DPP: The Passage!...Now with added WTF?!

[callmeonetrack.livejournal.com]

So a very awesome birdie just shared the early draft of a script of The Passage with me. I was hoping the scene I’d heard talked about on podcasts where Kara and Lee talk about their relationship while bouncing a pyramid ball against the wall was in there. But it wasn’t, so perhaps that was just a writer’s room idea, or something they wrote and filmed later but didn’t use.

What’s interesting, in fact, is that the scenes they do have are very strange in that they’re almost completely devoid of UST. Instead they seem to have gone back to being best buds, a la Season 2, but…more platonic?

The stage directions keep stressing how together/in unison/partners Kara and Lee are throughout this script. Lots of little notes about them catching each others’ eyes and silently communicating, around the other pilots (which Kat notices a lot). They’re very “mom and dad” to the pilots in fact in this one. Witness:

Kara looks to Lee for confirmation. Kat watches the exchange. She doesn't like something about it. Maybe it's the fact that Lee is considered the authority here. Or maybe it's the easy non-verbal communication these two share.

KAT
Right. Because you two are the
only ones with access to the truth.

She gets up and THUMPS the list on the wall with her fist--striking at Lee's name and the CAG title.

KAT (Cont’d)
My name was up here a lot longer
than yours, not too long ago. But
that don't mean frak, 'cuz you're
the CAG and you're the favorite
and you two catch the truth as
it drops out of Daddy's mouth.
Me, I don't know nothing. Got it.

And there’s a lot of anvilicious lip service to Kara and Lee practically sharing the job of CAG and leaving Kat out in the cold even though she did the job longer.

Lee and Kara enter and approach Adama, busy at his desk. The bowl of ice is there again too. Adama doesn't even look up looks displeased. They pick up the vibe, tell each other about it with a look. After a beat of them standing there like Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee ...

ADAMA
I only sent for you, Apollo.

LEE
I thought Starbuck should join us,
sir. None of us is at our best,
and she's been CAG, too.

Later in the same scene:

ADAMA
…That make sense to you, CAG?

Apparently Kara forgets which one of them that is, because:

LEE / KARA
Yes sir.

And even later in the script, when Kara busts Kat’s secret identity, there’s this:

KAT
Are you going to tell the admiral?

KARA
That’s a question for the CAG.

KAT
Kara, you are the CAG. You and Lee
are one person right now. Everyone
knows that.

Kara’s turn to be shocked. She didn’t know anyone saw it.

So “one person” and all seems like they’re pretty together right? But…um… I don’t know! Their vibe is so platonic! Because there’s also this scene. This is the chewing gum scene that inspired Shah’s challenge fic. It’s so strange…

INT. GALACTICA - TRAINING AREA

Kara and Lee, dressed for working out but not sweaty at all, sit on the floor, leaning against the wall. They chew gum. An old tattered magazine lies on the floor next to Kara.

LEE
Athena said it was hard, just
keeping hold of the controls
in there.

KARA
Well, we're stronger than her.

LEE
No, we aren't. She's a Cylon.

KARA
Oh, right. Well, another hour,
we'll find out. You want more?

She tears a piece off a magazine. They're not chewing gum.

LEE
No. Gods, I can't believe
we even tried this.

They both spit out their wads of paper, laughing.

KARA
I gotta go.

LEE
What? Is this because I wouldn't
chew any more …
(reads off magazine)
Hot Looks for Summer?

Kara's already on her feet, grabbing her bag.

KARA
Sam wants me to stop by before we
launch. They've got him billeted with
some civilian officials and he's bored
to tears. He says they're so used to
routine, they all still sit down at
night to not eat their I-don't-
got-no-dinner.

She laughs, making Lee laugh, and she exits. Missing her already, he looks at his watch, time to kill.

Doesn’t this just seem so weird? For things to be so hunky-dory? I mean Kara references going to see Sam offhandedly (after she was just saying in UB very bitterly that Lee didn’t give them a billet together!) and Lee laughs about it, and then the scene immediately after this has Lee wandering off to Dogville, and finding Dee and being happy he came to see her and they have a “nice moment” (and there’s a forehead brush, which is just wrong!) and…it’s just so strange! Especially if the next episode K/L are making out furiously in the raptor. Does not compute!

