I will never forget the moment.

Terry and I sitting up in bed, in shock, the single word, "What?!" bursting loose from both our lips as black filled our TV screen and we briefly wondered if the cats had bumped the TiVo at the worst possible moment and destroyed the payoff to one of the most tension-filled moments of television we'd ever experienced. Then, the credits rolled by in silence and there was an exhalation of shock and amazement.

What had David Chase done? Oh my God, hit the jump back button and watch it again.

Yep, that's it. He really did it. The man has guts. No, that's not enough. The man has balls the size of Volkswagens.

For weeks, the speculation has centered around a simplistic black and white question for a show that revelled in never providing monochromatic answers: would Tony live or die? The prosaic nature of the question and its anticipated answer was itself was the most disappointing thing about the lead-up to the finale. Either Tony was going to get whacked, or he wouldn't. "The Sopranos" would end with either the bitter little pill of the "bad" guy finally getting what he's got coming or with the vaguely false relief of family affirmed and life goes on.

Instead, Chase managed to do the unthinkable, the unbelievable and the unprecedented: he yanked us out of their lives without any resolution whatsoever. We were torn away from Tony, Carmella, AJ, Meadow, Paulie, Sil and the all the rest without any idea what happens to them tomorrow or even later that same evening. In real life, when you lose contact with someone, you seldom if ever have the satisfaction of knowing how the myriad threads of their lives resolved themselves. They are removed from your circle of knowledge and yet their lives go on unbeknownst to you in ways you can only imagine. The Sopranos are gone from our lives, but their lives go on without resolution, much like ours. None of us have tidy, revelatory endings that are the culmination of our "story arcs" and neither will they.

Oh, I'm sure there are those who will bemoan the lack of resolution to the story or that Chase has somehow "robbed the fans" but I'm a fan and I'm ecstatic. I'm glad he thumbed his nose at the tyranny of the narrative drive to bring things to a tidy conclusion so we can all clap and walk away without another thought about that mob family in Jersey, satisfied that all's well that ends well. Screw that. I don't want to see Tony's death, nor do I want to watch him drive off into witness protection, or sit down to some kind of illusory happiness in the bosom of his family. I simply want to pretend that his life continues, that he's still simultaneously worrying about onion rings and whether that guy is hiding a gun in the restroom.

It's poetic. It's exciting. It's perfect.

And most of all, I wish I'd thought of it first.

Sorry, all -- but I'm deeply under the weather since our return from Berkeley and still haven't done my podcast for the Season Three finale. (I doubt anyone's looking forward to another congestion-filled audio recording.) So as soon as I'm well, I'll finish up the season. I don't know why they haven't posted the Q&A session yet, but I'm sure it'll be up shortly.

I'm uploading a podcast to SciFi.com tonight that is a recording of an extended Q & A session I did with a large group of fans in Berkeley following the airing of the finale on Sunday night. I'll record my normal podcast on the episode tomorrow and hopefully they'll have it up day after tomorrow.

(And yes, I'm steadfastly not commenting on the fact that my last blog was months ago.)

Three -- count'em -- three podcasts are winging their way to you this week from snowy Vancouver: "Hero," "Unfinished Business," and a discussion of the show with a group of the actors, myself and MrsRon sitting in our apartment and talking over various aspects of the show.

The "Roundtable Discussion" as we're calling it, is a freewheeling discussion, and there are definitely times when there's too much cross-talk and too much laughter on the recording to discern anything coherent (especially in the beginning) but tucked in amid the revelry are some interesting and fascinating tidbits which I hope you'll enjoy. Think of it as being a fly on the wall during a dinner party with a group of people delighted to be talking over the ins and outs of their favorite show. In addition to myself and the missus, we were joined by James Callis, Jamie Bamber, Tamoh Penikett, Mark Sheppard (an upcoming guest star with a major role in the finale) and Henry, a child-hood friend of Jamie's who happened to be in town that night.

The "Unfinished Business" podcast also features Tamoh and Grace Park.

Just thought I'd let everyone know that if you just can't wait two more days for the premiere, the first Act of "Occupation/Precipice" is now available for viewing on SciFi Pulse in its entirety. Go to the "Battlestar Galactica" section, navigate to "Full Episode and More" and then click on "First Look."

Enjoy.

Okay, first let's make this clear: OUR TIMESLOT HAS CHANGED. WE'RE ON AT 9:00pm FRIDAY NIGHTS now, not 10:00pm. Those of you with TiVo won't have any trouble, but try to spread the word to everyone else.

