Podcast:The Battlestar Roundtable

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Introduction

Ronald D. Moore: Hello and welcome to a very special podcast. I'm Ronald D. Moore, executive producer and developer of the new Battlestar Galactica, and tonight we're going to feature a round-table discussion of the show, with some special guests here at the apartment in Vancouver. And we'll go round the table, and introduce everyone who's here tonight.

Jamie Bamber: Hi, I'm Jamie Bamber, at Ron and Terry's house, and I'm drinking fine scotch.

James Callis: Um, I'm James Callis, who plays Gaius Baltar. I'm also here in Ron and Terry's lovely place, and we're gonna discuss the, uh, the season.

Harry Wells: Hi, I'm Harry Wells, I'm completely random... friend of Jamie Bamber's from school! So, uh...

Mrs. Ron: See, he'll have great insights!

Wells: (laughs) There you go.

Tamoh Penikett: Hi, I'm Tamoh Penikett, and uh, I play Helo, and I'm also drinking fine scotch...

Mrs. Ron: Like, like... like they don't know who you guys play! You guys are modest, they're very modest. Okay!

Mark Sheppard: I'm Mark Sheppard...

Bamber: Wha... who's he? I've been wondering who you are all night...

Mrs. Ron: All these brits...

Sheppard: ...and all you have to know is it's all about me.

(laughs)

Bamber: That's all I do know.

Mrs. Ron: Ahh, that's very good...

RDM: Tell 'em, uh, name your role.

Shepherd: I'm playing Romo Lampkin, but you won't be seeing me for a while.

RDM: He, uh, you won't see him for quite a while. And...?

Mrs. Ron: And I'm Mrs. Ron of course.

Callis, Sheppard, Bamber: Yay Mrs. Ron. Woohoo!

RDM: And together they're Battlestar Galactica.

Mrs. Ron: And he's Mr. Terry.

Hour One

RDM: Okay, so.

Mrs. Ron: So, since we left for dinner there have been 175 questions.

RDM: Yes, and we'll get to the questions, and, but we're not going to start with the questions.

Mrs. Ron: I just got shut down.

RDM: Yes, you got shut down. We're going to talk about the beginning of the season up until about episode eight or nine, generally, ah, anything is open for discussion in terms of how we felt about the season, likes, dislikes, favorite moments, problems, yes, yes dear, eventually we'll get to your questions. Ah, Tahmoh, tell me about the beginning of this season as opposed to the beginning of last season? Just in general in sort of the feeling of doing it and being on the set and sort of you know any differences between this year and last year?

Penikett: Well I mean obviously the big difference was me being in the CIC playing the XO, which was a great experience for me because I get to hang out with Eddie [ Edward James Olmos ] all the time, and Eddie's always a riot.

RDM: Now you weren't on the Galactica sets the whole first season.

Penikett: Not at all.

RDM: So you were very separate.

Crosstalk

Penikett: [...] every story I'd always tell right, every time I came in to see everybody because I'd be working on location I'd have somebody ask me what I was doing, or where I was going...

Bamber: How was it in the rain on Tuesday?

Penikett: ...They didn't even see the show, they'd be like extras tent, this way buddy, where are you going? Who are you? Who is this guy?

Bamber: Can I help you?

RDM: Did you come to visit like the cast on the sets?

Penikett: I came a couple times, you know it was usually just during the table read or what have you.

RDM: So did you have a sense you were like doing a completely different show some place else?

Penikett: Well, it was almost like that though, it really was right? You know, I was always joking that it was the "Helo and Boomer Show", because it was really us when you think about it. Me and Grace [Park] and imaginary Cylons.

RDM: So how was it when you saw the show complete, when you saw your part in it? Because you didn't see the - you read the scripts obviously but you didn't see the rest of it.

Penikett: I didn't see the rest of it...

RDM: ...Until it was on the air.

Penikett: Yeah, I mean when I saw the finished product I was, I was happy, I thought it was great.

