During a Battlestar Galactica set visit I attended a few years ago, I was really hoping we’d all have a chance to ask creator Ronald D. Moore some questions about our beloved show. Alas, he wasn’t around. Then came the 2008 San Diego Comic-Con, and, again, no dice. Was this guy trying to avoid us?
So, with BSG — his baby — off the table, he wouldn’t care to show his face at this year’s Comic-Con, right? Well, color me surprised. Mr. Moore made an appearance at the Caprica panel this year, along with partner David Eick. Finally I was going to have a chance to ask him everything I wanted to know about what was coming next on Battlestar Galactica! … Uh … damn it.
During the press room after the Caprica panel, Moore sat at the table with me and five or six other press folks. What stunned me right away was the initial silence. Here was a guy who, at one time, had thousands upon thousands of people falling over themselves, to ask the creator and master behind their favorite sci fi show their most burning questions. And now … nobody knew what the hell to say. He sat down and there was silence. It was weird.
So, I broke the silence.
Me: So, besides Caprica, what do you have going on now?
Moore: Well besides Caprica, I’ve just signed a deal with Sony Television to develop other projects. So I’m beginning the process again. The pitch and the story and just starting the whole thing over again.
Me: Anything in particular you’ve got in mind?
Moore: Well it’s so early. I’ve got several ideas for shows, but we’re just starting to pitch them, so it’s hard to be specific about any of them right now.
Me: Do you think you’ll stick with sci fi or do you think you’ll try something else?
Moore: I’ve got a couple of sci fi fantasy type pieces that I find very intriguing, and I’ve got a couple that have no genre elements to them at all.
And then there was about ten seconds of silence before someone else jumped in and started things up again. Like I said, it was weird.
So, if you were wondering what Ron Moore was up to these days, he’s in the really, really early stages of trying to bring something new to the small screen. I might have pressed him a little more about whether he’d attempt to re-imagine/reboot something again, but, thankfully, he had other questions he had to answer.
I would have started things off with, “What the hell were you thinking with that finale,” but I didn’t want him to get up and walk away.
Clacked by Keith McDuffee 
on Aug 07, 2010 @ 12:35 EST5EDT
I would’ve asked him if he’d gotten angry Tweets like those Damon Lindelof got.
To be honest after I vented all my anger about those two finales here when it comes to actually talking to the creators about their shows I wouldn’t have the engergy to “call them out” or just asking them what the idea behind it all was.
Because in the end you have to have some ending and after that it was just another job those guys did. The companies they work for bought it, they delivered, and that’s that. I mean would you sit down with an artist who does sculptures you paid to see why he did this and that and not something else? Or an electrician… in the end he’d always say “That’s my job, I’m trying the best to fulfill the needs of the customer” and that’s the ultimate defense in my book. The only way for me to really interact about something I’m not satisfied with would be to get really really angry or pissed and verbally assault those people like the folks who assaulted Lindelof verbally via Twitter. And that’s just idiotic. I mean it’s a TV show, they make millions writing/producing them and that’s all ok but they didn’t have to fix the brakes on my car on which my life depends and to insult someone over writing fiction is just… idiotic. I mean I can vent my anger and frustration about it but in the end there’s no way to ask someone who obviously tried their best why their work was so god-awful. All I’d end up with would be to tell them that I didn’t like it and how uncomfortable is that? I’d have to tell them that I won’t watch another show they do. I still haven’t watched a single episode of Caprica and anything Lindelof writes in the future I will only watch if all episodes have been produced and people I know who have similar taste tell me that I won’t be disappointed.
In short: there was no way for you to ask that question, because it would be either an insult or, even worse, a show of disappointment in something that person wrote/created and you really have to be a total dick to ask such a question.
So.. nobody expected you to ask that question and I guess nobody thinks you should’ve :-)
I met my favorite author (Diana Gabaldon) once and had ample time to get all my questions answered, but while I was talking to her, it occurred to me that she was a person too, not just an Outlander series thinking machine put on this earth to amuse me. I then decided to be polite and not take up all her time. Since then, I see her at least once a year in stores, and I just smile and wave. I anxiously await her next novel.
It’s the same way with RDM. I look forward to whatever his next endeavor is, but it’s not necessary for anyone of us to tear our clothes off at the sight of him. So I’m glad conducted himself like a gentleman.
That should be, “I’m glad Keith conducted himself like a gentleman.”
Maybe he will have a plan for the next show(s)!