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Old May 18th, 2005, 09:50 AM   #5
Eric Paddon
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Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: Morristown, NJ
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Okay, to pick up where I left off with my description of what I did with "Man With Nine Lives." I incorporated the action of this story into MWNL to give it a better sense of flow, and I think since both are Starbuck oriented episodes that lends itself to this kind of adaptation.

Since the "mystery" part of the episode IMO doesn't work, at least from a narrative writing style that's why I previously established Charybdis/Pallan and his connection to Ortega in previous episode adaptations starting with Saga, because this allowed me to get inside the character's mind better and also pay closer attention to just what was the nature of his murder plan and how it was he came to frame Starbuck, since that had to be a spur of the moment thing.

I decided that initially, Charybdis planned to make Chella the fall-guy, since he was also being blackmailed by Ortega, and his presence in that area where he could finger Starbuck leaving the scene could not have been coincidental. And that Charybdis had planned on luring Chella down there (hence the reason why Chella was there) and would kill him, then Ortega and make it look like they killed each other. But Starbuck getting ejected and being in that area as well forced him to change those plans and take a gamble that Starbuck's pistol would be unguarded in the locker room, which enabled Starbuck to get framed. Complex I admit, but the best explanation I could come up with under the circumstances.

Also, building off TMWNL it was important to keep Chameleon around and perhaps have a scene where he comes close to telling Starbuck the truth because of Starbuck's plight, but in the end not doing so.

I made some changes as well to the whole murder tribunal itself which IMO was too quick and forced. I extended the sequences to show Apollo questioning other witnesses and then finally being forced into playing his hunch at episode's end as a desperation tactic once its clear that he's not handling matters as well. And to foreshadow "Take The Celestra" I had Commander Kronus presiding over the Tribunal with Adama and showing his annoying penchant for precision to regulations. This also enabled me to give Aurora a cameo at episode's end where she can quietly express her relief that Starbuck was exonerated.

There was a lot of additional retooling I did in this episode because by itself it really doesn't work well (and Carlson and McDonnell admitted they had to come up with the script in 48 hours) and strangely its because of those weaknesses that enable it to be a lot of additional fun in terms of carrying out a "reimgaing" concept that still manages to stay true to the basic plot points and continuity of the original.
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