Podcast:Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part I - Revision history

Joe Beaudoin Jr.: Text replacement - "[[The Twelve Colonies (RDM)" to "[[The Twelve Colonies of Kobol"

2025-06-15T21:32:39Z

Text replacement - "[[The Twelve Colonies (RDM)" to "[[The Twelve Colonies of Kobol"

← Older revision		Revision as of 21:32, 15 June 2025
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	We started talking about the finale I'd say mid-way through the [[Season 1 (2004-05)\|first season]], and there were certain things that we knew we wanted to accomplish at the end of season one that I had set out, actually back in the [[Series bible\|story bible]] stage, and presenting it to the network and saying that these were the directions that the characters- this is where [[Laura Roslin\|Laura]] and [[William Adama\|Adama]] were going to end up by the end of season one, and we accomplished that. This Kobol's Last Gleaming in its finale in the second part definitely ends up where I thought season one should end.		We started talking about the finale I'd say mid-way through the [[Season 1 (2004-05)\|first season]], and there were certain things that we knew we wanted to accomplish at the end of season one that I had set out, actually back in the [[Series bible\|story bible]] stage, and presenting it to the network and saying that these were the directions that the characters- this is where [[Laura Roslin\|Laura]] and [[William Adama\|Adama]] were going to end up by the end of season one, and we accomplished that. This Kobol's Last Gleaming in its finale in the second part definitely ends up where I thought season one should end.

	Now talking in more specific terms here about the episode. This tease, it's one of my favorite teasers, not only in the series; it's one of my favourite teasers that I've ever done. I guess I like it primarily because most of it is non-verbal, it's very visual teaser, it's just sort of cutting back and forth between these disparate story lines. It's also an example of how things translate from page onto screen. If you read the draft of this it's described a little differently, it started in close up, it was starting on fingers, cut to a woman's mouth, cut to a gun, cut to a woman's hands, and there was this sort of rhythm of extreme close-up cuts that I was establishing the script- in discussions with [[Michael Rymer]], the director- you can only direct the show so much on page, you have to allow the director to do his job, which is to actually direct the show. So I mean, as a writer I tend to find that I direct the movie in my head as I'm writing it, and I kind of have an idea in my head where I think the camera is, the close-ups, the rhythm of certain scenes in the editing back and forth and so on, and you have to kind of let that go, to an extent, you have to let the director and the actors and the rest of the team come in and bring their voices and their visions to the material, and this is a good example of that. This is all stuff that I wrote, eventually, the boxing match, Sharon putting the gun in her mouth, and [[Karl Agathon\|Helo]] confronting [[Sharon Valerii (Caprica copy)\|Caprica Sharon]] on [[The Twelve Colonies ~~(RDM)~~#Caprica\|the planet]] and going back and forth- the style of it, and the rhythm of it, and exactly what the shots are and how it's conveyed is really something that the director and then the editor, between them put together. And it's great 'cos you watch your material get lifted and again, your hope is that you deliver a script to a production team that takes the material and improves on it, and makes it better, and make it sing, and makes it really alive, because it's really not alive on the page, it's really just words on a page and it requires people to say the lines, and it requires other people to shoot them, and somebody else to put it all together. And on this show I had a tremendous team, and they were able to create what I think is a lovely, interesting, compelling teaser to the show.		Now talking in more specific terms here about the episode. This tease, it's one of my favorite teasers, not only in the series; it's one of my favourite teasers that I've ever done. I guess I like it primarily because most of it is non-verbal, it's very visual teaser, it's just sort of cutting back and forth between these disparate story lines. It's also an example of how things translate from page onto screen. If you read the draft of this it's described a little differently, it started in close up, it was starting on fingers, cut to a woman's mouth, cut to a gun, cut to a woman's hands, and there was this sort of rhythm of extreme close-up cuts that I was establishing the script- in discussions with [[Michael Rymer]], the director- you can only direct the show so much on page, you have to allow the director to do his job, which is to actually direct the show. So I mean, as a writer I tend to find that I direct the movie in my head as I'm writing it, and I kind of have an idea in my head where I think the camera is, the close-ups, the rhythm of certain scenes in the editing back and forth and so on, and you have to kind of let that go, to an extent, you have to let the director and the actors and the rest of the team come in and bring their voices and their visions to the material, and this is a good example of that. This is all stuff that I wrote, eventually, the boxing match, Sharon putting the gun in her mouth, and [[Karl Agathon\|Helo]] confronting [[Sharon Valerii (Caprica copy)\|Caprica Sharon]] on [[The Twelve Colonies of Kobol#Caprica\|the planet]] and going back and forth- the style of it, and the rhythm of it, and exactly what the shots are and how it's conveyed is really something that the director and then the editor, between them put together. And it's great 'cos you watch your material get lifted and again, your hope is that you deliver a script to a production team that takes the material and improves on it, and makes it better, and make it sing, and makes it really alive, because it's really not alive on the page, it's really just words on a page and it requires people to say the lines, and it requires other people to shoot them, and somebody else to put it all together. And on this show I had a tremendous team, and they were able to create what I think is a lovely, interesting, compelling teaser to the show.

	A side note about the boxing, that we've gone through now a couple of times. The boxing I think was something that was suggested I believe by [[Edward James Olmos\|Eddy]] and [[Jamie Bamber\|Jamie]], something that they thought of that Adama and son could be doing in the tease of this show. All the boxing I believe was choreographed by them, and how they did it and all that was something they worked on for quite a while.		A side note about the boxing, that we've gone through now a couple of times. The boxing I think was something that was suggested I believe by [[Edward James Olmos\|Eddy]] and [[Jamie Bamber\|Jamie]], something that they thought of that Adama and son could be doing in the tease of this show. All the boxing I believe was choreographed by them, and how they did it and all that was something they worked on for quite a while.
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	This scene I am quite fond of: [[Lee Adama\|Lee]] coming down and confronting [[Kara Thrace\|Kara]]. In the scripted version this confrontation came later, there was a different moment after the [[Full Colors\|Triad]] game, where Lee started to realize that Kara had slept with [[Gaius Baltar\|Baltar]] and he starts to understand that. He basically publicly outed Kara in front of the squadron, in [[Pilot Ready Rooms\|the ready room]], in the same way that Kara pulls crap on the pilots all the time, and gives people shit, and just generally is not above practical jokes and public humiliation. And Lee turned a back on her and basically had a practical joke ready in the ready room, and made it clear to everybody that she was sleeping with the vice president and they all hoot and laugh and really took it to her. And it was an interesting scene, but it also seemed a bit out of character for Lee, we didn't really believe Lee would do that. This seemed more true: that he would just go down and get in her face, and that Kara would have a lot of guilt and not want it to go there. And then we've got boom, boom. I like the fact that it doesn't devolve into some kind of scrum, it's not a fight. She hit him 'cos that's what Kara is, Kara will throw a punch every once in a while. I think that's part of her character is that every once in a while she gets pushed too far and she snaps and she'll hit you. And the thing with Lee was he hit her right back and then kept going on. So to me that spoke volumes about their relationship, and about who Lee is and who Kara is as well.		This scene I am quite fond of: [[Lee Adama\|Lee]] coming down and confronting [[Kara Thrace\|Kara]]. In the scripted version this confrontation came later, there was a different moment after the [[Full Colors\|Triad]] game, where Lee started to realize that Kara had slept with [[Gaius Baltar\|Baltar]] and he starts to understand that. He basically publicly outed Kara in front of the squadron, in [[Pilot Ready Rooms\|the ready room]], in the same way that Kara pulls crap on the pilots all the time, and gives people shit, and just generally is not above practical jokes and public humiliation. And Lee turned a back on her and basically had a practical joke ready in the ready room, and made it clear to everybody that she was sleeping with the vice president and they all hoot and laugh and really took it to her. And it was an interesting scene, but it also seemed a bit out of character for Lee, we didn't really believe Lee would do that. This seemed more true: that he would just go down and get in her face, and that Kara would have a lot of guilt and not want it to go there. And then we've got boom, boom. I like the fact that it doesn't devolve into some kind of scrum, it's not a fight. She hit him 'cos that's what Kara is, Kara will throw a punch every once in a while. I think that's part of her character is that every once in a while she gets pushed too far and she snaps and she'll hit you. And the thing with Lee was he hit her right back and then kept going on. So to me that spoke volumes about their relationship, and about who Lee is and who Kara is as well.

