Podcast:Escape Velocity
More actions
| "Escape Velocity" Podcast | ||
|---|---|---|
| [[Image:{{{image}}}|200px|Escape Velocity]] | ||
| {{{caption}}} | ||
| Download | ||
| This podcast hasn't been fully transcribed yet | ||
| This podcast hasn't been verified yet | ||
| Posted on: | 2008-05-11 | |
| Transcribed by: | Steelviper | |
| Verified by: | ||
| Length of Podcast: | ||
| Speaker(s) | ||
 |
Ronald D. Moore | |
| Terry Dresbach | ||
| Comedy Elements | ||
| Scotch: | Glenmorangie | |
| Smokes: | ||
| Word of the Week: | ||
| Legal Notice | ||
| All contents are believed to be copyright by the speakers. Contents of this article may not be used under the Creative Commons license. This transcript is intended for nonprofit educational purposes. We believe that this falls under the scope of fair use. If the copyright holder objects to this use, please contact the transcriber(s) or site administrator Joe Beaudoin Jr. To view all the podcasts that have been transcribed, see the podcast project page. | ||
Hello, and welcome to the podcast for episode 406, "Escape Velocity." I'm Ronald D. Moore, executive producer and developer of the new Battlestar Galactica, and thank you very much for joining our podcast. The Scotch for tonight is Glenmorangie, this is the port wood finish twelve year old Scotch. The wife and kids are downstairs, and in deference to the tots the smoking lamp is out. OK. Episode four, to those of you counting at home, episode six to me, was yet another of the episodes that I've referred to before that were also broken in one fell swoop at the very beginning of the sea- or not, broken, at least the basic story outline was [clears throat] conceived at the very beginning of the season. The script for this, by Jane Espenson, was begun in tandem with several other scripts and there were changes that happened on the fly in Jane's script, as we were making- as I was making changes to other episodes. Notably, there was a good deal of interaction back and forth in terms of plot, having to do with the previous episode, Michael Taylor's episode of last week, episode five. Notably in the Quorum scenes that are to be coming up.
OK. Here at the very beginning, the idea of doing a service in the temple and establishing, one of the few times that we've really actually seen any of the polytheistic worship of the Colonies, was something I'd liked from the very beginning of the story as we broke it, and Jane really developed the actual service and the language that they're using and the formality of the ritual. I liked the idea from the get-go of saying, "OK. We've talked a lot about the polytheistic belief system of the colonists, and how usually in- just in contrast with the monotheism of the Cylons." And the irony, it seemed to me, at this point in the series, was that in some ways we knew more about the Cylons' conception of God and the Cylon belief system, and how it worked in practical terms, than we really did the Colonials. And this was a great opportunity to go into that world and really actually play a service and I was also intrigued by the thought of showing a polytheistic religious service on television. Typically these services are all in the Judeo-Christian tradition. You don't get to see a lot of variety in TV's portrayal of belief. I like the idea of validating and underlining the fundamental [clears throat] validity of the Colonial belief system.
This is a great little beat here with Laura and Eddie- or [chuckles] with Mary and Adama- with Laura and Adama. She's obviously alluding to the fact that she herself is gonna be dying, and she's starting to grapple with that in practical ways, and Adama really doesn't wanna think or talk about that. There's also this beat of the wigs. The- Laura's wig. We had a scene that made it to script and I believe it was in this episode, originally, although I could be wrong about that, where we were going to see Laura looking over examples of wigs that they had dug up through the Fleet. That essentially the wigs are made of- I remember having these discussions that the wigs were made of human hair and presumably there's still barbers around and they would collect the hair, and that people would be making wigs from them. Much as they do today. But they would be made of real human hair, presumably. And that Laura would- they would have brought Laura several ones to choose from, and there was a little scene about that. Actually, the more I talk about it, it's probably- I think that scene actually might have been in the next episode. But in any case we- there was a substantial amount of discussion devoted to Laura's cancer and the progress of it, and when we were gonna show it, how far we were gonna go with it, and I had an extended conversation with Mary about it at the beginning of the season. Mary and I got together for breakfast and we sat down and talked over the character of Laura and what her arc was gonna be [clears throat] going through the rest of the season and how far we were gonna go with the cancer and what the- where it was gonna end up, and what the reasons where. It was a really interesting talk, and a lot of things that we ultimately ended up doing in the episode came out of that morning chat.
This little- this scene here with- the reappearance of Ellen was something I was really looking forward to. I hoped that this was gonna be a bit of a surprise to the fans. We knew that word was going to get out that Kate Vernon was on the set, or that Kate Vernon had been booked to do an appearance, and sure enough there were some clips that made it onto the internet, some snippets here and there of news that Kate Vernon was doing something in Galactica, and everybody- I think there was a general assumption that it was gonna be flashback, which really worked for us, 'cause then we could play that scene. [Chuckles.] And make it a genuine surprise. I also have to give k- tremendous kudos to the hair and makeup people and our costume department, our wardrobe department, who was able to really make that transition from Six to Ellen work really well. Like, at fir- when she first shows up as Ellen it takes a moment before you even realize that it's Ellen.
This subplot here with Tyrol and Nicky was gonna be- it was developed a little further in the first draft, and I think it was even some subsequent scenes shot that were ultimately drawn from the air- dropped from the aired version. There was more of Tyrol really checking out, really being disconnected, from his son. Really lost and not knowing what the hell to think about it. I think there was a scene, actually- yeah, actually, I know there was a scene later on- I'll try to r- to talk about, that had Helo coming. Helo had found Nicky crying all by himself and had come to Tyrol later. Essentially what we wanted to do as we got into this area of the arc of the season was start really sending our final four Cylons in fundamentally different directions. Anders isn't even here. Anders is gone off with Kara. Tyrol is- Tyrol's wife is dead. It's thrown him into an identity crisis. It's thrown him into a fundamental existential crisis. He has a son. He's not capable of really caring for him. He's gonna lose his job. He's freaking out. He's not shaving. It's like he- Tyrol's really coming unglued. Tight is like, hanging on ever tighter and tighter than he can.
Now somebody- oh, I have to comment on this. Someone on the internet pointed out that in this shot that I'm looking at right now, Tyrol is- sorry, Tigh is talking to Tyrol, and on Tigh's collars are clearly admiral pin- admiral pips. And of course that is a deep mystery and a deep secret and I encourage all- everyone on the internet to spend a great deal of time and effort trying to suss out the various reasons why I would put admiral pips on Colonel Tigh. 'Cause I'm sure that that would lead you, if you follow that chain, that will lead you inevitably to who the final Cylon is. Or it could just be a wardrobe mistake. But that's not as much fun, is it?
Anyway. We were- we- let me jump back here to- I've been reading to you some of these descriptions that were in the initial pitch document on the first four episodes of the season. This one, episode four, says, "The theme is redemption, unlikely alliances. In a nutshell, Tigh seeks out answers from Caprica-Six. An accident in space leads Tyrol to believe that he may be sabotaging Vipers and asks to be relieved of duty. Martyr-like Baltar defends his one God church. Zarek- Zarek manipulates Lee against Laura." And then in the in-depth description it says, "Baltar and Laura- the Baltar/Laura story. The gu- the goons bust up-" I'll wait 'till we come back.