Even More Moore, What Doing "Battlestar Galactica" Has Taught Him

laToday's cuppa: French vanilla office coffee

Last week, I did a couple of posts -- click here and here -- in which "Battlestar Galactica" executive producer Ronald D. Moore talked about the reinvention of the "Trek" franchise (where he began his writing career) and the upcoming "Galactica" prequel spin-off, "Caprica."

Here he digs a little more into the writing process, talking about what doing "Galactica," with its dark vision of a remnant of humanity on the run and struggling for survival, taught him about screenwriting.

"It taught me that you really can stick to your guns and do a good show. You can do a smart show and really ask a lot of the audience. You can challenge them. You can not deliver Pablum, and they will go with you.

"You don't have to give the easy answers week to week. You don't have to have uncomplicated heroes who always do the right thing and always save the day, that you can really challenge the audience.

"That's a fundamental lesson. There wasn't a place we wanted to go that the audience didn't go there with us. We had episodes that didn't succeed as well as others, like any show, but I don't think there was anything philosophically that we wanted to do, that the audience wasn't willing to go along for the ride."

In recent years, the less-than-heroic hero has become more common in primetime TV, whether it's Tony Soprano ("The Sopranos"), Dr. Gregory House ("House") or Vic Mackey ("The Shield").

"I think that's really great," Moore said. "It's a great time to be writing characters on TV. TV has really allowed its characters to be ambiguous, to not be so cookie-cutter, to just have to be good guys all the time.

"You can root for the quote, unquote, bad guys, and you can root for characters who, at first glance, you can't stand. You can come to appreciate them. They change. You can wonder where they're going and yet be compelled to watch them the very next week."

As for what he wanted to teach the people who worked on his show, Moore said, "I just wanted them to take ownership of the show. I had a philosophy that we all owned a piece of this; we were all going to have our names on it; and the most important thing in this business was to do work you're proud of.

"The hours don't matter; the money doesn't really matter; nothing matters except that credit. You can say, 'I was on that show.' You can look back and say, '"Battlestar Galactica," I'm proud of that.' I wanted ev erybody to sign on it when they came aboard, and I think they did.

"I think it shows in the product. It is informed by good decisions of hundreds of people beyond me, who made decisions on every little piece, on every prop, on every costume, every visual-effects shot, every sound effect, on and on and on.

"All these people took great pride in what they were doing, and they wanted it to be the best it could possibly be."

If you'd like to own a piece of "Galactica," click here for more information.