Laura Roslin

Laura Roslin
Name	{{{name}}}
Age
Colony	Caprica (presumed)
Birth place	{{{birthplace}}}
Birth Name	Laura Roslin
Birth Date	{{{birthdate}}}
Callsign
Nickname	{{{nickname}}}
Introduced	Miniseries
Death
Parents
Siblings
Children
Marital Status	Unmarried
Family Tree	View
Role	President of the Twelve Colonies of Kobol, formerly Secretary of Education
Rank
Serial Number	{{{serial}}}
Portrayed by	Mary McDonnell
Laura Roslin is a Cylon
Laura Roslin is a Final Five Cylon
Laura Roslin is a Human/Cylon Hybrid
Laura Roslin is an Original Series Cylon
Related Media
		@ BW Media
Additional Information
[[Image:|200px|Laura Roslin]]

Laura Roslin serves as Secretary of Education at the time of the Cylon attack, later becoming president of the Twelve Colonies.

Background

• Roslin, an unmarried former teacher, worked with Richard Adar when he was a mayor. Over the twenty years in politics, she herself has risen in political rank to the office of Secretary of Education.
• Adar, a married man, and Roslin are in a sexual affair during the events of a teachers strike that she is trying to mediate, to Adar's objection.
• Roslin learns that she, as did her mother, has breast cancer. Unfortunately, the diagnosis is grim, as the cancer has already spread.
• Roslin sat in the Government Plaza after her doctor's appointment, where she saw Gaius Baltar, the famous scientist, walking and kissing an attractive blonde, but pays it little attention.
• Roslin successfully resolves the teachers strike crisis, but Adar vehemently disagrees with her method, and asks for her resignation. She asks him to defer the matter until she returns from the decommissioning ceremonies on battlestar Galactica.
• Despite being thrust into the role of President in highly unusual and stressful circumstances, Laura Roslin initially proves herself both tough and capable within the role. Initially in awe of Commander Adama, and worrying that he didn't hold her in high regard (Water), she quickly overcomes her doubts and fears to be able to make the required decisions at the right time, and also stand up to Adama himself (You Can't Go Home Again). She is always prepared to put the safety and destiny of the Fleet first, no matter what the cost of her actions ("Flesh and Bone", "Home, Part I", "Home, Part II", "Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II") while remembering her limitations and fears.
• Roslin is rarely hesitant to make controversial decisions unilaterally, but often must deal with the significant ramifications of her choices.

Character History at a Glance

• After attending the decommissioning ceremonies for the battlestar Galactica, when the Cylon attack leaks through wireless, Roslin begins rescue of stranded civilian ships in Caprican space. The Case Orange automated beacon response assigns Roslin the role of president after Adar and other high-level government officials are dead or incapacitated.
• Roslin successfully persuades Galactica commander William Adama away from a suicidal counter-attack against the Cylons, and towards helping the survivors of humanity escape from occupied Colonial space.
• Roslin and Commander Adama begin their leadership together under an uneasy understanding. Where she is responsible for all civil leadership issues among the surviving Colonials, Adama is responsible for all military decisions (Miniseries). However, the dividing line is not always clear between the two leaders. Roslin establishes a fledgling civilian government and reestabishes a new Quorum.
• Roslin chooses chamalla extract as an alternative to diloxin, remembering her mother's malaise with that treatment. Her illness remains a secret until she relates her chamalla-induced visions of Kobol to priest Elosha, who connects them to Pythia and ancient Colonial prophesy (The Hand of God).
• After research, Roslin convinces Lt. Thrace to use the captured Cylon Raider to return to Caprica in search of the Arrow of Apollo, a possible key to the true location of Earth (Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part I).
• Commander Adama stages a military coup in retaliation and she is incarcerated aboard Galactica. Adama is soon shot by Sharon Valerii, leaving the Fleet in the hands of Saul Tigh (Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part II).
• From her cell, Roslin eventually tells the Quorum of Twelve of her role in the Sacred Scrolls, and begins to gain significant underground civilian support for her cause. After escaping Galactica, Roslin takes a third of the Fleet back to Kobol, with the help of rival Tom Zarek, to search for the Tomb. Starbuck meets Roslin's fleet with the recovered Arrow, and a hazardous expedition on Kobol begins, aided by a second copy of the Sharon Cylon and Elosha, who is soon killed, leaving Roslin with a gap in her spirituality for a time (Home, Part I).
• The recovered Commander Adama gains refreshed insight on the need for the Fleet to stay united, and finds Roslin's expedition. The leaders reconcile. Roslin's gamble on faith pays off big for humanity, and the group gains a map and their first waypoint to the true location of Earth (Home, Part II).
• After this, Adama's and Roslin's respect for each other grows stronger and their leadership in managing fleet business becomes more cooperative, asking each other for advice and correcting each other as needed, starting with a potentially disruptive tabloid expose of the Gideon shootings.
• After a near-disastrous military confrontation between Adama and Admiral Cain, Roslin forces them to concentrate on more important matters. Privately, Roslin tells Adama that Cain, whose power can radically affect the remnant of humanity both Roslin and Adama have strived so hard to protect, must be killed if Adama and the Fleet are to survive.

