GDC - Ron Moore Keynote

Ronald Moore may have done a lot for the Trek series of shows, but recently he's been making new fans with his work on the Battlestar Galactica title. He was invited to speak at GDC to relate ways in which intelligent folks can adapt an existing franchise. He focused on not only adapting and improving the original, but maintaining the core goodness of the inspiring work. Read on for notes from his talk. Update: 03/22 22:11 GMT by Z : Fixed Adama/Psylon spellings. I need a nerd-friendly spellchecker.

I got here late, but not before the montage of Battlestar footage had ended. Ron More comes on from stage left. He's here to talk about the process of developing and adapting the original show into the popular sequel series.

What are the fundamentals of Battlestar Galactica? Cylon attack on the colonies. Original show is very dark. A show of survival, not the normal s/f pablum. Footage from the original show compared to the new show, with the attack on the homeworld. Side-by-side comparison of the old footage with the new footage of the genocidal attack. Realistically, you don't want to have 'fun' with the attack. It's not that it can't be entertaining, but there has to be a fundamental realism. With the new show, a lot of the attack was off-screen, to make it about the character's reaction rather than just special effects. Somewhat topical, as the pitch for the new show came soon after the September 11th attacks. "You know what it is to wake up one day and find that the world has changed forever." Out in the fog, terrible things are happening, an important element of the show.

The characters are the core of the show: 'The Family Adama'. Everything rotates around the Family of Adama. Footage of the family, side by side, in the old and new. In the old show 'not credible' to have his whole family on the ship. To make the show rooted in our reality, he avoided the hierarchical military state by having Apollo come aboard later in the show. You lose Athena, who had no real purpose. The role of Athena is taken by Starbuck. Instead of Zach dying in the pilot, he's part of the backstory. Welds together how Starbuck, Adama, and Apollo interact.

Footage of new and old Adama. He's key both as the father of the family, but he's also the father-figure for audience and survivors. A man of principle and true beliefs. He's a believer in democracy, and ethics, honorable person. Mixed with the realities of a ship at war, crossing some ethical lines. He's not perfect, 'a human man for a human story.'

Problem with the original story was that there was nothing to balance Adama as an authority figure. Balanced, of course, with the Madam President. Compared with the old show's aging president (weak, non-threatening). President is important in three ways: Balance of military and civil authority, Mother figure of the show (though there is little sexual tension), she is a reminder of the apocalypse. She grounds the series in the context of the tragedy that began the show.

The government: the Quorum of Twelve. The original was a bunch of straw men with stupid ideas ("Let's trust the Cylons!") This time around, a group with more of a backbone. A show about democracy, what it means to be in a society during a time of war. There still has to be a civilian government despite the time of war. Not only that you survive, but the way you survive. The decision to make Starbuck into a woman... lots of 'comment'. Comparison of old starbuck and new Starbuck. Starbuck is a 'load-bearing member' in the architecture of the show. Making her a woman was almost random. Original Starbuck was a cliche (hot-shot pilot, womanizer, gambler), only really worked because of the actor. His attitude made the character okay. The new show: Don't let things be 'okay'. Don't have fun. Everything has consequences. 'This is a screwed up person.' She's been really damaged, and is only functioning in the military environment because it's all she knows.

Colonel Ty, another part of the Family Adama. Provides contemporary for Adama, a confidante for the head of the family. He's a drinker because he wanted the character to be fundamentally different than Commander Riker. Riker's job was to say 'me too'. He wanted an XO with more truth to him, because he's the guy everyone hates. 'The captain's whipping boy'. Make him a screwed up guy so that one of the folks close to Adama can be a poor choice to listen to.

Boomer, very little thought. An extension of family and a second family unit. The part where Boomer was a Pylon suggested by co-producer. "That is fucking brilliant!" Designed to be a very human element, Cylon change made without changing any of her dialogue.

Cylons! Old and new. Comparison between old and new bad guys. The limitations of TV actually help, in ways. Real stuff out of the question. CGI was originally thought to be out of the question. 'What if they look like us?' That idea opened up a lot of the stuff that's the basis of the show. If this was a videogame, they would have spent all their time making 'really cool Cylons'. The limitations of TV actually helped the show a lot by making them do somethiing they might not otherwise have ever done.

