With Razor now on DVD, it's the perfect time to see how one of the principle cast members, Jamie Bamber, felt about the film. In this, the first of a series of excerpts from a recent press conference (Kindly provided to us by Sky One), he explores it's role in the series' overall arc and indeed the series to date.

(Eric): Could you talk a little bit about, you know, what the dynamic is like for him in Razor since he is just taking over Pegasus?

Jamie Bamber: Yeah. I mean, I remember it being one of the sort of pivotal moments in playing Lee - was that moment where he sort of puts on his father’s work clothes and takes the helm of the Pegasus in a crisis, which is the episode “Captain’s Hand,” which we made back in Season Two -- which was, you know - was one of those crazy moments where I really did feel like the character has that goosebumps all over sort of thing where he’s become his dad. So there’s sort of this difficult figure in his life that he kind of envied, looked up to, admired, worshipped, and also had a great many problems with - a man who he felt distant from and didn’t really understand, and felt was disconnected with his own upbringing and his own life. So, you know, to get the chance in Razor to sort of flesh out that process with him gradually assuming command was really fun and really interesting because it was - you know, it was a quick thing when we shot it as part of the season. So it was nice to take a bit of time to sort of really look at how Pegasus was different and, you know, what that meant for Lee - and trying to sort of get the crew on board. And, you know, obviously in Razor there’s this very significant other character -- new character -- called Kendra Shaw who represents the old Pegasus that has to be won over, and that’s largely what the story is about for Lee - is sort of gaining the respect of a crew that’s had its own leaders fall and get questioned by this other Battlestar. And we’ve seen it from Galactica’s POV and now it’s time to see it from Pegasus’s POV.

(Eric): Thanks a lot.

Operator: Your next question comes from (David Martindale) with Hearst Newspapers.

(David Martindale): Hi, Jamie. Thanks for doing the call. I saw the screener of Razor this week and I enjoyed it. It was really good. I wanted to go back - I remember before this Battlestar Galactica was even a series, when the movie or the miniseries -- or pilot, or whatever you all call it -- was announced and some of the die hard fans of the original were so skeptical, you know, about everything. A woman Starbuck, human Cylons - of course nobody had seen anything yet. And I was wondering what it felt like to be involved in the show when there was that skepticism and negativity around? And how aware of it were you? And how cool and gratifying is it today that the viewers turned out to embrace it the way that they have?

Jamie Bamber: Yeah. No I remember it well. I’ll be honest though, to me it was exciting to have so many different opinions flying around. You know, most of the time as actors when you start a new piece of work you’re dealing with complete lack of knowledge. You know, you just do it and then the press publicity machine gets cranking and people start to get curious. With this there was this innate curiosity and this immediate frenzied debate -- if you’re going to use a polite word -- or sort of a shooting match, you know, straightaway, as soon as it was announce. And then when it was - started to be cast, it represented so much for quite a sort of hard core bunch of fans. And I personally, you know, wasn’t too scared by it because I knew the project was good. I knew the script was good. I knew it was better than the original just right from the words on the page. So, you have…

(David Martindale): You had the advantage of having seen the script, of course.

Jamie Bamber: Yeah. I mean, I had seen the script and so I knew what was there. But at the same time, even that early script I had no idea really the direction the show would go and how political and how social, and how, you know, almost allegorical it would become. And I had no idea that the mainstream, and even sort of high brow press would really champion it as, you know, a groundbreaking and thought provoking television. That I did not know would happen. I knew we’d make it, you know, a good show. But I had no idea that we would: A, win over the die hard fans. I thought that was probably impossible; and B, I had no idea it would really strike a nerve and, you know, be touted as the number one show on TV by the likes of Time Magazine. That was all a revelation. It really was, and very gratifying. And the whole ride has been desperately exciting since then. And Razor represents, in a way, a chance to go back to the miniseries and make another miniseries, which is basically how I view Razor - is sort of an alternative miniseries - a pilot.

(David Martindale): Don’t you think it’s remarkable, by the way, that science fiction - a show like this can often be more topical and more on top of what’s going on politically than a show set in contemporary times?

Jamie Bamber: I think it’s really gratifying that science fiction can do that and I think this is the first science fiction show on TV that’s really tried to do that for quite awhile. But that’s really, I would say, where science fiction comes from. Science fiction has always been about the world in which we live and looking at the logical conclusions for the directions we’re headed in. I mean, that’s what, you know, H.G. Wells and Isaac Asimov, and George Orwell -- and, you know, and the likes of the great science fiction writers. It’s what they’ve always been interested in But maybe we lost sight of that post Star Wars and we got a bit too caught up in the surface of science fiction, in the - you know, the weird ass aliens and planets, and all this slightly juvenile side of it. And I’m very grateful that, you know, Ron -- from the very word go -- he started his script with a sort of mission statement about what this show is going to be and he really wanted to ground it in the world in which we live. And, you know, he and his writers -- to their credit -- really pushed it beyond what I even thought they were intending to do. And I know he raised a few eyebrows at the network and even with us, you know. We were sort of excited by how close we were able to get to episodes like Abu Ghraib, much closer, you know, than you can when you’re turning a story set in the White House or set in Iraq -- or in America -- because, you know, you tell those stories and they’re immediately forgettable because they are exactly a mirror on the present. And they also have to be aware of nuances of party politics and impartiality and all sorts of things like that. They have to tread a very fine line. And never forget that television is a big corporate world, you know. I’m employed by General Electric, fundamentally, and there are sort of, you know, responsibilities within that world, that if you start sailing too close to the wind you can be edited and censored and changed. You know, we have the privilege of being set in space and so nobody really raises - you know, puts the microscope on us. And we’re able to tell these stories in ways that are general enough to be resonant for future generations as well - I hope, and not just to be reductively about a particular era in sort of American politics.

