The Lowdown on the Battlestar Galactica: The Second Coming Trailer

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March 22, 1999

The following are excerpts of information on the contents of Richard Hatch's trailer, posted at AICN:

The trailer utilized many older props, costumes, and designs from the original Galactica series, along with some newer designs which were specific to the trailer itself. The trailer will utilize new visual effects for many of its sequences. The Viper fighter craft from the original series make a prominent appearance. In fact, one sequence in the trailer (on Galactica 's hangar deck, if I'm not mistaken) utilizes 'forced perspective miniatures' of Viper craft...

The trailer is based on one of Hatch's two recent Galactica novels... Roughly twenty eight minutes of footage was filmed for the trailer, but the final product is being edited down to a lean three minute running time (only slightly longer than the average theatrical trailer).

Hatch's trailer directly continues the first season of the series, and ignores the second season's bastardized Galactica: 1980 incarnation. So, for twenty years, the Galactica and her rag-tag fugitive fleet have been combing the cosmos in search of Earth -- a place they hope to call home.

The trailer finds now-COMMANDER Apollo grappling with the fleet's governing council. Seems the council is tired of wandering around looking for Earth, and wants to settle down. Apollo objects, tells them his (now-deceased) father's search for Earth was not insane, had a purpose, and they need to continue searching.

Phil Brown, best known as Uncle Owen in Star Wars: A New Hope, plays one of the councilmen. Joining Brown and Hatch in this scene is Terry Carter as Tigh. In the original series, Tigh was right-hand man (second in command) to Lorne Greene's Adama. In the twenty years since the series, Tigh seems to have climbed the ranks -- all the way to President.

Other sequences in the trailer include:

** Galactica ground forces entering a Cylon base in search of a missing Starbuck. The base is populated by Cylons, and a second kind of being which is described as looking like a cross between the Sleestacks from TV's Land of the Lost and Lou Gossett's Drac alien from Enemy Mine . In this base's prison, our heroes find Starbuck's shirt, and one of his cigars. This gives a brief acting opportunity to one of the trailer's new characters -- Starbuck's daughter.

** The human defector Baltar -- who sold out the human race and set it up for extinction in the original series -- comes groveling back to the good guys in Hatch's trailer. John Colicos, who portrayed the character in the original series, reprises his role in the trailer. Baltar has now been disenfranchised, and comes to the fleet looking for safety. He is willing to divulge certain information to get it.

** A sequence visualizing the training of a new Colonial Warriors. If I understand correctly, Hatch & Co. actually brought in some military persons-in-training to do the physically exhaustive conditioning necessary to make this sequence feel convincing. I believe this is the same sequence in which the foreground / forced perspective miniatures mentioned above are featured.

** Finally, the trailer features the return of original series' demonic overlord Count Iblis. Initially portrayed by Patrick MacNee (who also voiced the series' prologue narration and the Cylon Imperious Leader for the original show), Iblis is played by Richard Lynch this time around... It is conjectured that MacNee's commitment to a recently published book may have scuttled his ability to participate at this point in time.

Jack Stauffer -- who played Bojay in the original series -- also returns to his role for this trailer.

By no means does the above information reflect the entirety of the trailer's content... Some of the above moments might not find their way into the trailer, or they may all be included along with more footage not described herein. For example, there is apparently a sub-plot (within the full twenty-eight minutes of original footage) which addresses Apollo's maturing psychic powers -- his father (Adama) having a form of latent telepathy was briefly acknowledged in the original series. Whether or not this element will make it into the trailer's three minute streamlining remains to be seen.

The trailer was co-directed by Richard Hatch and Jay Woelfel. Dean Cundey (cinematographer of the Back to the Future trilogy, Jurassic Park , Apollo 13 , and many of John Carpenters' earlier films) was involved with the trailer's photographic requirements (the piece was initially shot on 16mm), and Brick Price ( Deep Impact , Star Trek , Armageddon , The Abyss ) oversaw many visual effects for the piece.

 

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