#tigh | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

coreyndanian · 29 days

Text

My BSG rewrite is returning

Good news to any who care :) Or are just interested in Battlestar Galactica content in general. Now, a few years ago, I made a post telling everyone interested about my own version of Battlestar Galactica I've been working on for ages. I decided to reluctantly abandon it because I felt it wasn't working. But I kept the notes and then began a massive blitzkrieg as it were to rebuild it from scratch.

The first was of course, what am I doing?

Well, it required a few re-watches of both the classic and the re-imagined series. Then it was expanding in my head who the characters were and what I am doing. Then developing the world in general, the story before, the story during, the story after. Then came the locations, the technologies, the cultures and the main characters. And my notes expanded. I realised I didn't want to do an analog to the real world, given recent events, so I decided to find a different direction. This is a story based on Glen A. Larson, Richard D. Moore and David Eick's own works but finding a new way to tell it. Some of the beats are the same as the re-imagined series (heck, two-thirds of the ships in the fleet along with Viper Mark II's, Raptors and Shuttles are of the RDM versions while my Galactica is a close resemblance externally but internally, well, I had to change it), but the story has its own direction to follow. As to the characters, well, I think Tigh, Apollo, Starbuck and Number Six (Baltar's gets a real name) will resemble them somewhat in terms of some backstory but they are off in another direction entirely.

The main cast and supporting are split even: Main: Commander Adama The new President Apollo Starbuck Baltar Number Six Shadow -- new character

Supporting: Colonel Tigh The female deck chief Boomer The President's assistant The non-comm comm officer The Tactical Officer Serina

Yes, Serina and Boxey are coming back. And Serina is a supporting character throughout Season 1 with an arc that is almost simultaneous to Apollo which will culminate in tragedy on a certain world. She'll be introduced as a young up-coming reporter and single mother in the Pilot. In Episode 4, she decides to sign up for the Colonial Fleet as they are in need of ECOs as well as pilots which as she studying electronic signals in University as a minor to her journalism degree. In Episode 10, almost a month later, she's Boomer's replacement ECO.

Another surprise return was the Imperious Leader. I felt that the Humanoid Cylons bickering amongst each other in the re-imagined, while sometimes amusing, didn't have any sign of being a resemblance of leadership. So returns the original ruler of the Cylons, a mysterious robotic entity who's form we insinuate resembles the original form but will not see for quite some time. He'll only appear in the pilot twice and then at the conclusion of Season 1 Episode 13 "Kobol, Part II" but really we have his shadow looming and his voice as he speaks to the Number Six character before the attacks in the Pilot and at the end of E13 and the Number Five character at the end of the Pilot. "Speak, Number Six," indeed. Also, "By Your Command" is to be a common feature spoken by any of the Humanoid Cylon Models when in the presence of their leader.

Also, Boomer and Tigh are back to their original interpretations by Herb Jefferson, Jr., and Terry Carter since it fits to me in some form. This Boomer is also not a Cylon (nor is Tigh as the Final Five don't exist) and he is engaged in an indiscreet relationship with the female deck chief that causes issues until Season 1 Episode 6 "Inquiry" when they both suspect the other of being a Cylon. Though (spoiler) they aren't, the real Cylon agent on Galactica that causes messes will be revealed in a special I plan for in the future between seasons. In reality, only one Cylon is a main cast member: Number Six.

This Number Six character is intriguing. The one who manipulates and falls in love with Baltar, her name is Natasha, is a smart seductive woman but also displays emotions of regret as her time on Caprica clouds her somewhat. She'll only appear in the first third of the Pilot, seemingly dying trying to make sure Baltar will survive, and then at the conclusion of "Kobol, Part II" before appearing onward in Season 2 and beyond. But the main Six is who I dub "Illusion-Natasha". Think she's the angelic temperamental jealous creature we know and love/loath in RDM's BSG played by the wonderful Tricia Helfer, well, it's a bit more complicated. In Season 1 after she first appears seemingly out of nowhere, she'll help Baltar in creating the Cylon Detection Device (which will not end up disappearing like it did in the Re-imagined Series) and then in pointing out directly where to strike in my own version of the fuel ore asteroid in Episode 10 "The Flying Colours" and pushing him to become Vice President in Episode 11 "The Other Battlefield" but we get hints she is not what she seems, particularly in "Kobol, Part II" where she makes him hallucinate that human sacrifice occurred on Kobol, thus why it was abandoned two millennia ago (not true, it was for another reason). In Season 2, after Baltar is led to believe he has been pushed the side, turns him into an arrogant piece of trash willing to murder to take credit for things or cover up things and somehow not get detected whilst ignoring the right way of doing things, thus leading to my own New Caprica arc and how he ends up briefly with the Cylons when some of the Models will (spoiler) overthrow the Imperious Leader (which will cost them everything). This "Illusion-Natasha" will be responsible for this. She isn't an angel but more like Count Iblis. Heck, I look forward to, when I get round to it, doing that Season 4 episode where, thanks to some potent exotic plants, allows Natasha and Shadow (who is involved in Baltar's arc a couple of times in S1 and S2 whilst going on his own journey) to see what "Illusion-Natasha" really is: a demon manipulating a human down the path to bloodshed. The price to settle New Caprica is blood, both human and Cylon.

