Editing Alex Quartararo

{{Character Data
|photo=CrashdownKobolGleaming.jpg
|series=TRS
|birthname= Alex Quartararo
|callsign= Crashdown
|nickname="Crash"
|seen= 33
|lastseen=Fragged
|death=KIA on {{RDM|Kobol}} {{TRS|Fragged}}
|marital status=Possible relationship with Ensign [[Davis]]
|role=[[Raptor]] [[ECO]]
|rank=Lieutenant
|actor=[[Samuel Witwer]]
|serial=218540<ref>Serial number comes from [[:File:Alex quartararo dog tag-watermarked.jpg|this prop image]].</ref>
|sortkey=Quartararo, Alex
}}
Lieutenant '''Alex "Crashdown" Quartararo''' (a.k.a. "Crash") is the [[Raptor]] [[ECO]] who replaces {{callsign|Karl Agathon}} {{TRS|33}} after [[Sharon Valerii]] reluctantly leaves Agathon behind on [[Cylons (RDM)|Cylon]]-occupied {{RDM|Caprica}} at his request {{TRS|Miniseries}}.

A survivor of the crew of the [[battlestar (RDM)|battlestar]] ''[[Triton (RDM)|Triton]]'', Quartararo aids in the discovery of a fresh water source for the [[The Fleet (RDM)|Fleet]] {{TRS|Water}}, a Cylon-held [[tylium (RDM)|tylium]] mine {{TRS|The Hand of God (RDM)}}, and the planet {{RDM|Kobol}} {{TRS|Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part I}}.

Despite Valerii's initial misgivings of him, Quartararo is a loyal officer.  His actions include the defense of Valerii to Sergeant [[Hadrian]] prior to Valerii's being taken away for questioning {{TRS|Litmus}}.

Quartararo is also the object of [[Davis|Ensign Davis]]{{'}} affections {{TRS|The Hand of God|Colonial Day}}, and claims to have known a "lady friend" named [[Kimiko]] prior to the [[Fall of the Twelve Colonies]] {{TRS|Water}}.

==Events on Kobol ==

After Valerii attempts suicide, Quartararo accompanies a mission to investigate Kobol, which meets with disastrous results.  A Cylon [[Basestar (RDM)|basestar]] and [[Raider (RDM)|Cylon Raider]]s had already taken position above the planet, causing the destruction of one Raptor, the retreat of another and damage to Quartararo's Raptor.  He pilots [[Raptor 1]] after his pilot is killed, crash-landing on Kobol near the ruins of the [[Opera House]] {{TRS|Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part I}}.

[[File:Tritonpatch 33.JPG|thumb|left|Quartararo at work, still wearing a battlestar ''Triton'' patch {{TRS|33}}]]When sonic booms are heard, presumably coming from a Cylon ship, Quartararo leads the team away from a likely approach by [[Cylon Centurion]]s. However, he hurries his team excessively to the point where they abandon most of their critical survival supplies, leaving [[Socinus]], critically injured in the Raptor crash, without needed medicine. Quartararo orders [[Tarn]], [[Galen Tyrol]] and [[Cally Henderson]] to return to the crash site to retrieve the needed medicine. This ill-advised move results in Tarn's death from Centurion gunfire, and later the death of Socinus, as the retrieved medicine could not treat his injuries in time. All that the medic kit could do is euthanize Socinus with a [[morpha]] overdose in lieu of suffering an agonizing death {{TRS|Valley of Darkness}}.

Quartararo's inexperience reemerges again as he attempts to organize his team through textbook field exercises to destroy a missile battery that several Centurions have constructed from the remains of their [[Heavy Raider]] to destroy any colonial [[SAR]] parties. The parameters of the operation change when the Centurions shift their deployment, providing greater Cylon defense at the missile launcher, and when the [[DRADIS]] guidance dish is left relatively unprotected. Quartararo assigns Henderson the likely-suicidal task of creating a diversion while the remaining team try to destroy the missile battery.

