"This is the commander." "Moments ago, this ship received word... that a Cylon attack against our home worlds is under way." "We do not know the size or the disposition... or the strength of the enemy forces." "How, why doesn't really matter now." "What does matter is that as of this moment... we are at war." "The difference between this look... and the look that they did in 1978..." "There's no difference in the story." "The story is the same." "Sooner or later, the day comes... when you can't hide from the things that you've done anymore." "It's left a big mark on everybody who ever saw it." "If you say, "Battlestar Galactica," they know it." "You must have an escape plan." "You're not about to be destroyed by your own bombs, are you?" "How are you leaving?" "The first thing that I did in approaching the material... was to say, "Let's shoot this differently."" "Okay, we're rolling." "And action!" "Every other effects movie is getting more and more unreal and fantasy-like." "We just wanted to go the other way." "It's beautiful." "The artistic endeavor's beautiful." "I remember that's why I thought Battlestar was so different... why there was an edge to it." "Because you're talking about the genocide of a race." "Humanity's children are returning home." "You're gonna hear and see a classic story in a whole new way." "Here was Battlestar Galactica... which, if nothing else, is one of the campiest... and one of the biggest, glossiest, over-the-top productions... that the "70s produced." "After Star Wars came out, it was like..." ""Okay, let's get one of those," says ABC TV... and they did Battlestar Galactica." "Back in 1978, doing Battlestar Galactica... it was an extraordinary experience... because nobody was prepared to walk on the set and see... these incredible sets created for this show." "And from the moment I stepped on the set, I thought, "Oh, my God." "What have I stepped into here?"" "Battlestar Galactica was a rarity in that it was a very popular title... that not a lot of people actually saw." "It was only on the air for one season... and yet it had this amazing media and marketing blitz... with lunch boxes and T-shirts." "Everyone was sort of vaguely aware of this thing called Battlestar Galactica." "Fire!" "Very seldom has a remake... of a television title succeeded." "It's hard to find the example of the remake that has worked." "And so in many respects you say... the smart thing to do is to establish a relationship with the fan base... because we want to build from that base." "And on the other hand, the nature of this now... is to create a new audience for this title." "My initial reaction when I read the Battlestar Galactica script... or when I came across the whole idea was..." "I had sort of..." "I had "remake-itis," I guess." "In my mind, it suffered from the stigma of having already existed... and having already been successful." "I'm never sure why people remake things if it's already been done... but that completely dissipated as soon as I read this script." "Extermination by your command." "Launch a fighter patrol." "One of the biggest changes that I decided was necessary... to tell the show was the backstory of the Cylons." "If we said that the Cylons had started like that... as the mechanistic, more armor-plated ones... and evolved on their own to look like human beings... we'd save ourselves all these production problems." "It also becomes a more interesting, sort of philosophical show." "We should say that they were created by humanity... and that's coming back to bite them in the ass." "We wanted to actually have people like her." "She's mostly responsible for killing off 12 billion people." "But she's fallen in love with Gaius Baltar... and you want to have some sympathy towards her." "The fact is that she doesn't really know she's a humanoid Cylon." "You'll call me later, right?" "On a much smaller scale, one of the key changes... which was also one of the very first things I thought of... was to change Starbuck to a woman." "What's the charge this time?" "Striking a superior ass..." "Ah, yeah." "Hi." "I'm Katee Sackhoff from Battlestar Galactica." "I play Starbuck." "Deal with it." "If you make Starbuck a woman... and you give her a lot of the same attributes... it's different." "You haven't seen this relationship before." "Especially presenting them as fighter pilots." "When I first experienced the controversy... and the anger about Starbuck being changed into a woman..." "I kind of welcomed it because it gave me something to work for." "I think that the whole idea was that actually in America now... there are women fighter pilots." "So if we've got women fighter pilots in the 20th century... why should women not be involved in every strata of the battleship?" "It's not like anybody's less able." "I've seen many versions of Romeo and Juliet... which are, you know, incredibly inventive... and go off the page and do all sorts of things." "And that's usually..." "You know, Shakespeare is the greatest writer... in the history of the human race." "And no one seems to have a problem with that." "You can only hope that people will get their act together and do it right." "And they have." "The stuff that I've seen has been breathtaking." "It really does put you inside of that world." "It's not enough to just live." "You have to have something to live for." "Let it be Earth." "Commander Adama in this new version of Battlestar Galactica... is a person who is preparing to retire, even though he finds it difficult." "Oh, my God." "Where did you find her?" "Rusting out in a salvage yard on Sagittarian." "Well, first of all, the thing about Eddie is he's got... tremendous presence and charisma." "I was initially