Had a really volatile argument with Mark on the phone, the bulk of it us getting really pissed at each other. Eventually there was a compromise. There’s a moment in the script where Kara literally hit him and knocked out some teeth. I took that out, but kept the bucket and the waterboarding and all that in. That was enough to kind of satisfy Mark, but that was a touch-and-go kind of thing.
TODD SHARP
This was way, way too dark for Sci-Fi. They already aired the miniseries, which aired as a backdoor pilot. So it’s not like people didn’t know that the show was living in a dark world, but for some of the executives that was a little bit too far over the edge. They didn’t want it to be that dark. Frankly, I don’t think Sci-Fi got permission to embrace the dark until the reviews started to come in, and the accolades and the Peabody, and the Time magazine cover calling it one of the best ten shows on television. As soon as that started to happen, Sci-Fi was able to trust more in what Ron was trying to do in terms of the dark and the ugly and the moral questions.
RONALD D. MOORE
You’d have to ask them. I think they heard what I was pitching, but then they didn’t believe that I meant it on some level. I think they just thought, “Well, once we get into the series, there’ll be a little more action/adventure. It’ll be more fun. It’ll be a little more games in space.” No one was fighting for the whole version of the show. I wasn’t getting that note, but they were not prepared for how seriously we took the premise and how seriously we took what we were doing. And that we were going to hold that line trying to make it realistic, and trying to deal with people at war and taking losses, torture and security and suicide bombings and all that. I just don’t think they thought that we really meant it.
DAVID EICK
Believe me, because we didn’t know so much about where we were going with the mythology, and where we were going with the religion and where we were going with Laura and who the Cylons were, all you really could sell was, “Well, they’ll run out of water and they’ll run out of ammo and they’ll run out of food.” Because you didn’t know what else you were going to do.
RONALD D. MOORE
It reminds me of an incident on the miniseries. I was producing Carnivàle, but at one point David called me up and he said, “I need you to be on the phone for this one call, because we’ve gotten to a place with the network where I think it’s going to get kind of ugly. I may need you to kind of be the rational voice here.” “Okay, what’s going on?” The scene in the miniseries where Adama and Leoben are on the space station together and Adama, you know, beats him to death with the flashlight. Mark hated that scene. He wanted to lose it. It had to be more kung fu or it had to be more of a fight. He was relatively new at the network; it was definitely a period of transition. But that scene was going to be shot, and they were having a confrontation about it.
DAVID EICK
We start shooting this scene between Adama and Leoben. They’re walking and talking and Adama’s growing suspicious. Finally we get to where the fight’s going to be, and it’s late; Eddie’s tired. We’ve always envisioned this as this kind of guttural, intimate kind of fight anyway, right? So Eddie just kind of starts pitching, “Well, why don’t I just get him down here on the bottom of this stairwell, and as soon as he gets there, I’ll hit him in the back of the head with this brick or whatever and he falls, and I just jump on top of him and bash, bash, bash, bash.” And that’s the fight. No acrobatics, no stunts, no wire work. Just one guy behind another guy in a stairwell clobbers him. Guy falls, first guy jumps on top of him and keeps clobbering him until his face is hamburger. So that’s what we did, and it was fucking great. Eddie was scary as shit. There was a flashlight, and even as he lifted the flashlight to deliver the last blow, it was like he was savoring it. He was just, like, “Fuck you, fuckers!” It was so great to see your hero sating the audience’s need for vengeance, right? One of those great moments, and we’re beyond thrilled. Creatively, we feel like we did something kind of artful. Something Scorsese-ish. You know, we’re kind of jerking ourselves off a little bit.
