Jane Espenson

Former ’Buffy’ writer works on more freelance episodes

Although she is renowned for her work on the legendary “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” series and its spin-off “Angel,” Jane Espenson has made another foray into the genre, now working on the SciFi Channel’s original series “Battlestar Galactica” as a freelancer.

Espenson’s first episode with the series, “The Passage,” has already aired, but according to SciFi Wire there is at least one more still to come. “Dirty Hands,” which has provisionally been scheduled for a Feb. 18 broadcast, is co-written with “24” favorite Anne Cofell Saunders.

"The writing team, they were so bright, helpful and invested," Espenson said. "I love them! There was a real sense that they cared about every beat of every story they were telling. Any time I needed help or advice, they were all there, acting as if it was their own name going on it, that level of attention. Wonderful."

“The Passage” was given to Espenson as a freelance episode. However, after watching her work her magic she has been asked back for more.

"I was in the room for the breaking of the story this time, although the general parameters of it had already been decided: the theme and rough shape of it," she explained. "I was very excited to jump back in and tackle some main characters who didn’t happen to appear in ’The Passage.’"

But although her first encounter with the series turned out to be an unmitigated success, Espenson said that she has found working for the series a little “daunting” and that he second script flowed far more easily.

"I felt more relaxed about improvising," she said. "This story was less fully broken, and so it was even more obvious that I could move some stuff around and make some decisions on my own. I guess I felt like I’d learned to swim.

"It wasn’t a story that lent itself to enormous comedy, but it’s got its moments, and lots of great emotion. It’s one of those stories - always my faves - that looks at the underpinnings of the series, at the supporting players in the fleet. The way my ‘Buffy’ episodes ’Storyteller’ and ’Superstar’ both moved a tertiary character to center stage, this episode does that with a whole slice of the surviving human population. I’m very pleased about that."

"Battlestar Galactica" returns in January on its new night, Sundays at 10 p.m. ET on SciFi Channel.