	Kobol I was talking about earlier. The [[Battlestar Galactica (1978)\|Original Series]] did [[Lost Planet of the Gods, Part II (TOS)\|an episode]] where they did go find Kobol and I haven't seen that show in a while but as I- my recollection of it- and I- was that they find Kobol, and there's a lot of pyramids on it. And there was stock footage of Egypt that they blue-screened [[Lorne Greene]] in front of, and he went into the pyramids, he's about to find the secret of where [[Earth (RDM)\|Earth]] is and then it all goes to hell. Going to find Kobol, the roots of humanity, the sort of birthplace of everyone in the Galactica universe, I was very attracted to from an early point. It seemed like a natural thing to do with the characters, it feeds directly into the myth- the larger mythos of the show. I mean it's- at some point you have to answer these questions, or you should answer these questions. They're called [[The Twelve Colonies ~~(RDM)~~\|the twelve colonies]]; they call themselves colonists and Colonials. Well, the colonies of what? Colonies of somebody, colony- a colony implies a mother planet. So to find that mother planet at some point seemed a natural place, in both the Original Series and for us. And it became a "What is Kobol?", "What is this place?” Is it Eden? Is it a paradise? Why did we leave? What's there still? What do we hope to find there? These are a lot of the discussions that we had going around and round.		Kobol I was talking about earlier. The [[Battlestar Galactica (1978)\|Original Series]] did [[Lost Planet of the Gods, Part II (TOS)\|an episode]] where they did go find Kobol and I haven't seen that show in a while but as I- my recollection of it- and I- was that they find Kobol, and there's a lot of pyramids on it. And there was stock footage of Egypt that they blue-screened [[Lorne Greene]] in front of, and he went into the pyramids, he's about to find the secret of where [[Earth (RDM)\|Earth]] is and then it all goes to hell. Going to find Kobol, the roots of humanity, the sort of birthplace of everyone in the Galactica universe, I was very attracted to from an early point. It seemed like a natural thing to do with the characters, it feeds directly into the myth- the larger mythos of the show. I mean it's- at some point you have to answer these questions, or you should answer these questions. They're called [[The Twelve Colonies of Kobol\|the twelve colonies]]; they call themselves colonists and Colonials. Well, the colonies of what? Colonies of somebody, colony- a colony implies a mother planet. So to find that mother planet at some point seemed a natural place, in both the Original Series and for us. And it became a "What is Kobol?", "What is this place?” Is it Eden? Is it a paradise? Why did we leave? What's there still? What do we hope to find there? These are a lot of the discussions that we had going around and round.

	This was a complex scene that we had to handle very deftly, which is she looks at the photograph and sees something that the others do not, and then relates that to an illustration here in the book. And that's always tough, as a writer and producer you're always finding yourself in situations where you do have to rely on inserts, and you do have to rely on cut-aways, and things that aren't present that you can't see immediately on the set, and you're hoping like hell that later, when they finish the book, that you'll be able to see what you need to see when the book is actually done. 'Cos nine times out of ten, they can't get the book with that kind of specific illustration done in time to have it there on the day when you need it, so you really- you're hanging yourself out there over the edge a little bit, because you know it's a key plot point, that she has to look at the photograph, the photograph has to read correctly, and then the book has to relate to the photograph, and you have to understand all this.		This was a complex scene that we had to handle very deftly, which is she looks at the photograph and sees something that the others do not, and then relates that to an illustration here in the book. And that's always tough, as a writer and producer you're always finding yourself in situations where you do have to rely on inserts, and you do have to rely on cut-aways, and things that aren't present that you can't see immediately on the set, and you're hoping like hell that later, when they finish the book, that you'll be able to see what you need to see when the book is actually done. 'Cos nine times out of ten, they can't get the book with that kind of specific illustration done in time to have it there on the day when you need it, so you really- you're hanging yourself out there over the edge a little bit, because you know it's a key plot point, that she has to look at the photograph, the photograph has to read correctly, and then the book has to relate to the photograph, and you have to understand all this.

Serenity: there

2008-02-27T19:27:39Z

there

← Older revision		Revision as of 19:27, 27 February 2008
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	{{Podcast Data		{{Podcast Data
	\|special=		\|special=
	\|title=		\|title=Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part I
	\|season=1		\|season=1
	\|episode=12		\|episode=12

Serenity: putting stuff back

2008-02-27T19:24:37Z

putting stuff back

← Older revision		Revision as of 19:24, 27 February 2008
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	\|special=		\|special=
	\|title=		\|title=
	\|season=		\|season=1
	\|episode=		\|episode=12
	\|download link=		\|download link=http://media.scifi.com/battlestar/downloads/podcast/mp3/112/bsg_ep112_FULL.mp3
	\|local=		\|local=
	\|posted date=		\|posted date=

Serenity at 19:19, 27 February 2008

2008-02-27T19:19:50Z

Show changes

Catrope: tweak

2008-02-27T19:17:39Z

tweak

← Older revision		Revision as of 19:17, 27 February 2008
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	{{Podcast Data		{{Podcast Data
	\|special=		\|special=
	\|season=1		\|title=
	\|episode=12		\|season=
	\|download link= ~~http://media.scifi.com/battlestar/downloads/podcast/mp3/112/bsg_ep112_FULL.mp3~~		\|episode=
			\|download link=
	\|local=		\|local=
	\|posted date=		\|posted date=
	\|transcribed by= [[User:Undc23]]		\|transcribed by= [[User:Undc23\|Undc23]]
	\|verified by= [[User:Steelviper]]		\|verified by= [[User:Steelviper\|Steelviper]]
	\|length=		\|length=
	\|finished= Y		\|finished= Y

Catrope: forgot some stuff

2008-02-27T19:14:35Z

forgot some stuff

← Older revision		Revision as of 19:14, 27 February 2008
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	{{Podcast Data		{{Podcast Data
	\|special=		\|special=
	~~\|title=~~		\|season=1
	\|season=		\|episode=12
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	\|download link=
	\|local=		\|local=
	\|posted date=		\|posted date=

Catrope: {{podcast data}}

2008-02-27T19:10:34Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 19:10, 27 February 2008
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	{{~~podcast~~\|~~author~~=Undc23\|~~emailAuthor2~~=\|~~suffix~~=\|~~additionalCopyright~~=\|~~season~~=1\|~~episode~~=4}}		{{Podcast Data
			\|special=
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			\|season=
			\|episode=
			\|download link=
			\|local=
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			\|transcribed by= [[User:Undc23]]
			\|verified by= [[User:Steelviper]]
			\|length=
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			\|verified= Y
			\|scotch=
			\|smokes=
			\|wordoftheweek=
			\|rdm= Y
			\|mrsron=
			}}

	==[http://www.scifi.com/battlestar/downloads/podcast/mp3/112/bsg_ep112_1of5.mp3 Teaser]==		==[http://www.scifi.com/battlestar/downloads/podcast/mp3/112/bsg_ep112_1of5.mp3 Teaser]==

Catrope: Earth --> Earth (RDM)

2007-05-01T13:38:51Z

Earth --> Earth (RDM)

← Older revision		Revision as of 13:38, 1 May 2007
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	This scene I am quite fond of: [[Lee Adama\|Lee]] coming down and confronting [[Kara Thrace\|Kara]]. In the scripted version this confrontation came later, there was a different moment after the [[Full Colors\|Triad]] game, where Lee started to realize that Kara had slept with [[Gaius Baltar\|Baltar]] and he starts to understand that. He basically publicly outed Kara in front of the squadron, in [[Pilot Ready Rooms\|the ready room]], in the same way that Kara pulls crap on the pilots all the time, and gives people shit, and just generally is not above practical jokes and public humiliation. And Lee turned a back on her and basically had a practical joke ready in the ready room, and made it clear to everybody that she was sleeping with the vice president and they all hoot and laugh and really took it to her. And it was an interesting scene, but it also seemed a bit out of character for Lee, we didn't really believe Lee would do that. This seemed more true: that he would just go down and get in her face, and that Kara would have a lot of guilt and not want it to go there. And then we've got boom, boom. I like the fact that it doesn't devolve into some kind of scrum, it's not a fight. She hit him 'cos that's what Kara is, Kara will throw a punch every once in a while. I think that's part of her character is that every once in a while she gets pushed too far and she snaps and she'll hit you. And the thing with Lee was he hit her right back and then kept going on. So to me that spoke volumes about their relationship, and about who Lee is and who Kara is as well.		This scene I am quite fond of: [[Lee Adama\|Lee]] coming down and confronting [[Kara Thrace\|Kara]]. In the scripted version this confrontation came later, there was a different moment after the [[Full Colors\|Triad]] game, where Lee started to realize that Kara had slept with [[Gaius Baltar\|Baltar]] and he starts to understand that. He basically publicly outed Kara in front of the squadron, in [[Pilot Ready Rooms\|the ready room]], in the same way that Kara pulls crap on the pilots all the time, and gives people shit, and just generally is not above practical jokes and public humiliation. And Lee turned a back on her and basically had a practical joke ready in the ready room, and made it clear to everybody that she was sleeping with the vice president and they all hoot and laugh and really took it to her. And it was an interesting scene, but it also seemed a bit out of character for Lee, we didn't really believe Lee would do that. This seemed more true: that he would just go down and get in her face, and that Kara would have a lot of guilt and not want it to go there. And then we've got boom, boom. I like the fact that it doesn't devolve into some kind of scrum, it's not a fight. She hit him 'cos that's what Kara is, Kara will throw a punch every once in a while. I think that's part of her character is that every once in a while she gets pushed too far and she snaps and she'll hit you. And the thing with Lee was he hit her right back and then kept going on. So to me that spoke volumes about their relationship, and about who Lee is and who Kara is as well.

