RD: Good evening and welcome to Destinies, I'm Howard [Name] and the Voice of Science Fiction is proud once again as we have an update interview with Richard Hatch, who is best known as Captain Apollo from Battlestar Galactica. Richard, welcome back to Destinies!

RH: Thanks! It's great to be talking to you from lovely Laguna, California, sitting here having a wonderful Chinese meal, feeling wonderful.

RD: Well, it's only been four months since I-Con 19, but you've been very busy during that time.

RH: The past several years have been busy, because I've been doing a lot of producing, writing and directing, and putting projects together. It has been quite an adventure, like climbing Mount Everest. But boy, what a joy when you get to the top!

RD: Well, couple of weeks ago, Sci-Fi debuted their new "Sciography" series with an examination of Battlestar Galactica. Unfortunately, it didn't seem to present the show or the people involved with it in a favorable light. In particular, there were some things said about you that could be considered unflattering.

Since those cast interviews were produced individually, you didn't have a chance to respond to the things that, for example, Dirk Benedict and Glen Larson said. So please feel welcome to give your side of the story tonight.

RH: Well, if I may be honest with you, I think that Sci-Fi Channel probably wanted to have some controversy in the show. We were all interviewed for maybe two, three hours and they only used small segments of what we said. So it's kind of hard to know what the full context of those sentences were, but you know it is my [responsibility] to respond to some of the issues.

One of the issues that I didn't quite understand -- and again we can't sit in someone else's shoes -- but I don't understand Glen Larson's saying about Lorne Greene that he shouldn't have used him in Galactica 1980, and that he should have moved the show two or three generations away, and have all new people Because everybody who's probably watched Galactica 1980 would probably say the only redeeming values in that show were Lorne Greene and the appearances by Herb Jefferson and Dirk Benedict.

You know, the fact is [that] what was missing were the connections to the original show and premise that people loved so much. And having some of the original characters in it was a big plus. So I don't understand why Glen would've said that it was a mistake to do that. But again, who knows why people do what they do. I've certainly seen stranger things in my life.

Also, one of the other issues was the rights to Battlestar, and we certainly called him and asked him to give us some form of definitive proof of his rights. We certainly respect Glen's right to do any project concerning Battlestar, if he has the rights, and whatever areas that are his we are very respectfully would honor that. We just want to know what's open to us and we ask very honestly what those areas would be, or are. And I've never received a reply from Glen's office in regards to that. So I think that, from all of our research, it is still very vague and ambiguous in terms of what the situation is about Battlestar. But we do know that Universal does have the trademark and the copyrights on Battlestar Galactica, and that Glen *may* have some kind of rights; they call it Separation of Rights. But none of that has been clarified, I've heard that there's been some sort of arbitration, but there hasn't been anything that's come out in the press in what the results of that arbitration.

So it's pretty much up in the air, and I will only say that we would certainly all like to know what the situation is, so everybody can move forward accordingly and be respectful of each other. It's silly that there should be an adversarial battle between me and Glen, you know Glen wrote a wonderful show and developed a great story, which is the reason why I decided several years ago to work on brining it back because no one else seemed to be doing anything with Battlestar and lots of the great shows that were being brought back was totally unbelievable. So hopefully we'll get some clarification in the near future and we can get together, if there's some form of consensus. I know on the Sci-Fi Channel that Dirk made a reference to "Guys, push the egos aside and get together".

It was such a strange saying though because Dirk knows Glen Larson very well, they've known each other for years. And Glen, in a sense, meant to Dirk from the earliest times of his career, and knows very well that Glen's very much his own man and has his own way of going about things; and has very much his own ideas about the kinds of stories he wants to do. I've said in many articles and interviews that we would be very open to exploring any relationship with Glen. The trouble is that Glen wants to move forward in a much different direction than we do, or most of the fans do, and wants to do the Commander Cain and Pegasus story.

We want to go back to the original characters and cast, we don't want to do a story where, maybe, the battlestar is a background or a sideline. We want to go back to the original story, the original premise, the original characters, and add a new generation that was born into space that builds that bridge between past, present, and future.

And everywhere we've gone the trailers we've basically put together to express that vision and all of the questions we've been asked seem to validate that's the way of going about to bring back the show.

