SCI-FI Digital Media Press Tour: Battlestar Galactica set and panel Q&A review

Our final set visit last Tuesday was easily the most anticipated of the tour. We walked into the giant studio, rounded the corner, and there we were, on the hanger of Battlestar Galactica. There were Vipers to the left, a Raptor to the right. You could hear our hearts beat faster as we sat down. I turned around to our hostess for the weekend, Courtney White, and said, 'This is the only time you're going to hear me swear. This? This is the shit', and I turned around. It was so surreal to be in that hanger I can't even begin to tell you. But so began the final visit of the day. We were on board the Battlestar Galactica and Christmas came just a little bit early that day.

I won't assume that our readership are all avid BSG fans but will say that this post amongst all the of press tour posts I will do will probably have to most spoiler-ish content in it. We saw things we weren't supposed to see. We wrote down names we weren't supposed to know. And because of that I cannot confirm them to be true.

Watch the panel discussion over at tv.com

In attendance were Aaron Douglas [Chief], Michael Hogan [Tigh], Jamie Bamber [Apollo], Grace 'Mrs. Mack' Park [Athena], Tahmoh Penikett [Helo] and producer Harvey Frand.

Probably one of the biggest questions was how was the cast dealing with the finality of this season and knowing that things were coming to a close. Has the vibe of the set changed? How are the cast dealing? Jamie took the lead on this one. The vibe inevitably has changed. They see the horizon and knowing it is the last time changes everything. But there is the peace of mind that they get to finish the story. It has always begged an ending. There is a lot of the excitement and anticipation about giving that ending to our viewers.

'Every moment that passes is gone forever, like the last performance of a play on the last night. You start with your monologue in your first scene and when you've finished it you know it is the last time you ever do it. There is a nostalgia that goes with every conscious moment of that type. We're only 4 episodes in and there are things that his character has done for the last time'.

Personally, it has been a huge part of his life and a learning curve. When he started he wasn't married, no children, living in London and was broke. He's still broke but he's got lots of kids. The last five years have been momentous on a personal level.

When he first got back to Vancouver this season he had a real nostalgic feel. He knew what Vancouver would forever mean to him now. He said that there is a Pavlovian response and he starts seeing Vipers as he walks down Robson St, through the fashion district, remembering experiences of being in a strange place, being scared of what it might mean to play this character.

He expressed his gratitude that it has been this long of a run for BSG and also grateful that they get to end the story.

Tahmoh said 'I'm going to miss it a lot when it's done. It's probably going to hit us all 6 months after it's over. We're going to call each other, 'Hey. What are you doing? You wanna hook up or something? Go for a drink?' Jamie then revealed the pact that the cast had made. 'We've already made a pact that is anybody starts having a cruise and inviting fans along they have our permission to shoot them, as they board the cruise ship, if necessary, from sort of a kilometer away in a sniper's concealed position. You don't need to be bold or courageous about it, just take the guy down'.

One of the other highlights from the Q&A were the great stories the cast had about meeting other actors and industry insiders who love the show. How does it feel to be the cool kids on the block?

Tahmoh told the story about Ed Quinn from Eureka tracking them down and inviting him over to watch MMA and cook him dinner. Ed drilled him for 50 minutes about the show. Jamie had The Wackowski bow to him silence [I guess you should call them that since one of them really isn't a brother anymore]. Aaron told his story of Robin Williams stopping him on a street in L.A. to marvel at the show. Grace told a story about Quentin Tarantino gushing over her for 10 minutes at an awards show. So much that she felt she had to baby-sit him but ultimately just had to get out of there. And Tahmoh had another good story about aggressive black men coming up to him and scaring the crap out of him, just to gush over him and his role on BSG. Mark Stern and Bonnie Hammer talked about Bill Campbell from The 4400 hounding them to create a story arc so he could be on the show – for free. Mark admitted it was the free part that interested him the most. They're trying to make it work.

SPOILER – Probably what has been on the minds of fans the most these days was the revelation of four of the five original Cylons. The bomb dropped huge in the season finale last year and with 2 of the 4 in front of us we couldn't help but ask.

Michael Hogan, who plays Colonel Saul Tigh, the one character who probably has the biggest reasons to hate the Cylons spoke first. 'I'm not happy about it. None of us picked it. For Tigh right now it is like a mental illness. You're thinking one thing, but it's as if you've had a personal tragedy in life and you gotta carry on'. Mark Stern from Sci Fi said that we get to see how the four deal with it. Some will deny it. Others will embrace it as a blessing. Jamie would consider it a violation. Suddenly you don't own any of your experiences. The rug is pulled out from under you. It is about as horrendous a realization as you can have, and his character is a real Cylon hater, to the point of pro-genocide.