	Kobol I was talking about earlier. [[Battlestar Galactica (1978)\|The Original Series]] did [[Lost Planet of the Gods, Part II (TOS)\|an episode]] where they did go find Kobol and I haven't seen that show in a while but as I- my recollection of it- and I- was that they find Kobol, and there's a lot of pyramids on it. And there was stock footage of Egypt that they blue-screened [[Lorne Greene]] in front of, and he went into the pyramids, he's about to find the secret of where [[Earth]] is and then it all goes to hell. Going to find Kobol, the roots of humanity, the sort of birthplace of everyone in the Galactica universe, I was very attracted to from an early point. It seemed like a natural thing to do with the characters, it feeds directly into the myth- the larger mythos of the show. I mean it's- at some point you have to answer these questions, or you should answer these questions. They're called [[The Twelve Colonies (RDM)\|the twelve colonies]]; they call themselves colonists and Colonials. Well, the colonies of what? Colonies of somebody, colony- a colony implies a mother planet. So to find that mother planet at some point seemed a natural place, in both the Original Series and for us. And it became a "What is Kobol?", "What is this place?” Is it Eden? Is it a paradise? Why did we leave? What's there still? What do we hope to find there? These are a lot of the discussions that we had going around and round.		Kobol I was talking about earlier. [[Battlestar Galactica (1978)\|The Original Series]] did [[Lost Planet of the Gods, Part II (TOS)\|an episode]] where they did go find Kobol and I haven't seen that show in a while but as I- my recollection of it- and I- was that they find Kobol, and there's a lot of pyramids on it. And there was stock footage of Egypt that they blue-screened [[Lorne Greene]] in front of, and he went into the pyramids, he's about to find the secret of where [[Earth (RDM)\|Earth]] is and then it all goes to hell. Going to find Kobol, the roots of humanity, the sort of birthplace of everyone in the Galactica universe, I was very attracted to from an early point. It seemed like a natural thing to do with the characters, it feeds directly into the myth- the larger mythos of the show. I mean it's- at some point you have to answer these questions, or you should answer these questions. They're called [[The Twelve Colonies (RDM)\|the twelve colonies]]; they call themselves colonists and Colonials. Well, the colonies of what? Colonies of somebody, colony- a colony implies a mother planet. So to find that mother planet at some point seemed a natural place, in both the Original Series and for us. And it became a "What is Kobol?", "What is this place?” Is it Eden? Is it a paradise? Why did we leave? What's there still? What do we hope to find there? These are a lot of the discussions that we had going around and round.

	This was a complex scene that we had to handle very deftly, which is she looks at the photograph and sees something that the others do not, and then relates that to an illustration here in the book. And that's always tough, as a writer and producer you're always finding yourself in situations where you do have to rely on inserts, and you do have to rely on cut-aways, and things that aren't present that you can't see immediately on the set, and you're hoping like hell that later, when they finish the book, that you'll be able to see what you need to see when the book is actually done. 'Cos nine times out of ten, they can't get the book with that kind of specific illustration done in time to have it there on the day when you need it, so you really- you're hanging yourself out there over the edge a little bit, because you know it's a key plot point, that she has to look at the photograph, the photograph has to read correctly, and then the book has to relate to the photograph, and you have to understand all this.		This was a complex scene that we had to handle very deftly, which is she looks at the photograph and sees something that the others do not, and then relates that to an illustration here in the book. And that's always tough, as a writer and producer you're always finding yourself in situations where you do have to rely on inserts, and you do have to rely on cut-aways, and things that aren't present that you can't see immediately on the set, and you're hoping like hell that later, when they finish the book, that you'll be able to see what you need to see when the book is actually done. 'Cos nine times out of ten, they can't get the book with that kind of specific illustration done in time to have it there on the day when you need it, so you really- you're hanging yourself out there over the edge a little bit, because you know it's a key plot point, that she has to look at the photograph, the photograph has to read correctly, and then the book has to relate to the photograph, and you have to understand all this.
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	This is key because it's important to understand the stakes of what's going on. That Laura is not taking this decision lightly, what she's about to do. I think in the script these were longer, this was a longer scene. I think a lot of times you'll find as a writer that you tend to over-explain things, or you tend to try to over-write things, 'cos you're trying to make sure that the people who read it understand all the intentions. And sometimes I do that intentionally, sometimes I will intentionally over-write a scene and over-explain something to get the idea in the reader's mind. When I say the reader, I mean everybody: the director, the actors, the studio, the network, etc. Over-write the scene, explain too many things, so that everybody gets the intention, everybody’s clear, so that you don't get the "I'm confused" note, which is one of the most deadly notes you get. "It's confusing, I didn't get it." - let them get it, then you can pare back from there, and you can whittle down to the more core components. And less is more; you can get away with saying far less than you think you can, nine times out of ten. Usually you'll find that there's a lot of excess stuff in scenes, a lot of ideas tend to- sometimes are repeated within the scenes, and sometimes just a look from a character will say it all. But it's important, at least in my experience, that the read, the initial read of somebody when they first get the draft, that they understand the intention of all these things. And then later you can cut it out and say it with looks and do it with less dialogue, and pare the scene back, either on the stage or in the editing room, and get it down to its true fighting weight for the audience. 'Cos the audience has the benefit of watching it happen, and seeing it visually, and the reader just has the words on the page. And a lot of the time the readers get caught up in- if you have too much prose, too much description describing "and Laura's thinking that, and she looks off to the left, and Starbuck takes a sigh and rolls her eyes, and fiddles with the thing" they can't- the reader gets kinda bored, and jumps on to the next paragraph. And it's not uncommon for people who read your scripts to really skim the description, and really skim a lot of things, and just read the dialogue and keep going. Which is fine, but it means that sometimes you have to put more into dialogue than is truly necessary, because you'll have said something in a paragraph of description that they didn't even read, and they just read the dialogue, and then they were confused because they didn't understand it. So you write it all in the dialogue so that they go "Oh", and then you usually get the note "Well, you know, I think this scene's a little too talky, and this scene could be shorter, and you could probably cut a half page outta this," and you go "Yeah, I think I can do that," because that was your intention from the get-go.		This is key because it's important to understand the stakes of what's going on. That Laura is not taking this decision lightly, what she's about to do. I think in the script these were longer, this was a longer scene. I think a lot of times you'll find as a writer that you tend to over-explain things, or you tend to try to over-write things, 'cos you're trying to make sure that the people who read it understand all the intentions. And sometimes I do that intentionally, sometimes I will intentionally over-write a scene and over-explain something to get the idea in the reader's mind. When I say the reader, I mean everybody: the director, the actors, the studio, the network, etc. Over-write the scene, explain too many things, so that everybody gets the intention, everybody’s clear, so that you don't get the "I'm confused" note, which is one of the most deadly notes you get. "It's confusing, I didn't get it." - let them get it, then you can pare back from there, and you can whittle down to the more core components. And less is more; you can get away with saying far less than you think you can, nine times out of ten. Usually you'll find that there's a lot of excess stuff in scenes, a lot of ideas tend to- sometimes are repeated within the scenes, and sometimes just a look from a character will say it all. But it's important, at least in my experience, that the read, the initial read of somebody when they first get the draft, that they understand the intention of all these things. And then later you can cut it out and say it with looks and do it with less dialogue, and pare the scene back, either on the stage or in the editing room, and get it down to its true fighting weight for the audience. 'Cos the audience has the benefit of watching it happen, and seeing it visually, and the reader just has the words on the page. And a lot of the time the readers get caught up in- if you have too much prose, too much description describing "and Laura's thinking that, and she looks off to the left, and Starbuck takes a sigh and rolls her eyes, and fiddles with the thing" they can't- the reader gets kinda bored, and jumps on to the next paragraph. And it's not uncommon for people who read your scripts to really skim the description, and really skim a lot of things, and just read the dialogue and keep going. Which is fine, but it means that sometimes you have to put more into dialogue than is truly necessary, because you'll have said something in a paragraph of description that they didn't even read, and they just read the dialogue, and then they were confused because they didn't understand it. So you write it all in the dialogue so that they go "Oh", and then you usually get the note "Well, you know, I think this scene's a little too talky, and this scene could be shorter, and you could probably cut a half page outta this," and you go "Yeah, I think I can do that," because that was your intention from the get-go.