Although [[Galen Tyrol]] insists that destroying the missiles' DRADIS guidance dish would accomplish their mission and prevent the shooting down of the SAR operation, Quartararo's inexperience and by-the-book insistence on following his original plan blinds him to alternatives that would greatly increase his team's survival chances.

As the SAR Raptor's sonic booms announces their imminent arrival, Quartararo hastily orders Henderson to begin the operation, but she is frozen in fear and refuses to move. Becoming increasingly irritated and irrational, Quartararo aims his sidearm at Henderson's head and threatens to kill her if she does not follow orders. Chief Tyrol aims his sidearm at Quartararo, asking him to stand down while Quartararo counts to three in a final effort to move Henderson along.

Before the countdown ends, [[Gaius Baltar]] shoots Quartararo in the back, likely severing his spinal cord or piercing his heart, killing him instantly.

After their rescue by the SAR team, both Baltar and Tyrol lie to Captain [[Lee Adama]], claiming that Quartararo died a hero in battle {{TRS|Fragged}}.

Lt. [[Margaret Edmondson|Margaret "Racetrack" Edmondson]] succeeds Quartararo as Valerii's ECO for her mission to destroy the [[Battle of Kobol (TRS)|basestar over Kobol]] {{TRS|Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part II}}.

== Behind the Scenes ==
Actor [[Samuel Witwer]] was cast as Crashdown after watching the [[Miniseries]] and knowing he "really wanted to work on the [[Season 1 (2004-05)|first season]]."<ref group="Book">{{Cite book|author=David Bassom|title=[[Battlestar Galactica: The Official Companion]]|year=2005|publisher=Titan Books|isbn=1845760972|page=131}}</ref>

==Notes==
*Before ''[[Pegasus (RDM)|Pegasus]]'' arrives [[Pegasus (episode)|later in season 2]], Quartararo is the only confirmed survivor from another battlestar in the Re-imagined Series.
*Crashdown is possibly named for the "Crashdown Café" from Ron Moore's previous series, ''[[Wikipedia:Roswell (TV series)|Roswell]]'', which dealt with supposed alien survivors of the [[Wikipedia:Roswell UFO incident|crash]].
*According to actor Samuel Witwer, executive producer [[David Eick]] described Crashdown to him as "a cross between [[W:Han Solo|Han Solo]] and [[W:Bill Paxton|Bill Paxton]]’s character, Hudson, in ''[[W:Aliens (film)|Aliens]]'' — the “Game over, man” guy! And that’s sort of what I endeavored to bring to the role."<ref group="Book">{{Cite book|author=David Bassom|title=[[Battlestar Galactica: The Official Companion]]|year=2005|publisher=Titan Books|isbn=1845760972|page=131}}</ref>
*His real name was never stated on screen, but confirmed to be Alex Quartararo by [[Bradley Thompson]]. The name also appears on a playing card in the ''[[Battlestar Galactica Collectable Card Game]]'', and is derived from the character's [[dog tags]].

===Musical Representation===
[[Bear McCreary]] used the [[w:electric sitar|electric sitar]], performed by [[Steve Bartek]], to represent Crashdown's descent into madness during the Kobol episodes. The electric sitar had been featured most prominently in ''Battlestar Galactica'' during McCreary's arrangement of "[[All Along the Watchtower]]," but the instrument was first used extensively in the first half of [[Season 2 (2005-06)|season two]] specifically to represent Quartararo's mental deterioration as he went "full [[W:Colonel Kurtz|Colonel Kurtz]]" on Kobol.

Years later, when scoring ''[[Blood and Chrome]]'', McCreary employed the same electric sitar technique to represent the unstable soldier [[Toth]], creating a subtle subconscious connection between the two characters who both suffered psychological breakdowns in stressful combat situations.<ref name="McCreary2013">{{cite web |last=McCreary |first=Bear |title=Battlestar Galactica: Blood & Chrome |url=https://bearmccreary.com/battlestar-galactica-blood-chrome/ |website=Bear McCreary |access-date=27 July 2025}}</ref>

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