Editing Podcast:Frak Party Q and A
From Battlestar Wiki, the free, open content Battlestar Galactica encyclopedia and episode guide
More actions
The edit can be undone.
Please check the comparison below to verify that this is what you want to do, and then publish the changes below to finish undoing the edit.
| Latest revision | Your text | ||
| Line 456: | Line 456: | ||
Terry: <!-- 37:00 -->Nobody (unintelligible) did. | Terry: <!-- 37:00 -->Nobody (unintelligible) did. | ||
Other woman: Do you guys have any (unintelligible) as to (unintelligible) anybody (unintelligible) problems with, or—? | Other woman: Do you guys have any (unintelligible) as to (unintelligible) anybody (unintelligible) problems with, or—? | ||
| Line 483: | Line 482: | ||
(laughter) | (laughter) | ||
RDM: And just go for it. Just go for the story, and that the story— that the way the story was going to work, because I— we only talked about <!-- 39:30-->doing this in the context of "OK, what's the end of the show? What's the third act of ''Battlestar Galactica'', if ''Galactica'' has a beginning, middle and end, what's the end?" And this episode, to me, pushes us to the end. This is now— we're now moving into the final chapters of what the show is, what's the climax, where is it all going. And in that context, I can say: yes, Tigh is a Cylon. These four people are Cylons. 'Cause it's gonna tie into where we're ultimately going. | |||
RDM: And just go for it. Just go for the story, and that the story— that the way the story was going to work, because I— we only talked about <!-- 39:30-->doing this in the context of "OK, what's the end of the show? What's the third act of ''Battlestar Galactica'', if ''Galactica'' has a beginning, middle and end, what's the end?" And this episode, to me, pushes us to the end. This is now— we're now moving into the final chapters of what the show is, what's the climax, where is it all going. And in that context, I can say: yes, Tigh is a Cylon. These four people are Cylons. 'Cause it's gonna tie | |||
Woman: So if this was— | Woman: So if this was— | ||
| Line 497: | Line 494: | ||
Woman: (unintelligible) wanna be renewed? | Woman: (unintelligible) wanna be renewed? | ||
RDM: I don't think we should, I don't think this is a show that should go indefinitely. I think this is a show that has a specific arc to it, and I think that there are series, like, say, ''[[w:Law | RDM: I don't think we should, I don't think this is a show that should go indefinitely. I think this is a show that has a specific arc to it, and I think that there are series, like, say, ''[[w:Law and Order|Law and Order]]'', that will go on in perpetuity, because they're not tied to any particular narrative. This show, has a promise <!-- 40:30 -->that we tell you each week in the main title, it's the search for Earth. And ultimately, if we don't get there on some sort of realistic agenda, I think you stop believing what we're doing every week. | ||
(Crosstalk) | (Crosstalk) | ||
| Line 507: | Line 504: | ||
Other woman: I'm just thinking, we just saw Earth. | Other woman: I'm just thinking, we just saw Earth. | ||
RDM: Right. I think you get to Earth, and that's a story in and of itself, of what (unintelligible) means. But I think that the show has a certain narrative arc to it, and I think that— y'know, you just— it's a gut instinct, some series are meant to last a very long time, and some are not. And I think you wanna leave strong, and you wanna leave on your own terms, and you wanna leave the audience wanting more, frankly. You don't wanna get to the point where you <!-- 41:30 -->run it too long, I mean I love [[w: | RDM: Right. I think you get to Earth, and that's a story in and of itself, of what (unintelligible) means. But I think that the show has a certain narrative arc to it, and I think that— y'know, you just— it's a gut instinct, some series are meant to last a very long time, and some are not. And I think you wanna leave strong, and you wanna leave on your own terms, and you wanna leave the audience wanting more, frankly. You don't wanna get to the point where you <!-- 41:30 -->run it too long, I mean I love [[w:MASH|M*A*S*H]], M*A*S*H was one of my favorite series growing up, and I loved it, and that show ran, I think, eleven years? Ten years? And I don't know that any true fan of M*A*S*H could tell you that that show shouldn't've left like it— in Season 7 (unintelligible). I mean it went on just to keep going on. And there's a point where your show stops being satisfying, and you're just doing it to keep the ratings, and to do whatever. And I don't think we get that, I think our me— our ratings are kind of soft and OK, and they're good for cable <1-- 42:00 -->and they're good for [[Sci Fi Channel|this network]], but it's an expensive show to do, and I think if you balance out the risks, I would rather in the show on my own terms— when I know that I can end it, rather than try to get one more season more, and then get a cut off, and not be able to do it in the series. | ||
Man: So now Ron Moore versus [[Galactica 1980]]? | Man: So now Ron Moore versus [[Galactica 1980]]? | ||
| Line 526: | Line 523: | ||
Woman: Galactica's not a (unintelligible) | Woman: Galactica's not a (unintelligible) | ||
Other woman: I had a— speaking of the arc, I was curious, because these last two episodes I love, I felt like I was getting towards the end, and very satisfying in moving me towards that, but I was wondering about what the writers were thinking about— mid-season, these last couple of episodes before these last two, felt very internal, talking <!-- 43:30 -->about all the characters and all not really— not so much with the Cylons. So I was wondering about how you guys were thinking about how that felt— fit in with the arc, and— | Other woman: I had a— speaking of the arc, I was curious, because these last two episodes I love, I felt like I was getting towards the end, and very satisfying in moving me towards that, but I was wondering about what the writers were thinking about— mid-season, these last couple of episodes before these last two, felt very internal, talking <!-- 43:30 -->about all the characters and all not really— not so much with the Cylons. So I was wondering about how you guys were thinking about how that felt— fit in with the arc, and— | ||