RDM: Was it what you imagined it to be?

Penikett: You know what, its always different, some episodes where but I think sometimes when we had a lot of the Cylon stuff, a lot of the CGI stuff that was imagined, the way I perceived it, it actually a lot of the times it ended up a lot better. I was really impressed, I remember the one episode we did, I think it was five I can't remember the title, but you know the restaurant...

RDM: ...Home Again, You Can't Go Home Again.

Penikett: Okay, yeah so I'm inside and I'm making the toast or what have you when the Cylon comes in, and it's one of my favourites...

RDM: ...Yeah, with the reflection on the toaster.

Penikett: Yeah, yeah that's great but I remember doing the scene and how excited I was, I was like "Oh, this is going to be awesome, I can't wait to see how its going to look," but I thought they did an incredible job with that.

Sheppard: It was amazing, truly amazing.

Callis: On the thing of just you saying you used to get taken to the extras tent, which about a week ago I was on set and I'm looking whatever, quite unkempt at the moment, but one of the extras come over to me, I wasn't in costume, walked over to me and went "Are you crewing on this buddy?" and I said "Uh... yes."

Everyone: (laughs)

Callis: And he looks at me and went "Aw man, I don't envy you one bit," and I said "I'm glad you're keeping up with the show."

Everyone: (laughs)

Callis: That's very nice to know, thank you.

Penikett: James and I did DragonCon and you should have seen, he was, I mean out of the two of us people were like Chief [Aaron Douglas], Helo, Chief, Helo, they weren't even recognizing him. So he had this baseball cap on and this big ass beard...

Mrs. Ron: ...His disguise.

RDM: What was your favourite episode of the first season whether you were in it or not? Most enjoyed watching.

Penikett: Hmmm...

RDM: Year one.

Penikett: Off the top of my head I'm really not sure, to be honest with you the first one...

RDM: …33.

Penikett: 33 was an amazing episode.

RDM: I liked 33.

Penikett: It was so well written, we were all coming back, we were all very excited about it, and just the idea, the premise behind it you know everyone not sleeping and of course when you cut down to the planet, I really liked my stuff.

RDM: You know what, I loved 33 a lot...

Sheppard: ...The every 33 minutes episode?

RDM: Yeah, every 33 minutes, first episode of the first season, and I liked it a lot because when I saw the film coming and I start seeing dailies it was really apparent within the first three or four days that basically the show had dramatically moved forward from the Miniseries, which I loved, the Miniseries was like an amazing piece of work in my opinion, I mean I really enjoyed it and was proud of it, and then I saw the dailies come in on 33 and I was really just like taken with what [Michael] Rymer was doing on the set and what the cast, it was like the cast had had time to think about the roles in between the Miniseries and the series and everybody's performance was suddenly this really interesting rich thing.

Bamber: I think what 33 did was really, what you did is create almost the perfect episode of television, structurally.

RDM: Yes, the perfect episode of television.

Everyone: (laughs)

Callis: Should we say that in unison?

Everyone: I think it was the perfect episode of television.

RDM: You know, I think I can really, I think I'll just retire now, because what else can I do?

Crosstalk

Bamber: Honestly because the structure of that repeating...

RDM: ...(laughs)

Bamber: ...Honestly, it was so tight, you know repetitive in the sense that you're dealing with a bunch of people that are running from the common enemy the whole time and you actually nutshelled it in an episode...

RDM: ...It was a fun piece to write...

Bamber: ...Every 33 minutes...

RDM: ...I wrote that with Terri, and I, Terri and I were in Russian River...

Mrs. Ron: ...Oh yeah...

RDM: ...Over Christmas, because we didn't know if the show was getting picked up or not.

Penikett: What's Russian River?

RDM: Russian River is this area up in the Bay area, north of San Francisco...

Mrs. Ron:...In this little house we rented...

RDM: ...Northern California, redwood trees, we're in this little cottage in the woods, and the Miniseries had aired and Sci-Fi was debating whether they were going to pick up the show or not, and over the course of that...