Unfortunately, so many of the great shows are brought back with the heart, soul and spirit ripped out and someone remakes it and, of course, the show fails not because of what the pencil was, but because it was so badly executed.

Again, who knows what Glen will do? Obviously he has the right, if he has any rights to do that, he can move forward and do what he wants to do. We'll all take a look and, hopefully, it'll be good. But I don't think that should negate the fact that our team and probably so many of the most gifted, talented special effects, writers, artists, actors in the industry grew up with Battlestar were more than willing to come on board and work with us to create the most dynamic, entertaining Battlestar Galactica story ever. I think there's room for everybody out there and I hope that Glen would honor that. If those rights were open and we can negotiate for that, we would love to do that. But all this remains to be seen, and I will only say that since the Sciography [was shown] it became clear that whomever Glen is negotiating with, is talking with, must have changed because Universal was sold.

A whole new company [Vivendi Universal] bought out that company and many people are leaving, things are changing, and hopefully this new French communications company called Vivendi will have a new spirit, a new vision, a new openness, receptivity, and Battlestar will move to the forefront. Battlestar was huge in France, and the French loved it as much as Star Wars. In fact it was as big theatrically over there as much as Star Wars was or almost, and I know that they would probably love doing a Battlestar series.

If they looked around at the demographics, see what's going on out there, they'll know that there is a huge, huge following for any show that I can remember for the past 20 years that has not been brought back. There is an immense following for the Battlestar Galactica premise, story, and characters.

RD: That's OK. This is why you are here again tonight. I mean, we haven't spoken on air.

You were here for I-Con and saw you on Friday at the studio, and then I saw your trailer for Battlestar Galactica: The Second Coming at the convention that weekend. You had a packed house for it, every time you showed it. I know they actually requested it to be seen again on Sunday night, because it was such a popular feature, [with] standing ovations, packed house in the biggest luxury center in the university, and it WAS GREAT!

RH: You know, Anne Lockhart, even on Sciography, [said that]. I was surprised, you know, because Anne was very hesitant to come onboard even though we asked every one of the original stars to partake in the trailer. But I'm sure most actors are skeptical, they get asked to do things all the time and I think that they thought that something of that magnitude would be almost impossible for just an actor to put it together.

And I think they think of me as an actor, and they probably thought, "Well, where's Richard going to get the money, or the talent, or anything to amount a reasonable presentation that would be respectable?"

So I understand the reluctance, but she certainly, after she saw it, was very honest and forthright and acknowledged the fact that she loved it. She was blown away by how good it was, and I really honor her honesty and friendliness to share that because some of the other stars of the show we asked, even though they did see it, and we did hear some positive feedback, haven't acknowledged that publicly.

Everybody has their own reasons and the difficulty here is that fans and maybe who knows whom, but they have, in a sense, constructed an adversarial relationship between us and Glen Larson. We have not fought, we haven't been on the phone, we have not gone at each other's throats There's been interviews and in the interviews I can only say that my position was that I've been working on this for three to four years, and nobody was touching it. We started really putting our heart, soul, spirit and money to put together this project.

And then Glen, all the sudden, comes in and decided that he wanted to do something and then started making a lot of statements concerning he and Todd Moyer, from the Wing Commander fame. And our only premise was, that nothing seemed right to us, because certainly we haven't been so inclined enough to move forward with doing anything if we knew that the rights didn't belong to Universal.

Now Separation of Rights could mean that Glen may have rights as well, but certainly not exclusive rights and certainly Universal has the rights to do projects as well. And we have the right to go pitch them, which we were doing long before the Glen Larson project came forward. Again, had Glen been doing a project that we all felt we could support, we would have asked, "Hey, how can we support you? How could we come onboard to work with you?"

But he wanted to go in a totally different direction that I, and hundreds of thousands of the people, I think, had trouble understanding. I think that's the reason we felt that "Ok, Glen go out and make that project," but we would like to make this project: the original story. And that's really the expanse, the relationship between us and Glen. It got kind of churned up into something on the web, as all things do, magnified and thrown out of perspective. But I will say to Glen, in retort to his statement that what rights do I have to go out and do a Battlestar Galactica trailer, like I did, without the rights; I will say to him that from our research that Universal owns the rights.

