TVSquad

Warning: there are a few spoilers ahead for those of you who haven't seen the entire series up-to-date, so beware!

When the powers that be at TV Squad ask you to attend a Battlestar Galactica event in your town, you don't really hesitate before responding. Actually, you fire up your own FTL drives and go for broke. That was the scene last night when I invaded the SciFi Channel event held in Los Angeles at the Arclight Theater.

I'll do my best at setting the scene for you. If I leave anything out, or omit certain facts, it's only because I've just returned and am doing my best at recapping the entire evening based on my addled brain's memory of everything. I took a camera and a handheld audio recorder, but they literally had guards eagle-eyeing us, and we were told that if we were caught taking photos or recording anything, they would confiscate every device we owned (even my iPod shuffle?!) and eject us from the building. Or nearest airlock, I wasn't quite clear on that.

So I turned to my backup device, a notebook and a handy pen with quick-drying ink, and these are the results. Plus I got a few shots off before the Cylon Centurion made me shut everything down, and I'll be sharing those as well.

The first thing I noticed was the massive queue of people lined up for this thing. It was packed with fans, the earliest of whom at arrived at 8am ... 8am! You would think this was the taping of Bob Barker's last episode of The Price is Right, with a SciFi twist. I spoke with Justine and Cassie who were the very first in line, and they seemed a bit tired from the waiting, but extremely jazzed to be there. Justine even runs a Katee Sackhoff fansite, although they were really looking forward to seeing Jamie Bamber and Mary McDonnell.



They herded us into the Cinerama Dome at the Arclight, which is one of the best places to see science fiction films at in Los Angeles, mostly due to the fact that it looks like a giant honeycombed alien headquarters. Edward James Olmos came up and thanked everyone for being there, and talked about how lucky we were to be able to watch the show on a big screen in high definition (!) and in Dolby 5.1 surround sound. That was pretty awesome news to us, and just the tip of the iceberg as far as the evening was concerned.

So, they showed us "Crossroads, Part 2" which was the season finale from the season that just ended, and I can honestly say that after seeing it projected like this with an amazing 5.1 mix, it will completely suck watching this on my small screen back at home. You could see so many more details that I've never noticed at home, like photos in the background in cabins, items on desks, etc. Sure part of this was because it was on a massive screen, but the high definition really gave it depth and sharpness. Plus we had the added benefit of seeing it with a huge audience, which is much different than watching it at home alone or with a couple of friends. What an experience.



After that, we had a short break, and then the next phase was underway. Following a video recapping the series up until the end of Season Three, Lucy Lawless came out in a stunning black dress (that was pretty low cut, showing off a lot more than she ever did on the show) and she was the host for the Q&A portion of the night. She introduced Ronald D. Moore (I always feel like he needs the full name typed out, at least once), David Eick, Edward James Olmos (Eddie, as everyone called him the rest of the night), Mary McDonnell, Jamie Bamber, and Katee Sackhoff (in some pretty stunning knee-high leather lace up, high-heel boots). Sadly, there was no Grace Park or Tricia Helfer presence, or even James Callis (my personal favorite on the show). But hey, four of the core cast members and the show creators, why am I complaining?

Lucy Lawless started off working from cards to get questions going, but that soon devolved into a sort of free for all between the cast and crew. From that we gleaned the follow: Lucy Lawless really loved to talk about nudity and sex. But really, who doesn't? Here are some of the highlights from this part of the evening:

Lucy Lawless asked Ron and David how they felt about the recent announcement that they were ending the show with the next season. David joked that he thought it was a good idea, until he saw that Ron's Star Trek residual checks were pouring in, and that he'd paid for a house in Malibu *laughter*. Ron went on to explain that it felt like they had begun to reach a natural ending point with the story, and that it just felt right to end it with the next season.

Edward James Olmos: "Terrible." *laughter* "Honestly, we didn't create this show to sell Cheetos"
Ronald D. Moore interjects: "Cheetos are a fine snack, though."
Eddie: "Which is why I brought them up." *laughter*
Eddie (it feels a little too familiar to call him that, but so satisfying at the same time) went on to explain that the reason he felt terrible was because the show was such a fantastic thing to work on and that, "You won't see anything like this show on television for 20 years." I glanced at David Eick and wondered how he felt about this in regards to his Bionic Woman show, but he didn't flinch. Eddie went on for quite some time, talking about shows he's worked on in the past, including Miami Vice, and plays he's been in, and basically took things over for awhile. Mary McDonnell exchanged a couple of sly grins with each other during all of this, because if you've ever seen him get going, he talks for a long time. As far as I'm concerned, he's more than earned the right.



Mary McDonnell chimed in to say that not only was she sad that the show was ending, she was also impressed with the dedication that the fans had shown to both the series, but as well as to the cast members themselves. This was a running theme for the entire event, as everyone literally thanked the fans and their support multiple times. It was really nice to see them paying such tribute to the fans and realizing that they wouldn't be there if it wasn't for the viewers, and the loyalty they have shown to the series.

Jamie Bamber then piped with a joke about how it was such a bore working on this series for so long, and how it was holding back his career in film, theater, and other series work. Then he got serious and said he was "Looking forward to being Ron and David's bitch for another season." Ron responded with a whipcrack and a smile.