So we get to the next day and they see the dailies, and Mark Stern calls and he’s apoplectic that … I can’t even remember what the phrase was that was being thrown around, but there was some sort of accusation along the lines of bait and switch, or not living up to the spirit of the agreement. It was getting kind of ugly; like we had done something either underhanded or just plain incompetent. And Michael Rymer loses his fucking shit. We’re on a conference call getting these notes verbally … Rymer’s in the car on the way home. I’m in the Vancouver office. Stern’s in L.A., and he says, “You’re going to reshoot this. You’re going to reshoot this as scripted, and I want the fight scene that we talked about. And it’s going to be at your expense.” And we’re totally getting our knuckles rapped. Remember, it’s the end of the day, so we’re beat. Everyone’s exhausted and has been shooting fourteen hours and they’ve gotten the day, at least from them. Then Rymer says, “I don’t think you would know a good show if it landed in your lap. The fact that you want us to turn something like this into a ridiculous, fanciful piece of shit like the kind of shit you would do is beyond me!” Then he added, “And the fact that you’re in charge makes me terrified for the future of this show.”
MARK STERN
These were very early days for me at the network and my relationship with these guys, but in that fight in the miniseries between Adama and Leoben … When you saw Eddie Olmos as the man he used to be, as the warrior, as opposed to the retired kind of man in his decline, when I saw dailies of that scene it was a very tame, kind of a-couple-of-punches scene. I said, “I really think this scene needs to be more brutal than that. I really think we need to see Adama being it. This is where we see who he can be.” And they didn’t disagree with me.
RONALD D. MOORE
Michael Rymer was refusing to back down, and they’d already had one go-around about this. So now we were going to have a bigger go-around. A bigger conference call that I was on. I hadn’t really been participating in these fights, because I was producing another show and kind of took a back seat. I remember Michael and Mark just going at it, and Rymer getting so pissed about, “You don’t know what show you’re making. You don’t even understand what the hell you bought. This is the show and you don’t know what you’re talking about!” Finally, Rymer really hung up on the network. I remember Mark being startled [laughs], and David and I were quite amused. So Rymer hung up.
DAVID EICK
I’m just laughing at this point, because it was just so awesome that Rymer said that. Then Stern calls back and Rymer won’t take the call, so now I’ve got to handle it, right? But that’s my job. So I’m talking to Mark and I’m explaining that, at the end of the day, he didn’t have to say what he did. That we were really proud of what we did, we don’t want to reshoot it because we can’t afford it, we can’t schedule it, we had the factory for one day and that day is gone. It was all these interruptions, complications, and expenses, and I couldn’t get him off of it. So some compromise happened where I rewrote the fight to some kind of specification that Rymer thought we could get, that Eddie would do, that wouldn’t violate the tone of the show, but that would deliver a little bit more of what the network was looking for. And, of course, Eddie starts out with, “Well, fuck him. Tell him I’m not showing up.” And so I’ve got to talk Eddie into it, and explain to Eddie that I’m going to rewrite the fight, we’re going to make it cool, we’re still going to keep it guttural.
So finally I’m able to kind of get everybody on board with this thing, but Rymer’s caveat is that we decided we’re going to shoot it on a fucking Saturday, one of our precious days off and we’re able to get this factory again. Rymer says to me, “You tell Mark I’m not rolling camera until he’s sitting in the seat next to me.” Meaning Stern is going to get on a fucking plane and if he wants it exactly like he wants it, then he’d better be here to supervise it. And Stern, to my dismay, was like, “Fine, I�
�m happy to hop on a plane on Saturday and go to fucking Vancouver to oversee a fight scene.” Psycho. Anyway, so now Mark’s got to come, we’ve got to shoot on a fucking Saturday, I’ve got to rewrite this fight.
MARK STERN
They made me fly up to Vancouver—I kind of feel like there was a bit of retribution in this—for when they shot it. Now, obviously there’s a great practicality to that, because what they didn’t want to do was go through this elaborate stunt sequence and then have me look at the dailies and go, “Oh, that’s not what I meant.” But we also happened to be shooting that scene in probably the most disgusting location I’ve ever been in.
DAVID EICK
[laughs] It was just toxic and awful.
MARK STERN
It was an old sugar factory and it was coated with a burnt-molasses-like sticky black sugar. And it stank. I’m like, “Of course you would want me here so that I would have to sit on your set and never bother you again with my ridiculous notes.”
