Battlestar Galactica Page

Tahmoh Penikett

"Season Two is going to have a lot more character development. Since the first two episodes aired, a lot of stuff was cut because they simply had too much stuff. There will be more character development and back story between the characters. Relationships that you didn't quite know about. The History of them. For instance, Starbuck and Helo. People are starting to see in these first two episodes that we've know each other for a while."

Katee Sackhoff

“The essence of the character just came naturally to me. Anytime you take a woman in her twenties and add on top of it, this intense situation. Women are confusing as is, so if you make her like this fighter pilot who is in a man's world and trying to prove herself not only to other people but also herself. ”
- Katee Sackhoff-

I had no idea until I got the part and then I realized what I had gotten myself into. I had no idea that it was even a guy that Dirk Benedict had played him in the original which kind of scared me. Then all of a sudden it became this huge daunting thing because I was taking on not only the re-imagining of Battlestar Galactica but changing the character so significantly. I think that every day you learn more and more about what you got yourself into.

Talking to fans the two versions of Starbuck came out very similar minus the fact that I am a woman. They said a lot of the mannerisms were the same. So I think that as a child or a teen, I had to have seen at least one episode.

I think what it comes down to is that Dirk and I are pretty similar as people. We're kind of motivated by the same things in life. He and I both just get along like two peas in a pod. If he was twenty years younger, my boyfriend would have a run for his money. I was not to keen to appear with Dirk at Starbucks for Battlestar Galactica: The Lowdown. It was still back when there was a lot of controversy about the series. We had just finished shooting and I was still getting hate mail. But it was so awesome and he's so funny. After watching that it looked like we were both drunk. We're sitting at Starbucks for over the span of three hours and they wanted us to look like we were drinking coffee. He and I are both coffee fiends, so we said,"Ok just keep bringing it over." We started to get giddy. There was a lot that they couldn't show on TV because it got dirty. That's both of ours humor. We were both in rare form that day.

The essence of the character just came naturally to me. Anytime you take a woman in her twenties and add on top of it, this intense situation. Women are confusing as is, so if you make her like this fighter pilot who is in a man's world and trying to prove herself not only to other people but also herself.

She's going to have a lot of demons inside. That came really easily because of the business that I'm in. As far as the military aspect of it, that's totally new to me. But it started to click when they sent the cast to boot camp. That's when we started to get that down. The saluting, the marching and the cadence just started to come naturally to us. I'm still learning so much about her. A lot of her hasn't been written. Because no one has really gone this far really with Starbuck. As far as her darker side, no one has really gone this far. It will be really interesting to see what happens. Ron Moore made it really interesting where he decided to allow the actors to have a lot of input.So I expect that I will have a lot of creative input on where the character is going to go.

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There was a lot of talk about which Adama she met first. The sons. Whether she met Zack or Lee first. If she met Zack first did she second guess her decision once she met Lee. Had they had a relationship in the past. Is there guilt there because of the relationship and then Zack died. There's a lot of things that can come into play in that relationship. I don't know if the fans are too keen on having Apollo and Starbuck sleep together. But I can tell you that it will happen at some point. It probably won't last but it will happen. Kara has a closer relationship with Commander Adama than his own son. If the relationship does happen then you wonder what the reasons are behind it.

I was really excited that I was going to work with Eddie (Olmos) because I have been a fan of his since Stand And Deliver. My mother was in love with Don Johnson, so I had to watch Miami Vice growing up. So I knew who he was from that. He brings such a presence. He walks in a room and he doesn't have to say anything. People stop and turn and see what he is going to do. He's got that something to him that makes you want to be around him all the time because he's so intelligent and so charismatic. He's go this weird sex appeal thing. Having him around is great not only working with him as an actor but also to see what he is like as a person. He's been in the business for so long and so unaffected and down to earth. He's very giving to the people around him so you can really learn a lot from him.

“I was really excited that I was going to work with Eddie (Olmos) because I have been a fan of his since Stand And Deliver. My mother was in love with Don Johnson, so I had to watch Miami Vice growing up. So I knew who he was from that. He brings such a presence. He walks in a room and he doesn't have to say anything. People stop and turn and see what he is going to do. ”

The first episode (Of the new series) is absolutely awesome. Basically it catches up with Galactica and that they have been jumping and every thirty three minutes, the Cyclons have been jumping after them. That's been going on for five days. It catches up with them five days after the mini-series ended. Boomer is a sleeper agent. What is so interesting in the way that Ron has decided to do this there are twelve models with infinite numbers of that one model. There may be five hundred Boomers out there and this one is a sleeper agent and there are four hundred and ninety nine others that are not. So she doesn't know.