"Human, Cylon, we're all just pawns in a game played by higher beings." -- Shadow (Season 4)

Another thing that'll change and be somewhat toned down is the religious and higher powers thing, particularly with the strange direction RDM took it (and was mocked by George R.R. Martin for). But in amongst this are some changes. Adama in this series I see more as a spiritualist character and someone who believes in a higher power but doesn't conform to any organised religion, most of the other characters either reject it entirely or pay lip-service as you do, the President goes from lip-service to full spiritualist at her journey's arc as she ends up becoming an Oracle of sorts. No, not by drugs for cancer treatment, though she has a heart condition that requires certain medications that will run out by Season 4 and the one alternative she tries in Season 1 and early Season 2 actually triggers her first set of visions whilst sparing her from the withdrawals of a dangerous exotic plant thought extinct for a reason -- it caused some soldiers to massacre a village without remorse or morals about sixty years before the series begins (about a decade before the Colonies finally unified into a single entity) -- used by a Cylon agent to make her and Adama aggressive and almost tear the fleet apart. Her visions continue through the series without outside help long afterwards. Her assistant (a sort-of Billy character that survives and has a steady relationship with the sort-of Dualla character to the point of marriage and kids) will follow her along the path. Starbuck herself remains the quiet believer praying to the Olympian deities in private whilst being the smarty-pants and tough-as-nails pilot she is. Shadow, the new character, is an open devotee of a single deity. As to the Cylons, Natasha is effectively the only Six to really believe while the sort-of Leoben Models (one who gets interrogated and induced with truth-telling plants provided by Shadow since he's doing the questioning and not Starbuck -- she had her episodes in Season 1) remain the crazy devotees we know and loath. Not to worry, Baltar doesn't get a harem in this or becomes some messianic figure. Kudos to James Callis in his role but...it didn't suit Baltar.

Other things nailed down is the timeline to avoid too many retcons, character ages, Pilot Rosters (for Galactica, Pegasus and the third Battlestar survivor) and the Ships of the Fleet with their names, type, captains and complement. I hate when dialogue doesn't match props or special effects so I nailed them down immediately. Heck, if this was ever made, I would probably make sure the background material matches what needs to be seen on-screen. It needs to be tight, it needs to make sense, and no retconning is necessary (unless I want to change something on a whim).

The fleet itself will consist of ONLY 64 ships - of which 42 of them are known designs (and have been named) while the remaining 22 are my own designs. One thing I eliminated from the pilot is that for a trinary star system that the Twelve Colonies inhabit, the only sublight-only ships are really Vipers, orbital shipyard modules and space stations. Every other ship has Faster-than-light drives. It's essential to all space flight for the Colonies so it makes sense (something tells me this plot was dropped in RDM Season 1 considering the large number of sublight ships conveniently turn up in Galactica's fleet all fitted with FTL drives -- the most notable being the Botanical Cruiser, the so-called Bulbous Ship and the Alligator-headed Ship). It is only lamented by the President and Apollo that out of the 10,000+ registered civilian vessels across all Twelve Colonies, they could only find 63 civilian ships. (Spoiler) Pegasus itself will find 5 ships which they then scrap for parts and bring the 400 civilians aboard their Battlestar and, due to it being a time of war, conscript those between 17 and 64 into service with minimal objection (there are a few kids but luckily some of the elderly agree to watch over them) while the third Battlestar, Hyperion, will gather over 30 more. The tales of Pegasus and Hyperion will be interesting ones to write and tell.

Anyways, if I haven't bored you to death and left you intrigued by this, I shall endeavour to start posting (either here or elsewhere and I'll post a link to it). In between my other projects, this is one of the most complicated ones so that's why I take long breaks in between updates. So don't hold out for consistent timelines because it is taking time. I'm one man with a job, obligations, no real private life, inconsistent time managing to see friends and family and alot going on in my skull.

But I'll do my best.

Stay tuned.

0 notes