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Leslie Stevens

From Battlestar Wiki, the free, open content Battlestar Galactica encyclopedia and episode guide
Leslie Stevens
[[Image:|200px]]
Role: Supervising Producer
Writer
BSG Universe: Original Series
Date of Birth:
Date of Death: Missing required parameter 1=month! ,


IMDb profile

Leslie Stevens (3 February 1924—24 April 1998) was the supervising producer for the Original Series.

In addition to producing, he was also a director and writer for various series, among them McCloud, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, Gemini Man.

Stevens is probably best known for his work on the 1963-65 science fiction anthology series, The Outer Limits, which he wrote and produced under Daystar Productions, an independent company that he created.

Prior to Battlestar Galactica

Stevens wrote a few plays in 1950s, such as Bullfight and The Lovers. While reflecting upon Bullfight, Richard Colla remarked that "he had a lovely poetry and a lovely sense of human value."[1]

In addition to his later work in the 1960s on Outer Limits, Stevens (as L. Clark Stevens) also wrote est: The Steersman Handbook, a science fiction novel written as a non-fictional study that described a future society that arose as a result of "est people." Such "est people," with "est" meaning "Electronic Social Transformation," were described as technically minded, eclectic, and computer literate.

The book lead to Stevens being consulted on numerous "futurist" topics, ranging from ecology, energy, and related fields. Further, Dean Gengle notes that est "did more to liberate media-created hippies than just about any other work of its time."[2]

Battlestar Galactica

According to Alan J. Levi, Stevens "wrote the original script. Leslie was one of my best friends. I do know that Leslie had told me at one time way before he ever got into the script that he had this great idea for a script that he was going to take to Glen Larson and talk about. Now whether in a court of law that would mean that Leslie came up with it and took it to Glen and Glen said, ‘Fine, we’re going to co-do it’ or not, I can’t tell you. I wasn’t there."[3]

Additional interviews conducted for the So Say We All: The Complete, Uncensored, Unauthorized Oral History of Battlestar Galactica lead to elaboration by Levi on the above point: "The one thing about Glen [Larson] is that Glen was always the star. There was a little bit of tension between the two of them because Leslie always felt that he had made more of a contribution towards the original Galactica being done than what he had been given credit for."[4]

It is known that Stevens wrote the never-to-be-produced two-hour episode, "The Beta Pirates."

Additionally, Stevens was one of two people responsible for recruiting Richard Colla as director for "Saga of a Star World," even though Colla believed that the story never rose above being "a comic book" as it pertained to the depth of story telling and characterization.[5]

Notable Works

Plays

  • Champagne Complex, 1955 CE[6]
  • The Lovers, 1956 CE[7]
  • Bullfight, 1958 CE[8]

Books

References

  1. Altman, Mark A.; Gross, Edward (2018). So Say We All: The Complete, Uncensored, Unauthorized Oral History of Battlestar Galactica. Tor Books. ISBN 9781250128942, p. 48.
  2. Gengle, Dean (1984). The Netweaver's Sourcebook: A Guide to Micro Networking and Communications. Addison-Wesley, p. 215, 322.
  3. Paxton, Susan J.. Battlestar zone interview with Alan J. Levi (backup available on Archive.org) (in ). Retrieved on 30 April 2008.
  4. Altman, Mark A.; Gross, Edward (2018). So Say We All: The Complete, Uncensored, Unauthorized Oral History of Battlestar Galactica. Tor Books. ISBN 9781250128942, p. 47.
  5. Ibid., 48
  6. Champagne Complex: A Light-headed Farce in Three Acts (backup available on Archive.org) (in ). Retrieved on 11 October 2020.
  7. The Lovers: A Play in Three Acts (backup available on Archive.org) (in ). Retrieved on 11 October 2020.
  8. The Marriage-Go-Round (backup available on Archive.org) (in ). (11 October 2020).