Disastrous Test Screenings Nearly Destroyed Battlestar Galactica
These days, Ronald Moore’s Battlestar Galactica reboot is considered the gold standard of premium science fiction. It’s the kind of visually stunning and philosophically engaging show that, frankly, we can only hope that Star Trek or Star Wars ever gives us. However, we’re lucky that this ambitious reboot ever made it off the ground due to its disastrous early showings. According to Moore himself, Battlestar Galactica test screenings in Houston and even at a fan convention brought out almost nothing but hatred from the audiences.
Fans Hated The Test Screenings
Before SyFy released the Battlestar Galactica reboot, they decided to hold a test screening in Houston, Texas to see what audiences thought of the new show. In Moore’s words, the focus group “really f**king hated it,” and the cover sheet said something to the effect of “This is one of the worst testings we’ve ever had.” The whole point of consulting the focus group was to gauge how general audiences would react, and Moore was dismayed to read comments like “we see no reason why you would want to pick this show up as a series.”
Obviously, these Battlestar Galactica test screening comments were bad enough, but according to Moore, “analytics were even worse.” The Houston focus group “sort of liked Eddie Olmos as Adama, but he was the only one, and even that was kind of a mediocre number.” Accordingly, the network “went into a full-blown panic, but they were already so pregnant with the show” and couldn’t exactly put the cat (or in this case, the Viper) back into the bag.
While the Battlestar Galactica test screenings in Houston were a bust, Ronald Moore had another opportunity to win audiences over when he showed the pilot episode to attendees of Galacticon, a science fiction convention dedicated to the original Galactica series. On paper, this would have been a very sympathetic audience. In reality, these fans somehow hated the reboot even more. “I brought the house lights down, played the show, played it all the way through, and then the house lights come up and they booed and hissed,” Moore said, insisting, “I’m not making it up.”
As with the Houston Battlestar Galactica test screenings, this immediate reaction was bad enough to effectively let Moore know how the room felt about his new show. Unfortunately, he was scheduled to take “questions from the audience,” whom he described as “unremittingly hostile” fans who “thought it was an affront, thought it was an insult to the original show and terrible.” Additionally, “they hated Starbuck,” which cements just how awful these fan opinions really were.
Apollo Saves The Day
Fortunately, there was one silver lining for Moore at this Battlestar Galactica convention. After the test screening made everyone angry, an unexpected hero came to the rescue of the beleaguered showrunner. That hero was Richard Hatch, a star of the original series and a very popular convention attendee. Hatch got up in front of all these angry fans and told them they should show the visiting Moore the respect he deserved; in turn, Moore was so moved by this bit of real-life heroism that he cast Hatch in the reboot.
In retrospect, the tale of these disastrous early Battlestar Galactica test screenings is truly mind-boggling. Not only is the show amazing, but its earliest efforts like the miniseries were basically a prestige sci-fi film shrunk down for the small screen. After airing, it ended up transforming the television landscape for the better, ushering in the grittier kind of sci-fi Moore always wanted to create back when he was writing for Star Trek. But we’re lucky that the show aired at all after so angering the first audiences who ever got to see it.
With any luck, future sci-fi creators will learn some lessons from Moore’s disastrous Battlestar Galactica test screenings, which make two things very clear: a handful of fans don’t speak for audiences everywhere, and reboots are better off being dramatically different rather than retreading the same tired material. Moore’s reboot did everything differently and was that much more successful because of it. Somehow, though, we doubt risk-averse network execs will ever be comfortable with such an approach, meaning that we’re doomed to tepid reboots, sequels, and prequels until the Cylons finally (and mercifully) come to finish us all off.
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