I mean granted it was Espenson’s first script and maybe it was a first draft (I haven’t watched The Passage in ages and a lot of this script seems different from what I remember happening), but this dynamic seems so odd for them here. It just doesn’t seem to fit. The last scene in the script is Kara putting Kat’s pic up on the wall and Lee just comes and stands beside her. That’s all.

Anyway, yeah, so this wasn’t as shippy as I expected but I thought you all would be curious to hear about it. It seems to me that the actors, as we already knew, really brought so very much more to the roles than what was in the scripts. And less was definitely more in this case. Maybe it was good their interaction between UB and EOJ was left to our imaginations!



Comments

[rayruz.livejournal.com]

I could imagine it coming across as strained, that last scene. Katee and Jamie could pull it off... words mean nothing. Subtext is everything. I don't think that scene is necessarily hunky dory. I mean, I guess it could be performed that way, but that would be crappy directing. And if he's going to find Dee after the stage direction "time to kill" it doesn't sound like it's his first choice of things to do.

[ninjamonkey73.livejournal.com]

I love Espenson and all, but seriously? They're one person, but in a non-UST way? And OK with Sam and Dee? And then EoJ? I already wanted to see how we got from UB to EoJ, but had those scenes aired, I would have needed way more to make the transition make sense. Even if the director and/or Jamie and Katee poured on the UST in the scenes as written. Very interesting... How does one go about getting early drafts to read? Huh, huh? How? :)

[(Anonymous)]

I have to say I quite like it, but mainly as a first step. To show how much at ease and happier they both are when they're friends again and living in each others pockets. I love Kat's line about them being one person!
But to make sense with the next episode there would have had to be a couple of steps in between, like them working and laughing together in close proximity and suddenly realising how close they really are and starting to kiss or something like that, idk.

The nonchalance about Sam, I can't see Katee and Jamie playing it that way at that stage, but maybe it was a very early draft and they weren't planning on going the affair route?

Having said that I never really liked Espenson's eps (wasn't the Tigh/Six/Ellen triangle and miscarriage her doing?), and I don't think the kind of humor here is quite right for BSG.

[ninjamonkey73.livejournal.com]

Yeah, you may be right about the humor not being right. I say above that I love Espenson, but I didn't actually mean her BSG stuff, necessarily. When my husband and I watched Buffy on DVD, I used to laugh at how often I could spot the Espenson eps by banter and not the credits. In retrospect, her schtick maybe isn't so post-apocalyptic. Well, it was Buffy post-apocolyptic, but Buffy was always irreverent.

[(Anonymous)]

I think other than the horrible "god orchestrates everything" lazy ass ending, I hated Six's miscarriage storyline most of S4, so Espenson really didn't make a good impression on me. But I hear she was better on Buffy and I guess a lot of those decision weren't necessarily her idea.

[thrace-adama.livejournal.com]

Oh, so THAT was the surprise--awesome! I love those little birdies. :)

All the stuff about them being one person was great! Love it. Reminds me of my favorite scene in Pegasus, when they find out they're getting transferred and start arguing with Adama at the same time. So adorable.

As for that last scene...it was weird, but idk, I'm guessing it was all written that way as a fakeout before their extracurricular sextivities were revealed in the next ep. And while I agree with Ray that Katee and Jamie would probably have made it their own anyway and thrown in lots of hidden meaning, I am glad we didn't have to hear about them joking about how K. was going to visit Anders. Though it is kinda funny that they obviously spent lots of time chewing "gum" together and talking and not working out in their workout clothes before deciding to just "stop by" and visit the spouses. That says a lot about things right there! As always, they're each other's Number 1.

[latteaddict.livejournal.com]

Katee and Jamie can heat up a room with just a look, they're good at being very intense and I imagine every scene would've been layered with the angst of the previous episode. But if they were specifically directed to not have UST, to act just like co-workers or whatever, I can see that too.

