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This article concerns the first Number Eight Cylon that served on Galactica with the callsign of "Boomer."
For information on the Eight discovered on Caprica and the wife of Karl Agathon with the callsign of "Athena," see Sharon "Athena" Agathon. |
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| Boomer | ||
|---|---|---|
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| [show/hide spoilers] Spoilers hidden in infobox by default only. | ||
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Human Name |
Sharon Valerii | |
| Birth Name | ||
| Birth Date | {{{birthdate}}} | |
| Callsign | Boomer | |
| Nickname | {{{nickname}}} | |
| Introduced | Miniseries | |
| Parents | None biologically (allegedly Abraham and Katherine Valerii); she was created by the Final Five | |
| Siblings | None in the usual way (allegedly one, per photo in "Downloaded"); all other Number Eight Cylons are her identical sisters, and the other numbers are considered siblings as well | |
| Family Tree | View | |
| Serial Number | T-990429 312743[1] | |
| Portrayed by | Grace Park | |
| Boomer is a Human/Cylon Hybrid | ||
| Boomer is an Original Series Cylon | ||
| Related Media | ||
| @ BW Media | ||
| Additional Information | ||
| [[Image:|200px|Boomer]] | ||
Sharon "Boomer" Valerii is a copy of the humanoid Cylon model Number Eight who is initially planted as a "sleeper" agent in the Colonial Fleet. She is unaware of her Cylon nature and serves for two years as Lieutenant Valerii on Galactica, where she is assigned as a Raptor pilot and also engaged in a secret relationship with Chief Tyrol. After the Cylon attack, her underlying programming repeatedly emerges which leads her to unconscious acts of sabotage. Growing confusion about her true self result in a deep depression and a failed suicide attempt. After Valerii returns from a successful mission to destroy a Cylon basestar, she shoots Commander William Adama in the chest, wounding him critically. She is incarcerated in the brig and soon afterward is killed by Cally Henderson.
Her consciousness is downloaded and she is reborn in another body. Subsequently, she experiences severe problems integrating into Cylon society and long considers herself more human than Cylon. She eventually works together with Caprica-Six in an attempt to change Cylon popular opinion about humans and she emerges as one of the Cylon leaders jointly responsible for the end of the occupation of the Twelve Colonies and later the Cylon occupation on New Caprica. Following the failure on New Caprica, Valerii abandons her hopes for coexistence with humans and she denounces her past on Galactica. She is assigned to watch Hera Agathon, but when Hera's mother comes to rescue her, Valerii tries to kill her and is killed by Caprica-Six allowing Agathon and Caprica-Six to escape while Valerii downloads to a new body again. However, while she feels that she belongs to Cylon society, she is not fully integrated into it and relatively isolated among her peers, particularly from the rest of her model's line as her vote to lobotomize the Cylon Raiders leads to a Cylon Civil War.
She is engaged in a relationship with the Number One leading the pro-lobotomization faction of the Cylons and is a member of that faction although she does express some misgivings about their actions. She is also aware of the identity of at least one member of the Final Five: Ellen Tigh and has known since before even D'Anna found out as Cavil trusts her and let her in on the secret. She eventually helps Ellen escape as part of a plan to infiltrate Galactica and is locked in the Cylon brig on arrival.
Later when she is prisoner on Galactica she escapes, beats Athena badly, has sexual relations with Helo and kidnaps Hera, but redeems herself somewhat by saving Hera from dissection and helping her escape to her parents. Valerii is finally killed by Athena and with resurrection destroyed, her death is final.
Biography[edit]
Life on Galactica[edit]
Valerii is a "sleeper" agent, unsuspecting of her Cylon status. As far as she is aware, she was born on the mining colony of Troy, as the daughter of a family from Aerilon (TRS: "Flesh and Bone"). Troy itself was destroyed in an unexplained cataclysm, allowing Valerii's background to be established as that of an orphan. Following her arrival on board Galactica, she enters into a relationship with the ship's Chief Petty Officer Galen Tyrol, which is against military protocols concerning fraternization between officers and non-officers. Whether this is unintentional or a subconscious reaction to her Cylon programming remains unclear.
As a rookie pilot, she keeps missing the trap and putting holes into the deck. Admiral Adama calls her to his office alongside Colonel Tigh and talks with her about why she keeps doing that and instead of kicking her out of the service, he gives her advice and another chance. Valerii thanks him and tells him she owes him one and will pay him back someday. Adama says a lot of people owe him one but a lot never pay it back but Valerii promises to pay him back someday when it really means something. (TRS: "Daybreak, Part II")
At the time of the Cylon attack, Valerii is flying her Raptor to Caprica with Galactica's last remaining operational Viper squadron, when they learn of the attacks and attempt to engage two Cylon Raiders. However, the Viper squadron is destroyed, and the Raptor is damaged while trying to escape, forcing Valerii and her ECO Karl Agathon to make an emergency landing on Caprica in Raptor 312.
After repairing the Raptor they are mobbed by desperate civilians and undertake a rescue operation. Lifting a number of children, Valerii states there is room for three adults. Valerii holds a lottery for the three seats. When the last number is called, Agathon chooses to give up his place aboard the Raptor so that Doctor Gaius Baltar can be rescued as well (TRS: "Miniseries"). Helo later manages to make it back to Galactica with the help of Starbuck and another Sharon months later. (TRS: "Home, Part I")
After being found by Laura Roslin's group of stranded military and civilian ships, Valerii works within the new civilian Fleet, assisting Roslin's attempts to gather other stranded civilian ships in the space surrounding Caprica. She finds a number of ships critical to the fledgling Fleet's survival, such as a fuel tanker. After the newly assembled Fleet, led by Galactica, leaves the solar system of the Colonies, Valerii aids in other critical acts, including the discovery of a tylium-rich asteroid, replete with an active Cylon mine (TRS: "The Hand of God"), and locating a source of water to replenish the Fleet's lost supply after the sabotage of Galactica's stores (TRS: "Water").
Acts of sabotage[edit]
At the same time as she is supporting the human Fleet, Valerii's underlying Cylon subroutines periodically emerge. Her Cylon programming is the cause of the sabotage of Galactica's water tanks, something she planned herself. However, her human side starts to emerge and prevents her from dying in the sabotage as Cavil had wanted with Cavil bringing out her Cylon programing using an elephant statue (Water, The Plan). Later, she possibly assists a copy of Aaron Doral to perform a suicide bombing by leaving a hatch open for him. The Doral copy nearly kills Commander Adama and Colonel Tigh (Litmus, The Plan).
Valerii finds herself soaking wet, after she awakes to her human personality shortly after the bombs used to destroy Galactica's water tanks were planted. She becomes increasingly concerned and starts to question her true self. Her worry increases when she experiences a certain attachment to a captured Cylon Raider, and is able to give insight into how it can be properly assessed and understood ("Water," "Six Degrees of Separation," "Flesh and Bone"). Her concerns are further elevated when, following the bombing by Doral, Galactica's Master-at-Arms, Sergeant Hadrian, suspects her and Chief Galen Tyrol of Cylon complicity (TRS: "Litmus").
Tyrol distances himself from Valerii after this incident, and he later ends their relationship following the arrest of Specialist Socinus (Litmus). Facing Tyrol's suspicions concerning her activities immediately before the bombing, Valerii finds herself emotionally isolated and stressed. She takes the Cylon detector test created by Dr. Baltar, but he hides her positive test result in fear that once discovered, she might immediately retaliate and kill him (TRS: "Flesh and Bone"). Valerii finds short solace in Baltar's test, but deals with an anonymous accusation, when she finds the word "Cylon" written on the mirror of her locker. While its unclear, her Cylon personality believes she unconsciously wrote it to warn herself about her true nature and to stop her from continuing acts of sabotage (Six Degrees of Separation, The Plan).
Frightened and alone, Valerii withdraws into herself and attempts suicide, but is initially unable to do so. During her second attempt, she is interrupted by Dr. Baltar who, rather than discouraging her, essentially gives her his blessing on her suicide. Following his departure from the duty locker, Valerii succeeds in shooting herself, but her Cylon personality interrupts the attempt. Valerii only wounds herself in her right cheek (TRS: "Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part I").
After Kara Thrace absconds with a captured Cylon Raider intended for an attack on a basestar orbiting Kobol, Commander Adama asks Valerii and ECO Margaret Edmondson to use a Cylon transponder in their Raptor to infiltrate the basestar and place a nuclear warhead within to destroy it. The mission is a success, but when the weapon would not auto-release from the Raptor after landing, Valerii exits the ship and enters the basestar. Inside, she encounters a dozen copies of herself, confirming her worst fears. Valerii escapes in the Raptor just before the warhead detonates and destroys the basestar. Back on Galactica, her encounter with the other Eight models on the basestar apparently triggers Valerii's Cylon programming to emerge once more, and she shoots Commander Adama in the chest while being congratulated on her successful mission in CIC, wounding him critically. While her Cylon programming succeeded in performing the act Cavil had been pushing her to do, she had to mentally turn herself into a Centurion as even Valerii's Cylon personality cares for Adama. It's later suggested by a Number Six that she purposefully wounded him in a way he could survive due to love for him. (TRS: "Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part II", "Scattered", "The Plan").
