#david eick

[coreyndanian]

My BSG rewrite is returning

Good news to any who care :) Or are just interested in Battlestar Galactica content in general. Now, a few years ago, I made a post telling everyone interested about my own version of Battlestar Galactica I've been working on for ages. I decided to reluctantly abandon it because I felt it wasn't working. But I kept the notes and then began a massive blitzkrieg as it were to rebuild it from scratch.

The first was of course, what am I doing?

Well, it required a few re-watches of both the classic and the re-imagined series. Then it was expanding in my head who the characters were and what I am doing. Then developing the world in general, the story before, the story during, the story after. Then came the locations, the technologies, the cultures and the main characters. And my notes expanded. I realised I didn't want to do an analog to the real world, given recent events, so I decided to find a different direction. This is a story based on Glen A. Larson, Richard D. Moore and David Eick's own works but finding a new way to tell it. Some of the beats are the same as the re-imagined series (heck, two-thirds of the ships in the fleet along with Viper Mark II's, Raptors and Shuttles are of the RDM versions while my Galactica is a close resemblance externally but internally, well, I had to change it), but the story has its own direction to follow. As to the characters, well, I think Tigh, Apollo, Starbuck and Number Six (Baltar's gets a real name) will resemble them somewhat in terms of some backstory but they are off in another direction entirely.

The main cast and supporting are split even: Main: Commander Adama The new President Apollo Starbuck Baltar Number Six Shadow -- new character

Supporting: Colonel Tigh The female deck chief Boomer The President's assistant The non-comm comm officer The Tactical Officer Serina

Yes, Serina and Boxey are coming back. And Serina is a supporting character throughout Season 1 with an arc that is almost simultaneous to Apollo which will culminate in tragedy on a certain world. She'll be introduced as a young up-coming reporter and single mother in the Pilot. In Episode 4, she decides to sign up for the Colonial Fleet as they are in need of ECOs as well as pilots which as she studying electronic signals in University as a minor to her journalism degree. In Episode 10, almost a month later, she's Boomer's replacement ECO.

Another surprise return was the Imperious Leader. I felt that the Humanoid Cylons bickering amongst each other in the re-imagined, while sometimes amusing, didn't have any sign of being a resemblance of leadership. So returns the original ruler of the Cylons, a mysterious robotic entity who's form we insinuate resembles the original form but will not see for quite some time. He'll only appear in the pilot twice and then at the conclusion of Season 1 Episode 13 "Kobol, Part II" but really we have his shadow looming and his voice as he speaks to the Number Six character before the attacks in the Pilot and at the end of E13 and the Number Five character at the end of the Pilot. "Speak, Number Six," indeed. Also, "By Your Command" is to be a common feature spoken by any of the Humanoid Cylon Models when in the presence of their leader.

Also, Boomer and Tigh are back to their original interpretations by Herb Jefferson, Jr., and Terry Carter since it fits to me in some form. This Boomer is also not a Cylon (nor is Tigh as the Final Five don't exist) and he is engaged in an indiscreet relationship with the female deck chief that causes issues until Season 1 Episode 6 "Inquiry" when they both suspect the other of being a Cylon. Though (spoiler) they aren't, the real Cylon agent on Galactica that causes messes will be revealed in a special I plan for in the future between seasons. In reality, only one Cylon is a main cast member: Number Six.

