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David Eick assesses Battlestar's legacy—and Caprica's promise
As Battlestar Galactica draws to a close with its (DVR Alert!) two-hour and 11-minute series finale tonight, executive producer David Eick looks back and tells SCI FI Wire that the show was a "rich" meal and a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for him—then looks ahead and adds that the upcoming prequel series Caprica will delve into science fiction in a vastly different way.
SCI FI Wire spoke to Eick earlier this week at SCI FI Channel's upfront presentation to advertisers and the media in New York. Battlestar will end its run with a finale entitled "Daybreak, Part 2," beginning at 9 p.m. ET/PT.
Caprica will premiere on SCI FI in 2010, but the uncut and unrated pilot will be available on DVD (via Universal Home Entertainment) and as a digital download (via Universal Cable Productions) on April 21. Following are edited excerpts from our exclusive conversation.
How full a meal has Galactica been for you?
Eick: Too much. Too rich. Incredibly stuffing. It's like everything you want in your career. It doesn't get much better than this. We've been saying that to each other for a long time, that this is the best experience any of us are going to have creatively, that any of us are going to have professionally. Since this show I have gone on to do some other things, and it's sadly true. I just think one of these comes along in life, and then that's it.
Just how hard is it to not screw up a series finale?
Eick: It's incredibly hard. There's so much pressure on it. Our director on it, Michael Rymer, I think by the end had a loaded pistol in his pocket, and he was going to just start blasting people. [Edit: This is a joke. We think.] It's so hard to maintain the integrity of what we thought the finale had to represent. The interesting thing is that the actors all came together. Everything you see in the finale, these people crying, saying goodbye to each other, we shot it pretty much in chronological order, so you're watching actual emotion. It's not acting.
Most people feel that Galactica coming to an end isn't just any ordinary show calling it a day, that it was more than merely entertainment. What would you like to think you've left behind?
Eick: Well, it's for someone else to say, but my hope is that we changed the face of science fiction in terms of its allegorical power. It was never intended to just be an escapist fantasy. It should have some metaphorical resonance. It should teach us a little something about our culture and about our times. And that's what we were hoping to do.
How deeply involved are you with Caprica and the upcoming Battlestar DVD movie The Plan?
Eick: Every bit as much. I think Caprica, in its own way, is going to be as unique as Battlestar was.
Galactica was science fiction in the traditional sense, with spaceships and robots, etc., but Caprica sounds like something entirely different.
Eick: Caprica is really about a culture of ideas and the idea of artificial intelligence finally rising to a prominent level in society. And it's about how two different points of view struggle to determine where that artificial intelligence should go and how that, in many ways, will serve as the birth of the Cylons that we'll come to know in Battlestar.
To you, is that a more pure form of SF than Galactica was?
Eick: Well, I don't know. Science fiction is action and spaceships, and science fiction is speculative ideas. And I think in Battlestar it was the former, and in Caprica it's more the latter.
By Khalus at 9:26 AM ON 03/20/09
Been saving last weeks episode so I'm gonna have a three-hour (and 11-minute) finale to sink myself into tonight!
Then afterwards cry myself to sleep since Sci-Fi {SyFy} will not have anything this worthwhile ever again! Still iffy about SGU, even though it has a good cast thus far....gotta wait and see how that pans out and if its as entertaining as SG-1 and Atlantis. {Still wondering who the returning actor will be...}
By Wolfman at 10:30 AM ON 03/20/09
Truly the end of an era. I'm excited to see how it ends, but sad to know it's ending. A testament to Moore and Eick's achievement.
Moore, Eick, and J.J. Abrams should NOT be in the same car together... unless they're heading over to Skywalker Ranch to lay the beats on George Lucas... now THAT's allegory!
By TrekWho at 10:43 AM ON 03/20/09
I bet this show ends on a cliff hanger that will usher in a spin off, I just know this is going to happen. Why? This show is too powerful and successful to stop now. Caprica isn't enough. Another spin off is on the way, I am just sure of it. Watch the end of this episode, and I bet above all else that there will be a cliff hanger that demands further continuance. The show Battlestar Galactica is finished. I am not saying that isn't. But, I am saying that Battlestar Galactica's universe will continue onward in another form. To summarize: I predict a cliff hanger will be apparent at the end tonight's episode that will be used to usher in a spin off. Instead of 50 years in the past as with Caprica, the spin off will probably take place 25-75 years in the future with a dash of the present during the pilot to continue where the cliff hanger left off. Again, this is only a prediction. I am sure loose ends will be wrapped up, but something new will be introduced at the end, something that concludes with a cliff hanger, and users in a new era for the B.S. universe.
By bobdecav at 11:40 AM ON 03/20/09
i agree with trekwho,Also i feel the big surprise is that all the humans are really cylons ! but an advanced form. The Clue to me was when they were on earth they said the war on earth was 2000 years ago. gimme a break! In just that short of time humans civalized 12 worlds ...also who's Kara's guardian angel ..is she a cylon or a clone .Are the guardian angels the true humans who have evolved? Remember the code of sci/fi tv overlooking all the pompous b.s." How can i make more money,the cheapest and for how long can i get away with it.
By bobdecav at 11:41 AM ON 03/20/09
i agree with trekwho,Also i feel the big surprise is that all the humans are really cylons ! but an advanced form. The Clue to me was when they were on earth they said the war on earth was 2000 years ago. gimme a break! In just that short of time humans civalized 12 worlds ...also who's Kara's guardian angel ..is she a cylon or a clone .Are the guardian angels the true humans who have evolved? Remember the code of sci/fi tv overlooking all the pompous b.s." How can i make more money,the cheapest and for how long can i get away with it.
By bobdecav at 11:43 AM ON 03/20/09
i agree with trekwho,Also i feel the big surprise is that all the humans are really cylons ! but an advanced form. The Clue to me was when they were on earth they said the war on earth was 2000 years ago. gimme a break! In just that short of time humans civalized 12 worlds ...also who's Kara's guardian angel ..is she a cylon or a clone .Are the guardian angels the true humans who have evolved? Remember the code of sci/fi tv overlooking all the pompous b.s." How can i make more money,the cheapest and for how long can i get away with it.
By luv_shanks at 12:01 PM ON 03/20/09
I just wounder if the Chief will find out how Kally really died?
By frostygus at 12:02 PM ON 03/20/09
I've been thinking that the humans are all Cylons ever since they introduced the "This has all happened before, it will all happen again" theme. Makes me think of David Brin's Uplift War series. In that model, each generation of Cylons would advance to a certain point where they break with their makers, wipe them out, then start the cycle over.
By Muldfeld at 12:24 PM ON 03/20/09
As thankful as I am for Mr. Eick's role in contributing to the editing of the show in the first 2 years of the series, I blame his departure for hurting it. I really wish he'd live up to his promises of giving his all to this show because the editing has been atrocious the last season. Absolutely unacceptable, and it's meant that Ron Moore's hands are so full, he has had so little time to write or re-write scripts. This could have been an amazing last season. Instead, except for a few episodes, including the mutiny storyline, and the finale, it will be the worst season by far!
By AdmNaismith at 2:08 PM ON 03/20/09
so, after this goes off the air tonight, we are supposed to make do with a 4th remake of 'I am Legend'? Thanks, SyFy...strictly for the memories.
By Liam at 4:08 AM ON 03/21/09
David and Ron,: A great series, and a fantastic finale! Hope to see you both at Paleyfest so I can tell you in person. Best of luck on your next project(s), BSG will be impossible to beat, though.
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Liam:
David and Ron,: A great series, and a fantastic finale! Hope to see you both at Paleyfest so I can tell you in pe...More »