On the Scene: 'Battlestar Galactica''s mid-season finale screening
Jun 13, 2008, 06:46 PM | by Dafna Pleban
Categories: 'Battlestar Galactica', I'm Just a Geek, On the Scene, Television
Seriously, people, it's a crime that Battlestar Galactica doesn't get the Emmy recognition it deserves. To help remedy that situation, the Los Angeles Times’ awards blog The Envelope hosted a screening on Wednesday of the mid-season finale episode, "Revelations," for Emmy voters, press and fans alike (you'll be able to catch the episode tonight at 10/9 central on the Sci Fi Channel). Along with a sneak peak at the last episode for this year (according to various people on the red carpet, the show will return January or February of 2009, but a date has yet to be determined), press and fans got a chance to mingle with the show's executive producer Ronald D. Moore, Tricia Helfer (pictured, Six), Mary McDonnell (Laura Roslin) and Katee Sackhoff (Kara Thrace), all of whom sat down with the audience after the screening to answer questions.
Before screening the episode, Moore asked the audience to raise their right hand and repeat after him a sacred oath:
"I, [state your name], promise to keep all the secrets I see tonight."
And I, dear reader, took that pledge, and will spare you from the burden of secrets I carry with me this dark night, because trust me when I say that you don't actually want to know. You don't want to be the only one in your group of friends that knows the truth and has absolutely no one to discuss it with. It physically hurts not being able to call up my brother or boyfriend and go "OH MY GOD CAN YOU BELIEVE THEY..."
But fear not, gentle reader; I will leave you spoiler-free, if only because that's the best way to experience what was, in my opinion, perhaps the most shocking episode in the entire series. This is one you want to watch with friends so you won't be alone in the stunned silence that might follow. It will definitely keep fans talking until the suddenly-so-far-away second half of the season.
So while I can't talk about the episode itself, after the jump I will feed you as many juicy tidbits from the red carpet, panel and after party as I can muster.
Tidbit # 1) Though still over a year away, the series finale was on everyone’s minds, and comprised the bulk of the questions addressed to the panel. For Moore, writing the series finale was more than a little difficult: “I was getting caught up in the wrong plot in my head, and I was getting annoyed with myself, and with my writers, and life in general, and my children, and cats.... I was in the shower and just sort of had this epiphany that I was concentrating on the wrong thing, it’s really not about the plot, it’s about the characters. I came back into the writer’s room the next day and wrote ‘It’s the characters, stupid’ up on the board.”
2) For the cast, reading the last script brought out some strong reactions: Aaron Douglas (Galen Tyrol) and Edward James Olmos (William Adama) both cried; Helfer felt as if "someone had punched me in the stomach."
3) As McDonnell told me on the red carpet, emotions are running high: “It feels alternately glorious and devastating, because people are doing phenomenal work,” but she’s going to miss everyone when the show is over. One thing Sackhoff said she will definitely not miss is the flight suits: "It's like hell on earth.... Let's give them water but not give them a pee-zipper or anything."
4) One of the show's recurring themes has been the conflict between the Cylon monotheism and humanity's polytheism. When asked if this was planned from the start, Moore said, "When I wrote the miniseries, the first draft didn't really have much to do with religion. There was actually only one line -- I just had [Number Six] say 'God is love.' I thought it was an interesting thing for a robot to say. I didn't really know what it meant. I didn't really have a context for it. I just thought it was cool." The network's note for "more religion," then, came as quite the pleasant surprise to Moore: "That's a note I don't get very often, so [I thought] we'll just seize that and run with it."
5) When asked if the various Western cultural references that have peppered the show recently (everything from Bob Dylan to Shakespeare) were significant, rather than responding with a simple yes or no, Moore only provided a maddeningly obtuse "All will be revealed” before moving on to the next question.
6) MAJOR GEEK ALERT (but if you got this far, you are so, so not above this): Moore also revealed that the final five do not have model numbers (like Six, Three, etc.), and there is no direct correlation between the numbers and the Greek/Roman mythology referenced by the naming scheme of the 13 colonies.
7) When asked how she felt about Roslin and Adama, McDonnell explained that she enjoyed how their relationship has unfolded over the course of the series: "They end up joining hearts despite their stubbornness, despite their personalities or their obstinate natures."
8) When a fan asked if it was okay for her to pencil in Laura Roslin as her vote for President, McDonnell replied: "Only if I can have Hillary as my VP."
9) I know I said I wouldn’t spoil the mid-season finale for you (and I won’t), but I can’t say the same for the series finale. So if you’d rather not know anything, just skip straight to the next paragraph. While answering a question about Caprica -- a prequel spin-off series about the origins of the Cylons -- McDonnell inadvertently dropped a very interesting tidbit: "I snuck out of Battlestar the other day in my nightgown and IV and I went over to watch Caprica, and I scared them because they didn't know this mad woman with no hair, in this nightgown, dragging her I.V." Since the cast just mentioned that they were filming the last episode of the series, it’s not a stretch to assume that Roslin is at least still alive (if not entirely healthy). But with this show, who knows…
10) Once the panel was over, I made my way to the after party, where other fans were more than happy to gab with a complete stranger over [spoiler] and [spoiler] and "Can you believe they [spoilered] [spoiler]?!?!" Look, I’m still pretty new to this LA scene, so it was all a touch surreal to see Seth Green and Ron Moore deep in conversation in one booth, Kevin Smith chilling next to a gigantic metal Cylon statue by the bar, while the flesh-and-blood version, the stunning Tricia Helfer, stood nearby. But the conflux of celebrities, fans, and celebrity fans all coming together to discuss and dissect BSG certainly warmed this fangirl’s heart (and the free booze certainly didn’t hurt.)
11) I have to say, however, the sweetest fan moment had to be when another blogger just had to get his picture taken not with Six, not with Roslin, not with Starbuck, but with BSG writer Jane Espenson. With fans like that, who needs Emmys? (Seriously though, an Emmy or two wouldn't hurt.)
So PopWatchers, I gotta ask: How are you liking BSG this season? Is the wait for the second half of this season starting to feel as terrifyingly long for you as it's beginning to feel for me? Spill!
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