Sci-Fi Launch Podcast

[Blade Runner]

Sci-Fi Launch PODCAST
Source: Sci-Fi .com

With the Battlestar Galactica Podcast, you can listen to exclusive commentary by executive producer Ronald D. Moore about each episode, while you're watching it. There are two ways to enjoy this feature: Subscribe to Sci-fi Podcast feed, or download individual audio files. (Beware of spoilers! Although the commentary is provided before you watch the episode, it is meant to be listened to while watching the episode. Listening to it beforehand might ruin certain dramatic surprises.)

New commentary will be posted each Friday.

You can also manually download the MP3 files from SCIFI.COM. Each episode's commentary is divided into five files, one for each segment of the show: the Teaser (the part before the opening credits); and Acts One, Two, Three and Four. Begin playing segment one when the words "The Cylons Were Created By Man" appear on your TV screen. Start each new segment after each commercial break ends

www.scifi.com/battlestar/downloads/podcast/

[Baltar]

The podcast is fantastic and well worth downloading. I notice though that it runs longer than the SkyOne broadcast of "Tigh me up, Tigh me down". What's up with that? Is this caused by scenes being trimmed for viewing on SkyOne?

[Blade Runner]

Baltar said:

The podcast is fantastic and well worth downloading. I notice though that it runs longer than the SkyOne broadcast of "Tigh me up, Tigh me down". What's up with that? Is this caused by scenes being trimmed for viewing on SkyOne?

Probably because Sky air before the watershed of 9pm

[CylonGod]

Trying it now. So far very cool. Thanks for the info BR!

[BaloksPuppet]

The difference in times is probably due to the UK version being in PAL format, which is 25 frames per second compared to the normal speed for film which is 24 frames per second. U.S. TV broadcasts at 30 frames per second by essentiall padding that 24 frame per second filmed version. It's all very technical and a little confusing and I know I didn't explain it well, but that's the reason stuff from the UK often has a slightly shorter playback time.

I'd kill for a Podcast of "Six Degrees of Separation." I wonder if there's any chance of them making these for the rebroadcasts. Doubtful, I'm sure.

[The Godfather]

There are changes as well. I have the Sky versions on my Powerbook and I checked one of the scenes against the US version.

In the UK version, the end of the Kara/Baltar lab scene is marked by a large BSG75 emblem. In the American version, Six makes a comment about Baltar being right about how interesting Kara is. I tend to think this line disproves once and for all that Starbuck is a Cylon while advancing the curious Cylon fascination with her. I'm amazed that it was cut but it was in the UK one.

-Shawn

[larocque6689]

Here's some excerpts I wrote down.

[This episode] was originally called "Secrets and Lies, or Tigh Me Up, Tigh Me Down," by Jeff [Vlaming], but we just had to go with "Tigh Me Up, Tigh Me Down" because it was too good a title... "Tigh Me Up, Tigh Me Down" began life as a different episode than it turned out to be. It was originally going to be a riff on Crimson Tide... a very tense, taut thriller... We put Crimson Tide on the writers board as a possible episode 8 or 9. And we all got excited over the concept and liked the idea of doing a Crimson Tide-like episode where Adama and Tigh would each start to think the other one was possibly a Cylon. The paranoia in the fleet had seeped into the two men at the top... You would get to a place that by the end of the episode that Tigh and Adama were actually pointing guns at each other...

The honest truth is, we just could not make that story work... I didn't believe it got to the point where they were pointing guns at each other, I just didn't. As this show was being written and going into prep for production, we were also in the midst of a veritable firestorm of controversy over the preceding episode, "Flesh and Bone." That episode brought with a lot of controversy in-house with the studio and the network. The network was very concerned about it, we had a lot of spirited debate about it, all of it within the bounds of creative difference, and it was a very touchy subject matter... We had just got out of a very heavy, very dark, very disturbing episode, and the very next episode was supposed to be very disturbing, very dark, very unhappy episode where two of our lead characters start pointing guns at each other. So there came a point where I just decided, "well, let's punt." Let's not do the dark and brooding episode. Let's try a different tone. Let's see if the show can withstand something lighter.

