GDC - Ron Moore Keynote

Ronald Moore may have done a lot for the Trek series of shows, but recently he's been making new fans with his work on the Battlestar Galactica title. He was invited to speak at GDC to relate ways in which intelligent folks can adapt an existing franchise. He focused on not only adapting and improving the original, but maintaining the core goodness of the inspiring work. Read on for notes from his talk. Update: 03/22 22:11 GMT by Z : Fixed Adama/Psylon spellings. I need a nerd-friendly spellchecker.

I got here late, but not before the montage of Battlestar footage had ended. Ron More comes on from stage left. He's here to talk about the process of developing and adapting the original show into the popular sequel series.

What are the fundamentals of Battlestar Galactica? Cylon attack on the colonies. Original show is very dark. A show of survival, not the normal s/f pablum. Footage from the original show compared to the new show, with the attack on the homeworld. Side-by-side comparison of the old footage with the new footage of the genocidal attack. Realistically, you don't want to have 'fun' with the attack. It's not that it can't be entertaining, but there has to be a fundamental realism. With the new show, a lot of the attack was off-screen, to make it about the character's reaction rather than just special effects. Somewhat topical, as the pitch for the new show came soon after the September 11th attacks. "You know what it is to wake up one day and find that the world has changed forever." Out in the fog, terrible things are happening, an important element of the show.

The characters are the core of the show: 'The Family Adama'. Everything rotates around the Family of Adama. Footage of the family, side by side, in the old and new. In the old show 'not credible' to have his whole family on the ship. To make the show rooted in our reality, he avoided the hierarchical military state by having Apollo come aboard later in the show. You lose Athena, who had no real purpose. The role of Athena is taken by Starbuck. Instead of Zach dying in the pilot, he's part of the backstory. Welds together how Starbuck, Adama, and Apollo interact.

Footage of new and old Adama. He's key both as the father of the family, but he's also the father-figure for audience and survivors. A man of principle and true beliefs. He's a believer in democracy, and ethics, honorable person. Mixed with the realities of a ship at war, crossing some ethical lines. He's not perfect, 'a human man for a human story.'

Problem with the original story was that there was nothing to balance Adama as an authority figure. Balanced, of course, with the Madam President. Compared with the old show's aging president (weak, non-threatening). President is important in three ways: Balance of military and civil authority, Mother figure of the show (though there is little sexual tension), she is a reminder of the apocalypse. She grounds the series in the context of the tragedy that began the show.

The government: the Quorum of Twelve. The original was a bunch of straw men with stupid ideas ("Let's trust the Cylons!") This time around, a group with more of a backbone. A show about democracy, what it means to be in a society during a time of war. There still has to be a civilian government despite the time of war. Not only that you survive, but the way you survive. The decision to make Starbuck into a woman... lots of 'comment'. Comparison of old starbuck and new Starbuck. Starbuck is a 'load-bearing member' in the architecture of the show. Making her a woman was almost random. Original Starbuck was a cliche (hot-shot pilot, womanizer, gambler), only really worked because of the actor. His attitude made the character okay. The new show: Don't let things be 'okay'. Don't have fun. Everything has consequences. 'This is a screwed up person.' She's been really damaged, and is only functioning in the military environment because it's all she knows.

Colonel Ty, another part of the Family Adama. Provides contemporary for Adama, a confidante for the head of the family. He's a drinker because he wanted the character to be fundamentally different than Commander Riker. Riker's job was to say 'me too'. He wanted an XO with more truth to him, because he's the guy everyone hates. 'The captain's whipping boy'. Make him a screwed up guy so that one of the folks close to Adama can be a poor choice to listen to.

Boomer, very little thought. An extension of family and a second family unit. The part where Boomer was a Pylon suggested by co-producer. "That is fucking brilliant!" Designed to be a very human element, Cylon change made without changing any of her dialogue.

Cylons! Old and new. Comparison between old and new bad guys. The limitations of TV actually help, in ways. Real stuff out of the question. CGI was originally thought to be out of the question. 'What if they look like us?' That idea opened up a lot of the stuff that's the basis of the show. If this was a videogame, they would have spent all their time making 'really cool Cylons'. The limitations of TV actually helped the show a lot by making them do somethiing they might not otherwise have ever done.

Not just 'an attack from the black', but a betrayal. Baltar. Why did he do this? Interesting that he gave up his own race. A lot of problems from within rather than without. He sells out the entire race ... for a woman. He's not even paying attention, but sells out the race just the same. He's kept in the show, with the crew, to make that betrayal last and last. Mmmm torture. Otherwise you end up with a guy chewing the scene and twirling his mustache.

