The Good Sheppard

There hasn’t been much official news regarding Battlestar Galactica lately, and some big questions are hanging out there, but one fan claims to have at least one of the answers.

Confirmation that the very talented Mark Sheppard will be returning for Season Four is not a big surprise, but certainly good news. When word came down awhile ago that he would be joining the cast of NBC’s upcoming Bionic Woman, shot right next door to BSG in Vancouver, I had my fingers firmly crossed. I first noticed Sheppard as a recurring villain on Medium and he’s already got quite a following among the Browncoats from his stint as Badger on Firefly. Honestly though, it was his fascinating portrayal of Romo Lampkin in the last three episodes of Season Three of Battlestar Galactica that made me a fan. There is a reason people are still talking about his character several months later. He showed us several new shades of gray on a show that specializes in exploring the darker sides of its characters. Sheppard’s performance was subtle, yet riveting. You couldn’t tell when he was lying or when he was telling the truth, and the intriguing possibility was that he himself might not have cared which was which.

I’ve had the pleasure recently of listening to a couple of the official BSG podcast commentaries on the final episodes of Season Three, and it has been interesting to hear Sheppard talk about his experiences working on the show. While having someone else to talk to during the recording sessions might have made it a more comfortable experience for Sheppard, I have to admit that having your iPod feed that voice into your ear during your morning commute makes going to work seem indulgent. I certainly got a few looks and I’ll bet people were looking at the smile on my face and wondering just what I was thinking.

Kudos to the producers for bringing Romo back for another appearance. Now hurry up and tell us when Season Three will be out on DVD, will ya?!

Halfway Through the Long Wait

As one of our members pointed out the other day, we are now HALF WAY through the long wait between when the Season Three finale of Battlestar Galactica aired in March and when Season Four returns in January.   Nice to know we’re over the hump.

UBC = Cloud Nine = Caprica

Six adventurous members of the 13th Colony (and one very brave journalist) headed out on the second of our “Location Scouting Missions” over the weekend to the campus of the University of British Columbia to visit some of the locations that were used during Season One of Battlestar Galactica. Our first stop was the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts, perhaps best known to genre fans as the 4400 Centre from the “The 4400.” The Season One episode “Colonial Day” features a meeting of delegates representing the various colonies and focuses on the election of a Vice President. The front exterior of the Chan Centre is where Roslin and Zarek shake hands in front of reporters. Several interiors were used, including the washroom where Roslin unknowingly interrupts one of Baltar’s romantic liaisons to ask him to run for VP.

Right next to the theatre is UBC’s Rose Garden, such a beautiful spot that it is rare to find it not being used as a backdrop for wedding party photos on a sunny weekend. The garden was used for the scene at the beginning where the reporters discuss the upcoming summit, and where Starbuck turns a water hose on Apollo, just for fun.

A few steps away down the Main Mall is the striking Koerner Library, whose distinctive roof is easily identifiable in the scene on Caprica from the same episode, where Helo first sees a second version of Boomer and realizes she is a Cylon.

Click here for an album comparing our photos and screenshots from “Colonial Day.”

We’ve got one more “Scouting Mission” planned for the year, out to the campus of Simon Fraser University, one of the most popular filming locations in Greater Vancouver. Its distinctive architecture was featured prominently in the BSG miniseries, “Kobol’s Last Gleaming” and in several episodes of Stargate and the X-Files.

All Lit Up

Ta Da!

Here’s what the Cylon Raider Lantern looked like once the glowsticks were put in and the sun went down. It is tough to photograph, so I’m afraid these pics don’t do it justice. Illuminares is just one of those events where you really have to be there to understand how magical everything can look by the light of a lantern.

There were quite a few people who noticed and recognized it, which was great. The two red glowsticks bent over the front really added a nice effect. I’m not sure that green is the best colour to use, even though it is certainly the easiest colour of glowstick to find. I’m thinking of blue for next year. I’m going to keep the overall frame, but rip the covering off and replace it with paper. The gray paint wasn’t translucent enough so the ship didn’t glow very brightly. It was certainly more stealthy in the dark that way, but I do want it to be noticed, after all.

A Cylon Lantern (Before)

This past weekend was Illuminares, Vancouver’s Festival of Lanterns, put on by the Public Dreams Society. It is always a wonderfully inspiring evening and it is not surprising that 20,000 people go to Trout Lake every year to watch everyone light their lanterns at dark and parade around the lake. There are a number of large static displays and an incredible variety of lanterns. I’ve seen dragons, a phoenix and even a Dalek. This was the third year in a row I’ve attended the event with a group of Browncoats. In the past I’ve built a version of Serenity out of recyled plastic bottles and paper, as well as a traditional UFO made from a flan pan and some flashing LED lights. This year I just had to do a Galactica-themed lantern, so I chose to make a Cylon Raider. I constructed the frame out of wire and a couple of plastic bottles, then covered it with plastic wrap and painted it. We loaded the inside with green glow sticks and then attached some red ones on the outside. It looked pretty cool all lit up, but you’ll have to wait another day for that picture.