Mrs. Ron: ...And it was raining, the whole time...

RDM: ...It was raining, and there was a real possibility that UPN was going to pick up the show, Sci-Fi hesitated for just a moment and UPN almost picked up the show...

Sheppard: ...Thank God, (laughs)...

Penikett: ...Thank God...

RDM: They swooped in suddenly, but because suddenly there were all these balls in the air and I had pitched out like the first, they'd asked me for pitches on what the stories would be for season one and I lined out like ten episodes, ideas for episodes in various degrees of development and there was one log line that just said the Cylon, they had to jump every 33 minutes because the Cylons keep chasing them. And that was the one that caught everyone’s' attention just from the log line, and over Christmas when we were like sitting around, we didn't know whether we had a show or not...

Callis: ...You didn't know that was going to be the first one?

RDM: I just decided to write it, it was like okay let's make this the first episode and I just, just, I started to write it really quickly because UPN might be picking up the show and I had to give it to them like immediately and I just wrote it...

Sheppard: ...Wow...

Bamber: ...And it's still the quintessential episode, it's got every element of the show...

RDM: ...It's interesting

Bamber: ...That you need on exactly the right day...

Callis: ...Well, Rymer was saying at the time...

RDM: ...Its been hard to recapture that, I've thought quite a bit in the intervening seasons "I want to do another show as good as 33" and I haven't been able to find another one.

Callis: Well, Rymer was saying at the time, and maybe you know at the time it was like "listen, this is a very important episode for all of us, because we're re-establishing something"...

RDM: ...Yeah, he knew that...

Callis: ...And in a way, I want to do a four hour miniseries in one hour, because we're re-establishing the beats of the people who you've met and we have to show you again who we are...

RDM: ...And it was a bad situation...

Bamber: ...It was a cross-section of the whole, you know, fleet...

Callis: ...I just want to say to you that when we came back to do that in, like for 33, on set there was a real sense of excitement...

RDM: ...Uhhmm...

Callis: ...Cause we, we we're like coming back again and this was the firs time that we we're all coming back again, a bit like when you're at school and you come back after the holidays, and we didn't necessarily know whether we would be coming back to see each other again, and then we like received the script and it was kind of, um, yes...

RDM: ...You've got to see it, Terri's got this thing up...

Sheppard: ...I've got to tell you as a viewer though, it was exhausting. It is the most exhausting hour of television.

Bamber: But it's the best way...

Mrs. Ron: (laughs)

Sheppard: ...They're looking at a question.

RDM: We're looking at this thing online...

Mrs. Ron: ...It's from Raymond Shaw...

RDM: ...From, ah, BSGViewer it says...

Mrs. Ron: ...Raymond Shaw...

RDM: ...Oh, its Raymond Shaw, it's some thing of Jake saying various lines; My question for the cast would be when you fled New Caprica did you forget someone? Anyone?

Everyone: (laughs)

Crosstalk

RDM: ...This is: [Ferris] Buhler... Buhler... Moving on...

Callis: ...Its the dog...

Sheppard: ...Is this poll up-side down? Is what I want to know...

RDM: ...It's "will you write me back into the show Ron?"

Sheppard: ...Oh dear....

RDM: ...Or "Did you like the sound of scores of garbage trucks backing all the way up your street, legions of leaf blowers, barking dogs and doorbelling blaring during every podcast?" Yes, there's a running...

Mrs. Ron: ...Just a thought...

RDM: ...Just a though...

Mrs. Ron: ..."You can all go to hell" Jake says. (laughs)

RDM: We have a very strange crew, the internet crew.

Penikett: I read the build-up to that episode too, it was good, I remember Eddie concentrating when we had the table read...

Bamber: ...Oh, listen...

Callis: ...Eddie was pretty intense...

Bamber: ...I thought I was going to fall about laughing when he said...

Penikett: ...The way everybody's killing each other...

