Kara Thrace

Kara Thrace
[[Image:|200px|Kara Thrace]]
Name	{{{name}}}
Age	28
Colony	Caprica
Birth place	{{{birthplace}}}
Birth Name	Kara Thrace
Birth Date	{{{birthdate}}}
Callsign	Starbuck
Nickname	{{{nickname}}}
Introduced	[[{{{seen}}}]]
Death
Parents
Siblings
Children
Marital Status	Single (Formerly engaged to Zak Adama)
Family Tree	View
Role	CAG's Second in Command (Bastille Day), Pilot Battlestar Galactica, Flight Training Instructor
Rank	Lieutenant
Serial Number	{{{serial}}}
Portrayed by	Katee Sackhoff
Kara Thrace is a Cylon
Kara Thrace is a Final Five Cylon
Kara Thrace is a Human/Cylon Hybrid
Kara Thrace is an Original Series Cylon
Related Media
		@ BW Media
Additional Information
[[Image:|200px|Kara Thrace]]

Biography

Background

Kara Thrace is a gifted pilot - and knows it. This has tended to give her an attitude that has at times thwarted her career advancement.

In an unhappy childhood, she was so frequently beaten by her mother that she came to accept pain as a way of life (Flesh and Bone). Her father was a pianist (Valley of Darkness), suggesting that her formerly broken finger bones on both hands had been intentionally broken by a parent using her father's piano (The Farm). Kara left home to join the military. On graduating from Colonial Flight School, she undertook a period of active duty before returning to flight school as an instructor.

It was in this role that Thrace breaks her cardinal rule of flying and falls in love with a young recruit, Zak Adama. Despite Zak's mediocre performance as a pilot, Thrace's love for him - and the fact that she could see emulating his father was so important to him - causes her to pass him on his final flight examination, even though he flunked 3 of the required manoeuvres (Act of Contrition).

Already engaged to Zak at the time she passed him for flight status, she is unable to marry him - Zak is killed during a routine mission shortly after graduating. At the time, Lee Adama, Zak's elder brother, blames their father for Zak's death, and in her guilt, Kara does little to alter this idea. She does, however, meet William Adama shortly after the accident, and the two strike up a rapport - so much so that they stand together at Zak's funeral (Act of Contrition).

Following the funeral, Kara resigns from flight School as a instructor and transfers as an operational pilot aboard battlestar Galactica under the command of William Adama, where she serves for some two years prior to the Cylon attack on the Twelve Colonies. Before the Cylon attack, she was 2nd to the CAG, Jackson Spencer. While she was temporarily in the brig for fighting with Colonel Tigh, the CAG. was killed in a Cylon slaughter of Galactica's last Viper squadron. With her incarceration, Lee Adama, who joins Galactica, is given the senior pilot title. Apparently, she approves of Apollo being assigned the leadership role: "Haven't a big enough dipstick for the job," she says about herself (Mini-Series).

During her time aboard Galactica, Kara's flying skills proves her as one of finest pilots in the Colonial Fleet, but her attitude quickly runs her afoul of other senior officers on-board ship, notably Colonel Saul Tigh, Galactica's Executive officer. Tigh and Thrace seem to take an instant dislike to each other, perhaps each seeing a similar level of failure in the other: Tigh with his drinking problem, and Thrace with the knowledge that she caused Zak Adama's death. Their open mutual dislike of one another leads to the point where blows are exchanged, with Thrace ending up in the brig (Mini-Series).

At the time of the Cylon attack she has an apartment in Delphi. It overlooks a parking lot and had a broken toilet. She was also a very avid painter, and her flat is cluttered with her paintings (Valley of Darkness).

Post-Cylon Attack

Following the Cylon attack on the Twelve Colonies, Thrace returns to flight status, where she quickly proves her worth as a remarkable pilot - right down to using her own Viper to rescue Lee Adama when his ship is disabled in the escape from Ragnar Anchorage (Mini-Series). This action brings her grudging respect from Colonel Tigh, but she is unable to accept his offer of the olive branch - an act that will have repercussions for her later.

Starbuck as acting CAG with Boxey as assistant in Bastille Day. (C. Sci Fi Channel)

After Galactica suffers a drastic loss of water reserves due to an act of sabotage (Water), a hostage situation erupts on a prison transport ship, involving Lee Adama (Bastille Day). While Captain Adama is being held hostage, Lt. Thrace serves as interim CAG in the briefing room. Her behavior as acting CAG is criticized by Tigh.

Thrace aides in assembling a rescue mission on the Astral Queen. She surprisingly gets the backing of Tigh himself and the acknowledgement that she is the best sharpshooter in the fleet. Following the successful mission, she tries to build a bridge between herself and the XO with a toast (consisting of water), apologizing in much the same way as Tigh himself had tried after their initial escape from Ragnar Anchorage. But this time it is Tigh that rejects Thrace's apology, stating that her flaws are professional, while his flaws were personal (Bastille Day).

