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RICHARD'S LATEST

29 October 2001

Hello everyone. How’s everyone doing? I can’t tell you how proud I am to not only be an American, but a member of the human race. We are truly amazing creatures, but it also seems that we humans are capable of both untold horrors, and, at the same time, heroic and magnificient accomplishments. I wish it didn’t take such devastating catastrophes to open our hearts and minds and remind us that we are all in this together. In these past few weeks, I have never seen so many acts of courage, selfless caring and so-called ordinary human beings rising to such extraordinary acts of kindness. Can you believe total strangers saying hello to you on the street and asking how you are and can they be of service? It was amazing to see some of the icons of our business coming off their ivory towers and showing us their hearts and, in many cases, their pocket books. Wouldn’t it be lovely if we could continue to reach out to each other and re-establish a real sense of community and cooperation in this world, which as far as I’m concerned has been disappearing over the last several decades?

I hope you’ll forgive me, but before I get into Battlestar Galactica stuff, I just felt it might be appropriate to share a little about how the events of September 11 have affected so many of us. If you want to skip my ramblings, then jump down a couple of paragraphs. I’ll understand. It’s amazing how much our lives can change in the blink of an eye. isn’t it? I know my life will never be the same. I’m pretty certain yours won’t be either. Maybe, in some way, that’s a good thing since we have all had to take a good look at our lives and determine what we deem to be of real value. I don’t know about you, but I never realized how much my life is run by fear and the need to prove myself worthy. I know talking about fear or being fearful is not considered a show of strength, but I have come to believe that acknowledging fear and dealing with it in a positive and constructive way is one of the major keys to living one’s life in a more meaningful, fulfilling and successful way. Fear is extremely prevalent these days and we are all being forced to look it straight in the eye and make some pretty courageous decisions concerning how we are going to conduct the rest of our lives. I, for one, have chosen after deep deliberation to just say screw it and begin to live my life the way I have always wanted to; to embrace the horror and go after my hearts desire. What do I have to lose?

I’ve come to realize that I have lost so much already by hiding away, playing it safe, and never believing in myself enough to take any major risks in my life. When you come to realize that at any moment you could just buy it and be gone in an instant, you get the message that all we really have is today. Tomorrow may never come! If you love someone, tell them now. If you have something you really want to say, say it now! If you have always wanted to do something, do it now!! If you have an idea, concept or dream, please go out there and see what’s possible or you may never taste the joy of discovering that you can really do it! The Truth is: The more you accomplish in your life, the more you will have to give to those you love and value in the world. The more you can give the more you will receive. The world is in desperate need right now for all our diverse talents and abilities and believe me when I say that until we all stand up and be counted, the world will just continue getting worse and worse.

When you really think about it you realize that the quality of your life is in direct proportion to your willingness to step out of the comfort zone and take committed action on that which you truly believe in. Working on the Battlestar Galactica trailer taught me that! I have never felt more alive or joyous than when I was risking it all and going for it. At the same time I was terrified of all the things that could go wrong. It’s amazing what fear can do for you! You wake up! You’re more present, in the moment! You have to be or you step off the cliff! I did things I never believed possible during the shoot and the courage and confidence I derived from the experience has led me to take on even bigger challenges including putting together my new Sci-Fi series entitled The Great War of Magellan. In my experience I have learned that fear can make us even more creative, dynamic and powerful if we are just willing to stop running and face it, feel it fully and use the incredible energy it generates to accomplish amazing things in our lives. It’s amazing to discover that when we are forced to find solutions to so called impossible challenges, than somehow we find the courage to dig deep and come up with the goods.

Right now, most of us are afraid of what might happen in the near future to all that we hold dear. The events of September 11th were horrible. The truth is, there has always been a million ways to buy it and they happen every day. Planes do go down. People have heart attacks. You step off a curb and wham! So, what’s different, except that maybe now we are being forced by such a major tragedy to realize that we have always been at risk; we just didn’t realize it. The fact is we were more at risk before September 11th than after before. We were living our lives half asleep and going about our business, not seriously thinking that anything like this could ever happen to us. We were all too busy and involved in our own life’s business to take heed of the warning signs. That’s all changed now. We’ve had a serious wake up call and I think now that we are fully awake and attentive we will be able to prevent even worse things from happening. The truth is we minimize or eliminate risk when we are forced by fear to be more fully awake and taking full responsibility for our choices and actions. More people get hurt when they think they are safe and not paying attention than when they are in a supposedly dangerous situation. I’m sure you know that.

I guess what I’m trying to say is let’s turn this tragedy into an opportunity to renew and regenerate our life and our world. Fear can become our friend and keep us on our toes so we can stop worrying about the little things and pay attention to what’s really important in our lives. As far as I’m concerned fear is not the problem. The way we deal with it is, and we have a powerful choice to make right now. To be or not to be! "To live or not to live; to get our life back on course and really go for it or always wonder what could have been." Let's reclaim the power we have given away to some deeply disturbed human beings and show them what courage and the American spirit really means. In the end, how honorably we lived our life and the courageous choices we made will make all the difference. It won’t really matter how long we lived; it’ll just come down to what we know we truly accomplished with the years we were privileged and blessed with. Sorry to get so carried away, but I’m sure you can tell that these times are deeply affecting me.

