Podcast:Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part II

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This page is a transcript of one of Ronald D. Moore's freely available podcasts.
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Teaser[edit]

Hello, and welcome to the podcast of "Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part II". Ronald D. Moore, Executive Producer and Creator of the new Battlestar Galactica. I just finished a few moments ago doing the podcast for "part one" so a lot of this is a continuation as is the episode of part one and once again I would just caution all of you if you have not watched this episode I would suggest you do that before you listen to the podcast because I will be talking about things at the end.

As I was saying before, a key structural change that happened was shifting the end of the show, primarily. We moved the original night one out was the crash of the Raptor, and now the the night one out is Kara taking the Raider and jumping back to Caprica which is -I think- is a much stronger, more emotional, more personal beat. And as a result of that, that basic decision, it allowed "part II" to open up a bit, it allowed us to play all the moments of "part II" because I think that one of the the key things about show is the ability to play the moments. You're not just rushing through things. You're not just like brushing over details and not giving the scenes themselves a chance to breath, and to really enjoy the characters, and to play texture and detail. And it's as simple as, example, in "33", there's a shot where Adama's shaving in the bathroom and the camera just jumps downs watch him rinse the wa- rinse the shaving cream off his razor. And watching them eat noodles, I mean just all the little details about life and how the people interact, and being able to play moments like this in their full glory, to really give it its due, and give enough space, and not rush through the whole thing. You have to have enough room to do that, and one of the challenges of the show it to do it- to do these stories in an efficient way 'cause you've only got forty minutes to tell an hour story, I hate to tell you, but it's only forty minutes of actual program content time. And so, it's sometimes it's really hard to cram all that material in there. And, Michael's decision- Dany's decision to shift the night break opened up night two and made night two play in a much more comfortable fashion.

That little bit of business there, when James is reaching through the flame, he's really reaching through the flame. It's not a CGI. It's not digital. None of this is, except this shot coming up there. It's all practical. So when you saw him reach out and like put his hands in the flame, it's James being crazy and and putting (laughing) his arms in- in the middle of raging fires on the set. It's always interesting to see where - what the actors will or will not do. I mean most of the time my experience actors want to do their own stunts and desire to do their own stunts and go way out of their way to train themselves, and learn the techniques, work with the stunt people, and generally want to do their own stunts, and rare as- they did happen. There were times, there were a couple of actors -who I won't name- that I worked with in Star Trek who just did not like to do stunts. And, if the character was going to fall down, it was like "STUNT MAN," but that was sort of the exception rather than the rule.

This whole little ending is- was the tease of- was the tease of night two. It just had the- the actual crash it took them all the way. It was like the tease- no I take that back. The teaser went out with the Raptor going, hitting, crashing, and then I think that Act One begin with the sequence that you just saw.

A couple of thing just to remind you if you, some things I said on the night one podcast which was there was a whole separate storyline going on- down on Kobol that we dispensed with which had to do with the two temples. There was a temple on Kobol and then another temple they built on Caprica to sort of emulate the original. And one of the reasons we got rid of that was strictly production. Balancing the budget versus the creative needs of the show is one of the biggest challenges of producing this series, and you always write to what the best version of the show and then you pare back. And there was just no way that we could get the temple. I'll come back in a second.

Act 1[edit]

Act 2[edit]

Act 3[edit]

Act 4[edit]

This standoff, in the original draft we did not get to this point exactly. When Lee was down on the planet and we had a somewhat different structure, the standoff was gonna be Laura on the inside of her office. The Marines on the outside, they're about to burst through the door. And it was at that moment that Adama was shot. So were gonna leave season one with Laura about to be taken down by the Marines and Adama lying bleeding in CIC and what will Tigh do? That was the thing. the immediate question. What will he do about Laura? What does he do about Adama? Decided not to do that. Felt- wanted to play it through. Wanted to get her all the way, put her in jail. Have Adama close the door on her, and wanted to play this beat with Lee. Wanted to see Lee, push comes to shove Lee has to make a choice here. Will he subvert the democracy? Will he participate in a military coups against the lawfully designated President of the Colonies or will he make a stand? And Laura, who was willing a moment ago to go right up to the edge and see who's gonna pull a trigger first and will he make them do it, now it's entered a different zone. Now it's brother against brother. Is it- or it's Galactica people turning against- you can see the whole thing starting to spiral wildly out of control. It could be a true bloodbath at this point and that's where Laura has to step in and say, "Ok. The game of brinksmanship is over. Somebody has to blink first and it's gonna be me." But even in that moment she's still clearly in command. "Let's go."