Imprisonment and death[edit]
After shooting Adama, Valerii is quickly restrained by guards and jailed in the brig. During her imprisonment, Colonel Tigh attempts to forcibly extract information from her at gunpoint, but Valerii stonewalls him and even asks him to shoot her (TRS: "Scattered"). Chief Tyrol is later incarcerated in the same brig cell by Tigh, also suspected of being a Cylon. While imprisoned together, Valerii tries to convince Tyrol that her feelings for him were real and important, but he rejects her and threatens to kill her if she touched him.
Dr. Baltar later enters the cell, ostensibly to collect a blood sample from Tyrol to prove his innocence using the Cylon detector, but he instead injects Tyrol with a potent toxin that would kill him in a matter of seconds if Baltar does not give him an antidote. Baltar interrogates Valerii, demanding to know how many other Cylons are in the Fleet, using the dying Tyrol to blackmail her. Valerii first protests that she does not know, but as Tyrol is about to die, she reveals that there are eight other Cylons in the Fleet and Baltar then revives Tyrol.
Soon after, while being transferred to a new reinforced cell built to hold Cylons for later experiments and long term incarceration, a large crowd of crewmembers jeers at her and calls her a traitor. Specialist Cally Henderson who considers Valerii responsible for Tyrol's imprisonment breaks through the crowd holding a gun and shoots Valerii at point-blank range. Valerii's last words are "I love you, Chief" and she dies in Tyrol's arms (TRS: "Resistance").
Life as a Corpse[edit]
Valerii's body is sent to the morgue and autopsied. Later, the recovered Commander Adama visits her corpse, asking "why" aloud, and weeps over her body. Adama pronounces a very mild reprimand for Henderson, sentencing her to 30 days in the brig for discharging a weapon without authorization. Henderson is never tried for murder, since Cylons are not seen as people (TRS: "The Farm").
Valerii's corpse is later used as bait when Sesha Abinell takes over Cloud 9, demanding the execution of the future Sharon "Athena" Agathon. The distraction provided a window with which to diffuse the terrorist situation. (TRS: "Sacrifice")
Rebirth and life among Cylons[edit]
After being shot by Cally Henderson, Galactica is close enough to a Cylon Resurrection Ship so that her consciousness is retrieved for download into another body. On rebirth, Valerii rejects her Cylon nature and continues to call herself "Sharon" instead of "Eight," even going so far as to reclaim her former apartment (502) on Caprica. A copy of Number Three, representing the status quo of the Cylons, is deeply disturbed by this and suggests that Valerii be boxed.
Caprica-Six, also seen as a Hero of the Cylon, protests and Three advises her to get Valerii to change. When Valerii laments the loss of Tyrol, Caprica-Six tells her about her own love for a human, Baltar, which prompts Valerii to inform her that he is still alive. Suspecting that Three has an ulterior motive and wants to box both of them, the two play along and Valerii announces her intent to move out of her old apartment. After a Caprica Resistance bombing, Valerii, Caprica-Six, and Three are trapped in a garage with the resistance's leader, Samuel Anders. There, Caprica-Six reveals their true intentions and declares that Valerii and herself are celebrities in a culture of unity, and, through their love for humans, have realized the horror of the Cylons' actions. Using their celebrity, they could convince a large portion of the Cylon society of their new belief that the genocide of humanity was wrong. Valerii stops Anders from killing Three, but is surprised to see Caprica-Six kill Three herself. After telling Anders to escape, Valerii agrees to help Caprica-Six reveal the truth of the genocide to the other Cylons (TRS: "Downloaded").
Valerii and Caprica-Six are obviously successful in their attempt to change popular opinion among Cylons about the genocide on the human race. According to a Cavil model that is briefly incarcerated on board Galactica, Valerii and Caprica-Six convinced a majority that "the slaughter of mankind was a mistake" which ultimately leads to an end of the occupation of the Twelve Colonies (TRS: "Lay Down Your Burdens, Part I").
One year later, Valerii is one of the leaders of the Cylon force occupying New Caprica. But as other Cylons start to consider the occupation a failure, her influence appears to decrease quickly, most evident when she is unable to secure Henderson's release from detention or to remove her from the death list (TRS: "Precipice"). Their initial plan on New Caprica, "to push past the conflict that separated us from humans for so long," fails and the occupation is ended after four months (TRS: "Exodus, Part II").
Following the retreat from New Caprica, Valerii is on the same basestar as Caprica-Six and Baltar, and assigned responsibility for the Cylon-human hybrid child, Hera Agathon. At a stand-off with the human Fleet at the algae planet, Valerii is part of a Cylon delegation to make demands regarding the Eye of Jupiter, but on board Galactica, she is identified by Sharon "Athena" Agathon and denied entry. During this first meeting between them, Valerii informs Agathon that her daughter, Hera, is still alive, and she suggests that Agathon will never be fully accepted among humans, because they continue to treat her as a thing (TRS: "The Eye of Jupiter").
