Editing Podcast:The Woman King

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|transcribed by= [[User:Steelviper|Steelviper]]

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Ok. Thirteen. "The Woman King." This episode came essentially out of our desire to do a couple of different things. One was to setup a long-running plot line that was supposed to last from here until the end of [[Season 3 (2006-07)|the season]] that had to do with the [[The Twelve Colonies of Kobol#Sagittaron|Sagittarons]]. Ultimately that one did not pan out the way that we anticipated, initially, about what we were gonna do with the Sagittarons as a people. It was going to figure prominently in [[Gaius Baltar|Baltar]]'s trial, by the end of the season, and this episode was designed in part to get those storylines going. However, once we actually got into the meat of Baltar's trial, beyond even the first draft. I mean, we did a first draft that had the Saggitarions featured prominently, and what they were doing, and then dropped it in subsequent drafts. And I'll talk more about that as the show goes on.

The idea of the illness and the illness that the [[The Twelve Colonies of Kobol#Sagittarons|Sagittarons]] brought aboard and are spreading, even though it's treatable, was a late-developing idea as we struggled with the Sagittarons and what their beliefs were and why they were different, why they were the victims of prejudice from some of the other [[The Twelve Colonies of Kobol|colonies]]. There is this developing idea this season of something that we had been talking about within the civilian world for a long time, and had never really- now we bring to the forefront was this idea that there were class structures and hierarchies and different, if not racial, then at least tribal feelings among [[The Fleet (RDM)|the Fleet]] that- what- which colony you were from had meaning within the Twelve Colony structure  and that as they were out on their journey, post- the post-[[Fall of the Twelve Colonies|apocalyptic]] journey, that eventually those feelings and rivalries and prejudices would rise to the fore as well, and so we had always been looking for ways to start indicating that and this story with the Sagittarons, like I said a couple of times, was intended to eventually illuminate and be part of the backstory that actually happened on [[New Caprica]] during the missing year. And during that time there was an incident. There was a massacre. There was like a whole complicated backstory of what the Sagittarons had done and had done to them. They had essentially isolated themselves on New Caprica, had done their own thing while everyone else was doing something else, and essentially there came a crisis point and people were killed, and I won't give you the whole thing. But [[Gaius Baltar|Baltar]] was directly involved with it, so was [[Tom Zarek|Zarek]]. [[Felix Gaeta|Gaeta]] was around. And it was gonna figure- eventually there was a secret within that that was going to figure prominently in Baltar's trial. So we were laying a lot of this pipe to set up who the Sagittarons were and what was going on.

Here we are, back in [[Joe's bar]]. I love the fact that we're back in Joe's. Ooh, [[Margaret Edmondson|Racetrack]] out of [[uniforms (RDM)|uniform]]. Racetrack out of uniform looks fantastic. Good to see [[Charlie Connor|Connor]] again. Connor from [[New Caprica Resistance|the resistance]], all of you remember. And this is us starting to use the bar a little bit more. This was another of the justifications for having- for setting up Joe's bar at all was that we could get back to these kind of scenes a little easier if they're on [[Galactica (RDM)|''Galactica'']] than you ever could on ''[[Cloud 9]]''. Of course, we'd always had the rec room. Pilots and people were always hanging out in the rec room to an extent, but it's nice to have a change of pace.

In this scene I feel like- I think we pushed a little too hard in terms of the racial animosity from [[Galen Tyrol|Tyrol]] and some of the other guys towards the [[The Twelve Colonies of Kobol#Sagittaron|Sagittarons]], especially as it was something that we had never really said in the show. So I think that's- we pushed a little too hard here, but we had to push hard here because had to make point of it because it was a new idea in the show. So it's one of those damned if we do, damned if we don't kinda things.

We had other tales of [[Anastasia Dualla|Dualla]] as Sagittaron. There was a whole other story where it was more of a "Dee story", where Dualla was really the one leading this episode and really- or leading a story. It wasn't even this episode. It was really- we had one that was much more strongly about Dualla as a Sagittaron and her conflicted feelings of being in the [[Colonial Fleet (RDM)|military]], 'cause Sagittarons didn't join the military, and that was seen as a betrayal by her people, and then she was forced to deal with them in a crisis, and ultimately that story went away too, 'cause we- again, we were looking for many ways to enhance the tale of the Sagittarons, overall  in [[Battlestar Galactica (RDM)|the series]].

