Roswell

11-day-Roswell-Celebration – Interview Snippets

Jason Katims teamed up with co-executive producer Ron Moore to write “Graduation”. This post is a quotes collection from different interviews about the finale episode of “Roswell”.


With the use of Liz’s diary, the series started off in the pilot. The show ends with her voice over and her diary is finally turned over to her parents. Jason Katims spoke with the “Starlog” magazine about bringing Liz’s diary back:

Jason Katims: Liz was the point-of-view character at the beginning, and we actually returned to that in the final episode. We framed the episode with voiceover by her, and gave the show back to that idea – that we’re putting it in Liz’s point-of-view. We thought it would make a really nice bookend to the pilot. At the series’ beginning, it was all told through her writing in her journal. That was the frame for the whole show, and we returned to that, where she actually finished her journal. And I think because of that, the finale is very much connected to the first episode: it almost has a nostalgic feeling for people who know the roots of the show and how it got started. (Source: Starlog Magazine, 2002)

In 2004 Ron Moore answered some “Roswell” questions compiled by the moderators of the Roswell boards on Media Blvd:

Why was Jim Valenti left behind in Roswell?
Ron Moore: It didn’t seem like he would– Jim was a guy who– he was the sheriff, and it seemed like he wanted to take him back to that. He didn’t ask for any of this. He started off as their antagonist; he became their friend. He wasn’t a guy who seemed like he would go out on the road with them, and just, you know, say “come what may and whatever adventures may happen”. It seemed like he should get his badge back and he should go back to being sheriff, and it seemed like the right end for his story.

Were you happy with the way Roswell ended in “Graduation” or would you have liked more episodes leading up to the end?
Ron Moore: Oh, we could have used a few more episodes. I mean, they cut our order short. We were gonna have– we were gonna have a few more, I can’t remember what they were, but we were counting on another like 2 or 3 episodes that would have given us time to really lay in some more things to pave the history, and the final episode had a certain rushed feeling to it, because, you know, at first it was gonna be a two-hour finale and then we were given a one hour finale without there being more episodes leading up to it than we did, so we had to sort of, we didn’t get to do as much as we would have liked to in the last show.

Why didn’t we get to see more of the Dupes?
Ron Moore: Oh, I wanted to. I talked about doing them some more. We never quite came up with a story that we really liked for bringing them back. But if we’d gone to a fourth season we probably would have seen more.

(Source: Crashdown Exclusive Interview, 2004)

This snippet is from the Cult Times Special interview with Jason Katims:

What were you aiming to accomplish with the series finale?
Jason Katims: I was personally very happy with the finale. Ron [Moore] and I wrote that episode together. Normally, as much as I care about an audience when I’m writing, I dont usually let that affect what I’m writing. If I did it whould drive me crazy because there are so many different factors and people like this character or that character, this relationship or that one.

But on this finale I was very conscious of wanting to clearly give the audience an end to the show. By the time we were in the process of writing it, we were 95 percent sure the show was not coming back. We were able to write it in such a way that it wasn’t a cliffhanger and so that it resolved all the big issues. I like the way the episode ends. You get the sense that while the show isn’t coming back, the characters are off living their lives and moving on and that they’ve still got each other. I thought it was very well acted by our cast. Jason gives a speech at the end, where he’s thanking his fellow students and family for being there for him, and I think of that as our way of thanking the audience for being there for us. It’s basically a love letter to our audience. So the intention of the finale was to close out the show and give the audience what they wanted. (Source: Cult Times Special, 2002)

The ending of “Roswell” leaves plenty of room for new beginnings. (Perfect for a movie…) Jason Katims said in an interview with Zap2it:

Jason Katims: There’s definitely closure for Max and Liz. At the end of the episode, our characters essentially are — I’m not sure, I’m just thinking as I say this whether I should say this — at the end, there’s a sense of them going off together as a group, leaving Roswell, but being together. I like the image of that ending, because it gives you the sense that these characters are still out there somewhere. (Source: zap2it.com, 2002)

And finally, check out Ron Moore’s answer about the questions, where the podsters and their friends would be today in 2004.

If Roswell were airing new episodes today, where would the podsters and their friends be?
Ron Moore: They would all be in San Francisco, where they were gonna go. They were gonna take that van, the “Mystery Machine” as we called it, and they were gonna take that van to San Francisco and they were gonna start new lives. (Source: Crashdown Exclusive Interview, 2004)


Make sure to tweet us @Crashdowncom and use the hashtag #alienblast so we can see your responses. Feel free to leave a comment and like or share our posts on Facebook.


With the 11-day-Roswell-Celebration we can show everyone and especially FOX, that fans are craving for more and thanks to Kristen Bell and Rob Thomas… studios know now what fan-power can accomplish these days.

Please spread the word and tell your friends. Even if you don’t have a glimpse of hope that a movie could be made, please join us and just talk about your favorite show.

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