intimidated by him, which is what the character really is." "When the story starts, it's been a lot of time since I've seen my son." "Since the death of my youngest son... he has not talked to me." "He blames me for that death." "So we have nothing to speak about, and it comes out." "Why don't you talk to me, Lee?" " What do you want to talk about?" " Anything." "You've been here an hour." "Well, I don't have anything to say." "My Apollo's different from the original one... in that he's not your ultimate, sort of heroic type... who always seems to act in the best interests of those around him." "He's actually an intrinsically flawed character... and he has huge relationship... and parental issues going on." "He doesn't particularly like who he is, either." "You've been more than a father to me." "You've been someone I could look up to with trust and respect." "Apollo was, all in all, a very passionate, very dedicated... very sincere human being... who cared about his job... cared about the people and cared about the quality of life... and was out there to do the right thing." "I think he was truly one of those true-blue hero types." "I think Apollo and his dad in this version... have, well, a few more issues than perhaps they did in the original." "One of us wasn't cut out to wear the uniform." "He earned his wings, just like we all did." "One of us wasn't cut out to be a pilot." "One of us wouldn't have even made it into flight school... if his old man, his daddy, hadn't pulled the strings!" "He has this tremendously strong father figure... who he has rebelled against and rejected because of the death of his brother... and as a result probably is questioning everything his life has been about... which is this military career." "So I guess you're the new CAG now." " Yeah, that's what they tell me." " That's good." "It's the last thing I want." "I'm not a big enough dipstick for the job." "It's a very, very strong female character... and I've never gotten a chance to play a character... that's so... sure of herself... and her abilities at what she does." "So..." "I don't know... it's exciting." "How tough is Starbuck?" "About as tough as any John Wayne movie I've ever seen." "She's tough." "She's tough." "And more than that, she's good." "She's a really good pilot." "Sawbuck's really angry... and very much in her head a lot of the times." "I thought that it was very interesting... to approach every situation... with a lot of confidence and with a lot of masculine energy." "I honestly don't know why I have to keep telling you this... but the war is over." "Mary McDonnell plays the president of the existing world as we know it." "She's extremely powerful." "She carries it very well." "She's a great actress." "Mary McDonnell's a giant." "I felt so in tune with the woman." "It felt so familiar to me, her issues... of sort of slowly moving into power reluctantly or unconsciously, perhaps." "I've had these shifts occur in my life." "Tell him this comes directly... from the president of the Twelve Colonies... and it's not a request." "Part of what I experienced shooting it already was... what is it for a woman to actually be in power?" "What is the true experience?" "We would say, "You know, a Mary McDonnell type."" "And it was really sort of surreal to find ourselves actually able to get her." "When I sat down, they said, "Well, we have this offer for you."" "They both kind of looked at each other, and I said, "Okay." "Great." "What is it?"" "They said, "Battlestar Galactica," and I was stunned." "So I took it home and kind of read it... and I was blown away." "The only things that we wanted to carry through were the Mark II ships." "Everything else was out the window." "We could do anything we wanted." "We had this thought of a man in a machine... and the man as part of the machine." "And that's how this whole side has kind of gone... with the Cylons being the overriding machine, obviously." "Galactica is an aircraft carrier in space." "Okay, we're gonna treat it like an aircraft carrier in space." "We're gonna make it essentially a model... of the British and U.S. Navies... from, like, 1945 to 1960." "There are two touchstones, two reference points for us that led the way." "And they were Blackhawk Down and 2001... 2001 because it depicted space... and space travel and space living in an extraordinarily realistic way... and Blackhawk Down because it created... the idea of visceral warfare in a way that was so real... that it was striking even with very little plot." "The detail is mind blowing on Galactica." "You could take a camera into the tiniest thing... and blow it right up, and it all works." "We were trying to achieve a cathedral-like feeling... throughout the whole film." "And some of the main sets, like the hangar bay... and the control room were wall-to-wall and floor-to-ceiling, literally." "The hangar is in a soundstage... that you could park three or four DC-10s side by side." "It is huge, these sets!" "I tried to get off of Galactica, and I was completely lost." "It's a bit of a maze." "The first thing that I did in approaching the material... was to say, "Let's shoot this differently." "Let's break the mold of how you present a space opera on television."" "Well, we always thought that one of the ways we could reinvent... the genre of space opera... was to err on the side of scientific reality... and to try to create the impression that what you're watching... was really happening." "Let's go cinéma-vérité, documentary style, you are there." "Most of the camera moves outside are hand-held, with snap zoom." "Like there's a camera guy there with a snap zoom." "More like a documentary crew on Discovery Channel... is showing you the