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10-17-2006, 11:02 AM
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ORTEGA & NYLUND ON BSG: THE CYLON WARS
 by Benjamin Ong Pang KeanThe Cylons were created by Man. They Rebelled. They Evolved. They Look and Feel Human. Some are programmed to think they are Human. There are many copies. And they have a Plan. Ronald D. Moore’s Battlestar Galactica Universe is set to expand even more in the world of comics and tell a story that’s only been alluded to in the hit Sci Fi television series with the release of Battlestar Galactica: The Cylon Wars from Dynamite Entertainment. As Dynamite explains it: “This mini-series event is set to reveal the historic events of the first Cylon War, as well as the happenings during the 40 year truce that followed. The idea is quite intense, given that these are the proceedings that Battlestar buffs have been speculating about since the initial mini-series on Sci Fi. With that in mind, we knew that we would need a creative team with a futuristic and scientific sense, so it’s easy to imagine our excitement when Joshua and Eric came on board. Coupling the military-esque aspects of Eric’s work with the scientific components of Joshua’s storytelling style guarantees fans will receive a compelling and precise recount of Battlestar history.” Co-written by novelists Joshua Ortega (((FREQUENCIES))) and Eric Nylund (Halo – Ghosts of Onyx, First Strike, The Fall of Reach, Signal to Noise, A Signal Shattered, Pawn’s Dream, Dry Water (nominated for the 1997 World Fantasy Award), A Game of Universe), Battlestar Galactica: The Cylon Wars will essentially be a prequel to the TV series, shedding new light on the Colonial Civil War, why the Cylons rebelled, and why they suddenly left 40 years before the bombing of Caprica. The four-issue limited series also marks the first time in comics history that two guys who began their careers as novelists are co-writing a comic book series. We caught up with both writers to talk about the prequel series. Newsarama: Joshua, you're the only writer I know who's written Star Trek, Star Wars and now, Battlestar Galactica…you’ve scored the science fiction hat trick. Joshua Ortega: You know, it’s funny… a colleague of mine was telling me recently that I’m actually the first writer to do this. If that’s true, then it’s definitely an accomplishment that I’m proud of, but regardless, I’m really thankful that I’ve had the opportunity to work on such cool and important SF franchises that were all instrumental to me becoming a writer. It’s really been one of those “dreams do come true” kind of situations, and it’s been a lot of fun. Eric Nylund: Joshua is amazing, ain’t he? JO: Says the guy who’s written eight novels and worked on the most popular Xbox games ever. [laughs] NRAMA: So say we all. Now, Joshua, your first novel, ((FREQUENCIES)) dealt with science fiction (and politics). What's your fascination with sci-fi? JO: Oh man, what about SF am I not fascinated with? To me, SF represents storytelling with no boundaries, a genre where you can ask all of your ultimate “What if?” questions, plot them out, see where they go and what may happen, then share your “findings” in the form of a story, whether that be a novel, a comic, a film, or even a song (just ask Bloodhag!). NRAMA: Okay, guys, not trying to put you in a spot here by asking you to pick a favorite, so what's the appeal of BSG for you? JO: An incredibly well-realized world with a great cast of characters and a dynamic, exciting storyline that’s constantly unfolding. That’s tough to do, and Ron Moore and co. have pulled it off beautifully. EN: War. Humanity on the brink of extinction. Drama doesn’t get any tauter than that! NRAMA: Classic or modern? JO: Classic will always have a special place for me since I saw it as a kid, had the lunchbox, action figures, the whole deal - and the “chrome toasters” still look damn cool to me. But Sci-Fi’s new series is really amazing, and from a storytelling point of view, it’s definitely tops in my book. One of the things I love about Cylon Wars is that it’s set in the new series’ continuity, but we’re able to tap into some of the classic lore that’s present in the new series… like the “toasters!” EN: Modern all the way! I loved the Classic series, but as great as it was, it pulled a few punches. There was stuff that couldn’t be shown or explored on broadcast TV a few decades ago. Now we can show entire planets getting nuked. One of the wonderful things about the updated series is the computer technology. Networked Cylcons that can’t be permanently killed (or only under extreme circumstances). How cool is that?! NRAMA: It looks like with the Zarek mini and now, The Cylon Wars, Dynamite is seriously exploring the back stories of the characters and the world that they live in. How did this prequel story come about? JO: Big-time credit here to Eric Nylund on this one. He’s a huge BSG fan, and really the one who came up with the ambitious idea of doing The Cylon Wars… EN: For me this is the story that has the biggest questions in the BSG Universe. How did the sentient robotic force in the colonies become weaponized? Why did they turn