23 February 2006

Source: Now Playing Magazine 23 February 2006

“Downloaded” finally presents us the world of Galactica as seen by the Cylon androids, the enemies of the human Colonials who are typically our series leads. It’s an idea that’s been brewing for some time, says executive producer Ron Moore, and it will feature some familiar yet nonetheless surprising faces.

“The episode is essentially following two Cylon characters,” he explains. “It’s going to follow the character we’re calling Caprica Six, who is the Six that Baltar was involved with in the beginning of the miniseries, and she’s the Six that was killed when his house was destroyed. She wakes up and is reborn. And then we’re also following Boomer, the Cylon that was shot on Galactica by Cally. And it’s the same thing. We follow her and she is reborn. And it’s essentially the story of those two characters. … I don’t think all the main cast is in the show. The A-story takes place primarily on Cylon-occupied Caprica, and there is a B-story on Galactica.”

It makes complete sense, of course, that both Caprica Six and the Galactica Boomer (or Sharon) would be reborn into new bodies – even though audiences have generally taken it that both characters were dead and gone. But they’re also changed creatures as a result of the experiences they had in their former bodies, with Six still lamenting the loss of her love Baltar, and Sharon refusing to give up on the life she had when she was conditioned to believe that she was human. Hailed as heroes of the Cylon for their part in the Colonial holocaust, the two meet on Caprica and take a path by episode’s end that certainly isn’t expected of them. And “Downloaded” itself perhaps takes an unexpected path too, as many fans have always believed that the “Cylon” episode would take place on the heretofore unseen mysterious Cylon homeworld rather than on plain old Caprica. Moore warns, though, that we won’t be seeing that particular planet any time soon.

“That episode will not have that, and we still don’t have any plans to do that,” he says. “My instinct is kind of not to go there. I feel like I don’t have a great clear vision of it; at this point if we tried to do something there it would look very familiar and not as interesting as it is in your imagination.”

Afterall, the Cylon world must be fairly similar to a Caprica or Kobol, right? The Cylons are, more or less, humanoid. “It still has to be a place where bipedal creatures can walk around and do things,” laughs Moore. And that makes sense, too. How disappointing would it be to go to the Cylon homeworld and find that it looks a lot like the outside of a Canadian shopping mall? Or that the Imperious Leader still sits in that really high chair in that really dark room, where the production budget really can’t afford props? Besides, fans thought they weren’t getting this episode at all up until a few weeks ago.

“In fact, it was never off track,” says Moore. “I’d seen that speculation and I was wondering, ‘Why do they keep saying that?’ There was probably some confusion because we were talking about doing a clip show at one point for budgetary reasons. They’re much cheaper to produce and we were having huge cost overruns, but when we split “Resurrection Ship” into two pieces and got another episode out of it, we didn’t need to do a clip show. So that was the episode that got kicked out, and “Downloaded” just moved down the line sequentially because there was an extra episode before it.”
 

Spoilers for Downloaded
Source: E! Online

Posted By: kristin
Created in: Forum: Watch with Kristin
Posted: Feb 22, 2006 3:19 PM

So good.
So, so, so, so, so good.
Big happenings with the wee baby -- and there's a twist you won't see coming.
And an unlikely friendship forges some interesting developments regarding Lucy Lawless.
And ... oh, just watch!
Even if you've never seen this show before, you will get this episode and I really do think you'll love it.

Friday night. Check it.

Spoilers for Downloaded
Source: Cylons' world on 'Battlestar Galactica' gets complicated - Scripps Howard News Service 23 February 2006

Previously, Lawless' character had pretended to be a reporter aboard the Battlestar Galactica. This week, D'Anna uses her leadership role to change the heart of the resurrected Lt. Sharon "Boomer" Valeri (Grace Park) on Caprica, the world conquered by the Cylons. She wants Sharon to get back into the spirit of being a Cylon.

But these Cylons are becoming as human as they look. Sharon, who didn't know she was a Cylon when she served aboard the Battlestar Galactica, is angry about how the Cylons used her to try to kill the man she loved like a father, Cmdr. William Adama (Edward James Olmos). (Sharon was killed on the Battlestar, and as is customary among the Cylons, her consciousness was downloaded into another copy of her body.)

