René & Radka
Writer Ronald Moore has taken television to its most challenging places. In the 1990s, thanks to bleak multi-episode arcs on Star Trek: The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine, he earned a reputation as the go-to guy for war, despair, and Klingon angst in the Star Trek universe. He later ran the first season of HBO’s superweird Carnivàle, the saga of Depression-era carnies caught in a battle between magical avatars of good and evil. And then, in 2003, he scraped the 30-year-old cheese off Battlestar Galactica and rebuilt it into one of the best programs of the millennium—the plots were clever, the characters morally ambiguous, and the galaxy full of spaceships and killer robots.
But after Battlestar ended in 2009? Not much. A BSG prequel, Caprica, lasted a single season, and while science fiction and fantasy became pop-culture staples, Moore hasn’t had a show on the air in three years. Now, at last, he returns to TV with two dramas: the disease-outbreak show Helix on Syfy, and the Starz program Outlander, based on a series of time-travel romance books.
All that is good news, of course, but Moore jumps back into the showrunner’s chair in a TV universe where his signature moves—dark themes, moral relativism, and antiheroes—have become standard operating procedure. WIRED spoke with Moore about how he sees the world he helped shape and how he might change things yet again. Here are some highlights from that conversation.
What do you think has changed about TV since Battlestar ?
Moore: The number of choices. More and more outlets, more and more networks. You have Netflix as a player, Amazon is doing it too. They keep broadening the scope, which is really good for science fiction. When we first did Battlestar, there weren’t many outlets interested in doing that kind of programming. Now that there’s more content in general, all the networks—even the broadcast networks—are looking for ways to differentiate themselves, to program something that someone else isn’t. And there’s not a lot of science fiction out there.
There is, though. Once Upon a Time, Sleepy Hollow …
Sure, which is more fantasy than hardcore science fiction, but I take your point. Genre programming is out there.
Do you see Battlestar’s influence on the new crop?
I don’t know, to be honest. People who worked on Falling Skies told me they were influenced by the show, which was very flattering. Anecdotally I’ve had people saying, we used to love Battlestar and we’re using this or that element.
At a minimum it showed that you could have crazy, science-fictional situations but still have genuine emotions and believable characters.
I would be very happy if the show proved that you can take the genre seriously, that it doesn’t have to be just silly and escapist—you can play it honestly and play the characters truthfully. And that there’s an appetite for that approach.
Does Helix do that too? The science fiction part is about a scary virus of mysterious origins, right?
On a certain level it’s about a virus, but it’s also about what looks like science gone bad. And behind all that is a story about people striving to help humanity, and the price they’re willing to pay to achieve that goal.
And you’re doing Outlander for Starz. How’d you come to that?
My wife, Terry, and my producing partner, Maril Davis, are huge fans of the books. A few years back we were all having dinner in Vancouver, and we started discussing passion projects. Maril and Terry hadn’t talked to each other about the books before, and they said I should go off and read them. I love history and historical fiction, so I was immediately taken with them, and I thought, this is a television series. It took a while to get the rights, but eventually we persuaded Sony to acquire the rights and then pitched it to Starz, and Starz said yes. They said from the outset, we love the material, you don’t need to reinvent it. Make it for the fans, and everyone else will come along for the ride.
It worked with Game of Thrones.
Game of Thrones proves that. I had never read it. I just sat and watched it and was shocked when they cut Sean Bean’s head off. So, yeah, there are spoilers out there for these book series, but they don’t percolate up to the general audience. Having the books out there doesn’t spoil the experience.
You were one of the first showrunners to really interact with fans on the Internet, and now it’s almost a job requirement. Think you’ll do that again?
I’ll probably start doing that on Outlander. Things are different now. Twitter was a little after Battlestar, and when the studio asked me to start doing podcasts, I had never even heard that word. Now everyone does it. I remember what it was to be a fan and wanting to have contact with the people who are doing the work.
Some TV writers worry that the relationship can become too close. You start giving fans what they want instead of what they don’t expect.
