Weddle Finds 'Galactica' From Deep Space

This is the first part in a series talking to "Battlestar Galactica" co-producer and writer David Weddle.

His introduction to television writing was unexpected. In fact, like many Hollywood success stories, David Weddle simply found himself in the right place at the right time.

Weddle had written a biography in 1994 on film director Sam Peckinpah called "If They Move ... Kill 'Em!" which actually was a favorite of "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" co-executive producer Ira Steven Behr. In fact, Behr liked the biography so much, he invited Weddle to come visit him on the set of of "Deep Space Nine" at the Paramount lot in Hollywood.

"He invited me to lunch at Paramount, and took me for a tour of the sets," Weddle recently told SyFy Portal's Michael Hinman. "Being a shameless opportunist, I asked if I could pitch story ideas to his show. Ira generously said yes."

And with that pitch started a career that would span the length of "Deep Space Nine," and then land him and writing partner Bradley Thompson on one of the decade's most talked about science-fiction series, "Battlestar Galactica" on SciFi Channel.

But making the break into not only science-fiction, but writing teleplays took a lot of work ... something Weddle said he didn't take lightly.

"At first, I didn't understand what the hell was going on," Weddle said about watching previous episodes of DS9. "But we studied the show for a couple of months, then went in to pitch ideas to Ira. He was extraordinarily patient and became a mentor to us. We sold a story idea in Season 4. (Then co-executive producer) Ron Moore ended up writing the teleplay based on our story. After he finished, we sent him a thank you note, and Ron sent us all the drafts of the script -- which was another tremendous educational experience. It gave us a window into the evolutionary process of TV writing."

The episode was "Rules of Engagement" where Worf (Michael Dorn) stood trial for destroying what was believed to be a civilian transport ship in the midst of a battle. Weddle and Thompson would go on to write 11 more episodes for DS9 before it went off the air in 1999. Following the end of the show, everyone went off in their own directions, including Weddle, who would write for programs like "Ghost Stories" and UPN's version of "The Twilight Zone" that aired with "Star Trek: Enterprise."

Ronald D. Moore, however, had a different path ... one that led him to a brief stint on "Star Trek: Voyager" in its sixth season, which Weddle said was "deeply mired in the 'Great Moments With Mr. Lincoln' school of dramaturgy."

"By that, I mean it seemed like a cast of automatons mouthing freeze-dried dialogue and slogging through pre-programmed melodrama," Weddle said. "Ron tried to paddle the show into darker waters and reinvigorate it by making it more complex and contemporary, but his arguments fell on deaf ears and he finally left."

Weddle said that he kind of lost track of Moore, until he was attending a Director's Guild screening of the "Battlestar Galactica" miniseries that first aired on SciFi Channel in 2003 ... something that Moore had taken a lot of heat for reimagining.

"As I sat down in the theater before the screening, I cringed because I was not a fan of the original 'Battlestar' and could not see how even a remarkably talented writer like Ron Moore could weave that straw into gold," Weddle said. "I should have known better. Ten minutes into the screening, I did know better. It blew me away!"

Weddle said that after the screening, he went up to Ron and exclaimed, "You did it! Everything you wanted to do with 'Voyager,' everything that you argued Star Trek needed to do to grow and survive as a franchise, you did in this show."

A couple weeks later, Weddle and Thompson were invited to lunch again ... not to get a tour of the sets and hang out with some producers, but to have Moore offer them both staff positions on the new "Battlestar Galactica." Moore made Weddle and Thompson co-producers as well as writers. The pair ended up penning the popular first-season episodes "Act of Contrition" and "Hand of God." So far in the second season, they've written the first two episodes, "Scattered" and "Valley of Darkness," with three more ready to go for the season. And that's not all. As co-producers, they have their hands in many aspects of every episode, helping to bring the entire series together.

"None of it would be possible without Ira Behr, who took a chance on us, taught us the craft of television writing, and showed all of us -- Ron included -- what could be accomplished when working with the epic canvas of a science-fiction series," Weddle said.

One of the things that "Galactica" has steered away from that was common in Star Trek series episodes are reset buttons. Weddle, however, says that's a trend not started or maintained solely by "Galactica," but one they are definitely taking part in.

"I think the reset button is a convention that is fading from episodic television," he said. "Do you see the reset button hit on 'The Sopranos,' 'Six Feet Under,' 'West Wing' or 'Lost'? No. This is because audiences are becoming more sophisticated and demanding more complex and developed narratives, demanding them by gravitating to them and making these shows popular."

A lot of that practice, Weddle said, had more to do with what producers and writers were given, rather than what they wanted to introduce to audiences.

"In the old days, when networks cranked out 39 (in the 1950s) episodes of a show each season, and later 26 -- there was an edict that every episode had to be self-contained so that the shows could be rerun in random order on other stations for years to come. This recreated the reset button so that all conflicts had ot be resolved in 30 to 60 minutes and characters remained static, never growing or developing.

"But now that most shows find their second life in DVD box sets, audiences are gravitating to those with continuing storylines. 'Deep Space Nine' was a transitional series. It was supposed to be composed of self-contained episodes, but Ira Behr slyly moved it into an ongoing narrative with continuing storylines. This is where Ron and Brad and I learned the craft of the new generation of TV shows, just as 'Sopranos' was hitting the air and transforming television."

"Galactica," by it's nature, is a very dark series. Billions of people were killed in a nuclear holocaust, and the 50,000 or so that survived are barely holding on as the Cylons continue to chase them down. But yet, the series has found light moments, including when the crew was able to defeat the Cylons at a tylium refinery in "Hand of God" and get enough fuel to last them a couple years.

"It is not hard to write light moments in the show," Weddle said. "One of the episodes we wrote this season (it has yet to air) is actually a very upbeat show. We don't go out of our way to make the show dark. We try to keep the show as real as we can, to proceed from the set of circumstances that our characters find themselves in and allow events to unfold much as they would in our world.

"This often means that for every good thing that happens, there is also something painful or traumatic. Don't you find that to be true in your life? For every achievement, there is a setback, for every gain there is also a loss. This is not dark or pessimistic, it's life. We all struggle to come to terms with that, some of us more successfully than others -- just like the characters of 'Battlestar.'"

This interview series with David Weddle continues the first week of August, and will talk about the genesis of episodes like "Act of Contrition" and "Hand of God," as well as other aspects of what brings "Battlestar Galactica" together.

Could Aliens Be Coming To 'Battlestar Galactica'?

This is the second part in a series talking to "Battlestar Galactica" co-producer and writer David Weddle.

It used to be that a good science-fiction show couldn't even begin to be a good science-fiction show unless there was some kind of alien in it. Seriously, who would want to see a sci-fi show without some extra-terrestrial being?

In 2002, Joss Whedon broke the mold by saying his short-lived Fox series "Firefly" would have no aliens. While it did get some people talking, it was an idea that stayed popular when the new "Battlestar Galactica" took the air alien free.

Most of the explanation for that is because Cmdr. Adama's Edward James Olmos made it clear if little green men showed up on the set, he would be gone. But does that really mean aliens won't be making their way to the Galactica fleet?

"Battlestar Galactica" co-producer and writer David Weddle fessed up.

"I'm not going to promise you'll never see an alien on our show," Weddle told SyFy Portal's Michael Hinman. "But it will not be the rubber-headed humanoid types you see on Star Trek and countless other sci-fi shows. Edward James Olmos has said that if we ever resorted to that, he'd walk. I'm inclined to agree with him."

But ... wait a minute. Aliens or not?

"Rubber-headed humanoids aliens have always had a place in sci-fi and always will have a place," Weddle said. "I'm sure others will find inventive and revealing ways to utilize them. But because of Star Trek and shows of that ilk, they have become a cliche and we have challenged ourselves to create a compelling drama without have to resort to lizard men from deep space."

Without the staples of science-fiction like aliens, Weddle and the rest of the crew of "Battlestar Galactica" have to rely on other elements to make the show a success. And while writing plays a major role in such an endeavor, Weddle said it doesn't stop there.

