Written by J.B. Smith

 Thousands of programmers, technicians and producers from around the world attended the 2006 Game Developers Conference held March 20 through March 24, in San Jose, California, right in the middle of the beating heart of the planets computer industry. Five days of round table discussions, keynote addresses and lectures given by industry professionals for industry professionals, amidst the ostentatious scale of the exposition booths, seemed perfectly appropriate when considering an industry that rivaled or exceeded the movie business in profitability last year.

The theme of the convention also seemed appropriate: "Whats next…?" And there to answer that question was Ronald D. Moore, executive producer of SciFi Channel's hit series, Battlestar Galactica. As the game industry struggles with the transition from old platforms to new platforms, and designers struggle with revisiting old game titles and making them work on new game systems, who better to provide vision for that enterprise?

Ronald D. Moore studied political science at Cornell University, wrote several award-winning episodes of Star Trek, Next Generation, served as a consultant for Roswell and executive producer for HBO's critically acclaimed Carnivale. A few months after the events of 9/11, he was approached to work on the remake of the fondly remembered 1970's science fiction epic Battlestar Galactica. His phenomenal success in taking a dated intellectual property and making it relevant and exciting has been acknowledged by both Time Magazine and Rolling Stone, heralding Battlestar Galactica as one of the best shows on television today.

More of the same was to follow, the careful juxtaposition of classic series scenes with scenes from the new series, interrupted by Ronald Moore's commentary, describes the presentation from start to finish. The tone was set when Ron began with a joke that reminded the audience of the dissatisfaction that a vocal minority of fans of the old series expressed when he took the reigns of the project in hand. He opened with, “Hello I'm Ronald D. Moore and I'm here today to talk to you about a new game.” He then made shooting motions with his hands, punctuating every phrase as he continued speaking. “…A first person shooter, where you play a television producer trying to get the X/Y balance right, fighting off massive hoards of pissed off fans, finally reaching the grand finale, the battle royale with Walter Koenig on stage at a Star Trek convention in Grand Rapid Michigan.” He finished to the laughter of the huge crowd.

Ron went on to describe the process by which he adapted the original Battlestar Galactica, detailing which elements he sought to preserve and enhance and which elements he had to discard. “The concept was an interesting one because it was so dark - that was a very dark and interesting place to begin a show,” he said about the basic premise of the original series, that enemies make a sneak attack and wipe out most of the human race, leaving only a few survivors. But the events of 9/11 informed the context within which he wanted to visually present the genocide in the series to his audience; "Genocide shouldn't be fun. You shouldn't really enjoy this as much as you traditionally would in a big SciFi epic.” On the screen: a scene of original series Cylon Raiders blasting the ground with energy bolts played on the screen while next to it, while in contrast, the simple horror of a mushroom cloud from the new series.

In the original series, Lorne Greene's Adama is watching the attack on a large video display. We then transitioned to the bridge of the new Galactica, in a scene from the miniseries with Edward Olmos's Adama speaking to his command: “We have just received word that our home world is under attack. How, why, doesn't really matter now. What does matter is that as of this moment, we are at war.” Which scene works better? Clearly, the mushroom cloud isn't any fun, lending realism to the illusion of apocalypse.

“…It was three months after 9/11,” Ron said to the audience, “And when we watched the original BSG in that frame of reference, we watched it very differently than an audience did in 1978. So it was very important as we went through the process, that the attack of the Cylons on the Colonies had a certain emotional message to you, the audience."

“You know what it is to go through a moment like this. You know what it is to be shocked to wake up one day and find the world has changed forever. You know what it is to feel those initial moments when strangers’ voices are coming into the room and floating around. You don't know what the truth is, all you know is that the people in that room in that space are sort of your world at that point.”

As the presentation continued, video sequences from the original and new series were used to illustrate the different character interpretations. A sequence where Dirk Benedict's Starbuck, smoking a cigar, is haltingly speaking of his feelings for Athena, was compared to Katee Sackoff's Starbuck, bloodied and also smoking a cigar, describing her feelings while sitting in her ruined apartment on radioactive Caprica. Both Starbucks are rogues, drinkers and have problems with authority, but the original Starbuck made you feel, “With a wink and nod to the camera,” that everything was going to be all right. The new Starbuck makes you feel “This is a scary place to be; everything is not going to be all right.” Judging by the nervous laughter at the comparison, it was clear that Ronald D. Moore succeeded in accomplishing what he set out to do.

Adama and his family were preserved for the new version, but they would be changed to become more believable and to facilitate the dramatic elements. Adama of the original series was a true believer, a believer in the religion of the Colonials. The Adama of the new series would also a true believer, but he would be a true believer in something a little different; he would be a true believer in democracy and the democratic way of life. Adama's sons and daughter would be present, but rather than having them serve on the same vessel as in the original series, something Ron thought suggested a culture very different from our own, he had Lee arriving from another post elsewhere in the fleet.

The death of Adama's youngest son would remain in the new series, but the circumstances would be different. Adama's daughter, Athena, he had to discard as he could find no purpose for her in the new series. So to compensate and to carry the analogy of the modern family unit, in the remade Battlestar Galactica Starbuck became Adama's adopted daughter in the sense of an extended family. Katee Sackoff's Starbuck is in fact, both Athena from the old series and Starbuck from the old series re-imagined as one.

Everything from camera angles to religion, clunky Cylon suits to lethal CGI Cylon killing machines was discussed and compared. We were treated to scenes of the original series Cylons missing everything they were shooting at to scenes of the new series Cylons eviscerating a hapless pilot. Fans would love this stuff, I thought to myself; the entire presentation would make an excellent addition to a DVD collection.

”The new Battlestar Galactica was not to be science fiction, so much as it was meant to be a drama set in a science fiction world,” Ronald Moore said at one point.
It’s clear that from that singular vision the success of the series has been guaranteed. Whether the impact of that success will be felt in the game developers’ world remains to be seen. The keynote address ran over its time limit and there was only time for one or two questions from the audience. One man asked, “Willl they find Earth?” Ron responded by describing his philosophy concerning the duration of the show. Essentially, it would last as long as it was interesting and good, he wanted to leave an excellent show for people to watch in the years after Battlestar Galactica came to its conclusion. The trick would be knowing when it was time to wrap it all up; “The end game will be when they find Earth,” he added.