	Again, as I said earlier, this episode- these episodes are the culmination of a lot of things. I mean this whole- this basic notion of "Does Adama know where [[Earth]] is?" is something that was established in the [[Miniseries\|miniseries]], and it's something we never forgot about. But it wasn't going to be something they talked about every week, it’s not going to be a constant thing about "Hey, do you think the old man knows where Earth really is or not?” I wanted to just seed it in, it's there, it's mentioned a couple of times in the latter part of the season. But this is where it really comes front and center, where you realize that when Adama said that to all those people in the great "So say we all" scene of the miniseries, that those people in that room and beyond took him at his word and invested a tremendous amount of hope in that idea, and a tremendous amount of belief. And no one more so than his surrogate daughter Starbuck, the woman who we've seen him risk, literally, the entire fleet to save. There’s this- He loves her like a daughter, she loves him; this is a very, very strong relationship, that is very close and important to him. And he lied even to her, and I think it's her anger at that, her betrayal at that, her discovery of that, is really all that- the only way that I could see that Kara was going to steal that- not steal, was really going to hijack the [[Cylon Raider\|Raider]] and fly it back to Caprica. Because there was just no way, there was just no way, no matter what argument Laura gave, no matter how convincing she was, no matter how intelligent, rational, passionate, whatever, no matter what she said, there was no way Kara was going against Adama, unless she realized that Adama had betrayed her first.		Again, as I said earlier, this episode- these episodes are the culmination of a lot of things. I mean this whole- this basic notion of "Does Adama know where [[Earth (RDM)\|Earth]] is?" is something that was established in the [[Miniseries\|miniseries]], and it's something we never forgot about. But it wasn't going to be something they talked about every week, it’s not going to be a constant thing about "Hey, do you think the old man knows where Earth really is or not?” I wanted to just seed it in, it's there, it's mentioned a couple of times in the latter part of the season. But this is where it really comes front and center, where you realize that when Adama said that to all those people in the great "So say we all" scene of the miniseries, that those people in that room and beyond took him at his word and invested a tremendous amount of hope in that idea, and a tremendous amount of belief. And no one more so than his surrogate daughter Starbuck, the woman who we've seen him risk, literally, the entire fleet to save. There’s this- He loves her like a daughter, she loves him; this is a very, very strong relationship, that is very close and important to him. And he lied even to her, and I think it's her anger at that, her betrayal at that, her discovery of that, is really all that- the only way that I could see that Kara was going to steal that- not steal, was really going to hijack the [[Cylon Raider\|Raider]] and fly it back to Caprica. Because there was just no way, there was just no way, no matter what argument Laura gave, no matter how convincing she was, no matter how intelligent, rational, passionate, whatever, no matter what she said, there was no way Kara was going against Adama, unless she realized that Adama had betrayed her first.

	This whole little sequence actually took place much earlier. This is a combination of two scenes, and we shot them both. It was going to be a jump test early in the episode to just re-establish the Raider, show that they were working on the [[FTL]] drive, and getting ready to figure out how to jump it around, and it did take a couple of preliminary jumps and those were successful. And then there was a second test which now we're into that part of the footage, where Kara actually uses the test as an excuse to jump back to Caprica. And we essentially combined, or [[IMDB:nm0177969\|Dany]] and [[Michael Rymer\|Michael]] rather, combined those two sequences into one, so we just have the one moment out here.		This whole little sequence actually took place much earlier. This is a combination of two scenes, and we shot them both. It was going to be a jump test early in the episode to just re-establish the Raider, show that they were working on the [[FTL]] drive, and getting ready to figure out how to jump it around, and it did take a couple of preliminary jumps and those were successful. And then there was a second test which now we're into that part of the footage, where Kara actually uses the test as an excuse to jump back to Caprica. And we essentially combined, or [[IMDB:nm0177969\|Dany]] and [[Michael Rymer\|Michael]] rather, combined those two sequences into one, so we just have the one moment out here.

Mercifull: adding podcast list

2007-04-19T11:18:45Z

adding podcast list

← Older revision		Revision as of 11:18, 19 April 2007
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	And again, this is now the end of night one. I think it's really- It was a very smart decision that Michael and Dany made to change the end of night one from the crash of the Raptor to this, and I'll tell you why: because I think that the original ending that I had of the Raptor going down is a plot element. It's standard jeopardy and it's plot, it's a bunch of people in danger - "Aaaaah!" and you're yelling as you go down through the cloud and you end. It's nice, it would have worked, but it's nothing you haven't seen before. I think that ending it on this note - this is an emotional beat, this is about the characters, forget the plot thing about her flying back to Caprica and the Arrow of Apollo and all that, it's really about these people. It's about Kara's feeling of betrayal, it's about what she's willing to do now, because her father figure has betrayed her, and her take- her being Starbuck and going off on some crazy-ass thing that nobody else wants her to do. And Adama knowing it, and realizing what has happened, and that he's in some way responsible for it too. That's Battlestar Galactica. That's what the show is about. It's about these characters, it's a drama first, and I think it was very wise to go out on this beat. And I'll come back and talk to you about night two very shortly.		And again, this is now the end of night one. I think it's really- It was a very smart decision that Michael and Dany made to change the end of night one from the crash of the Raptor to this, and I'll tell you why: because I think that the original ending that I had of the Raptor going down is a plot element. It's standard jeopardy and it's plot, it's a bunch of people in danger - "Aaaaah!" and you're yelling as you go down through the cloud and you end. It's nice, it would have worked, but it's nothing you haven't seen before. I think that ending it on this note - this is an emotional beat, this is about the characters, forget the plot thing about her flying back to Caprica and the Arrow of Apollo and all that, it's really about these people. It's about Kara's feeling of betrayal, it's about what she's willing to do now, because her father figure has betrayed her, and her take- her being Starbuck and going off on some crazy-ass thing that nobody else wants her to do. And Adama knowing it, and realizing what has happened, and that he's in some way responsible for it too. That's Battlestar Galactica. That's what the show is about. It's about these characters, it's a drama first, and I think it was very wise to go out on this beat. And I'll come back and talk to you about night two very shortly.

			{{Podcast list (RDM season 1)}}

Steelviper: Kobol -> Kobol (RDM)

2007-04-13T20:31:24Z

Kobol -> Kobol (RDM)

← Older revision		Revision as of 20:31, 13 April 2007
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	==[http://www.scifi.com/battlestar/downloads/podcast/mp3/112/bsg_ep112_3of5.mp3 Act 2]==		==[http://www.scifi.com/battlestar/downloads/podcast/mp3/112/bsg_ep112_3of5.mp3 Act 2]==

	Back on Cylon occupied [[The Twelve Colonies (RDM)#Caprica\|Caprica]]. You'll notice that it rains a lot, I don't know if I've spoken about this at all in previous podcasts, because I don't remember such things, but you'll notice it rains a lot in Cylon-occupied Caprica. Part of this is our acknowledgement towards the ecological disaster that must have befallen the planet following the nuclear attack, some sort of nuclear winter must have set in, or certainly climate changes are underway, given all that's happened. So part of it is that acknowledgement of the reality of the situation, and part of it is also to give it, in an episode like this, a distinct look that’s different, say, than [[Kobol]] which we're going to be going to shortly. So as a producer have this challenge where you have two planets in this episode, you're cutting between Kobol and Caprica, you need them to quickly orientate the audience and be visually distinct from one another, so that you're not confused on which planet you're on. These are the things that keep producers and executives up, awake all night long.		Back on Cylon occupied [[The Twelve Colonies (RDM)#Caprica\|Caprica]]. You'll notice that it rains a lot, I don't know if I've spoken about this at all in previous podcasts, because I don't remember such things, but you'll notice it rains a lot in Cylon-occupied Caprica. Part of this is our acknowledgement towards the ecological disaster that must have befallen the planet following the nuclear attack, some sort of nuclear winter must have set in, or certainly climate changes are underway, given all that's happened. So part of it is that acknowledgement of the reality of the situation, and part of it is also to give it, in an episode like this, a distinct look that’s different, say, than [[Kobol (RDM)\|Kobol]] which we're going to be going to shortly. So as a producer have this challenge where you have two planets in this episode, you're cutting between Kobol and Caprica, you need them to quickly orientate the audience and be visually distinct from one another, so that you're not confused on which planet you're on. These are the things that keep producers and executives up, awake all night long.

