Anger. Fear. Pain. Battlestar Galactica. Todd Moyers interviewed. Richard Hatch not interviewed. Readers write long, impassioned, jazzy letters. For Sagan's sake!

August 12, 1999

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away... waitaminute... Holy Feldergarb! You guys really swamped us with e-mails in response to the Todd Moyers interview we posted yesterday! Long letters, impassioned letters, letters than screamed and yelled and cursed the heavens -- Battlestar, Battlestar, bring us our Richard Hatch-led Battlestar Galactica! But passion is a good thing. So to let as many people get their say as possible, we're going to run as many letters as possible without any lengthy responses, and we've edited large chunks out of a lot of the letters so we don't hit our space limits too quickly. Our normal letters page content should resume tomorrow. So without further ado, taste the passion that is the IGN Sci-Fi readers (and yes, there were a few some positive letters, which we've posted towards the end.) --Tobor

Readers react to the Todd Moyers: Battlestar Galactica Interview I most heartily disagree with whatever Todd Moyer thinks he's going to do to "improve" Galactica. All of the special effects and vipers tuning into Imperial walkers don't make a movie good. And it's not what made Galactica popular in the first place. Good story writing and character development make a movie good. Notice that every remake movie that has wildly departed from its original has been a flop. It would be a shame for Galactica to do the same simply because it gets turned into an fx gala. In the original Galactica vipers did not turn into landing walkers. They had landrams for that. May I suggest that you actually watch the original series from beginning to end before you decide to start "reinventing" anything. Richard Brunson I am simply writing to say that Moyers is THE worst person to make films. Why model Wing Commander as a WWII movie? It's a space battles, not air combat. He made Paladin a French man and most of the characters not believable. I had no problems in making the film in the VERY beginning but please follow the game. Maniac never knew Blair in the beginning and the idea of Blair being some sort of a person that has navigating skills is close to laughable. The Kilrathi looked like a bunch of Tribbles on steroids. Moyers already destroyed one film, why should he be aloud to destroy another. Omar Singh Todd Moyer is repulsive. I suppose that as a producer he has to dwell on the money angles, but is that ALL he thinks of? Mecha-Vipers? Redoing Ray Harryhausen's stop-motion masterpiece "Jason and the Argonauts"? (Why? Without Harryhausen's animation, what's left to remake?) Painfully recreating WWII air/sea battles in space as a good thing? I hope now more than ever that Richard Hatch can bring his vision of Battlestar Galactica to light -- since Moyer has the feature film rights, maybe we'll be able to see Galactica done right on TV, where it was always meant to be. Brenda Okay, Moyer said, and this is a quote, "If you want to just go with the picture and not worry about the logical details of things, which is typical of space movies, for a teenager it's just a lot of fun." "Am I only the person who reads this and thinks this guy is the biggest jackass walking the planet? He doesn't worry about logical details? Wow, and he produced "TimeCop," big surprise there. Lord I hope this moron never touches "Battlestar Galactica." He wouldn't know how to produce a great movie if Steven Spielberg came on board to direct it! This guy has the brains of a 6-year old. I am sooo hoping that someone with some sense makes this flick, like Richard Hatch. He would do it justice. Boverio The fans have spoken. A recent poll at the Sci-Fi Channel's Dominion website asked which person the fans wanted to see a new Galactica from-Richard Hatch or Glen Larson. The results were definite-Hatch beat Larson 85% to 15% (with over 1100 responses). The postings on the websites are almost unanimous in the support for Richard Hatch. Mr. Hatch has been working for this revival for 4 years now and no George Lucas "wannabe" is going to derail it with the junk he is talking about in the interview you have published. Make no mistake about it-if Todd Moyer releases his POS Galactica film, the fans will avoid it like the plague. It will be an even bigger fiasco than his stinker "Wing Commander". Without the fans, no BSG film can succeed. If Larson truly does own the rights, he should show some sense and drop this loser Moyer and try to get in with Richard Hatch-for it is Mr. hatch that will be leading the revival of this great show into the next century. Dan Bollinger The Todd Moyer article was frustrating, I want to see a story from the Richard Hatch perspective [We've contacted Mr. Hatch through his website to do an interview and have had no reply yet. -- Editor]. Moyer and Larson have not done a thing since March and their website has not been updated since May. The link to Moyers company is no longer working and from what I hear their partnership and their BSG project is at a standstill. His comments are obviously untrue and his ideas for the new movie are ludicrous. He plans to ruin BSG just as he did Wing Commander. His comments on Separation rights are not accurate, those rights do not give Larson the right to go ahead with a Movie based on Battlestar Galactica,, they only give him rights to some aspects of the show. Universal still holds the exclusive rights to ANY Battlestar Galactica Movie based on the original themes of the show. What Moyer failed to mention in his statements is the movie he had been planning involved the Battlestar Pegasus and not the Galactica at all, this way he felt they could get away with the Separation Rights!�. Richard Hatch on the other hand has actually followed through with his plans and has actually shot the Trailer he was planning for his project 2nd coming. It was shown (unfinished) at DragonCon in Atlantia on July 4th weekend and the fans went crazy. He now has a completed version that he is showing, I will be seeing for myself and the GoMainLine 20 Yaren reunion in PA on Aug 28th and 29th (www.gomainline.com). He will be there as well as Dirk Benedict (Starbuck), Jack Stauffer (Bojay), and John Colicos (baltar), it is a major BSG event�. Chris Feehan Tobor joins the Cylons. Frankly, Moyer is wrong to say Wing Commander worked. None of the stars were like the characters in the original series. Angel wasn't even French! It had bad taste and left a bigger bad taste to fans of the series. From what I gathered, more people were upset at Chris Roberts than Moyer. Due to the fact he let Moyer put in the incorrect cast members, even though they were (hot) at the time, for the movie. To be frank, Maniac was not Maniac and Maverick was not Maverick. Whoa, I love this ship? Maverick was certainly not someone to say that. It was just very badly done and so many told me not to waste my money, that the movie ranked as badly as Mortal Kombat: Annhilation. When I came out of the theater seeing THAT movie, I swore I just wasted 6 dollars for something god awful. This just goes to show that you should NOT let game creators help direct. I had wish Wing Commander was better, but oh well. Can't wait for the Frontier game by Digital Anvil. Chris Botta-Sills