After Agathon downloads into the Cylon fleet to recover her child, it becomes clear that Valerii resents her, possibly out of jealousy for her connection with Hera and Agathon essentially replacing her on Galactica. Valerii has been growing increasingly frustrated by her inability to make progress with the child. She also states that she is done with her past on Galactica and that the failure of New Caprica has taught her that humans and Cylons cannot coexist. When Agathon insists that Hera is suffering from a blocked intestine after she determined that her stomach was "as hard as a gourd" and must be brought to a human doctor who knows how to care for an infant, Valerii immediately suspects that it was the other's intention all along to take Hera back to Galactica, although she is forced to admit that the child's belly has become "hard as a gourd". Suggesting that Cylons were never meant to have children in the first place, Valerii threatens to kill Hera but is knocked to the floor by Caprica-Six and killed by her former comrade (TRS: "Rapture").
After the Cylon Raiders refuse to take any offensive action for fear of harming the Final Five Cylons in the human fleet, Valerii votes in favor of lobotomizing them into effective fighters once again. This is in contradiction to the opinion of the rest of her model, breaking the stalemate between the Ones, Fours, and Fives in favor of lobotomization and the Twos, Sixes, and Eights against it. Valerii's explanation is that, "we need to be able to defend ourselves." Natalie accuses the Number One that she calls "Cavil" of having influenced Valerii (TRS: "Six of One"). The two are romantically engaged, as they kiss shortly after Cavil's resurrection, and later questions Cavil's decision to attack Natalie's rebel faction at the onset of the Cylon Civil War (TRS: "The Ties That Bind").
Valerii is with Cavil at D'Anna Biers' unboxing on the Resurrection Hub and witnesses her killing him, fleeing afterwards (TRS: "The Hub").
"Escape" from John Cavil[edit]
After Ellen Tigh's resurrection, John Cavil allows Valerii to witness his numerous conversations with Ellen. Initially agreeing with John's disdainful view of Ellen, she eventually establishes a bond with her and comes to sympathize with Ellen's perspective on Cylon creation. When Cavil has the Simons prepare to surgically dissect Ellen's brain to extract her memories, she escapes with Ellen in a Raptor logged as missing by the Colonials over a year ago. The two somehow find the Fleet, and after Valerii's voice is identified as an Eight by a Six flying CAP, the Raptor is allowed to land on Galactica. No one realizes who she is until Tyrol approaches, senses who she is, and announces her identity, eliciting a smile from her when he tells her it's nice to see her. Upon hearing this, Admiral Adama has her taken to the brig. Unknown to them at the time, Valerii's "escape" was engineered. (TRS: "No Exit", "Deadlock")
Escape from Galactica[edit]
The Cylon rebels decide to put her on trial for treason and, with death permanent because of the loss of resurrection, capital punishment is possible. When Tyrol goes to see her in the brig, she confesses that she still loves him and has thought of him ever since she died in his arms. She shares with him projections of their dream home on Picon, which she has been harboring for a while. In this dream life, they are married and have a daughter. Sure that she is going to be found guilty and executed, Tyrol helps her escape by switching her with another Eight he assaulted and rendered unconscious and placed in Valerii's cell. Pursuing her true mission, Valerii then severely beats Sharon Agathon and hides her, bound and gagged, in a toilet stall. She is then mistaken by Karl Agathon for his wife and is sexually pursued by him after she tried to quietly and discreetly without tipping him off to her true identity avoid his advances and to ostensibly leave on her (i.e Athena's) mission. Eventually she acquiesces and even gladly has sex with Karl Agathon without his knowledge as to who she truly was. During the encounter, and most likely without Valerii's knowledge, her victim Athena had become semi-conscious and witnesses Valerii's encounter with her husband from the toilet stall. Valerii then kidnapped the Agathon's daughter, Hera, drugging her with a drink when she picks her up at the daycare center to keep her quiet.
Valerii hides the drugged Hera in a provisions supply case, which is loaded onto a Raptor with Tyrol's help without attracting much attention as such cases have become routine for extended search patrols. Before Tyrol leaves, after he turned down her plea for him to come with her, she tells him that no matter what happens, she was not lying about everything she has told him and that she meant it, leading to Tyrol kissing her. While waiting for clearance to depart, she figures out that she has been discovered, and against Admiral Adama's orders powers up the Raptor and spins up its FTL drive. She hurriedly flies the Raptor out of the closing flight pod, clipping her port wing, then jumps away, close enough to damage Galactica from the resulting spatial disruption.