This Number Six character is intriguing. The one who manipulates and falls in love with Baltar, her name is Natasha, is a smart seductive woman but also displays emotions of regret as her time on Caprica clouds her somewhat. She'll only appear in the first third of the Pilot, seemingly dying trying to make sure Baltar will survive, and then at the conclusion of "Kobol, Part II" before appearing onward in Season 2 and beyond. But the main Six is who I dub "Illusion-Natasha". Think she's the angelic temperamental jealous creature we know and love/loath in RDM's BSG played by the wonderful Tricia Helfer, well, it's a bit more complicated. In Season 1 after she first appears seemingly out of nowhere, she'll help Baltar in creating the Cylon Detection Device (which will not end up disappearing like it did in the Re-imagined Series) and then in pointing out directly where to strike in my own version of the fuel ore asteroid in Episode 10 "The Flying Colours" and pushing him to become Vice President in Episode 11 "The Other Battlefield" but we get hints she is not what she seems, particularly in "Kobol, Part II" where she makes him hallucinate that human sacrifice occurred on Kobol, thus why it was abandoned two millennia ago (not true, it was for another reason). In Season 2, after Baltar is led to believe he has been pushed the side, turns him into an arrogant piece of trash willing to murder to take credit for things or cover up things and somehow not get detected whilst ignoring the right way of doing things, thus leading to my own New Caprica arc and how he ends up briefly with the Cylons when some of the Models will (spoiler) overthrow the Imperious Leader (which will cost them everything). This "Illusion-Natasha" will be responsible for this. She isn't an angel but more like Count Iblis. Heck, I look forward to, when I get round to it, doing that Season 4 episode where, thanks to some potent exotic plants, allows Natasha and Shadow (who is involved in Baltar's arc a couple of times in S1 and S2 whilst going on his own journey) to see what "Illusion-Natasha" really is: a demon manipulating a human down the path to bloodshed. The price to settle New Caprica is blood, both human and Cylon.

"Human, Cylon, we're all just pawns in a game played by higher beings." -- Shadow (Season 4)

Another thing that'll change and be somewhat toned down is the religious and higher powers thing, particularly with the strange direction RDM took it (and was mocked by George R.R. Martin for). But in amongst this are some changes. Adama in this series I see more as a spiritualist character and someone who believes in a higher power but doesn't conform to any organised religion, most of the other characters either reject it entirely or pay lip-service as you do, the President goes from lip-service to full spiritualist at her journey's arc as she ends up becoming an Oracle of sorts. No, not by drugs for cancer treatment, though she has a heart condition that requires certain medications that will run out by Season 4 and the one alternative she tries in Season 1 and early Season 2 actually triggers her first set of visions whilst sparing her from the withdrawals of a dangerous exotic plant thought extinct for a reason -- it caused some soldiers to massacre a village without remorse or morals about sixty years before the series begins (about a decade before the Colonies finally unified into a single entity) -- used by a Cylon agent to make her and Adama aggressive and almost tear the fleet apart. Her visions continue through the series without outside help long afterwards. Her assistant (a sort-of Billy character that survives and has a steady relationship with the sort-of Dualla character to the point of marriage and kids) will follow her along the path. Starbuck herself remains the quiet believer praying to the Olympian deities in private whilst being the smarty-pants and tough-as-nails pilot she is. Shadow, the new character, is an open devotee of a single deity. As to the Cylons, Natasha is effectively the only Six to really believe while the sort-of Leoben Models (one who gets interrogated and induced with truth-telling plants provided by Shadow since he's doing the questioning and not Starbuck -- she had her episodes in Season 1) remain the crazy devotees we know and loath. Not to worry, Baltar doesn't get a harem in this or becomes some messianic figure. Kudos to James Callis in his role but...it didn't suit Baltar.

Other things nailed down is the timeline to avoid too many retcons, character ages, Pilot Rosters (for Galactica, Pegasus and the third Battlestar survivor) and the Ships of the Fleet with their names, type, captains and complement. I hate when dialogue doesn't match props or special effects so I nailed them down immediately. Heck, if this was ever made, I would probably make sure the background material matches what needs to be seen on-screen. It needs to be tight, it needs to make sense, and no retconning is necessary (unless I want to change something on a whim).

The fleet itself will consist of ONLY 64 ships - of which 42 of them are known designs (and have been named) while the remaining 22 are my own designs. One thing I eliminated from the pilot is that for a trinary star system that the Twelve Colonies inhabit, the only sublight-only ships are really Vipers, orbital shipyard modules and space stations. Every other ship has Faster-than-light drives. It's essential to all space flight for the Colonies so it makes sense (something tells me this plot was dropped in RDM Season 1 considering the large number of sublight ships conveniently turn up in Galactica's fleet all fitted with FTL drives -- the most notable being the Botanical Cruiser, the so-called Bulbous Ship and the Alligator-headed Ship). It is only lamented by the President and Apollo that out of the 10,000+ registered civilian vessels across all Twelve Colonies, they could only find 63 civilian ships. (Spoiler) Pegasus itself will find 5 ships which they then scrap for parts and bring the 400 civilians aboard their Battlestar and, due to it being a time of war, conscript those between 17 and 64 into service with minimal objection (there are a few kids but luckily some of the elderly agree to watch over them) while the third Battlestar, Hyperion, will gather over 30 more. The tales of Pegasus and Hyperion will be interesting ones to write and tell.

