Ron Moore’s Genius…in 60 Seconds

Battlestar Galactica executive producer Ronald D. Moore told Tor.com that the series finale of Battlestar turned out exactly as he’d intended, but there were several alternate endings that were considered before the final version was produced.

“One of the ending scenarios we thought about was—what if the whole show was just a daggit’s dream?” Moore said in an exclusive interview. “You remember the daggit—that robot dog from the original series? Yeah, well you know I was thinking about that novel, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, and I thought, hey, do daggits dream? What would a daggit’s dream be like? And so we were thinking about having the whole series just be that. We thought it would satisfy fans of the old series with that callback to one of their favorite characters. The network shot that idea down, though, because they thought it was too cerebral. Also, in the end, we thought it just wouldn’t make any sense, so we went in another direction.”

The writers also had other possible revelations about Starbuck’s true nature. “In light of all the controversy over the casting of a woman to play Starbuck, we thought about revealing that Starbuck was actually a man all along,” Moore said. “Hell, she might be for all I know. We’ve never seen her naked on the show. It would have been cool to slip that in there. Think of all the implications that would have: Were Lee and Zak gay? Was Leoben? Her being a man doesn’t explain why she came back from the dead, but this show is all about the characters, really, so giving answers to questions like that wasn’t something me or the other writers were concerned about.”

Of the fan-reaction to the finale, Moore said that he’s surprised that so many hardcore fans seem to be disappointed. “I don’t understand why people think that the finale was pro-religion,” Moore said. “When I was writing the script, I had an old draft of it sitting on the desk next to my keyboard and accidentally spilled some coffee on it. And the coffee stain looked exactly like that Michelangelo painting of God touching Adam’s finger? Only Adam looked exactly like Adama. Well, actually, when I first saw it, I thought it looked like E.T. and Elliott, but then I realized it was God and Adama, and I just had this vision about the ending, and how the only thing that could explain all the loose ends we had was if it was all God’s doing. So that’s all it was about, nothing to do with religion at all really. It was more about finding the magical in the mundane.”

“As for it being anti-science, I just don’t get that,” Moore continued. “I mean, I like gadgets as much as the next guy. I even used a computer to write my scripts. So how could I be anti-technology? Hell, I even welcome being conquered by robot overlords. That’s how anti-anti-technology I am. Really, I just wanted an excuse to show that dancing Asimo robot. That thing is awesome. And hilarious. And I thought that this is the kind of show that should end on a hilarious note.”