Saturday, February 21, 2009

Interviews

Bunch of good interviews floating around today...


  • Mo Ryan talks to Jane Espenson about "Deadlock" (with a few supplementary questions from Alan Sepinwall)...and to Tahmoh Penikett about BSG and his new show DOLLHOUSE.
  • Thanks to Morjana for finding these Space/Circuit interviews with Michael Hogan and Jamie Bamber.  (And thanks to Space for letting us lousy Americans get your stream this time!)
  • Much to our collective luck, Bear McCreary continues to interview cast & crew for his season 4.5 blogging -- this week he talks with Michael Hogan


And congrats to Aaron Douglas, who has a new CTV show THE BRIDGE which has just been picked up for American broadcast on CBS...

13 comments:

morjana said...

Thank you so much for posting a link to my blog!

Morjana

Eric H said...

I am really mystified at some of the vitriolic and petty personal attacks directed at Jane Espenson in the comments over on Mo's interview. These undisciplined boors could ruin things for the rest of us if writers and producers decide they'd rather not risk getting viciously flamed in return for interacting with fans online.

It seems to me that some of these people who hated "Deadlock" are viciously blaming the lead writer for every thing they didn't like about the episode, and frankly that is unfair. The writer doesn't work in isolation. Particularly in BSG's case, each episode is a team collaboration with the producers and other writers. It seems to me that many of the complaints revolve around the direction of the story and the nature of the episode. Responsibility for this goes far beyond Jane.

I liked this episode a lot, but even if I didn't I would find a way to express my feelings with civility.

brisotope said...

@Eric H,
Internet boards are where people (mostly young) can be as bad ass as they want with no consequences, aside from the occasional banning or censoring. I avoid most comment sections for this very reason, especially ones on major media sites.

By the way, I don't see anything vitriolic over there. Maybe I wasn't thorough or perhaps the worst posts have been removed.

Anyway, I'm glad there are forums like SitRep and galacticawatercooler where people still express strong opinions in a civil way.

ProgGrrl said...

Thanks guys.

RE the crap people are giving poor Espenson...funny how no one gets this vitriolic when a male writer's ep doesn't sit well. Isn't it? (For you Whedon/BUFFY fans out there...doesn't this remind you of when JW handed the reigns of his show to a woman, Marti Noxon, in the later seasons...remember how nasty that got?)

Blargh.

Anyhow, I hope you more respectful and civil folks will stay here with us.

brisotope said...

@proggrrl
I'm not sure reaction against Espenson is sexist, but I do think gender plays into it.
I don't know any women who like scifi at all. It gets relegated to that laughable "Silly boy stuff". This recent episode will draw an equal reaction from some men who'll think an element of "chick flick" was forced into BSG. I'm not saying that's a fair criticism, just like BSG being "boy stuff" isn't fair either. But this is the polarized way lots of people think.

Eric H said...

Hear, hear: The SitRep community is a cut above. I enjoy reading the discussion here, which never lacks for a diversity of strongly held opinion but avoids the mudslinging.

There are some new comments by Mo and others on her interview thread that explain, in much better terms than I did, why it's ridiculous to blame a single writer for the type of episode and the major plot developments. And I wouldn't be surprised if gender issues did play into the personal attacks on Jane, consciously or otherwise.

Re: All the complaints about this ep, I wonder if the people doing the upcoming DVD have locked down the extended cut for Deadlocked yet, or whether they have time to re-incorporate some of the deleted scenes from Jane's script that would have sold certain plot developments better. Does anyone know?

ProgGrrl said...

@Eric...I cannot recall now where, but someone mentioned in our comments this week, that we were promised longer cuts of *every* season 4.5 episode.

