SDCC 2012: Thursday Panels

Jane Espenson, Richard Hatch, and Dr. Kevin Grazier.

Read on for info and video from San Diego Comic-Con on Thursday, July 12^th, 2012. Francesca and I didn’t spend a lot of time at the convention center that day, so look for a Nerd HQ post later today. Since Francesca didn’t have a badge for Thursday, I headed out in the a.m. solo, to go see the Battlestar: So Say We All panel from 10:30-11:30a.m. I got great seats thanks to @Angelized_1st! Karma-Con! Hosted by Richard Hatch (Tom Zarek, Capt. Apollo), this panel was billed as “a 35th anniversary preview panel and fan discussion of the Battlestar universe, politics, philosophy, and 35 year history.” It was more just … a discussion of Battlestar though. The other panelists were the amazing Jane Espenson (producer/writer, Battlestar and Caprica) and Dr. Kevin Grazier (science consultant for BSG and Defiance). While Toni Graphia and two actors from Blood and Chrome were also supposed to appear, they couldn’t make it due to traffic. Also, apparently Luciana Carro (Kat) was supposed to be a surprise guest, but she was stuck in traffic too. There was an accident on the freeway. You can watch fan video from the panel here. And here are some details from the panel:

• First they showed us a short video about the incredible music of Battlestar Galactica. It included a musical montage featuring Helo in the rain. And other stuff, I’m sure. (The video could have used more Tahmoh, to be honest.)
• Richard Hatch talked about a new social network that just launched: BattlestarGalactica.com
• Jane Espenson noticed all the Jayne hats in the audience and called out the fandom crossover. Shiny!
• Someone asked, “What in the world is Starbuck?” Jane said that, “If a show ever doesn’t make anything crystal clear, but leaves it up to your imagination, it wants it to be left to your imagination.” Later, she said that in her own mind (not cannon), Starbuck didn’t vanish. She just dropped to her stomach in the weeds and crawled away. Everyone laughed. Jane: “I don’t want her to be that supernatural. I want her to live in our world of like tech and real human flesh and blood people. So, I like the idea that she was like, ‘The only way I’m gonna get out of here is to like commando crawl through these people.’”
• Regarding Blood & Chrome, Hatch said that they’re still trying to figure out where to place it. It’s not over, and no final decisions have been made. A SyFy exec in the audience offered the vague word, “soon.” Espenson said she thinks it’s sure to be awesome, and counseled that if it turns out as an online show, we shouldn’t think of that as “less than.” Through doing an online show, she learned that “it’s everything TV can be and more.”
• Somebody else asked about the opera house, but once again, that’s something the show left up to our imaginations. No real possible answer for that one.
• Regarding the character of Tom Zarek, Hatch said that he always identified with him. He really wanted to make a difference, yet people perceived him as a bad guy because that was the way Adama saw him. Hatch heard that Ron Moore said to always put the truth in Zarek’s mouth. It’s just that nobody wants to hear the truth.
• Someone asked another unanswerable question about Hera and Daniel. Jane: “I’m afraid some of this is lost to time, and my aging neurons.”
• Dr. Grazier pointed out that there were actually 13 cylon models. Then he explained that Pythia (author of the Book of Pythia) was on the journey to Earth, so that makes her a cylon. This means that the cylons weren’t lying about knowing the religious texts better than humans. Cylons wrote them!
• Luciana Carro called in to Dr. Grazier’s phone and said “Hi!” to us through the speakerphone, still stuck in traffic. Jane Espenson: “She’s scared of me because I killed her.” Awww, RIP Kat. Memories …
• What moments were most powerful for them? The moment that Hatch found most powerful was the trial after New Caprica. He thought a lot about parallels in history.
• Jane’s picks were both Adama-Tigh moments. 1) When the people were so hungry on the ships that they were eating paper. “Well at least that stopped, because the paper ran out!” She loves that moment of dark humor. 2) The moment between Adama and Tigh after Caprica Six lost the baby.
• The fan who asked the question said that his was when Kara cut her hair, as a sign of her character’s movement forward. Espenson: “Storytelling through hair. That is a thing.” So true. So true.
• Jane Espenson, out of context: “Yay, gay fan-fic. That’s all I have to say.” Yes, I love her.
• Hatch waxed poetic about Jamie Bamber. “Jamie, for me, has what I loved about Apollo. He has this sense of integrity, of heart and soul—the kind of guy if you were in war, you’d want him watching your back. He’s one of those truly heroic characters. As a human being, he embodies that.” Compliments from one Apollo to another. Very sweet.

Other SDCC television panels I missed on Thursday were Nikita, Beauty and the Beast, Dexter, and Homeland. But that won’t stop me from providing some coverage here. Thank you, internet. First up, here’s the full Nikita panel, posted by Warner Bros. 

Isn’t Maggie Q the best? THE BEST. And here’s some footage of Beauty and the Beast at Comic-Con, provided by The CW, along with a couple new clips from the pilot:

And Showtime has posted the Dexter panel, divided into a number of short videos. You can watch the first part below, and then check out the rest of the playlist here. Also, check out the two minute sneak peek of season 7 below.

Showtime also showed a new trailer for Homeland at the panel, and while that’s not online yet, there is some video from the panel here. You can watch the first part below.