We're really happy with the premiere episode and I'm already starting to get feedback from critics and press who've seen it and the consensus seems to be very, very positive, so I hope all of you enjoy it as well.

SciFi.Com recently became aware of the phenomena known as "frak parties" which are being organized out there in the great beyond by Zak Exley and I encourage all of you to go to the link on SciFi.Com and put your own frakking parties together so you can enjoy the frakking show along with a lot of frakking other people. (Maybe even hook-up with a frak-buddy or two.)

Now onto the questions and answers:

"I sincerely apologize if this has been asked before, but I would really like to know:
Was Admiral Cain guilty of murdering her XO and ordering the murder of civilians?
Was Admiral Cain guilty of marooning/stranding the Pegasus RTF?
Was Admiral Cain guilty of "drafting" civlians into the Pegasus crew?"

The answer to all of the above is, yes. While we heard about all these actions second-hand, the intention was that they were all factually correct.

"We've heard that in Season 3, the Centurions will actually be "played" be actual actors in motion capture suits/external rigs (In Season 1 and 2, they'd just stick a cardboard cutout in front of an actor so they'd know where their eye level should be, or have guys wear a shirt that read "CENTURION" on it when running in the woods to let editors know that's where a Centurion would be in post). How has this affected who actors on set interact with/respond to Centurions? Who "plays" the Centurions? (Is is uncredited?) I mean I'm not expecting some CGI Gollum-level performance here, but this sounds fun. Though I hope they've removed the "coctail hour swagger" effect... "

While we did briefly discuss using a new technique of using actors in motion capture suits to portray the centurions, we ultimately decided against it for budgetary and production reasons, and the centurions will be completely CGI once again.

"The BSG books are soon to be out. Do you okay these books, do they fit in your BSG timeline, or is this totally seperate from what you're doing?"

I do consult with the people involved in the books and I generally give them a lot of leeway in their storytelling since it's a completely separate project from the TV show.

"With respect to the Centurians - I feel like they are a bit limited in design. Perhaps TOO limited. For instance - why couldn't a Centurian simply articulate basically 360 degrees at every joint in all axes - so it could simply plop onto the ground and run like a dog perhaps. Or simply rotate its head 180 degrees to look behind it as opposed to having to turn around. It could them simply run backwards as fast or nearly so as it could forwards (its legs would simply swivel around at the hips or pelvis). Couldn't Centurian's exchange parts? If one gets it's hand blown off, and there is another destroyed Centurian with an intact hand near by - could one simply eject it's bad hand and install the functioning hand?"

I think that's a valid criticism and it's certainly something we've discussed among ourselves from time to time. We made a fundamental choice at the outset that the centurions would be an extension of the original Galactica centurions, and therefore would be bipedal and vaguely humanoid in appearance. It's an aesthetic choice, one intended to maintain a sense of humanity even in the mechancial opponents. We've talked about other, more complicated devices and robots, but it seems to veer off into predictable territory rather rapidly, so we've decided to keep it pretty simple for now.

"Hi Ron, love the show. I have a question about the Cylon attack which (according to the podcast) was originally scripted to cap off the Kobol storyline in Home, Part II: Were the live action elements for these scenes ever filmed? If so, is there any possibility of having the finsished sequence reintegrated into the episode? I have always longed to see it in there, because after 7+ episodes of having everyone go their seperate ways, it would've been very moving to see them flee Kobol together."

The scenes were cut before they were shot, unfortunately.

"Why has Adama's midset/attitude/whatever you wish to call it changed so radically during the year in orbit around New Caprica? "

We've actually touched on this story in an episode where we shot a lot of flashback material to some of the events that occured during the "missing year." We're editing the show right now, and hopefully it'll survive into the final cut.

"I am very struck by the story on your IMDb profile of how you got your start on 'Trek, simply slipping a script to the producers, as a recent Cornell grad with no Hollywood insider connections. Can you tell us more about your experiences in Hollywood before you struck gold? What made you want to be a screenwriter? What was your mindset when going for a tour of the TNG set that day? Finally, what advice do you have for people similar to you who are interested in screenwriting, but have no connections whatsoever?"