I don't know if they meant on-air, or on the DVD set. But I have to say now that Sitrep, as an aggregator of all the important news about BSG that Logan and I can find, has NEVER seen any promise from RDM, SciFi, or Uni about offering that sort of thing. We know that recent DVD sets have been offering more and more deleted materials, and at least one Director's Cut ep. RDM mentioned recently that a Director's Cut of SAGN will almost certainly be on the 4.5 DVD; the last two released DVD sets each had over an hour of deleted scenes.

But I think fandom is going a tad overboard demanding longer cuts of like EVERY ep of the season. And hoping to get that is just setting yourself up for massive buyers' remorse.

Meanwhile...I do hope they do something for the final DVD cut of "Deadlock." It definitely made a difference. If they could just cut one or two of those extra shots of Adama watching the ship repairs, and add back in 30-60 seconds of the stuff from the teaser I mentioned...that would be enough, really. Or at the least include the cut material on the deleted scene reel.

Logan Gawain said...

@Proggrrl, actually I do recall David Eick promising "superzised" eps during the season. It was a while back, and what he said was kinda confusing at the time. I remember posting it. I'm sure it's in our archives. But, since it was a typically vague Eick statement.

I haven't read all the comments around sites so I don't know if attacks on Deadlock are because of sexism toward Jane.

Every BSG ep is a team effort. The writer's room breaks the eps as a whole.

Aaron Douglas has some excellent comments on the ep and about Jane on his LJ group that folks should look at.

I think David Eick and RDM have taken a lot of hits for the show over the years.

I do think we strive for civility on Sitrep even with having to disallow anonymous posting.

I think Deadlock is a deeply flawed episode, and like you say they really should have included that information about the lack of marines and the possibility of toasters as sentries. That would have been interesting stuff.

Eric H said...

Yeah, I could do with a little less spackling and a little more 'splainin' about a coupla things in "Deadlock." Nothing major, just a little tweak thankyouverymuch (I am certain RDM is reading this and calling the DVD production team RIGHT THIS MINUTE to issue the appropriate orders).

A directors cut of "Notion" would be phenomenal. Hope that does happen.

Will of course stay tuned to Sitrep for any official word. You're right to remind us to keep our pants on re: the DVDs. Although just having them in Blu-ray will be worth it alone

ProgGrrl said...

Oops...I meant to say RDM promised his Directors Cut of ADFMS...the one *he* directed. :-)

Craig Ranapia said...

ProgGrrl wrote:
RE the crap people are giving poor Espenson...funny how no one gets this vitriolic when a male writer's ep doesn't sit well. Isn't it?

I reply:

Well, on one board I came across this charming comment -- and this is the most printable reference to Espenson in a lengthy screed: "How many c***ks does that no-talent c**t suck to get work". (And no, I'm not going to reward the turd who wrote that with link traffic.) 'Black Market' and 'The Woman King' certainly weren't well received, but I don't recall anyone suggesting that Verheiden and Angelli were such bad writers, the only conceivable way they could get work was through sexual favours.

And I'm irrational wondering if there's [sarcasm]just a wee bit of sexism [/sarcasm] in play here? (Of course, that totally doesn't apply to people whose reasonable, civil and impersonal criticism of 'Deadlock' I may not agree with. Vigrous and passionate criticism is fine. Couching it in misogynistic and degrading language certainly is not.)

Logan Gawain said...

You won't see profane attacks against anyone on this site, because we'll delete it.

People are free to criticize the direction the show has taken as of late. And certainly the majority of the fans have been quite critical of the last episode. But, I hope everyone can keep it civil.

I totally disliked Deadlock, but in my view the fault likes with RDM as showrunner. The buck stops there.

Jane is a great writer, and some of her episodes are among my favorites. In fact looking over her BSG writing credits, the only episode of hers I haven't liked was Deadlock.

Online there does seem to be an anti-Jane/anti-Buffy group that always seems to pounce, but I don't cotton to them. And neither will the Sitrep.

Eric H said...

Thanks, Logan. I think you and ProgGrrl strike just the right balance with Sitrep. Props to our hosts!