Saul Tigh [was] originally Paul Tigh, but we had to change it for whatever legal nonsense they came up with. His backstory says that in the first Cylon war, which occurred 40 years ago, he started as a deckhand, became a chief, and his cruiser was boarded by the mechanical Cylons, and he engaged in hand to hand combat in some of the bloodiest fighting of the war. His ship was destroyed, he survived. He went on to another ship. That was destroyed as well... After he had a couple of ships shot out from under him as a chief, he was selected for officer candidate's school and was dragooned into being a pilot, because the fleet was running out of pilots, and he flew several combat missions. The war came to a close, and Tigh, along with many officers, was discharged at the conclusion of hostilities, and found himself suddenly without a career. He got work as a deckhand on an interplanetary freighter that flied a very boring route between a couple of the other Colonies. And it was on that freighter that he began to drink. And it was on that freighter that he met William Adama.

William Adama was a younger man than he was, had been a pilot in the first Cylon war, but only at the very end of the war, and hadn't seen as much combat as Tigh was. And that by the time Tigh had met Adama, he was already damaged. He was already a scarred man. He had already seen a great many ugly things and had survived them. And the war had left deep and damaging marks upon the man. But the friendship between the two of them lasted for many years... And when Adama finally did get back in the service, he reached out and pulled his old friend Tigh back with him, and they had a similar career path after that, and were very close and Adama kept him around, and he was a good officer as long as he kept his drinking under control.

This may be one of the sexiest shots of Six we've ever done. It's just her legs coming off the table. You know it's really amazing, quite remarkable, what we can get away with in terms of its sexual content, and sensuality, which I'm very proud of, and I make no apologies for it. I think it's phenomenal and great that we do it. I think it's intersting that the show is allowed to be an adult mature show... This gag is one of my favorites. She walks in, and what is he doing exactly? ... It's just so twisted you know. Baltar's such an interesting, twisted character, and [Starbuck's] reaction to him is perfect.

In the pilot, he burns a picture of [David Eick's] wife, and we had to reshoot the photo when we cast the role with Kate Vernon.

I always saw [the dinner party] as the centerpiece... This was as close to a comedy of manners as we could get. Here comes this woman into our little family, and Ellen is nothing like the rest of them. She's brash, she's loud, she's funny, she's outwardly sexual. She doesn't mind drinking too much in front of people and saying things that nobody else wants to hear. I think that it's interesting that she doesn't seem to live in the same world that they do, and she didn't. Everyone in this scene with the exception of Laura lived in the military world, a very sort of controlled environment. Even Laura lived in a world of politics, a place where people were very careful in what they say or do. And Ellen just hangs it out there... Just the fact that she makes these people uncomfortable, the fact that all of these people wish that she was anywhere but in that room, to me makes her worth having.

If Sharon came out of the woods, and shot Six and grabbed him and took off, he would think that it was his Sharon, even though our Sharon is back on Galactica. And I had no idea where that led and what that was going to be, but I knew it was really interesting and I was in love with it, so I wrote it... It took me a couple of episodes, but very slowly an idea started to dawn on me that the Helo/Sharon storyline on Caprica was actually the key to the entire Cylon agenda. That what the Cylons were really about, what one of their big goals was, would be eliminated through that storyline.

Adama's entire emotional arch in this episode is about the fact that he was so worried about the return of Ellen into his friend's life that he started acting kind of strange, and got suspected of being a Cylon. And why does he care so much? He cares so much because Saul Tigh is a good man. He is a good officer. He's a very smart officer. And he has instincts that are very finely honed. And when the chips are down, Tigh can save you ass. And he just saved the ship's ass once again. And that's why I think the Cylon raider subplot was crucial to this episode... Tigh is not just a drunk. He's not just this guy that we get to make jokes about week in and week out. He does matter to Adama, he is an important officer to Adama for some reason. Adama is not perfect, he does not always instinctively know the right thing to do, he's not a perfect, archetypical sci-fi hero. He's a human being, he has flaws, he has blind spots and moments of inattention. There are moments when he's not making the right call. But he has this friend that he can rely on. And as long as that man is at his side, he knows that he is going to make it, one way, shape or form. And that's why we keep him around. Even though he drinks, even though he has this wife, even though he yells at Starbuck, even though he's a flawed man in many other ways, he's important.

