Ronald D. Moore Reveals Outlander Sets And Scripts

By Brent McKnight | Updated

This article is more than 2 years old

OutlanderRonald D. Moore’s (Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica) Outlander is one of the most intriguing upcoming sci-fi shows. The adaptation of Diana Gabaldon’s massive selling series of novels is part time travel, part period piece, part action, and part romance. And because it’s on the Starz network, you can bet your ass there’s going to be more than enough naked flesh and sex to go around, no matter what sort of thing you’re into. Moore and company recently stopped by the New York Comic Con, and used the opportunity to unveil some miniature models of the sets—you just know there’s going to be lots of illicit loving going on in various rooms in these various houses—as well as provide a look at few pages from a couple of scripts.

The story revolves around a World War II nurse named Claire Randall (Caitriona Balfe) who is inexplicably whisked back in time 200 years to old timey Scotland. While her husband, Frank, tries to find her in the present, she encounters a couple of his ancestors—Jamie Randall (Sam Heugan) and “Black Jack” Randall (Tobias Menzies), guess which one is evil—and steaminess and intrigue ensue. Like I said, these walls are going to have some dirty stories to tell by the end of each episode.

The key thing these pictures tell us is how detailed the sets will be, which also gives us a better idea of the scale and scope of Outlander. From the appearance of the models, the sets look all kinds of intricate, though how that translates is another thing entirely. Starz used a metric butt ton of green screen effects to make their Spartacus series look bigger than it actually was. Sometimes it worked, sometimes not so much, so that could be an issue movie forward with Moore’s new series as well.

These pages from the scripts—one from the first episode, two from the follow up—don’t reveal too much about the series, but you do walk away with a couple of things. First, people are going to get messed up along the way. In these partial scenes you have floggings, dislocated shoulders, and bloody faces. This brings us to point number two, Claire will have ample opportunity to showcase her medical training by treating a wide assortment of wounds and maladies. There’s going to be some rudimentary surgery, that’ll be fun. And finally, you can rest assured that some of these intimate moments of healing will turn into sexy time. How can that scar-covered back not turn into some erotic soft-core action?

We don’t know much about when we might see Outlander, but 16 episodes should arrive sometime in 2014.