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{{podcast|author=PrePressChris|emailAuthor2=|suffix=|additionalCopyright=}} | {{podcast|author=PrePressChris|emailAuthor2=|suffix=|additionalCopyright=}} | ||
==[http://www.scifi.com/battlestar/downloads/podcast/mp3/ | ==[http://www.scifi.com/battlestar/downloads/podcast/mp3/206/bsg_ep206_1of5.mp3 Teaser]== | ||
RDM: Hello, I'm [[Ronald D. Moore]], executive producer and developer of [[Battlestar Galactica (RDM)|Battlestar Galactica]]. | RDM: Hello, I'm [[Ronald D. Moore]], executive producer and developer of [[Battlestar Galactica (RDM)|Battlestar Galactica]]. | ||
Revision as of 22:11, 18 October 2006
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RDM: Hello, I'm Ronald D. Moore, executive producer and developer of Battlestar Galactica.
DSE: And I'm David S. Eick, I'm normally known as David Eick, but now that he's Ronald D. I've begun going by David S.
RDM: We've introduced a new formality in the podcast
DSE: That's right. (Laughs) That's right.
RDM: This is the podcast for episode six, "Home, Part I", which Mr. Eick wrote, and is, in fact, his first stab at writing a full-blown teleplay.
DSE: Yes, which actually got me a WGA card, which I now throw down on the table every time I have an argument with Ron, as the gauntlet that gets me-
RDM: That's because for- up until then I'd say, "You can't give me that notice if you don't have a WGA card." (laughs)
DSE: You know, they're really flimsy, crappy-
RDM: They really are.
DSE: You would think that the WGA would have these great embossed-
RDM: They don't have holograms or-
DSE: No, they're really shitty, actually.
RDM: They just fall out of your pocket. "What's that WGA card I slipped on?"
DSE: (Laughs) The interesting thing, I guess, is this is actually only the first half of the script that I wrote, because when we sent it to Sergio Mimica-Gezzan, who's one of our go-to directors on this show, directed episode five last year and episode three this year- I made him promise me, actually, on the set for episode three that he wouldn't let us get away with something that wasn't great because, obviously, I wanted my first time at bat to be great. He called me on a Saturday and totally took the wind out of my sails as I went to a ball game, Jack's baseball game, my son, and literally five seconds before we exited the door he called and said, "Well, you wanted me to be honest. I just don't think it works at all. I think it's way too many story points to cram into one episode.
So, basically we proceeded to ask the network- we thought he was right. We thought we were trying to cram too much- and we asked the network if we could make it a two-parter. Basically we had enough for one and a half episodes. That'll be the story we'll tell on the next episode, about how we came up with the other half of episode seven. What you're watching now was basically the first two acts of episode six
RDM: And like I mentioned before this, couple of episodes, now, is really the culmination of all the arcs that began in season one. In a very real sense Home I and II is the completion of the entire first season, and what you'll see coming up after the conclusion of Home Part II is you'll see that we began different stories. There's more self-contained episodes, different story arcs begin and in a very real sense this is where it all comes to a conclusion. It was just too much material to try to wrap up. I think what we kept running into was we could get through the plot, per se, in a one hour script. You could get from here to there, and get to Kobol, go down to the surface, go to the Tomb of Athena, wrap these story lines up, but you were missing all the fun of doing it. Missing seeing Starbuck and Apollo reunite.
DSE: Yeah.
RDM: You were missing Laura and Adama reunite. You were missing all the character interactions that, really, the show is about. And it was a universally held feeling-
DSE: Yeah.
RDM: We were just trying to do too much in one episode, and the network and the studio agreed, so we had enough time to split this into two parts.
(Timecode: 3:11)
DSE: The first draft of this, before we made the split, was 65 pages. We tend to shoot scripts that are about 45 to 47 pages long, and then they come in ten to fifteen minutes long and we have to cut the equivalent of what would have been another ten to fifteen pages out of it, so you would never go into production with a 30 page script because, yeah, you might be on time, but you wouldn't have any way of massaging or improving things because you'd be limited by the amount of footage you have. And a 30 page script, I don't know what that would be. It'd be a trailer for an episode of Battlestar Galactica.
RDM: Yeah.