Six is a much more complicated character and Tricia is a complicated actress, and she conveys a lot here. It's really just the look on her face, as [Doral] talks, that tells the story. There's really nothing else going on here, except her longing, her inability to feel as deeply as human beings feel. I think that's a lovely, lovely moment.

[Darth Marley]

The said:

In the UK version, the end of the Kara/Baltar lab scene is marked by a large BSG75 emblem. In the American version, Six makes a comment about Baltar being right about how interesting Kara is.

You neglect to mention that Six is bent across the table with her sculpted ass visible. Very nice.
But yes, it is sad that it was cut in the UK first airing.

[BaloksPuppet]

Darth said:

You neglect to mention that Six is bent across the table with her sculpted ass visible. Very nice.
But yes, it is sad that it was cut in the UK first airing.

Confirmed, that sequence is missing from the UK version. It does appear in the latest behinds the scene clip available at www.scifi.com/battlestar/bts/video/ called "The Doctor Is Out (Of His Mind)."

Godfather, you should mention this in the Official US-UK version differences thread since you were the first one to spot it.

[MHall]

Holy cow! Thanks for the pointer to that clip. Are the Aussies so uptight about censorship, or might there be a version of this clip in HD available after that episode airs down under?

The censorship in the UK version actually confused me. In the UK version, we never get to see Six in that scene. I had been imagining that Six was on top of the table on her back, but Baltar seemed to be "shooting too low" for missionary position to work. It never occurred to me that they might be doing doggystyle. I wonder if imaginary Six's spine glows?

I was amused that in the clip, James Callis seemed much like Baltar. He was a bit twitchy, stammering a bit. I had thought that was all an act.

From the Podcast:

If Sharon came out of the woods, and shot Six and grabbed him and took off, he would think that it was his Sharon, even though our Sharon is back on Galactica. And I had no idea where that led and what that was going to be, but I knew it was really interesting and I was in love with it, so I wrote it... It took me a couple of episodes, but very slowly an idea started to dawn on me that the Helo/Sharon storyline on Caprica was actually the key to the entire Cylon agenda. That what the Cylons were really about, what one of their big goals was, would be eliminated through that storyline.

And now we've also learned that Ron Moore is kind of making this up as he goes along. I mean, we have had evidence of that before, but Ron Moore sounds even less prepared than I thought. It sounds like he doesn't know what the Cylon Plan is. You're scaring me Ron! There is some merit to planning things out. You're going to have consistency nightmares if you just keep winging it.

[Blade Runner]

Ron has a 5 year plan, it's the intricacies that have to be worked out

[Baltar]

MHall said:

Holy cow! Thanks for the pointer to that clip. Are the Aussies so uptight about censorship, or might there be a version of this clip in HD available after that episode airs down under?

I'd have to guess that you won't be downloading this in HDTV format any time soon. On the one hand, Australian free-to-air television is about as liberal as it gets. For example, they show during primetime most Hollywood movies completely uncut, complete with nudity, strong violence, graphic sex scenes, and strong language. So I would be very surprised if anything *ever* gets cut out of Galactica.

However, broadband Internet access in this country is expensive, and most ISPs actively block server activity and have strict download caps. For this reason you find very little P2P video trade here relative to North America. Added to this, so far not very many people own digital HDTV sets. Also remember that the popular video codecs do not support the HD format (yet).

So yes, it is almost certain that the scene will be aired down under, but it is unlikley that somebody will record it, encode it, and put it on the Internet in an HD-compatible format.

(I really hope I'm wrong about this!)

[Blade Runner]

The 'Hand of God' Podcast is now available to download at Sci-fi.com

www.scifi.com/battlestar/downloads/podcast/

[Blade Runner]

Jesus mother of Mary's little baby monkeys, my new upgraded broadband connection downloaded it in 10seconds

[larocque6689]

Here's this week's batch of excerpts.

David Eick often referred to this episode as the Big Mac, because it's sort of fast food. Here's the guilty pleasure, and let's go out and blow a lot of stuff up. Let's have some fun. Let's do a war story. Let's get back to the roots of what this show is about, which essentially is a combat series about an aircraft carrier in space... Originally, this show was slated to be episode nine, and it became episode ten. At the last minute I decided to switch the episodes in production order, because I realized that at the end of "Flesh and Bone" where Leoben whispers into Laura Roslin's ear "Adama is a Cylon" was the perfect way to springboard us into the episode that was all about paranoia... which became "Tigh Me Up, Tigh Me Down." So at the last minute I pulled a fast one and sent everybody to switch the order, so that it could be episode ten... It's a Big Mac, but sometimes Big Macs are really good, and they taste really good. You just have to be sure you make them well. And I think we made this one really well.

This scene between Elosha and Laura is moving Laura Roslin along a path that ties into the larger Battlestar Galactica mythos... [The Von Däniken "Chariots of the Gods" theme] was something that was built into the original series. As I approached Galactica, I decided early I wanted to keep that part of the mythos. I didn't want to play it too heavily up front in the miniseries, or the first couple of episodes, because I felt it was more important to establish the characters... and hook the audience into the show, before we start to introduce the more grandiose mythological concepts. But it was very important...

In the latter episodes of the first season you'll start to see more and more pieces of Laura starting to realize that... there is a larger, more eternal tale that all of them are wrapped up in... In "Flesh and Bone", there is is a quote of scripture that is used time and again, "All of this has happened before and all of this has happened again." If memory serves me correct, I believe these are the opening words to the Disney animated version of "Peter Pan."

Part of Starbuck's backstory is that she was a pyramid player, which is a physical game, an homage to the original [Triad], a sort of racketball/handball/basketball game that we haven't seen yet. She had joined the Colonial Fleet Academy on some kind of athletic scholarship, primarily to play pyramid, and she saw it as a means to an end. And when she was there, she blew out her knee, could not be scouted by the pros, and her career was over. [She] had to find other employment. And when she flew for the first time, she realized she found her true calling [and] decided to become a Viper pilot. In any case, someone with that kind of backstory who suffers another injury shouldn't just get up and walk away from it. I wanted to play out the ramifications and the impact of that over the course of many episodes. In this episode it gave us a chance to make our best pilot stay behind when we have the "Big Mac" mission to go on.

Here's this handsome, heroic lead pilot character in the drama, who starts to realize that the people around him, his own father, his best friend, don't really think he's up to snuff. His dad think he's not going to come back, and he gives him a lucky charm to guide him back and spunk him up. And Starbuck has to stand in rooms and walk him through all the tactics. And I think it's a weight that the character weighs with him. It's the determination in Lee, I think, is most telling. He's tenacious, he's not someone who gives up easily, and I think that probably throughout his life, many people have underestimated Lee Adama.

There are many homages to the original Galactica, contrary to the views of many of our detractors who think that we spend our time dancing up and down on the grave of the original, and that we enjoy chances to put a stake through the heart of the old show. Actually, we're quite fond of the old show, we mean it no disrespect, and there are many fans of the original in the visual F/X department in particular, who delight in sprinkling our rag-tag fleet with models and ships from the original. And coming up is one of those ships... I believe that was called the Colonial Movers. And it's hiding our Vipers. Which I think is such a cool gag... This whole sequence [on the asteroid] in large measure is a salute to the efforts of everyone at Zoic, and many other artists and artisans beyond Zoic, who aided in this episode in the visual effects department, and Gary Hutzel, who is our visual F/X supervisor.

This is an homage in some ways to Star Wars, there's no doubt about it. It's go down into the trench and fly your Viper, and do something, hanging it out there over the edge... And it's really a character gag. We wanted Lee to do something crazy like Kara would do. That was the whole point, Apollo doing a Starbuck sort of move to prove to himself and everyone else that he's capable of doing these kinds of things.

[Baltar] as a rational, secular scientist has to look around him and realize that things are maybe not what they seem. As much as he wants to deny the existence of God, and certainly the Cylon God, things do tend to work the way Six tells him. God's hand does seem to be be in play in many ways in this episode and in this series. And what does that say to Gaius Baltar, the skeptic and secularist? How does he start to put this all together in his mind, as evidence piles on top of evidence, that perhaps there is a God? And perhaps it is her God. And perhaps he is being visited, by not just by a chip in his head, or by a subconcious psychotic break, but perhaps God is speaking to him in some bizarre way.

I don't care what the anti-smoking folks say [about lighting cigars], I like it. We're going to keep doing it. People smoke. They're human beings. It's their choice. Let 'em.