Battlestar Galactica Week: Characters

Man, I'm really excited for season 4 to start this friday.

This is part of a Look Again regular feature.

In our continuing buildup to Battlestar Galactica's season 4 premiere this friday, today we're going to take a look at the main characters in the series. Be sure to check out yesterday's recap of seasons 1-3 over in Yasmin's column and come back here tomorrow for a look at some of the major metaphors and themes used throughout the series.

Over the past three seasons we've met a lot of characters in this show - some we love, some we hate and most of them are pretty compelling. To help get you ready for Season 4, below are some of the names you're going to have to know. Warning: There are spoilers below!

Galactica Crew

These are some of the more important members of the Colonial fleet, responsible for the defense of what's left of humanity.

• Admiral Bill Adama - Admiral Adama is the stoic, gravel-faced but good-hearted leader of the Colonial fleet. An old soldier just about to retire when the Cylons attacked, he found himself in command of the last of humanity's refugees and has done his best to protect them. Compassionate and kind though he may be he also has an edge - the sort of razor-sharp tenacity that only comes from a lifetime of making tough decisions in a heartbeat.
• Colonel Saul Tigh - Second-in-Command of the Colonial fleet and Admiral Adama's oldest friend, Saul Tigh is the hard-nosed "bad cop" onboard. A chronic alcoholic who murdered his own wife for collaborating with the cylons (to protect him, no less!), he's staked his entire career on his unflagging loyalty to a cause greater than himself. Imagine his surprise at the end of season 3 when he discovers that he is, in fact, a Cylon sleeper agent.
• Major Lee "Apollo" Adama - Formerly estranged son of Admiral Adama, Lee has had occasion over the past few years to come to terms with his father. A pilot second in skill only to Starbuck herself, Apollo is in turn a wide-eyed idealist, a demolished cynic and perhaps the most human character in the show. As such I sort of expect him to somehow be the final Cylon, but that's neither here nor there. At the end of season 3 he resigns his commission in a quarrel with his father and is not expected to wear a uniform again.
• Captain Kara "Starbuck" Thrace - The finest pilot in the fleet (and second-finest drinker, after Tigh), Starbuck is a gung-ho hotshot who marches to the beat of her own drum. Her cocky attitude and auto-destructive tendencies predictably get her into trouble regularly - but nevertheless she remains one of the most popular characters. Or did, until she was unexpectedly killed in action halfway through the third season. ...or was she? She mysteriously reappears in a Viper at the end of season 3, promising to show humanity the way to earth.
• Lieutenant Karl "Helo" Agathon - Father of the Hera, the first Human/Cylon hybrid (henceforth: cybrid) baby. Agathon and cylon Sharon Valerii are in love - as such, he's often considered to be something of a perverse outsider by much of the crew. Nevertheless his commitment to his family is among the most touching elements of the show and is a hint towards a deeper complexity in the Human/Cylon relationship than first meets the eye.
• Lieutenant Sharon "Boomer"/"Athena" Valerii - A pilot from Galactica's crew, Sharon "Boomer" Valerii is devastated in season one to realize she is actually a cylon. After attempting to assassinate Admiral Adama in season one's finale she is killed.

  A different iteration of her meets Helo on Caprica, goes through a whole range of adventures and then ends up as a full-fledged member of the Galactica crew with her own callsign (now "Athena"). More importantly, Athena is the mother of Helo's cybrid child. That child was secreted away shortly after birth and she was told it was dead - by the end of season three, however, she knows better.

• Lieutenant Felix Gaeta - Gaeta is the sensible, dispassionate administrative bridge officer who can always be relied on to perform competently. During the Cylon occupation on New Caprica he pretended to cooperate with the Cylons while all the while supplying the resistance with vital information. He always does what he thinks is right and is in general a model of integrity - at least, until the end of season 3 when he lies during Baltar's trial in a blatant attempt to see Baltar executed.
• Chief Petty Officer Galen Tyrol - Tyrol is the hyper-competent engineer in charge of making the fleet's ships work. In love with Sharon Valerii before she's revealed to be a Cylon, he ended up starting a family with petty officer Callie. A father and a patriot, his hatred of the Cylon race is rivaled only by that of Colonel Tigh. Fittingly ironic, then, that he is one of the four cast members revealed to be a cylon in the season 3 finale.
• Samuel Anders - A star professional athlete on Caprica before the invasion, he found himself leading a resistance force after the Cylons attacked. Starbuck encounters him and his troops during her stint on the planet and an attraction develops - during the New Caprica era, the two marry but do not have any children. After her death he remains as a dependable member of Galactica's infantry and a general leader among the crew. He is the third character revealed to be a cylon sleeper agent in the season 3 finale.

