Battlestar Galactica (TRS)

Some of the central cast of the new "Battlestar Galactica" series.
(c) Universal

Summary

Considered a "re-imagining," this series is a version of the 1970s Battlestar Galactica made more suitable to the sensibilities of the 21st Century. Tackling issues of civil rights, survival, terrorism, and religion, Battlestar Galactica is an epic following the survivors of the human race—which number under 50,000. The Galactica finds herself leading a rag-tag refugee fleet on a lonely (and, quite possibly, fictitious) quest for Earth, with turmoil from within and danger from without.

It's most common abbreviation is "BSG." It is often distinguished from its forebear as "RDM," for the executive producer, Ronald D. Moore (as "Star Trek: The Next Generation" is often referred to as "TNG"). It was also initially disambiguated as "TNS" (for "The New Series"), but this has become rarer over time as it distinguished itself more from the original series.

Cast

Stars

• Edward James Olmos as William Adama
• Mary McDonnell as Laura Roslin
• Katee Sackhoff as Kara "Starbuck" Thrace
• Jamie Bamber as Lee "Apollo" Adama
• James Callis as Gaius Baltar
• Tricia Helfer as Number Six
• Grace Park as Sharon "Boomer" Valerii/Number Eight

Co-stars

• Michael Hogan as Saul Tigh
• Aaron Douglas as Galen Tyrol
• Tahmoh Penikett as Karl "Helo" Agathon
• Kandyse McClure as Anastasia Dualla
• Paul Campbell as Billy Keikeya (2003-2006)
• Alessandro Juliani as Felix Gaeta

Production Crew

Producers

• Ronald D. Moore - Developer / Executive Producer / Writer
• David Eick - Executive Producer
• Toni Graphia - Co-Executive Producer / Writer
• Harvey Frand - Producer
• Glen A. Larson - Consulting Producer

Directors & Writing Staff

To view the list of all the directors and staff, go to the Battlestar Galactica Crew Guide page.

Episodes

To view the list of episodes, go to the Battlestar Galactica Episode Guide page.

Official Statements

• "Apart from the fleet, is there any chance that there are other survivors? Clearly Colonial One would not have gotten to every ship that was in transit and those that had FTL could have escaped as well."

We are talking about shows that deal with other survivors right now. Don't ask about the Pegasus -- I [still] haven't made up my mind yet.

• "Will we see any of the original cast [sic] apart from Richard Hatch? "

It's possible, but not yet on the board. --

From RDM's Sci-Fi Channel Blog

• "Why "frack" [sic]? Where did the idea come from to make this the new F-word? Not that I don't like it, I find it amusing."

It's straight out of the original series. I dropped many other terms from the old show like "centon" (a unit of measurement) and "yahren" (year) because I felt they distracted from the mood I was trying to create and they sounded a bit silly to my ear. There was something elegantly lovely about "frak," however. There's nothing like being able to say my favorite four letter word on TV over and over again and I salute Glen Larson for giving the joys of frakking up, frakking off, not giving a frak, and frakking-A to the masses. --

From RDM's Sci-Fi Channel Blog

• "Why does the doctor smoke?"

Because smoking is cool. Don't let anyone tell you different, kid.

Seriously, we're showing people doing what people really do and not all of their choices are smart ones. We smoke, we drink, we have sex with the wrong partners -- we make lots of bad choices and some of them we do knowingly and in full cognizance of the risks and consequences. Dr. Cottle obviously knows the risks associated with smoking and he elects to do it anyway -- that's his choice.

I'm also frankly tired of all the anti-smoking p.c. crap that we're bombarded with these days and I decided that this was a world without all that. Call it my one sop to the idea of an idealized society, the notion that adults can make informed choices and not be nagged to death or run out of public spaces for making choices that others may not like or agree with. --

From RDM's Sci-Fi Channel Blog

• "What is the rank structure? It doesn't seem consistent with the Navy."

The rank structure is derived from the original series. I didn't want to change Commander Adama to Captain Adama or Colonel Tigh to Commander Tigh, so I elected to simply embrace the co-mingled nature of the original rank structure. For our internal purposes, we've decided that the ranks are indeed a mixture of naval and army nomenclature and are basically as follows:

Officers --

Admiral

Commander

Colonel

Major

Captain

Lieutenant

Lieutenant (junior grade)

Ensign

Enlisted --

Master Chief Petty Officer

Chief Petty Officer

Petty Officer (1st, 2nd Class)

Specialist

Deck Hand

Recruit

Just to complicate matters further, there are also Marines aboard Galactica which conform more closely to the traditional enlisted Marine ranks, with Sergeants, Sergeant-Majors, etc. Unresolved is the question of whether the Marine officers would also adhere to the mixed rank structure (which sounds odd) or if they are strictly army equivalents (which makes no sense given that the "Navy" ranks seem oblivious to there being any such distinction). Aren't you glad you asked? --

From RDM's Sci-Fi Channel Blog

• "Will we see the mess hall and other parts of the ship such as the main Kitchen where all the meals are prepared?"

