By Todd VanDerWerff
For Battlestar Galactica’s cast, the storylines of the show's third season (which starts Friday night at 9 p.m. Eastern) caused some soul-searching. In one thread, the human citizens of New Caprica, which is occupied by their robotic Cylon enemy, consider forming an insurgency, and contemplate the use of suicide bombers.
“I remember thinking that it was a very humbling experience to be asked to step into the other shoes, as it were,” said Mary McDonnell, who plays the humans’ former president, Laura Roslin, during an October 3 conference call with TV critics and reporters. Still, McDonnell said, the storylines should give audiences a chance to consider the issues of those in occupied countries throughout history -- including those in Iraq right now. “I think we've got to clearly identify that possibility within ourselves,” she said.
While some may be turned off by the grim direction of the show in its third season (and for that matter, in previous seasons), executive producer David Eick said the dark tone was appropriate for a show set during wartime. “It's sort of like asking, ‘When we're seeing war footage from Iraq, can we at least see a birthday party to alleviate the tension?’” Eick said that the show is steeped in the political and social issues of contemporary American society, but that the writers don’t go looking for issues to incorporate into the show, Law and Order-style. The series follows in the tradition of classic science fiction literature with allegorical content. “Somehow, that felt like [that aspect] had been lost in contemporary TV sci fi, and in contemporary movie science fiction as well,” he said.
Eick hopes the series will encourage viewers to question their most deeply-held political beliefs. For example this season the human characters grapple with their own willingness to commit genocide -- an atrocity already perpetrated against them by the Cylons in the series’ opening episodes. “A lot of liberals I know were ready to nuke somebody on Sept. 12,” Eick said. “If you see the (humans) moving to a place where something like an act of genocide is a possibility. I don't know if you say, 'Oh my God, I can't relate to them anymore.’”
While the show's dark tone risked alienating casual viewers, the time-leap the series took in its second season finale divided fans. The humans landed on New Caprica with Cylon collaborator Gaius Baltar (James Callis) as their newly elected president; then the timeline jumped forward one year, picking up with the Cylons returning to occupy the planet. Eick said the producers decided to skip foward because New Caprica was a temporary safe haven for the humans, and "...doing a number of episodes where everyone thinks they're safe and nothing happens doesn't seem like a wise thing to do."
Eick said that while previous seasons introduced the human characters and explored their imperfections, season three will deepen the audience’s understanding of the Cylon enemy, showing how they are less evolved in many ways than their human counterparts. At the same time, though, Eick hopes that the new season doesn’t give away too much about the Cylons. The robots' religion wasn’t originally intended to be a large part of Galactica, he said, until a Sci-Fi channel executive became fascinated by the concept, which was included in a throwaway line in the miniseries. “We really ran with it, and it became more of a functioning M.O. of the Cylons,” he said. But all things considered, the producers would prefer to keep the monotheistic robots shrouded in mystery.
“One of the things we talked about when we decided to go in this direction is that no one liked...Close Encounters of the Third Kind: The Special Edition," Eick said, referring to Steven Spielberg's 1980 update of his 1977 film, which let the audience enter the previously-unseen interior of the mother ship.
Callis said the third season will find his character in an existential crisis -- namely, Baltar will wonder if the Cylons really do have a plan that somehow includes him, and if that makes him a twisted sort of “chosen one.” But he will continue to cope with his guilt over allowing the Cylons to decimate the human race in the series' opening. “He's constantly seeking redemption every day,” Callis said.
Although this season's dramatic situations are new, the actors said their characters would remain consistent.
“I think one thing that you can trust about Laura Roslin is that her passion for the fleet, and for getting them back to Earth no matter what, remains the same,” McDonnell said.
For Callis, that means his character will continue to be plagued by visions of Number Six (Tricia Helfer), a Cylon he was romantically involved with before the attacks. The visions may be hallucinations, or they might be byproducts of a chip implanted by the Cylons; either way, Callis said Baltar accepts her as real. “I don't believe he believes that she's a figment of his imagination for one moment,” he said.
_________________________________________________
House Next Door contributor Todd VanDerWerff is the publisher of the pop culture blog South Dakota Dark.
