Galactica.com - EARTH BOUND ON THE GOODSHIP GALACTICA -OR- HOW DAVID EICK MADE ME LEARN TO LOVE CYLONS- PART 2

By Sean Elliott, www.ifmagazine.com, on 10-11-2006

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David Eick What happens to Hera, President Roslin and Admiral Adama. PLUS lots, lots more ...

BATTLESTAR GALACTICA moves into new territory this season exploring the interior of a Cylon basestar and giving fans more of a look inside Cylon culture than they have ever had before. Creators David Eick and Ron Moore continue to guide this season into what is proving to be the most stirring and dramatic the series has ever been, and this is only the beginning of what lies ahead. iF MAGAZINE actually got a few minutes with Eick and picked his brain about what we can expect from the upcoming episodes.

iF MAGAZINE: Any other interesting guest stars you have coming onto the show this season?

DAVID EICK: No, not really. Our existing cast is so strong that, unless it’s a friend like Lucy Lawless or Dana Delany someone we have a personal relationship with on some level, it doesn’t make sense to chase that since we have such a strong cast.

iF: CAPRICA the prequel series … how is development going?

EICK: It’s definitely coming along creatively. Right now the network has a script and we are just waiting for an answer.

iF: If you get the green light how soon would you be in production?

EICK: That’s a question for the network. I wouldn’t know what their schedule is.

iF: Up to the current episodes you have firmly re-established Laura Roslin as the President of the Colonies … any new curveballs planned for her this season?

EICK: No, I think Mary McDonnell’s character actually settles into the role of President in the later half of season three. Her character has been in such a state of flux and despair and visions and drug inducements and near death and suborning mutiny; that it was time to bring the character into her own. It’s the role she needs to fulfill on the show, which is as President. Mary can do anything and unfortunately that can be a temptation. You know she can do anything so you start throwing curveballs at the character because you know she can handle anything you throw at her, and so for the sake of grounding the character and making the dynamic as realistic as possible we wanted to spend at least half of one season really demonstrating her role as a leader and someone who is involved in the search and eventual discovery of Earth. I think this season there is less melodrama in that character’s arc for the later half.

iF: Does having the President as a more stable character gives you a pillar to bounce off of more now?

EICK: I’d say what it frees us up to do is to explore how the character would respond as President as opposed to how the character would respond as a victim or how the character would respond as a nemesis to Adama or how the character would respond as someone battling hallucinations or someone feeling the pressure or the chosen one. There have been a lot of extremes we have pushed the character to and we love them and Mary loves them, but it has been nice to see the character evolve. Suddenly, the interesting thing to do with the character was to not push her to an extreme; that was the one thing we hadn’t done with her.

iF: What new directions are you going with Edward James Olmos’ character Admiral Adama this season?

EICK: Really, I think it’s going to be about establishing a kinship with Laura that we haven’t seen before and a left hand-right hand dynamic that hasn’t existed between them; a real partnership. We are exploring a little bit of where the character has developed his perspective as it relates to this conflict, as it relates to the people left behind, as it relates to his son, as it relates to the woman he used to be married to. Some of that is going to be done through flashbacks, some it will be done by introducing new characters who knew Adama from before and not all of them have a clean report on the man. So, it’s an interesting time fro the character for sure.

iF: Baltar is a Cylon captive, was there some satisfaction to finally give him some comeuppance for all of his treachery?

EICK: I think it was an opportunity to express the rage in the hearts and minds of those victimized by President Baltar’s policies. You get to explore a different color. These people have needed an outlet since the attack on the colonies and conveniently there is Gaius Baltar to be that outlet.

iF: I am assuming there will be even more socio-political commentary this season thanks to the split in humanity over New Caprica, the occupation and the second exodus?

EICK: Certainly, there is a lot more of that in the opening bash for sure. I don’t know if the show gets more political beyond that, but I know the opening four hours certainly were.

iF: Are you going to continue exploring the Cylons or will this taper out as the season continues?

EICK: I think there is going to be a sharp focus on the Cylon culture in the first 10 episodes, more so than “Downloaded”. It’s going to be an exploration of what their limits are, what their proclivities are and not just how they are like human beings. We’ve spent the first couple of years showing the eerie similarities between human and Cylon and now we’re going to be exploring how they are different than humans and in some ways weaker.

iF: Does the Hera storyline come to head this season?

EICK: It doesn’t come to a head; it’s still evolving. There is certainly a good deal of road left to hoe on that story line.

iF: What is the most emotionally taxing thing when you are writing out stories for a season?

EICK: I think maintaining the reality. I wouldn’t say it’s taxing, its just part of the agenda of a show like this. You can’t ever succumb to allowing your protagonist of occupying a place of moral superiority. They’re human beings and they need to be wrong as often as they are right. They can’t always have the answers.