Number two: We weren't making something to make money; we weren't doing something to take advantage of anybody. We were doing this trailer solely to sell Universal on a project that they owned and had, and let them really see the viability of bringing back a new Battlestar Galactica series. We have actually gone in and had several meetings with Universal, and their one big statement was "We understand how popular the show was, we understand that there's a great following out there, but we don't quite have a vision of how Battlestar would look today."

And we wanted to go out there and give them that vision, and show them that the original stars were still young and vibrant, looked great, and by coupling all stars with a new generation born in space, we would even have a stronger show. Again, taking the original designs, technology, and up leveling a few things here and there, but keeping the player of Battlestar intact, we can also build a bridge on that level and bring back the show in a recognizable form; not only to the original fans but to a new generation of fans that have been watching the Sci-Fi Channel's Battlestar rerun.

So that's my answer to Glen to that. We've got every right to pitch the owner of the show and demonstrate that can be done and might be done. It was done in that spirit, not in the spirit of trying to screw somebody, take advantage of somebody, or to usurp Glen Larson. I think we have honored Glen's vision in everything that we've done, and all of our intentions have been positive and aboveboard. We would only hope that whatever momentum we've inspired, and believe me in the beginning all purely to inspire Universal to do a project. We've had no thought of doing it ourselves; we didn't even think we were capable at that time because the project was so immense.

It was only through the course of making this project that we had so many talented people come onboard, work with us, where I learned all the lessons that anybody would learn going through an adventure like this. Basically, I had a massive test of my own soul, so that I could learn how to mobilize people's talents and facilitate bringing out the best in people so we can really put together something that most people seem to think is quite extraordinary. The budget we did it on, even if you had a studio budget, most trailers are a bunch of noise and images, and very rarely do they touch people's hearts.

The Battlestar trailer has had people standing in ovations for three to four minutes with tears in their eyes, and I have not seen that before. And everywhere we've played it we've had the same response, so hopefully Universal will recognize that and I would love Glen Larson to take time to listen to it and listen to what they'd like to see in a show. Maybe there is hope for brining this vision together with all parties concerned working together toward a common goal. I would only say that [concerning] the big statement that Dirk made about working together, you just have to remember that Universal owns the rights, Glen may have some rights, and I don't have any rights. I'm coming from the person who's rooting on the show, believes in it, and I cannot go and make it unless Universal wants to do a joint partnership. Or whether it's Glen and Universal together, depending on what turns out to be the case, [or] the position of Glen.

Honestly, the ego is not in our camp. We've gone out of our way to put our money, our hearts, soul and spirit into something we don't own. Certainly we've raised the stakes, we've raised the Battlestar Galactica banner, we've woken the world to this great show. As happens to be in half of the many cases, Universal did very well just going out to do their own show, do what they want with it. We're just sitting on the sidelines, you know waiving "Hey, remember us." Or Glen could go out and do his own thing. So I think we've done a great favor for all of them. I would just hate to see the show brought back a third time and destroyed because of a lack of vision or heart, or because people didn't listen to us, the fans who really have supported this show for the past twenty years. These fans, I hate to say it, include demographics ranging from the teens, 8-9 year olds supporting this show with such a wide range of demographics. Most shows kind of appeal to a certain demographic Battlestar went well beyond any demographics and has such a following that I have never seen in my life. That includes sci-fi people and people who've never loved sci-fi before love Battlestar Galactica.

This is such a huge franchise in the making, but if it not made right, that they really miss the soul and the spirit of Battlestar, then the original show will go down forever. So I hope whomever ends up doing it will listen and open their hearts and their minds to the spirit and really ask the important questions of what people would like to see. If they want to come onboard we are sitting here, waiting, ready to jump onboard and give everything we've got to bring back the great Battlestar Galactica.

RD: Now one of the other points of controversy from the Sciography program was some of the things that Dirk Benedict said, and specifically that he almost accused you of having Glen switch lines between you and him in the scripts. They showed an example of one scene where Starbuck and Apollo's lines were interchanged.

RH: Well, you have to understand that number one: Glen Larson says what he wants to do no matter what anybody says. Any star of any show is always going to have to do that about their character, about the show, there always going to go to the producers and the writers and say "Guys, give me some way that we can bring in a little more sensitivity to this character," or "A little more humor" or "A little more anything". The first year everybody is trying to find a place where they feel comfortable in the show and they don't know if their character is going to, you know, register with the audience. Same things with the executives, they're all afraid that they're going to fail, so everybody's trying to fiddle with the concept of the show. It's a rough, rough ride for the first year.