Wednesday, October 04, 2006
The Other Within: David Eick, Mary McDonnell and James Callis on Galactica, Season Three
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
12 comments:
I like that Callis has become a central figure in the series, and look forward to seeing what they do with him this year. And I hope I'm not alone in finding Baltar the series' most compelling character. He's an irredeemable scumbag, yet there's a gentleness to him that make you believe that his more ethical fellow humans could actually fall for his line of very pungent bullshit. I even like the device of having Number Six (his lost love -- or maybe just his lost lust) haunting him and egging him on toward more heinous acts. There's a cartoon Macbeth aspect to some of their scenes together -- Lady Macbeth as a figment of his imagination.
There's a great little scene in the extended cut of "Pegasus" on the new "Season 2.5" DVD box in which Admiral Caine recognizes Baltar because of his fame as a media talking head before the Colonies were destroyed, and the way Callis wordlessly portrays the way it gives Baltar an ego boost is a real testament to his skill. I agree with Matt that good ol' Gaius is the most compelling character on the show, but given how things play out in the first few episodes of the new season (don't worry, I'm not gonna spoil anything) I'm a little concerned that he may have gotten stuck in a situation where he might not be as interesting anymore. We shall see. The conference call sounds pretty fluffy, but that last quote of Callis's about Six certainly offers stuff to chew on.
May I third the motion?
Baltar is so much at the core of the BSG story, that the idea of killing him off is unfathomable - hence, the one obvious hindrance of the character is knowing this will never happen ("Never say never, 007"). But I guess the logical extension of that thought process is that if he will never die, one must always wonder, "How the hell is he going to get out of this one!?!?"
As much as we would all like to believe that thrust into this situation we'd have the intelligence of Adama, the compassion of Roslin, the strength of Kara, et al - the truth is most of us are Gaius Baltar. He continually behaves in the most human of all manners. Selfishness to the core - and I've got no problem admitting that I love and loathe him for it.
Ross: Yes, but at the same time there's something weirdly childlike and vulnerable about him. Intellectual, too -- I sometimes wonder if he's abstracting his own situations while he's in them, and wondering, like the audience, how much he can get away with.
Baltar is a fabulous character, and as much as I adore the fact that he has his perpetual companion Six, I find it even more delightful that his particular reincarnated Six has her own perpetual companion Baltar, who is even more delightful than the real guy.
(And of course I can't see either phantom companion without being reminded of the Crichton-Scorpius two-step in Farscape.)
What I've never understood about the Baltar situation is that he has been shown throwing himself against bulkheads and conducting one-sided conversations in hallways, and don't you think someone would have noticed that he acts a bit odd sometimes?
Regardless -- I am keenly anticipating the new season.
Matt -
Oh yeah, no doubt. He's just this endlessly complex character. My hope from a viewer standpoint is that we've only seen the tip of the Baltar iceberg. There seems to be no end to where this guy could dramatically go. When I was recently viewing the last six eps of S2, there were several in a row without him - and I felt it. I started getting really anxious and annoyed by his absence. (Then again, Scorpius was always the heart of FARSCAPE for me, so maybe it's more of a trend where I'm concerned.)
For me, Baltar is BSG - heck, I'd even sit through a bad sitcom spinoff called THAT DARN BALTAR!, just to get some more Gaius. (I should retreat for now - 'til Friday night's talkback.)
this is completely off-topic, but i'm not sure where to address it but here:
matt, i'd be really interested in hearing your take on the film-theories of Ray Carney. I've recently been reading some of his stuff and struggling between thinking it's insightful and revelatory and/or overly dismissive. I think this essay sorta best sums up his views: http://people.bu.edu/rcarney/acad/forms.shtml
not sure if you've come in contact with that essay before, and if not beware, it is a bit long, but like i said, i've been grappling with the ideas he puts forth in it and would love to hear your take and the comments of visitors of the site.
