Frakkin’ Clack – Jane Espenson speaks; the webisodes continue

Battlestar Galactica: The Face of the Enemy continues on its snail crawl of a pace. Number four is the most recently posted webisode, with number five due tomorrow at noon. Because these webisodes are so short, it’s tough to speculate on what’s going on, who’s the guilty party or what’s going to happen next. Each webisode clocks in at under four minutes, I believe, so after ten webisodes you’re still left with a complete package that’s shorter than a full TV episode.

In writer Jane Espenson’s commentary for this webisode, she said it was important to put the still-alive Eight in a position where she’s not a suspect. Is that because we’re to assume another Eight won’t kill one of its own model? Hasn’t it been established before that that’s still a possibility?

I had a bit of an email exchange with Ms. Espenson last week about these webisodes (but mostly because I wanted to know a little more about the Oz from Buffy comics she’s penning).

KM: I imagine we’ll learn more about why Tigh is allowed to remain as XO (now that he’s been outed as being a Cylon) once the series returns, but maybe it’s something you can explain now?

JE: Tigh as XO — that will be explained.

KM: When was the decision made to make Felix gay or bi-sexual?

JE: The decision about Felix was made very much at the last minute — sort of.  I’d always considered the character gay, but the decision to make that clear was made after we’d decided to do the webisodes — only added in the very last draft, actually.  It’s not crucial to the story, just a grace note, if you will — social texture.  Same-sex relationships have already been established as very much not taboo and the ‘sodes continue that tradition — I think it was very clear in the way that Hoshi talked to Tigh that he assumed Tigh knew about the relationship and that it was no big deal.  No shame from Hoshi, no shock from Tigh.

I think Felix loves who he loves like anyone else and I think the people of the colonies would sort of assume that and wouldn’t really have developed a label for it.  So I guess we’d say “bi,” but I don’t think it’s a label that would mean much to people in the fleet.

KM: Any general idea of a general time of when the Oz books are planned to be released? How much of Dollhouse will you be contributing to in the first season? Will you be involved with Caprica at all?

JE: No idea about the Oz book release dates, all I’ve asked about are my due dates. For Dollhouse season 1, I’ve written one ep and co-written another.  Caprica remains undetermined at this time.  Both shows are going to be amazing. It’s a good time for television!

Clacked by Keith McDuffee
on Dec 23, 2008 @ 11:36 EST5EDT