[Tory Foster and Chief Tyrol ponder the skills of Michael Taylor]
Science fiction on TV gets a bum rap, most of the time deservedly so. It’s superficial, escapist, and implausible. And that’s why I love it. The simplistic unified world view and perfection of Gene Roddenberry’s Star Trek franchise was my particular brand of sweet escape.
But 9/11 changed everything and former Trek writer Ronald D. Moore figured that out. His re-imagined award-winning Battlestar Galactica on the Sci Fi Channel portrays a devastated human society now on the run for its very life. Perfect universes with clean starships and altruistic heroes are nowhere to be found in Battlestar’s world. Indeed, we are all frakked as they say.
In assembling writers for the show, executive producer Moore has gathered some of the finest sci-fi TV writers today. Bradley Thompson and David Weddle are masters of changing up space battles in completely unexpected ways. “Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s” Jane Espenson brings strength and determination to such BSG episodes as “Dirty Hands” and “The Passage.”
But the overarching tragic reality of BSG’s universe is best written by Michael Taylor. In Friday night’s truly masterful “The Ties That Bind,” Taylor takes viewers through the claustrophobic political games of Lee Adama’s new political charge, the questioning motivations of Kara Thrace’s new-age search for Earth, and — most importantly — the initially paranoid, later horrifying fear that Cally Tyrol faces when she discovers her husband is a Cylon robot. Taylor, along with director Michael Nankin, takes us into Cally’s nearly hallucinogenic head. He perfectly twists the motivations of nemesis Tory Foster to create an ending that is as moving as it is dramatic.
Michael Taylor has the ability to capture the darkest moments of human survival — moments that define the soul of this post 9/11 universe. He gave fans the deeply-flawed heroine of BSG’s “Razor,” Kendra Shaw, who’s kicking-and-screaming search for redemption took an otherwise familiar BSG story and painted it with terrific depth and drama.
Now Taylor and BSG exec producer Ron Moore have signed on with Fox TV to write the pilot for “Virtuality.” I only hope that it shows the same intense characters and twists that define his episodes of Battlestar Galactica.
Links:
