View source for Season 3 (2006-07)

{{spoiler}}

[[Image:Seas3.jpg|thumb|350px|right|Battlestar Galactica Season 3]]
==Summary==

: None yet available.

== Pivotal Plot Points ==
*The [[Occupation | first episode]] of Season 3 occurs four months after the events of [[Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II]] with the occupation in full swing.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/artsentertainment/2002957630_galactica28.html?syndication=rss |title= Reborn "Galactica" can do battle with the best of sci-fi |date=2006-04-28 |last=Peterson |first=Kim |format= |language=English |publisher=Seattle Times}}</ref> 
*The occupation is like [[Wikipedia:Vichy France|Vichy France]]. The Colonial government run by President Baltar is collaborating with the [[Cylons (RDM)]], while other the humans put together a secret resistance against the Cylons. <ref name="now">[http://www.nowplayingmag.com/content/view/3300/2/ interview NowPlayingMagazine Interview with Ron Moore, March 11, 2006]</ref>
*According to [[Lucy Lawless]], who plays [[Number Three]]:  "(They) turned around and asked her "Do you want to play [[God]]?"  There is a character who sets herself up as God, and Lucy would likely play her.  Her theory is that there's nowhere to go after playing Xena but to playing God!  But ''none of this is a done deal'', she cautions, because they're still working out the logistics". It is known, however, that Lawless will be in the first ten Season 3 episodes.<ref>[http://www.ausxip.com/conventions/2006burbank/taipo-conlucy.html Xena 2006 Convention]</ref>
*There will be some flashbacks that deal with events that occured during the year that was skipped over in the season 2 finale.  Caprica-Sharon is noticeably given no scenes in the "One Year Later" segment, and in the commentary for the episode Ron Moore said that the first episodes of Season 3 would deal with this.  In addition, there will be flashbacks explaining how Dualla transfered to ''Pegasus'' to be with Apollo, but over time as more and more crewmen left, to the point that a skeleton crew was running the ship, she was left as the next highest ranking crewman on the ship and more or less his Executive Officer (although really, there's only about 3-4 people left ''including'' Apollo and Dualla even running the ''Pegasus'' CIC).
**There will actually be flashbacks explaining exactly why Apollo gained a lot of weight in the year that passed, why Starbuck and Tigh have mended fences now, and what happened that made Starbuck and Apollo angry at each other (apparently it was more than just her being insensitive when Anders came to ''Galactica'', possibly something more specific than him simply being frustrated that they got married).  Lee will stay overweight for about the first 5 episodes.
*A major plotline is that there is going to be "an ongoing Cylon story where we’re going to be cutting over to the Cylon world for the first time and running a complete arc within the Cylons".  This probably refers to the planned Lucy Lawless ([[Number Three]]) storyarc.  It is unclear if by "Cylon world" Moore means ''the'' [[Cylon homeworld]], or just a Basestar, Cylon-occupied planet, etc. {{citation needed}}
*The resistance against the Cylons and Baltar's collaborationist government on New Caprica will take three to five episodes, probably four.  However, it will definately not take another seven episodes to wrap up the events of the season finale, as it did last time with "[[Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part II]]". <ref name="now"/>
*Not all of the Cylons may believe that Baltar is the Hand of God, "Guardian of the New Order", etc. <ref name="now"/>
*Katee Sackhoff has said in several [http://www.zap2it.com/tv/news/zap-kateesackhoffbattlestargalacticaseason3secrets,0,6358727.story?coll=zap-rotator-coll interviews] that she has lost a fight with the producers to keep her long hair, and Starbuck's hair will become incredibly short in season 3.  Sackhoff said her hair will be "somewhere between Sigourney Weaver in Alien (3) and the pilot ([[Miniseries]])", and "Kind of...like Natalie Portman in "[[Wikipedia:V for Vendetta (film)|V for Vendetta]]" short".  Sackhoff goes on to say that her character "goes through a lot of turmoil over the first four episodes, more so than we've ever seen her, the depth of despair that she finds herself in are pretty deep at the end of episode four, and she kind of re-establishes her commitment to the military in episode five which is the haircut" and "sort of like ritualistically, preparing herself to go back on the warpath".  (Ron Moore has said that the characters would leave New Caprica by around episode 5, so Sackhoff is probably referring to the point when they leave and she rejoins the military).
**Sackhoff stated in a more recent interview on June 20th that she was able to make a compromise with Ron and David, and in season 3 she will ''not'' have a "V for Vendetta"-style crew cut, but instead the length of her hair will be shorter than it was at the beginning of Season 1 (i.e. in "[[33]]"), but longer than it was during the Miniseries.  
*Sackhoff went on to say that "there is another man that comes into her life, and it is a very unlikely man that everyone is going to be so livid over", and which Sackhoff wasn't entirely happy about.  She then said "It's Adama", but she appeared to be saying it jokingly to tease the fans.  She was probably joking if she meant Admiral William Adama, while Lee "Apollo" Adama doesn't seem very "unlikely" a choice given their history.
*According to a [http://blog.scifi.com/battlestar/archives/2006/04/#a000525 blog] by Ronald Moore, he states that the relationship between Helo and Boomer will continue, neither Boomer will be killed in Season 3, and a subplot early in Season 3 will involve a [[Life Forms of the Twelve Colonies|dog]].
*Anders will be alive for at least 7 episodes of season 3, according to news from his [http://www.michaeltrucco.com/index.html website].