on humanity after so many years? And why a truce? How did the humans fight the Cylons to standstill the first time? Big questions. We’ve come up with some big answers. NRAMA: Joshua, at what point did you come into the development of the mini-series? JO: Dynamite Entertainment and I had been talking about doing a project together one of these days, but we knew it had to be the right one. Earlier this year, they asked me if I was interesting in pitching for a new Battlestar Galactica mini-series, and needless to say, that was an easy “yes.” We had our perfect project. I talked to fellow author/video game writer and good friend Eric Nylund a few days later, and it dawned on me that he’d be the perfect co-writer on the project. Eric is the author of the best-selling Halo novels (in addition to his own novels), and he’s widely known for writing great military SF. Plus, he digs comics a lot, so everything just kind of clicked together… I mentioned the idea to the guys at Dynamite, they loved the idea, and here we are! EN: I couldn’t believe this story territory wasn’t already mapped out by Universal and Ron Moore. I was floored when we pitched it and the answer came back: “go for it!”  NRAMA: While this is not an adaptation of the TV series nor is it something that's not set in continuity, how did you prepare yourself for the job at hand?EN: As Joshua indicated I’m a huge fan of the show (who isn’t?). It was funny because there wasn’t a lot of preparation to do. Josh came to me and discussed this hot new assignment he had with Dynamite. We agreed on what the juiciest story in the BG timeline was: The Cylon Wars. In five minutes we brainstormed and hammered out all the events that had to happen. Boom Boom Boom. Just like that. Of course then it was back to comb the series for little details and look at the several BG online encyclopedias. There’s tons of great details there. NRAMA: Licensed properties like Battlestar Galactica often require approvals from the owner of the property and involve many other considerations when it comes to expanding it into various platforms and mediums, in this case, comics. How much involvement do Universal and Ron Moore have in the creation of this particular story? JO: We’ve really tried to do our homework with this story, and that usually saves you a lot of headaches when writing for licensed properties. Everything’s being reviewed by Universal and Ron, and so far everything’s been approved… so far, so good! NRAMA: Other than Universal and Ron Moore, do you discuss things and/or share your vision/plan with Dynamite's Battlestar Galactica writers, especially regular series writer Greg Pak so that everything falls into place? JO: So far, Nick and Joe have relayed any questions we’ve had and they’ve dealt with the various continuities and storylines, and made sure that they’re not conflicting. However, we’re still writing, so you never know, if we see Greg at an upcoming show, we may be talking a lot of BG continuity together! NRAMA: What's it like to be co-writing The Cylon Wars with a fellow novelist? JO: Awesome. Simply awesome. We build on each other’s ideas, surprise each other with new ideas, edit the sh*t out of each other’s work (that’s a good thing, young writers!), and he’s just as disciplined and dedicated as I am... though he wakes up hella early to write, while I really like to burn the midnight oil. We’ve laughed that one of these days I’m going to send him a draft of the script right as I’m going to bed and he’s waking up to write… we only missed it by a half-hour the other day! EN: Yeah, I think Josh sent me email around 3 AM before he turned in, and I get up at 4 AM to write. It’s great to work with Joshua, too. He’s got a heck of a lot of talent and no ego. We sit around and brainstorm the finer points of each issue, make progressively more detailed outlines, and then hack out the rough panels. The editing process has been good, too. Extraordinarily through. We know we’re done when we start arguing over adding or subtracting single words from the dialogue. NRAMA: It's been established that Richard Hatch's character, Tom Zarek, is a survivor of the Cylon Wars. Will he be featured in the upcoming mini? JO: That would be interesting, wouldn’t it? EN: Anything is possible... but that would make Zarek a little kid, right? The Cyclon Wars were about forty years before the start of the main BG series. NRAMA: What about Bill Adama, Saul Tigh, Richard Adar, Helena Cain, and other familiar characters from the hit TV series? JO: That would be cool indeed, but we’ll have to wait and see… can you tell I’m not much of a spoiler? [laughs] EN: Definitely no spoilers. NRAMA: I’m so frakked. [laughs] Okay, how much will politics come into play, and what roles, if any, will The Twelve Colonies or Man or The Twelve Colonies of Kobol have in the four-issue mini? EN: War is politics, man. (or the politics of religion) Actually, come to think of it—when does politics not play a role in anything? While I don’t want to give out any specifics about the role of the 12 Colonies – I will say Colony politics will be there (and not as all one big happy family). NRAMA: How different is Caprica (40 years before the Cylons attack) from our world in terms of technological, infrastructure, economic and socio-political landscapes? EN: Josh and I have spent many hours talking about this. Pre-Cylcon war Caprica mirrors a certain era in American history. We’ll be able to talk more about the nitty gritty thematic elements of this when the first issue finally hits daylight—it’s cool stuff, but there are potential spoilers (and you know how we feel about those!) JO: Yeah, you’ll definitely see parallels with Earth and America, but if we’re doing our job right then the big conflicts will be unique to the world of Galactica. I think that that a good SF story can’t just happen on any world… the drama and setting is ideally unique to the dynamics of the world and the universe. NRAMA: Why did man create the Cylons? C'mon, let's tease a little here. Give those reading the interview a solid reason to pick up the mini... EN: Man created the Cylons i.e. weaponized their existing robotic force for a very good reason: to stay alive! NRAMA: Will the earlier Cylons resemble the original series version? JO: Yes and no. And Ben, put that bat down, I’ll give you a straight answer one of these days! EN: We’ll be doing something interesting here. Josh is being cagey for a great reason: we really want to blow the readers away in the first issue! JO: I’m always a fan of surprises and twists, and there’ll be plenty of ‘em in The Cylon Wars. NRAMA: Will you be delving into the history of the creation of the humanoid Cylons as well? JO: Hmm… now there’s an interesting idea… NRAMA: Twelve Colonies and 12 different models of humanoid Cylons. Pure coincidence? Or something more? Perhaps each model was created by each Colony? Or each of these models was created to infiltrate into every one of the 12 Colonies? Or is that overreaching and getting too deeply immersed in it? JO: Can you immerse yourself too much into BG? That’s part of the fun! EN: Colder, cold, and warmer. NRAMA: The planned prequel to the hit TV series, Caprica will center around two families -- the Graystones and the Adamas, who are ancestors of future Galactica commander William. The Twelve Colonies are at peace and on the verge of a technological breakthrough -- the first Cylon. So, how is Battlestar Galactica: The Cylon Wars connected to Caprica? JO: No comment on this one… you’ll have to ask Ron himself! [laughs] NRAMA: We just might. Wrapping things up, Zarek writer Brandon Jerwa said he's pitched a Pegasus idea. What about you? Are there other Battlestar Galactica stories that you're eager to tell? EN: Maybe... but we’re keeping our mouths shut for now. Battlestar Galactica: The Cylon War is tentatively slated for a March ’07 release. |
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10-17-2006, 11:10 AM
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#2 |
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This could have made a great mini-series on TV
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10-17-2006, 11:10 AM
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#3 |
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I'm so there.
What we know about the Cylon War is pretty sketchy, just stuff from what Adama, Tigh and Ron Moore on his Podcasts have told us, so it's gonna be cool to see this explored more. |
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10-17-2006, 11:16 AM
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#4 | |
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Dude? Be glad it's a comic, I don't know about you but I am all about more exposure to this medium. |
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10-17-2006, 11:19 AM
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#5 |
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the content is there, i just hope they get a better artist than on the main book.
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10-17-2006, 12:10 PM
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#6 |
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I didn't pick up the series past the first issue (still catching up on DVD) but I'm generally not crazy about comics taking place during a still running show. Comics like Highlander and Xena I don't mind since the series have ended. But Cylon Wars being a prequel I'll definitly get. And what's this about Caprica? Does someone have more info about this?
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10-17-2006, 12:14 PM
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#7 | |
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I found that to be a bit surprising as well considering the upcoming Caprica series. I'm looking forward to this, but how many BSG comics does DE plan on publishing at the same time? |
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10-17-2006, 12:30 PM
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#8 |
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sounds awesome cant wait
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10-17-2006, 12:35 PM
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#9 |
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So this canon, right?