story of Battlestar Galactica... than the Sci-Fi Channel." "This falling out of focus, losing the image, trying to re-find it... and maintaining that reality in a digital universe is a challenge... because suddenly, if your eye catches something that doesn't look real... it spoils the whole thing." "And then you begin the process of analyzing every frame to see..." ""What was it that spoiled my reality?"" "In keeping with the non-convention... no ships that you see have doors that are on hinges." "Assuming this is an older style ship, we decided to do that." "We decided to go with the older style phones... because we were trying to tell that this ship... was at the point where it was gonna be mothballed or turned into a museum." "So you have to visually present, in a way, that age gap." "Galactica's not the best of the fleet." "It's not the Enterprise." "It's not the elite." "It's not like, "We're all the very best of humanity."" "Galactica's just another ship, and it's sort of an old ship... and it's about to be decommissioned." "I love surprises." "The majority of the Cylons are now human-looking." "But in between the human-looking Cylon and the original Cylon... there is a C.G. Cylon." "One of the big differences you'll see is in the hand... because the hands actually turn into their guns." "The hand actually folds back up into the arm, and the gun falls back out." "In taking the person out of the suit, we put a person back into the suit." "We created the virtual creature, but now we're using... actual live-action motion." "Yeah, there is a secret revealed very early on in the mini-series... so I think people are gonna know something's up with my character." "I knew what was happening, obviously, because I had little dots... where that was going to be added." "But I think it's gonna be good." "Part of it is a story point and part of it is a design element... which is that the Centurions have evolved into human creatures." "He has natural human motion... but with a full robotic body." "Number 6 is a humanoid Cylon." "So I'm evil." "But she's a lot of fun." "She's a great character." "Not your typical evil kind of character." "We had something, Gaius." "Something... special." "I didn't want to have Number 6 just be the typical robot." "I wanted to make her a little bit different in some respect... which is why, I think, we made her more sympathetic and vulnerable." "Which is the eerie quality about it..." "and I think we pulled it off... is that she's kind of caught between two worlds in that respect." "I can help her with her acting." "I can't make someone else sexy." "And, you know, Tricia has that quality... to make men stupid." "Doctor, I need you to serve as my chief scientific consultant and analyst... regarding the Cylons and their technology." "I'd be honored, Madam President." "What do I remember about Baltar?" "Well, I remember John Colicos... and I remember him as being, you know, one mean dude... really evil and a bit crazy." "And frightening, I think, is the word." "Frightening." "These people here are our friends." "Really?" "Well, then you won't mind my leaving with the good news." "In time." "Remove him." "So what's Baltar about?" "He's a computer wizard." "He's a genius." "He has a penchant for beautiful women... which is actually, finally, his undoing." "I think he's a bit of a coward." "I don't think he" d like to get into kind of a lot of physical contact." " Aren't you Gaius Baltar?" " I haven't done anything." "James Callis is one of the few actors in my career... that has been able to make me laugh... in character, so that it breaks character." "Very, very excited to be playing this because it is my favorite show... that I've done so far, absolutely." "And I know the purists out there are a little bit bitter about it." "This new one's awesome." "It's amazing... and everybody who's on it is really great." "I'm the one that fixes the ships." "Well, I'm the chief mechanic, basically, is what I do." "I am kind of the..." "Yeah." "He's the man with the balls who fixes all the ships." "It's been a while since I've done this." "You guys getting tired yet?" "'Cause I am." "Boomer is now played by a man trapped in a woman's body." "And that would be me." "I know things are a little bit different." "Times change when it comes to the very real world of playing Boomer." "There was a lot of action that's needed." "The women and men are both at equal levels... whether it be fighting fires or fighting planes... taking down Cylons, you name it." "We have to be fully trained, so when it comes to an actor... we have to get really active and we have to do our own training." "Where is your angst?" "Are you an only child?" " No." " Is Boomer an only child?" "I don't think Boomer was loved enough." "They're supposed to be fun." "They should always be fun." "Even though I've blown up the planet." "Even if I wasn't a part of it, I would watch it just to see what it is." "Let the old one be the old one and the new one be the new one." "If you think the ending of the old one was awesome... the ending of the new one is incredible." "Sorry I wasn't there to greet you with the rest of the squadron." "Did they kiss your ass to your satisfaction?" "Who" d win in a fight between Apollo and Starbuck?" "Starbuck." "Any day of the week." "No contest." "I bet you've been waiting all day to say that one." "Most of the afternoon, yeah." "If you want to see some great action... interesting story, great dialogue, great characters, a couple sex scenes..." "What I would say to people who like sci-fi... and truly could care less where the show comes from..." "I would say that they're gonna really enjoy this one." "This is gonna be a great treat for them."