"More Galactica Talk: Characters and Caprica"

This is an older interview by Scott Collura of Ron Moore in Now Playing Magazine from right before the series premiered, but it has a nice long discussion of Helo on Caprica. It's no longer spoilerish as the finale has aired...

One unexpected aspect of the new show - and a major point of divergence from the original 1978 version - is that Moore and his writers have actually decided to go back to one of the colonies on a weekly basis, even while the Galactica continues to travel further and further away from its homeworlds.

"This is an opportunity to go outside and do some exterior work without having to do a planet of the week type series, which I was really opposed to," says Moore. "So it really kind of gave me the best of both worlds."

This planet-bound subplot details the travails of Helo (Tahmoh Penikett), one of the Galactica's officers who was stranded on the world of Caprica in the miniseries. Moore says that the decision to bring back Helo was made late in the game.

"It wasn't until after the miniseries had premiered and we were starting to talk seriously about the series itself. There's a continuing storyline on Caprica all the way through and eventually in the finale Starbuck [Katee Sackhoff] goes back as well," Moore says, while also revealing that Sharon (Grace Park), revealed to be a Cylon at the end of the mini, joins Helo on the planet in the series. "It was pretty much a hopeless situation [on Caprica]. There was nothing the Galactica could do in the face of the destruction but presumably there were pockets of survivors here and there who had to be abandoned. [Helo] embarks on a very solitary journey with the other Sharon and it's really a mystery. Why is she doing what she's doing and what are the Cylons about? Why isn't he running into other people, why aren't they seeing other dead bodies, what's going on on Caprica?"

Moore also talks about the Starbuck/Baltar pairing and, in a second article "Galactica 'Hatch'es Guest Star", the Cylons and Richard Hatch's guest role.