SDCC 08: Battlestar's End Begins
Cast, crew call series finale a "perfect" one.
by Phil Pirrello
July 27, 2008 - "Frakkin' A!" Those two words best describe the sold-out crowd's reaction to the footage writer-producer Ronald D. Moore screened at the BSG Comic-Con panel. The trailer contained scenes from the series' final episodes.
Kevin Smith, who seemed to be the only thing more consistent at SDCC than the not-so-ELITE security guards, moderated the panel. Joining him in Ballroom 20 were cast members such as Tricia Helfer, James Callis, Katee Sackhoff, Michael Trucco and surprise guests Jamie Bamber and Tahmoh Penikett. Moore and writer/co-producer David Eick also sat in.
The panelists took their seats, Smith professed his love for the series and then the trailer played. Here's what we saw:
Over black, the following text: "After Four Seasons...The Epic Journey...Comes To An End."
A montage of clips and scenes from past episodes, intercut with the haunting images from the most recent quasi-finale, which revealed (Spoiler Alert!) Earth to be an ashen wasteland following what appears to be a nuclear attack. New footage from the remaining final ten episodes begins here, showing Chief Tyrol huddled against a black piece of debris, looking to someone off-screen and saying, "We never should have came here."
A few more flashety-flash cuts, and then we are aboard Galactica, her bulkheads scarred with battle damage. Cut to a room where President Roslin (with red-hair) shares a serious conversation with Admiral Adama.
Roslin asks, point-blank, if Adama is a Cylon. "If I am a Cylon," Adama says, "then you're all screwed." The line was met with both laughter and applause, which overlapped into a shot of Adama and a black-haired Roslin sharing a very passionate kiss.
Quick cuts ratcheting up to the climax revealed D'Anna having a conversation with the Hybrid, Apollo slammed against a wall, Six firing a gun, a lot of gunfire, actually - all leading up to the last shot, a push-in on Adama, wearing a white blindfold, with a white square of fabric over his heart and his hands tied behind his back. He's in the airlock, and his posture echoes that of a man before a firing squad, as the camera rushes in and we cut to black as the BSG title appears.
DRADIS contact was made with the following final season tidbits:
* Moore on the state of affairs after the crew discovered a dead planet: There is an "amount of recrimination, where to go next as they explore Earth. There is a tremendous amount of upheaval. Things aren't pretty on Battlestar. Things really get rough."
* Callis revealed that his character, Gaius Baltar, "gains peace with himself", while finding quite the surprising resolution between himself and the cult of women that worship him.
* Helfer told the crowd that, in the finale, she "gets to shoot some guns," and that Six's last scene with Gaius involved a lot of "guns, running." Whether they are shooting at each other or firing at someone else remains to be seen, but Helfer best described the filming the ending of BSG "like being in Apocalypse Now.
* The final Cylon is "someone we've seen" before, according to Moore. "It won't be a guest star." And in a related note, of all the panelists present, Starbuck herself gave a semi-cryptic response when Smith asked her if she was the one. "I cannot confirm nor deny if I am alive or dead, the final Cylon or not [in the series finale], only that Kara finds peace at the end."
All of the panelists agreed that, when they read the script for the finale, that it was the only way for the show to end.
"The ending is a perfect way to finish the show. Does everyone and everything justice," Tahmoh "Helo" Penikett said. "There is a lot of closure, and still some questions left."