Galactibash Says Farewell to Battlestar – Again

For the past year, Seattle’s EMP/Science Fiction museum has played host to an exhibit on Battlestar Galactica, the ground breaking 2004 series that was a re-imagining of the short lived 1978 series. With that exhibit set to close on March 4, the museum elected to send it out in style with a “Galactibash”, an evening of memories, guest stars, panels, and more. We even learned a little about the long awaited Blood and Chrome.

Stars Tahmoh Penikett (“Helo”) and Luciana Carro (“Kat”), composer Bear McCreary, writers/producers David Weddle, Bradley Thompson,  and Mark Verheiden and costume designer Glenne Campbell were all on hand to share their memories of working on the show and to meet, talk and take photos with fans. There were trivia contests throughout the evening, a chance to play a hand of Pyramids, a “call sign generator”, and giveaways. It was a night custom tailored for the Battlestar Galactica fanatic.

Costume designer Glenne Campbell and her team hosted a short Q and A about designing the unique look of the show. Everyone talked about how proud they were to be associated with such a significant television series. Campbell, who has worked on every iteration of the new Battlestar franchise, offered the first bit of news regarding the long gestating Blood and Chrome prequel. The show, shot entirely on a green screen studio, is “not dead,” but nor is it thriving. She did say that all who have been allowed to see it, love it.

This sentiment would be echoed later in the evening by the large panel discussion with Tahmoh Penikett and the writers. Bear McCreary, for whom the entire crowd sang “Happy Birthday,” confirmed that he just finished scoring the show, yet the writers had little to say about when fans could expect to see the show, as they too claimed that while the show wasn’t dead, its fate was uncertain. The panel also confirmed that other Battlestar projects are in the works, including one from Bryan Singer.

Blood and Chrome news aside, this night belonged to Battlestar Galactica. Throughout the evening, the original 2004 miniseries played on the giant projection wall of the Sky Church. Guests who tagged their tweets #galactibash and #bsgseattle could see their comments up on the screen alongside Adama, Starbuck, and the Cylons.  The adoration and devotion for this show was palpable, from the fans and from those who worked on the show. The writers discussed the rarity of this experience, of creating a show that  consistently broke the rules of television, of being able to create something with social and spiritual substance. It was a bittersweet source of pride, as they also acknowledged that such an experience was unlikely to repeat itself.

The word “ground breaking” is often misused or overused, but not so in this case. Battlestar Galactica changed the rules of television by breaking from traditional narrative structures and by constantly pushing its characters into murkier moral situations. It invoked Rodenberry’s work on Star Trek by using science fiction as a mirror of society, challenging us to look at our politics and our spirituality with fresh eyes.  Just as Watchmen forced us to reconsider the nature and potential of comic books as a medium, so too has Battlestar Galactica shown us the potential of television science fiction.

Tags: Adama, Battlestar Galactica, Bear McCreary, Bradley Thompson, Cylons, David Weddle, EMP, Glenne Campbell, Helo, Mark Verheiden, Science Fiction, Seattle, Tahmoh Penikett

About the Author

Written by Brien Gorham

Once of New Jersey, now of Seattle, Brien Gorham writes and talks about culture... a lot. When not writing about television and movies for Comic Booked, he hosts the weekly media and culture podcast C.O.T.U.S Radio and runs his own culture blog at virgilsdiner.com. He firmly believes that Shakespeare wrote his own plays and that Han did indeed shoot first.

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