last night at the dome

Wednesday night was a rare treat – as part of their endeavor to increase visibility of Battlestar  during Emmy judging season, Sci-Fi Channel had an advance screening of Friday night’s mid-season finale, “Revelations,” at the Cinerama Dome in Hollywood.  More pictures and totally spoiler-free coverage inside…

This was the lineup outside the dome at about 6pm; fans had been waiting countless hours for a chance to grab seats not taken by the press or VIPs (in this case, the VIPs were members of the Emmy-voting community or the crew of the show, many of whom were in attendance).  Below you can see writer/producer David Weddle (left) and, looming at center behind him, writer/co-executive producer Mark Verheiden:

Before you start rolling your eyes at us Hollywood types for just waltzing in and grabbing seats so rightly deserved by fans, as far as I’m aware everyone got in (the Dome is a big place).  Those brave enough were able to grab a photo with the chief of security, pictured here (click for bigness):

Ron Moore welcomed the packed house and literally had everyone raise their right hand and swear not to spread the secrets revealed in the episode.  And what secrets they were!  Especially the part where – oh wait, you still haven’t seen it yet.  Well, you’ll find out in 24 hours.  It’s a great episode, and I daresay it will be revered as one of the highlights of the series.  Even folks who have been iffy about this season were blown away, happily taking advantage of the much-needed booze afterwards to absorb and discuss the events of the last hour.  But before the mad dash for free drinks, Mr. Moore and several members of the cast were invited to the stage to discuss the show and take questions from the audience:

From left: Katee Sackhoff, Mary McDonell, Tricia Helfer and Ron Moore

All expressed great affection for the show, which is currently shooting the two three hour finale.  Rather than being sad to see it end, the general consensus was a feeling of pride to have been part of such a incredible, unique series.  Mary told of her visit the set of Caprica, where she said the cast reverently views the BSG team as “their parents.”  Ron went into a bit of detail about the fluidity of writing the show, explaining that many of the big decisions about where the story (and characters) would end up were arrived at not necessarily with preconceived notions, but by letting the show itself guide him as it evolved. 

Much to the delight of the crowd, it was revealed that the potential DVD movies are still in play, and while the cameras are not quite ready to roll yet, fans should remain optimistic.  The cast then watched “for your consideration” Emmy clips projected directly behind them, creating an eerie moment in which they all looked as if they were on board a Cylon Baseship:

Everyone then shuffled out to partake of the complimentary booze and talk about how awesome it was to see the show projected in hi-def on such a giant screen (judging by this and past events, I wouldn’t be surprised if we had another chance at communal viewing for the series finale).

One last bit of news… composer Bear Mcreary teased me with a hint that die-hard original series fans have a “present” coming to them, hidden somewhere in the last ten shows.   Tomorrow I’m going to do a little digging and see where his trail of bread crumbs leads…

More on this story as it develops!