"I am amazed by our cast," he said. "Unlike other shows I have been on, there are no weak links. It makes writing for 'Battlestar' considerably easier because even if your writing is below par, you know the actors will bring the scenes up to a whole new level -- find new dimensions and nuances in the scenes.

"Sometimes they will challenge you, question their actions or motivations or dialogue in a scene. We writers may bitch and get irritated, but when we address their concerns, we usually have to admit they were right and that the material is improved. With out cast, it's possible to write subtext lines in the script, such as, 'We see by the expression on Starbuck's face that she's heartbroken,' and we [know] those actors can deliver it. You can read their thoughts and emotions in their faces without a single word of dialogue. That's a rare and beautiful thing."

Of course, if there's any discussion about dialogue, it has to be done through the amazing technology of telephones because believe it or not, writers like Weddle and his partner Brad Thompson are not a constant presence on the "Galactica" sets. It's not that they don't want to be there ... they just can't.

"We are not on the sets very often because the show is shot in Vancouver, and we are here at Universal (in California) frantically hammering out future episodes," Weddle said. "We participate in preproduction meetings and cast table reads via conference calls and get storyboards on special effects sequences from Vancouver. We often do rewrites to accommodate ideas from the director or to address production problems."

But while they do spend a lot of time away form the set, Weddle said he and Brad find the time to be in Canada when they can.

"Brad went up to Vancouver last year for the production of 'The Hand of God,' and (co-executive producer) Toni Graphia and I went there for the production of 'Colonial Day,'" Weddle said. "I love to go there when the schedule permits because you can become much more involved."

And like any on-site visit, there can be benefits.

"On 'Colonial Day,' we went location scouting with the director and did rewrites to fit the locations," Weddle said. "You can't do that nearly as well if you're down in L.A. looking at pictures of the locations. Also, you get input from the actors. Katee Sackhoff told me, 'I would love it if Starbuck could wear a dress in the party at the end of the episode,' I told Toni, and we immediately wrote it in. James Callis (Gaius Baltar) improvised his encounter with Playa (Christina Schild), the reporter, in the bathroom for Toni and I, and we immediately approved it.

"It's electrifying to be there during shooting. I wish the schedule allowed us to do it more often."

Another element that makes "Galactica" the show not to miss on SciFi Channel's Friday night schedule is its realism. Sure, the shaky documentary-style camera work can help create some realism, but it doesn't work unless the audience feels that the actions of the characters make sense.

One of those scenes came in the second-season episode "Shattered," where Col. Tigh (Michael Hogan) had a very violent encounter with the exposed Cylon Sharon "Boomer" Valerii (Grace Park), that included Tigh punching Boomer in the face while she was imprisoned.

"We didn't hear from any women's groups over the Sharon interrogation scenes in 'Scattered,' but we did hear from a number of Cylon Civil Rights Groups," Weddle said jokingly. "But since we don't recognize Cylons as a legitimate lifeform, the Supreme Court refused to hear the case.

"In other words, the Sharon interrogation scenes are not in any way meant as a comment on gender roles or domestic abuse. They embody one of the main allegorical themes of the show, which is the tendency to dehumanize the enemy in times of war. This has been going on since the dawn of time. We convince ourselves that the enemy is somehow less than human, does not value life the way we do or share any of our common values. This enables us to rationalize and justify the terrible things we do to our enemies such as kill and torture them."

The Galactica Boomer met her death in a Jack Ruby-like assassination, but Weddle said not to expect an early exit by Park.

"Sharon is a crucial character because she forces several members of Galactica's crew to confront the fact that the Cylons are more complex than they'd like to think, and full of the same passions and emotions that we have," Weddle said. "This could cause the whole edifice of rationalization that some of Galactica's soldiers use to justify their actions to crumble like a house of cards. Or maybe not. I, for one, can't wait to see how the Sharon-Tyrol-Helo-Adama story unfolds in future episodes."

"Battlestar Galactica" airs Fridays at 10 p.m. ET on SciFi Channel. In future installments of this interview, David Weddle delves more into the writing process, the genesis of some of the minor characters, and how "Battlestar Galactica" compares to other shows, like Star Trek.

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