Not just 'an attack from the black', but a betrayal. Baltar. Why did he do this? Interesting that he gave up his own race. A lot of problems from within rather than without. He sells out the entire race ... for a woman. He's not even paying attention, but sells out the race just the same. He's kept in the show, with the crew, to make that betrayal last and last. Mmmm torture. Otherwise you end up with a guy chewing the scene and twirling his mustache.

Vipers basically unchanged. Why change something that works? The use of the handheld camera in space grounds a non-real moment in reality. Comparing it with shots of the Enterprise. Audiences are smart, even if they're non-technical. Tying the hands of the animators to make sure that there was always 'a cameraman' for every shot. New locations were guided by the philosophy: People actually live there. Make the controls workable. "Why did all those people in Star Trek have pictures of space on their walls?" They want things that comfort them.

The myth of Kobal and the 13th tribe: the underlying story of the show. Stayed very far away from Egypt/Greece, going for a more pagan/greco-roman element. 'What kind of universe do they live in?' They lost the Star Wars/Star Trek 'populated universe' idea. He was tired of having lots of alien races. Philosophically, he wanted a drama more than s/f. No aliens, no time travel, no evil twins. "You're forcing the show to be internally driven." The story is about the character's lives, not something from outside. The Search for Earth is the underlying driver of the show: Going to the 13th colony. A refuge from the Cylons. The challenge was to make it 'real'. "Why are you only now mentioning Earth?" is the reaction from the audience. Adama is lying, reaffirms what the audience is thinking while making the situation believable. "It's not enough to survive."

Ultimately, he didn't want to destroy the show to save it. Don't wipe the slate clean, take what was important to the show and translate that to a new audience. Telling the same story in different way. They're unique, very special shows. They're different, but they're both very much Battlestar Galactica.

Overall a nice talk by a very talented speaker. Not really sure why this was here ... the organizers may have wanted more Q&A to bring out aspects for game design, but they ran over time.

*claws eyes out*

Aargh! The horror!

s/Psylon/Cylon/; s/Odama/Adama/ please :)

Re:*claws eyes out*

Psylon

I think he was channeling Psychlo...

Freespace 2 Mod Underway

Official Site http://www.game-warden.com/bsg/ [game-warden.com] Teaser trailer http://www.game-warden.com/bsg/Video/BSG_Mod_Tease r.avi [game-warden.com] It looks cool but it also looks a long way off.

Video?

Is there a video of the keynote?

I was going to complain

I thought that the editors didn't bother to read this given all the errors, but it turns out that and editor wrote it, right?

Ron Moore put a lot of thought into this show.

It shows through out the entire series, yes he pissed some of the hard core fans off but in the end, this is a quality show and thats all the matters, it doesn't try to destroy the old show, its taken the best parts and moved it on with the times. It still features the old vipers and old cylons as well which i thought was a nice touch, just without the lasers. Ron Moore i salute you!

Editing?

There are at least 3 major terms from the show that are misspelled here, two of them character names. Aren't editors supposed to, you know, edit these articles? If you so much as type "battlestar galactica" into Google you could find the correct spellings for all of these in under ten seconds.

Spelling corrections

Erg, all the spelling errors were driving me insane...

=====
Ronald Moore may have done a lot for the Trek series of shows, but recently he's been making new fans with his work on the Battlestar Galactica title. He was invited to speak at GDC to relate ways in which intelligent folks can adapt an existing franchise. He focused on not only adapting and improving the original, but maintaining the core goodness of the inspiring work. Read on for notes from his talk.

I got here late, but not before the montage of Battlestar footage had ended. Ron More comes on from stage left. He's here to talk about the process of developing and adapting the original show into the popular sequel series.

What are the fundamentals of Battlestar Galactica? Cylon attack on the colonies. Original show is very dark. A show of survival, not the normal s/f pablum. Footage from the original show compared to the new show, with the attack on the homeworld. Side-by-side comparison of the old footage with the new footage of the genocidal attack. Realistically, you don't want to have 'fun' with the attack. It's not that it can't be entertaining, but there has to be a fundamental realism. With the new show, a lot of the attack was off-screen, to make it about the character's reaction rather than just special effects. Somewhat topical, as the pitch for the new show came soon after the September 11th attacks. "You know what it is to wake up one day and find that the world has changed forever." Out in the fog, terrible things are happening, an important element of the show.