While talking with Saul Tigh Ellen later concludes, correctly, that everything that Valerii did, including helping her escape, was planned in order to kidnap Hera and bring her to John Cavil (TRS: "Someone to Watch Over Me").
Valerii keeps jumping her stolen Raptor, heading for The Colony. Hera's repeated cries for her mother irritates Valerii, prompting her to attempt to medically sedate Hera, but can't bring herself to do it. Instead she tells Hera about her projection of her and Tyrol's home on Picon and Hera surprises her by revealing she can project too and joining her in the projection. Valerii shows Hera the bedroom she dreamed of for her daughter and bonds with the girl. She ultimately takes her to Cavil but starts crying bitterly when Hera calls out for her showing she regrets her actions.
Later when Valerii, Simon, Cavil and Doral are sitting and watching Hera draw, Cavil reveals that Hera has apparently refused to eat and wants to intubate her. Valerii, the only one who seems to have any sympathy at all for the child, objects saying Hera wants her mother, but Cavil doesn't care only wanting to find the secret in Hera's genetic code that allowed her to come into being so the Cylon race can survive. He leaves and Valerii watches unhappily as Simon starts up a drill and prepares to intubate Hera to force her to eat (TRS: "Islanded in a Stream of Stars," "Daybreak, Part I")
Final Act and Death[edit]
During the Battle of The Colony, Valerii is with Hera and the Simon who still plans on dissecting her despite the invasion force, confident that the humans will lose. Valerii snaps his neck, killing him and takes Hera and carries her away. She carries her to the rescue team which is searching for her and gives Hera back to her parents. Athena points out that it does not make up for what she did and Valerii admits that she knows that, but she made what she knows will probably be her final choice and saved Hera. She asks them to tell Admiral Adama she owed him for having given her another chance once. She also informs them their Raptors have been destroyed, cutting off their primary escape route. Calm and ready to accept Athena's revenge, Valerii lets Athena shoot her dead. Without resurrection, her death is permanent (TRS: "Daybreak, Part II").
The Psychological Damage and Choices Made[edit]
- Explained by David Weddle & Grace Park
"Did Boomer really love the Chief? That’s an interesting question and one I don’t have a neat answer to. Boomer is deeply conflicted. I think the process of having false memories planted in her, getting switched “on” as a Cylon, shooting Adama, getting shot by Cally, and her experiences on New Caprica have left her severely disturbed. She was determined to go through with her mission, but in the process of seducing Tyrol she reawakened feelings of love that she thought were dead. I think she experienced real misgivings just before she got on that Raptor, but felt she had gone too far to back down. Wrapped up in that is her perverse envy of Athena, who obtained everything Boomer once wanted, and this festered into a sick desire to strike out at Athena. It’s difficult to say someone who did that loves the Chief, and yet in her damaged way, I think she did and still does love him."[2] ----David Weddle
"Boomer is much more tragic and conflicted, and in a lot of denial. Athena came from a very different starting point, and everything was a lie, but she fought and made it through the trenches. She's a story not of privilege, but about creating whoever you want to be. That's the American story. Boomer could have been a number of things too, but she made a lot of poor decisions."[3] ---Grace Park
Notes[edit]
- This Number Eight is often just called "Boomer" colloquially, as that callsign is more closely associated with her, while Sharon "Athena" Agathon is usually called "Sharon" and more recently "Athena". Until Season 3, this copy was referred to as Galactica copy ("Galactica-Sharon" or "Galactica-Boomer"), because she was first encountered on Galactica. She is refered to as Boomer by everyone on the series, including the Cylons, shown when she votes against the other Eights and Natalie Faust calls her Boomer when she walks into the room.
- Virtual Six rhetorically asks Gaius Baltar in "Flesh and Bone" why he thinks that Valerii got the callsign "Boomer," implying a sexual reference. Aside from the fact that Valerii is the analogue of Boomer from the Original Series, the reason for giving her this callsign is likely due to her reputation for loud and botched landings with Raptors (TRS: Miniseries, "Flight of the Phoenix," "Scar," "Daybreak, Part II").
- In reality, "Boomer" is a nickname for a ballistic missile submarine. "Karl "Helo" Agathon" is a similar nickname for a helicopter.
- Despite both being main characters for the first season of the show, with Boomer being a major character whenever she appeared after that, Boomer and Athena only actually meet four times. In their first meeting, Athena identifies Boomer preventing her from joining the negotiations and Boomer reveals that Hera is still alive, something which Athena didn't know. In their second meeting, Athena downloads into the Cylon fleet to rescue Hera and Boomer is suspicious of her intentions. Boomer threatens to kill Hera, but is instead killed by her former friend Caprica-Six. In their third meeting, Athena doesn't realize who she is at first and by the time she does it's too late and Boomer beats her up and ties her up as part of a plan to kidnap Hera. In their final meeting, Boomer gives back Hera to Athena and allows Athena to kill her.