I don't disagree with the admiration for Baltar and the marvelously odd rhythms Callis has imbued him with. (Joan—there have been several shots of passersby reacting to Baltar’s strange behavior in the hallways, and the discomfort of Adama, Roslin, and any other unfortunates stuck in a policy meeting or conference with him is obvious; but I think it’s been written off mostly as the expected eccentricities of genius. And Callis does a lovely job showing how the conversations with Six, half-understood, could pass as the mutterings of an idea being formed before it pops to the surface, and Baltar’s eyes suddenly shine with the jolt of clarity.)
But I must put in a word for my favorite, Tyrol. It’s partly the profession, I confess. I’ve always got a soft spot for the blue-collar guys in my sci-fi, from Yaphet Kotto and Harry Dean Stanton faking out Weaver with the steam nozzle to FORBIDDEN PLANET’S cook finding a bottle of bourbon more miraculous than the alien technology that supplies it. For me, the surest sign a movie can make that we’ve conquered space is to look past the granite-jawed flyboys in silent wonder at the marvel of it all and focus on the bedraggled grunt who considers it merely another venue for parts to break down and grease to clog up his valves.
Beyond that, though, Tyrol was ingeniously set up as a grounded parallel to Baltar’s flights of conflicted, paranoid delusion, working through his own conflicts of loyalty and love and testing out how far he’d sacrifice the one for the other when trying to protect Boomer (another taboo pairing) from, he thought, herself. Aaron Douglas did a fine job all through that first-season arc—as well as the episode where, marooned on a planet and commanded by a junior-grade in way over his head, Tyrol first attempts to instruct Baltar on the meaning of military discipline but is eventually, sadly persuaded that the freaky civilian’s calls for mutiny have merit. The chief and the professor locking horns had all kinds of echoes with Adama and Roslin, but also possessed the weight of its own inevitability. They were each other’s secret sharer without either even knowing it.
Douglas hasn’t had as bright a spotlight since (though his fears of being a Cylon himself was well-handled, and managed to one-up even Baltar’s paranoia), but even when he’s not the focus of an episode it’s a joy just to catch him at work on the edges of the frame, swift-gaiting up to a fighter hoping that the pilot’s fine, but praying his bird came through unscathed.
Though, yeah, between, say, Tyrol raising identical twin moppet Cylons in CHIEF OF THE HOUSE and THAT DARN BARLTAR!, I’d have to go with the latter as well.
Brett: Carney's theory of the proper use of cinema deserves its own post, and at some point I'll probably do one.
Tyrol fans are definitely in for some good stuff in the weeks to come, I dare say. I love your ode to the working joes of science fiction, Bruce--that FORBIDDEN PLANET mechanic has been a favorite ever since I saw the movie as a kid. Tyrol too has a great addition in the extended version of "Pegasus": He's grumpy and pissed off when learning he's been replace with a new deck chief from the Peg, gets embarrassed about his anger when he learns his replacement is the guy who designed the Viper engines and was press-ganged by Caine (a really great character I'd love to see again, BTW) then, with resignation, starts showing the new guy around before we cut on his like "Well, the office is back here...".
I'd really dig seeing that office someday.
As far as I can tell, Tyrol is the only one of the characters who seems devoted to the gods in an everyday believer kind of way without going into feverish quasi-pentecostal spasms (like Roslin when she's in prophecy mode) or uptight fundementalism (most of the Gemenon natives we've met). It's really interesting to see an everyday joe sixpack polytheist, and I dare say his faith is portrayed much more matter-of-factly than Sarah Paulson's on STUDIO 60--enough already with those constant reminders that she's a Christian!
Andrew: Good to hear there's something to look forward to on Tyrol's front, as the writers seemed to lose track of his character for a while last season. And an excellent point about his casual but sincere faith; by showing us that religion isn't necessarily the end-all, be-all for many practicing believers he and the other dispassionately devout characters have been the anchor that allows the occasional messianic or prophecy-riddled storyline to play without dragging the show off to the stratosphere. A balance that DEEP SPACE NINE and BABYLON 5 both had troubles sustaining. STUDIO 60 as well I'm willing to believe, though in fairness I haven't seen the show.
Matt: I'm the one who got Brett into Ray Carney. Your future post on the subject is greatly anticipated.
Oh and also off-topic: Saw Home a while back. Loved it. Watched it twice.
Post a Comment