Much to the happiness of BSG geeks like me, Ron D. Moore has been doing timely podcasts for the remaining episodes of the season, or at least he has for the past two. It’s always interesting to hear what the man has to say on what he was thinking with certain scenes, and the other directions he’d previously considered that got dropped.
Listening to the podcasts is a bit time consuming and calls for free time you might not have, so I’ll do my best to point out some of the highlights for me. Note these are from the first two podcasts, meshed together:
Last week Ron Moore and the actress who portrays Ellen Tigh, Kate Vernon, got on a conference call with press folks to talk about the reveal of the final Cylon. I wasn’t around to attend the call, but I did receive a transcript, and there are some interesting bits in there I’ll share with you.
Moore, on Ellen being the final Cylon and what it means for her relationship with Saul: “It also made the fact that Tigh had killed his wife back on New Caprica even richer and more complicated and filled with more ironies and more, you know, conflicted feelings about what was happening and what the story was. And so that’s essentially how the process went.”
A representative from Media Blvd. asked Moore the following: “Coming full circle, was there ever even a minute where you were tempted to have a crash in Roswell, New Mexico in 1947 at the end of the show?” Moore’s answer: “No.”
Someone on the call mentioned reading a rumor that, in episode 411, there was a piece of paper on Earth that read “January 21, 2009.” To this Ron simply said that, if they saw it, it wasn’t significant. Huh?
PopCultureZoo asked: “So, Ron, just to throw another theory at you, much like the fleet is looking for the lost 13th tribe of the 12 colonies, is it conceivable that Starbuck could be the lost 13th Cylon of the 12 models?”
Ron Moore: “That’s an interesting theory. But I can neither confirm nor deny any theories at this point though, but enjoy, you know, enjoy….”
Later, from Televisionary: “I’m wondering if we should be drawing any parallels between the sort of nuclear holocaust on Earth and the destruction on Cobol?”
Ron Moore: “Yes. Next question.”
Hmm … touchy.
So, the reason for my attaching the image above to this post is because I’m hoping to get an answer back from my contact at NBCU, from Ron Moore, about whether he purposely had that empty seat near Saul Tigh all along, and if the cup symbolizes the poison Ellen drank. If I get an answer, I’ll be sure to mention it in the comments.
Lastly, Aaron Douglas just started a Livejournal blog, apparently just to pick on Wil. Don’t worry, though — he’s just kidding.
Clacked by Keith McDuffee 
on Jan 27, 2009 @ 20:51 EST5EDT
Everyone freeze – Figurski, I’m glad they decided to spare us that one.
Yeah, I thought that was pretty funny. But, when you think about it, not outside the realm of reason ;)
*POST AUTHOR*
OH! I forgot to add this part of the interview. From Ron:
And he goes into the temple and (head) Six is telling him, keep going, keep going, you’ll find something. And he goes through some dark room and turns around and then Dirk Benedict appears and says, hello guys; I’m god and shakes his hand. And we were going to go out on that moment.
Now setting aside the fact that Dirk Benedict hates everything about this show and would probably never do it in a million years, more fundamentally it was just a crazy concept. I was seeking in those days to try to find things about breaking reality and fantasy and what is a story; what is not a story and what is the connection of this world to our world. And I was just playing with ideas and this was like this whacky idea I had and put in the script.
And there was a pretty universal reaction that everyone hated it. I quickly just said, okay, bad idea; that one’s mine and we’ll just kick that out of it and we’ll move on. And that was, you know, you just have to – you have to swing for the fences, you know.
Just a minor correction. It is spelled “Kobol” not with a C.
Wow, such news you bring Keith!
I’m glad we dodged that bullet too!
Question: Is Nicky really spelled “Nikki” in the show? I thought the male spelling is Nicky?
*POST AUTHOR*
You could be right. I’ll have to look into it.
According to the Battlestar Wiki, it is spelled Nicky
https://en.battlestarwiki.org/wiki/Nicholas_Tyrol
Sci Fi, in its recap of the latest episode, spelled it Nicki. Which, I gotta tell you, just looks weird.
After listening to the latest podcast, I guess I should be surprised that Moore spent a lot of time talking about the photography and cinematography considering he directed the episode, but I guess I wish he’d discussed more of what had happened.
He mentioned at the end of last weeks’ that he specifically didn’t talk about Ellen because the podcast would be posted prior to the episode airing (which it wasn’t) and that he’d discuss it this week (which he didn’t).
I guess Cally’s story is told now. I think for a character that originally was a complete background player, she really became more of a part of the show than was intended.
I’m also kind of disappointed that we’ve seen the end of Xena. I always thought that other than Leoben, she was the most interesting Cylon model out there (Sorry Tim-1, that’s not meant as a joke or a slight, just what I think).
Now that I’ve had time to sit with Ellen as the Final, it does really make her death so much more complex as a part of the story. I still think that when I go back and watch that scene, the revelation will take away from the performance that Hogan and Vernon gave. I will also be disappointed if pregnant six (Which, if I’ve tracked everything, and remember it correctly, is Caprica Six, right?) somehow turns out to be somehow related to Ellen.
I’m really into these episodes though… Save for my problem with Gaeta, I’m enjoying the ride!
Spelled Nicki? That’s odd, Cally is played by Nicki Clyne spelled “Nicki”.
Well, the baby was named after her, so I guess the spelling make sense then. I thought she spelled her name Nikki, which is why I thought the baby’s spelling was weird.
The actress that played Xena is named Lucy Lawless. She is an amazing actress and I absolutely agree it is a huge bummer that she won’t be back in any more episodes. She really was the most interesting Cylon.
Ricky: My calling her Xena was absolutely not a sign of disrespect, but a long running inside joke and poke at Akbar. I’m a big fan of what Lucy Lawless has done on this show (I’ve not seen much of her work other than this), and both her and her character will be missed in these final episodes.
Just listened to em earlier today.
some goodinfo there, I like that we got the story of his directing in there & it’s interesting to hear about the extended scenes we’ll be getting in the box set (I’m still hanging on for a 4 season blu-ray box set)
I could do without Mrs Ron, she seems to nag a bit too much & detracts from intesting info
Retcon! I still love the show, but it’s a little frustrating knowing that they really didn’t have any idea about the final five cylon models early on in the series.