I'd like to. It's a question of budget; there has to be a story point or scene so cool that we just have to build this set. The Head (bathroom to you lubbers) was built in the pilot specifically so we'd have it around during the series. --

From RDM's Sci-Fi Channel Blog

• "Was this the first show to ever show a bathroom on a space ship?"

It's ground-breaking TV, baby. Talk about reinventing the genre. --

From RDM's Sci-Fi Channel Blog

Note: While we are uncertain as to what show was the "first" to show a bathroom on a space ship, we know that this series was not the first to do so. One of the few shows prior to Battlestar to show a bathroom was, in fact, a second season episode of Babylon 5, not to mention the fold-out toilets in Firefly.

• "Minor question: was Galactica ever re-commissioned? As I recall, the ship was decommissioned right before the Cylon attack. It'd be nice to show the ceremony if they ever get a free moment."

It's an interesting point. Might be something to play at some point, but more really as an "Oh, I haven't thought about it, but..." kind of thing. --

From RDM's Sci-Fi Channel Blog

• "The question I would really like to see addressed is how to reconcile the underlying quest of Battlestar Galactica with actual scientific plausibility. The quest of Battlestar Galactica is to find Earth, the 13th Colony. However, it is a basic and well-substantiated tenet of science that human life here on Earth evolved slowly from a primate ancestor. Attempts to deny evolution based on the notion that human kind deserves a far more worthy origin than what evolution details are a disservice to the pursuit of scientific truth and endeavors in our own world. There was always that reactionary sense to the original series, which drove it away from a secure standing as *science* fiction. How will the new series avoid this pitfall?"

I don't have a direct answer for this question yet. There are a couple of notions rolling around in my head as to how we reconcile the very real fact of evolution with the Galactica mythos, but I haven't decided which approach to take. However, it was a fundamental element of the original (sic) Galactica mythos that "Life here began out there..." and I decided early on that it was crucial to maintain it. --

From RDM's Sci-Fi Channel Blog

• "How did you come to decide upon Edward James Olmos and Mary McDonnell for their roles? This kind of project seems somewhat out of their typical genre - did either have second thoughts about taking on the project?"

Eddie and Mary were actually the archetypes for the characters when we were developing the series. David Eick and I used to sit around and talk about what kind of actors would play Adama and Laura and we always talked about these two Oscar level actors as our dream duo for the series, but we never really thought we'd get them. They've told the story themselves of why they decided to do the project, but in essence, they really responded to the pilot script and saw a lot of potential in the characters so they went for it, to our everlasting gratitude. --

From RDM's Sci-Fi Channel Blog

• "Are you using military advisors and if so, from what branch?"

We don't have a full time military advisor on staff. However, we did have an advisor on set during the miniseries, who also put the principal actors through a "boot camp" before shooting. I can't honestly remember his name or service branch (sorry if you're reading this!) As far as the scripts go, Bradley Thompson, David Weddle, and I provide a lot of the military technical details based on our own knowledge base. --

From RDM's Sci-Fi Channel Blog

• "I'll second the question - why is it that the paper in the Galactica universe has the corners cut off, even the tractor fed printer sheets! I just want to know."

This is a closely guarded secret of the show and certainly not a wacky design element that someone came up with during the miniseries. --

From RDM's Sci-Fi Channel Blog

Note: It has been admitted by some of the production staff that this is, more or less, a joke that went overboard -- namely one derived from the fact that corners had to be cut in order to keep within the budget for the mini. --

From RDM's Sci-Fi Channel Blog

• "You mentioned that the reason that the Galactica was so low-tech was that it was designed to fight the Cylons, who could possibly infiltrate it's systems, and that this was one of the reasons it survived. If that is so, then who were the other ships designed to fight? The 120 ships alluded to are a big force just for border patrol. Are there aliens we should know about? "

The first Cylon War came very close to wiping out the Colonies, and so when the Armistice was declared, the government maintained a large standing military force for quite some time, just in case. --

From RDM's Sci-Fi Channel Blog

• "Mythos. Every science fiction show that stands the test of time needs to develop its own Mythos. By this I mean, its own unique cultural identity. For instance Star Wars has its Jedi, its Force; Star Trek has its Prime directive, beaming, and warps (sic) speed. As a writer you are aware of this and having worked in the Star Trek franchise are rather qualified in it. What will are your thoughts and insights into the development of Mythos in this new BSG child that you are tending to and caring for? Especially, since there seems to be heavy pressure to incorporate the original mythos themes of the show, will this be a guiding blueprint for thought, or just a framework to create? "