Vipers basically unchanged. Why change something that works? The use of the handheld camera in space grounds a non-real moment in reality. Comparing it with shots of the Enterprise. Audiences are smart, even if they're non-technical. Tying the hands of the animators to make sure that there was always 'a cameraman' for every shot. New locations were guided by the philosophy: People actually live there. Make the controls workable. "Why did all those people in Star Trek have pictures of space on their walls?" They want things that comfort them.

The myth of Kobal and the 13th tribe: the underlying story of the show. Stayed very far away from Egypt/Greece, going for a more pagan/greco-roman element. 'What kind of universe do they live in?' They lost the Star Wars/Star Trek 'populated universe' idea. He was tired of having lots of alien races. Philosophically, he wanted a drama more than s/f. No aliens, no time travel, no evil twins. "You're forcing the show to be internally driven." The story is about the character's lives, not something from outside. The Search for Earth is the underlying driver of the show: Going to the 13th colony. A refuge from the Cylons. The challenge was to make it 'real'. "Why are you only now mentioning Earth?" is the reaction from the audience. Adama is lying, reaffirms what the audience is thinking while making the situation believable. "It's not enough to survive."

Ultimately, he didn't want to destroy the show to save it. Don't wipe the slate clean, take what was important to the show and translate that to a new audience. Telling the same story in different way. They're unique, very special shows. They're different, but they're both very much Battlestar Galactica.

Overall a nice talk by a very talented speaker. Not really sure why this was here ... the organizers may have wanted more Q&A to bring out aspects for game design, but they ran over time.

Re:*claws eyes out*

[shepmaster]

It's even worse that you elegantly state. It really seems as if Zonk banged this out as fast as possible to post. Perhaps being at the GDC is leaving him little time to do the story, but a once-through for spelling and grammar couldn't take that much time, could it? I don't expect a lot from Slashdot editors, but when they write the article itself ., you'd think they would care a little more.

Not to mention, the careless disregard of the names makes you wonder why Zonk wrote it. Most Slashdotters who watch the show would know how to spell these names. Does Zonk watch BSG, or was he just there to 'get the scoop'?

Enough ranting for now...

Oh: s/Ty/Tigh/

http://www.tv.com/battlestar-galactica-2003/show/2 3557/cast.html [tv.com]

"Homicide: Life on the Streets" style direction

[Orrin Bloquy]

Not joking here for a change. The show takes itself seriously, unlike most Glen Larson franchises, and it does nothing to try to be a cute family show.

Proven actors, unproven actors, deliberate reflections of our own society and its issues, and really good action sequences.

This is what Enterprise should have been in some respects, a show without tethers to expectations.

Oh, and Katee Sackhoff smuggling hollowtips.

Re:Take notes, THEN write

[Blakey Rat]

He at least fixed the spelling and amended the story saying he needed a geek-friendly spellchecker. My first thought was, "A Slashdot editor has a SPELL CHECKER!?"

Seriously, though, editors. Use your Slashdot salary, buy a OS X machine, and use Safari to compose your "articles." It has a built-in red-underlining spellchecker which is very nice. (Side note: Why the hell doesn't any other browser have a spellchecker? People type more now in browser windows than in word processors!)

Greatest ... Show ... Ever???

[Anonymous Coward]

Greatest show on televsion right now. Hands down. I would encourage everyone to watch it, as it's going to be in hiatus from new episodes until October.

Might be one of the greatest television shows I've ever seen. Can't remember the last time I found myself actually EXCITED to see something on TV, ANTICIPATING it coming on each Friday/Monday.

Re:Take notes, THEN write

[fm6]

Never mind the bad writing. The dude lost me when he said "preserved the goodness of the original show". Aside from the dubious quality of the original, there's the fact that Moore has pretty much redone the whole concept from scratch. Yes, a lot of details have been carried over, but that's more for copyright purposes than preservation of anything. Key details, like exactly why the Cylons want to destroy humanity (robots on a religious crusade?!) is completely different. All the stuff that's the same is stuff that doesn't matter, like the fact that Starbuck still smokes cigars and they still call liquor "ambrosia".

Anyway, this is Zonk, they guy who basically accepts every story submitted to him when he's in charge on weekends. He really needs to reconsider his career options.

Be polite.

[ChaosDiscord]

We don't want you to just post your briskly jotted down thoughts and abysmal sentence fragments.

Unless by "we" you mean "me and my multiple personalities", you're being a bit bold to speak for the entire games.slashdot.org audience. Indeed, Zonk's posting these things as he's dashing from talk to talk. He's trying to post timely content because of an endless stream of complaints that Slashdot is constantly getting scooped by other sites. Many Slashdot readers are very vocally saying that they prefer the "jotted down thoughts and abysmal sentence fragments" of say, digg [digg.com], and want Slashdot to be more timely. They may be wrong, but it's hardly Zonk making this decision totally divorced from what his readers want.

"Like, did you even go to journalism school?"