DSE: So, it was always tough to fit it in, as Ron was saying, and it was really, I think, generous of the network to allow us split this into two, because it wasn't an episode of like last year's "Act of Contrition"/"You Can't Go Home Again" that had this very deliberate plot, involving Starbuck crash-landing on a planet and having to jump-start a Cylon Raider to get home. This was more character threads. We had one big story in that we go to Kobol, but for the most part it's about Adama and his struggle with recuperation, and settling back into being the commander. It's Laura Roslin finally making the big decision to take a portion of the fleet away and going against everything she's been about, which was about bringing everyone together, and now here she is splitting everyone apart. And it's about the plot from Tom Zarek and his guy Meier to assasinate Lee Adama. It's really more character-y and just a litttle bit softer in terms of story. It was really more character-driven, and it was more of an achievement, I think, on that front that we were able to get the network to agree to make something like that a two-parter, because it's tricker to pull that off.
(Timecode: 4:50)
RDM: There was Meier, played by James Remar. We were very excited to get him for this two-parter. I think that David and I both were big fan of his work, going all the way back to the original "48 Hours."
DSE: Yes, although- he was probably one of the best bad guys ever.
RDM: Classic bad guy.
DSE: I mean, he probably pigeon-holed himself in some respects. I know he got- Anyone who's that great in any one particular thing then of course has to fight off being cast in that thing forever. I think I mentioned we got to know Steve Rails GGG back when we were casting "American Gothic"...
RDM: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
DSE: ...who'd played Charlie Manson. This poor guy never worked again! He did "The Stunt Man", and that was it.
RDM: People don't want to be in the room with him.
DSE: I don't think it's been quite that way for James. What I did discover, however, is that wasn't actually his first role. He was in the movie "Cruising," which-
RDM: With Al Pacino?
DSE: With Al Pacino. In fact he had a big scene with Al Pacino. There's a scene coming up, when we shot it we were making fun of him and Richard Hatch, because they're sort of touching each other in a very friendly way...
RDM: (Laughs)
DSE: ...and we were making fun of them, and James remarked "You know, I was in 'Cruising,' which was all about the homosexual underworld." That's how I learned that story.
(Timecode: 6:05)
RDM: This return to Kara- of Kara has been a long time coming. This little bit here with Starbuck and Apollo and the hug and the quick kiss and all that was something David- you just came up with that yourself-
DSE: Well, the kiss was Jamie's idea.
RDM: Was it?
DSE: He was watching me do a rewrite on the set.
RDM: Really?
DSE: That's how pathetic this process became.
RDM: (Laughs)
DSE: I was sitting with my laptop doing rewrites while we were shooting, I think, episode three and- or GGG four, and Jamie read this return scene. I was- he was literally looking over my shoulder reading this return scene and he said, "I should kiss her." Or, "We should kiss." Or something like that. And I went, "Oh my God, that's great." And I wrote a version of it that made it all the way through the process.
(Timecode: 6:47)
RDM: It's a really interesting subtext for the whole (unintelligable). The only thing I regret about this whole sequence is that we couldn't afford to show the Heavy Raider actually sitting in the docking bay.
DSE: Yeah.
RDM: Which kind of sucks.
DSE: Yeah.
RDM: Because you only get that exterior shot, and then you see her coming down the corridor, unfortunately. But that's just one of the many things you just have to bite the bullet on (unintelligable) show.
(Timecode: 7:04)
DSE: Ron also educated me a lot, I think, in terms of knowing how to adjust your expectations when you write something that's a little bit different.
RDM: (Laughs)
DSE: And not that I was in any way disappointed with any of it. I think that Sergio knocked it out of the park. But there were- when producing, I'm very close to material that I don't write. I'm already very sensitive when something doesn't come exactly as I know it was intended, but when you actually write it, that perspective is magnified. So, GGG therefor I'm suddenly struck by things that actually came out like I- exactly as they were intended, and that scene that we just watched was one of- it changed very little, actually, through the process of revisions, and production re-writes. It was early in the show, probably one of the earliest things that I put down.
RDM: OK, we're going to have to take a pause here for a second.
DSE: Oh, OK.
Oh, is that how it works? You pause in between each one.
RDM: Yeah, and I signal which- where the act breaks are, because they divide them up on the download site.
DSE: Oh. Yeah, just wave in my face. "Shut up."
(Timecode: 8:09)