*In an [http://www.ifmagazine.com/feature.asp?article=1496 interview] with iFMagazine on May 11, 2006, David Eick said "I’m excited about the fact that we will be exploring the interior of a Cylon basestar, and that will include the introduction of the new type of Cylon.  I’m excited about the fact that we’re going to have Lucy [Lawless] back.  I think it’s going to be exciting for the fans to watch the opening trilogy of episodes, because we’re really falling into the rubric of something for everybody.  There will be great philosophical crisis talking place with Baltar [James Callis].  There’s a round-up taking place of human beings becoming a police force, or a Gestapo, for the occupying Cylons.  Then there’s an attempt at an escape that will be like THE GREAT ESCAPE, and be a dynamic action episode.  There’s a lot of really rich stuff for the opening three.  Beyond that point everything is embryonic, and still in development."
*In an [http://scifibrain.ign.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3165&Itemid=0 interview], [[Tahmoh Penikett]] confirms that [[Helo]] is Galactica's XO at the beginning of Season 3.
*In an [http://www.lucylawless.info/articles/2006/ew0606/index.html article] in the June 2006 issue of Entertainment Weekly, Tricia Helfer said that one Cylon character will be permanently killed.  This is probably [[Caprica-Six]], who was seen shot in the trailer that was screened at MTR (though it is unclear who shoots her).
**According to David Eick in an [http://www.lucylawless.info/articles/2006/tvguide0706/ article] in TVGuide, the Cylons ''themselves'' will execute the Cylon that permanently dies: "The notion of execution is repulsive to the Cylons...to reach that point with one of their own is a monumental event."  This could possibly refer to [[boxing]] (explained in "[[Downloaded]]"):  the Cylons feel that they are ethically superior to humans, so they felt that "boxing" a Cylon's consciousness - leaving it in cold storage and never loading it into a new body - was better than execution, even though they're practically the same.  
*According to an [http://podcasts.lvrocks.com/details.aspx?castid=5 interview] with [[Leah Cairns]] on June 27th, 2006, [[Margaret Edmondson|Racetrack]] is not trapped on New Caprica, but was on ''Galactica'' when it Jumped away with the Fleet.  She mentions that Racetrack appears in episodes 8 and 9, meaning she survives at least that long.
*According to the May 11th, 2006 IF Magazine interview with David Eick, Dualla is indeed married to Lee Adama after the "one year later" leap forward in time. Previously there was only speculation about this fact based on what seemed to be Dualla playing with a ring on her wedding finger during her scene on the Pegasus bridge during the season finale.
*At a [http://mboard.scifi.com/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=1833539&page=0&fpart=86&vc=1 convention appearance], [[Jamie Bamber]] said that we will find out in flashbacks what happened between Apollo and Starbuck that caused a rift between them, in episode 8 "[[Unfinished Business]]".  This will include a boxing scene in which Apollo and Starbuck beat the hell out of each other.
*An [http://www.nowplayingmag.com/content/view/4175/58/ interview] on July 13, 2006 with executive producer [[David Eick]] revealed much to come in season 3:
**Eick said that episode 7, "[[Hero]], "involves a human POW who’s been trapped on the Cylon base ship for the last four years, and when we meet him we realize it’s a great homecoming for him because he was one of Adama’s pilots. But by the middle of the episode you realize the reason why this guy was taken prisoner was because Adama shot his ship down. And it becomes sort of an episode about why such a thing would have happened and how Adama begins to believe that on some level he might have been responsible for provoking the Cylon attack on the Twelve Colonies."
***Note:  Season 3 will occur roughly 2 years after the [[Fall of the Twelve Colonies]], so this past action by Adama occurred roughly 2 years before the Cylon attack.  This corresponds with the dates that known [[Cylon agent|humanoid Cylon]] infiltration of the Twelve Colonies commenced:  [[Caprica-Six]] was in a relationship with Baltar since 2 years before the attack, and Adama said that ''Galactica''-Sharon had been serving on his ship for 2 years.
**There will be a mid-season break between episodes 10 and 11.  However it will not be as long as the hiatus between "[[Pegasus (episode)|Pegasus]]" and "[[Resurrection Ship, Part I]]":  while that mid-season break lasted 4 months, this mid-season 3 break will last 1 month.
**Episodes 5 and 6 are a two-part story in which ''Galactica'' discovers a dying Cylon Baseship, and deals with a plague that has befallen the Cylons.
**Episode 8 will be a flashback episode dealing with events that transpired during the "One Year Later" time-jump.  Grace Park has previously revealed the name of this flashback episode (though not the airing order) in another interview:  its current title is "[[Unfinished Business]]".
**Episode 9 is not quite a standalone, not quite an arc episode:  it sets up/leads into the mid-season finale in episode 10 (similar to how "[[Colonial Day]]" led up to "[[Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part I]]" in Season 1, "[[Downloaded]]" led up to "[[Lay Down Your Burdens, Part I]]", and (to an extent) "[[Flight of the Phoenix]]" introduced elements for "[[Pegasus (episode)|Pegasus]]"). }
***In his most recent blog<ref name="blog">[http://blog.scifi.com/battlestar/ Ronald Moore's Blog]</ref>, [[Ronald Moore]] describes this episode entitled "The Passage", has "a harrowing voyage of the rag-tag fleet and focuses on Kat." 
**The mid-season cliffhanger story, spanning episodes 10 and 11, will center on "discovering the next big clue on the road to Earth".
*A [[Season 3]] teaser was shown during the premiere of [http://www.scifi.com/eureka/ Eureka] on Sci-Fi Channel Tuesday, July 18. Details are [[User:Gougef/Season 3 Teaser | here]].
**It was the same trailer screened at MTR on June 2nd, however there were noticeable tweaks. To see a ''BattlestarWiki'' user's first hand report on the trailer from MTR, see [[User talk:The Merovingian#BattlestarWiki Roving Reporter|this page]].

