Kosh GTO
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« Reply #4 on: March 19, 2009, 01:23:18 AM » |
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United Nations Paid Visit By The Twelve Colonies
It seemed fitting that the rag-tag fleet’s journey ended at the United Nations.
Since the debut of “Battlestar Galactica,” which ends its run in spectacular style on Friday (8 p.m. Central, Sci Fi; four stars), the drama has depicted the remnants of humanity in a desperate struggle for survival. During the course of four seasons, they not only endured the worst that their Cylon enemies had to dish out, they discovered the darkest impulses that lurked in their own hearts.
Bsgun1 As a method of resistance, they used suicide bombers. To get information, they tortured Cylons. When they suspected treason, they turned on each other and tossed traitors out the ship’s airlock. They constantly struggled to balance human rights with the precarious security of the fleet, which started out with around 50,000 survivors but lost thousands along the way.
“We saw … good people making really ugly choices,” moderator Whoopi Goldberg said near the end of Tuesday’s two-hour panel on the show at the United Nations.
The panel, which included executive producers Ronald D. Moore and David Eick and stars Mary McDonnell and Edward James Olmos as well as four U.N. officials, was organized by the U.N. as part of a new effort to link the organization’s concerns to the creative community. It was held in the Economic and Social Council Chamber, an imposing room full of rows of delegate seating facing a dais on one end of the room. In the audience were fans of the show, network executives, members of the media and more than 100 high school students, who were there representing Think Quest NYC, an educational outreach project.
The audience members sat in the seats reserved for diplomats and delegates, but instead of nameplates listing the names of real countries, signs in front of each seat said “Caprica,” “Gemenon,” “Picon” and the names of the other nine colonies seen on the Sci Fi show. The overall effect made you feel as though you’d stepped onto one of the show’s sets; perhaps “Battlestar’s” president Laura Roslin (McDonnell) was about to pacify the restive Quorum of the Twelve Colonies.
Bsgun2 But this wasn’t a set. And despite the fact that “Battlestar Galactica” is set in a fictional universe, the United Nations representatives on the panel praised the show for its depiction of the ways in which war, torture, deprivation and terrorism affect real people.
Robert Orr, an anti-terrorism expert and the U.N.’s Assistant Secretary-General for Policy Planning, pointed out that a few months ago, in that very room, victims of terrorism attacks told their harrowing tales to an array of diplomats. Their stories had an effect: Orr talked about seeing those officials “throw out their talking points” and began to take seriously the idea of linking basic human rights to their nations’ anti-terrorism efforts.
Orr spoke after the audience was shown a “Battlestar” clip in which military leader Saul Tigh (Michael Hogan) defended the use of suicide bombers against the Cylons. In that episode – not for the first time -- the show put viewers in an uncomfortable position. The grizzled Tigh is one of the show’s best-loved characters, yet here he was advocating terrorist tactics and telling the president he didn’t have time for her “pieties.”
“We don’t like to confront these tough issues in our world. But they are oh so real,” Orr said. “If a show like ‘Battlestar Galactica’ can get us think about it and can get us talking about it… It isn’t easy. I’ve heard these words from people. But they weren’t actors.”
Craig Mokhiber, deputy director of the New York office of the U.N.’s High Commissioner for Human Rights, talked about how the show, via the human-Cylon struggle for dominance, examined “this idea of the Other – defining human beings as being the Other so that we can dehumanize them and ultimately destroy them.”
“We are all entitled to a social and international order in which all of the rights and freedoms of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights can be fully realized, regardless of race, sex, language or religion,” Mokhiber. Linking the quest for basic human rights to the “Battlestar” characters’ search for Earth, he said, “I would suggest that this is the mythical Earth for which we are all searching.”
Bsgun3 Soon after that statement, Olmos’ gravelly voice rumbled across the hall.
“You should have never invited me here,” he chuckled. While praising Mokhiber’s efforts, he objected to the use of the word “race as a cultural determinant.”
“We’ve made the word race a way of expressing culture,” Olmos said. “There’s only one race, and that’s what the show brought out – that is the human race. Period.”
After expanding his point on how the construct of race had been used to justify oppression, he repeated loudly, “There is but one race! So say we all!” There was vociferous applause and chants of the “Battlestar” catchphrase reverberated through the august chamber.
One of the high school students in the audience asked if she should be worried about the fact that almost most adults these days, especially young people, are “addicted” to technology. As viewers saw over the course of four seasons of “Battlestar,” letting technology get out of hand can potentially lead to, well, attempted genocide, among other unpleasant things.
