Actor, writer, producer, and perhaps...visionary? Richard Hatch wears all these hats quite well. Known for his involvement in both incarnations of Battlestar Galactia (as Apollo in the 1970s version, and Tom Zarek in the recent reboot) he has often spoken about these two roles. Yet he’s done a lot of other interesting things and may have an idea where science fiction on our television is going in the future.

Back in 1999, Richard Hatch took a chance and financed a trailer which was proposed to be a sequel to the 1970s Battlestar Galactia. That trailer – Battlestar Galactica: The Second Coming was innovative at the time because no one had done a trailer as a pitch. Furthermore, a lot of the special effects work was done with people assisting him on their home computers.

Given the technology and software available in 2012, and with ideas like crowd sourcing and crowd funding, some of the projects that fans have done recently is amazing. I asked Richard what the impact will be on science fiction in television. "I think what’s going to happen more and more is the networks and studios...are really going to have to compete with people from all walks of life producing their own shows. Some of them will have a small audience, some of them will have a large audience. They’ll have a pipeline – a way to reach a larger network of people, so instead of an executive in a boardroom making the decision about the success or failure of a show, it’ll be the number of people watching and the particular business model someone is using."

Richard used the TV series Firefly as an example. It had about 5 million fans on the Fox network and they dropped it.  These same fans will go to a convention and spend $100, $200 on autographs or memorabilia in a day. In theory, they could spend $10 a month buying anything Firefly. $10 times 5 million is $50 million which could easily produce an unending stream of Firefly episodes. Yet the networks don’t operate that way – they have their own bureaucracy and benchmarks of the number of viewers required to make or break a show. "Under different business models, you don’t have to reach everybody to be highly successful."

The potential for this is huge. "There will be people with the technology, the equipment...the ability to do all kinds of incredible things from their home – you know when I was doing my trailer, what George Lucas had to do for months and months and months in their studio with special effects workers we can do at home on the home computer."

Now, people who may have other daytime jobs are learning this technology. They come home and they work on a film as a hobby. They’re making films for YouTube and depending on how many viewers they have, they are getting some payment from YouTube for making their videos. "Again, there’s millions of ways for people, for laymen, the person who couldn’t get through the pipeline to now find a way to make money and to do something that they love doing." They could be living anywhere - they don’t have to be in Hollywood or even plugged into the traditional Hollywood distribution grid.

Web series are a start in that direction, and while Richard knows people may look down their nose at this type of distribution, "honestly, the studios and networks are looking at web series, because web series are not only going to play on your computer they’ll play on your TV. And what’s the difference? If you see programming you see programming. However it’s orchestrated or however it’s put together, still you’re going to watch it the same way." By way of example: it was recently announced the prequel series Battlestar Galactica: Blood and Chrome will be made into a web series.

What has also changed as we’ve watched science fiction evolve over the past 30 years is the move away from the bright shiny fantasy world to perhaps a grittier, darker style in many series. Richard thinks different themes now have room to be expressed – in the past writers and producers may have had to make a style of science fiction that could appeal to the largest audience. "Programming had to be more in the box, more square, serving the generic larger picture. With the new...models that are evolving on networks they’re realizing they don’t have to serve everybody, they can also serve smaller niche market places and still generate money from all the ancillary markets. Merchandising, games toys...there’s all kinds of ways of generating revenue. I think the advent of cable and programming that was edgier and more provocative really challenged the networks to realize the audience was smarter than they expected or thought. The audience was demanding less fantasy, more realism."

Programming has gone in that direction to hold a mirror up to society. This means we are seeing multi-dimensional characters where the drama arises from these flawed but human personas – sometimes they make the right choice, sometimes not. "We’re re-defining what it means to be a hero...sometimes the hero has fallen into the abyss like the prodigal son and struggled to find his way back. Even if he doesn’t make it back - the struggle, the heroism, the courage to try to make it back creates a new kind of hero."

As an idea of a new hero, Richard would have no problem with including a gay or lesbian character into the mix. "I think humanity is terrified of sexuality, and they put labels on it and try to put it into boxes.  Most people probably have no clue what their real sexuality is because they’ve got so many biases and prejudices and fears and issues in the way they would never even go down that road of discovery. For me, characters should run the gamut."

Richard finds it amazing: the fear alternate sexuality brings up in people. "I embrace all walks of life...whatever buddy wants to do, let them do it as long as they’re not hurting somebody. I do think a really good show needs to embrace all the elements that make us human, otherwise, for me it’s not real."

In his opinion, if a realistic display of differing sexual orientations is illustrated on a television show, the better that show is. Richard gave the example of Spartacus where yes, there was a lot of hedonism and violence, but the characters are very well rounded and fascinating. There are gay characters on it, but no one makes a big deal about it. "It’s just part of the tapestry of the drama, and it’s an amazing show."

But speaking of bias and prejudice, the science fiction genre faces its own struggles against those who are pre-judged against it. "It always seems to me that the powers that be can’t wait to get a (sci-fi themed) show off. Even from the beginning with Battlestar (1970s version)...after day one we reached 65 million, we were five in the top ten, they were already pulling the budget back...People that don’t get it, they don’t support it and they don’t understand why other people like it. Even though business is business...personal bias and prejudice does come into decision making."

It’s not all bad news, though. Sometimes a show will survive low number of viewers because "...a network executive loves a show, believes in it, and leaves it on even with low numbers. Ultimately, many times that show in its second or third year fights its way up the top and becomes a hit."

Unfortunately, in Richard’s experience, sci-fi shows tend not to have as many champions fighting for them. "Even though sci-fi makes more money than any other genre – for some reason, the executives (most of them) don’t seem to get it or understand a sci-fi audience. Whenever they can pick a show off, they do." Often if given a choice between two shows pulling in the same numbers of viewers, they will cancel a sci-fi show, with the justification that the costs are too high. This happens even on networks devoted to the genre (i.e. the Syfy channel in the States).

"On the new Battlestar...they were just in a hurry to take it off because they said the ratings were dropping. Well, I’ve travelled the world the last four years. I’m telling you every time I travelled the audience is bigger. Not only that, everywhere I talked I realized people...don’t watch the Syfy channel...they have so many commercials they not only double bite you with charging you a premium price for the channel, but then they fill it with so many commercials." Many viewers watched it on iTunes, or otherwise downloaded it; they watched it on DVD when it came out or they use TIVO or other personal video recorders. "People were watching it in ways that weren’t being registered."

This is something the fans have noticed, and hopefully as Richard continues to discuss this with attendees at conventions, it will inspire people to get out there and create their own science fiction dramas, and perhaps distribute it themselves.

In the meantime, Richard is not sitting still. He recently finished directing White Wings, a 1920s period piece about a woman who’s trying to find her own direction in life at a time when women were still suppressed. As well, he’s playing a priest in Dead by Friday, a movie about four wannabe mobsters who get in way over their head. He’s still working on his own project – The Great Wars of Magellan – which includes novels and several graphic novels, and they will be launching the Battlestar Galactica social network at BattlestarGalactica.com over the next couple weeks.

"It’s going to be like a Facebook for Battlestar where everybody can come over and hang out and live in that world." Ongoing, he also works doing acting workshops, relationship workshops, and among other things, cruise adventures – one going down to the Mayan Riviera. Best of all for those of us in Calgary, we’ll get a chance to see and talk to Richard at this year’s Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo – hopefully he’ll expand even more on some of his experiences and ideas for the future.

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Contributor Evan Kayne |

Locale Calgary |

Person Richard Hatch |

Topic Battlestar Galactica | Calgary Expo | Celebrity Interview | Comic Expo |