BATTLESTAR GALACTICA given greenlight by Sci Fi

By: Patrick Sauriol
Date: Tuesday, February 10, 2004
Source: The Sci Fi Channel

Sci Fi Channel has announced that it has officially given a greenlight to the first season of the new BATTLESTAR GALACTICA. Instead of receiving an order for a minimum of six episodes (as one of our sources informed us last month), the network has committed to 13 episodes of the series, with production scheduled to commence next month in Vancouver. All principal cast members from the mini-series will reprise their roles in the series and executive producer Ronald D. Moore will serve as the series' head writer. David Eick also acts as an executive producer.

Speaking with Sci-Fi Wire today, Moore provided new information about what to expect in the 13 episodes, as well as possibilities for storylines. The atmosphere of the series will continue to reflect the sense of doom that permeated the mini. "There will be lighter moments," explained the showrunner. "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 also talked about trying to write characters for the original GALACTICA cast that may turn out to be reoccurring faces in the new series. "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."


Finally, fans of the old school GALACTICA have been wondering in message forums and chat rooms if any of the stories seen in the classic BATTLESTAR GALACTICA series could also be revisited in the new show, if it went to series. Moore admits that he's already begun thinking about doing just that. "I've talked about revisiting the 'Pegasus' episode, because I think that's a cool idea at some point," the writer reveals. "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."

Broadcast date information as to when the first of the new episodes would air wasn't given.

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