I'd been living in LA for three years, working a variety of odd jobs before I got the break at Trek --messenger, contract administator, personnel director, even animal hospital receptionist. I was sleeping on the floor of my ex-college roomate, who'd come to LA a year before me and who was also trying to break into the business. I was starting my life over, having just been politely asked to leave Cornell after I'd neglected to go to class for several... months. I was studying political science and history, with an eye toward going to law school, but by the time I left, I'd already realized that I didn't want to be a real attorney, I wanted to be Perry Mason and there was a fundamental difference between the two.

I'd always written stories growing up -- my mother still has a small "book" I wrote in the third grade -- and I'd written a play in high school and joined a literary society in college, but I'd never seriously considered writing as a profession until I literally had nothing left. So, I left Ithaca and moved in with my buddy and decided to become a screenwriter.

I wasn't that diligent, in all honesty. I started and stopped a dozen or more screenplays, took half-hearted stabs at writing spec scripts for television, but in general I didn't really focus on the craft or improve the horrendously undisciplined methods which had been my undoing at Cornell. I drifted from job to job on the periphery of the film business and felt my life slowly going nowhere.

It wasn't until I knew I was going to visit the sets of "Star Trek: The Next Generation" that I dimly perceived what would turn out to be a golden opportunity staring me in the face. With three or four weeks lead time, I did something I'd never done: I sat down and wrote an episode. Looking back, it's amazing I never even attempted to write one before. I was an avid fan of Trek, watched every episode of "Next Gen" without fail, and intuitively knew the format, the structure, and the voice of the show. But, at that point in my life, I needed something right in front of me, a real deadline to get off the couch and actually do something.

I remember that when I took the script with me to the Paramount lot, I just assumed that I could give it to the guy giving me the set tour and that he'd be willing to read it for no reason except that I asked him to. In truth he was reluctant to accept yet another unsolicited script from a fan (he got this kind of request everyday) and he politely turned me down at first. As we left his office and headed to the set, I left the script behind, but determined not to take no for an answer.

They were shooting scenes for the second season episode "Time Squared" down on Stage 9, where the Sickby, Corridors, Engineering and Shuttle Bay sets were located. We walked through the Engineering set, which was covered in plastic tarps, and then found a dark, out of the way place to watch Patrick and his photo-double rehearse a scene where two Captain Picarcds are in the same shot next to an Enterprise shuttlepod. It was exciting and thrilling to actually stand on the starship Enterprise after all those years of imagining it, but there was this other part of me that felt like I'd finally come home. Usually, when I'm experiencing a singular event, there's a strong part of me that is constantly whispering, "Look around, enjoy this while it lasts, you won't be here again." The fleeting nature of life and our experiences is something I've always been hyperaware of, ever since childhood, and it usually feeds into my innately sentimental streak, prompting me to try and imprint the moment into my fallable memory with some kind of permanance.

But on that day, I wasn't looking around with the idea of trying to memorize it all before it vanished, I was actually looking around thinking, "Don't worry, you'll be back." Somehow, I just knew this wasn't the last time I'd be on these sets, wouldn't be the last time I'd stand on a starship, that I'd get another chance to meet Patrick. I remember walking out of the soundstage without any covetous looks over my shoulder or secret swiping of souveniers -- I just assumed I was coming back, without any plausible reason for feeling that way.

On the way back to my tour guide's office, I again pressed the case for him to read my script, and in the end, he must've liked my naivete or chutzpah, or both and agreed to read it. Turned out that he liked it and put me in contact with my first agent, who submitted it to the show and about seven months later, I was back on those sets, watching them shoot scenes from the very script I'd brought on that first visit.

To say I was lucky would be an understatement. To this day, I still can't believe the series of events and how they happened at the same time I found the writing discipline and initiative that I'd so studiously avoided for three years. I have little advice for people wishing to break in to the business. No one else broke in the way I did, indeed, every writer I know has a unique tale to tell of how they got their break. The only lesson I draw from my experience is that I think everyone gets their break in this industry, but the question is whether you're ready, willing and able to take advantage of that break when it happens. I was, and so I made it, but I've known many others who have had their break, only to watch it pass them by for one reason or another. It's the kind of business that will discourage you if you can be discouraged, and you need to know that about yourself right from the beginning.

As you may or may not know, SciFi.com has begun posting a series of Galactica "Webisodes" on SciFi Pulse this week. Each Tues and Thurs they're going to put up a new 'sode, leading up to to the premiere of Season Three on October 6th. We're very excited about the Webisodes and I think they're unlike anything anyone has done in this arena to date, so I hope you'll all take a moment to check them out.