And the meetings that I had with the writers were so fully about in the terms of the Apollo character, because I can't speak for the other characters. Every character has to represent themselves. They know more about themselves than anybody, and I represented only one person, which is myself. I never talked about what to do with other characters, how little they should do; I never talked about their camera angles, which was what Dirk was mentioning trying to control who got what shot. I never heard such malarkey in my entire life -- I would never do that. I would never even think to do that, that's not even my spirit or my personality. I'm not that kind of person.

The only person I would address would be myself, which I certainly did. I felt that after the first couple of shows, Apollo was put on the backburner and was not being developed as much as a character. I felt that character that was written with the most energy was the Dirk Benedict character, and I understood why, because I think that writers write through a particular character, that they, in a sense, envision themselves as being close to [the character]. The Starbuck character is the one that Glen really relates to, so I think he wrote for that character, I think that the Apollo character wasn't really his cup of tea. And I hardly even knew Glen. I was [introduced to] the Glen from ABC, not necessarily the Glen from real life.

Glen went after Dirk Benedict because he loved that guy, so I understand that, but you have to understand that I was getting top billing in the show. I only did that show for one reason only - I wanted to be part of a show where I, as an actor, was getting a chance to really be challenged as an actor; a chance to really utilize my talent, abilities, and also be part of a wonderful ensemble. I mean I wanted to see great shows!

My only feedback, again, from Glen was response to my character. And one of the things I talked about was letting my son [Noah Hathaway as Boxey] stay on the show, because after Jane Seymour left there was nothing left for me. Dirk was the roam around, having fun with all the girls and who was I? I didn't have anybody. So, in a sense, I felt that if I had a son, I would have sense I would play that would allow [people] to see the other coin, the other side of the coin for the Apollo character. Not just the leader, the guy going out there and doing courageous missions, but a human being.

So again, I don't know where Dirk's comments are coming from. I don't know why he was speaking the way he did. I will never understand what he was saying.

The other comment that he made was that I was upset with the direction of the show. But I was certainly not upset with the humor in the show, and I was certainly not upset with Dirk's character. I love his character! I love the Starbuck character!

In fact, one of the things that I thought was problematic in the show was the fact that probably the Starbuck character needed to have a little substance, and a little bit more sensitivity. And my character needed to have a little more humor, and both were, in a sense, extremes; we're like taking one whole character and cutting them in half. And I think the Powers That Be needed recognize and needed to bring my character up a little bit, and the Starbuck character down a little bit to balance them off, and I think they started doing that towards the middle and the end of the show. It worked very well, it didn't take away from any of the great humor from the Starbuck character has, it just allowed him to show other sides to his personality. I think they started giving me some of the humor to go along with my sensitivity to my more serious character, and I think that was a great direction to go in.

My only issue with the show, and I said this before, was that we were getting away from the original premise of the show. We were getting caught up in these adventures where Dirk would go off alone to some planet, you know, and something would happen and we would all be back on the battlestar. I felt that the show needs to be more about all of us, working together, and so, if anything, my only concern was not that we were moving into humorous directions but that we needed to stay on the track in terms of about this struggling group of survivors, humanity, trying to make it to Earth. You can have all the humor in the world. Humor is the best thing you can ever add to a show, but you also can't lose the dramatic content and the underlining theme. And so that was my only issue, and I also felt that we should have more shows where we were all involved in helping each other rather than having these single shows.

I mean they even had me going off to separate planets and I just felt that you can do that further down the line, but in the first year they needed shows where all the characters are getting to know everybody, where we're all struggling together to survive against incredible odds. That was the only contention I had and it certainly has nothing to do with moving too much in a humorous direction or what. Humor is a must in any wonderful show.

RD: Now one of the things that you've done in order to keep the Galactica trailer franchise alive, in addition to the trailer you did, were two hardcover novels in addition to the Maximum Press comics. The two hardcover novels, Armageddon and Warhawk, I've read them and enjoyed them, I think they really did a level of sophistication to Battlestar Galactica, and apparently two books in a trilogy. And what's happening to the third book in the trilogy? Will there be a third book in the trilogy?