Did any of the Slashdot editors and writers go to journalism school? If you're looking for some sort of credential that the writers are good enough to bother spending your time reading, you're at the wrong web site. Come of to think of it, I doubt you'll find any site or magazine that focuses on covering the game industry (as games.slashdot.org does) that is entirely or even mostly j-school graduates.

Your might also consider how you phrase your feedback. "Do you get paid for this shit? Can you give us more than this half-assed effort next time?" is not a good way to provide feedback. It makes the recipient more likely to brush you off as a troll. I suggest something like, "This was rushed and low quality. It harms Slashdot's reputation as a polished news organization when drafts are posted as final articles. I'd really prefer more polished articles, even if it means waiting longer to get them." Obviously that's just a hypothetical example, as no one who has read Slashdot for more than a day or two would confuse it with a "polished news organization."

Re:Be polite.

[Threni]

> He's trying to post timely content because of an endless stream of complaints
> that Slashdot is constantly getting scooped by other sites

I've never read any such complaints. It's not important to me if other sites get hold of news before Slashdot - I can wait. It's not like I rely on Slashdot for my living, or as my only source of news. I can wait for scribbled notes to be written up into complete sentences and then edited so that only useful, relevant information is presented. Slashdot isn't a blog, and apparantly wishes to make at least some money from its stories and therefore has more to lose from low quality stories than a blog. This sort of breathless nerd trauma does nobody any good.

Re:Ron Moore put a lot of thought into this show.

[JulesLt]

Much as I like B5, I would agree that BSG has the edge. A lot of the enjoyment in B5 was spotting where things came from, and a lot of it was really fantasy literature rather than SF (Tolkein and Moorcock seemed to be the two major influences). It obviously set the scene by moving SF from the 'episode' paradigm to wider story arcs and character centered drama (and also by bringing politics in, rather than the presumed liberalism of early Star Trek shows).

The moment that sold BSG for me was the episode in the first series when due to sabotage they lost water, and they're discussing the logistics of the situation. Up to then there was still potential it was going to be one of those 'find a new alien race each episode' shows.

Re:Problems with the new BG

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm glad they chucked the ancient Egyptian backstory overboard. It reeked of 1970s LSD induced "age of aquarius" bullshit. Hell, the pilots flew around in King Tut masks for crying out loud. I wish they chucked the Earth myth too. The fact that the mythical utopian planet is our planet is a groaner. Again, the new age mormonism was palpable; but hey, you take what you can get.

You just seem to be nitpicking the the Pegasus vs Galatica visuals, and the Galatica age. The idea of a 500 year old ship is just too far fetched. Metal simply fatigues after awhile, and I imagine fatigues even faster in space given cosmic rays, rapid heating and cooling on every orbit, and micrometeors. If you want a reason why the Pegasus looks older than Galatica, how about the fact that Pegasus spent the year after the attack seeking out cylons to fight, while the Galatica by and large has been trying to avoid fights?

One thing I always hated about sci-fi shows and books was the aliens and the alien worlds. They all suffer from the same annoying flaws. First, they all breath Earth's atmosphere. Which I guess isn't surpising since every planet is every planet is Earth, but with only one environment. Hoth? Arctic. Tatooine? Desert. Endor's Moon? Forest. Dagobah? Swamp. Mustaafor? Volcanos. Third, every alien race is human. Not just humanoid, but human through and through. Sure they might give them different ears, or skin color, or contacts. Now with CG they make more insect like aliens, but they all are bipedal, bilateral symmetric, with four appendages that terminate in hands or feet. Furthermore the aliens are almost always take the form of animal-man. Squidman! Frogman! Birdman! Bearman! Fishman! Dogman! Worst of all every alien culture is a stereotype. All klingons are aggressive and warlike. All romulans are conniving. All ferengi's are hyper-capitalistic. The only species with any depth in scifi are humans, but even then humans are inevitablly described as intelligent, resourceful, peaceful, and curious explorers. It's an idealised human. Alien cultures are never well developed. Humans always dominate the universe (apparently humans breed like roaches), and every planet has a single world government. Aliens are at worst McGuffins or at best foils for the human characters.

Just in case you were wishing they were going to make a sequel to the original BSG, they already did that. It was called "Galatica 1980" and it sucked.

I do agree that the last episode jumped too far in time. I don't like that. The Dee-Lee thing should have developed more. For that matter, the Dee-Billy thing should have degenerated slower too. And what happeneed with Lee and Starbuck? All of a sudden they hate each other, but they never explain why. Yeah, her new bo' has something to do with it, but it never actually was explored. I don't understand how they're going to get back in the ships and escape. The dynamics have changed so rapidly and dramatically. It's hard for me to imagine the Galatica crew just showing back up for work one day. It's all very strange. Hopefully they didn't jump the shark with that last episode. Oh for a shower scene!