It's important to know that these Webisodes weren't done haphazardly or on the fly in between takes of the regular show. They had to be written, produced, shot and edited by a very specific group of people:

They were directed by Wayne Rose.

They were written by Bradley Thompson & David Weddle.

They were executive produced by myself and David Eick.

They were produced by Harvey Frand.

They were also produced by Bradley Thompson & David Weddle.

The post production work was produced by Paul Leonard.

The actors were Michael Hogan (Saul Tigh), Aaron Douglas (Chief Tyrol), Nikki Clyne (Cally), Matthew Bennett (Doral), Christian Tessier (Duck), Dominic Zamprogna (Jammer), Emily Holmes (Nora), Alisen Down (Barolay), and Carmen Moore (Sister Tivenan).

The director of photography was John Drake.

They were edited by Michael O'Halloran, Tim Kinzy, Ian Kezbaum, and Harry Jierjian.

The music is by Bear McCreary.

The visual effects were supervised by Gary Hutzel.

The unit production manager was Boris Ivanov

The first assistant directors were Shirley-Anne Parsons and Alexia Droz.

The second assistant director was Mindy Heslin.

The costumes on the set were supervised by Keith Parent.

The make-up artist was Ankara Eden.

The second assitant make-up person was Liz Raman Nair.

The first assistant hair stylist was Jamie McKay.

The assistants in charge of props were Glenn Hilworth, Gerry Thompson, and Robert Stecky.

The sound mixer was Mark Noda.

The boom operators were Keith Henderson and Tony Wyman.

The first assistant camera person was Shannon Abbott.

The digital imaging technician was Tracy Sim.

The gaffer was Guy Patterson.

The best boy electic was Paul Bougie.

The genny operator was Murray Chysyk.

The lamp op was Blair McDonald.

The key grip was Mark Leiterman.

The best boy grips were Dave McKinlay and Ron Baran.

The script supervisor was Carol Green-Lundy.

Our medic and craft services person was Tim Gunderson.

The Galactica Main Title Theme was composed by Richard Gibbs.

Scoring and orchestral engineering were done by Steve Kaplan.

The music editor was Michael Baber.

The special effects coordinators were Al Collis and Kevin Andruschak.

The studio executive was Richard Rothstein.

The studio executive in charge of production was Todd Sharp.

The network executives were Mark Stern and Erik Storey.

All of the above people worked above and beyond the call of duty to deliver these Webisodes to you and they did it while also working to deliver the regular episodes of the third season. They did it without any template of how these things were to be done and they did it in defiance of a limited budget and a extraordinarily truncated shooting schedule.

I'm proud of them and proud of their work. I hope you'll agree.

It was a year ago, as I watched the Katrina coverage, that I first thought about doing this blog entry. Now that we're on the first anniversary of that catastrophe, it seems like as good a time as any to at least talk about this subject.

The subject is the one most likely to inspire yawns and rolling of eyes, so ready your mouse to click onto something else: Disaster Preparedness.

Still awake?

Okay, look, I'm not writing this because I've been sentenced to doing PSA's off some DUI conviction or something, but I do work on a show that's premised on the idea of an apocalyptic event actually happening to group of people and their struggle to survive in its aftermath, and so the idea of being ready for the unexpected does actually occur to me on occasion.

I won't make this a rant or a sermon, but I will ask anyone reading this blog to take at least a moment to think about the idea that maybe, just maybe, something really bad can happen to you and the people in your life that you care about. Your life can be upended by any one of a litany of disasters and in that moment of maximum peril, the one thought that should NOT be going through your head is, "I wish I had thought about this ahead of time."

And don't think for a moment that just because you don't live in a hurricane area or an earthquake zone or next to a potential terrorist target that something bad can't happen to you. It can. Houses burn, cars crash, and sometimes things just fall out of the frakking sky. That's life and it sucks, but you can at least help yourself by waking up to the idea that bad things happen to good people all the time and that means YOU.

Get some supplies. Get a plan. Get a clue.

There are plenty of websites out there to help you, I'm not going to hold your hand and give you a list of things to do. Battlestar Galactica is all about the precious few survivors of a holocaust and how they cope with the reality of their lives in its aftermath. Give yourself a fighting chance to be a survivor.

Get some supplies. Get a plan. Get a clue.

Thank you. This site will now return to its regularly (or intermittently) scheduled programming.