Roslin and Adama.

• After the battle, and Admiral Cain's death, Roslin, now more frail with her illness, promotes William Adama to admiral. The new admiral gives the president a kiss, establishing a more personal aspect to their friendship (Resurrection Ship, Part II).
• Roslin is miraculously saved by the injection of stem cells from the Cylon hybrid fetus, which apparently eradicates her cancer (Epiphanies). In the hours prior to the cure, however, Roslin remembers her last days on Caprica, including the attractive blonde with Dr. Baltar, her vice president. She now recognizes the woman as a humanoid Cylon.
• Roslin returns to work with a dispassionate, zealous manner, including an attempt to stop the black market, handling the terrible loss of Billy Keikeya, and the upcoming presidential election. After Keikeya's death, Roslin appoints Tory Foster as her aide.
• Roslin's decision to enforce a no-abortion law to aid in repopulation complicates what might have been an easy reelection. Her own vice president, Dr. Baltar, challenges Roslin for the presidency. After the Agathon's child is born, Roslin, fearing both for the child's safety and its significance to the Cylon, has the child's death faked (Downloaded).
• When New Caprica is found, Baltar uses the discovery to wedge the election to his favor. Roslin gives Foster tacit approval to rig the election, but the fraud is discovered by Lt. Gaeta. In a reversal of their earlier roles, Admiral Adama confronts Roslin about her actions, admitting the he doesn't like Baltar either, but adamant that they would be criminals if they stole the election, justified or not. Roslin listens to her friend, but remains convinced that it is the wrong choice and that they just give up. After the correct results are revealed, President Baltar first order is to begin the colonization of New Caprica.
• Early in the colonization, Roslin finds time to relax on New Caprica. She meets with Admiral Adama, who also takes in some time to unwind. The two friends comfortably chat about matters small and not-so-small over smoking and drinking, and later gaze at the stars together, allowing themselves to relax, lying outside, close to each other. Roslin worries that, amidst their temporary comfort, the Cylons could return, but it is nice to have what they have for the time being (Unfinished Business).

Roslin as a teacher on New Caprica.

