SWIRLING EMOTIONS: Writers Weddle and Thompson struggled to make 'Maelstrom' go from a good script to a great one.
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Writing for Ron Moore on "Battlestar Galactica" was the most exhilarating, challenging and fulfilling experience I've had in television. But that's not to say it was a romp. Far from it.
When new writers joined the staff, they were often pleasantly surprised by the informality of our outlining process. We would warn them that while other shows put more effort into outlining, the real work on our show came in writing the scripts themselves. Moore would put us through three, four and sometimes five drafts of scripts, pushing us on every draft to dig deeper into the characters add complexity to the themes and texture to the scenes.
But only when the new writers were actually in the trenches would you see that look in their eyes ... of someone treading water in a deep, fast-flowing river, desperately hoping to avoid the rocks in the rapids ahead. They were afraid of letting Ron down, of failing to come up to the level he wanted you to attain.
The best personal example is when my writing partner, Bradley Thompson, and I turned in the first draft for "Maelstrom" -- the season three episode in which Kara Thrace experiences a hallucinatory flashback to the last day she saw her abusive mother. In that encounter, she discovers a vital clue about her greater cosmic destiny.
When Brad and I turned in our first draft, Moore turned to us in front of all the writers and said, "That's the best first draft you two have ever written for me." My heart pounded and tears stung my eyes.
Then our director, Michael Nankin, asked for a conference call with Ron. I got a sick cold feeling deep in my stomach. In our first draft, in the flashback Kara's mother had suffered a stroke and could not speak. So the scene was a monologue by Kara -- a torrent of bitterness, hurt and longing delivered to a pair of unblinking eyes.
Michael said, "I don't understand her relationship with her mother -- why it's so powerful for her, what she wants from her mother, and how it ties in with her greater destiny."
Ron defended the script for a while, then he turned on us. "Maybe Michael's right. Maybe we need to see the lion roar one more time. Maybe Kara should visit her mother on the day she found out her mom had terminal cancer. They have a huge, bitter argument. We can see the dynamics of the relationship and you can tie it into Kara's cosmic destiny. What do you guys think?"
I tried to swallow, but the membranes of my throat stuck together. "Sounds great, but I don't know if we can do it in four days."
Nankin laughed, "Sure, you can."
And so began an eternal day of an all too familiar hell. Brad and I walked through the backlot of Universal, floating one bad idea after another.
That night, I was coated in cold sweat. Frakking great! The best script we ever wrote and now we have to tear it apart. What if we ruin it? What if Ron takes it away from us?"
But as dawn broke over the Universal backlot, Brad and I came up with the shape and content of the scenes with Kara and her mother. And we hit upon the idea of Kara opening a grade school scrapbook and discovering that as a young girl she had drawn the very mandala Galactica's crew found in an ancient temple. I walked into Ron's office, bleary from lack of sleep, but riding an adrenaline rush. I told him all the pieces had fallen into place, but we weren't going to tell him about them because we wanted to surprise him when he read the next draft. He smiled warmly. "Good."
That's what I am going to miss, now that "BSG" has wrapped: doing the best work of my life, then being challenged to do even better -- to reach deeper and dare to attempt something I am not sure I have the ability to pull off.
I am not alone. Everyone in every department had the same drive, and because of that, 'Battlestar Galactica' is a show not just for this season, but for the ages.
David Weddle is a writer/supervising producer on "CSI." He was a writer/supervising producer on "Battlestar Galactica" and is the author of " 'If They Move... Kill 'Em!: The Life and Times of Sam Peckinpah."
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