As Ron Moore rewrote less and less for BSG, it worsened generally. Some writers like Mark Verheiden and Michael Angeli and sometimes Michael Taylor were able to overcome not having him actually rewrite; instead he provided extensive notes. However, Ron Moore's genius operates at an instinctual level -- not in overseeing things without immersing himself in the script.
After the pilot for Caprica, the series was very disappointing under Jane Espenson and David Eick and Jonas Pate. Only "There Is Another Sky" and "Ghosts in the Machine" approached BSG's greatness. There was a lack of political insight beyond cliches mouthed by CNN. We never got a sense of what motivated the terrorists and this is essential for a Western audience if we're gonna realize that terrorism is just as morally ambiguous as war, not automatically inferior. As James Marters rightly says, the American Revolutionaries were terrorists; Nathaniel Greene used the very tactics the US and Israel now accuses Hamas of employing.
Even dramatically, Caprica has been weak since the pilot. None of the female characters sizzle since that first story and are annoyingly dull. Indeed, all the characters tend to be single-minded, rather than having varying interests and goals across that first half season and that makes them less real and less interesting than they would be if Ron Moore rewrote the scripts.
The second half of Caprica promises to be much better -- after Jane Espenson stepped down as head writer, but the show will not succeed without Ron Moore at the helm -- not just as executive producer.
Moore's real talent is in his writing and I'm frustrated that he won't just do it! BSG's final season would have been so much better if he'd sat down and rewritten everyone's scripts, which would have allowed him to figure out instinctively what worked plot-wise and what didn't -- as he had numerous times in the first 3 seasons.
Moore needs to write! Otherwise, I don't know that I care. Also, NBC's too superficial to allow him to be original -- much like Fox.
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