ever were able to do. I'm sure it will be a really great season, if you manage to not overdo it with the mythical / Scrolls Of Pythia / Special Destiny Stuff (which in my opinion could be far worse to the audience acceptance of the show than any of the - in my opinion wrongly - scolded Love Quadrangle storylines had ever been).

Looking forward to the ride.

Yours sincerely,

Victim-Boomer's Revenge

[ecohen]

Ron,

To generalize, it seems as if the show has defaulted to letting Michael Rymer direct all of the "important" episodes -- a task which has he has done incredibly well. Without stepping on feet, would you consider him your "go-to" guy? If so, why? I myself can't pinpoint what makes his directing so good; It could be the scripts he is given, the technique, or (most likely) both.

Along the same lines, would you like to direct an episode in the future? Or are you too busy to be in Canada all the time?

[Liebestraume]

Mr. Moore, I have two questions.

(1) Your podcasts and interviews have led me to believe you are a man who believes in "happy endings" (but please correct me if I'm wrong).

What, in your opinion, constitutes a happy ending?

This is not meant to be a plot-specific question; instead, I would appreciate it if you could share your general thoughts on this topic. While this phrase invariably conjures up images of rose petals and teddy bears, somehow -- based on your previous work -- I doubt that's what you meant. Do you see it as a journey well-travelled, where the self-discovery/self-transcendency is its own reward? Do you see it as character/relationship coming full circle? (I understand you intend to provide closure to some arcs while leaving others open-ended.) Do you see human experience as cycles, where a happy ending is synonymous with a hopeful new beginning? Do you see it as something else? Please elaborate.

(2) Some of us east-coast fans are organizing two NYC Frak Parties, on the airing dates of, respectively, the two-hour movie and episode 4.03. (Here is the link.)

If time permits, would you and your lovely wife grace us with your presence?

If you could come, we'll make sure it's held somewhere in Soho with a good Scotch selection. And, hopefully, by then I'd have S3 DVD set for you to sign.

[werealljustfloating]

Hi Ron

Looking back on season 3, what was your favourite episode and why?

And i'd also like to know something that's been bothering me since LDYB - why were Tigh and Starbuck suddenly so friendly with each other on New Caprica (she gives him a big hug when he and Ellen first arrive)? Did something happen in that missing year before the Cylons showed up that forged a bond between them? I was a bit disappointed that this was never explained in Season 3...

And will you be doing any more podcasts with the actors for Season 4? If so I hope we get to hear from some of the women on the show.... The last roundtable one was great, but what about the ladies???

[Chevy]

Hi Ron

Thanks for taking the time to stop by the forum.

[ViperChic]

Hola Ron!

ZAREK! Will S4 delve deeper into the background of this character- terrorist vs. freedom fighter...what is he? It just seems like something very pertinent to our times and critical to understanding the motivations of the chracter. Basically, I just want more Zarek.

Keep on rockin'!

VC

[RaymondShaw]