Welcome back to the Spool’s weekly interview podcast, More of a Comment, Really…, where editor-in-chief Clint Worthington talks to actors, filmmakers, composers and other figures from the realm of film and television.

When Ronald D. Moore‘s reimagined Battlestar Galactica premiered on The Sci-Fi Channel in 2003, it was a watershed moment for the genre. A gritty, moody, morally complicated redo of the cheesy ’70s Glen Larson series, Moore’s take on the show — a space opera about a fleet of ships carrying the remnants of humanity to a mysterious planet called Earth, with a robotic enemy called the Cylons giving chase — crystallized so many of America’s post-9/11 fears about terrorism, splinter cells, and the tenuous lines between freedom and security.

But more than that, it had some of the best cast, most intriguing characters, and incredible production design and special effects that were possible for cable television. And the cherry on top is the critically-lauded score courtesy of then-unknown composer Bear McCreary, whose success on the show has catapulted him to a career as one of the most prolific composers working in media today. Since Galactica, he’s scored everything from The Walking Dead to Colossal to Godzilla: King of the Monsters, as well as Ron Moore’s current show Outlander and video games like God of War.

But McCreary’s vibrant career can be traced back to his innovative work on Battlestar Galactica, a highly unconventional suite of music that eschews big, bombastic Williams-ian brass for starker, more minimalist cues drawn from everything from world music to rock ‘n roll. And now, the soundtracks for all four seasons of the show have been remastered and are available on music streaming services, as well as a new album of live concert renditions of some of the show’s most iconic tracks, So Say We All.

It was a treat to bend Bear’s ear for a solid forty minutes, talking about everything from his humble beginnings on the project to a breakdown of some of my favorite cues and the stories behind them.

You can visit Bear McCreary’s official website here.

All four seasons of Battlestar Galactica‘s original soundtrack are available on music streaming services, and you can listen to So Say We All below.