[BST]

nccdee,

Nothing wrong with your remarks but, there is a lot of history that you may or may not be aware of. We did not just wake up one morning hating Ron Moore. In fact, we don't hate him at all, it's just the direction that he took BSG that we don't care for.


I'm enclosing a copy of a letter, by Ron Moore, posted in the 'old' SciFi forum (now the "BG-Archives" section which was closed April, 2003). The letter, written before filming even began, shows, in certain areas, as much 'arrogance' as the above post that Michele shared with us. To me, it doesn't seem like he was reaching out at all. He was saying "my way or the highway". (And no, he really didn't understand what we were asking for, at all. He still doesn't.)


BST

By Ronald D. Moore

February 24, 2003



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.

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:

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.

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