The characters are the core of the show: 'The Family Adama'. Everything rotates around the Family of Adama. Footage of the family, side by side, in the old and new. In the old show 'not credible' to have his whole family on the ship. To make the show rooted in our reality, he avoided the hierarchical military state by having Apollo come aboard later in the show. You lose Athena, who had no real purpose. The role of Athena is taken by Starbuck. Instead of Zak dying in the pilot, he's part of the backstory. Welds together how Starbuck, Adama, and Apollo interact.

Footage of new and old Adama. He's key both as the father of the family, but he's also the father-figure for audience and survivors. A man of principle and true beliefs. He's a believer in democracy, and ethics, honorable person. Mixed with the realities of a ship at war, crossing some ethical lines. He's not perfect, 'a human man for a human story.'

Problem with the original story was that there was nothing to balance Adama as an authority figure. Balanced, of course, with the Madam President. Compared with the old show's aging president (weak, non-threatening). President is important in three ways: Balance of military and civil authority, Mother figure of the show (though there is little sexual tension), she is a reminder of the apocalypse. She grounds the series in the context of the tragedy that began the show.

The government: the Quorum of Twelve. The original was a bunch of straw men with stupid ideas ("Let's trust the Cylons!") This time around, a group with more of a backbone. A show about democracy, what it means to be in a society during a time of war. There still has to be a civilian government despite the time of war. Not only that you survive, but the way you survive. The decision to make Starbuck into a woman... lots of 'comment'. Comparison of old starbuck and new Starbuck. Starbuck is a 'load-bearing member' in the architecture of the show. Making her a woman was almost random. Original Starbuck was a cliche (hot-shot pilot, womanizer, gambler), only really worked because of the actor. His attitude made the character okay. The new show: Don't let things be 'okay'. Don't have fun. Everything has consequences. 'This is a screwed up person.' She's been really damaged, and is only functioning in the military environment because it's all she knows.

Colonel Tigh, another part of the Family Adama. Provides contemporary for Adama, a confidante for the head of the fa

BSG Rules

Well, aside from the already noted mispellings and lack of grammer, I must say your summary only reaffirms what I tell my friends when I try to convert them to BSG-ism. The characters are all flawed. The universe emphasizes realism over sensationalism. Most of the plot twists are not due to, as I like to describe it, "bullshit last-minute oh-my-god that's-impossible" moments.

I can't think of very many other shows that have all of these elements together. And I love how the stories are unpredictable because the writers are willing to put the main characters through pain and suffering without a "happy ending" at the end of each episode. Without spoiling anything, I can the last 3 episodes of the second season totally proves this point.

So long as they keep the show driven by the characters and not by special effects or plots written from the big surprise ending first, it will only gain more mindshare.

"Homicide: Life on the Streets" style direction

Not joking here for a change. The show takes itself seriously, unlike most Glen Larson franchises, and it does nothing to try to be a cute family show.

Proven actors, unproven actors, deliberate reflections of our own society and its issues, and really good action sequences.

This is what Enterprise should have been in some respects, a show without tethers to expectations.

Oh, and Katee Sackhoff smuggling hollowtips.

New Galactica's philosophy in a nutshell . . .

To steal a line from a review Bruce Sterling wrote about Haldane's The World, The Flesh, and the Devil, the new BSG is . . .

"Totally lacking in comfortable bullshit."

Last week, when Sci-Fi started running Doctor Who, I actually felt a sense of relief at not having a new episode of BSG to watch at Ten. Not because I don't like the show, but because it is so damn wrenching. There's no feel-good sci-fi bogostity there. People die and suffer and doubt.

Pile on

The part where Boomer was a Pylon suggested by co-producer.

I'd sure like to pylon Boomer too!

Why?

This article was largely pointless. I'm really not sure why this was here either. We all know the story of the rag-tag fleet, and a large article summarizing it really isn't needed. And Zonk should be tossed out an airlock for his atrocious spelling. He is Colonel Tigh. He is not related to any Adamas. And the planet is named Kobol.

