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In nearly 60 hours of SciFi Channel's "Battlestar Galactica," not a single piece of music heard as the background score contained lyrics in English. That is until popular composer Bear McCreary was asked to somehow incorporate Bob Dylan's "All Along the Watchtower" as part of the show's third season finale.

For McCreary, it was not a project he took lightly, nor was it one accomplished overnight.

"It was something of a controversial decision I think," McCreary told Airlock Alpha's Michael Hinman. "It would likely lead people to think that obviously the show takes place in the future and Bob Dylan's recordings have been traveling through space."

The idea to use "All Along the Watchtower" had been executive producer Ronald D. Moore's. And if he had found a way to do it, the song could've actually been heard as early as the first season of the show.

"Ron feels very strongly about it," McCreary said. "It's all about how this all happened before, this will happen again. That really has meaning to him, and this was his way in sort of suggesting that."

McCreary has already talked extensively in his official blog about all the technical work that went into making the rocking ending that not only revealed a familiar face, but a familiar planet as well. One thing that still has him shaking his head, even weeks after putting the final touches on the music, is the fact that he and the producers were able to pull this musical trick off while throwing the book out the window.

"The irony of it is when I wrote the arrangement, I had no idea what the episode was about," McCreary said. "I had no clue. I was just scoring 'The Eye of Jupiter.' The editor called me and said, 'We have this song in the last episode ...' but I didn't want to know what the episode was about, because I hadn't seen the ones leading up to [Episode] 20 yet."

McCreary had an interesting challenge because the song has been covered so many times, not a lot of people even realize that "Watchtower" is first a Bob Dylan song, and that by the time Jimi Hendrix got his hands on it, he was covering it. The last thing McCreary wanted to do was have an opera singer impersonate a rock star (yes, we're looking at you, "Star Trek: Enterprise") and decided early on that if the song was going to work, it had to be performed as if it were created by the Colonies, not by the 1960s Rock & Roll movement on Earth.

"The worst thing that we could've done was make it sound like Jimi Hendrix," said McCreary, who enlisted his brother to sing the vocals. "That would've been a crappy cover band. What we did, I would like to think, made it feel more organic."

Many critics agree that it's not just the superior writing, acting and special effects that make "Battlestar Galactica" the critics darling it is. The music also has its own role, and like many of the characters on the show, has also seen an evolution since the beginning of the series.

"One of the things that I really appreciate about the show is that they let me change the music," McCreary said. "I go back and listen to Season 1, and it doesn't sound anything like I'm doing now. It's similar, but the music and the production values have evolved so much. It's because the producers have given me the opportunity to do that."

McCreary already is at work for the Season 3 soundtrack album that is expected to be released by La La Land Records in August. Choosing which songs make the cut has been difficult for all three soundtrack albums so far, but this time around it's easier because the composer says all of the music from the series will actually see the light of day burned into a CD eventually.

"It's always been a real tough process, having to get rid of stuff," McCreary said. "La La Land is taling about putting out a disc or two, probably at the end of Season 4, with all the unreleased stuff. So some things that don't make the cut now will get released then."

McCreary counts himself a major fan of "Battlestar Galactica," and although he's not on set with the cast and crew in Vancouver, B.C., he still feels loss when actors move on to other projects, or characters meet the gods. When Katee Sackhoff announced she was leaving the show at the end of Season 3, and taking the character of Starbuck with her, McCreary said he was in shock even though he already knew what was coming.

"I knew the whole Starbuck episode, way back when I was working on 'Hero' or "Measure of Salvation,'" he said. "Everyone in the office was like, 'Katee is leaving.'"

But not even McCreary was in on the ruse until much later.

"I found out before a lot of the other crew that she was coming back for sure," McCreary said. "It's tough, though. I try to say fresh and not know what's going on. But it's hard to be surprised."

Now with "Battlestar Galactica" on break until its telemovie airs in the fall, McCreary has turned his attention not only to the BSG soundtrack, but to other projects as well. He has joined the team of SciFi Channel's "Eureka" to score that series second season, and he'll soon begin work on the horror sequel "Wrong Turn 2."

BSG remains one of his favorite projects, but it's no secret that the SciFi Channel show will end someday, and it could be sooner rather than later. How or even when it will end, not even McCreary knows.

"I think it it's going to be the last season, [SciFi Channel] will decide early enough so that they can make it a good finale," McCreary said. "I think what everyone wants to avoid is having to end awkwardly, or ending it on a cliffhanger and not getting another season.

"No decision has been made yet, and there are just a lot of factors at work."

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