I remember a podcast where Tahmoh talks about the different directors and how some directors knew the show and the characters and encouraged continuity, while others simply came in for the one directing job and literally forced them to act out of character (that's the gist of what he said, it was years ago that I listened to it). Add to that the fact we all know episodes are often written in and of themselves without that gift of subtle character continuity and depending on who's writing it, Lee and Kara are pining for each other or angst free buddies. BTW, I used to think Jane Espenson wrote the absolute worst BSG eps (until Ron wrote Daybreak). She gave us Kat the double life faker and the webisodes about Gaeta the bisexual, morpha addicted Cylon murderer. And let's not forget the Cylon foetus who dies if one of its parents look the other way.

But thanks for sharing the script excerpts. I love seeing titbits like that.

Oh, and Adama's reaction to Kara being in the room just reminds me that he had still recently disowned Kara as a daughter. Man, I hate so much how he glomps all over Kat making her feel like she was the daughter he never had. Makes his words to Kara cheap when he finally allows her to be his daughter again. *humph*

[cosetteferaud.livejournal.com]

Oh, those birdies of yours are awesome! Thanks for sharing! And yeah, this seems a little bit weird, especially Sam reference and that Lee/Dee scene (kinda surreal, right?) I am ok with them trying to rebuild their friendship after UB --I love this K/L being "one"--, but all the platonic vibe without a hint of UST, I don’t get it, it makes no sense.

It seems to me that the actors, as we already knew, really brought so very much more to the roles than what was in the scripts.

Agree. The saddest thing is that it seems that they never really realized what a gem they had with these two.

[rdave1.livejournal.com]

I love these little snippets! I was shaking my head as I was reading this. To me it almost seems like they are putting bits and pieces together that they want to but all of that put together is not cohesive. Kara and Lee being affectionate towards their respective spouses just seems out of place.

I did like the part about Kara and Lee being "one". It is them, they were on the same wavelength about many things.

Thanks to Jamie and Katee, we probably got more then what was ever on paper.

[jeebs83.livejournal.com]

I can kind of see how this would fit in to the end of The Passage and the beginning of their affairs. I bet this was meant to show a slow build-up of their friendship and romantic relationship again, and how at this point they really can't have one without the other.

[scifishipper.livejournal.com]

I was pretty much on board until the Sam comment. I don't feel like any of this dialogue is that much different from a lot of their other dialogue (boring stuff about supply runs and mission parameters). I agree with the others, it's what they are saying, it's the intense UST the actors portray when they're around each other. The direction, editing and camera work fill in the USTy goodness, too. The Sam line is puzzling - as if somehow they're all hunky dory with their respective marriages. Not!

And you know as soon as he found her at the memorial wall it was ON!

My favorite line: You and Lee are one person right now. Everyone knows that. Yes. TRUFAX.

[shah-of-blah.livejournal.com]

Hmm, I think I quite like this, actually. The "you are one person!" is a little over-the-top, but I like the idea of Kara forgetting who's CAG. The way I see it, now that they've made up, they're fooling themselves into thinking that they're just friends. But as Spike would say (sorry, I've got Buffy on the mind) they'll never be friends. I can see the Sam moment illuminating that. Because it makes sense for Kara to be visiting Sam, but I also imagine her being awkward about telling Lee about it. And Lee being awkward right back, here in the pre-cheating stage.

And I love the chewing paper scene. I just think it's a brilliant idea. Although I don't know what I would have done if I'd read this before writing the fic.

[rayruz.livejournal.com]

Hilariously enough... this was one of my first K/L LJ banners

http://i47.tinypic.com/2vkjp4y.png

[scifishipper.livejournal.com]

Nice! and EXACTLY! The writer's can't reduce them to friendship - can't work. Too much history and UST and angst and passion and love.

[shah-of-blah.livejournal.com]

Well, it is very fitting for them!

[ecstaticdance.livejournal.com]

this dynamic seems so odd for them here. It just doesn’t seem to fit.

I kinda wonder if that's why it was cut... because it really wouldn't have fit. All of it, even the stuff from Kat. At least, not together. Kat's comments are how things should have been between the two of them, and probably would have if not for the plot devices of Dee and Sam, but at that point, with what had gone before and what was now happening? No. I do think this stuff was cut from the script with very good reason.

[callmeonetrack.livejournal.com]

I agree. I think... the more I hear about stuff that almost or was supposed to go in...the more I'm glad it didn't when it comes to K/L.

I mean not always, but usually.