	This scene I am quite fond of: [[Lee Adama\|Lee]] coming down and confronting [[Kara Thrace\|Kara]]. In the scripted version this confrontation came later, there was a different moment after the [[Full Colors\|Triad]] game, where Lee started to realize that Kara had slept with [[Gaius Baltar\|Baltar]] and he starts to understand that. He basically publicly outed Kara in front of the squadron, in [[Pilot Ready Rooms\|the ready room]], in the same way that Kara pulls crap on the pilots all the time, and gives people shit, and just generally is not above practical jokes and public humiliation. And Lee turned a back on her and basically had a practical joke ready in the ready room, and made it clear to everybody that she was sleeping with the vice president and they all hoot and laugh and really took it to her. And it was an interesting scene, but it also seemed a bit out of character for Lee, we didn't really believe Lee would do that. This seemed more true: that he would just go down and get in her face, and that Kara would have a lot of guilt and not want it to go there. And then we've got boom, boom. I like the fact that it doesn't devolve into some kind of scrum, it's not a fight. She hit him 'cos that's what Kara is, Kara will throw a punch every once in a while. I think that's part of her character is that every once in a while she gets pushed too far and she snaps and she'll hit you. And the thing with Lee was he hit her right back and then kept going on. So to me that spoke volumes about their relationship, and about who Lee is and who Kara is as well.		This scene I am quite fond of: [[Lee Adama\|Lee]] coming down and confronting [[Kara Thrace\|Kara]]. In the scripted version this confrontation came later, there was a different moment after the [[Full Colors\|Triad]] game, where Lee started to realize that Kara had slept with [[Gaius Baltar\|Baltar]] and he starts to understand that. He basically publicly outed Kara in front of the squadron, in [[Pilot Ready Rooms\|the ready room]], in the same way that Kara pulls crap on the pilots all the time, and gives people shit, and just generally is not above practical jokes and public humiliation. And Lee turned a back on her and basically had a practical joke ready in the ready room, and made it clear to everybody that she was sleeping with the vice president and they all hoot and laugh and really took it to her. And it was an interesting scene, but it also seemed a bit out of character for Lee, we didn't really believe Lee would do that. This seemed more true: that he would just go down and get in her face, and that Kara would have a lot of guilt and not want it to go there. And then we've got boom, boom. I like the fact that it doesn't devolve into some kind of scrum, it's not a fight. She hit him 'cos that's what Kara is, Kara will throw a punch every once in a while. I think that's part of her character is that every once in a while she gets pushed too far and she snaps and she'll hit you. And the thing with Lee was he hit her right back and then kept going on. So to me that spoke volumes about their relationship, and about who Lee is and who Kara is as well.
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	Now we're back, now we're dealing with more of these insert shots, and photographs that we may or may not have had on the day. Yeah, the notion of permanent settlement was something that came up all the time, and shouldn't we be look- and [[William Adama\|Adama's]] mind's certainly- they're looking for a place just to camp and hang out, and be safe, and stop running through the galaxy trying to cobble supplies everywhere. But this notion that here's an unknown planet, you can't just go down and set up camp, you should set up a ground team.		Now we're back, now we're dealing with more of these insert shots, and photographs that we may or may not have had on the day. Yeah, the notion of permanent settlement was something that came up all the time, and shouldn't we be look- and [[William Adama\|Adama's]] mind's certainly- they're looking for a place just to camp and hang out, and be safe, and stop running through the galaxy trying to cobble supplies everywhere. But this notion that here's an unknown planet, you can't just go down and set up camp, you should set up a ground team.

	Now in the script, in early version- in early drafts of the script, there were two teams that went to [[Kobol]]. There was the initial survey mission, which had [[Galen Tyrol\|Tyrol]] and [[Cally]] and [[Socinus]] aboard, and that mission stayed on Kobol throughout. It just went down, they landed safely, and they were surveying the ground, the planet, and then they saw some- a flash of metal off in the distance, and they said "What's that?", and they took a look at it. And they found that there was a temple there, that there was a temple which was almost an identical te- to the one that one built on [[The Twelve Colonies (RDM)#Caprica\|Caprica]]. There was a temple on Caprica that was very key as well, and there was these two temples, this was sort of the large scale idea. There was a temple on Caprica and a temple on Kobol, that they were linked, not literally linked, but they were linked in that the colo- the original colonists had built the temple on Caprica in- to sort of emulate the one that they remembered or were told about that was originally back on Kobol, and a lot of the action took place in and around those two temples, and you would have the ground team of Tyrol and his guys there. They discover it first, and then later a second reconnaissance team was sent, and the second was the one that crashed in the original script and that had [[Lee Adama\|Lee]] on board actually, Lee and some- a bunch of [[Colonial Marine Corps\|marines]]. And at the end of night two you had Lee and his marines and Tyrol and his ground crew all holed up inside the temple, and the Cyl- there were like [[Cylons (RDM)\|Cylons]] everywhere outside the temple. And that was the cliff-hanger; they're trapped inside and what the hell are they going to do.		Now in the script, in early version- in early drafts of the script, there were two teams that went to [[Kobol (RDM)\|Kobol]]. There was the initial survey mission, which had [[Galen Tyrol\|Tyrol]] and [[Cally]] and [[Socinus]] aboard, and that mission stayed on Kobol throughout. It just went down, they landed safely, and they were surveying the ground, the planet, and then they saw some- a flash of metal off in the distance, and they said "What's that?", and they took a look at it. And they found that there was a temple there, that there was a temple which was almost an identical te- to the one that one built on [[The Twelve Colonies (RDM)#Caprica\|Caprica]]. There was a temple on Caprica that was very key as well, and there was these two temples, this was sort of the large scale idea. There was a temple on Caprica and a temple on Kobol, that they were linked, not literally linked, but they were linked in that the colo- the original colonists had built the temple on Caprica in- to sort of emulate the one that they remembered or were told about that was originally back on Kobol, and a lot of the action took place in and around those two temples, and you would have the ground team of Tyrol and his guys there. They discover it first, and then later a second reconnaissance team was sent, and the second was the one that crashed in the original script and that had [[Lee Adama\|Lee]] on board actually, Lee and some- a bunch of [[Colonial Marine Corps\|marines]]. And at the end of night two you had Lee and his marines and Tyrol and his ground crew all holed up inside the temple, and the Cyl- there were like [[Cylons (RDM)\|Cylons]] everywhere outside the temple. And that was the cliff-hanger; they're trapped inside and what the hell are they going to do.

	Now this scene between Tyrol and [[Sharon Valerii (Galactica copy)\|Sharon]]. There was another scene that I believe we did film that had Lee coming to see Sharon and just reading her the riot act about how stupid she was, and you always check for a round in the chamber and "God you're-", and her just going "God, I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry.", and it's like oh-OK. And it's kind of one of those "I'm yelling at you, but really glad you're alive," kind of moments. But ultimately this is the one with the heart, this one's more effective, and I don't think we were able to keep the other one for time, but I think this is a better scene in any case. And we mention that "Gee, I can't believe you didn't check for a round." is- or "a round in the chamber." is much more offhand, much easier to get the idea across than a bigger, more elaborate scene with Lee.		Now this scene between Tyrol and [[Sharon Valerii (Galactica copy)\|Sharon]]. There was another scene that I believe we did film that had Lee coming to see Sharon and just reading her the riot act about how stupid she was, and you always check for a round in the chamber and "God you're-", and her just going "God, I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry.", and it's like oh-OK. And it's kind of one of those "I'm yelling at you, but really glad you're alive," kind of moments. But ultimately this is the one with the heart, this one's more effective, and I don't think we were able to keep the other one for time, but I think this is a better scene in any case. And we mention that "Gee, I can't believe you didn't check for a round." is- or "a round in the chamber." is much more offhand, much easier to get the idea across than a bigger, more elaborate scene with Lee.
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	==[http://www.scifi.com/battlestar/downloads/podcast/mp3/112/bsg_ep112_5of5.mp3 Act 4]==		==[http://www.scifi.com/battlestar/downloads/podcast/mp3/112/bsg_ep112_5of5.mp3 Act 4]==

	So now we're in a crisis. Now we know that there's at least one [[Basestar (RDM)\|basestar]] out there, their baseship out there. The [[Cylon]]s are around [[Kobol]]. We've gotta get our people out of there, what do we do? And again, this- the conflict between [[Laura Roslin\|Laura]] and [[William Adama\|Adama]] is not over, Laura wants to use the [[Raider]] to get back to [[The Twelve Colonies (RDM)#Caprica\|Caprica]], Adama sees it as simply a military asset. But she knows- what I thinks is interesting is that she knows better than to suggest that- she doesn't bring the argument up again, she knows it's hopeless, she's not changing Adama's mind. But she's already on to her next theory, which involves [[Kara Thrace\|this young lady]] here.		So now we're in a crisis. Now we know that there's at least one [[Basestar (RDM)\|basestar]] out there, their baseship out there. The [[Cylon]]s are around [[Kobol (RDM)\|Kobol]]. We've gotta get our people out of there, what do we do? And again, this- the conflict between [[Laura Roslin\|Laura]] and [[William Adama\|Adama]] is not over, Laura wants to use the [[Raider]] to get back to [[The Twelve Colonies (RDM)#Caprica\|Caprica]], Adama sees it as simply a military asset. But she knows- what I thinks is interesting is that she knows better than to suggest that- she doesn't bring the argument up again, she knows it's hopeless, she's not changing Adama's mind. But she's already on to her next theory, which involves [[Kara Thrace\|this young lady]] here.