DAVID EICK
We all show up on Saturday, everyone’s ready to go … and Stern’s not there. Rymer stands up, turns around, and he walks out. I’m like, “I can’t believe this. Now we’re not going to shoot.” So I beg Michael to come back. I get on a phone and find out that Stern’s renting a car and he’s just late. Finally Stern gets there, walks in, shameless, smiling: “Hi everybody,” he’s just showing up to a part. “So what are we doing?” And so he sits down, we start doing the fight. As the day goes, Mark can appreciate the complexities involved in shooting in this particular location, the sort of tonal awkwardness of some of the stunts that didn’t really feel like it fit the tone of the show; Eddie’s resistance. He could feel Eddie’s hatred. I think “brrrr” went through the back of his head every time Eddie sat in his chair. And I know that, for a fact, we not only wound up cutting out a lot of what we had planned to shoot that day, and simplifying it even further, but by the time we got to the editing room, and got done with it, it is near or exactly the very thing we had when we got done with it the first time.
TODD SHARP
You’ll find me the defender of Sci-Fi and Mark Stern. Don’t get me wrong, they made some boneheaded decisions, but they had the best interests of the show at heart, which were how do we grow an audience so that this show can have longevity. I commend Mark Stern for his passion, and I commend Ron Moore and David Eick for their passion. With them it was good cop/bad cop. David would be the bull in the china shop and pave the ground for Ron to come in and fight that creative battle and say things like, “It’s got to be ‘All Along the Watchtower,’” or “I’ve got to end the show this way,” or “Kara has to disappear behind the bushes at the end of the finale for this reason.” Ron was able to save it for those load-bearing creative battles that ultimately he won most of, because Ron was a visionary. But he couldn’t have fought those battles as well as he did without the partnership of David, who also was a creative force. And Sci-Fi was as good a partner as you could hope to have when you have such a dark and challenging show that is trying to find what voice is acceptable. Nobody had ever seen anything like it before. There was a process of kind of figuring it out. Once everybody figured that out, I would say that it was largely smooth sailing with the network.
MARK STERN
But, you know, it’s really a pleasure when you have exec producers who know what they’re doing, are passionate about what they’re doing, and who know their stuff. It keeps you on your toes. You really have to come to them with smart, knowledgeable notes. You feel like you’re very much partners on that process, which is probably the best circumstances for making a series. You know, I had been a producer just six to eight months prior, so a lot of the things they were saying and doing with me, I would’ve said and done with the network executive that was giving me those kinds of notes with the best intent. It’s really just about putting your executives on notice that you’re going to take them seriously, and you expect them to take you seriously. You need to be able to back up what you’re talking about and defend it, and you need to be respectful of the process. So it wasn’t a situation where it was like, “Goddamn these guys.” It was more like, “Good for you, guys. Push back, believe in it.” And I really believe that.
DAVID EICK
There were a couple of bad ideas he talked us out of, and I think there were a couple of good ideas he talked us into. I would never take that away from him. But I think Mark’s style, at times, could be micromanaging, which everyone would tell you. He would tell you that about himself. And there was not always a taste connection. There were times when it would feel like Mark would insist on doing things that were not of this show, so there could be a struggle getting him on the same page with the show we were doing. I would say that lasted the first season, and then we had less of that kind of problem.
RONALD D. MOORE
The network never admitted it was wrong in so many words. But what happened was, once the show was on the air we talked about the miniseries and the success of the miniseries, and how that changed the conversation. And then, season one of the show got a tremendous amount of critical acclaim. It started getting awards, started getting attention and Peabodys. Suddenly we were in a different ball game. Suddenly we were the prestige show on the network, so it definitely changed their attitudes. I don’t think they ever came back and said, “You were right, we were wrong.”
DAVID EICK
Before Battlestar, my career was as a nonwriting producer. It was only because of some of the “necessity is the mother of invention” situation that that changed. There was a time in particular where Ron got so frustrated with notes from the network on a scene that he threw up his hands and was like, “I’m going to fucking quit.” I don’t think he really considered it, but he was pissed off. So I wrote it and he liked it. I thought, “Oh, I can write a scene that Ron likes. That means I can try writing an episode,” and I did. Now I’m a writer/producer and that’s what I do for a living, but writing on the show was because there was so much friction in the very early going, trying to let this show be about stuff other than we’re out of shit. And not just for me. A lot of folks on that staff blossomed because of the hardship of that friction. Folks who we stay in touch with now and are off running their own shows who were vital to that little chapter of difficulty. And so made the show a lot better that we had those fights. It also paved the way for people to come out of their shell a little bit, too, which was great.
