Podcast:Crossroads, Part I: Difference between revisions
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== Act 1 == | == Act 1 == | ||
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RDM: Act one. OK. This storyline here of the [[Raptor]] going back to drag the trail, lookin' for the [[Cylons (RDM)|Cylons]], was something that was in early drafts as we started to re- We knew that we wanted to bring the Cylon threat back into the show, here in the last [[Crossroads, Part I|two]] [[Crossroads, Part II|episodes]]. We had been away from it for a while and we stayed away from it deliberately so that we could bring them back in a big way towards the end. And this notion that they had been following along for quite some time and that [[Galactica (RDM)|''Galactica'']] was taking precautions, just in case they were, but- and would leave this trailing Raptor behind to sit and wait and see if the Cylons would show up at their old position, and that this time [[William Adama|Adama]] decides to leave a Raptor for a longer period of time was something that was always in the story from the early get-go. | |||
When I saw the first cut of this episode, which I really liked, I responded very strongly to the first cut of the show, this was how [[Andrew Seklir|Andy]], the editor, and [[Michael Rymer]] chose to open the show. You open straight into the courtroom with the opening statements, which I thought was really interest- an interesting journey. But ultimately because the episodes were also extraordinarily long, they were like ten and, I think, twenty minutes over, respectively, there was a lot of reshuffling that had to be done in the structure, and some things had to go to make room for others, and as a result the teaser reverted back to the way the teaser was actually and structured initially and the opening arguments moved back to the top of act one. There is a significant lift here in her speech. She talks about loss and numbers and how they count up the people that live instead of the people that are dead, because of their particular situation, which I thought was a really intriguing idea that was in [[Michael Taylor|Taylor]]'s script, but initially she wrote the number of the entire [[The Twelve Colonies (RDM)|Twelve Colonies]] up on that whiteboard in the background, which was like fif- I can't remember what the number was. I'll probably get it wrong if I quote it. But I think it was like fifty-one billion, or something. And she had this big number, and then from that there was a series of subtractions of people lost in the [[Fall of the Twelve Colonies|initial attack]] and the people lost down through the years, all the way down to [[New Caprica]]. And it was a chain of reasoning that led her all the way to the crimes of [[Gaius Baltar]], which was very effective, but it just took too long to get there. And in fact, we had to digitally remove the original numbers from the top of that chart, because the old numbers were up there as well, and so we had to go in and ask [[Gary Hutzel]] and- Gary Hutzel and friends, our new variety show, to remove the old numbers from the board. [[Cassidy]], the prosecutor, in the sh- in early script and definitely in the story, was a man, was an older man. A bit of a professor. But as we got close to casting the part we started to feel that we hadn't had another strong female character in the show in a while and we wanted to bring another voice into the courtroom and make the opponent a woman. Which I thought was a good choice. | |||
Revision as of 13:35, 20 March 2007
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RDM: Hello and welcome to the podcast I'nm Ronald D. Moore developer and executive producer of the new Battlestar Galactica and I'm joined here by my lovely wife, the lovely and talented Mrs. Ron. Say, "Hello," Mrs. Ron.
Terry: Hello Mrs. Ron
RDM: And we're here to discuss part one of the season finale, Crossroads Part I, which we call episode 18 around these parts.
Terry: I'm here again because Ron is now doing these in bed at 11 o'clock at night-
RDM: Yes-
Terry: In a state of exhaustion. And uh-So-
RDM: I hope-
Terry: I'm-I'll probably be pretty quiet too.
RDM: The smoking lamp is again out, but the scoth is Urgegragor 10 from-single malt from the Highlands.
Terry: There has been a question as to what is your favorite Scotch.
RDM: That's a hard question to answer, Talasker is one of my favorites. Jeru, that new one I got from that professor at USC. This new one came from John Hodgman who was here last night.
Terry: Mr. PC.
RDM: Mr. PC from the Apple commercials.
Terry: Ok, let's get into it. This is Crossroads Part I. In case you're wondering, no we did not forget to put the pre-cap on that says, "The Cylons Were Created By Man," etc. etc. Truth is we were pressed for time on these last two and we asked for special dispensation to do away with the pre-cap, as we call it, and also with the main title. So-to give us-in order to give us more time to tell the story and really play this for all it's worth. This sequence back at the opera house which we've seen before, the Kobol Opera house, was a very late edition to the script. I took a pass at the finale fairly late in the process, while we were in prep. I added this section and some other pieces that we'll talk about as they come along.
Terry: This is so spooky.
RDM: It's very spooky. It's very, "Don't Look Now," the Nicolas Roeg picture in a lot of these shots and very creepy and very effective. I like a lot of this a lot. Originally, we had always known that we wanted to do the trial of Gaius Baltar this season. It had originally was going to take place around episode 12 or 13 after the escape from the algae planet. Then as time went on we started talking about what the season finale was going to be and I started to getting more and more in love with the idea that the finale was going to be the trial of Gaius Baltar. That took a little bit of salesmanship actually with the network. The network was not entirely that we would-that a trial episode was really the best way to end the season. But I was really sold on it and then went back to the writers room and said "Ok, we really have to deliver because they're definitely skeptical this time about our ability to pull this off." So as-so we developed this long art that was going to culminate in this long art that was going to culminate in the trial, that I talked about before. With the Sagittarons becoming a problem in the fleet that's where the Helo, The Woman King episode originated. <3:03>
Act 1
RDM: Act one. OK. This storyline here of the Raptor going back to drag the trail, lookin' for the Cylons, was something that was in early drafts as we started to re- We knew that we wanted to bring the Cylon threat back into the show, here in the last two episodes. We had been away from it for a while and we stayed away from it deliberately so that we could bring them back in a big way towards the end. And this notion that they had been following along for quite some time and that Galactica was taking precautions, just in case they were, but- and would leave this trailing Raptor behind to sit and wait and see if the Cylons would show up at their old position, and that this time Adama decides to leave a Raptor for a longer period of time was something that was always in the story from the early get-go.
When I saw the first cut of this episode, which I really liked, I responded very strongly to the first cut of the show, this was how Andy, the editor, and Michael Rymer chose to open the show. You open straight into the courtroom with the opening statements, which I thought was really interest- an interesting journey. But ultimately because the episodes were also extraordinarily long, they were like ten and, I think, twenty minutes over, respectively, there was a lot of reshuffling that had to be done in the structure, and some things had to go to make room for others, and as a result the teaser reverted back to the way the teaser was actually and structured initially and the opening arguments moved back to the top of act one. There is a significant lift here in her speech. She talks about loss and numbers and how they count up the people that live instead of the people that are dead, because of their particular situation, which I thought was a really intriguing idea that was in Taylor's script, but initially she wrote the number of the entire Twelve Colonies up on that whiteboard in the background, which was like fif- I can't remember what the number was. I'll probably get it wrong if I quote it. But I think it was like fifty-one billion, or something. And she had this big number, and then from that there was a series of subtractions of people lost in the initial attack and the people lost down through the years, all the way down to New Caprica. And it was a chain of reasoning that led her all the way to the crimes of Gaius Baltar, which was very effective, but it just took too long to get there. And in fact, we had to digitally remove the original numbers from the top of that chart, because the old numbers were up there as well, and so we had to go in and ask Gary Hutzel and- Gary Hutzel and friends, our new variety show, to remove the old numbers from the board. Cassidy, the prosecutor, in the sh- in early script and definitely in the story, was a man, was an older man. A bit of a professor. But as we got close to casting the part we started to feel that we hadn't had another strong female character in the show in a while and we wanted to bring another voice into the courtroom and make the opponent a woman. Which I thought was a good choice.