	One of the things that I always liked was the notion that as soon as [[Kara Thrace\|Starbuck]] became a woman it changed the dynamic here. That there was always going to be some kind of tension between [[Lee Adama\|him]] and her, because he's a man and she's a woman. And that that was the fundamental reason why to change her to a woman, it made this relationship more interesting. They're comrades-in-arms, they're friends. Are they ever going to be anything more than that? Maybe, maybe not. But it's complicated by the fact of where they are, and that first and foremost they're pilots fighting in a war, and they have to try and keep the personal and professional in separate categories in their minds. And that to me makes it more complicated, and I think it's always going to be complicated. When you put men and women into these situations, when you ask them to serve side by side, in a police station, a fire house, an aircraft carrier, lives are at stake, there are professional duties that must be carried out, there's hierarchies, there's chains of command. It becomes complicated, and none of the answers are so easy, and I think that's an interesting place to set drama. Because when the answers aren't easy, that's great, that's what you want, you want to play all those beats.		One of the things that I always liked was the notion that as soon as [[Kara Thrace\|Starbuck]] became a woman it changed the dynamic here. That there was always going to be some kind of tension between [[Lee Adama\|him]] and her, because he's a man and she's a woman. And that that was the fundamental reason why to change her to a woman, it made this relationship more interesting. They're comrades-in-arms, they're friends. Are they ever going to be anything more than that? Maybe, maybe not. But it's complicated by the fact of where they are, and that first and foremost they're pilots fighting in a war, and they have to try and keep the personal and professional in separate categories in their minds. And that to me makes it more complicated, and I think it's always going to be complicated. When you put men and women into these situations, when you ask them to serve side by side, in a police station, a fire house, an aircraft carrier, lives are at stake, there are professional duties that must be carried out, there's hierarchies, there's chains of command. It becomes complicated, and none of the answers are so easy, and I think that's an interesting place to set drama. Because when the answers aren't easy, that's great, that's what you want, you want to play all those beats.

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	We started talking about the finale I'd say mid-way through the [[Season 1 (2004-05)\|first season]], and there were certain things that we knew we wanted to accomplish at the end of season one that I had set out, actually back in the [[Series bible\|story bible]] stage, and presenting it to the network and saying that these were the directions that the characters- this is where [[Laura Roslin\|Laura]] and [[William Adama\|Adama]] were going to end up by the end of season one, and we accomplished that. This Kobol's Last Gleaming in its finale in the second part definitely ends up where I thought season one should end.		We started talking about the finale I'd say mid-way through the [[Season 1 (2004-05)\|first season]], and there were certain things that we knew we wanted to accomplish at the end of season one that I had set out, actually back in the [[Series bible\|story bible]] stage, and presenting it to the network and saying that these were the directions that the characters- this is where [[Laura Roslin\|Laura]] and [[William Adama\|Adama]] were going to end up by the end of season one, and we accomplished that. This Kobol's Last Gleaming in its finale in the second part definitely ends up where I thought season one should end.

	Now talking in more specific terms here about the episode. This tease, it's one of my favorite teasers, not only in the series; it's one of my favourite teasers that I've ever done. I guess I like it primarily because most of it is non-verbal, it's very visual teaser, it's just sort of cutting back and forth between these disparate story lines. It's also an example of how things translate from page onto screen. If you read the draft of this it's described a little differently, it started in close up, it was starting on fingers, cut to a woman's mouth, cut to a gun, cut to a woman's hands, and there was this sort of rhythm of extreme close-up cuts that I was establishing the script- in discussions with [[Michael Rymer]], the director- you can only direct the show so much on page, you have to allow the director to do his job, which is to actually direct the show. So I mean, as a writer I tend to find that I direct the movie in my head as I'm writing it, and I kind of have an idea in my head where I think the camera is, the close-ups, the rhythm of certain scenes in the editing back and forth and so on, and you have to kind of let that go, to an extent, you have to let the director and the actors and the rest of the team come in and bring their voices and their visions to the material, and this is a good example of that. This is all stuff that I wrote, eventually, the boxing match, Sharon putting the gun in her mouth, and [[Karl Agathon\|Helo]] confronting [[Sharon Valerii (Caprica copy)\|Caprica Sharon]] on [[The Twelve Colonies ~~(RDM)~~#Caprica\|the planet]] and going back and forth- the style of it, and the rhythm of it, and exactly what the shots are and how it's conveyed is really something that the director and then the editor, between them put together. And it's great 'cos you watch your material get lifted and again, your hope is that you deliver a script to a production team that takes the material and improves on it, and makes it better, and make it sing, and makes it really alive, because it's really not alive on the page, it's really just words on a page and it requires people to say the lines, and it requires other people to shoot them, and somebody else to put it all together. And on this show I had a tremendous team, and they were able to create what I think is a lovely, interesting, compelling teaser to the show.		Now talking in more specific terms here about the episode. This tease, it's one of my favorite teasers, not only in the series; it's one of my favourite teasers that I've ever done. I guess I like it primarily because most of it is non-verbal, it's very visual teaser, it's just sort of cutting back and forth between these disparate story lines. It's also an example of how things translate from page onto screen. If you read the draft of this it's described a little differently, it started in close up, it was starting on fingers, cut to a woman's mouth, cut to a gun, cut to a woman's hands, and there was this sort of rhythm of extreme close-up cuts that I was establishing the script- in discussions with [[Michael Rymer]], the director- you can only direct the show so much on page, you have to allow the director to do his job, which is to actually direct the show. So I mean, as a writer I tend to find that I direct the movie in my head as I'm writing it, and I kind of have an idea in my head where I think the camera is, the close-ups, the rhythm of certain scenes in the editing back and forth and so on, and you have to kind of let that go, to an extent, you have to let the director and the actors and the rest of the team come in and bring their voices and their visions to the material, and this is a good example of that. This is all stuff that I wrote, eventually, the boxing match, Sharon putting the gun in her mouth, and [[Karl Agathon\|Helo]] confronting [[Sharon Valerii (Caprica copy)\|Caprica Sharon]] on [[The Twelve Colonies of Kobol#Caprica\|the planet]] and going back and forth- the style of it, and the rhythm of it, and exactly what the shots are and how it's conveyed is really something that the director and then the editor, between them put together. And it's great 'cos you watch your material get lifted and again, your hope is that you deliver a script to a production team that takes the material and improves on it, and makes it better, and make it sing, and makes it really alive, because it's really not alive on the page, it's really just words on a page and it requires people to say the lines, and it requires other people to shoot them, and somebody else to put it all together. And on this show I had a tremendous team, and they were able to create what I think is a lovely, interesting, compelling teaser to the show.

	A side note about the boxing, that we've gone through now a couple of times. The boxing I think was something that was suggested I believe by [[Edward James Olmos\|Eddy]] and [[Jamie Bamber\|Jamie]], something that they thought of that Adama and son could be doing in the tease of this show. All the boxing I believe was choreographed by them, and how they did it and all that was something they worked on for quite a while.		A side note about the boxing, that we've gone through now a couple of times. The boxing I think was something that was suggested I believe by [[Edward James Olmos\|Eddy]] and [[Jamie Bamber\|Jamie]], something that they thought of that Adama and son could be doing in the tease of this show. All the boxing I believe was choreographed by them, and how they did it and all that was something they worked on for quite a while.
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	This scene I am quite fond of: [[Lee Adama\|Lee]] coming down and confronting [[Kara Thrace\|Kara]]. In the scripted version this confrontation came later, there was a different moment after the [[Full Colors\|Triad]] game, where Lee started to realize that Kara had slept with [[Gaius Baltar\|Baltar]] and he starts to understand that. He basically publicly outed Kara in front of the squadron, in [[Pilot Ready Rooms\|the ready room]], in the same way that Kara pulls crap on the pilots all the time, and gives people shit, and just generally is not above practical jokes and public humiliation. And Lee turned a back on her and basically had a practical joke ready in the ready room, and made it clear to everybody that she was sleeping with the vice president and they all hoot and laugh and really took it to her. And it was an interesting scene, but it also seemed a bit out of character for Lee, we didn't really believe Lee would do that. This seemed more true: that he would just go down and get in her face, and that Kara would have a lot of guilt and not want it to go there. And then we've got boom, boom. I like the fact that it doesn't devolve into some kind of scrum, it's not a fight. She hit him 'cos that's what Kara is, Kara will throw a punch every once in a while. I think that's part of her character is that every once in a while she gets pushed too far and she snaps and she'll hit you. And the thing with Lee was he hit her right back and then kept going on. So to me that spoke volumes about their relationship, and about who Lee is and who Kara is as well.		This scene I am quite fond of: [[Lee Adama\|Lee]] coming down and confronting [[Kara Thrace\|Kara]]. In the scripted version this confrontation came later, there was a different moment after the [[Full Colors\|Triad]] game, where Lee started to realize that Kara had slept with [[Gaius Baltar\|Baltar]] and he starts to understand that. He basically publicly outed Kara in front of the squadron, in [[Pilot Ready Rooms\|the ready room]], in the same way that Kara pulls crap on the pilots all the time, and gives people shit, and just generally is not above practical jokes and public humiliation. And Lee turned a back on her and basically had a practical joke ready in the ready room, and made it clear to everybody that she was sleeping with the vice president and they all hoot and laugh and really took it to her. And it was an interesting scene, but it also seemed a bit out of character for Lee, we didn't really believe Lee would do that. This seemed more true: that he would just go down and get in her face, and that Kara would have a lot of guilt and not want it to go there. And then we've got boom, boom. I like the fact that it doesn't devolve into some kind of scrum, it's not a fight. She hit him 'cos that's what Kara is, Kara will throw a punch every once in a while. I think that's part of her character is that every once in a while she gets pushed too far and she snaps and she'll hit you. And the thing with Lee was he hit her right back and then kept going on. So to me that spoke volumes about their relationship, and about who Lee is and who Kara is as well.