RONALD D. MOORE
The network did start backing off, but there were still flare-ups and fights, but we didn’t have quite the same sort of trench warfare we had in year one where they were no longer arguing about the fundamental tone of the show. I’d still have arguments with them about the tonnage and how many people have to die in the scene, how much blood we were going to show, does the ending have to be this downbeat … they never really let it go, but it became less fraught and less harsh. They kind of had to resign themselves to, “This is the series, and we’re also kind of proud of it at the same time.” They embraced it.
Suddenly I’m going into executives’ offices for meetings, I’m looking at the wall and there’s, you know, an AFI Award for Battlestar Galactica. Or a magazine with our actors on the cover on their desk. You could just keep walking into their offices and bit by bit, you start seeing more of our stuff around and you realize that they were proud of it. They were like, “Hey, we’re making a hell of a show here and it’s getting recognized.” They were very proud of what we were doing, even though they disagreed with a lot of the reasons why and how we got there. But eventually they did kind of come around, and by the end they were very much our supporters.
In its first season, the Galactica is still being pursued by the Cylons, which seem to be tracking a particular ship, which has over one thousand civilians aboard. Apollo gives the order to destroy the vessel, sacrificing the passengers to save the rest of the fleet.
After the Galactica’s water tanks are sabotaged, Boomer begins t
o question her true nature. She’s programmed to think she’s human, including elaborately constructed memories and records. Rumors spread throughout the fleet that the Cylons now look like humans, and that they have operatives in place on board the Galactica. As evidence mounts, Tyrol becomes suspicious of Boomer, eventually ending his relationship with her. The rumors are, of course, true. Roslin and Adama ask Baltar to build a Cylon detector, but his spectral Six (more popularly known as “Head Six”) tells him he needs a nuclear warhead to complete the device. Adama gives him one, and Baltar uses it to build a functioning detector. Colonel Tigh’s wife, Ellen, suspiciously reappears in the fleet, but by that point Baltar is too afraid of Cylon reprisal to report the true results of the test.
Starbuck faces her own fear and admits to Adama that she was responsible for Zak’s death. Despite this, Adama risks the future of humanity to rescue Starbuck after her Viper crash-lands on an uninhabitable planet. Later, Starbuck is tasked with interrogating another copy of Leoben, who tells her that she has a destiny. President Roslin blows the Cylon out an airlock. But Cylons aren’t the only threat to Roslin’s administration. Tom Zarek, a revolutionary leader, makes a bid for the vice presidency. With no other option, Roslin nominates Baltar for the position, and he wins it.
On Caprica, Helo is rescued by another copy of Sharon Valerii. They travel through destroyed cities and abandoned buildings, pursued by Cylon Centurions. Helo realizes that there are Cylons who appear human, but doesn’t realize that Sharon is one of them. Over the course of their journey, they fall in love. When they finally reach a spaceport, Helo spots another Sharon. He shoots the woman he thought was Boomer, suddenly unsure who to trust.
Roslin, afflicted with terminal breast cancer, begins taking a hallucinogen called chamalla and seeking the spiritual counsel of the priestess Elosha. She comes to believe that she is the “Dying Leader” prophesied about in the Book of Pythia, who will lead humanity to Earth. The Boomer on board the Galactica discovers a habitable planet, which Elosha believes to be Kobol, the birthplace of the Thirteen Tribes. Tyrol and Baltar lead a team to the planet to investigate, but are shot down by Cylons. During the planning of a rescue mission, Roslin’s religious fervor conflicts with Adama’s atheistic pragmatism. Against his orders, Roslin sends Starbuck to Caprica to retrieve the Arrow of Apollo, which Pythia foretells will guide them to Earth. Adama retaliates by ordering her arrest, but Apollo disobeys the command and is arrested himself.
So Say We All Page 56