- Her personality after her resurrection seems to fluctuate between her human one and her Cylon one: at first she seemed more like her old "human" self until the failure of New Caprica. Afterwards it seemed like her personality was closer to that of her Cylon one while still retaining a few elements of her human one. Her return to Galactica seemed to stir her human personality more especially when she kidnapped Hera and bonded with her and she seemed to be in a state closer to her human personality than she had been since New Caprica when she died permanently.
References[edit]
- ↑ This serial is based off her dogtags pictured here. This is the same serial number given to QMX by the studios for Sharon "Athena" Agathon's dog tags. In the episode "Water," Valerii looks at the ID tag on her uniform jacket, which reads "Lieutenant S. VALERII T-990429". This suggests that, like Karl Agathon and Saul Tigh, the prop tags and the scripts did not always match up perfectly.
- ↑ "Play it again, Starbuck: Talking to Weddle and Thompson about 'Someone to Watch Over Me'" Maureen Ryan Chicago Tribune February 28, 2009
- ↑ "Internal battles are raging in 'Battlestar'" Anthony Breznican USA Today March 12, 2009
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This article discusses the Original Series character. For information on this character's Re-imagined Series namesake, see Sharon Valerii. For Boomer as depicted in the Galactica 1980, see Boomer (1980)
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| [show/hide spoilers] Spoilers hidden in infobox by default only. | ||
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Name |
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| Birth Name | ||
| Birth Date | {{{birthdate}}} | |
| Callsign | ||
| Nickname | {{{nickname}}} | |
| Introduced | [[{{{seen}}}]] | |
| Parents | ||
| Siblings | ||
| Family Tree | View | |
| Serial Number | {{{serial}}} | |
| Portrayed by | Herb Jefferson Jr. | |
| Boomer is a Human/Cylon Hybrid | ||
| Boomer is an Original Series Cylon | ||
| Related Media | ||
| @ BW Media | ||
| Additional Information | ||
| Boomer in the separate continuity | ||
| [[Image:|200px|Boomer]] | ||
Boomer is a reserved, thoughtful and loyal survivor of the Cylon's wholesale slaughter of humanity (TOS: "Saga of a Star World"). He became a Viper pilot attached to Galactica sometime after his tours of duty on planets (TOS: "The Gun on Ice Planet Zero") Boomer seems the antithesis of his closest friend, Lieutenant Starbuck, and tends to think more logically. However, like Starbuck, Boomer is also a consummate Viper pilot, willing to risk his life for friend and innocent.
Biography[edit]
Background[edit]
While there are gaps in his history, Boomer once pulled a tour of duty at Ice Station Thola; the experience of which would later be useful for taking out the Cylon occupying the Ravashol Pulsar weapon on Arcta (TOS: "The Gun on Ice Planet Zero") He also is fluent in Gemonese, which aids communications between Apollo and the Gemon woman on the Gemini, a freighter, were it not for Cassiopeia's assistance (TOS: "Saga of a Star World"). His tour de force with appropriation of hovermobiles during his adolescence also proved resourceful during the ship-wide disaster that strikes Galactica within the first year of her flight (TOS: "Fire in Space").
After the Cylon Attack[edit]
Boomer was instrumental in clearing the Cylon-laid minefield in the Straits of Madagon, for which he would later earn a Gold Cluster for by the behests of Sire Uri—albeit under a basically shrewd pretense to call for the disarmament of the remaining Colonials on Carillon. Boomer is the first person to pick up on the apparent façade projected by their Ovion hosts, although Starbuck attempts to ineffectively rebuke it. Boomer is instrumental in also picking up on Adama's deception with people donning Colonial Warrior uniforms during the aborted ceremonies (TOS: "Saga of a Star World").
Boomer and another friend, Flight Sergeant Jolly, happen upon a Cylon outpost, skipping decontamination and bringing back a deadly viral agent that incapacitates all people that the two were in contact with. He and Jolly manage to incapacitate a majority of the pilots, thus necessitating replacements from Colonial shuttle corps (TOS: "Lost Planet of the Gods, Part I"). After he and the fellow pilots recover, Boomer spearheads a revival of the original Blue Squadron, although they were still under the afflictions of the virus' symptoms (TOS: "Lost Planet of the Gods, Part II").
Boomer and Starbuck also manage to recover Flight Captain Apollo from Equellus, after obtaining permission from Commander Adama. It should be noted that it was fairly obvious that they would have gone anyway, regardless of any permission given by Adama. Adama previously orders that no search be done for Apollo due to the perception he would favor his son over the Fleet's safety (TOS: "The Lost Warrior"). The lieutenant subsequently saves his friend Starbuck from the Proteus prison planetoid, as well as the planetoid itself from Cylon attack (TOS: "The Long Patrol").