Crosstalk

Bamber: ...No he said, "listen you guys, you've got three days before you start shooting and I don't want anybody to go to sleep."

Everyone: (laughs)

Callis: ...I remember that...

RDM: ...But you guys did that, didn't you guys do that?

Callis: ...No, well like we tried...

Bamber: ...Oh, we told Eddie we...

Callis: No!

RDM: You didn't really do it?

Bamber: No!

RDM: (laughs)

Bamber: I've got kids, I don't need to be depriving myself of sleep.

RDM: Did nobody do it?

Callis: No!

Crosstalk

Mrs. Ron: Do you remember that, how everybody was trying to get ready to do that?

RDM: I do remember that.

Bamber: Eddie brought in a sleep expert as well.

Callis: Now Eddie was, I think the first thing that was said was, and it was like at the round table and Eddie was like "If we're gonna go and do this thing and you're talking about people being seriously sleep deprived I think that we need to have shots of people, you know, committing suicide"...

RDM: ...Right!...

Callis: ...And then like there was these looks at the end of the table from Harvey [Frand, Line Producer] and from Michael and these guys were like "If we're not going to see them committing suicide then we've got to hear them, hear about them..."

RDM: ...And then I had to cut the line where he said it, because it was like, you know...

Callis: ...It's too much?...

RDM: ...There was a scene where he was, where Adama was walking in the corridor with Dualla...

Callis: ...15 people have just committed...

Callis, RDM: ...suicide...

Callis: Ah, yes!

RDM: And I had to cut it, it was one of those battle you fight and you lose, and that was like, it was too much, it was just like "Oh my God, you know what I'm saying, people are committing suicide!" First episode and they're committing suicide!

Bamber: The other great comment at the end of the read through when Eddie had done this pitch and he had brought in a sleep depravation expert to tell us what it was all going to be about, who had very little to say what I would actually be about, but everybody would be really grumpy is that he had to say...

Everyone: (laughs)

Callis: ...And Eddie was like "what about the suicides?" Well not so much on the suicides...

Crosstalk

Bamber: ...Yeah, it undermined what he was saying entirely...

Crosstalk

Bamber: ...But Eddie was really like "But we really have to like not sleep and understand what that means" and then Rymer said "Well, you know that's all well and good Eddie, but if everyone's really sleepy its going to be piss poor tedious".

Everyone: (laughs)

Crosstalk

Bamber, imitating Michael Rymer: ...Maybe play against the tiredness...

RDM: ...Uhuh...

Bamber, imitating Michael Rymer: You got that, play against it now.

Crosstalk

Bamber: ...Lose your temper!

Callis: That final note is true because, like, there's all this stuff about, when you do the thing that is like, you know, as you would be, I've seen these thing like people with hypothermia and like they're waiting for the rescue, apparently what happens in, like, [unintelligible] is like you slow down...

Everyone: (laughs)

Crosstalk

Mrs. Ron: Yeah... It makes for very bad television.

RDM: It takes a long time to film

Crosstalk

'Callis: ...so whenever you're watching [unintelligible] you're like "Get the thing! Get the thing!" it's like "God, you're speaking quickly for someone who's about to drop dead."

Mrs. Ron: (laughs) ... As your heart is slowing down...

RDM: ... And it's hard to tell a story in that moment, it's like...

Callis: ...The Tragedy of Very Similitude.

Bamber: But that is very much the...

Sheppard: Ooo, oh, very good one...

RDM: The Tragedy...

Sheppard: ...of Very Similitude

Crosstalk

Callis: ...Somebody said that after watching me do something like a take of something and they went "You see, it looks dreadful, you were trying to be natural, you're trying to look like a normal human being and and it looks like the worst acting that's ever been seen!"

RDM: Who said that to you?

Callis: One actor, I can't remember, he's like "that is called the Tragedy of Very Similitude."

Everyone: (laughs)

Bamber: That's very true, that's very true, there's nothing worse than an actor crying because you look stupid...