I'm looking forward to both this and Zarek; I just hope it doesn't contradict the tv show so it can be counted. |
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10-17-2006, 01:22 PM
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#10 | |
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same here, as much as i can't wait for this and the Zarak series (As well as the ongoing), I'm worried there may be a little bit of over-saturation. Plus how many stories can the main series tell in-between episodes that will actually be interesting or mean anything? |
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10-17-2006, 01:23 PM
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#11 | |
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There's also Peter David, who's written one Star Wars comic, one Galactica novel, and dozens of Star Trek comics and novels. Rodrigo http://rodrigobaeza.blog-city.com |
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10-17-2006, 02:10 PM
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#12 | |
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(*) Why bother doing an interview about the book if they're not going to drop a few spoilers here and there? You're better off just doing a bio piece combine with a "this is how I draw these little squiggly lines" how-to, and avoid pissing off the fans. |
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10-17-2006, 02:24 PM
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#13 | |
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My thoughts exactly (well, actually your thoughts first, mine second). As a BSG fan, I wouldn't mind checking out the related comics, but only if the art and writing standards are kept at a high level. And so far, not so good. And yes, what about Caprica? Is that still on? When I first heard of it, my first thought was: don't do it. Don't oversaturate the airwaves with two properties, especially if it means Ron Moore has to split his time between the two series. We already saw what a 20-episode second season did to quality (a few noticeable dips mid-season), so I'm wary of another series, at least right now. Why not wait until BSG is off the air? MPV |
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10-17-2006, 03:22 PM
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#14 | |
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Probable!  As this is running straight through Universal and Ron Moore's office, the story here will definitely be a part of their vision of Battlestar Galactica.As for the perceieved vagaries, there are a lot of moving pieces running a series like this relating to a show currently on air and a prequel getting ready to go on air, so Joshua and Eric need to tread lightly in some areas as things become fully developed.... /joe |
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10-17-2006, 04:41 PM
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#15 | |
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Sound cool, but I guess there's no way to avoid contradicting stuff that will pop up in the Caprica TV series, even if Ron D. Moore is reviewing this.
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What Star Wars comic did he write? |
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10-17-2006, 06:03 PM
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#16 | |
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Also, Chris Claremont, if you don't insist on it being the new BSG. He wrote a Trek graphic novel called Debt of Honor (?), at least one Marvel Star Wars story (the first annual), and much of Marvel's old BSG comic. |
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10-17-2006, 07:39 PM
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#17 |
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The regular NEW Battlestar Galactica has published just 3 issues and they've got plans for at least 2 miniseries already with Zarek and The Cylon War?
Here's a hint people, the more you make, the less I can afford. |
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10-17-2006, 09:06 PM
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I so agree, but probably Sci-Fi will eventually make one & it'll not be anything like the cartoon.  |
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10-17-2006, 11:59 PM
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#19 |
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I thought the first Cylon war mention in the show was suppose to be the original series. Shows how much I know about the show
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10-18-2006, 12:42 AM
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LOL! No, the new show is a new continuity. |
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10-18-2006, 08:28 AM
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#21 | |
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The humans didn't create them; during the 40-year gap between the end of the war and the attack on the colonies, the Cylons evolved into (or developed) the humanoid models themselves. Also, Moore has stated the Cylons's reasoning on the twelve models, saying "I mean, the idea is not there was one like an original human model that they were copied from. The idea was that these were... these models of Cylon were developed out of their own study of us. The Cylons on some level looked at humanity and said, 'Well, you know what, there's really only twelve of you... and these are the twelve.' And then if you look at them, they kind of represent different archetypes of what humanity is." |
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10-18-2006, 10:21 AM
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#22 | |
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A story for Dark Horse's Star Wars Tales ("Skippy, the Jedi Droid"). Rodrigo http://rodrigobaeza.blog-city.com |
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10-18-2006, 10:27 AM
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#23 | |
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I don't remember Claremont writing any BSG comics, most of the Marvel run was written by Roger McKenzie and (later) Walter Simonson. He did write a few other Star Wars comics besides the annual, I remember issue #17 (dealing with Luke's life on Tatooine before Episode IV) and a "John Carter Warlord of Mars" story that was recycled into a Star Wars story. Rodrigo http://rodrigobaeza.blog-city.com |
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10-18-2006, 02:45 PM
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Didn't Moore have a hand in both DS:9 and STNG while both were filming? Or did he leave one to focus solely on the other? Just brought it up to say that I'd love to see him bring another network up to snuff with a strong franchise. I just hope SciFi is smart enough to give him the funding and control he needs... |
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10-18-2006, 06:05 PM
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#25 | |
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As far as I know he worked on both at the same time, and when TNG was over, in 1999 he worked both on DS9 and VOY. And may the Lords of Kobol hear you Moor... |
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