Ronald
D. Moore, executive producer of SCI Channel's upcoming new series
Battlestar Galactica, told SCI FI Wire that the 13-episode first
season will pick up where the hit December miniseries left off and
will build on that show's characters and situations...As the new
series begins, "a few days have passed since the miniseries,
and we're in sort of a dire situation right from the get-go,"
Moore said in an interview. "I think one of the hallmarks of
the series will be that it's always going to be a tense situation.
These people are always going to be one step away from disaster.
Which doesn't mean that the Cylons will be attacking them every
week. But I think the nature of their situation and the reality
of what they're facing out there alone, with most of them left with
the clothes on their back and whatever food and supplies they happen
to have on those ships when the events of the pilot occur is only,
God, the beginning. And it's going to take a long time for them
to get to any kind of stability or normalcy."
Moore
said that he is currently assembling a writing staff for the series,
which may include colleagues from Moore's old series Roswell, Star
Trek: The Next Generation and HBO's Carnivale. Moore is drafting
the script for the series' first episode, has roughed out stories
for the first three and has written a series bible, with story and
character arcs for the first season.
"The
series is going to take its cues from the miniseries," Moore
said. "The tone and context will be in that vein. There will
be lighter moments. I'm sure there will have things that are unexpected
and fun to play as time goes on. But the miniseries, that's the
bar. That's what we're trying to [do]. ... We want to do that show
every week."
Moore
said that he may eventually adapt a few of the original 1978 series'
old episodes for the new show. "I've talked about revisiting
the 'Pegasus' episode, because I think that's a cool idea at some
point. There's a possibility in my head we might go back and play
around with the ship of lights that was in the original series.
And I'm going to sit down and watch all 22 of them again, kind of
go through it. But the first thing that springs to mind is that
the old show did a lot of planet-of-the-week type episodes, and
we're specifically not doing that on this. So a lot of those aren't
going to translate very well."
Moore
added that he'd like to find a place on the new show for some of
the original series' actors as well. "That's something that
I would like to approach them about," he said. "I'm probably
going to approach a couple of the actors, if not all of them, at
some point, and talk to them about that possibility, because I think
that would be kind of cool and fun. And I think it would be interesting
to find things for them in the new series. And not just, like, a
walk-on, although you could do always do that. But it would fun
to give them a role and have them bring something to the new show."