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Battlestar Galactica Actor Richard Hatch Dies At 71 (tmz.com)
New submitter computerman413 writes: TMZ reports that Richard Hatch has passed away at 71 from pancreatic cancer. Hatch played Apollo on the original Battlestar Galactica, and had a recurring role as terrorist Tom Zarek on the reimagined Battlestar Galactica.
I've always thought that Battlestar Galactica could have been an excellent series had it been rebooted in a slightly less radical way, as it's got a simple but compelling formula. Update the tech, eliminate some of the cheese, but keep the basic premise and characters largely intact. While I'm sure many people enjoyed the 2004 series, it sort of lost me when it decided on "cylons are identical to humans" (which might have been fine in limited doses, but I was a fan of actual robotic cylons), and then veered into bizarre quasi-religious territory. I finally quit watching when I realized that I disliked all the humans enough that I was subconsciously rooting for the Cylons to just kill them all and be done with it.
Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
I met Richard Hatch at DragonCon 2016. I'd seen him before at other events, but I actually had time to sit and talk with him among friends this past year, along with Gigi Edgley who had been working with him on a small film project, Diminuendo (catch the trailer on vimeo at https://vimeo.com/181168232 ). It was really refreshing to speak to an actor that was very kind and personable and genuinely interested in opening a dialogue with sci-fi fans about the sort of projects we were all mutually interested in.
Without Hatch, the Battlestar Galactica remake would never have made it to the concept phase, much less to TV. He fought for its revival for decades, and it was his persistence that eventually made the moneymen cave and give the franchise another shot. Beyond that, he's actively campaigned for many sci-fi productions and fought for the genre from film festivals to big blockbuster movies. Time and again, the people who hold the purse at the studios don't understand the value of fantasy or sci-fi -- and it takes many years for everything for a project to come together. The right script has to have the right producer, director, funding, actors, writers, musical talent, special effects artists... hundreds of key people all coming together at the right time to make a project happen. Things are shelved for years for simple timing issues. Hatch is one of the few that made sure that certain properties like BSG were kept in the minds of decision-makers so that when things were right, the projects could go forward with speed.
When he spoke with me, he talked about some of his most recent work that was circulating at film festivals and how he really appreciated the fan base that shows up to events as they support him and give evidence that these projects can really have legs. We're talking about a guy in his 70s who could easily just up and retire, but was so passionate about his craft and world-building, he toured with various artists to drum up excitement for their work. He still held workshops for budding actors, and he authored many BSG books. He could have taken offers for lots of movies, but he preferred to work on projects he was passionate about.
I'd had the privilege of sitting not 10 ft from nearly the entire BSG cast at a prior DragonCon -- Hatch included. While all of the actors were very interesting and shared a lot of great info while being funny and entertaining, he and Edward James Olmos especially carried the room when they spoke and were very humble about being able to deliver rich performances about meaningful topics that resonate in today's socio-political landscapes.
Whatever else you may think of Richard Hatch, know that he was a sci-fi fan at heart and he loved being a part of worlds and stories that he as an actor and writer and you all as fans helped build together.