Having partially admitting her role in Zak Adama's death to Lee Adama (Mini-Series), Thrace is forced to confront her past head-on when a freak accident on Galactica's hangar deck kills 13 Viper pilots and puts a further seven pilots in sickbay. Charged with finding and training new pilots - or "nuggets" in the Colonial slang - Thrace faces up to past mistakes, and eventually admits her secret to William Adama himself, an act that brings their close friendship almost to the breaking point (Act of Contrition).

Shortly after, Thrace engages a fight with eight Cylon Raiders while leading a training flight from Galactica, and is forced to eject from her critically-damaged Viper after her fighter is damaged and goes into an uncontrollable flat spin into the atmosphere of a small moon (You Can't Go Home Again). The crash prompts Galactica to conduct a system-wide search for her, led by Adama and his son - both reacting to their own guilt at their reactions to her. While the search and rescue operations place the Fleet at extreme risk, they nevertheless keep the Fleet in the star system long enough for Thrace - nursing a damaged knee - to repair a downed Cylon Raider and get it flying again before using it to return to Galactica - and provide Adama with vital intelligence on Cylon fighter technology.

Taken off the pilot's active duty roster as a result of her injured leg, Starbuck sees her role become more desk-bound. She is recognized by Commander Adama for her unconventional thinking and is asked to plan a special attack on a Cylon tylium refinery (The Hand of God) and also undertakes the interrogation of Cylon prisoners (Flesh and Bone). The tactical planning role is not something she relishes, and she frequently shows resentment towards others for her condition (The Hand of God).

The interrogation of Leoben Conoy is a task Thrace does not particularly wish for, especially when the situation - a nuclear device allegedly hidden on one of the ships in the Fleet - pushes her into some drastic acts to try and extract the information from the Cylon agent (Flesh and Bone).

Off-duty, Kara maintains her cock-sure personna by playing cards and gambling for money. Her devil-may-care attitude brings her to the attention of Doctor Gaius Baltar, whom she is initially intrigued by (Water), but whom she quickly comes to despise. However, the devil-may-care approach hides the fact that deep down, she is religious, and frequently turns to the Lords of Kobol - particularly Aphrodite and Artemis - in times of need (Mini-Series, Flesh and Bone) - even if it is sometimes half-joking (You Can't Go Home Again).

The Arrow of Apollo

Starbuck retrieves the Arrow of Apollo in Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part II.

Being the only qualified pilot to fly the Cylon Raider, Kara is assigned to plant a nuclear device on board a basestar in orbit around Kobol. Before the assignment, she is called to a meeting with Laura Roslin, who convinces Kara to jump to Caprica and retrieve the Arrow of Apollo. Disobeying orders, disillusioned after confirming that Commander Adama actually made up that he knew the actual location of Earth, she jumps to Caprica (Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part I) and lands in Delphi. Upon recovering the unusual Arrow, she fights a version of Number 6 and luckily defeats the Cylon -- who was mortally wounded after being impaled with a piece of jutting debris.

At the museum, she discovers Helo, whom she thought dead. She also discovers the second copy of Sharon Valerii and realizes she is a Cylon. Thrace attempts to kill her, but Helo stops her and reveals to Starbuck that the "Caprica" Valerii is pregnant with his child, much to Kara's chagrin. (Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part II)

Sometime later, Thrace and Helo discover a resistance movement on Caprica. (Resistance) Thrace and the Resistance leader, Samuel Anders, strike up a rapport and end up as lovers. Kara is shot in a military action, waking up in a hospital on Caprica (The Farm). Mysterious surgeries by a doctor named Simon lead her to suspect his motives. She discovers that Simon is a Cylon agent, working with a copy of Number Six, and that the next day he is planning to extract her ovaries for use in the Cylon's attempts to study and create a hybrid Cylon/human embryo. Staggering and in pain, Thrace later kills Simon and manages to escape to the front of the hospital, but not before clocking a Six copy with a fire extinguisher and destroying the local farm power supply, mercy-killing Sue-Shaun and several other women in the facility.

Another copy of Simon appears just as the Resistance attacks the facility. The second Simon is immediately killed by the Resistance, but a squad of Cylon Centurions appear and pins the Resistance down. Luckily, the Caprica copy of Sharon Valerii swoops in with a stolen Heavy Raider, destroys the Centurions and flies the Resistance and Thrace out of harm's way.

Thrace promises to Anders that she'll return with a rescue mission for the remaining survivors, leaving him her identification tags as a promise and friendship token. Anders returns the Arrow of Apollo to Thrace, which he hid on the resistance grounds for safekeeping.