Callis: (laughs)

Bamber: ...It's like, oh it doesn't matter.

RDM: So James.

Callis: Yes?

RDM: Baltar. Okay, three seasons now.

Callis': Yes?

RDM: You've done, and we're finished, we are in the, almost done with shooting the finale of Season Three at this point.

Callis: Yes.

RDM: Of the three seasons on Battlestar, or the four including the Miniseries if you want to think of it that way, at what point do you think the character really, that's who he is?

Callis: Well took off or something?

RDM': For you, what's, even if subsequent seasons didn't like up to it, what's like the time when you think you really hit the stride of something...

Callis: ... Okay, well on the truthful aspect of Baltar is like, you know, I think coming back to 33, Michael again was directing using us and he was like, you know...

RDM: ... But that's one episode, for like the season...

Callis: ...I know, but it was, this was the thing where he was like "listen, we're gonna have quite a bit of you guys in this episode, because you guys in this thing, it's something that not a lot of other shows are doing, and you can be," in the sense of me and Tricia [Helfer], "you can be dark, but at the same time amusing, and like like on vibe with this thing," and I remember being kind of slightly... At least at that time I was thinking, yeah basically I'd been lucky enough to be twinned with (laughs) beautiful Tricia, so you know, and there's the director going "people are interested in this thing" and I'm like "yeah, I wonder why?"

Everyone: (laughs)

Callis: You know, I can see that, so I don't really have, you ask me like about favourites, or when like...

RDM: ...Just in general...

Callis: ...The thing like sunk in, I remember there were like, there was a conf- okay, yes it was 33. Okay viewers, here it comes: basically there's a lot of stuff that we film doesn't necessarily end up in the show...

RDM: ...Right...

Callis: ...One of these things was a scene where, it happens in every season, when you finally make the DVDs of like, whatever, the whole unexposed version, and people actually have a lifetime to watch it, or through...

RDM: (laughs)

Callis: ... There was a scene that we shot, or basically Number Six and Baltar are making love...

Everyone: (laughs)

Bamber: Yeah, remind us all again, what do you get to do?

Mrs. Ron: Kind of like the last story...

Callis: (laughs)...I haven't finished!

Crosstalk

Callis: Basically...

RDM: I see...

Callis: There was a scene of us making love...

Bamber: ... Simple actor, simple pleasures...

Callis: ...And...

Sheppard: ...Got any girls?

Everyone: (laughs)

RDM: ... But no, there's something really...

Callis: ...So, basically we shot this scene and it totally didn't work, there was all of this dialog over it and there was the way that it was happening and stylistically it was funny, and there were things that I can't, whatever, say on like a podcast...

Bamber: (laughs)

Callis: ...which is terribly, terribly funny...

RDM: ... It's good you got them in really early before he's had more scotch.

Callis: So it's terribly funny, and okay I can say one terr-

RDM: Well no, wait! The poin- the point of this...

Callis: (laughs) ... Say dreadful things on the podcast?

Crosstalk

RDM: The point of this was...

Callis: ...This was to say that we shot this scene again, and we shot the scene on Colonial One, and it was the same dialog and it was basically a bit where Number Six say to Gaius, she's like "Do you want children Gaius?" ...

RDM: ...Oh yeah! Did we cut that?

Callis: ...No, that's in it...

RDM: ...That's in...

Callis: Yeah, but we shot the scene twice, that's what I'm saying, we shot this dialog once like, having making love, and then one on Colonial One because we weren’t sure whether we were going to come into one, and it was at that moment then that I kind of, in the sense of finding Baltar, or finding this person, was like, because I have kids and I kind of, I, you know I love children, like my kids, whatever, so this man who certainly DIDN'T want children on any level and certainly not with this lady who might be some message in his head, it kind of galvanized me in this strange way, and ah she was like "Darling don't you want children?" I remember the answer like "...no."

Everyone: (laughs)

RDM: I wrote that very well... "...no!"