So, yes it's been forever and a day since I've last blogged. I feel shame.

To catch up on things: we're currently filming episodes 10 & 11, our mid-season cliffhanger episodes, after which we're going to take a four week hiatus from shooting, then resume production on the remaining eight. "Eight?" you ask, perceptively recognizing that would only add up to 19 and our much-publicized order was for 20. "Are you in trouble? Are they cutting back your order? Or did you fail math?"

No, no, and yes, but that's not the issue.

In another of our patented feats of editorial derring-do, we've taken what was to be episode 3, "Exodus" and crafted two episodes from it, thereby obviating the need to shoot one more show. As it currently stands, we will be opening Season Three with a two-hour premiere of what were originally two stand-alone episodes, "Occupation" and "Precipice" ("Occuprice," as it were) then resume airing normal one hours with "Exodus Part One." Confused? Good, that's the way we like it. Gotta keep the audience guessing.

Since I last blogged, the show received the George Foster Peabody Award for Excellence in Broadcasting at a ceremony in New York. The entire writing staff attended as well as myself, David Eick, and several members of the cast and a good time was had by all. Terry and I (Mrs.Ron to those of you in the know) did a series of podcasts from the event and they'll be available for download at some point.

Personally, I can tell you that being in that ballroom, alongside of the other recipients of the award was a truly humbling experience. We were watching clips of documentaries dealing with fake pharmaceuticals in Asia, coverage of Katrina, exposes on Army recruiting practices, AIDS issues -- it was an extraordinary gathering of talent and material and to even be considered in the same breath with most of the work on display was a jaw-dropping experience that I'll cherish the rest of my life. It was truly one of the highpoints of my career and I'm grateful to continue to be allowed to do this show with this incredible group of people.

And now, on to your questions:

"Hey Ron, a lot of Buffy fans are very excited that Jane Espenson will be writing an episode of Battlestar Galactica next season. My question is can you please get her to write more than one, or better yet get her to join the staff? Please! "

We were pretty excited to have Jane too. I actually took Jane's first pitch way back in my early days at Star Trek and I had the pleasure of buying what turned out to be her first sale. I hadn't seen her since, but I'd followed her career from afar and was very proud to see her do so well. Turns out that Jane was a huge fan of Galactica and really wanted to do a script for us, so we jumped on the chance. I think we're all hoping that we could get her on staff at some point in the future, but we'll have to wait and see how everything shakes out for Season Four -- and whether she's even available, she's very much in demand these days. Her episode this year is "The Passage" (originally Ep 9) and deals with a harrowing voyage of the rag-tag fleet and focuses on Kat.

"I'm sure you know that BSG has a large following in the gay community. Obviously I'm not saying a show should change because of who watches it, but it has appeared so far that there are no gay characters on Battlestar Galactica. I'm just wondering if it's the case that homosexuality doesn't exist in the world of Battlestar, or it does exist, there are gay characters, and it just hasn't been discussed because it isn't relevant toward the plot. I love the show, and I know you wouldn't want to have a character just be gay to please the audience, or even necessarily to touch on any issues, but couldn't characters be gay and it not be an issue? It seems unlikely that homosexuality completely wouldn't exist."

It's a fair question. I think homosexuality definitely exists in the world of Galactica, but I frankly haven't found a way to portray it yet. It's a texture that I'd like to introduce into the series without doing "the gay episode." It's something that gets talked about internally periodically, but so far there hasn't been a good story or character arc or scene that's seemed like a good way to establish the fact without really hanging a big neon sign out that says, "See, we're doing a gay theme now!" Ultimately, it's probably a failure of imagination on my part and a reflection of the fact that I've never made this a priority for us, so pin the blame on me for not moving this bit of reality into our universe.

"Question: Why were the 'Boomers' naked on that basestar at the end of season one but the cylons on Caprica wear clothes? If the cylons on Caprica are trying to mimic humans so much, why weren't the ones on the basestar?"

First and foremost, the naked Boomers were just a neat idea and that's really why we wanted to do them. But beyond that, the idea was that on the Baseships, the Cylons live closer to their true nature as machines and that certain concepts and social conventions of human society would be less relevant to them than when they were interacting in an inherently human setting like on Caprica.