RH: The big thing that needs to be known here is that a lot of people don't realize the business side of things. They just say, "Well, why isn't he doing the third book? Why isn't he writing that? Is he off working on 'Magellan' or does he care about Battlestar any more?"

First and foremost, I LOVE Battlestar more than anything. This is a show that is not just a show; the premise, the story that I, as an actor, rarely get a chance to be a part of something that is an epic journey; a struggle of the soul, the spirit; to survive, to do incredible things, to do incredible challenges... and those kinds of stories. I've always loved Battlestar. I've epitomized that kind of story. I could never forget that story that never got a chance to be done the way it could have gotten done, and so I've always wanted to bring it back.

I've finally got to the point where I felt empowered enough as a human being to make some noise about it, asking questions and going to Universal, having meetings. And I wrote three stories, a trilogy to bring back the Battlestar Galactica franchise. And I went to Universal at the time they were closed down to any possibility of bringing back Battlestar. They knew I was active on the Battlestar front and finally started licensing the company's old shows and classics from 10-20 years ago, and wanted to merchandise new toys and games and stuff like that based on successful shows. They had a company wanting to do some books and they mentioned me, and they came to a convention and we met. They basically asked me if I was interested in writing some novels, so I got involved doing that and I had been hired for that, and asked to do the comic books under the same kind of energy. Literally they heard about me doing that, they were interested in involving me, and they knew I was passionate about the story. So I wrote the comic books and I wrote the books with Chris Golden, and then after the second book, believe it or not, they both sold out within almost six weeks. We were out of books.

Then the company went through a change in direction. I ended up not getting paid, my royalties from those books, I couldn't even get an accounting of those books. Then the company reformed under a new title and came back to me, and asked to do more books. But they didn't want to do the third book in the series, and I said, "How can you do books one and two, and not do the third story?" So that was four months ago and apparently I have a contract coming in the mail, and we were supposed to be negotiating a deal to resolve the story plotlines of books one and two; and then move onto a new three, four, five, six books. They are the story of Battlestar Galactica twenty years later, and again I'm still waiting like everybody else. I just think it's unthinkable; it's really unconscionable that you write two books of a three-book trilogy and leave a character, like Starbuck, with brain damage. Obviously, we have to resolve that plotline and for all those fans that love Battlestar, love the books, I feel terrible that we have not been able to put the third book out there. And I'm thinking of ways to include that story for all those fans, even for free, if we cannot come up with a third book deal.

Again, the deal is certainly not for me holding out for big bucks, I've been offered nothing to do these books. I've been willing to do those books because Battlestar, I believe that these fans deserve a chance to see this story grow. We've invited them into the world and now we can't just leave them hanging.

RD: Apparently, the literary side of the franchise though has run into one problem after another. Realm Press, who was doing Battlestar Galactica comics, continuing from where the last episode of the Battlestar Galactica TV series left off, and doing season two and season three what would have been, in their opinion, the second and third season of the show.

They were unable to even continue it. Every time they started the mini-series, they would drop the ball and publish three issues out of five, and stop the story in the middle, and never continue it. They said, "Oh well, we'll continue it and tell the rest of the season two stories," and forgot about that.

They would continue into season three and couldn't continue with that. I was supposed to have an interview with the president of Realm Press at I-Con, at the table right next to you, and I tried calling the company and I got an answering machine for three months, and never returned any of my calls.

RH: Let me just say in defense that I know these guys really well. The old company called Realm Press had a lot of trouble getting the artwork completed, getting things out on time, and developed a really bad rep within the industry, and that's a really sad thing because the people really did care about Battlestar. They just took on more than they could handle, and it was a new venture for those people. They'd never done anything like that before and I think they learned a lot of harsh business lessons, and this new group came in and took over Realm Press and, unfortunately, they acquired the rep that the old company had. They were trying to clear up a lot of things, and they were still working with some of the artists from that were so slow got that again, not having things ready on time, deliver on time.

Again, they got caught up the same problem that the original company had, and they stopped, revamped, reengineered themselves and put it back together, because certainly the writers and the talent behind that, I think, are first rate. But they really got kind of a bad situation that they fell into, and they're trying to rectify that, and are trying to put that back on track. In the next few months, they'll be putting them out again. But I think they don't want to put out again and go through the same problems. They want to do it right this time and want to get their produced lined up in a row, and I think as soon as they do that, that they'll be putting out a great series of Battlestar Galactica comic books.