This- Looking back on the first season, I guess... I'm often asked in interviews these days, "Are you satisfied? Are you happy? Did the show turn out to be what you thought it would be?" The show turned out to be a lot more than I thought it would be, frankly. I'm humbled and surprised by how good the show became and I think at the outset I was hoping this would really be a good series. That I could really do something here that was interesting and different and a show that I would be proud of and that people would respond to. I didn't anticipate how well-received it was going to be critically and how extraordinarily well it would do in the ratings. It just- also how satisfying it is, to me personally, on a creative level and as a viewer. I just enjoy the show. And I'm really impressed by the people that work on the show with me. The cast and crew are just tremendous and I think in large part the show has exceeded my expectations for what I was hoping we could do in its first season. And I think if there's downside it's that it's set the bar that much higher for the second season. Now, in my mind, the second season... I don't want to talk about topping yourself, because that becomes just a silly game. "Oh, well, we had one bomb in the first season. Let's do TWO in the second." It's not about topping yourself, it's about continuing to progress the story and the characters and living at the- fulfilling the promise of the first season. It's really about making it a worthy series. Making it more than just those thirteen, "Oh those thirteen episodes that were so great that first season." You want it to be, "Wow. The series as a whole really grew. It really became this fantastic piece of television." I think that's now the goal. The goal is now to make it really something special. I think it's off to a great start. I think it's made it's mark. I think it's surprised a lot of people. It's exceeded the expectations of people who were tuning in to see Battlestar Galactica and now we've passed over that- through that threshhold and now it's about taking the next step. Now it's about really growing and challenging ourselves. Challenging the audience and continuing to provide surprises and twists, just when you think you know this universe so well.

This very- this ending, as we careen here into the last moments, is I think, some of the best stuff that we did all year. I know I keep saying that, but I think this episode really is some of the best that we did all year. I think intercutting all these stories is remarkably effective. I mean, you're- I'm hoping, and I think you are. I think you're really here with all these people. You're really on the hook about what's gonna happen to Kara. What is she gonna do when she finds out that Sharon's a Cylon. What's gonna happen to Tyrol and Crashdown? All those guys left down on the planet. Where's Baltar going? What did he do? Where is he? What about Adama? What about Laura? Where's Lee? I just think the time is- the epsiode it almost over and yet I think you have a hunger to know more and you're like- If you're watching the clock when you're watching the episode you're starting to panic. You're starting to go, "Wait a minute. What the hell is gonna happen to all the people? Wait a minute. They're almost out of time. Is this an hour and a half episode? They can't wrap- they're not gonna end this on a giant cliffhanger, are they? Are they? No. Please. Please say it's not so."

This beat is really something that I think that the director and Katee came up with that- not the shooting, which was scripted, but her emotional reaction and breakdown here. It's like, on top of it all, on top of everything and the fight, and the stealing the Raider and coming here and learning that one of her best friends is a Cylon, and now she's pre- it's just like, enough already. Kara is only human. There is a breaking point. There is a point where it just becomes too much.