Lucy asked how the younger actors were enjoying being on a successful series, to which Mary McDonnell primped and preened and said "Oh, you mean me?" Honestly, the woman looked amazing, and I would totally believe that she was one of the younger generation. Katee and Jamie both talked about how great it was to work on the show, how much they loved the writing and the direction, and Jamie ended it by saying "There won't be anything to rival this experience."

Katee admitted that that the day she found out she was going to be killed off started with a phone call from Ron and David that began with "We just want you to know that we love you, but ..." Nothing good ever comes out of those types of calls. However, they did tell her she'd be coming back, and she had to sit on that and keep it a secret. Although she did tell her mom, and then some of the cast and crew found out, and Ron was called by the studio at 8am one day (another bad call to get), and he had to convince both the studio and the everyone on set not to mutiny. I think Ron recounts this entire story in much more detail on one of his Battlestar podcasts. If you haven't been listening to those, it's really high time that you started.

Katee said she got a lot of mileage out of saying goodbye to everyone, and that she even got cake and champagne on her "last day" and that she loved it. I'd be milking that too! Plus, it helped sell the idea that she wasn't coming back, which made her actual return all the more powerful.

Lucy remarked that her literal first moment on set was the episode where Jamie had to "hold a towel up all by himself." Now, call me crazy if I missed that episode, but Lucy got a huge kick out of it. She asked Jamie, "Did you have a rubber band around it?" and then went on to tell him, "Well, mazeltov darling." Nice! Apparently Apollo has gone under the knife, at least once.

Lucy then went on to ask if anyone had a favorite "nudie" scene, and Katee talked about her body paint scene with Callum Keith Rennie. The director kept saying that her pasties were getting in the shot, so she finally ripped them off, and Rennie covered her breasts up with his paint-coated hands. Problem solved. David Eick joked that he was going to buy his own house in Malibu by selling the naked pictures of Katee on eBay, baby. Katee responded by saying her plan is on the last day of shooting to wear her flight suit and helmet off the set, and get right into her car and drive home. "It'll pay my kids way through college!" Mary joked that she didn't think that President Roslin's clothes would fetch such a high price on eBay.

Then showing her mind was again, Lucy asked "Is Admiral Adama ever going to get laid?" *laughter* Jamie responded by saying "He's Latino! He has to do it two times a day!" Then someone interjected (I forget who, everyone was cracking up at this point) that we'd already seen Lucy in a threesome with Six and Baltar, to which Lucy said "Well, that was Cylon sex ... woo." What, like that doesn't count?

The tack changed a bit and Ron went on to explain that the network was fine with all the sex and nudity in the show, but they he was also surprised when they encouraged him to inject a lot of religion into the show. That led them to come up with the Cylon tenet, "God is love." Mary McDonnell remarked that John McCain had just said that the other night. See how it's all so topical?

Ron went on to say that although this show is in many ways different from the original, it's still Battlestar Galactica, and it had to be. There's still a father and a son, the human race fleeing from the Cylons, Apollo, Starbuck, "And we say they're searching for Earth." David cuts him off by saying "Well, we also say the Cylons have a plan ..." after which he makes a face that obviously communicates "We have no idea what the hell that plan is." *tons of laughter*

Ron went on to point out the fact that all the departments of the show really contribute to it being a success, especially in areas like post-production and sound design. Mary brought up the fact that Eddie had brought a piece of music to the set when they first started shooting the miniseries, and that he gave it to literally everyone. "I even think they had it at the Starbucks in Vancouver" said Jamie. That helped establish a feeling of the tone of not only the show, but of specific characters as well. Ron said that Eddie literally commands CIC, telling extras where to stand, what console does what, and that he really is in charge on that set. Ditto with Mary on Colonial One.

Lucy asked them all what got them interested in the script in the first place, and the cast members unanimously agreed that it was the writing. Eddie brought up the "bible" document that accompanied the script that helped to set the tone for the show, and to help get people past the "Oh, so this is a remake?" phase the writers knew they'd encounter. It worked, because it lured in both Eddie and Mary which gave them two Oscar-nominated actors as pillars in what has become a great ensemble cast.

Then, we heard the biggest bombshell of the evening. Edward James Olmos got off on a tangent and started talking about Blade Runner. "Blade Runner was supposed to have sequels!", which really set off my geek radar. I could only begin to imagine Blade Runner 2 and so forth ... and boy did I wish we would have seen them. What happened? Well, Eddie went on to explain that "Blade Runner failed because of Harrison Ford." Jamie joked that Harrison Ford was in the audience, and would he stand up? But, Eddie pressed on. He explained how fans had seen Harrison in the Star Wars movies, in Indiana Jones, and that they'd come to expect this sort of performance from him. When they instead saw him in a role that "Required him to think a lot, his fan base threw up all over it." Meaning, we think ... if we're translating an Olmos-ism correctly, that it tanked at the box office. Which, in all fairness, it did. Sure it's become a cult classic and film favorite since then, but you can't deny that it didn't do stellar numbers when it came out.

Zing! While I have to disagree, because I love both the film Blade Runner and Harrison Ford's performance in it, kudos to Eddie for going out on a limb on that one. I guess we won't be seeing an Edward James Olmos and Harrison Ford buddy cop film anytime soon, let alone a Blade Runner sequel.

Anyhow, check back here at TV Squad later for a lot more from this Battlestar special event, including all the fan Q&A questions, and plus we catch up with all the stars and the creators at a cocktail party afterwards. I'll try to get some sleep so that all sounds coherent, because I'm fairly frakkin' tired!