Anyways, if I haven't bored you to death and left you intrigued by this, I shall endeavour to start posting (either here or elsewhere and I'll post a link to it). In between my other projects, this is one of the most complicated ones so that's why I take long breaks in between updates. So don't hold out for consistent timelines because it is taking time. I'm one man with a job, obligations, no real private life, inconsistent time managing to see friends and family and alot going on in my skull.

But I'll do my best.

Stay tuned.

[frakyeahbattlestargalactica]

From Classic TV Archives:

45 years ago, April 29, 1979, the final episode of Battlestar Galactica aired. It is an American science fiction media franchise created by Glen A. Larson. The franchise began with the original television series in 1978, and was followed by a short-run sequel series (Galactica 1980), a line of book adaptations, original novels, comic books, a board game, and video games. A re-imagined version of Battlestar Galactica aired as a two-part, three-hour miniseries developed by Ronald D. Moore and David Eick in 2003. That miniseries led to a weekly television series, which aired until 2009. A prequel series, Caprica, aired in 2010.

All Battlestar Galactica productions share the premise that in a distant part of the universe, a human civilization has extended to a group of planets known as the Twelve Colonies, to which they have migrated from their ancestral homeworld of Kobol. The Twelve Colonies have been engaged in a lengthy war with a cybernetic race known as the Cylons, whose goal is the extermination of the human race. The Cylons offer peace to the humans, which proves to be a ruse. With the aid of a human named Baltar, the Cylons carry out a massive nuclear attack on the Twelve Colonies and on the Colonial Fleet of starships that protect them. These attacks devastate the Colonial Fleet, lay waste to the Colonies, and virtually destroy all but a population of 50,000. Scattered survivors flee into outer space aboard a ragtag array of spaceworthy ships. Of the entire Colonial battle fleet, only the Battlestar Galactica, a gigantic battleship and spacecraft carrier, appears to have survived the Cylon attack. Under the leadership of Commander Adama, the Galactica and the pilots of "Viper fighters" lead a fugitive fleet of survivors in search of the fabled thirteenth colony known as Earth.

During the eight months after the pilot's first broadcast, 17 original episodes of the series were made (five of them two-part shows), equivalent to a standard 24-episode TV season. Citing declining ratings and cost overruns, ABC canceled Battlestar Galactica in April 1979. Its final episode "The Hand of God" was telecast on April 29, 1979

[animeengineer]

Case in point:

"There was no plan," [Battlestar Galactica executive producer/showrunner Ron] Moore laughed.

"It all came about when we were doing the main titles and we had to have what's called a 'precap' as opposed to a recap," he said. "So we had a precap before the main title. And David [Eick, executive producer] said we should have a punchy line there at the end...'and they have a plan.' And I was like 'What does that mean?' He said 'It doesn't matter, doesn't matter. It'll be great. The audience will love it.'

"I said 'But they don't have a plan, David.' He said 'Trust me, this is marketing. We'll figure it out later.' So for the next fourteen years of my life people have asked me 'So what was the plan?' There's no f***ing plan!"

The Boba Fett miniseries also fits David’s template.

Like, yes, shows do get cancelled without warning, but that's not always – or even usually – why serialised media fails to stick the ending. Sometimes they never had a plan to begin with. Sometimes they know darn well how much screen time they have to work with, and they choose to front-load the show with decompressed character pieces anyway, then speed-run resolving the actual plot in the last two or three episodes, gambling that viewers will forgive them on the strength of their character writing. Sometimes it even works!

[dfroza]

A link to Apple Music with the 6th track on the 2021 album When We Leave by Mathias Eick

Playing

there is playing for us a universal symphony (the stars are a testament speaking) that points to the promised healing of all things

just as a [metamorphosis] of body for those already passed (in faith) and the beautiful mystery of (A secret elopement) and transformation of body for some who are yet alive and waiting (prepared in faith by the Spirit in True illumination as Body and Bride)

A set of ancient lines:

For the worship leader. A song of David.

The celestial realms announce God’s glory;

the skies testify of His hands’ great work.