Then again, I don't know what it is. Battlestar has had such a strange, strange journey. I don't know, I went to Universal, and I offered to buy it. We had invested and were willing to raise a tremendous amount of money from who believed in Battlestar, who were willing to buy Battlestar, they were willing to do it bipartisibily with Universal. Sony was willing to put up money to do a Battlestar Galactica CD-ROM game. Our investors were willing to put up some money. But Universal was unable to say yes, no, maybe - nothing. They couldn't answer and something strange keeps going on about Battlestar. I don't know if some force, some person, some company, I don't know if someone said, "You know we don't want you doing Battlestar again," because there was such controversy when it came out from George Lucas and all those people.

Something strange is going on, and I certainly don't know what it is, but I've never seen in my life so many other shows, 20 years old, come back that didn't have 1/10th of the popularity that Battlestar Galactica had and has been brought back. Why not Battlestar?

There's a reason somewhere hidden away. Something is going on. Hopefully, in these ensuing months, these issues can be resolved and this can come to the light of day. If Battlestar can just get the chance that it honestly deserves. Again, Dirk's comment about me and my ego, you know my intention is for a great Battlestar Galactica project, whether it is me or somebody else. And I was willing to put my energy and money to that end, knowing full well that I may not even be part of the project.

I don't know about you, but I don't consider that ego. My only concern is a great Battlestar Galactica project, whoever does it, and I hope there are some very wonderful, heartfelt talented, gifted people that come onboard and do this project if our company is not allowed to work with them or to do it. There's many ways to bring this show back, certainly ours is only one way. I just hope that however this project is brought back in the way that Battlestar really deserves. We should pay to see this great show, this great premise and story in a wonderful way.

I've honestly never seen a show that is only one year old that has had the impact with only twenty-three episodes, and in particular with only one season. One season shows are forgotten forever, one season shows usually don't do anything good because everybody's in the kitchen telling the cook what to do, usually it's the second and third year when something good happens. Everybody loves Star Trek and Babylon 5, and all those shows like that. Battlestar has incredible potential, it was flawed and made mistakes, we went off course, we lost our way, but the show, the characters, the story still held those fans and made an incredible impact that people have never forgotten. If those executives could just travel around the world with me and see pride, ten thousand people on their feet laughing, cheering because of the Battlestar trailer.

And it's not just the trailer. It's the show, the story, the heart, it's the spirit, it's risen back so many feelings that people have in them that they want to see. Again, I am dedicated to doing this show.

If, for whatever reason, Universal wants to go another direction, or Glen turns out to have some rights that allow him to go make a project, and they don't want to be a part of using us in any viable way And I will say this, I don't want to be doing a cameo in the Battlestar Galactica movie or series. I'm not interested in that. They bring out stars to shows and use them in a little cameo in a series just to satisfy the fans, and they're really not using or valuing their character or contribution. I'm not interested in that.

So our company is ready and willing to go on Battlestar at a moment's notice. We have the funding to do it all. If that's not the case, we wish whoever does it to do it well and give them all our blessings. And we are working on a second show at this time called the Great War of Magellan, which is a sci-fi adventure show with a lot of heart, a tremendously interesting mythology behind it, and I think the fans will love that as well. I would love to do both shows. We're not sitting here for the next five years waiting for Universal to make up their minds, at the same time we're ready at any moment to go forward and work for Battlestar.

No matter what happens, I will always believe in that show and support it. It's number one for me, but you can't sit there and just wait, because as you know with corporations, you can be waiting forever, you can be waiting for the rest of your life. We have totally talented and gifted people here, biting at the chance so we're going to move forward to do the Great War of Magellan. And maybe that'll develop some integrity and give our company some experience and viability so that Universal can take us seriously. And everybody else will realize that I'm just not an actor on a pipe string, and actually an intelligent human being surrounded with the most talented people in the industry; and that we're ready, right here, to do the best work that anybody's ever seen.