Another instrumental strike mission is on the ice planet of Arcta, which he is involved in due to his experience on the Thola station. During the recruitment procedures, Boomer parlays the hypothesis that someone (Starbuck) manipulated the computer records so that he would be added to the mission team. Lead by Starbuck, Boomer is instrumental in taking out the Cylon garrison while Apollo, Croft and Leda take on the pulsar's mechanisms in tandem. The mission is a success, however it was not without its problems (TOS: "The Gun on Ice Planet Zero")
When the Fleet suffers from a lack of nourishment due to the Cylon's successful destruction of the Fleet's food stores, Boomer and Starbuck are tasked to trade Siress Belloby's energizer for seed on agron colony Sectar. Unfortunately, the energizer is stolen from their hands and Boomer reports this back to Adama while Starbuck manages to win his way into Serenity's constable position for the short term (TOS: "The Magnificent Warriors").
He is forced to see Starbuck into a controlled crash-landing on the Delta-class marsh planet of Attila, and returns to the Fleet to procure assistance. Apollo and Boomer land on the planet sometime later to see that the Cylons, lead by the unscrupulous Specter, flee the planet. Of course, when they were leaving, Boomer voices the age-old question of Starbuck's charm on women to his Flight Captain: "How does he do it?" (TOS: "The Young Lords").
With the return of Commander Cain, as well as the need for fuel, Boomer is part of a commando unit that eliminates the Cylon's control center on Gamoray and pilfering fuel from Cylon storage depots for the Fleet (The Living Legend).
Boomer is also instrumental in the rescue and well-being of everyone trapped in the Rejuvenation Center during a massive fire on the battlestar, managing to open a door in another section of the ship. Unfortunately, Boomer could not jury-rig additional doors as a fire on the other side blocked the only door within the storage room adjoining to the Center. He does get a note to Colonel Tigh, informing him that they were alive and in need of rescue (TOS: "Fire in Space").
One of the many warriors to disappear into the Ship of Lights, although before this Iblis influences Boomer in a game of Triad against Apollo and Starbuck. This causes the defeat of their Red Team, but since there was interference it probably wasn't considered a win for him, although he was tired of losing to both Warriors (War of the Gods).
He later questions Chameleon, who claimed to be Starbuck's father, breaking up a situation that happened nearly a centar prior concerning the Borellian Nomen and Taba's activated laser bola. He fills Apollo in on his hunch, which turns out to be true as the two warriors attempt to get something out of the man. Of course, the story Chameleon tells them about testing a Nomen child is not true, and Boomer subsequently discovers that Chameleon was fleeing from them as he swindles Maga and his Nomen. Boomer also discoveres the two Nomen, Maga and Bora, miraculously alive in the launch tube after Chameleon fires the Vipers lasers at them (The Man with Nine Lives).
The lieutenant must defend his friend, Starbuck, from a crime he didn't commit: the termination of Flight Sergeant Ortega. He and Apollo manage to find out that Ortega had been blackmailing three people, Karibdis, Riftis, and Elias, whom bribed the warrior for passage off the planet Caprica through the Rising Star. In a brash and rare act of insubordination, Boomer activates Alpha Channel without consent, allowing the Tribunal to hear the confession of Karibdis. This act saves Starbuck from being tried as a killer and sentenced to rotting in the Prison Barge with characters that would had liked to get their hands on him (Murder on the Rising Star).
Boomer fools the Council Security officers and spectators to the "unloading" of Michael and his passengers from the Terran space vehicle, as Salik, Adama, Apollo, and Starbuck believe that the only way these "Earthlings" could be saved is by getting them off Galactica. When found out, he utters, "Jolly, you forgot the kids!" (TOS: "Greetings From Earth").
Sometime later, Boomer and Sheba are assigned to transfer the Eastern Alliance prisoners along with two other snobbish security "blackshirts". He manages to cause the shuttle's gravitational field to deviate, causing the immature Council Security men to quiet themselves, at least temporarily. Although the Security men threaten (privately, of course) to report him, the incident is forgotten or deemed unimportant as these same guards—and the two Colonial Warriors—are taken hostage by Baltar, the Nomen, and Commandant Leiter's people. Baltar threatens to kill Boomer, eleven members of the Quorum, and the three original occupants by destroying the shuttle with explosive charges. Yet, the group manages to get through the situation unscathed, as Starbuck and Apollo relieve Baltar of the detonator on his raider (TOS: "Baltar's Escape").