Each day pours out more of their sayings;

each night, more to hear and more to learn.

Inaudible words are their manner of speech,

and silence, their means to convey.

Yet from here to the ends of the earth, their voices have gone out;

the whole world can hear what they say.

God stretched out in these heavens a tent for the sun,

And the sun is like a groom

who, after leaving his room, arrives at the wedding in splendor.

The Book of Psalms, Poem 19:1-5 (The Voice)

And these:

Now I know what some of you are thinking: “Just how are the dead going to be raised? What kind of bodies will they have when they come back to life?” Don’t be a fool! The seed you plant doesn’t produce life unless it dies. Right? The seed doesn’t have the same look, the same body, if you will, of what it will have once it starts to grow. It starts out a single, naked seed—whether wheat or some other grain, it doesn’t matter— and God gives to that seed a body just as He has desired. For each of the different kinds of seeds God prepares a unique body. Or look at it this way: not all flesh is the same. Right? There is skin flesh on humans, furry flesh on animals, feathery flesh on birds, and scaly flesh on fish. Likewise there are bodies made for the heavens and bodies made for the earth. The heavenly bodies have a different kind of glory or luminescence compared to bodies below. Even among the heavenly bodies, there is a different level of brilliance: the sun shines differently than the moon, the moon differently than the stars, and the stars themselves differ in their brightness.

It’s like this with the resurrection of those who have died. The body planted in the earth decays. But the body raised from the earth cannot decay. The body is planted in disgrace and weakness. But the body is raised in splendor and power. The body planted in the earth was animated by the physical, material realm. But the body raised from the earth will be animated by the spiritual. Since there is a physical, material body, there will also be a spiritual body. That’s why it was written, “The first man Adam became a living soul”; the last Adam has become a life-giving spirit. Everything has an order. The body is not animated first by the spiritual but the physical; then the spiritual becomes its life-giving source. The first man, Adam, came from the earth and was made from dust; the second man, Jesus, has come from heaven. The earth man shares his earth nature with all those made of earth; likewise the heavenly man shares His heavenly nature with all those made of heaven. Just as we have carried the image of the earth man in our bodies, we will also carry the image of the heavenly man in our new bodies at the resurrection.

Now listen to this: brothers and sisters, this present body is not able to inherit the kingdom of God any more than decay can inherit that which lasts forever. Stay close because I am going to tell you a mystery—something you may have trouble understanding: we will not all fall asleep in death, but we will all be transformed. It will all happen so fast, in a blink, a mere flutter of the eye. The last trumpet will call, and the dead will be raised from their graves with a body that does not, cannot decay. All of us will be changed! We’ll step out of our mortal clothes and slide into immortal bodies, replacing everything that is subject to death with eternal life. And, when we are all redressed with bodies that do not, cannot decay, when we put immortality over our mortal frames, then it will be as Scripture says:

Life everlasting has victoriously swallowed death.

Hey, Death! What happened to your big win?

Hey, Death! What happened to your sting?

Sin came into this world, and death’s sting followed. Then sin took aim at the law and gained power over those who follow the law. Thank God, then, for our Lord Jesus, the Anointed, the Liberating King, who brought us victory over the grave.

My dear brothers and sisters, stay firmly planted—be unshakable—do many good works in the name of God, and know that all your labor is not for nothing when it is for God.

The Letter of 1st Corinthians, Chapter 15:35-58 (The Voice)

As a trumpet (shofar) “calling” with an angelic voice:

Now, brothers, we want you to know the truth about those who have died; otherwise, you might become sad the way other people do who have nothing to hope for. For since we believe that Yeshua died and rose again, we also believe that in the same way God, through Yeshua, will take with him those who have died. When we say this, we base it on the Lord’s own word: we who remain alive when the Lord comes will certainly not take precedence over those who have died. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a rousing cry, with a call from one of the ruling angels, and with God’s shofar; those who died united with the Messiah will be the first to rise; then we who are left still alive will be caught up with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air; and thus we will always be with the Lord. So encourage each other with these words.

The Letter of 1st Thessalonians, Chapter 4:13-18 (Complete Jewish Bible)

there is so much work and “labor” in the writing of a “seed”

(to be…)

Are you willing to read?

[saksthriftavenue]

Check out this listing I just added to my Poshmark closet: Caprica Promo DVD New.

