Battlestar Galactica’s best creative decision thanks to its best actor

According to Chris Snellgrove
| Published 30 seconds ago

There were many things about it that appealed to sci-fi fans Battlestar Galactica reboot, including that (unlike the original series) it featured no alien races. This helped highlight the conflict between humanity and the Cylons, although it was clear that humanity and its rebellious creations were more alike than different. As it turns out, this smart creative decision is due in part to Edward James Olmos, who claims that it was in the contract that his character Commander Adama would have to be killed if he encountered any aliens.

No aliens for Adama

This story about Edward James Olmos not wanting his character to meet aliens on the show is one the actor shared with the AV Club. He was very excited “to be a part” of the show because it was “written amazingly well by Ron Moore”, but in his first meeting with Moore and the show’s producers he warned them that “I don’t want to see any four people with eyes or weird people with jellyfish or weird people from outer space.” The alien antipathy was so strong that he had written into his contract that if Adama encountered one aliensthe writers would have to have his character die of a heart attack.

If you are a fan science fiction general or old Battlestar Galactica specifically, you might think that Edward James Olmos hating the idea of ​​his character meeting aliens is pretty weird. However, this makes more sense when you consider the actor’s own sci-fi background… in this case, starring in Ridley Scott’s breakthrough film Blade Runner. He was actually relieved when Galactica the producers assured him that the new show would be like Scott’s film because, as Olmos put it, “There were no monsters in it, it was all people.”

If you read a little between the lines, it’s obvious Edward James Olmos he prefers the idea of ​​his on-screen characters interacting with humans or human-like characters rather than aliens. Big reveal Blade Runner was that the supposedly evil replicants weren’t really all that different from their creators, and this idea is heavily ingrained in the themes and narrative Battlestar Galactica. After memorably playing a human in a world where killer replicants were revealed to be victims to fight against their oppressors, it was much easier for Olmos to play Commander Adama, a man fighting genocidal aliens who blame their past oppression on humanity.

As another side effect, this meant that Edward James Olmos, having fulfilled his “no aliens” requirement, meant Battlestar Galactica could better separate itself from other sci-fi franchises such as Star Trek. This was probably very important to showrunner Ronald Moore as well given that he started writing for television Star Trek: A new generation and became one of the franchise’s most talented scribes. Moore knew very well that his own show would have to differentiate itself from what had come before, and making his ultra-realistic sci-fi series without aliens was one of the best ways to do that.

In retrospect, Edward James Olmos’ story about Adama not wanting him to meet aliens proves how coincidentally Battlestar Galactica reboot really was… just when the acclaimed actor was ready to put his foot on the head in a major sci-fi trope, he found that he and the producers were already on the same page. From top to bottom, this show was filled with actors and other creatives who wanted to redefine what TV science fiction could be. And they succeeded so well that, to this day, nothing has been able to overshadow the ambition and scope of the series, which boldly went where no Star Trek had gone before.