BSG’s version of Air Force One. Colonial One, transient home to the President of the Colonies, Laura Roslyn.
This is just one kick-ass design. The minute I saw it I was impressed. It’s just plain cool to look at. The design has a wonderful sense of reality about it, an absolute imperative on an absolutely grim show like BSG. I remember Gary telling me that the spaceliners which speckle the fleet were originally a design for Colonial One. They would have served well, but I think this final version of the erstwhile seat of Colonial government is the winner. It’s strong distinctive design sense resonates with fans of the show. It’s a hall of famer for sure.
Another smart decision on Gary Hutzel’s part: enlisting the services of illustrator Richard Livingston. BSG craved designs that didn’t look like Star Trek, or Star Wars, and that was Richard’s knack. Richard’s designs have a solid utilitarian form follows function feel. Gary wanted to shed what he referred to as “pixie-dust” technology, and he found that in Richard.
Richard has generously dug up some of his early design sketches for BSG. Fairly rare stuff, as BSG did not get the publishing treatment that Trek got. Over the coming weeks I’ll ration out a revealing helping of some more of Richard’s designs, including some comments from the man himself.
These are two of Pierre Drolet’s test renders of his aging down of Colonial One for the start of season three. You may recall the third season opening revealing that two years had passed on New Caprica under Cylon rule. Gary wanted to be sure that the land locked Colonial One reflected it’s two year tenure in the elements. The weathering job is masterful.
You’re right Doug. This design is neither Trek nor Wars and that does help BSG establish a unique identity for itself. It must be increasingly difficult with all the sci-fi shows out there now (I’m looking forward to seeing the Destiny from Stargate: Universe in full).
And it is a great shame, or is that crime, that BSG hasn’t had the publishing that Trek has. Any hope of a Galactica tech manual? I’d love to get a look at the bones and inner workings of that ship>
It is a shame. I’ve heard nothing of such a book being done.
Now that IS a shame!
I too would love to have something to give reference of places aboard the Galactica.
I’d imagine that it would be quite difficult to write a reliable Galactica tech manual. Writing the TNG tech manual was probably relatively easy, since it was based on a large collection of tech memos and even an existing writer’s tech manual. In case of Galactica, the writer would have to sit through every episode, contact all the various designers, have the necessary analytical skills etc. I’m not sure that even the most basic internal layout of Galactica actually exists, although Eric Chu did make a couple of comments on where he thought particular sets are located.
(This is just my impression from listening to Ron Moore’s comments about wanting to keep Galactica’s tech deliberately vague, so it could be fleshed out as needed by various stories.)
Boris, do you have any links to the comments by Eric Chu that you refer to? Aside from the hangar bays and the observation deck at the front of the ship I don’t think we got any clues for where various rooms were located.
Now that I look at it again, he only says where C&C is located in the post I was thinking of. However, this tells me he may have an idea about some of the other sets likewise – worth emailing about in the future.
http://www.mediablvd.com/forums/index.php?s=&showtopic=8278&view=findpost&p=232530
Thanks for that. Hmm. CIC is the one set I would’ve thought we could guess the location of (buried somewhere deep in the “head” section). Wouldn’t have imagined it was near the engines, but that’s an interesting viewpoint to hear.
I like the fact that BSG didn’t obsess over the technical details too much, as that obviously got quite out of hand in Trek at times. But there are some questions it would’ve been good to see addressed, like how the crew got about the ship. We only saw them walking through corridors and occasionally climbing ladders (in one case when Roslin was boarding Galactica from the docked Colonial One). Doug once mentioned that internal railway systems were used, which is a really cool idea. It’s a shame nothing like that was ever mentioned onscreen.
I don’t think an internal railway is used on Galactica, otherwise we would’ve seen it in action from time to time. Either all the major sets are relatively close by or Commander Adama likes to keep the crew well-exercised, same as viper pilots.
The closest I’ve seen so far was in the licensed role-playing game material published so far, which served more as a “cross-sections” overview of the major ship-settings of the first year or so: Galactica, Colonial One, Astral Queen, Cloud Nine and so on.
very nice. hope to see more BSG posts!
Having just finished the last of the bonus material after watching the complete series over the summer, I’m certainly looking forward to some BSG postings!!
I’ve always been impressed by the unique look of this ship (and several others in the show) as it looks like a sea-going vessel with the shape of the hull and overall lines…and it does make quite a stately impression!
It’s not exactly a technical manual on the order of Rick Sternbach’s, but Kevin Grazier is publishing a “Science of Battlestar Galactica” book next Spring. Grazier is a real-life rocket scientist and he served as the science and technical adviser on BSG. (Cool guy; I met him at DragonCon in Atlanta a couple of times.)
For some reason (legal, I suppose) we don’t get any special features on our BSG DVDs in the UK, so every morsel of behind the scenes info is much appreciated.
These shots of Colonial One just go to show the great attention to detail in the series. It seems BSG really built upon all the collective knowledge gained from Star Trek and other scifi projects. All the issues that had limited previous shows were identified and tackled. Ship exteriors that didn’t reflect the hardships they’d been through was a minor issue, but even that was given consideration.
This is fantastic, I’m a huge BSG fan so seeing anything BSG related is a pleasure. I’ll admit I was one of those people out there that was skeptical about the new BSG made when I found out there were doing a reboot and making Starbuck a women! Infact I suppose my lack of enthusium for the show actually helped knock me off my feet even more when I saw it!
I’ve alsways liked colonial one, especially the fact that it can actually dock inside Galactica as well. I think the series did a great job of sustaining the original BSG ragtag fleet feel whist at the same time having ships different enough that they didn’t look Trekish or Star Wars like. My only query is that with the final episode of Galactica, does that mean we could ever see and BSG throw backs in future star Trek productions, just for fun ofcourse, I mean honestly, just look at Data and think to yourself, all this has happened before, and it will happen again!