Colonial Administration

If Adama and the crew of the Galactica make up the military, then the following characters represent the administration. The lines between military and government aren't always distinct on Galactica, but I've tried to include only non-military personal below.

• President Laura Roslin - One of the all-around best characters in the show, Laura Roslin was the secretary of education when the Cylons attacked. After most of humanity was wiped out she found herself the highest-ranking surviving member of government and assumed the presidential mantle by default. A mother figure to Adama's father figure, she does her best to act with integrity while devoting her life to finding a way to save what's left of humanity. Like Adama, she is compassionate but with an edge - her faith drives her, and if anything she is capable of baring an even sharper edge than her military counterpart. At the end of season 3 it's revealed that her cancer has returned, making it increasingly likely that she'll fulfill the Moses role and die just before her people reach the promised land - Earth.
• Doctor Gaius Baltar - Personally my favorite character in the show, this multifaceted genius has almost as many faces as he has talents. He's the brilliant scientist who designed the colonial defenses, the craven weakling who was seduced into revealing to the cylons how to circumvent said defenses, the shrewd politician who defeated Laura Roslin in a presidential election, the coward who'd do anything to save his own skin and the working-class hero who wrote the fleet's most subversive book while in custody. After a rousing speech by Lee Adama in his defense leads to his acquittal from the charge of treason at the end of season 3, Baltar is secreted away by what appears to be a religious cult. Having narrowly avoided crucification, Baltar nevertheless has a very Jesus-y hairdo going on and will no doubt be a major player in season 4. Oh yeah, and he has some sort of mysterious cylon goddess living in his brain - what's up with that?
• Tom Zarek - either an idealistic populist hero or a manipulative politician skilled at massaging public opinion, Zarek started out as sort of a villain before mending fences and ending up as Roslin's new Vice President. His strongly anti-authoritarian views fused with his nuanced understanding of what the working classes of the fleet require make him the perfect foil to Roslin's idealistic ivory tower. After a disastrous alliance with Baltar he now finds himself in a position of respect and authority - and so far, it seems like he can be trusted to help guide Roslin into making decisions that are as ethical as they are efficacious, in spite of his own dubious morality.
• Billy Keikeya - Roslin's first chief-of-staff, Billy was killed during season 2. I list him here primarily because he will no doubt come up now and again during season 4 as the predecessor to Tory. He was competent and well-liked, and the president was devastated by his death.
• Tory Foster - Billy's replacement, Tory is President Roslin's current chief of staff. Young and volatile, she seems to be cracking under the pressure during Baltar's trial - until it's revealed that she's actually just coming to terms with the fact that she's a Cylon sleeper agent. The last of the four cylons revealed in the finale of season 3, she's an analogue to Colonel Tigh - each of them is in a position of supreme trust, second only to the leaders they serve. Should they choose to sabotage the fleet, humanity would have little chance of survival.

Battlestar Galactica: The Last Supper

Finally, a slightly more compelling look at the cast can be seen here in this season 4 promotional photograph. Modeled after Da Vinci's The Last Supper, this image foreshadows various plot elements to come in season four. There are some spoilers there, so beware - but check it out for some compelling last-minute reading before friday's premiere! Don't miss the slider at the bottom of the image - it'll let you scroll to see the whole thing.

And that's it for our brief look at the characters of Battlestar Galactica. You'll notice I left out the Cylon characters - that's for good reason. Yasmin will devote an entire article to the Cylons on friday, looking at each of the 11 known models and culminating in a discussion on who the final cylon could be. Don't miss it - watch the NVBSG tag now!

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