Talk:Ronald D. Moore/Archive 1

RDM on Slashdot

A slashdot article brought this to my attention. He'll be giving a keynote at the 2006 Game Developers Conference (in San Jose from March 20-24) called "Building a Better Battlestar". Maybe they'll be nice and post a transcript. --Steelviper 10:07, 7 February 2006 (EST)

TheStreet.com Interview

Dean Stockwell will be back: that's not too big of a spoiler. We don't see ships in the Fleet due to budgetary constraints; he mentioned this before in the Bastille Day commentary: they broke the budget on that episode. My big concern with it was a clarification of Gina's motiviations.--The Merovingian ^{(C - E)} 20:35, 5 April 2006 (CDT)

Writer credits

I was wondering why most writer's profiles feature both the links to the episodes they've written (in chronological order) and a link to another page which mostly consists of... the links to the episodes they've written (in alphabetical order (AO)). Isn't that a bit redundant? I mean, is there at least another page which links to the AO pages? Well, at least I haven't found a page which lists all the writers (or even their episodes) which I think would be nice. Opinions? --Pedda 11:34, 29 August 2006 (CDT)

Some of what you are talking about may be the auto-generated category pages. They can seem redundant when viewed at their particular level, but sometimes an article will belong to multiple similar categories so that the category navigation will work correctly if you're navigating through the categories.

A list of all the writers can be found at Category:Writers, and a list of their episodes can be found by navigating from that category to Category:Episodes by writer (RDM) if you're looking for the new series. --Steelviper 12:10, 29 August 2006 (CDT)

Alright, thanks for the clarification and the links. I'm still new to the wiki system, so it takes some time to get used to the plethora of aspects. The Category:Writers is a good thing, but how do you access it? I've searched for phrases like "writer" or "writers" more than once. Due to the unchecked "search in categories" box - which is standard, I guess - the page just can't be found... --Pedda 13:43, 29 August 2006 (CDT)

That's a good question. Offhand, the first place I'd point would be the Reimagined series portal. You could drill down from crew to get to the writers. Also there is the Reimagined crew subportal (though that's a bit spartan). Barring that (and worst case scenario) you can browse all the categories (the "categories" off of the special pages), but I wouldn't reccomend that to anyone. It's too easy to get lost in the stacks. Although we've got some really smart people here working out what should be in which category, I'm not sure how often they are used by people for navigation. I'd guess far more people are like yourself, and would try searching. I suppose we could build up a "list of" article, but once again you introduce yet more redundancy. --Steelviper 14:20, 29 August 2006 (CDT)

There's 2 lists just because that's how categories work; the main list of the episodes they've done, all in one place, is here on their article, and episodes they've done have been categorized together; the main "Category:Ron Moore Episodes" page isn't meant to supplant this one. --The Merovingian ^{(C - E)} 14:27, 29 August 2006 (CDT)

Strike?

I remember someone posting some information about the upcoming writers' strike. I can't seem to find it, though. :( -- Pedda 07:32, 30 September 2007 (CDT)

It's brought up on Caprica (series). -- Joe Beaudoin ^{So say we all - Donate - Sanctuary Wiki — New} 09:27, 30 September 2007 (CDT)

Thanks, Joe.--Pedda 09:47, 30 September 2007 (CDT)

No problem. :) -- Joe Beaudoin ^{So say we all - Donate - Sanctuary Wiki — New} 10:16, 30 September 2007 (CDT)

Moore as Head Writer

Could we get some clarification about Moore's writing credits. Almost every single one of these shows was originally written by Moore in outline form (detailed to the beats) and then the writers took it and based it off of his outline. By crediting Moore with just a handful of shows I think it minimizes his major contribution to the writing. I realize that he credited other writers for the shows he wrote the outlines for but in reality it would be inaccurate to claim he did not write the shows. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Astralis (talk • contribs).

