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Old March 27th, 2005, 09:51 PM   #4
Eric Paddon
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Location: Morristown, NJ
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A lot of enjoyment came from doing this one since it is without question not simply one of the best BG episodes ever, but probably among the best in all sci-fi TV.

But even a magnificent episode like this needed some tweaks to iron out things that we can dismiss when they go by on-screen but not when writing a longer novelized treatment.

#1-The opening patrol scene where Sheba and Bojay end up opening fire on Apollo and Starbuck. First question to ask is, why didn't Our Heroes (an old term for Apollo and Starbuck that I remember fondly from old discussion days years ago) realize these were vipers right away? Some new dialogue to show that they were both caught so flat-footed and found themselves trying to escape quickly, they had no reaction time to do a rear scan check for ID which would have shown the attacking ships to be vipers like theirs.

#2-Setting the stage for an Apollo-Sheba relationship. Since "Hand Of God" is where we finally get it out in the open, the trick is to plant the seeds in a subtle way. I wanted Apollo to be left in a state of awe at being put in the precarious situation he was placed in, which made him want to know who the pilot who was outflying him was, and then when he sees the holo image of Sheba in Cain's office, his initial attraction/fascination with her is that someone so attractive and feminine could be the one who had demonstrated such superior skills. From then on, it's a case of Apollo showing a mild interest in her in terms of wanting to find reasons to talk to her further and learn more about her, but then stopping himself from going any further as he feels guilt over Serina hit him. I don't see Sheba as receptive to him yet, or sensing any kind of partial interest on his part in her, until the events of WOTG.

#3-More backstory for Sheba and the whole Sheba-Cassie conflict (and the Cain-Cassie romance). This requires learning more about Sheba's mother. I wrote my own backstory for who she was, what she did, how she died etc. (and gave her the name Bethany), but anyone is free to go in any direction on this. The one thing about Sheba's mother that should always be consistent in anyone's version is that Sheba is the very image of her mother appearance wise. This is explicitly stated in the original novelization, and all one has to do is then realize that if you were casting this part for a flashback sequence then you'd immediately pick June Lockhart for the obvious reason. To add to this, the fact that Sheba is the image of her mother I think best explains why Cain couldn't open up to her and lean on her for support after he'd lost his wife, because as I have him say to Cassie in my adaptation, every time he looked at Sheba's face, all he could see was her mother and then get hit by the guilt over not having been there at the time of her death.

#4-Was Colonel Tolen in on Sheba and Bojay's little mutiny plan? This needed clarifying so I wrote a scene of Tolen quietly telling Sheba and Bojay beforehand that while he sympathized with what they were doing, he couldn't lend active support to it.

#5-What happened to the Imperious Leader's baseship during the attack on Gomorrah (my preferred spelling just because I like using the OT city name)? I put forth the idea that it made an actual landing on the planet, perhaps docking with something like a dirigible mooring mast (which would be the way any battlestar or baseship could in effect land on a planet) and that during the Colonial attack, the baseship was knocked away from its mooring tethers and thus rendered inoperable in terms of being able to contribute to the battle.

#6-I decided to lay the foundation for keeping Spektor (Young Lords) around in the future by having Baltar recommend Spektor as the new base commander on Gomorrah, following the almost certain execution of the base commander by the Imperious Leader after what happened (the base commander clearly never told anyone about the raids from the Pegasus, and I think it's important to play up the base commander as the one who paid the ultimate price because there has to be a legit reason why Baltar got off the hook with the Imperious Leader after the events of this episode)

#7-Borrowing a page from the whole "Mission Galactica" concept, the adaptation of "Fire In Space" takes place just after the events of this episode, with Baltar, after the destruction of the two baseships and the disappearance of the Pegasus, decides to regroup by mounting the suicide fighter attack (thus my adaptation ends with a "To Be Continued" note).

Other things I worked in too, but these were the most significant changes. All done in the name of streamlining and tightening in some spots, expanding character depth in others but not changing anything of the basic plot which I think is flawless.
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