So that's where we are, that's our commitment, that's our vision, and I hope the fans out there out there will realize this. In fact, I want to invite the fans to a very big webchat we're setting up right now for September so that everybody around the world can come and ask us questions that they've been dying to ask. We're also going to be accepting questions from all these fans that I will answer personally and put up on my webpage. We want to bring a lot of clarification to a lot for a lot of unanswered questions out there and also misinformation out there. The last thing I will say is that all the stars of this show all like each other, I think we all believe in each other, support each other but at the same time we're human beings. And it's very, very hard twenty years later when somebody steps out of the box and goes after putting together a show like Battlestar in the way that we did it. We certainly did it in a very unconventional way, and it took a lot of courage on everybody's part, and we knew what the risks were. We believed enough in this show that we felt we needed to do something that would draw the Powers That Be, and wake them up, and help them see what we and many, many hundreds of thousands of fans around the world already know how special this show is.

My website is BattlestarGalactica.com and everybody should tune in over there to new news, and we're also linked to every other Battlestar Galactica page. You can also go over to RichardHatch.com, and find out more about me personally or you can go over to Jack Stauffer's page at BattlestarGalactica.com.

But, you know something, we're here to work TOGETHER for the best show, and I will extend myself one last time, so maybe Dirk will get this clear as well as every fan that listened to Sciography, to say that we're not here to have it our way, we're not here not want Glen to do it, or this person or that person. We stand behind who ever does it. You know if Glen goes out and does a movie, we support it. I hope he does a great job with it. If Universal does it, we support that. We would just like our shot with what me and millions of fans have gotten together to brainstorm. We've asked questions for three years on what they'd liked and what they didn't like, woven all of that databasing and feedback into our premise, and I just think that the most important thing that a producer, writer, director to do is listen. And we've certainly learned how to listen. It's not that we're perfect, but we have been listening to a tremendous amount of very, very accepted feedback and insightful feedback.

Fans sometimes know more about a show than the very makers of that show, sometimes the writers and creators of a show don't even realize what they wrote. They write something, but they don't even realize the special quality that was existing in it. And many times fans can remind you about that, so it's important to open yourself up and really interact with the fans and not talk down to them. We want a collaboration, we want a symbiotic relationship with the fans. We're here to work together not to be there up on the hilltop producing things to shove down people's throats and "you'd better like this".

I think the industry has to work together more with the people they want to cater to.

RD: Now, I don't want to cut you short, but I do want to talk about your newest project, "The Great War of Magellan". You're doing the same thing that you did with Galactica, making the trailer first to show it around conventions and show it to studios to stir up interest in the project. Are you using similar cast members from your Galactica trailer?

RH: Not really, we have a few in there, but mostly it's all new people. We're using a lot of the same people from the CGI/special effects department, so we now have a team, all over the world, about twelve people, that have been helping us build our CGI models. We have put together some very gifted, talented people so this is a much more expansive trailer, only because we've learned so much more than we knew before. As a result of the trailer, we've gotten a lot of gifted, talented people who have really willingly offered to come board and help us on this trailer.

We're stretching out and doing some very exciting things. A lot of the things I wanted to do with Battlestar, but didn't have the time to do or the funding to do at that time, I'm doing in this because we have more time. I was able to leverage my house and pay off my credit cards, and free up some more money, so I was able to put some more into this trailer. I have to tell you, it's the exciting thing I've ever done. And the lovely thing is that we don't have to beg and ask permission from Universal in order to do this. The third part of this equation is a number of investors and very, very viable companies that I cannot name, that are ready to do a deal on this project right now. My question is not just doing the deal, it's doing it right. I want to do this with the theme, the heart, and the spirit intact. And that's why were doing the trailer, we want to create a vision that people can look at and see this is the standard we want to adhere to. We want to do something that'll knock people's socks off, touch their hearts, and just thoroughly entertain them and leave them with something special.

I think that when they see something that they'll love, it's got that extra something that they'll want to see again and again, because it makes them feel this wonderful feeling. And I think Battlestar does that and the Great War of Magellan is certainly going to do that, and your not going to see flying things like you're going to see here. I mean I love the art of flying, [like] Top Gun, and name any move that's about jets. I still don't think too many shows have ever captured the absolute thrill of flying and having to compete in space. We have these space flight adventure games that try to knock targets out, but they don't really involve the art of flying. I want to put people in the cockpit, and let them fly at breakneck speed and do extraordinary things. I want them to feel that thrill. I think there's a new rise where people can actually go up in a jet for a day and fly, you know get a video of the whole thing. But I want to put people in their seats when they watch this show. Great story, great characters, great mythology underlining the entire story and a great special effects to compliment that.