• A year passes on New Caprica, and Baltar's administration becomes the disaster that Roslin feared. Roslin returned to teaching, running the new settlement's school. Assisted by Maya, who brings her infant adopted daughter Isis (the secreted Cylon hybrid), Roslin is more comfortable watching over the pair personally.
• On the 380th day after settling on the planet, the Cylons discover the colony, as Roslin had warned, and occupy the settlement).
• Roslin is arrested at least twice during the occupation, and is nearly killed at a firing squad were it not for the New Caprica Resistance (Precipice). Later, during the Battle of New Caprica, Roslin evacuates the planet aboard Colonial One.
• After the escape, Vice President Tom Zarek assumes the presidency, but agrees to step aside after appointing Roslin as president and returning to his VP office. She issues a general pardon to everyone in the Fleet in response to the quiet executions of some of the people who collaborated with the Cylons and to resolve further trials.
• Roslin's relationship with Adama and the Agathons is strained when Adama discovers that Roslin hid the Cylon baby, Hera Agathon, without his knowledge (The Eye of Jupiter).
• Baltar's capture from his time with the Cylons leads Roslin to first interrogate him, then put him to trial, which places new stresses on the President.
• During Baltar's trial, Lee Adama confronts Roslin on his suspicion that she is taking chamalla again. Although Roslin silently pleads with him to not go that route, Adama persists and forces her to publicly reveal that her cancer has returned. Disappointed in him, she recalls a time when they were friends and she called him "Captain Apollo."
• She has a vision in the Opera House on Kobol where she and an image of Sharon Agathon pursue Hera Agathon, but Hera is picked up by a Number Six. A later vision reveals that Sharon Agathon shares her vision. After conferring with each other, they both visit Caprica-Six, who disbelievingly confirms that she, too, experienced the vision. When the Fleet arrives at the Ionian nebula, Roslin nearly faints, possibly having another vision (Crossroads, Part II).
• After Kara Thrace's mysterious return, Roslin deeply distrusts Thrace, although she claims to know the way the Earth and feels an instinctive need to go there. When Roslin and Adama don't comply with Thrace pleadings, Thrace confronts the president at gunpoint (He That Believeth In Me). Thrace hands Roslin her pistol and tells her to shoot if she believes that Thrace is a Cylon. Roslin pulls the trigger, but misses, and Thrace is subdued by Marines (Six of One).
• Roslin still holds a grudge against Baltar and tries to curtail Baltar's freedoms when his new-founded cult has violent confrontations with followers of other beliefs. Ostensibly trying to protect his followers and keep peace in the Fleet, she passes an emergency measure to severely restrict their right of assembly. Although she pleads to the Quorum to think of what Baltar did on New Caprica and what he might do with followers blindly devoted to him, the Quorum vetoes her (Escape Velocity).

Notes

• The character of Laura Roslin is unique to the Battlestar Galactica saga. She has no counterpart to the Original Series, where its version of President Adar is killed and a presidential replacement is never made. Roslin assumes more of the political-spiritual leadership of the Original Series' Commander Adama, whereas William Adama is representative of the Original Series' character's military commander aspect.

• Roslin's apparent cure in "Epiphanies" contradicts the "dying leader" clause of the Pythian Prophecy, despite the fulfillment of her role in the Tomb of Athena story arc. However, in "Crossroads, Part I", she reveals that her cancer has returned.

• Actress Mary McDonnell is perhaps best known for her role in the epic film, Dances with Wolves, with Kevin Costner. Another famous role of hers was the First Lady in Independence Day, a film which (in a less serious tone than Battlestar) depicts cocky human fighter pilots battling an genocidal enemy from outer space.

• In the Singer/DeSanto continuation of the the Original Series, a female president named Mara would visit Galactica in much the same way that Laura Roslin did as part of that Galactica's decommissioning ceremony.

• The glasses that the character wears are also McDonnell's real glasses.

• President Roslin's appointment as Colonial president parallels US President Gerald R. Ford, who became US Vice President and later President through appointment and succession respectively, not by election.

References

Preceded by: Richard Adar	President of the Twelve Colonies of Kobol	Succeeded by: Gaius Baltar
Preceded by: Tom Zarek	Vice President of the Twelve Colonies of Kobol	Succeeded by: Tom Zarek
Preceded by: Tom Zarek	President of the Twelve Colonies of Kobol	Succeeded by: Incumbent

Re-imagined Series definition: a hallucinogenic plant used in religious ceremonies and medical treatments, see: chamalla