The Syfy Channel is about to air what is surely its biggest experiment yet.

Because obviously sci-fi has a lot of crossovers, and its important to make your own mark.

The intent of the two shows is different.Battlestar Galacticawas much darker.

It was a show about people who were lost.

Their home was destroyed, they dont know where theyre going, they have Cylons trying to kill them.

So Battlestars really a show about people discovering what theyre capable of when theyre pushed.

Were reaching for the brighter side.

I think thats probably the main difference between the two.

Taking an idea that content exceeds form that the pacing follow from those different ideas.

Will it cover the 30 years before the apocalypse in more detail?

Will we see more about the lead character as a kid?

I was quite intrigued by that opening scene.

No, we dont reach back all that much on the show.

And then weve got De-Tak-Tar trying to take over the town; hes the shows Tony Soprano.

One of our creative touchstones what we kept telling ourselves is that were telling an immigrant story.

He was born here, so he doesnt care about the customs of his ancestors.

So you could essentially take the story and set it in New York in 1900.

And also, the DNA of the show is very much a Western.

What struck me about that pilot was how ambitious it was, and the quality of the effects.

How did it cost to make the series?

It looks like a big investment.

Actually, episode two is huge.

Then we have some smaller ones to make it protect our budget.

But its the same visual effects team who didBattlestar.

Its the CGI that opens is up.

Is there the hope that Defiance will have the same cliffhanger notes thatBattlestardid, and therefore the same longevity?

You know, well know in a month.

Its an experiment, this grand experiment with a game and TV.

This show had a creative partner, in a way, that no other show has ever really had.

The short answer is, it was twice as much work.

Its the same universe.

Have you planned for that?

We dont know if theres a season two yet.

Well have the storytelling from the players to draw from as we go into season two.

Now thats done, and we can concentrate on what elements are going to thrive on the highway.

So season two, I think its going to be a whole different ballgame.

Putting on the hypothetical hat, lets assume that one element of this media synergy doesnt work.

If either ones a hit in its own right, theres no reason why it cant go on.

Its all new territory.

We just had this 25 per cent that had to be common to both.

But we had fights, you know?

But it all worked out in the end.

One of the early battles was the idea of horses in this town.

[Laughs]

And the game side was saying, We cant do horses.

So have you guys been invited in to play the game at various points?

No, not really.

And the reason is that weve both been so busy just getting each side done.

The show is still Im going to LA tomorrow to shoot pick-up shots.

Were still shooting the show!

And theres enormous amounts of visual effects which still have to be done.

So its great that the videogame people dont need us, and they feel the same way.

Theyre happy that were busy.

But like I said, season two will be different.

We know how to do it now.

Im thinking of something like The Walking Dead, which is a massively trans-media property.

Its not specifically about one person.

Is that the case here?

And youll see as the series comes out, it really concentrates on the characters.

Because, really, you oughta start at this level to create the universe.

That never lets up.

Youve an awful lot of latex, and an awful lot of contact lenses in this.

What sort of challenges did that pose during shooting?

Its [pauses for thought] a fucking nightmare.

[Laughs] For example, Stephanine Leonidas, who plays Arisa.

When the series started, she had a three-hour make-up job.

Contact lenses need to be fitted by a doctor, and take two weeks to create.

We had a bath scene with two actors painted completely white.

The lenses, when you land them in, you cant wear them all day.

Its a huge, huge deal.

Theres a seven-foot alien with a puppeteer… just gigantic.

Youve done a lot of sci-fi work.

What drew you to the genre in the first place?

My first entree wasBattlestar, which isnt just sci-fi; its a very human drama.

I ate that up with a spoon.

Obviously you touch on themes of race and acceptance throughout the show, how deep do those run?

Oh, very deep.

One race looks down on the other, one race was enslaved by another race, and so on.

Theres all kinds of unfinished business between them.

Did you purposefully leave some of that backstory out of the pilot, to add an air of mystery?

We actually shot something that explained everything for the pilot, where you basically got a history lesson.

So yeah, well parcel it out as the show goes on.

How different was the production on this different from your other sci-fi work?

You made the pilot with the other episodes already scheduled, so how did that affect it?

Because often, you make a pilot thats not so much a drama but a sales tool.

A lot of pilots are retro-fitted.

We knew where we were going with this story.

Michael Taylor, thank you very much.

Defianceairs on Syfy at 9pm on the 16th April.

You canread our spoiler-free review of the pilot episode here.