[slasherscream]

Feel free to not respond to this, but I just want to bring up that what Shane did isn't "unique" to Shane. What I mean by that is, other characters on your blog have done the same or something on a similar level. Yet, I haven't seen any complaints.

Key example: David from Fear. Who actually does the same exact thing (and some worse). In 1x06 of TWD, Shane tries to kiss Lori and shove his hand up her shorts. She shoves him off and he leaves the room, hitting on the way out. David corners Nicole in a bathroom and then he shoves his hand up her skirt.

I didn't see anyone protest you writing for him. I didn't see anyone send in asks. It isn't fair to hold certain characters to different standards, especially when the person you're upset with is doing the opposite. If the anon was so concerned, then they probably shouldn't be on a tumblr that writes for characters like that.

This was long, I apologize. It just irks me when people are hypocritical like that and then get mad at others for not being the same.

[frakyeahadamaroslin]

Huge thanks to @neverlendbooks for the info!

It's from one of David Eick's season 2 video blogs. You can watch it here (starting at 4:12):

[fangirlishsite]

NYCC Interviews: Tim Kring, David Eick, and Burkely Duffield http://bit.ly/2j03fJK

[karlcagathon]

★ Battlestar Galactica 1x10 - Hand of God  │ developed by Ronald D. Moore and executive produced by Moore and David Eick

★ For All Mankind 1x05 - Into the Abyss  │ created and written by Ronald D. Moore

[pintsizeddeepthoughts]

From Start to Finish: Television Reviews – Battlestar Galactica

Executive Producer: Ronald D. Moore and David Eick

Starring: Edward James Olmos, Mary McDonnell, Katee Sackoff, Jamie Bamber, Tricia Helfer, Michael Hogan, Aaron Douglas

Number of Episodes: 76

Years: 2003-2009

Country: United States

“It’s not enough to survive, one has to be worthy of survival.” – Commander William Adama

Where does one start a review of a show as messy and sprawling as this one? The original Battlestar Galactica was a cash grab meant to ride the wave of sci-fi mania after the success of Star Wars in the late 1970s. Lasting only a season, the cheesiness of that show hid a very dark idea – after a nuclear holocaust, there are only 50,000 humans left and they are being pursued by a race a killer robots (called Cylons) bent on their extinction. Fast forward twenty-five years, veteran sci-fi show runner Ronald D. Moore was intrigued by similar ideas: what if, instead of weekly episodes not linked to each other so they could be run in syndication, there was a show where things that broke or were depleted in the previous episode didn’t get fixed?

Starting out as a miniseries that became a backdoor pilot, the reimagined Battlestar Galactica released in 2003 was dark and gritty, filmed in a mockumentary style aboard a ship one could confuse with a submarine or aircraft carrier. The ship had obvious limitations and people who took those limitations seriously. It understood that few of the people, outside of the commander and his second command, had ever been in actual combat before. The characters were fully realized and fully human, prone both resiliency and rash emotion. It understood people told lies to protect themselves from internal and external forces. It knew that mistakes would be made and did not shy from showing us the consequences of the characters’ actions.

And what characters. Although the cast would expand and change over the course of the show’s four official seasons, the core would remain. At the center of the show is Commander William Adama and President of the Colonies, Laura Roslin. Adama (via a towering performance by Edward James Olmos) is flexible, a bluffer, practical, sentimental, and unusually humanitarian for a career military man. His calm demeanor hides explosive rage and as more is asked of him he has to dig deeper to find the will and cleverness to survive. By the end of the series, these asks break him and he begins to come apart. The same goes for Roslin, portrayed with commanding warmth and steeliness by Mary McDonnell. The secretary of education before the holocaust, she grows into her role as president. By the second and third seasons, she’s been tempered by the fires she’s had to put out and the decisions she’s been forced to make. But, like Adama, it comes at a cost that begins to accumulate beyond what she can tolerate.

