Battlestar Galactica (TRS)

This article refers to the 2003 re-imagined version of Battlestar Galactica. For information on the 1978 Original Series, see Battlestar Galactica (TOS).

Some of the central cast of the new "Battlestar Galactica" series.

Summary

The 2003 Miniseries debut of Battlestar Galactica was a "re-imagining," or updated version of the 1970s "Battlestar Galactica" made more suitable to the modern sensibilities of the 21st Century. Aiming to tacle issues of civil rights, survival, terrorism, and religion, "Battlestar Galactica" is an sci-fi drama following the survivors of the human race—which number under 50,000. A familiar but different battlestar Galactica finds herself leading a refugee fleet on a lonely (and initially fictitious) quest for Earth, with turmoil from within and danger from without.

On the "Battlestar Wiki," the show's most common abbreviations are "the Re-imagined Series," or "RDM" for the initials of its executive co-producer and chief writer, 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"), or "BSG", but this has become rarer over time as it distinguished itself more from the 1978 series, or the "Original Series" as it is commonly called on Battlestar Wiki.

"Battlestar Galactica" began (or, "re-began") as a four-hour Miniseries pilot that showed the destruction of the Twelve Colonies, but in a style more familiar and disturbing to today's viewers, making its events eerily reminiscent of feelings felt by many viewers to the sporadic and inconsistent news and chaos shown during the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States.

While the ship was probably the most familiar element derived from the Original Series, many elements of the new show were very, very different. The commander, William Adama, is a battle-hardened, secularly-minded commander on the eve of retirement for himself and his combat-decorated old battlestar. The names of Original Series characters are now the pilot call signs for his son, Lee "Apollo" Adama and the crack-pilot, Kara "Starbuck" Thrace. Starbuck's change into a female character initially became a torrid issue to Original Series fans who feared this and other changes would render an inferior series.

However, some fans became pleasantly surprised when the series aired. Unlike its Original Series counterpart, this new series has not only survived, but has received many awards and nominations. These include several Emmy nominations, a Peabody Award, a Saturn Award, and a Hugo Award. Its popularity has even given the show its own spin-off series, currently in development. However, it has received some criticism from fans who feel it bastardized the original series, and some critics disliked it for various reasons.

As of the end of the regular 2006 television season, "Battlestar Galactica" was the Sci-Fi Channel's highest-rated program, beating out the venerable SF series, "Stargate SG-1" and its spin-off, "Stargate Atlantis."

Series development

After the Miniseries, the series itself was not immediately green-lit due to financial considerations. Initially, Universal Studios and Sci Fi Channel both deemed that the series was unaffordable, despite Eick's and David Kissinger's attempts to secure funding for the series. Fortuitously, Sky TV was looking to fund "high-profile American shows", and the series became affordable to Universal and Sci Fi, with Sky TV "ultimately making up the difference between what Universal felt it could afford and what we needed to make the show", according to Eick.

Once funding was secured, the official announcement for the series' launch was given on 10 February 2004. Moore, a majority of the production staff, as well as every principal cast member from the miniseries returned to work on the series. Moore also hired the show's writing staff, including Toni Graphia, David Weddle, Bradley Thompson, and Carla Robinson, who mainly worked from the Rock Hudson Building at Universal's Hollywood lot.

Principal shooting on the first season was from 19 April to 15 September 2004, with each episode taking eight days to shoot. In an interesting twist, the so-called "American series" was first broadcast on a European network, Sky One, between 18 October 2004 to 24 January 2005. While the first American airdate for the season premiere "33" was on 14 January 2005, this meant that the only way Americans could watch the show was to resort to retrieving digitized versions of the episodes from file sharing programs. In response to this, Moore and Eick asked fans on SciFi.com's bulletin boards on 18 November 2004 to stop downloading the episodes and to wait to see the series when it first aired on Sci Fi Channel, claiming that downloading the series would adversely affect ratings and a second season renewal.

Noted Changes from the Original Series

The basic story is still present: robotic Cylons surprisingly attack the Colonies resulting in a holocaust, thus forcing a "rag-tag, fugitive fleet" to coalesce around the last surviving battlestar, Galactica, to seek a mythical 13th Colony where refugees hope to find shelter from the Cylons.

However, many of the fine details are changed, such as:

• The Cylons were created by Humanity, not by a reptilian race (also called Cylons) who hated Humanity. This makes their origins similar to those of the machines of the Terminator or the The Matrix.
• Battlestar Galactica is a 50 year old relic on the verge of decommission.
• The names of "Apollo", "Boomer", and "Starbuck" are changed to call signs. Most characters have standard first and last names; some first names were not given until later in the series, such as Felix Gaeta's or Anastasia Dualla's.
• The futuristic (and often confusing) terminology used to denote units of measurement, such as distance and time, in the original series has been replaced with understandable terminology. For instance, "year" was replaced with "yahren" in the original.
• The ship designs, save for some revisions to the Mk. II Viper and Galactica and a few noteworthy background ships (such as the Astral Queen and the Botanical Cruiser), have been redone.
• The Quorum of Twelve is not mentioned in the miniseries, and is apparently supplemented by a government body similar to the United States executive branch. There is a president, vice president, and secretaries. The Quorum does not make an appearance until episode 1.11 (Colonial Day).
• Instead of the other-worldly, Egyptian-esque clothing and city designs (i.e. pyramids) seen in the original, the clothing and cities are more contemporary in design and function.