"Since Roslin's cancer is gone *wink wink* I was just wondering something. She proclaimed herself to be the dying leader of Colonial prophecy and people followed her as a religous leader, but now that she's no longer dying *wink wink* is she still considered to be "The Leader"? Are people in the colonies still looking to her as a sort of Colonial Moses who will lead them to the promise land of Earth? And since she is no longer suffering from her cancer I would assume that she's no longer taking the Chamala, so is she still having visions? Will she be having visions later on? Has the experince on New Caprica taking a toll on her faith? Is the experince on New Caprica mentioned at all in the Pythian Texts? Are you still planning on exploring Roslin's role in Colonial reglion?"

Good questions all. We have had numerous discussions of the fact that since Laura is no longer dying she may not, in fact, be the "dying leader" mentioned in the scriptures. There's also been talk of how that would be reflected throughout the fleet and in particular among the religious community and there will be some follow-up in this area. She isn't taking chamalla any longer, but she will experience some... "experiences" which will indicate that this part of her life isn't necessarily over. Her life on New Caprica will definitely influence her outlook on religion, indeed it will influence her role as president from now on.

"Another question if you don't mind. Is there any significance in the specific model numbers you assigned to some of the known cylons? D'anna is a three, Doral is a five, Six is, well a six and Boomer is an eight? The running fan theory is that each model corresponds with a specific colony and thus a specific astrological sign, but Boomer was supposedly from Aerilon and Aries is the 1st sign of the Zodiac whereas the eighth sign is Scorpio.

So just wondering if you had a reason for assigning the cylon with the model numbers you gave them or did you just make up them up on the spot?"

Number Six was specifically a homage to "The Prisoner," but the rest were assigned their numbers randomly.

"With the amazing lengths you've gone to, to show all of the military detail (many of my friends who were in the service watch the show and remark on this), I'm struggling with a few little things and it's probably just me and the guys at work nitpicking. Is there significance to the props used, like the hummer and thompson automatic on the wall of the pegasus ready room? Is there an implication that these items evolved in a similar way to the way they have on Earth or is there something deeper to look forwards to? LSO Kelly, for another example, we would have thought him to be an integral part of any scene involving the launch or landing of vipers, yet we rarely (3 episodes?) see him. Wasn't he left in charge of the Galactica at some point? I feel like I've just handed the keys to my jaguar to a valet thinking about a character we've barely seen being handed control of the most powerful ship in the human arsenal."

The props are all deliberate choices that imply more than just a passing connection between our world and the world of Galactica and there are deeper connections yet to come.

The appearance/disappearance of Captain Kelly has more to do with the budgeting process on the show than any creative issue. We only have so much money to spend each week and it's not worth it to pay to bring in Kelly (or any other recognizable guest-star for that matter) unless he's integral to the plot. So, we ask you to take the leap with us and assume that characters like Kelly and Kat and Hotdog and so on, are still aboard ship and doing their jobs even when they're not featured on camera, and therefore are ready to step into action the moment we actually need them for a story.

"Are you going to destroy Sharon and Helo's relationship or give it a stronger foundation? From my POV, Sharon's reactions and actions are consistent with the Sharon we met on Caprica. I'm not particularly mushy, but this very human story is one of the primary reasons I watch the show. That this Sharon might have PPD and PTSS is reasonable and I hope that when we see her in the Season three she will be healed and moving foward with her life outside the cage. This fan doesn't care how she gets out of the cage as long as she does. "

Their relationship will continue to grow and evolve. That's not to say it won't have the ups and downs of any relationship, but we're not looking to destroy it. The issue of the cage, what she's been doing in it, and what her future is will be dealt with in the first couple of episodes.

"Are you planning a Sharon swap? Will you swap AdorablyCylonCagedSharon with DownloadedMosesBoomer in terms of which Sharon will be onboard Galactica for the duration of the series? I pray you don't sacrifice one Sharon for another. I've never confused the two versions of Sharon and I believe you and your writing staff can make room for them both of them. "

I'm happy with the fact that we crossed each Sharon over into the other world and I'm not planning to reswap them again. There's also no plan at the moment to destory either one.

"In the season two finale, before it was revealed that Sharon didn't fess up about Cavel, was Brother Cavel going to reveal himself as a Cylon? I ask because he said something akin to the Cylons seeking greener pastures. It's unlikely he'd say he was a Cylon in the hanger bay, but I wonder if he was going to fess up in private. Was he truly there to deliver the message?"

He was planning to reveal himself and deliver a message. Whether there was more to his plan than that is speculative at this point, and anything's possible, but our feeling is that was his primary function.