I never worried about it back then. Outlander is slightly different in that we’re trying to realize something they already love. We do want to please people who have fallen in love with these books. That said—I said this during Battlestar—it’s not a democracy. I make the choices I think are the best creatively.
You won’t be keeping tabs on Twitter and Facebook while an episode is airing?
That’s a very skewed perspective, in my opinion. I would go online when Battlestar aired and people were liveblogging, but that’s a very small fraction of the audience, a very specific slice. I feel good about the decisions we make, and Diana Gabaldon, who wrote the books, reads the scripts. We talk, and if Diana thinks what we’re doing is OK, that’s good enough for me.
How have TV audiences changed since your last show? Are they better trained in terms of genre conventions?
You just have to make it convincing. If they like the people and they believe in the world, if it makes sense and they’re not saying, “That would never happen,” the audience will go anywhere you want to take them.
One thing that has changed, though, is viewing habits. They’re shifting under our feet. House of Cards changed the game. If you’re going to put a series out all at once, that’s a fundamentally different viewing experience. There’s not really a cliffhanger ending to any episode. They had one that was sort of a standalone, but other than that, all the episodes meld in my head into one big story. That’s a big difference.
You seem to be drawn mostly to genre material. Where did that come from?
Wild Wild West and Star Trek were two of my great loves. I watched both in syndication in the ’70s. Wild Wild West was really interesting, that combination of genres—a Western and secret agent, and they dabbled in the occult and paranormal. I really wanted to do a new version for CBS. I still think it’s a great property. Someday I hope to go back to it.
Is it true that you also worked on developing a live-action Star Wars show?
Yeah, I did. There was a team of writers that George Lucas put together, and we would go up and work at Skywalker Ranch every six or eight weeks. We would break stories with George and talk about Star Wars. I did a couple of scripts.
You can’t get off the hook that easily. What was it like?
It was fun; there were moments when I would catch myself arguing with George Lucas about what Darth Vader would or would not do. Because you’re in a writers’ room, and you go back and forth. You’re telling the man, “I don’t think Darth Vader would do that.” And he says, “Yes, he would.” And you go, “Oh. Maybe he would, then.”
The Voyages of Ronald Moore
His mission: to explore strange new worlds. Here’s a warp-speed tour of Moore’s ever-expanding universe. —Jason Kehe
Star Trek (1989-1999) Over the course of the ’90s, Moore wrote 59 episodes for The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, and Voyager. He also worked on Star Trek videogames (Borg, Klingon) and movies (First Contact, Generations).
Roswell (2000-2002) A decade on Star Trek gave Moore impeccable sci-fi bona fides. So when execs at the WB decided that Roswell needed a stronger alien presence, Moore was hired as the show’s number two guy.
Dragonriders of Pern (2002) The biggest not-quite of Moore’s career: Network overlords grounded his TV version of Anne McCaffrey’s beloved, never-adapted books just days before the pilot was set to start filming.
Carnivàle (2003) Carnies, revivalist preachers, and cryptic dreams: just HBO being HBO. Moore ran the first season of Carnivàle for creator Daniel Knauf before leaving the dust bowl for the Galactica.
Battlestar Galactica (2003-2009) Moore’s classic reboot of the original ’70s show is four seasons (plus extras) of space opera, political allegory, and OMG-what- if-my-favorite-character-is-a-Cylon. Sadly, the spinoff prequel, 2010’s Caprica, burned up on reentry—frak!
Outlander (2014) After years in deep space, Moore is finally back on his home planet. Outlander, based on Diana Gabaldon’s fantasy romance books, time-travels through distant—and not-so-distant—Scotland.
Helix (2014) First a Cylon invasion, now an outbreak of a deadly disease. Poor mankind just can’t escape Moore’s sinister, invisible threats.
Star Wars TV series (2014?) Moore was part of a top-secret team of writers selected by George Lucas to develop a live-action Star Wars TV show. Could 2014 be the year we finally see the results?
From top: Photofest (3); Ed Miller/Sony; Philippe Bosse/Syfy