Well, in order for the clarification to occur, we'd need to have the sources to back up such information (like how every single show is apparently written by Moore in outline form). Offhand, I don't know of any sources that supports this assertion, but if you have them, feel free to let us know about 'em! -- Joe Beaudoin ^{So say we all - Donate - Battlestar Pegasus} 21:10, 9 March 2008 (CDT)

I'm basing it on the podcasts where he states he wrote them. For example, almost every show in Season Two was written by him, except for Home I and Home II. There are a couple of others that I haven't seen. One could go through the podcasts and find his direct quotes stating that he wrote them. -- Astralis 21:39, 9 March 2008 (CDT)

It's really a collaboration and I wouldn't say that he wrote them entirely. Sometimes people pitch in ideas, then he says "ok, but how about including this and that too". Then some writer will write the story and/or teleplay and Moore does some rewrites to change stuff. The scripts might go back and forth a few times until it's done. So yes, he has his hand in all episodes (that comes with the job as executive producer), but we base the writing credits with the actual credits of the episodes. As in who wrote most of it. That isn't necessarily reflective of the actual creative process. Sometimes (not just with BSG) a staff writer will do massive rewrites without being credited.

You also have to distinguish between story and teleplay. What you mean is that he wrote the story. But the final script is the teleplay. -- Serenity 07:55, 10 March 2008 (CDT)

Exactly...I think it might be a good idea, if possible, to distinguish who wrote the teleplay and who wrote the story. While the process is a collaboration, the basic premise and outline of each episode seems to have originated in Moore's mind. Documenting this might be difficult because the credits don't make mention of this. But the podcasts suggest, and sometimes are explicit, that the stories are created by Moore. I think it would be worth documenting it, though, which is why I mentioned it. -- Astralis 15:31, 10 March 2008 (CDT)

Although I'm interested in this as well... This is all very nebulous, actually. A lot of show runners tend to "pitch" stories, or retool pitches they receive, but under WGA rules they don't actually get the credit unless they go through a certain process. (That's my current understanding of the situation, at least. I could be wrong.) Also, this might be more of a Bradley question... -- Joe Beaudoin ^{So say we all - Donate - Battlestar Pegasus} 15:39, 10 March 2008 (CDT)

It's basically impossible to reflect that besides the note we already have. It's not as clear-cut as you imply. Sometimes he might write an outline, but sometime might only give some guidelines or mention an idea to base an episode on. That's not the same as writing the story. Sure, he and Eick weigh in on everything and ultimately decide how to cut the episodes, but the actual writing is generally done by the particular writers (as said with possible rewrites and of course comments and changes by the exec producers). The whole staff comes up with the stories in the writing room through discussions. Sure, Moore certainly has clear ideas on where to take the show and steers the other writers, but he can also be swayed by them, and he can leave the details to others. If he signs off on them, they're realized. So saying that Moore came up with everything is giving the other producers less credit than they deserve. Of course he is the creative force of the show, but this isn't Babylon 5 where one guy writes a whole season or dictates the entire story. There are clear examples where Moore did not come up with the idea for an episode. "The Passage" for example originated with an idea/presentation by Kevin Grazier. "Unfinished Business" wasn't well defined until someone had the idea to set it around a boxing match. Before that it wasn't even clear that it would include all of the flashbacks shot previously. -- Serenity 15:50, 10 March 2008 (CDT)

Caprica

I think the article's a little out of date with regards to the spin-off - isn't it true that it's been picked up by Sci-fi now?Ratface 21:50, 5 March 2009 (UTC)

You're absolutely right. I've updated it, but in the future, be bold, my friend! JubalHarshaw 05:59, 6 March 2009 (UTC)

Re-imagined Series definition: Battlestar Group ^{(TRS: "Water")}. It also doubles as an acronym for the television series itself.

Re-imagined Series definition: initial skills training; can refer to basic military indoctrination, and arms and ground training ^{(TRS: "Fragged")}; and basic flight training ^{(TRS: "Miniseries")}