Lawless' D'Anna Biers wants Sharon to get over that remorse in a plot full of surprises and involving Number Six (Tricia Helfer). Number Six gained the defense codes that allowed the Cylons to drop nuclear bombs on Caprica.

The episode is a strong one because of the writing and the performances by Helfer, Park and Lawless. The Cylons, whose entire culture is based on total agreement on their mission, are now faced with a question for which they weren't programmed: individuality. Friday's episode is powerful because it shows that individuality in action. And that could change the whole dynamic of "Battlestar Galactica."

Lawless will return next season as a regular cast member, and her presence will add another layer to one of the most complicated and genuine sci-fi shows on TV.

22 February 2006

SciFi February 2006 - Inside SciFi Friday
Full article can be read here:
http://reedfem.livejournal.com/158883.html?page=1 (click on the BSG article link)

Will there be a new "evil" Sharon copy introduced back on Caprica? We saw one briefly in "Final Cut"

Grace Park -- Sharon "Boomer" Valerii: Hmm... Do i detect some racial profiling? Tricia and I specifically played that scene with no "evilness," yet we can never get away from the fact that one short year ago we obliterated the human race! You... people.

Actually you are going to see an episode where Number Six and a Sharon both "resurrect" or download into new bodies, but there is a systems glitch, and we mistakenly switch bodies! So she has to act like Sharon, and I have to have visions of Baltar in my head. Now that I've told you, I have to kill you.

13 February 2006

The episode is purported to be the "Cylon point of view" episode mentioned by producer Ron Moore in several interviews and blog postings. It is rumored to show what happened to the soul of Galactica Boomer after she was killed by Cally. This episode suposedly gives new insight to the Cylon religion and the basic structure of Cylon society. Lucy Lawless makes a return appearance as reporter/Humano-Cylon D'anna Biers. Source: The Patriot Resource

Caprica-Sharon's Cylon-Human Hybrid daughter is born prematurely in this episode. Galactica-D'anna may try to gain access to it. We will see an extended flashback of Galactica-Sharon's consciousness being reborn in a new body immediatelly following the end of "Resistance" (thanks to the Resurrection Ship, which wasn't destroyed until eight episodes later in "Resurrection Ship, Part II").
Source: Battlestar Wiki

11 February 2006

The following is from My Tea Party Blog

tv guide blurb for

"Lucy Lawless portrays a member of the cylon leadership, who honors Number Six & Sharon as heros on Caprica.  Elsewhere Kara's lover, Samuel Anders, plans an attack on the cylons."

4 February 2006

From Entertainment Weekly. Former Xena, Lucy Lawless, will parlay her second appearance (on Feb. 24) as sentient hottie/brassy TV reporter D'Anna Biers into a full-time gig on Sci-Fi's Battlestar Galactica. The 10-epicode arc, starting next season, will detail D'Anna's emergence as - SPOILER ALERT - leader of her human-hating species, the Cylons. "I'm disinterested in playing a bleeding-heart Cylon," Lawless giggles. Besides, she points out cryptically, "no evil person thinks they're evil."
Source: http://mjryan.livejournal.com/44963.html

26 January 2006 - Lucy is interviewed on Hollywood.com and let's slip a tiny spoiler about Downloaded:

"I was on Battlestar last week and Trisha who plays Number Six on the show, she whacks me on the head with a rock, repeatedly..."

Click here to view video clip

--

Source: Chicago Tribune interview with Ron Moore 4 January 2006

“There’s an episode down the line that we’re really excited about, the entire episode is told from the Cylon point of view: what their society is like, what they go through during reincarnation and when they’re born again. We really get inside the Cylon [society] and get to view that for the first time. [In another story in this episode, something really important happens, but I’m not going to give it away, dear readers. It’s just too good].

*

The episode is partly set on Caprica and shows what has happened to Galactica Boomer upon her "rebirth" in the Cylon fleet after she was killed by Cally. This is the Cylon point-of-view episode. Lucy Lawless appears as D'Anna Biers. She also is slated to appear in another episode, either the one just before this one, or the one following.
Source: Patriot Resource Site