Post by koenigrules on Jan 14, 2005 17:00:30 GMT -5
Here's the final part of the RDM interview in NowPlayingMag:
www.nowplayingmag.com/content/view/607/2/
Galactica “Hatch”es Guest Star
Written by Scott Collura
Friday, 14 January 2005
If you've visited our site this week, you must be aware that Battlestar Galactica's first season premieres tonight on the Sci Fi Channel. We've certainly promoted the thing up the Cylon wazoo, so without further ado, here's the final installment of our recent talk with Galactica executive producer Ron Moore.
In next week's episode, "Bastille Day," Richard Hatch, star of the original Galactica, makes a guest appearance as a character named Tom Zarek. Moore explains that he actually wrote the part for Richard, who played Apollo on the old show.
"I had met Richard for the first time at Galacticon, which was a Galactica convention, before the miniseries had premiered," he says. "I went to show clips of the miniseries to the faithful, who booed me. They really booed me and were unhappy. They were pretty antagonistic about the direction that we were going [with the show], and Richard was there and he stood up like Moses, sort of like, 'My people, be silent, give him a chance!' And they did. They listened."
Of course, Hatch had been trying to mount his own version of Galactica for years, which was meant to be a sequel to the original, so naturally he wasn't too thrilled to hear about Moore's remake.
"I met him backstage and he was very nice, a very gracious man," Moore continues. "And he had been very vocal and very public about the fact that he did not think that we were doing the right thing. He was not in favor of the project. He thought this was a mistake. But he was very honest about it. And we talked well and got along and afterward I said if we go to series, I'm going to want you to guest star on the show. So once we got to pick up the series, we [came] up with a character that we really liked in the show. And he loved it, and he really wanted to do it, and it all worked out."
And while guest stars, particularly washed-up celebrity guest stars, used to show up on the original show all the time (Ray Milland, Fred Astaire, Ray Bolger, etc.), they are definitely not the norm on the new series.
"It's mostly the core characters, because we have so many of them," says Moore. "And then we have recurring characters, like most of the Cylons are recurring. It wasn't so much a conscious choice. It was just sort of the way the storyline worked out [that] we tended not to do big guest star roles. Richard was the exception."
Regarding the Cylons, Moore says that we won't be seeing too much of their society at first, but the long term plan on the show is to slowly delve into what makes the villainous androids tick, so to speak.
"You will get inside one of the [Cylon] ships for the first time in the [season] finale," he hints. "But no, we've been very careful to stay away from that world. We're talking about eventually opening up the Cylon world and going aboard the ships and starting to see that culture, but I want to do it very slowly and I think right now the Cylon society is very interesting because you don't know anything about it and it's mysterious and kind of cool and kind of out there. And the more you reveal, the more you start getting familiar with that and it might not have quite the same intrigue."
So there you have it. Ron Moore has a lot of big plans for this show, but it's up to the audience to watch the thing and keep the ratings strong in order to get new episodes produced. So watch it already. By your command.
KR
www.nowplayingmag.com/content/view/607/2/
Galactica “Hatch”es Guest Star
Written by Scott Collura
Friday, 14 January 2005
If you've visited our site this week, you must be aware that Battlestar Galactica's first season premieres tonight on the Sci Fi Channel. We've certainly promoted the thing up the Cylon wazoo, so without further ado, here's the final installment of our recent talk with Galactica executive producer Ron Moore.
In next week's episode, "Bastille Day," Richard Hatch, star of the original Galactica, makes a guest appearance as a character named Tom Zarek. Moore explains that he actually wrote the part for Richard, who played Apollo on the old show.
"I had met Richard for the first time at Galacticon, which was a Galactica convention, before the miniseries had premiered," he says. "I went to show clips of the miniseries to the faithful, who booed me. They really booed me and were unhappy. They were pretty antagonistic about the direction that we were going [with the show], and Richard was there and he stood up like Moses, sort of like, 'My people, be silent, give him a chance!' And they did. They listened."
Of course, Hatch had been trying to mount his own version of Galactica for years, which was meant to be a sequel to the original, so naturally he wasn't too thrilled to hear about Moore's remake.
"I met him backstage and he was very nice, a very gracious man," Moore continues. "And he had been very vocal and very public about the fact that he did not think that we were doing the right thing. He was not in favor of the project. He thought this was a mistake. But he was very honest about it. And we talked well and got along and afterward I said if we go to series, I'm going to want you to guest star on the show. So once we got to pick up the series, we [came] up with a character that we really liked in the show. And he loved it, and he really wanted to do it, and it all worked out."
And while guest stars, particularly washed-up celebrity guest stars, used to show up on the original show all the time (Ray Milland, Fred Astaire, Ray Bolger, etc.), they are definitely not the norm on the new series.
"It's mostly the core characters, because we have so many of them," says Moore. "And then we have recurring characters, like most of the Cylons are recurring. It wasn't so much a conscious choice. It was just sort of the way the storyline worked out [that] we tended not to do big guest star roles. Richard was the exception."
Regarding the Cylons, Moore says that we won't be seeing too much of their society at first, but the long term plan on the show is to slowly delve into what makes the villainous androids tick, so to speak.
"You will get inside one of the [Cylon] ships for the first time in the [season] finale," he hints. "But no, we've been very careful to stay away from that world. We're talking about eventually opening up the Cylon world and going aboard the ships and starting to see that culture, but I want to do it very slowly and I think right now the Cylon society is very interesting because you don't know anything about it and it's mysterious and kind of cool and kind of out there. And the more you reveal, the more you start getting familiar with that and it might not have quite the same intrigue."
So there you have it. Ron Moore has a lot of big plans for this show, but it's up to the audience to watch the thing and keep the ratings strong in order to get new episodes produced. So watch it already. By your command.
KR