Ron Moore Gives Some Further Insights Into Season 4 Of Battlestar
Source SciFi Pulse
11 December 2007
In the new issue of Starburst magazine out now in the UK, Ron D. Moore talked a little about some of the things which fans can expect to see in the 4th and final season of his re-imagining of Battlestar Galactica which launches on the USA’s Sci – Fi Channel in March of 2008.
Season Three left fans on the edge of their seats with plot revelations, which revealed 4 crewmembers of Battlestar Galactica to be Cylons. Baltar escaped execution, Lee [Apollo] Adama left the military and Laura Roslin’s Cancer came back. But the cliffhanger to end all of them was the return of Kara Thrace Starbuck to the fleet after being believed to be well and truly dead. Moore in his interview revealed that these plot threads will be picked up on in the new series and that further surprises will happen throughout the final 20 episodes.
Season 4 promises to have a great many developments and one of the first characters who will be developed in the 4th series will be Katee Sackhoffs Starbuck who will be having a little hassle re-integrating back into a crew of people who are not entirely sure about trusting her. In fact the episode being shot on the day of the interview involved Starbuck leading a mission to seek out something only to come under attack from the Cylons.
“It’s all part of Kara’s destiny and, ultimately, her search for Earth. These storylines then play into a lot of the tensions and divisions within the crew that she’s dealing with aboard this separate ship called Demetrius, which I think is one of the best sets we’ve ever built,” enthuses Moore. “It’s a great ship. It’s also ironically, the closest we’ve ever come to a sort of Das Boot – type look and feel on this programme since the [2003] mini series.”
Back in 2003 Ron Moore wanted to have the inside of Galactica reflect the very cramped spaces which crews of world war II submarine crews had to contend with. However Sci – Fi Channel turned it down due to the fact that the network wanted something, which gave the impression of a retro space ship. So compromises were made.
As to the fate of Laura Roslin and Baltar Moore promises that both these storylines are also going to be followed up during the opening few episodes of the new series.
“Laura Roslin’s [Mary McDonnell] cancer also becomes a very strong plotline this season, as does Lee Adama’s leaving the [military] service. Then there’s Baltar [James Callis] and the ‘new world’ that he descends into with one of his acolytes; his journey sort of goes in a separate direction. Those are the major stories that begin in the opening episode, all of which were set up in the season three cliff-hanger, and we essentially move forward this year with each story in a fairly strong way.”
One aspect of season four which has many people talking is the addition of Star Trek: Deep Space Nines Nana Visitor who will be playing a recurring role throughout the season and will get to spend a lot of screen time with Laura Roslin.
“Nana Visitor [Major Kira Nerys on DSN] is playing Emily,” says the executive producer. “She’s another cancer patient in sickbay and who Laura Roslin meets when receiving her chemotherapy treatments, which we call diloxin on our show.
“Not surprisingly, the president is making regular visits to sickbay this season, and in this story we introduce Emily, who is terminal and much further along in her illness then Laura. Faith is about the relationship between the two women. Nana is going to be terrific for this role, and it’s great to see her again.”
Season Four also brings us yet another incarnation of Tricia Helfer’s Number Six character, “she’ll be playing Natalie, yet another incarnation of Number Six. I’ve spoken about the growing conflict and division within the Cylon world, and two of the primary players in that are Cavil [Dean Stockwell] and Natalie. This Number Six is different from the other Sixes we’ve dealt with in that she’s a bit more assertive as well as authoritative and not afraid to take charge.”
While on the subject of Cylon’s Tigh and the 3 Cylons within the fleet will also have a little more development which will mean a separate internal struggle for each one of them in which they will all be asking themselves, “’How am I a Cylon? What does this mean? What am I supposed to do? And, ‘Who is the fifth Cylon?’ Is it Kara? Is it Baltar? Or is it a player to be named later on? That search will also define what they’re trying to do over the course of this season.”
Although we have all known since Spring of this year that this will be Galactica’s final season. Ron Moore and his writers still have the unenviable task of drawing a close to the saga, and this is still something which they will be working on once the WGA strike comes to a close.
“At the start of this year we all got together and said, OK, we want to be here by the end, and this is the outline of Season Four in very general terms,” he recalls.
“We then talked about the first half of Season Four in detail, but chose to postpone any decisions to do with the second half until later on. Experience has taught us that as you start dealing with the first half of the season, a lot of things change. You’re constantly deciding and discovering new things, so it’s wise not to get too specific about the latter half until the first half is locked into place. That said, the macro goals that we set for ourselves as far as where we want our story to finally get to, are still in place and we’re still moving towards those ideas.”
You can read the full version of this interview with Ron Moore about Season Four of Battlestar Galactica in the current issue of Starburst Magazine which is out now in all good news agents.
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