By MICHAEL HINMAN Source: SyFy Portal Apr-02-2008 Before every episode, watchers of "Battlestar Galactica" are told the Cylons have a plan, a plan which has been sliced up and given to its audience in small doses.
While the Cylons are planning, the writers behind "Battlestar Galactica" are sometimes playing it by ear, allowing the natural flow of storytelling to help lay out the path that will bring the show to its highly anticipated series finale. "The truth is, nothing's nailed down until the final episode is written, shot and edited," David Weddle, supervising producer of "Battlestar Galactica" and one of the writers of Friday's Season 4 premiere told SyFy Portal's Michael Hinman. "Everything is always in flux and anything could still happen. That's what makes it such an exciting show to write and to watch." That doesn't mean there won't be continuity, because the writing team that includes Weddle and partner in crime Bradley Thompson have been utilizing the technique of retroactive continuity, or as fans like to call it, the retcon. Finding a retcon isn't easy because viewers typically don't know what was planned out ahead of time, and what was simply picked up from previous episodes to run with. Many fans had questioned whether or not the mysterious painting found on the wall of Starbuck's apartment in the second season episode of "Valley of Darkness" that was featured in later episodes was part of the plan all along, or a retcon. Fans now have their answer. "The mandala that Kara painted since she was a child and that later showed up in the clouds to lure her to her 'death' was something Brad and I went back and discovered when we were writing 'Rapture,'" Weddle said. Executive Producer Ronald D. Moore "wanter her to see something on the Temple of Five on the algae planet that would relate to a larger destiny, something that no one else would recognize. We went back and screened the scenes from 'Valley of Darkness' and noticed the mandala that she had painted on her apartment wall. That gave us the idea to put it on the temple and to build it into her backstory in 'Maelstrom.'" None of the story surrounding the mandala was planned out ahead of time, Weddle said. In spite of that, they were able to develop a strong story, and find ways to link different aspects of the series together, and the same will happen with "Maelstrom," and how that will affect Starbuck's final journey in the fourth season. 'Maelstrom' is permeated with clues that will have unexpected payoffs in future episodes, as are all of the other episodes," Weddle said. "Sometimes even the writers don't know which details will turn out to be critical clues because of the organic way in which the show is written. This is because we build on what we've already written, rather than map out every little detail ahead of time." The genesis of the "Maelstrom" actually came from executive producer David Eick, who had pitched an idea about Apollo and Starbuck having to fight a Viper dogfight in the dark, and at the bleakest moment when they both thought they were going to die, they learned something about each other that changed their relationship. "When the room went to break the show, we began to wonder whether that was really the story we wanted to tell," Thompson said. "David Weddle remembered something Katee [Sackhoff] had said she wanted to do -- pay off the clues about the relationship she had with her mother. So with that as a starting point, the room went back at the story to go to the dogfight and Kara going down." But it wouldn't end there. That's when Moore offered an idea that would eventually get fandom up in arms, and created one of the more memorable moments of Season 3. "I believe it was Ron who said, 'The whole audience is sure Lee will pull her out at the last minute. We should kill her,'" Thompson said. "Thus it was spoken, thus it became. And once it was, we pondered the wondrous door that had opened. And a man appeared on a flaming pie and said, 'Henceforth, you are Battlestar with an A.'" The overall story may have moved to a stronger focus on Starbuck, but just as she states in the series, her fate has already been laid out by the writers and producers. "Ron Moore had some very strong ideas about Starbuck and the ultimate role she would play in the broad canvas of the series, and that figured very strongly in the writing of 'Maelstrom,'" Weddle said. "But the specifics of Starbuck's journey and how it would play out in Season 4 were not nailed down until we had our writer's retreat in Lake Tahoe to map out Season 4. And there are still many details that have not been fleshed out." As "Battlestar Galactica" prepares its spot in the annals of television history, a lot of question has surfaced on how the show will be remembered. Will it be known as the show that carried only the name of a 1970s show? Will it be considered the innovator on a new way to approach science-fiction? Or will it simply be a television show? Both Weddle and Thompson worked on another series that laid a lot of the groundwork for what is found in character-driven science-fiction created today -- "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" -- and "Battlestar Galactica" owes a lot to it. "I think 'Star Trek: Deep Space Nine' will be seen as a ground-breaking series that made 'Battlestar Galactica' possible," Weddle said. "Ira Behr saw how 'Deep Space Nine' could be an unfolding, epic story. He kicked open a door for all of us and gave us a glimpse of what was possible. Ron Moore embraced this concept [and] applied it brilliantly in 'Battlestar Galactica.'" Fans of the future could easily look at BSG and DS9 like how fans of westerns of John Ford and Sam Peckinpah are viewed today, Weddle said. "Ford laid the groundwork, showed how much was possible within the framework of the western genre, and how it could be elevated from common melodrama to a genuine American art form," he said. "Peckinpah learned from that then applied his own vision and themes to the genre, often playing upon or creating variations on the set pieces and themes that Ford established. "Peckinpah's work would not be possible without Ford's. I think you can look at Ira Behr's 'Deep Space Nine' and Ron Moore's 'Battlestar Galactica' in the same way. The difference being, Ron worked on both shows, learned directly from Ira, and was a major creative force on 'Deep Space Nine' as well." People who watch Moore's DS9 episodes will see many of the themes that have developed in "Battlestar Galactica." "It's a rare chance to watch a great talent grow and develop before your eyes." Of course, no one can get an audience with both Weddle and Thompson without asking what fans can expect from Season 4, which premieres Friday at 10 p.m. ET on SciFi Channel -- an episode written by the duo. So spill it. Is Earth at the end of this journey or not? Of course, that's not the question fans should be asking. "Will it be the Earth of the present, the future, the past? I'm glad you asked that question," Weddle said. "The answer is ... wait a minute, I'm not allowed to tell you that. That was close!" Weddle does have some advice, however: Keep a very close eye on those Final Four Cylons. "Are they instruments of the human race's redemption, or its destruction?" he said. "And Kara Thrace. Is she alive? Dead? A ghost? A Cylon? An angel of the Apocalypse? And who's that fifth Cylon?" The answers won't come from Weddle here, however. That's because they've already been answered ... fans just don't realize it. "You already know the answer to these questions. It's all right there," he said. "Just examine every episode closely and the truth will emerge. Or break out a magnifying glass and go over that Last Supper photo one more time. Ron Moore laid it all out for you. http://www.syfyportal.com/news424887.html
