Blue Milk Special

In keeping with our plan to do more than just dip our toes in Battlestar Galactica, Blue Milk Special proudly brings you… the Imperious Leader. The Imperious Leader is the ruler of the Cylons as depicted in the 1978 Battlestar Galactica television series. And boy… is he Imperious! Hehehehehe.

It’s not easy to find good photo reference of the Imperious Leader because Glen A. Larson was so disappointed with the end product that shots of the villain were kept to a minimum, heavily shadowed, or from angles that hid his face. I find this both sad and adorable. I also think the Imperious Leader looks hilarious and perfect parody fodder for BMS, even though we are once again flirting with complete obscurity. Here’s what wikipedia has on the subject…

The Imperious Leader’s body is built to resemble the reptilian race that originally built the Cylons, but is not organic in any way. According to the novelization of the pilot episode, Imperious Leaders have three distinct brains, each one capable of individual or unified thought, thereby making them adept strategists and leaders.

When an Imperious Leader is destroyed, a new one is chosen from suitable IL-series Cylons.

The Imperious Leader was never seen in close-up from the front in the series, except for a deleted scene in the pilot movie, “Saga of a Star World”. Glen A. Larson was reportedly unhappy with the costume and requested that there be no closeup shots of it, although there are publicity photos that show closeups of the face. An action figure of the character was released with Mattel’s Galactica toy line. Although frequently assumed to be a dummy, due to its lack of movement, there was an actor (Dick Durock) in the costume. The Imperious Leader’s voice was provided by Patrick Macnee.

VIDEO GAME AND ANIMATION NEWS!

Moving on from our Cylonic diversion, my friend Michael Bell emailed me about his new video master class and asked if I’d pass the info along to our readers. A lot of you probably know Michael’s voice already…

Michael Bell, rebel pilot voice actor from Star Wars A New Hope, and characters from Transformers, Voltron, Smurfs, G.I. Joe, Rugrats, Soul Reaver: Legacy of Kain, to name but a few, is doing one final voice over master class for aspiring voice actors as well as providing a prerecorded video for those who aren’t interested in the one-on-one tuition. I’m lucky to be able to call Michael a friend and have heard many of his great stories so I highly recommend jumping at this!

This is a real voice acting class by both Michael and Lori Tritel (voice of the Librarian in Halo 4) who are legends of the industry. If you want REAL grounding in voice acting for video games and animation, then this is definitely the best place to start.

Michael has also been the chair of the Screen Actors Guild and made appearances in classics like Three’s Company (Leanne still jokes about Michael’s guest role as the ballet instructor) and Star Trek TNG. If you’ve ever thought about the video game and animation industry then you couldn’t find a better pair with more experience to give you lessons. Please pass this along and share with your friends who might be interested in this last opportunity to learn from one of the industry’s greatest performers.

Bell & Tritel Voice Over Master Class website: belltritel-vo.com

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