peter noble
December 15th, 2003, 11:28 AM
From the recently re-released BSG sountrack album:
I am often asked to single out one show I have created as my favorite. In many ways, bringing a show into being is very much like rearing a child. Each brings joy and satisfaction as well as some degree of headaches and heart wrenching.
One show, which stands out as one of the most personally rewarding, was Battlestar Galactica.
I had been fascinated by several books dealing with the prospect of Earth having been visited by extraterrestrials, including one by a NASA space engineer who analyzed the biblical account of what Ezekiel was really looking at when he described seeing a "wheel, way up in the middle of the air," declaring it unmistakably a space craft—to which he added complete aeronautical drawings which he swore would fly.
I juggled the ingredients and suddenly had something the networks wanted. An embattled group of our progenitors from deep space journey to find their forefathers—who, eons before, had left their own galaxy and had sent back promising but vague reports about the location of a small, blue "promised land" called Earth.
My heart raced at the prospect of being able to dramatize my sincerely held theories on the origins of Man which, to this day, continue to be born out by books like Hancock's Fingerprints Of The Gods. The only problem, however, was that ABC might have bought Battlestar Galactica too quickly.
Because of its scope, Battlestar Galactica was going to be a killer to produce. The show would not only be expensive, especially in an era that predated CGI (Computer Generated Images), but creating the effects, costumes and sets would be next to impossible if we were to meet the air date demanded by ABC. One man saved the day.
John Dykstra, the special effects genius behind the first Star Wars motion picture, had surrounded himself with other young wizards, mostly from Long Beach City College. At his disposal, standing empty and brilliantly equipped to create miracles was a new "generation" special effects studio. John loved our project and was willing to jump in as our producer, while his landlord, 20th Century Fox, with no other immediate use for the facility, was anxious to rent it to us.
The show was primarily directed by Richard Colla, a man with whom I had many a run-in over everything but his talent. Richard had a propensity for shooting for the big screen and ABC kept beating me up for more close-ups for the little screen. I believe we all won in the end.
As for my proudest moment of all, it wasn't making the cover of People, Us or TV Guide, from amongst so many publications around the world; it was watching John Williams conduct the Boston Pops Orchestra on a night of performing his own great movie themes including Star Wars, Raiders Of The Lost Ark and Close Encounters Of The Third Kind. There, in the heart of the program, John chose to include a Grammy®-nominated theme I wrote with Stu Phillips, The composition was the "Theme From Battlestar Galactica," which, to this day, is one of the most recorded themes in the world. Enjoy it. It will be back.
I have just successfully negotiated the feature film rights and look forward to a major motion picture in the near future...containing all the bells and whistles!
I am often asked to single out one show I have created as my favorite. In many ways, bringing a show into being is very much like rearing a child. Each brings joy and satisfaction as well as some degree of headaches and heart wrenching.
One show, which stands out as one of the most personally rewarding, was Battlestar Galactica.
I had been fascinated by several books dealing with the prospect of Earth having been visited by extraterrestrials, including one by a NASA space engineer who analyzed the biblical account of what Ezekiel was really looking at when he described seeing a "wheel, way up in the middle of the air," declaring it unmistakably a space craft—to which he added complete aeronautical drawings which he swore would fly.
I juggled the ingredients and suddenly had something the networks wanted. An embattled group of our progenitors from deep space journey to find their forefathers—who, eons before, had left their own galaxy and had sent back promising but vague reports about the location of a small, blue "promised land" called Earth.
My heart raced at the prospect of being able to dramatize my sincerely held theories on the origins of Man which, to this day, continue to be born out by books like Hancock's Fingerprints Of The Gods. The only problem, however, was that ABC might have bought Battlestar Galactica too quickly.
Because of its scope, Battlestar Galactica was going to be a killer to produce. The show would not only be expensive, especially in an era that predated CGI (Computer Generated Images), but creating the effects, costumes and sets would be next to impossible if we were to meet the air date demanded by ABC. One man saved the day.
John Dykstra, the special effects genius behind the first Star Wars motion picture, had surrounded himself with other young wizards, mostly from Long Beach City College. At his disposal, standing empty and brilliantly equipped to create miracles was a new "generation" special effects studio. John loved our project and was willing to jump in as our producer, while his landlord, 20th Century Fox, with no other immediate use for the facility, was anxious to rent it to us.
The show was primarily directed by Richard Colla, a man with whom I had many a run-in over everything but his talent. Richard had a propensity for shooting for the big screen and ABC kept beating me up for more close-ups for the little screen. I believe we all won in the end.
As for my proudest moment of all, it wasn't making the cover of People, Us or TV Guide, from amongst so many publications around the world; it was watching John Williams conduct the Boston Pops Orchestra on a night of performing his own great movie themes including Star Wars, Raiders Of The Lost Ark and Close Encounters Of The Third Kind. There, in the heart of the program, John chose to include a Grammy®-nominated theme I wrote with Stu Phillips, The composition was the "Theme From Battlestar Galactica," which, to this day, is one of the most recorded themes in the world. Enjoy it. It will be back.
I have just successfully negotiated the feature film rights and look forward to a major motion picture in the near future...containing all the bells and whistles!