The show was at its best when it focused on the basics of what it would take to make the fleet survive. The first season featured episodes focused on finding water, finding fuel, and trying to figure out where to go (they settle on a mythical plant, Earth). The second season featured the discovery of another battlestar and how things could’ve gone differently – and very wrong. The third season began with the occupation of their new home by those same Cylons and featured humans using suicide bombers against their occupiers. The fourth season showed all the accumulated battle damage finally taking its toll on the ship to the point of no return. These were real problems that forced characters to react and stretch beyond their comfort zones. For some characters, these storylines cost them everything (I am forever haunted by Michael Hogan’s performance as Saul Tigh in season three). For others, it stripped them of the lies they’d lived by for years. It left them bare, raw, exposed to grief that grips the soul.

This brings us to the controversial series finale, which is tellingly titled “Daybreak”. The series could’ve ended at the fourth season midway point (titled “Revelations”), a brutal, cold, and cruel episode that would’ve cemented the series theme of grim grief. But that’s not how grief works. Eventually it recedes and, one day at a time, day does eventually break the horizon. A lot of what happens in the series finale ties to the sloppy mythology that Moore and his team of writers made up as they went along. While this mythology did provide the show with some of its greatest emotional highs and its best mysteries, it’s not the show’s center. To the end, the show focused on the characters and the series finale nails the correct tone. Grief ends. Dawn does return.

Along with Lost, Battlestar Galactica was a pioneer in showing that serialized storytelling could work on television. As such, the show runners made pioneer’s mistakes. Moore famously admitted they made up the story as they went along, which left them scrambling to wrap up loose ends in the second half the final season (not always successfully). Still, the show is important because it did not flinch from the reality of a such a bleak story. It did not flinch from being cruel to its characters at times or from giving them moments of heartbreaking grace. Edward James Olmos, from the very start of the series, recognized the show’s strength and power and frequently told his fellow castmates that this would be the best job they would ever have. It’s hard to disagree.

[seygabriels]

me whenever i see scarlett byrne’s face, knowing full well lexi is a fictional character and scarlett herself has done Nothing to upset me: be Gone Demon

[downthetubes]

Gateway, the SF novels that inspired Marvel UK's "Warheads", comes to TV

Gateway, the SF novels that inspired Marvel UK’s “Warheads”, comes to TV

The NBCUniversal-owned cable network owned Syfy has announced it is developing Frederik Pohl‘s award-winning best-seller Gateway as a series, novels that once inspired comic creator Paul Neary while he was developing Marvel UK’s Warheads back in the 1990s. First announced back in 2015, Variety broke the news this week that a show from Robert Kirkman’s Skybound Media has optioned a TV series based…

[urbanchristiannews]

Edward Burns & Radar Pictures Developing Tosca Lee's 'The Progeny' as TV Series

Edward Burns & Radar Pictures Developing Tosca Lee’s ‘The Progeny’ as TV Series

Edward Burns’ Marlboro Road Gang Productions is teaming with Radar Pictures to develop bestselling author Tosca Lee’s The Progeny as a television series. (more…)

[stockwellarchives]

“Along with Baltar, another Galactica character who has had plenty of dealings with the Cylons, albeit completely unknowingly, is Chief Tyrol. He fell in love with Lt. Sharon 'Boomer' Valerii, who turned out to be one of several Boomer / Cylon models. The chief also confided in a priest, Brother Cavil, who is later exposed as a Cylon. Working with Dean Stockwell during Cavil's scenes has been a treat, explains Aaron Douglas, who plays Tyrol.

“ ‘First of all, Dean Stockwell is unbelievable,’ smiles Douglas. ‘What an amazing actor and just a really neat and congenial guy. I remember the two of us were halfway through the day's work on the second season finale and Dean said to me, “I can't tell you how much I'm enjoying myself. I really like the writing as well as being up here in Vancouver and working with this cast and crew. Too bad I get killed.” I was like, “What do you mean you get killed?” and Dean said, “They shoot my character out of an airlock in episode 20.”  

" ‘I said to him, “You're a Cylon,” but he didn't know what that meant. So I went on to explain to Dean that there are 12 Human Cylon models and an infinite number of each model. I told him, “That means they just keep making more, so if you want, I'm sure they'd be happy to bring you back.” Dean said “Jeez, I'd love that.' Not long after, I was talking with David Eick [Galactica's executive producer] and I happened to mention to him what Dean had said to me. I'm pleased to report that Dean returned at the start of this year and he had a ball. Hopefully, we'll see more of Brother Cavil later in Season Three.’"

Eramo, S. (2006, September). Battle Briefing. TV Zone, 205.