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by Kate Blake- admin Multipleverses.com

This weekend at the Phoenix Comic Con I had the opportunity to spend a little time with Dr. Kevin Grazier. Kevin’s name is one that is familiar to sci fi tv fans as he has the distinction of serving currently as science advisor on the Syfy hit series Eureka and he worked on Battlestar Galactica in that capacity as well.

I asked Kevin how an academic physicist ( Kevin is a faculty member at JPL aka Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena) got into working as a science advisor in Hollywood. He shared with me his life’s journey into entertainment. While in grad school he sent an unsolicited script into Paramount for Star Trek Voyager. The executives at Paramount called him into to pitch story ideas and he was brought on to work with Bryan Fuller and Michael Taylor who were working on the series at the time. When Voyager ended Bryan Fuller and Richard Hatch both recommended Kevin to Ron Moore as science advisor for Battlestar Galactica. The first script Kevin got was for “Water” and a partnership was born. Kevin worked on 53 episodes in total and is part of the reason why the science behind the cylons and all things BSG was so good.

Kevin had nothing but praise for Bryan Fuller, Michael Taylor and Ron Moore- this is not the first time we have heard this about these men. Bryan Fuller has gone on since Star Trek Voyager to deliver shows that include Wonder Falls, Heroes and Pushing Daisies. He is a massive talent and apparently a gracious one. Kevin is now working as the science advisor for uber geeky- uber funny Eureka. That job came about because the Eureka and Battlestar writers shared space on the Universal lot and the BSG team recommended him. Kevin says that Eureka creator Jamie Paglia is great to work for and the show is just plain fun which its viewers fully agree with.

Outside of Syfy- Kevin is also involved with the PBS/ NBC animated series Zula Patrol and he has a passion for working with kids and sharing science with them. Along with working as a science advisor Kevin has a full time academic career and is working on publishing some simulations he has run. His expertise is in planetary sciences and he teaches about the subject not only to college and grad students but also to younger children. Recently Kevin taught a class at UCLA about the Science in Science Fiction and he himself is taking courses on screenwriting.

Kevin recently worked as an advisor on a script for a film called Gravity which is set to go into production soon starring Robert Downey Jr. – it doesn’t get much bigger in Hollywood than working on Iron Man’s next big project! In print- Kevin has written several books about the science of science fiction including a book on Michael Crichton’s work and the Dune series. He has a new book coming out this fall that you can pre-order on Amazon about the Science of Battlestar Galactica. One of the things that Kevin did in the book was lay out the pattern of the Twelve Colonies. When he did so he shared this with the Caprica team helmed by Jane Espenson so they could incorporate the planetary design into the show. This will be critical as the world of Caprica is expanded to the other colonies. So far Kevin has not done anything official on Caprica but many of the rules and dynamics that he helped craft while on BSG are being used on the show in every episode.

New episodes of Eureka return in July on Syfy and The Science of Battlestar Galactica is available for pre-order today.
The Science of Battlestar Galactica- PRE-ORDER NOW