Back to Kobol. Like I said, there was always a question what Baltar's gonna find when he went inside the temple and then when he gets inside the ruins. And after the madness of Dirk Benedict subsided, Mike Rymer and I were talking and he brought in some location photos of a place he was really interested in. He didn't know what it meant, but there was this opera house in Vancouver that seemed visually really interesting. It was a different visual language that we had been using in the show and it- when you see the ruins you expect something Roman and something Greek and Michael's notion to use this more- this feels more like Vienna in the nineteenth century than it does a Roman or Greek temple. And it said something about the culture that was once here on Kobol. That it wasn't just all people running around in togas. That there was a society. That there was a civilization. That it really was a sophisticated place where the Gods, whoever they were, and man lived as one and had a certain elegance to them, which I thought was interesting. In the initial drafts he came into this room and there was an orchestra playing on the stage. And it was a recognizable piece, and he knew the piece, and there was dialogue with them walking down the aisle, much as they are now. And Baltar, it was all about him taking his place, and it was about the universe. She talks about music here and talks about the melody of life. And there was a point where the extension of the metaphor was him going up onto the stage and there was an empty chair and a violin and he didn't know how to play, but he sat down, he picked up the violin and he joined in the orchestra and you went out with Baltar playing as a member of the orchestra. And an orchestra of what? And what did that symbolize? And what did it mean? What kind of thing had he transcended? And what did it mean to take his place as the orchestra- in God's symphony, or whatever it was? And that- we talked about that at length. And there lots of discussions with James and the director and myself and noone ever got quite satisfied with it. And then we came to this. I can- I believe it was Michael and it might have even been James. I hesitate to say whose idea it was. This idea of the child, of the cradle, of them talking about Baltar being involved with the baby. And who's baby is it? Well, it's probably Sharon's baby, don't you think? He's dealing with the Cylons and that the Cylons have been trying to get Sharon pregnant all season, and that God has a plan for Baltar, and is Sharon coming back to Galactica? It seemed an interesting, fascinating place to go where you suddenly- all the plot elem- whoever said- made that suggestion was brilliant because it suddenly made all the plot threads start to come together in a nice, clean line. Suddenly all these disparate elements you started to line up and you start to feel that it all has a coherence, it all has resonance. It's not all random events happening for no reason. And that was something I always wanted. I always wanted this sense of the "unified theory of Galactica". That these things are all relevent. And that they may not be apparent why they're relevent. And maybe you don't understand why they're relevent for quite a while, but they do. They are. They do have meaning, and they do all track in together.

And then this sequence, which is as we get here into the end, it was really important that Sharon not give anything away. That we not play any notion that she's about to do what she's about to do. That nobody be worried about it. That your dramatic focus is about the conflict between Lee and his father. So right away the audience is taken off guard because you're focusing on that. You're focusing on the father's betrayal by the son. The son wondering what's gonna happen to him. And then him going over and congratulating Sharon is just a way of showing Lee how wrong he was. That these guys did their job and carried out their orders even though they had questions. And it seems to be just servicing the emotional component of the scene, which is the father-son. And so you hide the cards, as I'm always saying (unintelligible). Hide the card. Don't let the audience know what the scene's really about until, boom. She- you don't- she just does it. And does it more than once.

And then begins all this. This fantastic intercut. Knocking her down. Lee's trauma. Baltar's madness. It's great. It's a great ending. I'm very proud of this ending. This is a really, really good cliffhanger. This is the way you wanna end a season. This is- this brings it all home. You're just- you're hooked. I'm hooked. I wrote the damn thing and I'm hooked. I wanna see what happens next. I wanna know what's gonna happen in that room. All these characters. Will he live? Will he die? What about Sharon? What about Baltar? What about Kara? What about, what about, what about. It's great. And it's surprising, and I think it's a sledgehammer blow at the end when Adama is shot. You just don't see it coming. You just don't suspect that anything like that is lying in wait for you, the viewer. And that's what makes it work.

So, this would be the final podcast of the first season. Thank you all for listening. And I hope if we get a chance to do more of these podcasts, perhaps as we go into production, I might leave you a few more of these along the way. And otherwise I will be sure to be talking to you again this summer when season two of Battlestar Galactica begins. And it will begin moments after all of this ends. So thank you, and goodnight.