As to Battlestar Galactica and what’s going on I have to say this: Obviously we have all been in the dark for some time. I believe the powers that be have chosen to keep things quiet until they have lined up all their ducks in a row and are ready to rumble. That makes sense. Believe me, I have come to appreciate on a very small level how difficult it is to put together a project of the scope and size of Battlestar Galactica. I’m sure that Tom DeSanto and Bryan Singer, along with the rest of their team, are working overtime to get it all together and bring you the best Battlestar Galactica they are capable of.

In my experience, I have learned that it is very wise to hold back information until you are absolutely certain that everything is in place and you know what you’re talking about. I’m also sure that they want to surprise you with whatever they’re doing. And that, of course, is very difficult in this business. Whatever the case, we’ll all just have to wait and see what they come up with. I, for one, have decided that no matter what happens, I am not going to sit in judgment of what they feel is the best course for the show. As I said before they have earned the right to explore their own vision, although I still feel in my heart that a classic like Battlestar Galactica truly belongs to the fans that have believed in and supported this show for the past twenty-three years. You are the ones they have to satisfy if they are to be successful. You have more power than you know and I hope you will use it wisely.

My own opinions are well documented and now I think it is time for all of you to speak your minds loud and clear. It’s not about me, or my vision for the show anyway. It’s about "what do you want to see? What is most important to you?!" Once again I have done everything in my power to bring this show back as have many of you and I’m thankful for all your love, support and tireless efforts. The issue is now that Universal has decided to bring the show back with Tom and Bryan at the helm it is only appropriate and honorable for me to leave the fate of the show to the only people that can make a difference in it’s outcome and that is you and them. I’m not going away and will always support Battlestar Galactica in every way that I can because I *believe* in it and want the *best* for it.

As you know, I have fought long and hard for what I believe are your wishes which include bringing back the original cast with a new generation born in space, plus an updated storyline. That may not be the direction they decide to go in. To tell the truth, even if they decided to just use me or Dirk, or a few of the other stars, I don’t know if I would be still be happy, because in my heart, I would still feel as if the real Battlestar still had not come back. Maybe that’s just hanging on to the past, but I don’t believe so, as I have seen time and again fans of a particular classic cheer loudly when they see their favorite stars back in their roles again. But who knows? Even if they decide to go in another direction and leave the original cast out entirely they may still come up with a great show -- and I have to respect that. It won’t be the Battlestar that I and many others love, but it could still be a great show in it’s own right.

It’s just sad to me that the studio couldn’t have decided to give the majority of fans what they really want with the original cast -- then do spin offs, like Star Trek did, later on. In my mind, one would have laid the groundwork for the others and have created a more fan-friendly bridge to the future. Well, it’s truly in your hands now. Sooner or later, they will have to listen to you and take your feelings into account.

Just know that no matter what happens, I am very pleased that Battlestar Galactica is finally coming back with such talented and visionary artist at the helm. I’m not going to go into any additional explanations right now about some of my feelings as I am going to answer a lot of questions that have been given to me by the fans in a special Q&A section on my web sites. By the way, as far as I know, they are planning to begin shooting the pilot for a new series on or about December 11 for a period of two months.

For those of you who have been trying to buy my third Battlestar Galactica book, "Resurrection”: I have been told that it is sold out at many bookstores. As far as I know they are back ordered and hopefully the publisher will do a second printing. For those of you have bought gold signed limited editions for my first two books and want to get one for book three, you should let me know as soon as possible as I only have a limited number left. There may be more later, but right now no one is sure. Additionally, my fourth Battlestar Galactica novel, tentatively titled "Revolution", is now being put together and should be out in the spring.

Please check out my new The Great War of Magellan web page (http://www.greatwarofmagellan.com) where you can get a sneak preview of my new Sci-Fi project which I have been working on for about two years now. I’m in the editing stage and will be playing it shortly after the New Year at a convention near you. In the coming weeks, you will be seeing interviews with my creative team and some shots from the trailer. It’s such a relief to be working on a project that I own and don’t have to beg for the rights to.

It gives me the opportunity to gather together all the wonderful and talented writers, artists and actors that I have always wanted to work with. I can’t tell you how much I have learned about life and the profound journey that we are all on these past several years. They say if you really want to grow quickly as a human being, then get married, start a business and have a child. Well, I’ve finally got the first and second part started, now I guess I’ll just have to wait for the right relationship to find me.

By the way, I’m still looking for artists, CGI guys or ladies, plus writers. The best way to show your work is to submit your stories for our Battlestar Galactica anthology series. The same goes for the artists. Any professional quality sci-fi art will do; just submit it via our guidelines at BattlestarGalactica.com. Who knows? Maybe we’ll even post it on the web site, too.

Well that’s all for now. I’ll be talking to you soon. Don’t forget to check out the Q&A section -- and if you have questions of your own that are not answered, then let me know.

Remember: "Keep the faith!"

Richard Hatch

 

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