The mythology of the new Galactica is heavily influenced by that established in the original. I've always approached this project with an eye toward taking the original material and making it work in a new context. I still try to do this whenever possible. Does it make sense that there would be a star system with 12 inhabitable planets? Not really, but that was in the original and at some point I decided to run with that as another nod to the old show. The mythology of the old show centered around Kobol and the thirteen "tribes of man," so I've kept it as the centerpiece of ours. Not every single element is the same and not every element is even intact, but the roots are there. The point was to make another version of Battlestar Galactica, not just use the name. --

From RDM's Sci-Fi Channel Blog

• "I was watching Wing Commander last night with my wife and she made a comment that the Kilrathi fighter looked pretty similar to the Cylon Raider. I know that some of the production staff from Wing Commander went on to begin production on the DeSanto continuation, but is there in fact any sort of link here? I mean I first thought Droid Fighter from Star Wars: Episode One, but that seems to be some kind of common design going on. "

"Wing Commander" is frequently mentioned to me as a possible influence on the show, but I've never actually seen it. While it's possible that other members of the production team were influenced by it, it wasn't something that figured into my thinking. My own design influences were things like "Das Boot", "Blade Runner", "Alien/Aliens" and a stack of documentaries on the modern and history US and Royal Navies.

• "My questions: Can the show explain a little more about their technology, for example how fast are the FTL jumps. It seems the fleet barely moves when not jumping, if the jumps are only light speed and not multiples of, some of the sublight ships could conceivably catch up (the ones not destroyed by Cylons)"

An FTL Jump is nearly instantaneous, essentially moving a ship from point A to point B without traveling through the normal space-time continuum, presumably by bending space around the ship in some way. The analogy I used during production was to imagine three dimensional space as a flat piece of two dimensional paper. To get from one side to the other, you can travel in a straight line across the page, or you can gently bend the sheet in half and cross from edge to edge virtually instantly. How this is accomplished and what is the basis of this technology outstrips my technical brainpower.

In fact, I feel faint just coming up with that explanation... --

From RDM's Sci-Fi Channel Blog

• "Did the colonies have outposts, bases, or trade partners outside of the 12 colonies. Did they even explore other systems. The colonies could have had observatories, listening posts, or even scientific research teams exploring other planets beyond the colonial system(s). They could encounter any of these which could lead to supplies, raw materials, food, fuel etc. "

I think that's probably true, but part of our premise is that the fleet has Jumped far out into unexplored space in an effort to elude the Cylons, so we won't be encountered any other outposts or colonies. --

From RDM's Sci-Fi Channel Blog

• "Are there any similarities between your reconception of the BG universe and where you might have gone if you'd been given the reigns of Voyager?"

There are similarities in the premise of the two shows, so yes, there are things I'm applying here that I would've like to have done in [Star Trek:] Voyager, i.e., lack of resources, the development of unique cultural and civil institutions, and internal strife among people trapped aboard ship(s) without any reasonable hope of finding sanctuary anytime soon. --

From RDM's Sci-Fi Channel Blog

• "I have a friend who has a son and they both enjoy watching the new Battlestar Galactica. But it is a very frustrating thing when he cannot allow his son watch the show when there are sex scenes and constant sexual innuendo scattered throughout the episodes.

"The standard of the stories are superb and I would have to say it is one of the finest sci-fi series I have seen in a long time. BUT IT DOESNT NEED SEX TO GET THE VIEWERS. Call me a little old fashioned but I nor others that I know really appreciate having to endure sex scenes that really do not further the story in any significant way. In fact I think they are rather pointless."

First of all, I'm sorry your friend can't watch the show with his son, but I always intended this series to be for adults. I have two small children, and I wouldn't dream of letting them watch the show -- mostly because of the violent content. Second of all, I disagree that the sexuality is intended to be exploitative or that it's somehow not integral to the story. We're presenting adult human beings as adults, and their sexuality is a key part of their lives. Baltar's sexual weaknesses, Sharon and Tyrol's forbidden love affair, and Starbuck's promiscuity are part of who and what they are. I think the only reason this gets the kind of attention is does is that we're not used to seeing sex treated maturely in science fiction -- nine times out of ten, any sex is either something to snigger at or to make fun of. Somehow it's okay to fetishize sex by putting women in S&M leather "space" outfits or have Carrie Fisher run around in harem clothes (not that there's anything wrong with that), but to portray two mature adults simply having sex is somehow controversial in sci-fi circles.