*According to Edward James Olmos at the 2006 Comic-Con<ref>{{cite web|url=http://media33b.libsyn.com/m3dteJR2aHjHe5d%2BZXZxpJqtY3aY/podcasts/mb/tmbs-060722-sdcc_bsg.mov |title=Comic-Con 2006 |format=VID }}</ref> BSG panel, the Colonials will spread this virus throughout the Cylon fleet, causing a pandemic (paralleling real world current fears of the [[Wikipedia:H5N1|Avian Flu]]), in payback against the Cylons.  Olmos also said that by the middle of Season 3 (which was at the time in the middle of filming) the total human [[Survivor Count]] has shrunk from over 49,000 pre-"[[Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II]]" to roughly 38,000.  At least several thousand must have died in the nuking of [[Cloud 9]] by [[Gina]], and presumably there are more casualties to come on New Caprica.
*Roslin returns to the presidency. <ref name="blog"/>

*According to Gateworld.net, the episode after [[Rapture]] is titled [[Taking a Break...]].

==Cast==
===Stars===
* [[Edward James Olmos]] as [[William Adama]]
* [[Mary McDonnell]] as [[Laura Roslin]]
* [[Katee Sackhoff]] as [[Kara Thrace|Kara "Starbuck" Thrace]]
* [[Jamie Bamber]] as [[Lee Adama|Lee "Apollo" Adama]]
* [[James Callis]] as [[Gaius Baltar|Gaius Baltar]]
* [[Tricia Helfer]] as [[Number Six]]
* [[Grace Park]] as [[Number Eight|Sharon Valerii/Number Eight]]