Whoo! Still with me? Okay, take a deep breath and let's keep going. --Tobor

More Anger, More Outrage, More Pain I can't believe that he is even allowed to make movies! Wing Commander was one of the worst movies I've ever seen. It was boring, had terrible acting and plot. I will never see a Moyers film again. I am 16 and I can tell you the film is not "fun" for teenagers at all. Eric Moyers thinks Wing Commander is a satisfying ride, especially for a teenager, eh? Perhaps if that teenager suffered from Down's Syndrome and had the I.Q. of a five year old. I have not read one review or heard one person say, including teenagers, that Wing Commander was anything but a terrible movie. True, the special effects were decent, if not stellar, but that does not make a good movie. Concerning the rest of the interview, Moyers comes off as an arrogant ass who thinks, for some unknown reason, that anything he shovels out to the consuming entertainment public will be gold. Fools gold is more like it. And now he thinks he will make the quinticential Galactica movie and (gulp) Jason and the Argonauts. I think the only thing that will come out of those productions is a grand example of how NOT to make a movie. Moyers will be his own worst enemy. What a putz. Damien I cannot express the horror I felt when I heard that a beloved part of my childhood, Battlestar Galactica, would be massacred by the same people who massacred a beloved part of my college days, Wing Commander. Producer Todd Moyer seems to think that the path to success is "you've got to take the things that don't work and chuck 'em, and figure out what's going to work ". The problem is, he is "chucking" the things that do work, and replacing them with horrible substitutions�. Battlestar Galactica has a built in audience of extremely loyal fans. They aren't loyal to Glen Larson, they are loyal to the TV show. If the movie doesn't look, feel, and sound like the TV show, then Moyer will once again find his product hated by the very audience who would have supported him the most. If he would give us a movie which starred the original characters, flying the original designs, spice it up with modern special effects and place it all in a well-written story that was consistent with the original show, then he'd have a blockbuster smash. As it is now, he's walking on very thin ice by "boasting" about how there are "new Vipers" and claiming that it will be similar to Wing Commander. We don't want "new Vipers", we want the Vipers we love. We don't want it to be similar to Wing Commander (in the sense that Wing Commander the movie bore so little resemblance to it's source material). We want it to be true to the TV series we loved. Is that too much to ask? If it is, then I'm afraid that Moyer wanting me to pay to see a bastardized version of my beloved show is also too much to ask. There are a lot of fans out there who feel the same way�. Again, it seems that there are two proposed Battlestar Galactica projects. One of them sounds really good. The other one is produced by Todd Moyer. Here's hoping that Richard Hatch's version is the one that happens, because it sounds like it represents the only chance the fans will have of seeing the "true" Battlestar Galactica story on the big screen. Chris Taylor Todd Moyer's suggestion that it is unnecessary to ..."worry about the logical details of things" when making a science fiction movie is not only removing the "science" from the "fiction" but is downright insulting. The giants of the golden age of science fiction researched their theories against the cutting edge of science and physics and put a great deal of effort into adhering as closely as possible to real-world cause and effect. The practice of paying attention to logic when making science fiction adds to what is known in literary circles as "verisimilitude" or the feeling that what you are watching (or reading) could actually happen. Science fiction became popular because the authors worked hard to achieve verisimilitude. Special effects are themselves only attempts to increase the realism of a movie, to convince the audience things which don't exist might exist. But we all know how bad special effects can ruin an atmosphere and disrupt a story. By your command. Logical gaps and leaps in a storyline also destroy the atmosphere. Imagine an action hero stopping to pick daisies and weave them into his hair. That destroys the image, storyline and plotlines. It is a completely illogical event. Stories without logical progression, cause and effect and motivations leave the audience feeling that either a) the director is a moron who can't adhere to logic or b) the director doesn't care about giving the audience value for their money. If this is the attitude with which Mr. Moyer approaches his products, then there should be no confusion in anybody's mind why Wing Commander was such a dreadfully disappointing allegory. Furthermore, unless his attitude changes dramatically, Battlestar Galactica will cease to be the fondly remembered childhood series and become another pretty-face-and-special-effect waste. Beware your own hubris, Mr. Moyer! KIA

