Galactica Season Finale Writer Interview

Mark Verheiden, the writer of the Galactica season three finale Crossroads, has given an interview on wizarduniverse.com about writing for the show and what might be coming up in season four.

No spoilers for unaired episodes, but really don’t read it if you’ve not seen the end of season three.

7 replies on “Galactica Season Finale Writer Interview”

  1. I’m not buying it, I said!
    I don’t care how much you swear in interviews that your cylon fake-out is the real deal, I’m not falling for it. I didn’t fall for the major-character death fake-out, I’m not falling for this either! Never! NEVER I SAY!

    :)

    • Re: I’m not buying it, I said!

      I don’t care how much you swear in interviews that your cylon fake-out is the real deal, I’m not falling for it. I didn’t fall for the major-character death fake-out, I’m not falling for this either! Never! NEVER I SAY!

      :)

      That’s the spirit! Take a stand!

      Oh wait, I actually liked that particular plot twist. Takes all sorts I guess :-)

      • Re: I’m not buying it, I said!

        I actually liked that particular plot twist. Takes all sorts I guess :-)

        I’m not saying I don’t like it, I’m saying I don’t believe what the former POWs of the Cylons believe ;-)

        Same way that I’d like for that crazy woman to die, but I don’t believe that she dies when she asplodes in a cylon-infested cloud. They want her alive, fertile… and they have a plan.

  2. Thinking…..
    The more I think about the finale the more I am coming to not like where it is taking the show. As it stands, as watched, it was a great episode. But the shock waves and after effects of the BIG TWIST continue to reverberate through the show and through my feelings about past episodes.

    The motivations, actions, and indeed the entire CHARACTER of the final five (four??) are forever altered. Characters that were built from great episodes of past seasons have been rendered completely shattered and will need to be reconfigured, rebuilt, nay "reimagined" ;-)!

    This is why I was sooo pissed at the season one writers vendetta against the cylon detector. It was OBVIOUS that they wanted to be able to make main characters cylons at any point in the future and that that was what really drove those plots, not any plausible story. And now they’ve reached the payoff. I’ve become fairly firmly convinced that they really did show us the final 5 and Starbuck is indeed a cylon which is really just in my opinion a crappy "shock the audience" plot twist for the show.

    In thinking about Galactica vs. Babylon 5, which has come up many times before, I remembered the ONE time B5 did what just happened to FOUR people on Galactica this week. I’ll put spoiler tags on this for those who haven’t seen all of B5, but shame on you if you haven’t ;-). Talia Winters outing as a deep cover Psi-Corps agent was, in retrospect, a really week moment for the show and, just like this episode of Galactia, the reveal episode was well done. But the aftertaste of that reveal on B5 was awful. Key story points of previous episodes were rendered completely meaningless. The only thing that had any lasting impact was Ivonova’s reaction to it. Now, if "Day of the Dead" in season 5 had had Ivonova in it instead of Lockley, I’m sure we’d have seem Talia again and it might have been worth it, but that didn’t happen. The reveal on Galactica opens up the same rifts and fissures in the former stories and character development of the show.

    I don’t think I can handle reading about a Galactica writer patting himself on the back for the machinations they’ve pulled the plot through. Sure, great shock, great drama, great ohhhh moment for the viewer. But it renders all these characters damaged at the writers level, and they’ll need to piece them back together in a sensible (and even meaningful) way. Thats a lot harder job then I think they’re expecting, even as good as they are (or have been) at writing.

    • Re: Thinking…..
      If Starbuck was a Cylon, Roselyn would need to be a Cylon too, because they both have a destiny and visions that point to Earth.

      And I’m 99% sure the final 4 aren’t, they’ve just been brainwashed to think they’re Cylon.

    • Re: Thinking…..


      In thinking about Galactica vs. Babylon 5, … Now, if "Day of the Dead" in season 5 had had Ivonova in it instead of Lockley, I’m sure we’d have seem Talia again and it might have been worth it, but that didn’t happen.

      I don’t think I can handle reading about a Galactica writer patting himself on the back

      Keep in mind that it WAS the intention that she be there. There were contract issues with the actress and the character leaving the show was not in the grand 5 year plan of JMS. – the only reason she was in the final eppisode was because they filmed in in the season 4 production run (when they believed they would not get a season 5) , and not at the end of season 5, where it aired.

      And back on the BSG topic… Yeah, I’m with you; that wasn’t high quality writing, that was deux-ex-machina old-school style. Just the kind of stuff that give Sci-Fi a bad name.

      • Re: Thinking…..


        In thinking about Galactica vs. Babylon 5, … Now, if "Day of the Dead" in season 5 had had Ivonova in it instead of Lockley, I’m sure we’d have seem Talia again and it might have been worth it, but that didn’t happen.

        I don’t think I can handle reading about a Galactica writer patting himself on the back

        Keep in mind that it WAS the intention that she be there. There were contract issues with the actress and the character leaving the show was not in the grand 5 year plan of JMS. – the only reason she was in the final eppisode was because they filmed in in the season 4 production run (when they believed they would not get a season 5) , and not at the end of season 5, where it aired.

        And back on the BSG topic… Yeah, I’m with you; that wasn’t high quality writing, that was deux-ex-machina old-school style. Just the kind of stuff that give Sci-Fi a bad name.

        Re: Ivonova. I know about the contract stuff, its just that for me "Day of the Dead" is the episode that would have had the most impact with her. She would have seen either Marcus or Talia, and that would have made one of the best of the season 5 episodes instead be one of the best of the whole series.

        And yes, come to think of it, their deux-ex-machina used in this episode was actually very old school.

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