[BST]

Originally Posted by amberstar

I remember reading somewhere about season 2, I don't think it was actual scripts, but more along the lines of fans talking about it. What I remember is that........ the Big G finds Cain. Somehow Cain and his crew turn out to be Cylon Robots, and Apollo and Starbuck kinda switch places. Apollo turns into a playboy and Starbuck starts to take responsibility.

Amber,

Check the following:

http://www.geocities.com/sjpaxton/yeartwo.html

THE LOST SEASON

by Susan J. Paxton

It’s been common wisdom in fandom that very little planning was ever done for a second season of Battlestar Galactica. There have been hints and rumors for years, that Cain would have returned in the second season, that Athena would have come back as, of all things, a man. The Galactica 1980 script Return of Starbuck was apparently originally written as a second season BG script. Also, there are a couple pieces of more solid evidence. One is that the well-known science fiction writer Isaac Asimov was to be a consultant on the second season; Asimov confirmed this to me personally in a note. Another is a Glen Larson comment in an interview that ABC at one time did consider giving BG a second season, but in the same “children’s hour” timeslot that G80 ended up in. For over 20 years, that was all the real evidence we had.

Until now, that is. Battlestargalactica.com’s redoubtable Michael Faries has obtained a document that appears to be a précis for Battlestar Galactica’s second season – very possibly a document written by Glen Larson as a proposal to be handed to ABC. We now have evidence, evidence that I believe has, considering Michael’s source, a very good chance of being authentic, of what Larson had in mind for the second season. I will, however, be careful to point out some things that seem to suggest the contrary.

BG fans for years have dreamed of a second season, have wondered if it would have lived up to their expectations.

Perhaps it would not have.

The document is a typed manuscript appearing to be in the same format and on the same sort of typewriter that was normally used for the BG scripts and other BG documents such as the series “bible” that have filtered out to fandom. It is 8 ½ by 11 inches, one-sided and three hole punched to go into a binder. Included are a number of science fictional but non-BG illustrations evidently more to set the mood than suggest anything Larson had in mind. The quality of Xeroxing suggests strongly a first-generation copy from an original.

It begins with a page of “Highlights of Year Two,” and promises “A new focus on our primary cast of characters,” “Exciting stories that utilize the uniqueness of the Galactica’s space journey to tell human stories that are special yet understandable and relatable,” and “The introduction of exciting new adversaries for the Galactica and its crew, offering unusual and new spectacular visual effects.” This is to be accomplished by “The addition of the worlds most respected science-fiction author,” “Changes in the attitudes and personalities of the key characters,” and “Streamlining of the original cast.”

Larson goes on to look back at the first season, pointing out in detail the heavy competition BG faced from the other networks’ counter-programming and ABC’s own preemptions. “Despite this unprecedented assault Galactica has emerged with a core audience who will seek her out no matter where she is.” Larson, or whoever the author is, then claims that while BG has scored solidly in the ratings, its ratings among females is low (“Battlestar supporters are almost entirely void of teenage girls and women.”) and that this provides an obvious area for improvement in ratings numbers. Now this is the first thing in this document to really give me pause. In fact, BG did quite well among females. According to William J. Adams, who did a scholarly study of TV ratings for the Journal of Communication that he later turned into a popular article focusing on BG for Fantastic Films, “….according to National Demographics, for every child in the audience there were four men, three women, and two teenagers.” The author of the précis goes on to try and analyze why there weren’t women in the BG audience (not enough “emotional content” – huh? – and a too-large cast, as if women are too stupid to follow more than two or three characters!), but this is simply completely wrong and should have been known to Larson at the time. This is, to me, very disquieting evidence arguing against the document’s authenticity – or perhaps against Larson’s information.

In order to solve what the author perceives as being the problems of BG’s first season, he suggests that the addition of Isaac Asimov as consultant will result in more “people-oriented” stories, which indicates to me that Larson or whoever is the author of this document was not tremendously familiar with Asimov’s work. Asimov is one of my favorite writers, but I have to say that it isn’t for his characters that I love him. It is pretty typical of Asimov’s writing that his most memorable character is a robot, R. Daneel Olivaw. Interestingly, the author points out, correctly, that Asimov had written a very negative review of BG when it first aired, and comments wryly, “Pride prevents us from discussing it further….” While the author is probably correct in saying that Asimov will provide a “fresh creative thrust,” I suspect Dr. A might have done more to dispose of some of the more cretinous scientific errors than improve BG’s characterization!
The author then goes on to suggest what would be done to “improve” BG in its second season. “The women of our crew will take more important parts in the adventures of the Galactica staff which will give the women in the audience more identification with our characters. Although the seriousness of the mission is never in doubt, we will introduce more humor into the show.” Shades of Hector and Vector….

PART 1 of 3