[ninety6tears.livejournal.com]

To me, it comes off as "What can we do with K & L that's relevant to the rest of the episode?" which turned into this whole CAG issue that's important with Kat, which they probably eventually cut because it didn't really flow with where the relationship is at this point.
I'm going to, you know, come off like some kind of total idiot and say this: When I first saw "Unfinished Business," I thought they were making up as friends, and that the rest might come later. So weirdly enough, this is the type of stuff I expected to get, just them getting quickly back into the swing of working well together. Still, I think there's something inherently shippy about how Kat clearly thinks they're always going to be on the same wavelength and stuck at the hip, cause you know people around the ship aren't oblivious to the tension between them at that point.
What bothers me the most about the spouses is that there's just no way there wouldn't already be some tensions at home. I adore this little scene of them chewing on paper. It's funny and comfortable. I do feel the need to remind you guys that Sam and Kara's marriage is not really a marriage at this point and they haven't even resolved to work on it, so even though I'm not sure if they'd be in a good place, I can see her occasionally spending time with Sam mostly because he doesn't have that many people in general he can talk to. Dee, on the other hand, no. I'm pretty sure Lee would be in the doghouse hardcore right now.
As any kind of linear continuation of what happened in UB, though, these scenes are just strange.

[(Anonymous)]

No I thought they were making up as friends too, I was totally surprised by the raptor outmaking. As such I think this draft isn't that far off, but needed different stage directions. Katee and Jamie could have put the right spin on it with lingering looks and so on.
Especially after the last scene I get a regretful vibe from Lee.

[callmeonetrack.livejournal.com]

As any kind of linear continuation of what happened in UB, though, these scenes are just strange.

Well, this is my point. It doesn't fit after what they just went through and it doesn't fit as a lead up to the insane sexual tension/relationship in the beginning of EOJ, esp. timeline-wise if that's like a day after this? You know?

Again it's like writing the characters/show in a bubble. Which is so strange to me.

[damao2010.livejournal.com]

I agree with both you and Anonymous. I thought they were making up as friends and that is the kind of scene that would show that. However, we all know they could never be just friends, and, deep down, they knew it too. So I believe they would have tried to sail safe waters and any mention of their spouses (especially Sam)would have brought on awkard silences or pauses. The little joke in the end would be perfect to sort of difuse the moment. They didn't need to have cut this out. But they sure should have give us a hint about when things changed again. I also agree with you about Kara and Sam's relationship at that point. As for Lee and Dee, I don't think he would have behaved in such a loving, cute way by that point. I think that scene would have been over the top (unless he was trying to convince himself that he really loved Dee and he and Kara were just friends).

[amaliak.livejournal.com]

I actually prefer thatwe don't know how it all happened. I mean, there's nothing better than watching the first minutes of EOJ when out of nowhere they are just MAKING OUT and I still get all fluttery because it's a delightful surprise (and it's HOT).

These scenes seem...I don't know if maybe they could have worked later? Still, I like that the writers were trying to rapidly pull Lee and Kara back into the beauty of season 2, but too much had happened for it to be really believable at this level.
Thanks for sharing, Tara!
cheers.
--Lex

[ddt73.livejournal.com]

As you say this was an early draft, so perhaps when written Jane was aware of what was going down in Unfinished Business.

It seems to give a very mixed message, on one hand they seem to be very much in tune, but yet they never embrace and make time for their spouses.

Though reading the part where Kara tells Lee about going to see Sam, the thing to note is a)she told him she was b)by joking seems to make seem like not a big deal.

As far as the L&D stuff. I'm not sure how to take it. Perhaps the idea is to show Lee being nice to Dee out of guilt? Really would go by how it's played.

In this eppy the idea is that Lee and Kara aren't sure how to proceed now, which is why on one hand they are closer then ever, but yet still going through the motions with their spouses. The scene where they bounce the ball off the wall makes this point more clearly. Probably why it was written.

Also at the end of the eppy, after Kara puts up the pic they shot where she turns around and runs into Lee's arms, and that's where it fades to black.

Seems to me that the L&K ship was initially a major plot point in the eppy, but was trimmed back for the Kat stuff. It's really a shame that it didn't make the eppy, or at the very least got some of the scenes on DVD.