Catastrophic test screenings have nearly destroyed Battlestar Galactica

By Chris Snellgrove
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Nowadays, Ronald Moore’s Battlestar Galactica restart is considered a premium science fiction gold standard. This is the kind of visual show of stunning and philosophical engagement that we can only hope that we can hope that Star Trek or Star Wars will ever give us. However, we are fortunate that this ambitious restart has ever been made off the ground because of its disastrous early screenings. According to Moore himself, Battlestar Galactica Test screenings in Houston came and even in a fan convention almost nothing but hatred from the audiences.

Fans hated the test screenings

Before Syfy releases the Battlestar Galactica Reboot, they decided to hold a test screening in Houston, Texas to see what audiences thought of the new show. In the words of Moore, the focus group “Really F ** King hated it,” and the cover sheet said something to effect “This is one of the worst tests we have ever had.” The whole point of consultation with the focus group was to measure how general audiences would respond, and Moore was disappointed to read comments like “We will see no reason why you would want to choose this show as a series.”

Obviously these Battlestar Galactica Test screening comments were bad enough, but according to Moore, “Analytics was even worse.” Houston’s focus group “liked Eddie Olmos like Adama, but he was the only one, and even that was kind of a common number.” Accordingly, the network went into a full blow panic, but were already so pregnant with the show ”and could not put the cat exactly (or in this case, the Viper) back to the bag .

While the Battlestar Galactica Test screenings at Houston were bustle, Ronald Moore had another chance to win audiences over when the pilot episode showed Galacticon attendees, a science fiction convention dedicated to the original Galactican Series. On paper, this would have been a very sympathetic audience. In fact these fans somehow hated the restart even greater. “I brought down the house lights, played the show, played it all the way through, and then the lights of the house come up and they boiled and hissian,” said Moore demanded, “I don’t make it up.”

As with the Houston Battlestar Galactica Test screens, this direct response was bad enough to let Moore know effectively how the room felt about his new show. Unfortunately, he was supposed to take “questions from the audience,” which he described as “ungodly” fans who “thought it was an opposition, thought it was an insult to the original and terrible show.” In addition, “They hated Starbuck,” which cemented how terrible this fan view was actually.

Apollo saves the day

Fortunately there was one silver lining to Moore in this Battlestar Galactica Convention. After the test screening made everyone angry, an unexpected hero came to save the showrunner under siege. That hero was Richard Hatch, the star of the original series and a very popular convention attendant. Hatch arose in front of all these angry fans and told them that they should show the visiting Moore the respect he deserved; In turn, Moore was so removed by this piece of real -life heroism that it came to hatch in the restart.

From looking back, the story of this catastrophic early Battlestar Galactica Test screenings are truly mind-minded. Not only is the show amazing, but its earliest efforts were essentially the miniseries sci-fi Shrinked movie for the small screen. After broadcasting, it ended transforming the TV landscape for the better, guiding in the Grittier type of Moore Sci-Fi always wanted to create back when he was writing for Trek Star. But we are fortunate that the show has broadcast at all after Morgoning the first audiences he had ever seen.

With any luck, future sci-fi creators will learn some lessons of disastrous Moore Battlestar Galactica Test screens, which make two things very clear: a handful of fans don’t talk over audiences everywhere, and restarting is better dramatically different rather than re -reading the same tired material. Moore’s reboot did everything differently and was much more successful. Somehow, though, we suspect that anti-risk network operators will never be comfortable with such a method, which means we are destined for dirty restarts, sequins and prequels until the cylones are from the End (and graciously) comes to finish us all.