Production
The writing staff referred to this episode as "the Big Mac" during production because they believed the action would make it a crowd pleaser. It was originally slated to be the ninth episode of the first season, with "Tigh Me Up, Tigh Me Down" as episode 10. Executive producer Ronald D. Moore realized that the end of the eighth episode, "Flesh and Bone", in which Leoben Conoy causes Roslin to fear that Adama is a Cylon, was an ideal segue to the paranoia of "Tigh Me Up, Tigh Me Down", so they were switched. The only major change that had to be made was to switch the action on Caprica between the episodes.
Roslin's conversation with Elosha in this episode begins the introduction of the Battlestar Galactica mythos in the re-imagined series. The show's creators wanted to retain the epic narrative of the original series but introduce it gradually, after fans had already committed to the show.
Roslin receives her briefing on Starbuck's plan on an illuminated table with large figurines representing ships; the plan is later tracked on it as the raid is underway. Moore explained that the decision to use the "big board" was a result of financial and narrative constraints. Using computer graphics to narrate space battles is often expensive, and the product often has to be simplified heavily so the viewer can understand it. The idea for a big board came from classic films about World War II such as Sink the Bismarck!, Tora! Tora! Tora!, and Midway. The idea for the models came from production designer Richard Hudolin.
In an homage to the original series, the appearance of the freighter that conceals the Vipers is based on the Colonial Movers freighter from the original series. Apollo's attack run through the mine shaft is an homage to Star Wars.
Composer Bear McCreary said "The Hand of God" was one of his favorite episodes to score of the first season and described it as "a lot of fun."
Read more about this topic: The Hand Of God (2004 Battlestar Galactica)
Famous quotes containing the word production:
“Just as modern mass production requires the standardization of commodities, so the social process requires standardization of man, and this standardization is called equality.”
—Erich Fromm (1900–1980)
“Constant revolutionizing of production ... distinguish the bourgeois epoch from all earlier ones. All fixed, fast-frozen relations, with their train of ancient and venerable prejudices are swept away, all new-formed ones become antiquated before they can ossify. All that is solid melts into air, all that is holy is profaned, and man is at last compelled to face with sober senses, his real conditions of life, and his relations with his kind.”
—Karl Marx (1818–1883)
“The growing of food and the growing of children are both vital to the family’s survival.... Who would dare make the judgment that holding your youngest baby on your lap is less important than weeding a few more yards in the maize field? Yet this is the judgment our society makes constantly. Production of autos, canned soup, advertising copy is important. Housework—cleaning, feeding, and caring—is unimportant.”
—Debbie Taylor (20th century)