Hello and welcome to the podcast for episode 211. Vengeance is Mine. I'm Ronald D. Moore,

executive producer and developer of the Outlander Television series, and I'm joined by our very special

guests. And today, none other than Diana Gabaldone.

Ah, thank you. Welcome, Diana. Well, this was a very special episode in many ways.

This was Diana's first script for us. Yes. So let's just start there. Season one, I remember before we ever shot the show when I came to visit you in Scottsdale, and we talked about adaptation and the process of it, which was really great first meeting. Yeah, I enjoy that very much. And I remember at that point, I think I said, you know, if you ever feel like you want to write one, we should talk, and it would be great to have you do it. And what made you decide to finally want to do it? Well, it was partly seeing how the process worked, because when we talked, I had never even seen this script, let alone have any idea as to who actually did what, what process it went through.

And also at the time, I was moving into the final frenzy of a novel.

There was no way I could set that down in order to write a script or learn how to write a script.

But as the season went on, you guys started showing me the outlines and the revised outlines

and the scripts and the script revisions and revisions and revisions and revisions and revisions and

I realized that this was a very iterative collective kind of process and also you begin to tell me the notes that went back and forth and what you saw and so I could see that this was not a one-man job like writing a novel is it's a little more more collective. In other words, I would not just be

hung out to dry. I would have kind of the support, so to speak, of the writer's room and yourself

and so forth, which was encouraging. Still, I might not have done it because I didn't want to, you

know, seem to be pushing in or depriving one of your writers of an episode that they wanted.

But at Paleyfest, a year ago, a half, Ann Kenny, just as we were leaving, I stopped to say goodbye to her, and she said, you know, if you'd ever like to write a script, I'd be happy to write one with you. I said, really? Anyway, I wasn't sure if I'd actually heard her rights. I emailed her a couple of weeks later and said, I think this is what you said. said, was I hallucinating if I wasn't sure if I'd actually heard her rights. I emailed her a couple of weeks later and said, I think this is what you said.

Was I hallucinating? If I wasn't, do you still mean it? And she said, no, you weren't hallucinating. Yes, I met it. I said, oh, well, in that case, yeah, I would kind of like to, I think you. And anyway, one thing happened, and then another. And anyway, I ended up with a script of my very own, which is, it was kind of nice.

I mean, as very own as a script of my very own, which was kind of nice.

I mean, as very own as a script gets in this business, which is a good long way from writing, and that might be one thing we should make clear to the fans, because I'm sure, sure, as I was born, that there are a large number of people saying, oh, Diana wrote this,

so it's going to be just like it is in the book. Yes, correct this impression right to start.

As I recall, yeah, when we talked about on the phone, then I think I started looking at where it

might fit in the rotation of the writers and who would have been signed, what, and so on. And I'm trying to remember if there was a reason other than that for this particular story.

I think it was mostly timing and schedule and where everything fell, right?

Yes, I think it was.

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