	Kobol I was talking about earlier. The [[Battlestar Galactica (1978)\|Original Series]] did [[Lost Planet of the Gods, Part II (TOS)\|an episode]] where they did go find Kobol and I haven't seen that show in a while but as I- my recollection of it- and I- was that they find Kobol, and there's a lot of pyramids on it. And there was stock footage of Egypt that they blue-screened [[Lorne Greene]] in front of, and he went into the pyramids, he's about to find the secret of where [[Earth (RDM)\|Earth]] is and then it all goes to hell. Going to find Kobol, the roots of humanity, the sort of birthplace of everyone in the Galactica universe, I was very attracted to from an early point. It seemed like a natural thing to do with the characters, it feeds directly into the myth- the larger mythos of the show. I mean it's- at some point you have to answer these questions, or you should answer these questions. They're called [[The Twelve Colonies ~~(RDM)~~\|the twelve colonies]]; they call themselves colonists and Colonials. Well, the colonies of what? Colonies of somebody, colony- a colony implies a mother planet. So to find that mother planet at some point seemed a natural place, in both the Original Series and for us. And it became a "What is Kobol?", "What is this place?” Is it Eden? Is it a paradise? Why did we leave? What's there still? What do we hope to find there? These are a lot of the discussions that we had going around and round.		Kobol I was talking about earlier. The [[Battlestar Galactica (1978)\|Original Series]] did [[Lost Planet of the Gods, Part II (TOS)\|an episode]] where they did go find Kobol and I haven't seen that show in a while but as I- my recollection of it- and I- was that they find Kobol, and there's a lot of pyramids on it. And there was stock footage of Egypt that they blue-screened [[Lorne Greene]] in front of, and he went into the pyramids, he's about to find the secret of where [[Earth (RDM)\|Earth]] is and then it all goes to hell. Going to find Kobol, the roots of humanity, the sort of birthplace of everyone in the Galactica universe, I was very attracted to from an early point. It seemed like a natural thing to do with the characters, it feeds directly into the myth- the larger mythos of the show. I mean it's- at some point you have to answer these questions, or you should answer these questions. They're called [[The Twelve Colonies of Kobol\|the twelve colonies]]; they call themselves colonists and Colonials. Well, the colonies of what? Colonies of somebody, colony- a colony implies a mother planet. So to find that mother planet at some point seemed a natural place, in both the Original Series and for us. And it became a "What is Kobol?", "What is this place?” Is it Eden? Is it a paradise? Why did we leave? What's there still? What do we hope to find there? These are a lot of the discussions that we had going around and round.

	This was a complex scene that we had to handle very deftly, which is she looks at the photograph and sees something that the others do not, and then relates that to an illustration here in the book. And that's always tough, as a writer and producer you're always finding yourself in situations where you do have to rely on inserts, and you do have to rely on cut-aways, and things that aren't present that you can't see immediately on the set, and you're hoping like hell that later, when they finish the book, that you'll be able to see what you need to see when the book is actually done. 'Cos nine times out of ten, they can't get the book with that kind of specific illustration done in time to have it there on the day when you need it, so you really- you're hanging yourself out there over the edge a little bit, because you know it's a key plot point, that she has to look at the photograph, the photograph has to read correctly, and then the book has to relate to the photograph, and you have to understand all this.		This was a complex scene that we had to handle very deftly, which is she looks at the photograph and sees something that the others do not, and then relates that to an illustration here in the book. And that's always tough, as a writer and producer you're always finding yourself in situations where you do have to rely on inserts, and you do have to rely on cut-aways, and things that aren't present that you can't see immediately on the set, and you're hoping like hell that later, when they finish the book, that you'll be able to see what you need to see when the book is actually done. 'Cos nine times out of ten, they can't get the book with that kind of specific illustration done in time to have it there on the day when you need it, so you really- you're hanging yourself out there over the edge a little bit, because you know it's a key plot point, that she has to look at the photograph, the photograph has to read correctly, and then the book has to relate to the photograph, and you have to understand all this.

← Older revision		Revision as of 20:31, 13 April 2007
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	==[http://www.scifi.com/battlestar/downloads/podcast/mp3/112/bsg_ep112_3of5.mp3 Act 2]==		==[http://www.scifi.com/battlestar/downloads/podcast/mp3/112/bsg_ep112_3of5.mp3 Act 2]==

	Back on Cylon occupied [[The Twelve Colonies (RDM)#Caprica\|Caprica]]. You'll notice that it rains a lot, I don't know if I've spoken about this at all in previous podcasts, because I don't remember such things, but you'll notice it rains a lot in Cylon-occupied Caprica. Part of this is our acknowledgement towards the ecological disaster that must have befallen the planet following the nuclear attack, some sort of nuclear winter must have set in, or certainly climate changes are underway, given all that's happened. So part of it is that acknowledgement of the reality of the situation, and part of it is also to give it, in an episode like this, a distinct look that’s different, say, than [[Kobol]] which we're going to be going to shortly. So as a producer have this challenge where you have two planets in this episode, you're cutting between Kobol and Caprica, you need them to quickly orientate the audience and be visually distinct from one another, so that you're not confused on which planet you're on. These are the things that keep producers and executives up, awake all night long.		Back on Cylon occupied [[The Twelve Colonies (RDM)#Caprica\|Caprica]]. You'll notice that it rains a lot, I don't know if I've spoken about this at all in previous podcasts, because I don't remember such things, but you'll notice it rains a lot in Cylon-occupied Caprica. Part of this is our acknowledgement towards the ecological disaster that must have befallen the planet following the nuclear attack, some sort of nuclear winter must have set in, or certainly climate changes are underway, given all that's happened. So part of it is that acknowledgement of the reality of the situation, and part of it is also to give it, in an episode like this, a distinct look that’s different, say, than [[Kobol (RDM)\|Kobol]] which we're going to be going to shortly. So as a producer have this challenge where you have two planets in this episode, you're cutting between Kobol and Caprica, you need them to quickly orientate the audience and be visually distinct from one another, so that you're not confused on which planet you're on. These are the things that keep producers and executives up, awake all night long.

	This scene I am quite fond of: [[Lee Adama\|Lee]] coming down and confronting [[Kara Thrace\|Kara]]. In the scripted version this confrontation came later, there was a different moment after the [[Full Colors\|Triad]] game, where Lee started to realize that Kara had slept with [[Gaius Baltar\|Baltar]] and he starts to understand that. He basically publicly outed Kara in front of the squadron, in [[Pilot Ready Rooms\|the ready room]], in the same way that Kara pulls crap on the pilots all the time, and gives people shit, and just generally is not above practical jokes and public humiliation. And Lee turned a back on her and basically had a practical joke ready in the ready room, and made it clear to everybody that she was sleeping with the vice president and they all hoot and laugh and really took it to her. And it was an interesting scene, but it also seemed a bit out of character for Lee, we didn't really believe Lee would do that. This seemed more true: that he would just go down and get in her face, and that Kara would have a lot of guilt and not want it to go there. And then we've got boom, boom. I like the fact that it doesn't devolve into some kind of scrum, it's not a fight. She hit him 'cos that's what Kara is, Kara will throw a punch every once in a while. I think that's part of her character is that every once in a while she gets pushed too far and she snaps and she'll hit you. And the thing with Lee was he hit her right back and then kept going on. So to me that spoke volumes about their relationship, and about who Lee is and who Kara is as well.		This scene I am quite fond of: [[Lee Adama\|Lee]] coming down and confronting [[Kara Thrace\|Kara]]. In the scripted version this confrontation came later, there was a different moment after the [[Full Colors\|Triad]] game, where Lee started to realize that Kara had slept with [[Gaius Baltar\|Baltar]] and he starts to understand that. He basically publicly outed Kara in front of the squadron, in [[Pilot Ready Rooms\|the ready room]], in the same way that Kara pulls crap on the pilots all the time, and gives people shit, and just generally is not above practical jokes and public humiliation. And Lee turned a back on her and basically had a practical joke ready in the ready room, and made it clear to everybody that she was sleeping with the vice president and they all hoot and laugh and really took it to her. And it was an interesting scene, but it also seemed a bit out of character for Lee, we didn't really believe Lee would do that. This seemed more true: that he would just go down and get in her face, and that Kara would have a lot of guilt and not want it to go there. And then we've got boom, boom. I like the fact that it doesn't devolve into some kind of scrum, it's not a fight. She hit him 'cos that's what Kara is, Kara will throw a punch every once in a while. I think that's part of her character is that every once in a while she gets pushed too far and she snaps and she'll hit you. And the thing with Lee was he hit her right back and then kept going on. So to me that spoke volumes about their relationship, and about who Lee is and who Kara is as well.
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	Now we're back, now we're dealing with more of these insert shots, and photographs that we may or may not have had on the day. Yeah, the notion of permanent settlement was something that came up all the time, and shouldn't we be look- and [[William Adama\|Adama's]] mind's certainly- they're looking for a place just to camp and hang out, and be safe, and stop running through the galaxy trying to cobble supplies everywhere. But this notion that here's an unknown planet, you can't just go down and set up camp, you should set up a ground team.		Now we're back, now we're dealing with more of these insert shots, and photographs that we may or may not have had on the day. Yeah, the notion of permanent settlement was something that came up all the time, and shouldn't we be look- and [[William Adama\|Adama's]] mind's certainly- they're looking for a place just to camp and hang out, and be safe, and stop running through the galaxy trying to cobble supplies everywhere. But this notion that here's an unknown planet, you can't just go down and set up camp, you should set up a ground team.

