06: The Magnificent Warriors

Eric Paddon · December 29th, 2004, 09:52 PM

This thread will be for discussion on changes etc. on adapting episode #6 "The Magnificent Warriors" and conforming the story to a continuous season arc storyline.

Senmut · February 21st, 2005, 10:44 PM

We neded jingling spurs and guitar music in this one.

SpyOne · March 16th, 2005, 06:35 AM

Again, this episode goes pretty well as-is.
Some of the humor of Siris Bellaby is a little dated (heck, was dated when it aired), but overall it makes out pretty well.

Some of the premise is cheesy, but this is one of those "embrace the cheese or dump the episode" moments.

Eric Paddon · March 23rd, 2005, 06:56 PM

This particular episode I think I set a record for in terms of time it took to do an adaptation. That was chiefly because of the fact it was the first one I did after the DVD set came out and this altered the way I normally do these things. When I want to retain the dialogue and scenes from the original episode, the episode is on my VCR and I pause and rewind a million times to accurately transcribe the scene and also accurately regard the gestures and motions and tone. Sometimes, when a story took months to write that in effect meant it took months to actually watch a single episode!

But with DVDs you can not leave things at your last stopping point for months, even with chapter search functions so that meant the sooner I got through this one the better!

Key Change #1
-Provide some believable context regarding the Cylon attack at the beginning, especially in keeping this story set not long after the events of GOIPZ. I posited that in the haste to get away from Baltar's pursuing force at the end of GOIPZ, a patrol then detects a listening post that Adama feels he has to take out fast because if he stops to skirt around it, it runs the risk of the pursuit force dogged in GOIPZ catching up. As a result of this engagement, the Agroship damage and destruction takes place.

Key Change #2
-Bellaby's attitude regarding the energizer. Instead of treating it in the completely comical way the episode does (hard to avoid this when you've got Brett Somers in the role for goodness sake!), I added a bit of a serious thing where Bellaby knows that if Adama were to arrest her for not turning over the Energizer, she could be in a position to humiliate Adama publicly with key Council members who are likely friends of hers. And Adama knows this, so that's why he feels he has no choice but to demean himself by agreeing to "court" her.

Key Change #3
-The existence of Serenity Colony this far out into space. Building on what I did in Long Patrol by saying the Fleet is now in the "Alpha Quadrant" of space and past the Colonial Frontier but not at the end of Charted Space, this is an enclave of human settlement from before the war broke out and has remained relatively isolated since then like many other pockets of humanity.

Key Change #4
-I added something to the Constable's shield Starbuck wins concerning the language written on it. Bogan says that it's the language of the first inhabitants of the planet who've "moved on". At the end of the story, Adama recognizes the language as Kobollian and realizes that the first inhabitants of Serenity, those who were living on the planet at the time the main colony was established by humans who came out from the Colonies, were descendants of the original Kobollian travelers journeying to Earth who fell off the journey and forgot their origins once they assimilated in with the later human settlers. But seeing the Kobollian writing allows the story to end with Adama confidant that he's still proceeding in the right direction even if he hasn't found the coordinates for Earth that he won't get until WOTG.

Senmut · March 23rd, 2005, 07:08 PM

Eric, chuck whatever it is you're doing now, and become a screen writer! Hear me???

SpyOne · March 24th, 2005, 06:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Eric Paddon

This particular episode I think I set a record for in terms of time it took to do an adaptation. That was chiefly because of the fact it was the first one I did after the DVD set came out and this altered the way I normally do these things. When I want to retain the dialogue and scenes from the original episode, the episode is on my VCR and I pause and rewind a million times to accurately transcribe the scene and also accurately regard the gestures and motions and tone. Sometimes, when a story took months to write that in effect meant it took months to actually watch a single episode!

But with DVDs you can not leave things at your last stopping point for months, even with chapter search functions so that meant the sooner I got through this one the better!

I don't know any specifics, but apparently there is software out there that will read the Closed Captioning off a video signal, and I assume it could do the same for subtitles on a DVD. (Assuming you have a DVD with subtitles in English or a tape with Closed Captioning.) There was a guy who'd put up a weekly review of Voyager using captured dialogue.
I sincerely hope this will work, both to speed your work and because I'd really like a copy of the complete original dialogue.

repcisg · March 25th, 2005, 09:44 PM

Some nice detailing there, keep going.

Senmut · January 13th, 2006, 09:45 PM

Did you make use of any of the additional footage in crafting your adaptations?

Eric Paddon · January 13th, 2006, 10:08 PM

Actually "Magnificent Warrirors" is the one episode in the series that had no additional footage available in the DVD set.

peter noble · January 14th, 2006, 01:39 PM

Can you actually improve MW, arguably the worst episode of the series?

Best,

Peter

Eric Paddon · January 14th, 2006, 02:35 PM

Well, I like to think I was able to!

Once I adopted the four changes I outlined in post #4, it was easy to proceed. (And I would still rate the episode higher than EIT)

peter noble · January 14th, 2006, 03:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Eric Paddon

Well, I like to think I was able to!

Once I adopted the four changes I outlined in post #4, it was easy to proceed. (And I would still rate the episode higher than EIT)

Really?

Maybe it's time we organised another favourite episode poll!

Eric Paddon · January 14th, 2006, 04:01 PM

Separate "Favorite Episode" and "Worst Episode" polls perhaps? A Favorite Episode poll I think almost inevitably has the same top 5 with the only suspense being the placement order (Saga, LPOTG, LL, WOTG, HOG) but there are usually more surprises in the Worst one.

Senmut · February 21st, 2009, 09:03 PM

Where be the polls, y'all?

Bah! Borays!!