"Are there no animals seen on the show on purpose? (I'm guessing its to avoid weird "alien" cats with three eyes like on Trek episodes.) So far I've only seen rats (Helo with Sharon) and snakes (in a Roslin hallucination)."

We hadn't gotten around to showing them in prior episodes, but we have talked about dogs, cats, and chickens on the show and one would imagine that they'd be very familiar looking without additional goofy prosthetics. In the first couple eps of season three, there will be at least one animal featured in a subplot.

"Why are the home worlds other than Caprica not really mentioned? Was there one planet per tribe?"

It's just a factor of Caprica having had the capital city of the Twelve Colonies. That put Laura there in the miniseries and it was natural to have Baltar there as well so as to keep the confusion factor to a minimum for the audience rather than trying to establish and identify more than one planet. Same goes for the reason Helo & Sharon put down there in the mini. So from that point forward, Caprica sort of becomes the default planet to reference and deal with. We have talked about Saggitaron and Gemenon and sketched out the particulars of their cultures, but we just haven't done a lot more with the rest of them, which is unfortunate.

"Why don't Cylon raiders fire conventional missiles anymore?"

That's a good question and Gary Hutzel brought this up himself. I think it's something we just kinda stopped thinking about as we were working on the dogfight seqeunces, because they were already so complex that adding yet another layer on top seemed overwhelming. However, I agree that it's something we've established and should try to reintegrate into the show again.

"Ron, in Starship Troopers (the book, not the movie) it says:
Quote:
"The last thing a trooper hears before a drop (maybe the last word he ever hears) is a woman's voice, wishing him luck. If you don't think this is important, you've probably resigned from the human race." --Starship Troopers, p. 161
Alot of scifi works follow this convention (Aliens, Halo, etc.) I've realized that both of the Raptor transport pilots on the show, first Boomer and later Racetrack, are female. Was this a conscious choice, to follow the ST quote? Do you agree with it?

I don't recall that quote -- although I read "Starship Troopers" a long time ago. It's coincidental that Racetrack & Boomer were women, and I never really thought of the Raptor as a transport, I usually thought of it as analogous to the Navy's EA-6 Prowler (a variant of the A-6 Intruder popularized in "Flight of the Intruder"). Dualla, however is the one who communicates most often with the pilots and I actually made her a woman because she was filling the role of another woman in the original BSG series who used to man the communication system on their bridge. That character was called "Rigel" but I didn't think that name worked in the remake, so I gave her the name of Dualla.

(As a side note, Roddenberry made a similar decision on the original "Star Trek" series when he made the computer voice a woman -- I think there's an anecdote in Stephen Whitfield's "The Making of Star Trek" where they did some research about the US Air Force deciding that pilots listened to or responded better to a female voice.)

"What annoyed me a little last season was the civilian population complaining about this and that, pressuring the government to take certain actions. You would think that in such desperate times of war, when the entire human race (or at least what's known of it) has been reduced to a mere few thousand people, that the military would basically ignore the 'will of the people' and do things their way.

"I mean the civilians have Galactica to thank for their lives. They know they are screwed if Galactica leaves them. So why do they sometimes behave like whiney babies? You would think they would be willing to do just about anything other than jump out an airlock for the military.

"I hope next season Adama will have learned his lesson: the average person is stupid. Democracy gets people like George W. Bush elected. It is not a perfect system. In such desperate times, you really can't risk the people electing the wrong person for the job, the military should take absolute power (yet allow the people to govern their daily affairs, just as long as it doesn't conflict with military interests)."

I've talked about this before, but it's worth reiterating. Adama's deference to the democratic system is a fundamental idea in the series. These people have to make adult decisions for themselves and decide what kind of life they will have or not have as the case may be. Yes, they can be selfish and petty and make bad choices, but at least they will have done them through the democratic process and have no one to blame for their choices but themselves.

Who is Adama to take god-like control of the human race? Who appointed him to that position? And what makes him qualified to make those decisions? Consider the example of Admiral Cain -- she arrogated those kind of powers to herself and look at what happened. If they put themselves in the hands of the military and live under martial law, there's no check or balance in that system, no mechanism to rein in the officer who decides to go off the reservation and consider themselves above the law (at least in the Galactica scenario).

Laura Roslin is the legal president. Adama recognizes that as part of the covenant the professional military has always had with Colonial society: that they are the servants and protectors of the people, not their masters.