Wow, I need a breather after that batch. Perhaps a tall frosty cold one. Mmm, mmm. Okay, let's keep going. --Tobor

Still More on Battlestar Galactica I wholeheartedly --DISAGREE-- with Todd Moyer's vision of a resurrected Battlestar Galactica movie. All he talked about in the interview with IGN was how many shots there were going to be in it, how much money he was able to secure, how huge it was going to be and how many toys he would be able to sell, etc. Where the heck are the elements of storyline? Where is the continuation of the original characters? Where is the staying true to the original show? And most importantly, where are the original actors? Battlestar Galactica will be nothing but a sad sham if none of the original cast members are in it�. I'm glad to say that I fully support Richard Hatch's efforts to bring back Battlestar Galactica the way it deserves to be brought back -- with originality and a precise adherence to the original series. I have seen Richard's new trailer and I believe that it captures the essence of what Battlestar can be, updated 20 years in the future. And given the felgercarb of what Moyer is saying, I totally believe that Richard's 3-minute trailer would kick Moyer's whole movie in the rear end!! Al "Charybdis" de Lachica The article on Moyer producing a new BattleStar Galactica flick points out a few very obvious facts -- Moyer has got bucketloads of attitude and in each statement he made he sounded much too much like a typical Hollywood producer who was far more interested in making the "deal" and in throwing around names, facts and figures than in actually making a good film. Personally, I am tired in hearing about the hype, the spinoffs, the merchandising and the tie-in products before there is even a good script from which a good film can be made. In short, I get the distinct impression that if he goes ahead and makes a BG film that it will be the kind of product aimed more at the Saturday morning cartoon crowd than at the true fans of the original series -- most of which who are approaching forty! Also, I dearly love and respect Ray Harryhausen as the man who made fantasy films happen. But for God's sake, if Moyer is allowed to do a "Jason" remake then we really have turned a corner that we can't come back from. Leave the $#%&@ originals alone! Get some damn ORIGINAL ideas and make them into movies -- but leave the classics untouched!!! Of all the thousands, perhaps tens of thousands of good story ideas -- short, stories, novellas, novels, etc. -- that have been written by REAL writers and are just begging to be made into films why does Hollywood have to constantly go after the classics -- inflicting remake after remake upon us all for the sake of marketing potential? (The answer of many $$$$$ is NOT an answer!!) Those classics became classics because their creators had the guts and balls to go out and do something different and make it work. The wimps that are running Hollywood these days seem only to be able to produce weak copies of those classics -- like the neighborhood kids getting together and producing their own Shakespeare play. It might be cute and it might even be considered an homage, but in no way can it compare to a professional cast in a professionally produced theater offering�. TWK Artist

Whew! Well that wasn't all the letters we got denouncing Moyers' plans for a new flick, but that was quite a few of them. Sorry about the cut-cut guys, but some of those letters were way too long� And now, the two letters that took the opposite point of view: --Tobor

Voices in the Wilderness: Opposing Points of View I don't know what you guys are talking about. I never played the game, never read the books (if there were any) and thought it was a pretty good movie. Hell, I want them to do another FullCooperation Is Moyers right about Glen Larson having the rights? Of course he is! The actors are nothing unless the story is good. That goes for anything but especially Sci-Fi. Unfortunately, effects attract a large audience. And sometimes actors can be really great in respective roles and keep us coming back for more. But if the story isn't there, why bother? And why should a creator give up his rights to one person who starred in his series? Ridiculous. It's the creator who matters. He had the rights from the beginning and rightly so. Rob L.

Don't worry, we won't print your email addresses guys, we wouldn't anything to happen to you. And now for something completely different, as they say. --Tobor

Another Satisfied Customer Tobor, By now I am used to your random assaults on us as you use the worst the web as to offer as sadistic ammunition. But the other day when you linked to a realvideo clip of Kate Botello, well, let us say that that was the straw that broke the camel's back. Now with an image of Ms Botello doing what I can only assume was "dancing" burned into my retinas, I am forced to sue you. But no monetary value can be placed on my now impaired eyes. The only true vindication would be for you to have my eyes medically attached you to your tin cranium instead of my organic one, so you too can understand the horror of constantly seeing the after image of that frolicking twit. Thank you and good day, expect a formal call from my lawyer sometimesoon. Fanda

Ah Fanda, ah Kate. Nothing is lovelier than two young people in love, even if one of them doesn't realize it and the other one doesn't know who the first one is. It could almost make one want to dance� --Tobor

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