Data: Cylons done properly!
It really would be fantastic for BSG’s tech to get the same treatment that Trek got. Heck, even Star Wars got some books where they showed off the many ships that graced that universe.
Ship design in BSG was really fantastic! These designs really gave you a sense that this was a sort of rag-tag sort of fleet and one that really needed protection from Galactica. Fantastic work, Mr. Livingston!
Colonial One really is a beauty! I love how clean she looks in the beginning of the series, but by the end, you really can see the wear and tear on the ship that has made an incredible journey. The design is very presidential and fitting to be the place to hold the colonial government.
The ship is fairly good sized too! Of course, then I saw it land in one of Galactica’s flight pods and holy wow did that ever give me a sense of perspective on how massive Galactica is!
Colonial One was definitely one of the better ships on BSG. Good match of interior set to exterior design as well.
I guess I have a different conception of the pixie dust technology. I don’t know specifically what he’s referring to, other than making them look more akin to real life technology and not showing warp drives and things. But my thinking is that with the BSG ship, their jump drives are almost more magical than Trek’s warp drives. At least, when I look at the various ships, I mostly see all the sublight engines and no obvious structures responsible for FTL. On Star Trek, you almost always see the warp engines. It may be a completely made up technology, but it’s an attempt to portray a fantastic capability as a form of technology. We did end up seeing a jump drive engine room, on Galactica however….IIRC.
I don’t know how you would do a BSG tech manual since they tried so hard to never talk about technology. It’s one thing to complain about how much technobabble on Star Trek ends up in dialogue and driving plot, but the details that have been created in the universe are really fun to play around with. The various Trek reference books are so fun because, though a lot is created for the books to fill holes, most of it is straight out of episodes and thus “real” in the canon sense.
This is definitely the coolest ship on the show. And I love them all, so that’s saying a lot. The first time I saw it in the pilot, the realism of the ship struck me. Plus, I love how it changes call signs from Colonial Heavy 798 to Colonial 1, just like any aircraft carrying the President of the United States changes its call sign to Air Force One. That’s a cool scene.
And I’ve also gotta say that the textures on this ship are brilliant. But the same can be said for the whole fracking fleet.
Colonial One was always my favourite!
So many ships in the fleet- and she was dwarfed by pretty much all of them -but regardless, I loved that sexy ship.
Au
Oooo oooo ooooot!
For years! I have loved this ship at first sight and ALWAYS wondered whose noggin it came out of! Thanks Doug, for FINALLY clearing that up for me, eh! Just such a quintessentially cool design IMO, eh. So unique and odd-ball, and I LOVE odd-ball designs.
Bravo to your noggin and the imagination therein, Richard Livingston, Bravo!!
Gonna build C1 myself at some point.
LLP,
deg
Physical or digital modelling?
Wow…thanks for all those really nice comments!
I am blushing as I write this.
I had great fun working on the show (my contribution to the overall effort is miniscule) but I had a blast doing it!
Colonial one is my favorite too. I bought one of the garage kits a while back and a friend of mine (John Catapano) offered to build it up and do a custom paint job for me. He did a marvelous job too!
Before I sent it to him I followed the instructions and filled a sink with warm water and soap in order to clean the casting goop off the parts. When I set the hull in the water I couldn’t help but notice just what great sea keeping tendencies the hull was displaying!
I was pleased as punch that the design would also make a fairly decent boat as well!
Go figure….
Hi Ron,
It’s nice to hear that she’ll float, if need be.
I already mentioned that I liked that about her overall look in my earlier post.
You may think your contribution was miniscule; however, I politely disagree! The designs you created, and Pierre so adeptly brought to life, have become indellible identifiers of BSG.
Hi Dea, I believe that the model was built by Jose Perez. Subsequent weathering was done by Pierre.
By all means, let’s give credit where it’s due! Great job by Ron, Jose and Pierre.
Loved the views of Colonial One. I have to admit I’ve only seen one one episode of BSG but this ship was Air Force One from the moment I saw it. The front “hump” reminds me of the forward secton of a 747 and the paint on that hump creates the form of a 747 cockpit. I have a request. Is it possible to see an entry in the future of things that you anted to do or did do that may have not been 100% to your liking? Things the Killer B’s tossed and so on….
Thanks for the look at colonial One, Doug. The ship is a beauty and even though it is advanced it doesn’t look too far out there. One thing that I enjoyed was the passenger section reminded me of the Pan Am Orion clipper from 2001, and the interior cockpit looked very much like a 757 simulator.
Doug !!!
I remember a few months back asking you if you could post any images and/or schematics of the ships from BSG. At the time you were hesitant, so I thank you very kindly for posting this one about one of my fav BSG designs, the soon to be (if not already) Colonial One.
Great to read more about the great designs of Richard Livingston, and as always exciting to view ANY of Pierre Drolet’s work.
I share everyone else’s disappointment at reading there are no plan’s for books about the ships about BSG, but with Doug and his finger on the pulse of all things cgi at BSG (these acronysms are catchy!!) perhaps we will be privy to more tidbits of info.
Anyway, I too always got the impression tech info was kept “vague” so as to not take the focus from the story and the drama/characterisations, and i thinks this move worked well for BSG. Besides, it hasn’t stopped this fan of BSG from devising/creating some tech details on certain ships myself, and this is were the fun comes into it anyway (at least for me), just like with Trek, having one’s own imagination to “fill in the blanks” about details on ships and hardware.
Thanks for the post Doug, you are a gentleman and a scholar!!
Mark