Toggle menu
Toggle preferences menu
Toggle personal menu
Not logged in
Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits.

Editing Podcast:The Oath

From Battlestar Wiki, the free, open content Battlestar Galactica encyclopedia and episode guide
Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.
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 101: Line 101:
We talked a lot about the relationship between Gaeta and Baltar over the years. A lot of that had gone by the wayside over the last season or so but it was- there was something really interesting about it, at it's heart, even at the beginning of the series when we designated Gaeta as hero-worshiping Baltar to an extent because they were both- had an interest in science and Gaeta fancied himself a bit of a- having a bit of a scientific mind. And he did. But Gaius Baltar was a celebrity and a legitimate genius. There was a certain affinity between the two. And Gaeta having no idea of Baltar's responsibility in the destruction of the colonies. And who the- the nature of the man that he was dealing with, and how that would help Baltar, but also make Baltar feel incredibly guilty at the same time. And I was always really fond of that dynamic between those two men, even going so far as to say that when Baltar became president that he would tap Gaeta to be his right hand, and that Gaeta would accept the position, eve- and then remain in it even during the occupation and try to- he believed in Baltar on some- very fundamental level. And that belief was for naught, and I think that also embittered Gaeta and his belief in authority and his belief in following people and his disillusion with Gaius Baltar contributes in a very fundamental way towards his- where he ultimately gets to in these episodes. And I like that Baltar is willing to pick up the phone and try. Baltar is willing to use his personal connection to this man to try to stop this. Baltar's traveling a road too. In many ways, Baltar and Felix are going in opposite directions. Baltar's trying to claw his way back towards the light, as best he can in his own deeply flawed way, and Gaeta is going deeper into the darkness.
We talked a lot about the relationship between Gaeta and Baltar over the years. A lot of that had gone by the wayside over the last season or so but it was- there was something really interesting about it, at it's heart, even at the beginning of the series when we designated Gaeta as hero-worshiping Baltar to an extent because they were both- had an interest in science and Gaeta fancied himself a bit of a- having a bit of a scientific mind. And he did. But Gaius Baltar was a celebrity and a legitimate genius. There was a certain affinity between the two. And Gaeta having no idea of Baltar's responsibility in the destruction of the colonies. And who the- the nature of the man that he was dealing with, and how that would help Baltar, but also make Baltar feel incredibly guilty at the same time. And I was always really fond of that dynamic between those two men, even going so far as to say that when Baltar became president that he would tap Gaeta to be his right hand, and that Gaeta would accept the position, eve- and then remain in it even during the occupation and try to- he believed in Baltar on some- very fundamental level. And that belief was for naught, and I think that also embittered Gaeta and his belief in authority and his belief in following people and his disillusion with Gaius Baltar contributes in a very fundamental way towards his- where he ultimately gets to in these episodes. And I like that Baltar is willing to pick up the phone and try. Baltar is willing to use his personal connection to this man to try to stop this. Baltar's traveling a road too. In many ways, Baltar and Felix are going in opposite directions. Baltar's trying to claw his way back towards the light, as best he can in his own deeply flawed way, and Gaeta is going deeper into the darkness.


There is a missing element in the show now. We shot this before we did the webisodes, so an element that we would've played in the series, had we known that we were gonna do it in the webisodes is of course the relationship between Gaeta and Hoshi. In the webisodes we establish that Gaeta is having- has a relationship with Hoshi, a romantic and probably sexual relationship with Hoshi, and if we had known that at the time we were doing this there clearly would've been a stronger Hoshi element in these episodes. There would've been more fallout. There would've been a question of whose side Hoshi was gonna be on. But that just came later and it was something that we came up with when we were doing the webisodes, which were done after the series had wrapped, afterly- actually, and I like the idea of that relationship in Gaeta's life, and I liked what it did in the webisodes and as we thought back of how it affected these episodes. There's nothing in here that contradicts that relationship. There's nothing that says, "Oh, well they couldn't have been in a relationship because of X, Y, and Z." And I think it's- for people listening to the podcasts and people who are presumably fans of the show, I don't think it takes a tremendous effort to find a rationalization that essentially we're just not seeing those scenes. We're just not seeing the moment of decision between Hoshi and Gaeta, and that they did occur off-camera, and that we the audience just didn't get a chance to see them.
There is a missing element in the show now
 
Right there. I love the way that Starbuck and Apollo react when Laura and Adama kiss each other so publicly. And they make no effort to hide this whatsoever. It's almost deliberately in front of all of them. And I love the way that the two kids look at one another like what mom and dad are doing. It's like, OK, whatever. I don't know what to make of this. And that they make a public statement of their love for one another. And that love is not to be questioned or fucked around with in any way. This is now something that's important to the Admiral. It's something that's important to the president. And that's the way it's going to be.
 
And then we get down here to the f- to the end. To the final place that we end the cliffhanger on. And will they escape? What becomes of Adama? Where are we gonna go in all this? This is a really good- this is the classic place you break the two-parter. Where everything is still hanging in the balance. You're feeling like the show cannot possibly be over. You're looking at your watch going, "No! This can't be it! They're gonna keep going, aren't they?" I mean, it's a good- In many ways it's better than a cliffhanger. A cliffhanger's where you really maximize the tension and you're literally- they're hanging off the cliff and what's gonna happen. This has so much going on. This just feels- this is a- this just feels like we interrupted the story midpoint. And that's the definition of a two-parter, really. It's just- there really are two parts to this that you could watch concurrent- not concurrent. You could watch them sequentially together and it would make a very cohesive story. And we've just chosen to artificially break them in the middle because television demands that we deliver hours instead of two hours.
 
This we decid- this took a bit of wrangling and figuring out Gaeta's response and how much he would belabor it. Would he give the order? Would he not give the order? It felt like this was a- one of several points of no return for Mr. Gaeta when he orders them to shoot down the Raptor. That felt like he was making a further commitment to the path he was already on.
 
The two old soldiers gonna just- they're gonna defend this little port until that Raptor gets outta here. That's pretty cool. I like that. I like him shooting between the cracks. There really aren't a lot of ways out of this room. To be continued.
 
Well, there you have it. That's episode fifteen, "[[The Oath]]". I hope you enjoyed it. I think it's a good episode and I think the next one's really good as well. We're on a really good run to the finish. As we say in the writers' room, we're in the mad dash for the logo. So until next time, this is Ronald D. Moore signing off. Good night, and good luck.
<!--0:43:13.9-->

To edit this page, please enter the words that appear below in the box (more info):

Refresh
Cancel Editing help (opens in new window)

  [] · [[]] · [[|]] · {{}} · · “” ‘’ «» ‹› „“ ‚‘ · ~ | ° &nbsp; · ± × ÷ ² ³ ½ · §
     [[Category:]] · [[:File:]] · [[Special:MyLanguage/]] · <code></code> · <nowiki></nowiki> <code><nowiki></nowiki></code> · <syntaxhighlight></syntaxhighlight> · <includeonly></includeonly> · <noinclude></noinclude> · #REDIRECT[[]] · <translate></translate> · <languages/> · {{#translation:}} · <tvar|></> · {{DEFAULTSORT:}} · <categorytree></categorytree> · <div style="clear:both;"></div> <s></s>


Your changes will be visible immediately.
  • For testing, please use the sandbox instead.
  • On talk pages, please sign your comment by typing four tildes (~~~~).