Thrace, Helo and the pregnant Valerii land on the Astral Queen in the Heavy Raider. Finding the Laura Roslin faction in orbit of Kobol, Kara is reunited with Lee. He kisses her impulsively, catching Kara by pleasant surprise, but a tense standoff follows when Apollo discovers that another Valerii copy has returned with them. Roslin helps defuse the situation, and Thrace delivers the Arrow of Apollo to the President.

Temporarily removed from the protocol of military discipline a few hours before their departure to Kobol's surface, Lee playfully teases Kara by stealing a pyramid ball she took from Caprica. Lee senses her depression about Caprica and tells her that he'd be happy to hear about any problems she had. He also let slip that he loved her, which brightened Kara's mood to the point where she teased him back about the gaffe.

With a team led by Laura Roslin, Lee Adama, and, later, joined by the recovered Commander Adama, Thrace enters the Tomb of Athena and successfully uses the Arrow of Apollo to activate a hologram that shows constellations of the Twelve Colonies' ancient symbols.

Billy Keikeya: Uh... where the hell are we?

Laura Roslin: I don't know. Tomb of Athena, I think.

Commander Adama: I thought we were already in the tomb.

Kara Thrace: I think that was the lobby.

Thrace realizes that they are on a recreation of Earth, and realizes they are seeing, in a sense, what their brothers would see in Earth's sky. Together with Lee Adama, they locate the Lagoon Nebula, a celestial body known to Commander Adama and Lee Adama, and gather sufficient information to begin an actual course to Earth (Home, Part II).

Thrace and Lee Adama continue to appear more and more comfortable in their working and off-duty friendship. They compliment each other often when in live-fire encounters (Home, Part II) as well as off-duty practice (Flight of the Phoenix). Thrace never fails to tease Lee when she can, showing off the impressive stealth abilities and her flying skills of the new Blackbird fighter in her maiden flight (Flight of the Phoenix).

The Pegasus

With the initially welcome discovery of another Colonial battlestar, Pegasus, Admiral Helena Cain summarily assigns Thrace (and Lee Adama) to Pegasus after digesting the reports of Galactica's officers, which is a source of irritation for Commander William Adama.

After critically commenting against Pegasus CAG Captain Cole Taylor's plan to recon the Unknown Cylon Ship tracking the Fleet, Taylor removes Thrace from the mission. Lee Adama, also miffed by Thrace's and his change in seniority, secretly tells her to use the newly built Blackbird stealth craft to take recon photos of the Cylon Unknown. Adama believes that the stealth craft has a better chance of taking reconnaissance photos due to its stealth abilities; like Thrace, he believes that Vipers and a Raptor wouldn't be an effective recon force. (Pegasus)

Thrace is away on her covert recon mission, unaware of the showdown between Commander Adama and Admiral Cain over Cain's totalitarian command style in her quick conviction of Helo and Galen Tyrol for the accidental death of "Cylon interrogator" Lt. Alistair Thorne.

Notes

According to SkyOne, Thrace was born on Picon but raised all over the Twelve Colonies. Her mother was a Sergent Major in the Colonial Marines and a decorated veteran of the First Cylon War. Her father was named Dreilide, and is described as a "frustrated" musician.

Here is SkyOne's summary of Thrace:

Starbuck is Commander Adama's best pilot, as well as flight partner and closest comrade to Apollo, Adama's estranged son.

Kara Thrace was born on the Picon Colony, but raised all over the 12 Colonies. Her childhood was spent bouncing from one military outpost to another. Her mother was a sergeant major in the Colonial Marines, and a decorated veteran of the Cylon war. Her father, Dreilide, was a frustrated musician.

Kara was a tough minded-child who dreamed of playing Pyramid in the big leagues someday. her mother wanted her to pursue a career in the military...Kara did not want this, so signed up to the academy to pursue her love of sports.

Her future as a sports star ended when she was seriously injured, shattering her right knee. Most surgeons felt her knee would never be the same. Depressed, Kara applied to various post-graduate posts, but doubted she would be accepted. To her surprise, she scored the highest academic record for a flight-training exam. Kara soon discovered a love of flying.

She would be a pilot for life - unless she got kicked out first, as Kara hated taking orders and military protocol. If that wasn't enough, Kara drank and gambled too much. While her academic and personal life was not first class, it couldn't be disputed that she was destined to fly.

Kara served her first tour aboard the Battlestar Triton, but she was not admired by all, and soon found herself shipped back to where she started.

This is where she met Zak Adama, and fell in love. Tragedy struck when Zak failed a key flight test and his plane crashed. Kara was devestated. She then spent two years on the Galactica - concentrating on her flying.

As this information has not appeared on the Scifi.com series website or on screen, it has yet to be confirmed.

Additional Notes

• Thrace was a region in south-eastern Europe that was heavily influenced by the ancient Greeks and was eventually conquered by Phillip II of Macedonia.