Greatest ... Show ... Ever???

Greatest show on televsion right now. Hands down. I would encourage everyone to watch it, as it's going to be in hiatus from new episodes until October.

Might be one of the greatest television shows I've ever seen. Can't remember the last time I found myself actually EXCITED to see something on TV, ANTICIPATING it coming on each Friday/Monday.

You Can't.

ways in which intelligent folks can adapt an existing franchise

Answer: You can't. It's copyrighted, patented, and trademarked, and will remain so until you are worm food. Only medialopolies have the money and connections needed to get rights, and they do their square best to avoid hiring intelligent folks (BSG was a regrettable accident - they had planned to hire the drooling neanderthals that did Enterprise), so piss off before you get yourself sued. :)

ZONK IS A PYLON

This, uh, "article" should confirm that Zonk is, indeed, a pylon.

But look on the bright side, dude - when Taco cans your ass, you've got a career in road construction or bridge support ready to go.

Half of the fun of the show for me

is figuring out where they filmed the outdoor scenes.

Some I recognize from my ex-Army days (Canadian), and living in and around Vancouver in the 80s.

Oh, ok, and Boomer and the other Cylons.

First off

"Starbuck is a 'load-bearing member' in the architecture of the show. "

So StarBuck was the Pylon, not Boomer? ;)

That said, I hope Boomer being a Cylon wasn't a critical plot twist.

MMmmm Starbucks..I'm going to get me a coffee....then a whale.

Zonk uplifting his own status

" I need a nerd-friendly spellchecker."

pfft, I have my doubts Zonk is a nerd. Geek, yes, but not a nerd.

I could be wrong, I wonder what he did before /.?

Come on!

"News for Nerds" and you can't spell Tigh, Cylon, or Moore?

For some reason Slashdot just doesn't seem like the place for me anymore. I'm a total geek and want editors of stories that actually know how to spell, especially in a story about the best sci-fi on tv.

Lack of alien life

I appreciate that the show has had no Trek-style alien races running around. They have given themselves are terrific opportunity to introduce, at some point, an encounter with some other life form and have it actually mean something.

As these characters have been searching for Earth and encountering countless barren uninhabited worlds, finding some form of life, intelligent or otherwise, can have an actual impact on viewers who have become accustomed to the established rules of the show.

If you have a setting where anything can happen- nothing then becomes amazing or unexpected. But, by establishing rules and limits, you give yourself the chance to break them to great effect.

Proof that Starbuck is a Cylon

Just go to Vancouver sometime, there are Starbucks everywhere!

*ducks*

"Sentence fragment" is also a sentence fragment.

Zonk, I'd like you to meet Complete Sentence. Complete Sentence, this is Zonk.

Berserkers

Did Fred Saberhagen [wikipedia.org] ever get an ounce of credit for the essential germ of that show?

Problems with the new BG

I have many problems with the new BG series. The show is too close to the Western Earth military, clothing styles, culture, etc. The original built a whole culture based on a connection to ancient human civilization such as Egyptians and Toltecs. Also the Galactica was a very old ship, on the order of 500 years and had been updated over the years. It was multigenerational ship. The new one is only about 50 years old and was to be mothballed at the start of the series. Visually the Galactica looks like a younger ship than the Pegasus from the outside and more like the Galactica from the original series.

One of the things I like about many sci-fi shows such as the original Galatica, Star Trek, Farscape and many others is that they create alien cultures. The new BG series had a ready made culture and they didn't use hardly any of it. Another annoying thing is that the show seems to be a tobacco commercial at times. Granted that Starbuck did on the original series too. It's insane to thing that anyone would be smoking on a space craft or a doctor smoking while with a patient.

There are things I do like about the show such as the humanoid Cylons, the more accurate physics, the interpersonal conflicts and the new Vipers. Although that last episode was too much of a jump for the show. Over all I have more of a negative view of the new show but it's like a traffic accident, you just have to look at it.

Glad there are no aliens

Esp ones that suddenly pop up on the large plasma screen tv wearing fake ears and start speaking English.

