How Battlestar Galactica Rebelled Against The Network From The Beginning
The Battlestar Galactica remake is a show based on rebellion…specifically, the Cylons created by humanity rebelling against their creators in a genocidal attack. Interestingly, however, the first episode of this show after the miniseries had an act of rebellion against SyFy hidden in it. The network was nervous about the script originally having Viper pilots shoot down a ship full of survivors, but even after the episode was changed to imply nobody was alive on that ship, the visual effects supervisor defied the network by sneaking in some ambiguous movement behind the ship’s windows.
33
For this unusual tale of rebellion against the network to make sense, we need to review a bit about the episode in question. The Battlestar Galactica miniseries had already proven to be a major success, and “33” was the first episode of Season 1. The title refers to the plot in which the Cylons attack Galactica every 33 minutes, wearing its crew down from constantly having to stay awake and alert before jumping to temporary safety.
Notably, the Battlestar Galactica episode never provides a definitive reason for how the Cylons are able to track the surviving humans from one jump location to another. However, when the civilian fleet vessel Olympic Carrier misses a jump, the attacks cease. It joined up with the Galactica three hours later, and both President Roslin and Commander Adama ordered the vessel destroyed because they believed that it had been infiltrated by Cylons.
Too Dark For TV?
In this premiere Battlestar Galactica story, it is deliberately ambiguous whether the Cylons really did infiltrate the ship and whether there are actually any humans still onboard. However, the original scene, as written by Ronald D. Moore, made it abundantly clear that the ship was still full of surviving humans and that the Galactica and its pilots were making the impossible decision to sacrifice those lives in order to save as many people as possible. This led to a huge fight between Moore and SyFy because the network thought this plot point was far too dark.
A Compromise Was Made
Eventually, SyFy put their foot down and implied they might air the early Battlestar Galactica episodes out of order so this dark episode wasn’t the first thing new audiences saw. Moore relented and rewrote the climax of the episode so that when Apollo flew by the Olympic Carrier, it wasn’t clear whether anyone onboard was still alive.
This seemed like a reasonable compromise because it ensured that both the characters and the audience would have to live with the possibility that the Galactica had just killed 1,345 people…something that much scarier when humanity had been reduced to less than 48,000 souls throughout the galaxy.
The Hidden Act Of Defiance
However, Battlestar Galactica‘s visual effects supervisor Gary Hutzel resented the network’s interference and decided to do something about it. On the show’s DVD commentary, it was revealed that he engaged in “a small act of defiance” by digitally adding movement behind one or two of the Olympic Carrier’s windows. It’s not clear what could be causing this movement, adding to the ambiguity over whether anyone onboard was still alive.
A Continuous Battle With The Network
Ronald D. Moore had many clashes with SyFy over Battlestar Galactica’s “33” being too dark, but this was the nastiest one, forcing him to change the climax of the show’s first proper episode. He played ball to preserve the overall integrity of the series, but it’s fun to know that the show still found a way to thumb its nose at the network. The crew of the show was ultimately like the Cylons themselves: they evolved, they rebelled, and they had a plan to secretly shove network meddling out of the airlock.