At the end of the day, Battlestar Galactica is about the human condition. Instead of focusing on the light heartiness, they decided to focus on the humanity. What would you do if there were fifty thousand people left. You're in such tight quarters with these people and you are running out of supplies like toilet paper, pens, paper, things like that that you don't just think about on a daily basis. Ron is focussing on the darker side of that with such beauty. If you watch each character, they each have a different side, a darker side and each deals with it differently. But there are happy moments that they will remember for the rest of their lives. Because when you have the danger and death hanging over your head and you have this moment, it's so much more beautiful because it's so rare. Those are the moments that Ron is going to focus on which will knock people's socks off."

Aaron Douglas

"A lot of the stuff that they write in season one and season two are sort of ripped from the headlines. They (Writers) will read something going on in other parts of
the world in the military and a lot of the guys have a real intimate knowledge, they either have been in the military or have family members that have. So they get a lot of real life situations. They translate them into stories for the show. And you have these characters and my guy is caught in the middle of leading people but still having to take orders. In some ways he's absolved of responsibilty if a bunch of people die because he was following orders. What I like about the character is that the writers have him say something. He'll say that this is wrong."

Podcasts

Katee Sackhoff
2003 conversation just as she was shooting season one. I was joined by Dr Howard Margolin from Destinies: The Voice Of Science Fiction.
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Aaron Douglas
Interview with the actor who plays Chief Tyrol in Battlestar Galatica at Gatecon 2005. .
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Tahmoh Penikett
Gatecon 2005 conversation with this talented actor who play Lt Carl Helo Agathon on Battlestar Galactica.
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Lorena Gale
Gatecon 2005 Chat with this actress who has appeared in Battlestar Galactica, The Exocisim Of Emily Rose, and Fantastic Four
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Paul Campbell
I chatted with Paul at Gatecon in 2005. He talks about playing the aid to President Roslyn on Battlestar Galactica.
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Richard Hatch
The actor who connects both Galactica series speaks to me about the past and present of this universe. .
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Richard Hatch

Tony Tellado: ".There's great drama and tension every time Tom Zarek and Captain Apollo get together.

Richard Hatch: It's a little bit like competitive edge. I think it really works really really well for the series. I love working with Jamie (Barber) . On a personal level we're very good friends. Every one in a while you meet someone who is so down to earth so real. He is such a gentleman. I was blown away after meeting Jaime...the quality of the man. Playing scenes with him brings out this tension. This underlying edge that turns the scene in a different direction then planned.

Tom Zarek is going through an inner struggle. The thing for Zarek Zarek was in jail for twenty years where he lost everything while people that he loved died. He has had to rethink how he can bring forth his political agenda. He's an idealist who wants to make a better world. I think he saw the corruption in government like so many revolutionaries do, although sometimes a revoluntary comes in and is far worse than the regime that he replaces. Zarek wanted to do something for the people that would create more freedom especially for the planet that he was on. At the same time when you have been in prison for twenty years it changes you. The innocence is gone. One has to deal with their dark side. When you have been wounded and been trampled a few times, your anger at society and at the powers at be, you don't trust your faith in government. Then you ask How do you operate ? Do I go back to my old ways of operating outside the box ? Or do I find a way within the system, Where I can move my political agenda ? He struggles with his dark side. He struggles with his side that struggles with his side to find a more effective way of moving forward with his agenda."

Lorena Gale - Elosha

"Elosha was a member of the Corum of tweleve for at least twenty years. She was a cleric who was brought in to do the ceremonial cutting of the ribbon. She finds hers self stranded on the Colornial One when the cylons attack. That she has to swear in the new president is as much a suprise to her as it is to President Roslin.

I feel sorry for the Cylons, their desperation to be accepted as part of our world. That's what I see.Maybe that's not what the writers see. I don't think there is anything such as artificial intelligence. You endow something with the capacity to think."