Terrence McDonnell Interview
 

I got to take part in a live chat with Galactica story editor Terrence McDonnell, who I remember from the 15 Yahren Con as having such a fantastic memory about his time on the show. That's still largely true today.

https://www.facebook.com/InterFleetBroadcasting (scroll down for the archived chat).

I asked two questions. First regarding Larson's S2 memo and what his memories were regarding any S2 plans at the time. He said that he and Jim Carlson had one meeting with Larson before the show was officially cancelled and Larson asked for some ideas but they'd yet to develop any significantly. Then years later he said he got hold of the original copy of the memo when it came out on e-bay. And he said that if he had any sense that this was what Larson was going to do with these story ideas, he and Carlson would not have wanted to be there. The one thing that threw me for a loop was when he said that Sheba would be killed and cloned again as a *man*! I think he may have been confusing the memo's statement about Athena being recast because of plastic surgery etc. but just even hearing that idea as a mistaken recollection is enough to turn one's stomach. It sadly does show that Larson wasn't thinking clearly of where to go if he'd gotten a second season for real and that we may have been done a favor that we never had it (preserving the purity through which we see the show).

After he offered his recollections about the unfilmed "Two For Twilly" script I got in another question to prompt his memory about the story he told at the 15 Yahren Con about Jamie Lee Curtis reading for a part in that episode, and his memory was jogged and he recalled how Curtis came in to read for it, got an attack of the giggles as she went through the script and then left. I admit, it's too bad that happened because having gone through that script and adapting it for the VS, Curtis would have been perfect for the part she read for.