"First, a BZ: Speaking as a (so far) 15-year Navy veteran with two Air Wing/Carrier tours under my belt, your show is the most faithful and compelling depiction of life on an aircraft carrier that I have ever seen on television (and in most movies). Obviously the trappings are very different, but the characters, the things they do, and their motivations for doing those things ring true to my ears. (And one small thing I loved in the pilot: the 1MC announcements about personnel working EVA.) And this is totally separate from the fact that BSG is also one of the best dramas on television in recent memory. Bravo, sir!

"Question 1: I've read in online bios that a knee injury prevented you from entering the service on your NROTC scholarship. If this hadn't happened, what community would you have wanted to join? In other words, did you want to be a SWO-dog, an Airedale, or a Bubble-head? Or something else?"

First, thanks for the praise -- it's exceptionally meaningful coming from a member of the armed forces and I really appreciate it.

As to your question, my being dropped from NROTC was a combination of things -- first and foremost my college grades, which were to say the least, abysmal in my senior year at Cornell. I essentially imploded my senior year and flunked out with only a semester to go before graduation. Oddly enough, I passed all my Naval Science courses, but basically slept and partied and slept some more through that last semester. I also failed a physical around the same time because of my knee (which I'd injured playing football).

Technically speaking, I was a Marine Option Midshipman and heading for the Marine Corps. My father was a Marine and that was a big part of the reason I went that route, but in truth, I longed to be a naval officer. I kept thinking about switching options, but there were various obstacles to doing so, not the least of which were the daunting (to me) math requirements that the Navy program required and the Marine program did not. There were also bureaucratic obstacles in the way, but the bottom line was, I was in a delay & denial mode for a lot of my college days regarding my future and I never really acted on the desire to switch.

My first preference in either world would've been to fly, but my vision wasn't 20/20 at the time and I didn't qualify for pilot training. I thought about the Naval Flight Officer program, but the Marines seemed to be limiting those billets at the time (mid-80's) and there was way too much math involved for not getting to actually fly the plane. Intelligence Officer had definite appeal, but I remember them saying that specialty was off-limits for NROTC graduates for some reason. If I had actually made the switch to the Navy, I would've opted for Surface Warfare; there was something about serving on a warship at sea that appealed to me in a fundamental (if admittedly romantic) way. Assuming I'd continued into the Marines, I would've asked for infantry officer, like my father. There was something basic, something almost primal, about commanding a rifle platoon that felt like a good way to test myself and see what I was made of.

It's interesting that I've almost never mentioned the fact that I was a Marine Midshipman -- I almost invariably talk about being on track to join the Navy. I'm not sure why. Maybe it's a bit of wishing my way onto the path I thought I would've been happier on, or maybe it has to do with lingering embarassment over my washing out of the whole program, or who knows what.

The closest I've come to making peace with this part of my past came about three years after I'd washed out. I went back to Cornell to see friends at my fraternity (K.A.) and hang out a bit, and I found a old box with some of my junk still in it. Most of it was literally trash, but when I found my old shoulder boards, I felt like I'd done something wrong by leaving them there to tarnish in a box. Men had fought and died with that Eagle, Globe, and Anchor on their collars and it bothered me that I'd tossed mine aside so cavalierly. So I put them in an envelope with a note and left them at the door to the NROTC unit up at Barton Hall. I remember I wrote something like, these meant something to me once, and please return them to the unit and hope they find their way onto the shoulders of someone who deserved them instead of lying in a box of trash. I felt better somehow after doing it, felt like I'd maybe shut the door on that chapter of my life, but in truth, I don't think I've ever really made peace with the experience and I probably never will. There will always be a sense of something left undone, something incomplete, and certain questions about myself left unanswered.

"Question 2: In the podcast for "Captain's Hand," you mention that the Pegasus engineer was not used to leading outside of the engineering spaces and, well, it showed. But it seemed to me that he also exhibited some of the ship's company vs. Air Wing mentality that so plagues so many carriers, particularly in how he dealt with Starbuck. Were you are aware of that black shoe vs. brown shoe dynamic on a carrier, and if so did it influence the behaviors of this character?"

I was aware of the blackshoe vs. brownshoe dynamics both on carriers and in the wider communities, so I definitely carried that over into "Captain's Hand." Even in my limited personal experience, I could see the (mostly healthy) rivalries among the different specialties, espcially during my summer cruise aboard the USS W.S. Sims FF-1059.