I'd also point out, as I have many times before, the strange standards of American audiences, who can become red-faced with indignation over nudity, but find no problem with slasher films or chains-saw massacres. I mean, Galactica's premised on a massive genocide, and the pilot deals with violent, shocking deaths over and over again, but people get upset about the sex? Weird.... --

From RDM's Sci-Fi Channel Blog

• Regarding the financial cost per episode of Battlestar: "I can tell you that it’s well over one-and-a-half million dollars US per episode. It’s a substantial budget, especially when you convert it into Canadian dollars—and what we’re able to get up there—it’s a lot of money."

• Regarding a typical day as an executive producer on Battlestar:

The job changes as the year goes on. Right now, before we start shooting, my time is spent almost exclusively here with the writing staff. I’m writing an episode at the moment. I wrote the first episode and I’m writing the second one. The writers meet by themselves…they break some stories…I come in and give notes…and we talk about directions for other episodes. Then, as time goes on, they’ll start generating scripts and stories, and I give notes on those. I’m also taking notes from the network and the studio on previous existing material.

There’ll also be more of me going back and forth between LA and Vancouver. And as we get closer to production, then there’ll be more looking at production designs, dealing with budgetary issues, having meetings with directors and actors, looking at casting tapes for guest-star roles. Once we get into production and start generating film, there’s dailies to watch…post moves forward and there’s cuts of episodes to watch…and there’s visual effects sequences to give notes on.

There’s not really a typical day, per say. You have to be nimble and on your feet and able to keep changing direction. You have to cover all these different bases, and sometimes you can’t run to first. Sometimes you have to run to third, and then run back home, and then run to second. It’s never a complete pattern.

I believe very much in delegating authority to the department heads, in empowering people and having them take responsibility for the work. My principal job is to maintain the overall vision of the piece.

• From the "Fashioning Verisimilitude" article / interview on :

Robert Falconer: And I guess the whole concept of the show, by definition, is that of a bottle show.

Ron Moore: Yeah. And it was designed that way from the get-go. When David Eick and I went in and pitched it initially—knowing how expensive space opera can be—we designed it to be affordable on what we could get on a SCI-FI Channel budget.

• Regarding the use of bullets versus lasers on the Vipers, as explained by Ron Moore:

[The bullets] are some sort of caseless ammunition. We had long technical discussions about some of this. What mattered to us was that they weren’t laser blasts. We just felt that had been done to death, it wasn’t as interesting, and it wasn’t realistic. From our research we discovered that such weapons would take huge amounts of energy, and that fighters would probably be better served by using actual bullets. But presumably they’re more advanced than what we’re using today, although we haven’t actually sat down and defined them as such.

• Regarding the reconciliation between William Adama and his son Lee Adama at the end of the Miniseries, as explained by Ron Moore:

I think it will go up and it will go down, like any father-son dynamic does. I think they bridged a gap in the miniseries that certainly had held them apart for a couple of years. I don’t think that issue has been completely resolved, but they’ve moved past it to a certain point. Now they’re in a new relationship and a new dynamic…they’re father and son and they’re also serving on the same ship, and the stresses and pressures of that will affect the relationship. I think it’s interesting that Lee Adama has a strong relationship with Laura, and that he in some respects is a bridge between her and his father.

• Edward James Olmos: The stories are just, really, stunning. I have wept reading this thing, I have been left amazed and I've been left totally in awe.

• Grace Park on the differences between the original series and the re-imagined series:

The original is so different from what we've done, but I think it's really of the time. I know in the '70s it was a popular show, but TV is so different now -- cutting edge visual effects, with computer and CGI that have to be top-of-the-line, because everyone is looking to see if it's CGI or not. There has to be so much put in to it on that level.

But I also think the audiences then were much more innocent and accepting. I don't think we could get away with copying just the same thing. Instead, our version has much more emphasis on having the good guys with flaws, and the villains with good parts. It's meant to challenge the audience that's used to black and white.

• Ron D. Moore discusses the story arc:

The broad story arc is only vaguely sketched in at the moment. I've thought over a variety of endings for the series, and each time I've gone down those roads, I've been dissatisfied with the answers, so I've opted to put it off for now. I know there's a school of thought advocating working out everything in advance, but I prefer to let the show and the characters evolve more naturally and discover their stories along the way.

See Also

• Naturalistic science fiction

Related Topics

• List of Season 1 Guest Actors (RDM)
• List of Season 2 Guest Actors (RDM)
• List of Recurring Characters (RDM)
• List of Recurring Character Appearances (RDM)
• List of Emmy Nominations and Wins