The relationships and characters also differ significantly from the Original Series.

• Boomer, who was played as a male character by Herb Jefferson Jr. in the original, is now the call-sign of a female Lieutenant Sharon Valerii (Grace Park).
• Starbuck, who was played as a male character by Dirk Benedict in the original, is now the call-sign of a female lieutenant named Kara Thrace (Katee Sackhoff)
• "Adama", "Tigh", and "Baltar" are now surnames.
• The character of Adama, portrayed by Lorne Greene in the Original Series, becomes William "Husker" Adama (Edward James Olmos). Adama's beliefs are far more secular than his TOS counterpart.
• Apollo, portrayed by Original Series star and continuation activist Richard Hatch, is the call sign of Lee Adama (Jamie Bamber).
• Baltar, who was willingly complicit in the destruction of the Colonies due to his thirst for power, is now a scientific genius named Gaius Baltar.
• The character of Colonel Tigh, portrayed by Terry Carter, is now separated from his wife and seeing out the rest of his career from inside a bottle in the form of Colonel Saul Tigh (Michael Hogan) who hasn't seen military action in a long while.

The show has taken a more realistic turn. Realistic science, which was painfully absent in the Original Series, is applied in this series.

Certain models of Cylons appear human, right down to the blood -- it takes complex tests just to screen for these Humanoid Cylons. This generates some very disturbing questions. For one, the Cylons have now managed to merge in with human society, making it easier to manipulate from within. This mirrors terrorist methods of infiltration and delivering destructive results to heavy population centers (a la suicide bombers).

Official Statements

• Ron D. Moore discusses using the Original Series as a template:

I approached the original show and looked at what worked and what didn't work. I tried to keep as much of the original show as possible. I kept all the essential elements of Battlestar Galactica: the aircraft-carrier-in-space; the rag-tag fleet; the Cylon attack, the escape and the search for Earth; Commander Adama; Adama's son "Apollo", who's the Galactica's lead fighter pilot; the rogue pilot, "Starbuck"; their friend, "Boomer"; and Baltar, the traitor. Those were the main things I knew I had to keep – it wouldn't have been Battlestar Galactica without them.

I changed the things I knew didn't work. The original Baltar didn't have a motivation for betraying his race, so I knew I'd have to change that character. I also never understood why the Cylons were so intent on pursuing these humans across the galaxy, so I changed the background of the Cylons and their relationship with the human beings. Making the Cylons the creation of humanity enabled the Cylons to have a much more complicated love/hate relationship with humans, and also provided us with a way to use humanoid Cylons in the series, which was something we knew we wanted to do because there would be limits on how much we could use CGI Cylons.

Athena didn't seem to serve any function in the original show other than look beautiful and be a love interest for Starbuck, so I just got rid of that character. And while I thought Boxey was part of the family and decided it would be nice to include him in some peripheral way, I never considered keeping Boxey's dog for a second. The dog was just absurd! it was right out from the moment I took the show.

• Moore discusses the religious aspects of the series:

The religious aspects of the show developed naturally out of my intention to reflect every aspect of the human experience. I was delighted because I'm fascinated with this notion of monotheism versus polytheism, and I felt its addition to the show enriched it and helped make it unique.

• Moore discusses using the series as allegory to current events:

The original "[Star] Trek" series ... dealt with a lot of hot-button issues at the time: It dealt with racism, and it dealt with war, and it dealt with a lot of ideas that were very, very timely and very important. And this was a chance to make a science fiction show that wasn't purely escapist, but actually dealt with the world that we live in.

• Jamie Bamber talks about the discussions that the cast and crew have regarding the show's content:

We discuss everything. We even do try to discuss the sci-fi techie stuff, but we're just not very good at it. When the script throws out something like Callie [sic] and the Chief in space without any protection, lots [of us discuss] around the set if that was really possible. In the end, we all bow down to the experts who tell us it is. That shuts us up very quick. The political stuff, that's the juice of the show with the cast. That's pretty much what we like to inhabit, those social-political dilemmas and what they mean morally and legally, and how they pertain to the world that we're in now. The interesting thing about this show is that a lot of people come up to me and say, "Is it really liberal, or something?" but everyone across the political spectrum can find a view that they can side with. We don't cast moral judgment on any of them. It is all shades of gray that are out there to be interpreted, and that's the beauty of the writing, I think.

• Bamber discusses being sympathetic to the Cylons:

The Cylons do garner your empathy gradually, as you see more and more from their point of view. That's a bold move. There is a lot about them that should be sympathetic to a Western American audience. They are monotheists, they kind of believe in redemption and rebirth and all these things that a lot of us believe in. The humans are polytheists and are a bit more anachronistic.

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, see the Battlestar Wiki Crew Portal.