RDM: Not that— we weren't that satisfied with it, I think what happens is there's several competing pressures as you're doing a show, and one of the pressures is the network's desire to not make it a completely serialized show. There's an ongoing conversation with the network about— "Well, if the show's too serialized, you're <!-- 44:00 -->keeping out new viewers completely, and you're punishing people who don't watch the show week-to-week. So can you do more stand-alone episodes that you can just tune in to, and not know very much about ''Galactica'' to sort of check it out?" So to answer that pressure you then do things— y'know, where you're doing a one-off episode, where— OK, you can watch— y'know, [[Dirty Hands|the show about labor relations]], the show where Tyrol gets the [[Colonial | RDM: Not that— we weren't that satisfied with it, I think what happens is there's several competing pressures as you're doing a show, and one of the pressures is the network's desire to not make it a completely serialized show. There's an ongoing conversation with the network about— "Well, if the show's too serialized, you're <!-- 44:00 -->keeping out new viewers completely, and you're punishing people who don't watch the show week-to-week. So can you do more stand-alone episodes that you can just tune in to, and not know very much about ''Galactica'' to sort of check it out?" So to answer that pressure you then do things— y'know, where you're doing a one-off episode, where— OK, you can watch— y'know, [[Dirty Hands|the show about labor relations]], the show where Tyrol gets the [[Colonial Worker's Alliance|union]] back, that's pretty much a stand-alone episode. I happen to like that episode. <!-- 44:30 -->I don't like the [[A Day In The Life|Adama meets his— y'know, dreams about his wife episode]] as much, although I liked it in concept a lot. I was very— a strong advocate for doing it. Ultimately, it didn't feel like you really (unintelligible) to very much, but both of those were a result of trying to deal with the pressure "OK, don't do 'em completely serialized, do some shows that are just about characters, that you can do internally." Also, in a practical sense, as a <!-- 45:00 -->producer, we burned up a lot of money early in the season. And the New Caprica storyline was extraordinarily expensive, and— | ||
Woman: Explosions. | Woman: Explosions. | ||
| Line 543: | Line 538: | ||
RDM: And the location of New Caprica was extraordinarily expensive. So what happened was, we had burned up a lot of money in the first four episodes of the season, and we knew we that had to pay the pipe at some point, then— that later on in the season we had to do shows that were very much internal, which we call <!-- 45:30 -->"bottle shows", which means it's a show that takes place entirely on the standing sets, almost no visual effects, virtually no guest cast, nothing else, it's just like (snaps fingers) do a show that's two characters caught in the elevator. | RDM: And the location of New Caprica was extraordinarily expensive. So what happened was, we had burned up a lot of money in the first four episodes of the season, and we knew we that had to pay the pipe at some point, then— that later on in the season we had to do shows that were very much internal, which we call <!-- 45:30 -->"bottle shows", which means it's a show that takes place entirely on the standing sets, almost no visual effects, virtually no guest cast, nothing else, it's just like (snaps fingers) do a show that's two characters caught in the elevator. | ||
Woman: And it's not just ''Battlestar Galactica'', watch ''[[w:24 | Woman: And it's not just ''Battlestar Galactica'', watch ''[[w:24|24]]'' some times, see— look for that show where there's that episode where they never leave the office. That's— | ||
RDM: Some times— at some point you're just trying to save money, and those episodes are money-saving— and it's also the difference between <!-- 46:00 -->doing a 13-episode order and a 20-episode order. When you're doing 13, you just craft them differently, and you have more energy, you have more passion, you can develop more time to each individual episode and really craft it and make it a perfect little movie. And we're doing 20, so we're just going to slip past the goalie. And that just happens, and you do your best, and some times they don't work as well, and I think in the second half of Season 2 and the second half of Season 3, you could see that there were just episodes where we were <!-- 46:30 -->tired, where we had to do shows that were more cheaply done, and we were trying to deal with the fact that the network is always saying "Can't we do some more stand-alone shows?", and so those add up to episodes that aren't satisfying. | RDM: Some times— at some point you're just trying to save money, and those episodes are money-saving— and it's also the difference between <!-- 46:00 -->doing a 13-episode order and a 20-episode order. When you're doing 13, you just craft them differently, and you have more energy, you have more passion, you can develop more time to each individual episode and really craft it and make it a perfect little movie. And we're doing 20, so we're just going to slip past the goalie. And that just happens, and you do your best, and some times they don't work as well, and I think in the second half of Season 2 and the second half of Season 3, you could see that there were just episodes where we were <!-- 46:30 -->tired, where we had to do shows that were more cheaply done, and we were trying to deal with the fact that the network is always saying "Can't we do some more stand-alone shows?", and so those add up to episodes that aren't satisfying. | ||