Warning! It would be advised for you to put on your hip waders because this bullshit gets really deep!
The popcorn letter
Letter of introduction to Battlestar Galactica
By Ronald D. Moore
February 24, 2003
Dear SCIFI.COM and Battlestar Galactica fans,
Here lies a slumbering giant, its name known to many, its voice remembered by but a few. For a brief moment, it strode the Earth, telling tall tales of things that never were, then stumbled over a rating point and fell into a deep sleep.
I think there's life in that old giant. But I think that just poking him with a stick and expecting him to leap to his feet and resume his journey as if no time had passed would serve only to hasten his final death throes. He needs a makeover. Especially that '70s hair. (Just what the fuck is this condescending bullshit supposed to mean? It has noting to do with TOS fan efforts for a continuation! And it WAS made in the 70s so, of course, the hair reflects that, numbnuts!! Jesus Christ, give the "70s hair" shit a rest!!...cl)
So we've set out to bring the old boy back to life and give him a new look and a new outlook on life. And we're going to ask him to tell his stories again, from the beginning. Tell them again, but this time go deeper. See, we were young once and when the old guy spun his tales of Apollo and Starbuck, we were satisfied with clear-cut heroes and nakedly evil villains. But we're older now. We've eaten a lot of popcorn over the years. We're ready for a bigger meal. Make the story more complicated. Make the people less black and white. Challenge us, provoke us, grab us by the throat with those massive hands and dare us to invest ourselves in flawed characters who face ambiguous choices in an imperfect world. Dare us to root for heroes with all-too-human weaknesses. See if we'll still embrace them if they fall prey to their imperfections.
Ask us to care for human beings instead of caricatures.
"Our goal is nothing less than the reinvention of the science-fiction television series."
With those words leading the way, I turned in the final draft of Battlestar Galactica. Bold words, perhaps. Arrogant even. But they accurately describe the ambition driving this project:(Arrogant??? Try egotistical prick who doesn't give a flying fuck about TOS fans' efforts to bring a logical continuation to life!!!...cl)
We believe you can explore adult themes with adult characters and still tell a ripping good yarn.
We believe that to portray human beings as flawed creations does not weaken them, it strengthens them.
We believe that bringing realism to science fiction is neither contradictory nor a fool's errand.
We believe that science fiction provides an opportunity to explore our own society, to provoke debate and to challenge our perceptions of ourselves and our fellow Man.
We believe science fiction can still be relevant.
We believe all these things and more.
If you agree with us, then this is the show for you. If not, then thanks for coming, but the popcorn is in a different aisle. (emphasis/italics mine....cl)(added note - I DID go to the different aisle)(second added note - what's this we and us shit? Are you that schitzophrenic or just feel you're royalty and we TOS fans should just kiss your ass?)
Over the course of the next year, this site will bring you news and updates on the Battlestar Galactica miniseries as it is shot and produced. Our aim is to provide you with unprecedented behind-the-scenes access to photos, storyboards, early story outlines, script pages, conceptual artwork, interviews, live Webcasts from the set, even preliminary cuts of scenes. You'll get to see things that are normally kept under tight lock and key - we're going to do this in an open, inclusive way. Let you see the process. See the mistakes and hopefully see the triumphs as well.
Stick around, it's going to be a helluva ride.
Ronald D. Moore
Executive Producer / Screenwriter
Needless to say, this particular letter did piss off many TOS fans, myself included. "Go to a different aisle", indeed!
On the eve letter
On the Eve
Date: 03/30/2003
From: RonDMoore
So here we are.
In a little less than three days, the science fiction television series known as Battlestar Galactica will begin again.
To those of us who watched the original broadcast and loyally followed every episode through the end of the first (and only) season and even came rushing back again for the abomination known as Galactica: 1980, this is a bit of memory come suddenly, surprisingly to life.
I have followed, with varying degrees of interest, the debate and discussion as Galactica fans, young and old, retro and neo, Moore and Anti-Moore (the former appreciated for their passion and faith and the later saluted for their intelligence and committment) thrashed, hashed, and slashed the idea of the remake which begins filming this coming week. In all candor, I found it both frustrating and gratifying at times, but always found it worth reading and worth considering not only for the strength of the arguments posed but for the depth of feeling displayed.
I said once on this board that your voices had been heard and that they did matter and that is never more true than today. An admission: while I did remember the original show with a fondness born of adolescence, I did not truly appreciate what some of you found most worthy and most admirable about it when I began this project. However, I would say, that after reading your comments over the course of a year, that I have seen deeper into the material and appreciated more the gift I was handed when I was given a chance to develop this project.
For that, I am grateful.
I am also more certain and more proud than ever that I took the course I did in bringing your franchise back to life. I truly and sincerely believe, despite what many of you may suspect, that this is a genuinely good piece of work, that it carries on the spirit of the original show, and that it provides the very best opportunity for the ideas that made Galactica shine in memory for almost three decades, to be introduced to a new generation of viewers, for those ideas to be expanded upon and for new writers to take the concept of a ragtag fugitive fleet defended by Adama, Apollo, Starbuck, and threatened by a man named Baltar, to an all new level. It is not a statement I make lightly or with glib intent. I put my name on this and I stand by it. Whatever you may think of me, let it be influenced and judged by the quality of this work.
Some of you -- many of you -- have read the script and judged it to be poor at best, loathsome at worst. You're entitled to your opinion and I won't quibble with it. However, I think that when you see the final product, when you actually watch the film we produce, you will have to at least admit that this was done with class, it was done with style and it was done with every intention of honoring the original. (note - I saw no honoring in this farce....cl)
It was also done in the spirit of making it better. I won't shy away from that. I think the original Galactica left some serious room for improvement. I thought so at the time it was first broadcast and I think it lo' these many years later. So sue me. We, that is David Eick, Michael Rymer, Studios USA, SciFi Channel, and myself, have worked long and hard to make this series better. Whether we have succeeded or not is for you to decide. But know, at least, that our goal, from the very begining, was to make a better Galactica for you to enjoy.
It hasn't been easy and the challenges of production, post-production, and the all-important final presentation to you, the audience, still lies ahead of us. But now, here on the eve of a childhood memory about to spring anew into the morning sun, I can feel only a warm easy glow and a heartfelt wish that more of you would join us for the ride.
C'mon, it's going to be fun.
Yes, there are the bitter tears of wishes that were not to be, but there rising before you, if you will only see it, is the very Phoenix herself, the battlestar Galactica.
There are Vipers to be launched and Cylons to be defeated.
Is that not worth at least an evening of watching?
I hope you'll join us.
Peace to all,
Ronald D. Moore