Something of an electronic/communications expert, Starbuck, Apollo, Cassiopeia, and Sheba turn to Boomer for assistance on a recording they'd discovered on a Gamma frequency in a Celestial chamber. However, despite his attempts, Boomer manages to get only some clarity out of it; of course, he isn't able to consult Doctor Wilker on it as the recording is destroyed in Galactica's attack on the lone basestar.
Boomer's desire to go with Apollo and Starbuck on the mission to board the basestar is outweighed by his experience as a Viper flight leader, where he was most needed. Along with a worried Sheba, Boomer manages to occupy the Cylon's Raiders while Galactica destroys the basestar. Alas, Starbuck and Apollo lose their transmitter and are unable to identify themselves by scanning. Boomer, however, notices an irregular pattern in the flying, and exclaims with joy that Apollo and Starbuck piloted the Raider since "They're waggling!"
Despite the recording's destruction, Boomer sets up a Gamma frequency booster for Apollo, which does pick up a signal (TOS: "The Hand of God"). However, it is unknown whether or not Apollo or anyone else knows about this signal, which was clearly received, thanks to Boomer's contrivance.
Notes[edit]
- Adama and Boomer are the only two major characters from the Original Series characters who returned to the Battlestar "spin-off" series, "Galactica 1980." By this time, he was promoted to colonel—replacing Colonel Tigh.
- Boomer is one of only five characters in the Original Series to be featured in every episode, and appears in six of the ten episodes of Galactica 1980.
- According to Encyclopedia Galactica (a non-canonical piece of merchandise published in 1979):
- Boomer was born 43 yahren before the Battle of Cimtar, growing up in Caprica City and later graduating from the Academy a mere 8 yahren before the destruction of the Colonies. He graduated with honors in eletromagnetic science.[1]
References[edit]
- ↑ Kraus, Bruce (1979). Encyclopedia Galactica, p. 22.
| Boomer | ||
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Name |
{{{name}}} | |
| Age | ||
| Colony | Caprica | |
| Birth place | {{{birthplace}}} | |
| Birth Name | {{{birthname}}} | |
| Birth Date | {{{birthdate}}} | |
| Callsign | {{{callsign}}} | |
| Nickname | {{{nickname}}} | |
| Introduced | Galactica Discovers Earth, Part II | |
| Death | {{{death}}} | |
| Parents | {{{parents}}} | |
| Siblings | {{{siblings}}} | |
| Children | {{{children}}} | |
| Marital Status | Single | |
| Family Tree | View | |
| Role | Executive Officer, battlestar Galactica | |
| Rank | Colonel | |
| Serial Number | {{{serial}}} | |
| Portrayed by | Herb Jefferson Jr. | |
| Boomer is a Cylon | ||
| Boomer is a Final Five Cylon | ||
| Boomer is a Human/Cylon Hybrid | ||
| Boomer is an Original Series Cylon | ||
| Related Media | ||
| @ BW Media | ||
| Additional Information | ||
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For Boomer's counterpart in the Re-imagined Series, see Sharon "Boomer" Valerii. For Boomer as depicted in the Original Series, see Boomer (TOS).
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Boomer is a Colonial Warrior serving aboard Galactica. In 1980 CE, he serves aboard Galactica as her executive officer, during and following their discovery of Earth.
Sometime ten years prior to Earth's discovery, then-Lieutenant Boomer and Lieutenant Starbuck are on patrol when they are ambushed by Cylon raiders. Starbuck's Viper is severely damaged, and he is forced to put it down on a small planet, stranding him and separating him from the fleet (1980: "The Return of Starbuck").
Years later, Boomer has taken the place of Colonel Tigh, and is executive officer of Galactica reports to Commander Adama about the presence of Jamie Hamilton aboard Troy's Viper (1980: "Galactica Discovers Earth, Part II"). Boomer briefs Adama after Xaviar's attempt to alter history by aiding the Nazis fails, but Xaviar manages to escape. Adama orders Boomer to suspend all other operations on Earth until Xaviar is located (1980: "Galactica Discovers Earth, Part III").
Boomer commands the Viper squadron that destroys the Cylons after their attack on the straggling freighter Delphi (1980: "The Super Scouts, Part I"). Boomer is also a strong defender of the D Squadron, a squadron that leads risky missions against Cylon basestars (1980: "Space Croppers").
Notes[edit]
- Boomer is one of only five characters in the Original Series to be featured in every episode, and appears in five of the ten episodes of Galactica 1980. He is typically credited as a supporting actor or guest star.
- Boomer makes a brief appearance in both Galactica 1980 #1 and #2 from Dynamite Entertainment. Unlike other characters in this book, his character remains largely untouched with no noticeable differences between his appearance in the issue and the television series's portrayal.
| Preceded by: Colonel Tigh |
Executive Officer of the Battlestar Galactica | Succeeded by: Unknown |
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