I guess technically the wild life on New Caprica are aliens.

If they do encounter intelligent life I hope it is on the order of "what the hell is that?" instead of "gee your forehead is wierd want to come over for a drink and have sex... as you do seem to have a giant and gorgeous rack."

Not that I have a problem with chicks with huge tits wearing rubber ears... but I usually pay for that in Vegas.

Re:Editor! Please Edit!

s/Ty/Tigh/ also.

Pylons

Looks like the "psylons" got fixed, but there's still at least one "Pylon" in there.

Now THAT would make good TV!

*gasp*

"Boomer is a PYLON!!!!!"

(cut to closeup of small orange cone)

Re:For the uninitiated

You fail karma whoring.

[Good] [[to|know]]

[Thanks] [for|the] [[interesting](post)]

Re:Take notes, THEN write

He at least fixed the spelling and amended the story saying he needed a geek-friendly spellchecker. My first thought was, "A Slashdot editor has a SPELL CHECKER!?"

Seriously, though, editors. Use your Slashdot salary, buy a OS X machine, and use Safari to compose your "articles." It has a built-in red-underlining spellchecker which is very nice. (Side note: Why the hell doesn't any other browser have a spellchecker? People type more now in browser windows than in word processors!)

Re:Zonk is a Cylon.

No, the Cylons have better spelling.

Re:For the uninitiated

Flaimbait, it is not airing in Australia!

Re:Take notes, THEN write

Offtopic, but I just have to know: does your sig work?

Re:Take notes, THEN write

Never mind the bad writing. The dude lost me when he said "preserved the goodness of the original show". Aside from the dubious quality of the original, there's the fact that Moore has pretty much redone the whole concept from scratch. Yes, a lot of details have been carried over, but that's more for copyright purposes than preservation of anything. Key details, like exactly why the Cylons want to destroy humanity (robots on a religious crusade?!) is completely different. All the stuff that's the same is stuff that doesn't matter, like the fact that Starbuck still smokes cigars and they still call liquor "ambrosia".

Anyway, this is Zonk, they guy who basically accepts every story submitted to him when he's in charge on weekends. He really needs to reconsider his career options.

Re:Take notes, THEN write

Unfortunately, the guy who *is* writing up his notes into a story will submit his story and have it rejected because it is a duplicate of this one.

Oh, haha, what am I talking about? This is Slashdot after all.

Rich

Be polite.

We don't want you to just post your briskly jotted down thoughts and abysmal sentence fragments.

Unless by "we" you mean "me and my multiple personalities", you're being a bit bold to speak for the entire games.slashdot.org audience. Indeed, Zonk's posting these things as he's dashing from talk to talk. He's trying to post timely content because of an endless stream of complaints that Slashdot is constantly getting scooped by other sites. Many Slashdot readers are very vocally saying that they prefer the "jotted down thoughts and abysmal sentence fragments" of say, digg [digg.com], and want Slashdot to be more timely. They may be wrong, but it's hardly Zonk making this decision totally divorced from what his readers want.

"Like, did you even go to journalism school?"

Did any of the Slashdot editors and writers go to journalism school? If you're looking for some sort of credential that the writers are good enough to bother spending your time reading, you're at the wrong web site. Come of to think of it, I doubt you'll find any site or magazine that focuses on covering the game industry (as games.slashdot.org does) that is entirely or even mostly j-school graduates.

Your might also consider how you phrase your feedback. "Do you get paid for this shit? Can you give us more than this half-assed effort next time?" is not a good way to provide feedback. It makes the recipient more likely to brush you off as a troll. I suggest something like, "This was rushed and low quality. It harms Slashdot's reputation as a polished news organization when drafts are posted as final articles. I'd really prefer more polished articles, even if it means waiting longer to get them." Obviously that's just a hypothetical example, as no one who has read Slashdot for more than a day or two would confuse it with a "polished news organization."

Re:Boomer

you got a Pylon for Boomer the Cylon?

waaaaay too much information !!

Re:Take notes, THEN write

Spelling aside, I thought he did a good job of conveying the main points succinctly and clearly. I'm not sure what additional verbiage would have achieved, aside from grammatical elegance.