When Aaron was telling us that one of his favorite moments making the show was in Season 3 on the episode 'Dirty Hands' and he had the one of one scene with Mary, Jamie chimed in afterwards, 'She's trying to throw you out of an airlock now'. 'She likes me. She doesn't like the chief', replied Aaron. Eyebrows raise, we know that Chief Tyrol is one of the four; does this mean that he is one of them who embraces it and President Roslin knows? Aaron found out he was one of the four/five Cylons months earlier and had to be calmed down. 'I really didn't like it because you're taking a fan favorite, a character that is very identifiable, very human, that the fans really, really like. And you're really marginalizing him and taking away all the human stuff. That you want to humanize the Cylons , the chief, there's no better character to do it cause he's the blue collar guy, a Joe Average guy'. When it could be revealed that his character was going in this new direction Ronald Moore spoke with him for 90 minutes explaining everything. 'And now I've embraced it and I don't mind going down in history as one of the Cylon gods. I didn't like it as first but I like it now.

Grace, who was revealed as a Cylon from the get-go likes the notion that it is the last people you would ever expect, the right hand men and women. What we're forgetting though is that the Cylons have all these human experiences. No matter how much they try though the humans keep trying to take it away from them. Jamie said to that effect that at the beginning the Cylons were bad but into this fourth season he doesn't think it matters anymore.

Aaron closed the topic of the Cylons with this, 'The differentiation between the seven and the first five will become clear. We're not like them. We're Cylon but we're not connected to these guys at all'.

'I thought no spoilers was the quote of the day', said Jamie.

It was sad to leave the cast but we had a Battlestar to explore. Richard Hudolin, Production Designer and Doug McLean, Art Director, were our gracious hosts on a tour of all the sets. The hallways of Galactica are a virtual labyrinth but in such a tiny space these guys have done so much. We were walking through 'hot' sets that day so there were lots of cameras, props and equipment around. Even a script that read 'Train to Nowhere' on the front page. Whether this was an actual BSG script or not, we can only assume. But they were filming Episode 4 and moving on to Episode 5. About 60 percent of BSG is done on just three sets. They had designed the rooms as such as they can remove 'wild' walls and change things around and each room can become an entirely different room.

They showed us a new set for Season 4. From one side there were lots of pillows, a carefully laid out piece of lingerie, it was all very ornate. From that perspective you would think that you're looking at a place of ill repute. Come around to the other side and there is this large alter for Gaius Baltar. If you remember from last season he was whisked away by devout followers. Looks like he is living the life of decadence and promiscuity he always wanted. I don't know. It was cool.

Standing in CIC was just freaking wicked. Richard and Doug explained all the bells and whistles. I just walked around in awe. To be standing in the same place as Commander Adama. I'm going to catch myself watching this next season pointing at the television and saying, 'I've stood there!', I just know it. Richard and Doug told us that there was a new ship being created for the season and while Galactica has been set up like an aircraft carrier that this new ship was more like a submarine. They took us to that set and we could see the crew working away on it. It was going to be a split level set and created to feel very claustrophobic. The interior, near as we call tell, is going to be Olive Green and a sandy Yellow. They said there weren't allowed to tell us what the name of the ship was called but we spied some blueprints on the way out and the name on them was Demetrius. I would like to tell you what significance that name has with anything but even just looking it up on a page like Wikipedia results in way too many references. We're just going to have to wait for Episode 5 and see if they explain the reason for the name then.

When then entered the Cylon set and Richard and Doug spoke to us about using the command room and how they filmed in such a space. But, the neat part happened next. They took through another hot set. Behind the command room there was another small room that they had set up like a banquet room. Our end of this set had all been shot to hell. There was a lot of debris on the floor of the room and there were bullet holes through pillars and into the wall behind us. Whatever happens in this room in Episode four you can be sure it wasn't so great to be sitting at that table.

We went back to the hanger and we met with the costume designer, Ms. Campbell. She showed us a couple costumes for the Galactica crew. And a couple dresses for Caprica, Tricia Helfer, sans Helfer unfortunately. There were other costumes behind a curtain with only the cuffs and hems showing. But you could see that they were military suits, just slightly different from Galactica suits. Could they be for the crew of the Demetrius? That's all they were going to show us though.

Then we all had our picture taken with a Viper. If I can pass on one bit of advice to you about taking pictures on set, if you're going to make a joke, make sure it is culturally relevant. Everyone was striking nice poses for Eike Schroter, the photographer who has taken all these wonderful images you see on these postings. I was having none of that. I stroked that Viper cannon like it was my bitch. I fondled it. I teased it. I caressed it. I felt the Viper shiver at my touch. Basically, I was having fun on the tour and any photos of me should reflect that. Keith from TVSquad, whom I hadn't spoken to until now, said, 'I'm going to kiss it'. I said, 'Yeah, like the Cup baby'. Blank stare. Any Canadian would have gotten that. 'If you were Canadian you would have gotten that', I blushed. Just a word of advice if you ever find yourself on a press tour with a mixed crowd.