Callis: ...And I felt "My God, I know!"...

RDM: ...He gave an immediate answer, he didn't think about it...

Callis: ...Let me think about it for a minute...

RDM: ...He just went ...

Callis, RDM: ..."No!"

Everyone: (laughs)

Bamber: That's right.

Callis: And, in that one moment there was something about... yes...

RDM: ...That defined the character...

Callis: ...It was so real, and it took away, or at least it grounded or galvanized me away from the explosions, from being in love with a robot, from being, you know, in an alter-reality where spaceships run and you're on board one, this thing, a basic thing about a man who was like "I love playing around and the women, everything, do I want children? Forget it already!" and was like, that, that took me somewhere, it was a great line to kind of... to go on I think in that sense I think I found it pretty quickly, and I think that I found it...

RDM: ...Moreso than the Minisereis?

Callis: Miniseries, I genuinely had a bit of a problem with...

RDM: Yeah, really?

Callis: ...I gen-, well, but my problem with it, my only problem...

RDM: ...Was it a difficult shoot?

Callis: No. My problem with it was that Number Six didn't have a name, on a realistic level.

RDM: Oh, I remember this.

Callis: And I was like forgot I'm a scientist and I've like been going out with this woman for two years and I don't know here name?

RDM: Well I was working on Carnivale, but this question got back to me...

Callis: Okay, so like my question is...

RDM: ...got back to me and I quickly said "he doesn't need to know what the name of Number Six is," (laughs)

Mrs. Ron: Thank you, thank you very much.

Crosstalk

'Callis: ...There was a great [unintelligible] where Rymer was like "actually James, the whole thing is, it's one of those things that you're this guy, you've got this beautiful lady, she likes you and like at the introduction you just missed her name, " (laughs) "and you've never asked her."

Bamber: And I've never been able to get it!

Crosstalk'

Callis: ...It's so awful, that you don't know! (laughs)

RDM: It was a Seinfeild moment, and that's why I really liked it, I had the same, it essentially the same...

Callis: It's like you never over two years...

Bamber: ...And you never found a credit card, you never found anything lying around...

RDM: ...Because he didn't care enough!

Peniket: ...Because he didn't care enough!

RDM: ...He'd have known at some point, my take, here, seriously, my take is Gaius Baltar at some point realised, at some point Gaius Baltar realised that he did not know the name of Number Six...

Callis: Yes.

RDM: And at that point he was so tickled by that knowledge, and so loved the joke of it that he never bothered to find out, and then wanted to see how long he could do it without ever revealing that he didn't know...

Mrs. Ron: ...Did you think of that at the time? Or are you saying it now?

RDM: ...It was a challenge to extend...

Crosstalk

Everyone: (laughs)

Callis: Gaius had a big journey to go on in the Miniseries...

RDM: Yes, he did...

Callis: ...And, ah, he was the person who it was revealed to first of all that the Cylons look like human beings...

RDM: ...Yes...

Callis: ...And I imagine that for any person sitting in a room like we are now, somebody in the group turns around and goes "heh, guess what, you know? You thought that I was from Orange County, BUT!"...

Sheppard: ...My friends...

Callis: ..."But!" Wait a minute, "I've actually been manufactured!"

Everyone: (laughs)

Callis: It's so...

Crosstalk

Bamber: ...That I would believe. Hasn't everyone? You have no problem with that?

RDM: That's a big question.

Crosstalk

Callis: There were things, there were things to get over and surmount, and I remember one of the things at the end was this thing about looking at the, looking at the screens as the world blew up and it went breserk...

RDM: Yeah, yeah...

Callis: ...And there was this thing about, the line was written about "what am I going to do, what am I going to do?" and I remember thinking, I was like "before you say what are you going to do, you've got to say what have I done?" If it's hit you, and I remember saying that bit and then David coming up onto set, maybe it was in 33 going "you know, we actually really needed that moment of capability."

RDM: Oh, really?