Battlestar Galactica’s Best Creative Decision Thanks To Its Best Actor

By Chris Snellgrove
| Published 30 seconds ago

Many things appealed to sci-fi fans about the Battlestar Galactica reboot, including the fact that (unlike the original series) it featured no alien races. This helped highlight the conflict between humanity and the Cylons even as it made it clear that humanity and its rebel creations are more alike than they are different. As it turned out, this smart creative decision is partly due to Edward James Olmos, who claims that in his contract 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 encounter aliens in the show is one that the actor shared with the AV Club. He was very excited “to be a part of” the show because it was “amazingly well written by Ron Moore,” but at his first meeting with Moore and the show’s producers, he warned them that “I’m not want to see any four – people with eyes, or strange jellyfish, or strange space people.” The alien hostility was so strong that it was written into his contract, if Adama encountered anyone aliensthe writers would have to have his character die of a heart attack.

If you are a fan of sci-fi generally or the old Battlestar Galactica in particular, you might think that Edward James Olmos hates the idea of ​​his character encountering aliens is quite strange. However, this makes more sense when you consider the actor’s own background with science fiction…in this case, starring in Ridley Scott’s breakthrough film Blade Runner. He was actually relieved when the Galactica the producers assured him that the new show would be similar to Scott’s film because, as Olmos said, “There were no monsters in that, they were all human beings.”

Reading a little between the lines, it seems obvious that Edward James Olmos he prefers the idea of ​​his on-screen characters interacting with humans or human characters rather than aliens. The big reveal of Blade Runner was that the supposedly evil replicants were not very different from their creators, and this idea is heavily embedded in themes and narratives Battlestar Galactica. After memorably playing a human in a world where killer replicants were revealed to be victims out to fight their oppressors, it was much easier for Olmos to play Commander Adama, a man who fights against genocidal aliens who blaming humanity for their past oppression.

As an added side effect, having Edward James Olmos get his “no aliens” request meant just that Battlestar Galactica could better separate itself from other sci-fi franchises like Star Trek. That was likely to be very important to showrunner Ronald Moore too given that he had started writing for television Star Trek: The Next Generation and he went on to be one of the most talented secretaries of that franchise. Moore knew full well that his own show would have to differentiate itself from what came before, and making his ultra-realistic sci-fi series alien was one of the best ways to do that.

In retrospect, Edward James Olmos’ story of not wanting Adama to encounter aliens proves how serendipitous Battlestar Galactica It was indeed a reboot…just when the acclaimed actor was ready to put his foot down for a major sci-fi trope, he discovered that he and the producers were already on the same page. From top to bottom, that show was full of actors and other creative people who wanted to redefine what science fiction on television could be. And they succeeded so well that nothing, to this day, has managed to hide the ambition and scope of a series that boldly went where Star Trek had not gone before.