Guess who was there also??? Whoopi, Or ( Gannan ) Of Startrek. I hope these people don't let this go to there heads. GTO
News about the 'Battlestar' film, a 'Caprica' challenge, the 'Eureka' love-fest and more
On Monday, the Sci Fi Channel hosted a press screening of the “Battlestar Galactica” finale, which airs Friday. Ronald D. Moore, the show’s executive producer, made the assembled media types raise their hands and swear not to reveal anything that happens in the show’s final two hours. And I surely don’t want an angry Centurion coming after me for even hinting at any developments in the finale.
But I was able to wangle a bit more information about “Caprica,” “The Plan,” “Eureka” and other upcoming projects on Sci Fi, which changes its name this summer to Syfy (doesn’t that sound like the name of a cream that your doctor would prescribe for a skin rash? Ah well. I said it before and I'll say it again: Sci Fi should have embraced real change and just named the channel after its famous cinematic opus, "Mansquito").
Here's one bit of “Battlestar”-related news: “The Plan,” a 2-hour standalone movie that was shot last year, will “probably” air in the fall, according to Sci Fi executive Mark Stern. The date is not set in stone yet, but it sounds as though you can pencil in a November-ish air date for the Cylon-centric film.
“The Plan” was directed by Edward James Olmos, who stars in “Battlestar Galactica” as Admiral William Adama. “When [‘Battlestar’ fans] see ‘The Plan,’ they’re all going to have to go back and watch the entire series again,” Olmos said after the finale screening.
Regarding other projects, just as the network’s “Tin Man” miniseries re-told the classic “Wizard of Oz” tale, Sci Fi is updating “Alice in Wonderland” with the upcoming miniseries “Alice,” which will be made by “Tin Man’s” creative team.
This summer, the network will debut a new, comedically-flavored series, “Warehouse 13,” which is about a pair of federal agents who track down unusual objects and stow them in a massive warehouse full of intergalactic oddities.
“Eureka” also returns in the summer, and Colin Ferguson, who stars in the show as Sheriff Jack Carter, said at the network's party that his character has a ongoing love interest in those episodes (she’s played by Jaime Ray Newman). He also said that Henry Deacon’s long-lost love turns up, and Jack’s daughter, Zoe, will struggle with the decision to go away to college (or not). Also, Ferguson’s friend, actor Billy Campbell, will guest star in one episode.
Caprica Finally, “Caprica,” the “Battlestar” prequel series, will debut in early 2010. However, in a novel twist, the show's 2-hour pilot will come out on DVD in April.
Esai Morales and Paula Malcolmson, who star in the new show, were at the Sci Fi event and Malcolmson was forthright in saying that “Caprica” would be different from “Battlestar.”
“Battlestar” has “come to an end, and it’s a beautiful end and [fans] should mourn that show,” Malcolmson said. “You can’t just come along with another show that’s going to replicate it. That’s not what we want to do, we want to give them something else.”
There's a chance that some "Battlestar" fans might be put off by the fact that “Caprica” is more of a soap opera than a space opera.(For more on the show, look here and here; there's a clip from the show here.)
“But that’s OK,” said Malcolmson, who played Trixie on David Milch’s “Deadwood.” “I think I said the same thing about ‘Deadwood.’ They said, ‘What do you say to purists, what do you say to people who love the Western genre?’”
Malcolmson’s response was to repeat a colorful phrase that you would often hear on “Deadwood,” one that cannot be reprinted in a family newspaper. Translation: If fans can't be open-minded about the new show, which takes place 50 years before the events of “Battlestar,” they just shouldn’t watch it.
At that point, “Battlestar” and “Caprica” executive producer David Eick, who was standing nearby, said, “She’s Eddie Olmos. She’s going to be the one saying, ‘Don’t watch our show!’”
Eick was referring to a famous incident that occurred before “Battlestar” premiered. At a press event, Olmos said that hardcore devotees of the first “Battlestar” series should not watch the new one if they could not give it a fair chance.
“He’s right, though,” Malcolmson said of Olmos’ statement to fans of the original “Battlestar.”
And if some “Battlestar fans don’t like the new show, “it’ll give them something to moan about. Everybody loves to complain,” Malcolmson said.
But “Battlestar” fans should know that “Caprica” has Olmos’ seal of approval (despite the fact that he didn’t get to direct it. “They were idiots for not letting me direct it,” he said quite affably.)
“This show is going to be the most spiritually centered piece of work that they’ve seen,” Olmos noted.
And the new show has a lot in common with “Battlestar,” as Morales pointed out: “Caprica” is also “about what it is to be human,” he said.
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