(David Martindale): A science fiction show can do a story about, say, racism and it’s not even - offend anybody as long as the cultures are, you know, Venusian and Martian, you know?

Jamie Bamber: Yeah, it can. The danger with it is that nobody really sort of examines their own life and nobody really questions their own choices. And they get too comfortable with the idea that this is about Martians and Venusians, or whatever.

(David Martindale): Yeah.

Jamie Bamber: You know, when it’s done really well, it’s not only about, you know, another context. But it’s also - the characters are so identifiable that you can’t help but involve yourself in their dilemmas and in their decision making. And, you know, the aim I would say of Battlestar is to really make a stink about our own civilization and what we do to ourselves, you know, on this planet.

(David Martindale): One more thing from me and I’ll let other people ask questions - what are some of the things that you like most about Lee Adama -- not just as a character and as a person, but even the things that you’ve enjoyed playing, the things you enjoyed fleshing out?

Jamie Bamber: Yeah. I enjoy his roundedness. The fact that he’s as comfortable, you know, having a discussion on Colonial One about some political or legal issue as he is in a Viper, you know, desperately trying to stave off a Cylon attack - Cylon Raiders. You know, he’s a man of action and yet he’s a man of words, and a man of thought. I like that sort of renaissance element to him, that he’s a fully rounded, engaged human being in every fact of his, you know, albeit somewhat bleak existence. You know, he does explore every aspect of that existence. And over those four seasons, I think more than any character in the show, he has been sort of an aerosphere of this fleet and tried to make a difference. And, you know, as an actor that’s great fun to play an action sequence one day and the next to, you know, have a forlorn monologue, you know, of quite some complexity in an argument that has to sway a whole fleet. So it’s the balance of all the parts that make Lee, for me, great fun to play.

(David Martindale): Well thank you very much. It’s been a pleasure.

Jamie Bamber: And you.

Operator: Your next question comes from Ian Spelling with scifi.com.

Ian Spelling: Hey there. How are you?

Jamie Bamber: I’m well. How are you, Ian?

Ian Spelling: Very well. Thank you for doing this. We appreciate it.

Jamie Bamber: Pleasure.

Ian Spelling: I’m just wondering what did you make of the basic concept of Razor - a prequel kind of building to the new season, to fill the hole between, you know, repeats and new episodes?

Jamie Bamber: The basic concept I was really, really in love with - I thought it was very bold, different. You know, every one of us in the Galactica family has always nurtured a not so secret passion to try and make a movie out of the show because there are so many things that on a week-in, week-out one-hour drama that you have to compromise on budgetarily and in terms of storylines and how much you can fit into 44 minutes of a narrative. It was great to, you know, tell a longer story and to have a bit more money to throw at it. And to tell a huge arc, you know, that - to go right back from before the miniseries, before the very first shot that we ever picked up on, on the show, and go right the way through to the back end of Season Two. It was a huge script in its ambition and it tried to introduce a new character, which I thought was a great way to reintroduce a different angle from the Pegasus angle - to see it all from a pair of eyes that we haven’t actually met before, that will have to meet all the main characters all over again. I thought that was a very worth endeavor and a good way to bring in new audience members to Battlestar, you know, before a third season or fourth season being aired. You know, structurally it’s very ambitious - Razor. And I know we’ve had some problems, you know, editing it and making the story clear, and the story work. But when I read the script, I was really excited and it sort of invigorated me yet again to start another year of Battlestar. It was nice to start from the beginning again.

Ian Spelling: And a quick follow-up. How sad are you to see the show go? And is there something to be said for going out on top or is it too early for your case?

Jamie Bamber: No, I think it’s a good time. You know, the - we’ve been saying from the very first season that the most important thing is to be able to finish this story in a way that is up to the people that create the story, and not up to the audience or up to a network, or up to, you know, the sort of financial criteria of what it is to make a TV show. It should be about ending the story because the story begs an ending. And that’s the first and foremost thing about having ended. I mean, I think it is sad. I think there’s always nostalgia. It’s been an amazing learning process for me personally and this experience is, without doubt, the most interesting and rich one I’ve had as a professional working actor. And I’ve learned everything from everyone around me, so it’ll be very sad to sort of disband the team. And every day that we’re up here in Vancouver, there is an element of nostalgia about moments passing and little scenes that will never be revisited, and sets maybe that disappear because, you know, they’re gone forever. So that’s all, you know, very sad. But, you know, personally I also - I look to the future and we all do. And I’m very keen to do other work and to test myself in other ways. So it’s positive nostalgia about, you know, all good things are only - in their ripening do they become truly, you know, tasty and edible. And I think once Galactica is finished and the story is finished, it will be more perfect than it would be had we, you know, been cut short. So it’s inevitable.