Production
In January 2005, Moore wrote that the writers had been discussing "for a couple of years" a storyline around a battlestar Pegasus inspired by the original Battlestar Galactica. In his September 2005 podcast commentary on the episode, Moore said he had been thinking about the episode "literally since I agreed to do the project." However, he waited until the middle of the second season so the series would be further developed when Pegasus and Cain appear. In particular, he wanted the audience to have built some loyalty for the Galactica characters to complicate their reaction to Cain's (correct, in Moore's view) assessment that Galactica runs problematically. Moore abandoned several elements of the original-series episode involving Cain, "The Living Legend"; the main similarities in his view are Cain appearing suddenly in the Pegasus and being "more of a hardass character than Commander Adama." Moore considers the key differences to be Cain's gender and her authority over Adama.
"Pegasus" was the first episode of Battlestar Galactica written by Anne Cofell Saunders, whom Eick and Moore hired based on her work writing an episode for the fourth season of 24.
Several actresses were considered for the role of Cain. Moore had worked with Forbes previously when she played Ro Laren on Star Trek: The Next Generation. Other members of the production team knew her from her work in film. Moore was excited by what he described as the "challenge" of writing Cain as a younger character and was ultimately very pleased by the choice to cast Forbes. According to Eick, Forbes was reluctant at first to accept the part because she felt her role as Ro had resulted in her being typecast as a science fiction actress.
Eick and Moore advocated for Sharon's rape as shown in the extended version to be included in the broadcast version. According to Eick and Moore, the Sci Fi Network did not permit it, citing substantial differences between the script and what was filmed and the belief that the material would be too controversial for television.
Gina's name is not mentioned within the episode. The name is a reference to fans of the original series who called the re-imagined series GINO for "Galactica in Name Only".
Cain's practice of forcing her staff to stand at meetings was inspired by a similar practice of John Bolton Moore read about in a newspaper.
The Pegasus set is distinct from the Galactica set, but it was built on the same soundstage. Financial and physical constraints meant they had to reuse pieces; all the scenes in the episode in corridors on Pegasus were filmed in the same corridor lit differently and shot at different angles to suggest different parts of the ship. Moore compares the difference between Galactica and Pegasus to the difference between a historical aircraft carrier like the USS Hornet and a modern aircraft carrier.
"Pegasus" features more shots with harsh lighting and with cameras on dollies rather than handheld than in prior episodes. According to Eick, Rymer thought such changes would make "Pegasus" less in the style of a documentary and more appropriate to the larger scale of the narrative. Eick also suggests Rymer was bored with the series's style and wanted to try new approaches.
Eick and Moore characterized composer Bear McCreary's score for the teaser as lulling the audience into a state of comfort.
Read more about this topic: Pegasus (Battlestar Galactica)
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