This is interesting because here's Head-Six- [[Cylon-Related_Hallucinations#Six's Internal Baltar|Head-Baltar]] again, which we hadn't seen Head-Baltar in quite a while, and it's great to have him back. I had to push this through a little bit. There some people that- there was some internal resistance. "Why are we going back to Head-Baltar?  Aren't we done with him?" And I felt, "Well, no." I mean, she's- if she's- if she is who we've always said she was then she's essentially still seeing him and that there's meaning to that and I wanna keep the idea of Head-Baltar alive with [[Caprica-Six]], not to spend huge amounts of time on it, but essentially keep it going because I have other plans and other ideas for what will become of Head-Baltar, down the line. Not even necessarily in [[Season 3 (2006-07)|this season]] but part of the larger plan for the show.

I like this little beat of [[Laura Roslin|Laura]] still monitoring these sessions personally. Her invested- her investment, her interest in what happens to Caprica-Six and the prisoners, I think, is an interesting tale that we keep moving along. What's gonna become of Caprica-Six? What will Laura do when [[Gaius Baltar|Baltar]] goes to trial? But essentially the scene is an excuse to do this again. To really get back into Caprica-Six's head and to see that she's still having these conversations with her version of Baltar.

The deleted scene in tonight's episode is the moment when Helo confesses to Adama that he was the one responsible for shutting down the biological weapon and preventing them from using it against the Cylons. I liked that scene a lot. I'm on the fence about whether we should have included it in the show or not. It wasn't cut just for time, although that was part of it. It was also that it raised a huge issue in the show that then ultimately went nowhere in the show. As I said in the beginning of the podcast, it was one of the impetuses for doing the episode was to include that moment and to talk about Helo's subsequent arc since the events of that [[A Measure of Salvation|earlier episode]] how his decision had affected him and his shipmates, etc., etc. But because so many of those elements had gotten cut back, there really was only that scene left in the show. So it became a choice of, well, he has this one moment. He can confess to Adama this thing that refers to several episodes ago and Adama essentially doesn't want to deal with it and let's him know that, "You know, you don't want a- I don't want an investigation here, and I don't think you do either and get the hell out," and it goes nowhere, and I'll come back to this after the act break.

RDM: So, like I was saying, [[Karl Agathon|Helo]]'s confession essentially went nowhere, so I could keep that in the show, and then just feel like- have it stick out like a sore thumb, a little bit, because it really was in isolation. There was no followup to it. And didn't really have a play into what was happening the rest of the episode, or I could cut it and thereby excise one of the principle reasons for doing the episode in the first place. And at that moment I think in my view you, as the producer, make the decision of, "What's the episode about for you? What is this episode now about? And is that moment so crucial that the story that's in front of you on the screen doesn't matter any more or not?" And usually that's- that argument loses and essentially you look at the film you have in the cutting room and you say, "Well, whatever I intended to do, whatever the idea that I set out to do in this week's episode, this is what I have." I believe that very strongly. Whatever your intention was in writing the script, this is the film we shot. Ok? And this is the episode you now have. So, the challenge is to make the best version of this. Make the best film you have. Make the best episode of what you have. Instead of hanging on to try to execute what your initial concept was, because that's just- it's water under the bridge and fifty other clichés. So that was essentially, again, the reason why I decided to cut the scene. It was easy to do in terms of time, to justify, 'cause we were long, as always, and looking for cuts. And also it stuck out like a sore thumb. And it didn't help this episode. It hurt this episode a little bit, 'cause it diverted your attention into another arena and another backstory and another notion, at a time when the show- this episode is asking you to pay attention, 'cause you can feel that we're moving towards revelation. We're moving towards confrontation. You could sense the rhythm and the pace of the episode starting to pick up a little bit. Things are happening. Revelations are being made. And then suddenly this story took this left turn into this other subject. And then it went nowhere after that.

Here is the actual woman [[Portia King]]. The relationship between Helo and the woman King was an interesting one, I think, in theory more than it was in actuality. I wish- I guess if I could go back  and mess around with this episode more, I would try to detail out a little bit more of the finer subtleties of sh- this woman was and her relationship with Helo. I wish she had a little bit more of a relationship with Helo. But that- I don't know. I'm not sure that I have an easy answer to that. But that's an area that I would want to tweak and mess with a little bit.

This subsequent scene of Helo- I think we cut now to the Helo in the corridor, if I'm not mistaken. 'Cause I think this upcoming scene was added later as a pickup scene. No, I'm thinking of a different cut.

Anyway, Helo then goes to [[Cottle]]'s office. This we did have to go back and reshoot later. We didn't have all of this during the time that we shot the episode, so a lot of this material was shot weeks later, well out of sequence. It was important to get this idea of Helo going through- this is where it moves into classic procedural territory, where Helo goes through the files, looks up information. This is your hero moment, hero Helo moment, of him getting the clues, putting it together. This is fill in the blank- [[w:Walker, Texas Ranger|''Walker, Texas Ranger'']] here. Helo- there's a good possibility he might jump up on that desk and drop kick Cottle when he comes into the room.