	Now in the script, in early version- in early drafts of the script, there were two teams that went to [[Kobol]]. There was the initial survey mission, which had [[Galen Tyrol\|Tyrol]] and [[Cally]] and [[Socinus]] aboard, and that mission stayed on Kobol throughout. It just went down, they landed safely, and they were surveying the ground, the planet, and then they saw some- a flash of metal off in the distance, and they said "What's that?", and they took a look at it. And they found that there was a temple there, that there was a temple which was almost an identical te- to the one that one built on [[The Twelve Colonies (RDM)#Caprica\|Caprica]]. There was a temple on Caprica that was very key as well, and there was these two temples, this was sort of the large scale idea. There was a temple on Caprica and a temple on Kobol, that they were linked, not literally linked, but they were linked in that the colo- the original colonists had built the temple on Caprica in- to sort of emulate the one that they remembered or were told about that was originally back on Kobol, and a lot of the action took place in and around those two temples, and you would have the ground team of Tyrol and his guys there. They discover it first, and then later a second reconnaissance team was sent, and the second was the one that crashed in the original script and that had [[Lee Adama\|Lee]] on board actually, Lee and some- a bunch of [[Colonial Marine Corps\|marines]]. And at the end of night two you had Lee and his marines and Tyrol and his ground crew all holed up inside the temple, and the Cyl- there were like [[Cylons (RDM)\|Cylons]] everywhere outside the temple. And that was the cliff-hanger; they're trapped inside and what the hell are they going to do.		Now in the script, in early version- in early drafts of the script, there were two teams that went to [[Kobol (RDM)\|Kobol]]. There was the initial survey mission, which had [[Galen Tyrol\|Tyrol]] and [[Cally]] and [[Socinus]] aboard, and that mission stayed on Kobol throughout. It just went down, they landed safely, and they were surveying the ground, the planet, and then they saw some- a flash of metal off in the distance, and they said "What's that?", and they took a look at it. And they found that there was a temple there, that there was a temple which was almost an identical te- to the one that one built on [[The Twelve Colonies (RDM)#Caprica\|Caprica]]. There was a temple on Caprica that was very key as well, and there was these two temples, this was sort of the large scale idea. There was a temple on Caprica and a temple on Kobol, that they were linked, not literally linked, but they were linked in that the colo- the original colonists had built the temple on Caprica in- to sort of emulate the one that they remembered or were told about that was originally back on Kobol, and a lot of the action took place in and around those two temples, and you would have the ground team of Tyrol and his guys there. They discover it first, and then later a second reconnaissance team was sent, and the second was the one that crashed in the original script and that had [[Lee Adama\|Lee]] on board actually, Lee and some- a bunch of [[Colonial Marine Corps\|marines]]. And at the end of night two you had Lee and his marines and Tyrol and his ground crew all holed up inside the temple, and the Cyl- there were like [[Cylons (RDM)\|Cylons]] everywhere outside the temple. And that was the cliff-hanger; they're trapped inside and what the hell are they going to do.

	Now this scene between Tyrol and [[Sharon Valerii (Galactica copy)\|Sharon]]. There was another scene that I believe we did film that had Lee coming to see Sharon and just reading her the riot act about how stupid she was, and you always check for a round in the chamber and "God you're-", and her just going "God, I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry.", and it's like oh-OK. And it's kind of one of those "I'm yelling at you, but really glad you're alive," kind of moments. But ultimately this is the one with the heart, this one's more effective, and I don't think we were able to keep the other one for time, but I think this is a better scene in any case. And we mention that "Gee, I can't believe you didn't check for a round." is- or "a round in the chamber." is much more offhand, much easier to get the idea across than a bigger, more elaborate scene with Lee.		Now this scene between Tyrol and [[Sharon Valerii (Galactica copy)\|Sharon]]. There was another scene that I believe we did film that had Lee coming to see Sharon and just reading her the riot act about how stupid she was, and you always check for a round in the chamber and "God you're-", and her just going "God, I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry.", and it's like oh-OK. And it's kind of one of those "I'm yelling at you, but really glad you're alive," kind of moments. But ultimately this is the one with the heart, this one's more effective, and I don't think we were able to keep the other one for time, but I think this is a better scene in any case. And we mention that "Gee, I can't believe you didn't check for a round." is- or "a round in the chamber." is much more offhand, much easier to get the idea across than a bigger, more elaborate scene with Lee.
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	==[http://www.scifi.com/battlestar/downloads/podcast/mp3/112/bsg_ep112_5of5.mp3 Act 4]==		==[http://www.scifi.com/battlestar/downloads/podcast/mp3/112/bsg_ep112_5of5.mp3 Act 4]==

	So now we're in a crisis. Now we know that there's at least one [[Basestar (RDM)\|basestar]] out there, their baseship out there. The [[Cylon]]s are around [[Kobol]]. We've gotta get our people out of there, what do we do? And again, this- the conflict between [[Laura Roslin\|Laura]] and [[William Adama\|Adama]] is not over, Laura wants to use the [[Raider]] to get back to [[The Twelve Colonies (RDM)#Caprica\|Caprica]], Adama sees it as simply a military asset. But she knows- what I thinks is interesting is that she knows better than to suggest that- she doesn't bring the argument up again, she knows it's hopeless, she's not changing Adama's mind. But she's already on to her next theory, which involves [[Kara Thrace\|this young lady]] here.		So now we're in a crisis. Now we know that there's at least one [[Basestar (RDM)\|basestar]] out there, their baseship out there. The [[Cylon]]s are around [[Kobol (RDM)\|Kobol]]. We've gotta get our people out of there, what do we do? And again, this- the conflict between [[Laura Roslin\|Laura]] and [[William Adama\|Adama]] is not over, Laura wants to use the [[Raider]] to get back to [[The Twelve Colonies (RDM)#Caprica\|Caprica]], Adama sees it as simply a military asset. But she knows- what I thinks is interesting is that she knows better than to suggest that- she doesn't bring the argument up again, she knows it's hopeless, she's not changing Adama's mind. But she's already on to her next theory, which involves [[Kara Thrace\|this young lady]] here.

	One of the things that I always liked was the notion that as soon as [[Kara Thrace\|Starbuck]] became a woman it changed the dynamic here. That there was always going to be some kind of tension between [[Lee Adama\|him]] and her, because he's a man and she's a woman. And that that was the fundamental reason why to change her to a woman, it made this relationship more interesting. They're comrades-in-arms, they're friends. Are they ever going to be anything more than that? Maybe, maybe not. But it's complicated by the fact of where they are, and that first and foremost they're pilots fighting in a war, and they have to try and keep the personal and professional in separate categories in their minds. And that to me makes it more complicated, and I think it's always going to be complicated. When you put men and women into these situations, when you ask them to serve side by side, in a police station, a fire house, an aircraft carrier, lives are at stake, there are professional duties that must be carried out, there's hierarchies, there's chains of command. It becomes complicated, and none of the answers are so easy, and I think that's an interesting place to set drama. Because when the answers aren't easy, that's great, that's what you want, you want to play all those beats.		One of the things that I always liked was the notion that as soon as [[Kara Thrace\|Starbuck]] became a woman it changed the dynamic here. That there was always going to be some kind of tension between [[Lee Adama\|him]] and her, because he's a man and she's a woman. And that that was the fundamental reason why to change her to a woman, it made this relationship more interesting. They're comrades-in-arms, they're friends. Are they ever going to be anything more than that? Maybe, maybe not. But it's complicated by the fact of where they are, and that first and foremost they're pilots fighting in a war, and they have to try and keep the personal and professional in separate categories in their minds. And that to me makes it more complicated, and I think it's always going to be complicated. When you put men and women into these situations, when you ask them to serve side by side, in a police station, a fire house, an aircraft carrier, lives are at stake, there are professional duties that must be carried out, there's hierarchies, there's chains of command. It becomes complicated, and none of the answers are so easy, and I think that's an interesting place to set drama. Because when the answers aren't easy, that's great, that's what you want, you want to play all those beats.