I don't think too many sci-fi shows balance all those things, and easily lean to one side or another, and we want a show that's really firing on all thrusters.

RD: Well, can you tell us a brief summary on what the show is about?

RH: Well, [it takes place] in the Magellanic Clouds, which are the closest galaxies to ours. It deals with the theoretical probabilities and possibilities; you can look at Earth and think where we'll be in three hundred years or three thousand years. We're going to be moving out into the galaxy, we're going to be making decisions right now that affect our future. Scientifically we're doing studies, and research, and we are making decisions right now that make drastic effects on us down the line. DNA, genetic studies, playing with the DNA, alter the DNA, who knows what we're going to come up with or what we're going to create.

The Great War of Magellan really explores what happens when a world makes certain decisions that lead into very severe ramifications and the human population has to fight for its life, its survival. We end up in a very post-apocalyptic universe where people are struggling to come back together, rebuild, and also to move out of the very adversarial situation where crude resources, fuel, is at a minimum. And people are literally being challenged every day to survive, but at the same time they're having to make choices about survival and also to be sure of themselves, and also moralistic decisions that "Do I kill this person in order to survive?"

Imagine people on a mountaintop with a crashed airplane and there's no food. The moral decisions people have to make about who survives, who doesn't. You know, who gets eaten, who doesn't?

I love putting characters in very, very challenging situations to bring out the best and the worst in people, that's what creates this great drama. And coupling that with great science fiction, and great scenes where we can really see these characters dealing with each other, fighting against each other, trying somehow to build a bridge of communication so that, somehow, the human race can survive and get back together again. All these questions are raised in the series. We have some great characters, and the mythology really is very, very profound. Battlestar dealt with the Egyptian motif, and The Great War of Magellan deals with Celtic motif.

So I don't want to say to much about the Magellan and be rather vague, and kind of throw out some little things that it's based on. I don't really want to give the story away, but very shortly you'll be getting news off the Battlestar Galactica page which will link you over to the Great War of Magellan page where you'll start seeing pictures, and some little excerpts from the trailer, and we're also making a behind-the-scenes of the Great War of Magellan.

This certainly has been a labor of love, and it has given me the chance to really begin to tell a story that I've always wanted to tell. Battlestar was an epic journey, the Great War of Magellan is another epic journey of the spirit where humans are having to survive against incredible odds, and somehow pull together and overcome their issues, agendas, and things that seem to get in the way of peace. They're having to live by the seat of their pants, I mean they literally are, every moment, nobody knows whether they're going to survive or not. Or what tomorrow may bring.

I love stories like that, it's a pressure cooker where romance is intensified, where the fear of living, the fear of dying, where they have to find courage within their own being sometimes is failed, and sometimes is achieved. All these emotions and feelings are woven powerfully in the Great War of Magellan. The special effects will be highly complimentary to the story.

RD: Well, it's certainly something to look forward to, and speaking of looking forward to, where can we look forward to seeing you in person in the next few months?

RH: During, I believe, at a convention in New York, the Labor Day weekend, I and Jack Stauffer and many more people will be there. In fact, I believe they're bringing some people from the original All My Children show. The original stars of All My Children will be there, Sharon Gorney, Sarah, and myself. I know this is a little unique for sci-fi fans, but it's at the - I think you have more information that me -- Space: 1999 convention.

RH: Know where that is at all?

RD: No, I don't know which hotel that it would be at in New York city.

RH: People can check the Battlestar Galactica site within the next week and we'll have all the information up there for anybody who would like to come. I'm going to be playing the Battlestar trailer again, and we're going to be playing the behind-the-scenes "Making of the Great War of Magellan". If we can get some additional shots done, we might show a little bit more than that, but I'm not sure yet. Hopefully, we'll have the trailer done, but if it's not, we'll be definitely showing the behind-the-scenes. We're fighting to get this trailer done as soon as possible, and hopefully we can have it by September 3rd.

We can't make an absolute, positive on that.

RD: Right, the links to the MainMission are already up on the BattlestarGalactica.com site. I checked it out today.

RH: Then that's all up there then. OK, that's great!