===Co-stars===
* [[Michael Hogan]] as [[Saul Tigh]]
* [[Aaron Douglas]] as [[Galen Tyrol]]
* [[Tahmoh Penikett]] as [[Karl Agathon|Karl "Helo" Agathon]]
* [[Kandyse McClure]] as [[Anastasia Dualla]]
* [[Richard Hatch]] as [[Tom Zarek]]
* [[Alessandro Juliani]] as [[Felix Gaeta]] 
* [[Leah Cairns]] as [[Margaret Edmondson|Margaret "Racetrack" Edmondson]]
* [[Nicki Clyne]] as [[Cally]]
* [[Luciana Carro]] as [[Louanne Katraine|Louanne "Kat" Katraine]]
* [[Kate Vernon]] as [[Ellen Tigh]]
* [[Lucy Lawless]] as [[Number Three|D'anna Biers/Number Three]]
* [[Dean Stockwell]] as [[Cavil]]

==Production Crew==
===Producers===
* [[Ronald D. Moore]] - Developer / Executive Producer / Writer
* [[David Eick]] - Executive Producer
* [[Toni Graphia]] - Co-Executive Producer / Writer
* [[Harvey Frand]] - Producer
* [[Glen A. Larson]] - Consulting Producer

===Directors & Writing Staff===
: ''To view the list of all the directors and staff, go to the [[Portal:Battlestar Galactica (RDM)/Crew#Directors|Battlestar Galactica Crew Guide]] page.''

==Episodes==
: ''To view the list of episodes, go to the [[Portal:Battlestar Galactica (RDM)/Episode Guide#Season 3: October 2006|Battlestar Galactica Episode Guide]] page.''

== Official Statements ==

*An official notice of Season Three was announced on SciFi Wire on March 9, 2006.  Excerpt follows:

::SCI FI Channel announced that its hit original series 'Battlestar Galactica 'will return in October with a full 20-episode third season. Production on the third season begins in Vancouver, Canada, in '''April 2006'''.<ref>{{cite press release|url=http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/index.php?category=0&id=34893 |title=Galactica Returns In Fall |website=SciFi.com | date=2006-03-09  }}</ref>

=== From RDM's blog ([http://blog.scifi.com/battlestar/archives/2006/03/#a000409 March 26, 2006]) ===

* '''Regarding [[William Adama]] and the reduction of the Colonial military:'''

: '' "What happened to Adama in the season finale to change him so much? Why would a man who spent decades of his adult life standing watch for the [[Cylons (RDM)|Cylon]] return suddenly give in and allow the military to stand down? How could he convince himself that the Cylons weren't coming back after 1 year when the last time they waited 40 years? He knew settlement was wrong so why didn't he offer any resistance? "''

: I think people have a remarkable ability to convince themselves of just about anything. Adama, like everyone else in [[The Fleet (RDM)|the fleet]], had been constantly on the run, constantly under stress, and constantly in danger of losing his life for months on end, with virtually no break from the metal walls surrounding him day in and day out. When, finally, the people decided to end the long sojourn and settle on [[New Caprica]], he had little choice but to comply with the results of a democratic election which hinged on that very question. And as the days turned into weeks, and the weeks into months, people began to relax, to believe that maybe they had really turned a corner, had really found a place to lay down their burdens and start a new life. Adama was just as vulnerable to that attractive idea as anyone else, and as the men and women under him began to clamor for a new life, as the political leadership of New Caprica began to demand more and more military resources to support the civilian population, there came the point where Adama began to believe in the mirage too. He's not perfect. He never was. He couldn't bring himself to leave his ship, but as age and fatigue began to set in, he started to let down his guard just a little -- not all at once and never completely, but just enough.

: There were also practical considerations. He was entirely alone out here. No Admiralty to call for reinforcements or intelligence, no Justice Ministry to prosecute soldiers who simply never came back from the surface of [[New Caprica]], and no friendly ear in the office of the president to get needed resources for the military ships maintaining their lonely vigil up in orbit. He was alone and he was tired. It's almost as simple as that.

: I remember one of my most vivid memories from the immediate post 9/11 period was opening up the newspaper and reading about a physical confrontation in the streets between members of the New York police department and the New York fire department. It was heartbreaking, it was infuriating and it was illuminating. People are people. Enormous events happen, history pivots around us and we tell ourselves that everything has changed, that we're irrevocably different from this day forward -- until the next time everything changes. Adama made a mistake. They all did. And as he is wont to say, they will all have to live with it.

* '''Concerning [[Lee Adama]]'s changes:'''

: ''"What is up with the pudgified Apollo? Too much chunky munky B&J?"''

: We're going to hint at some of the reasons for Lee's physical, er... changes in the first few episodes, then deal with it in more detail later. Overall, we're going to be hinting at a lot of things that happened in the intervening year over the first few episodes, then do more stuff with it later, as the season progresses. 

* '''Regarding [[Saul Tigh]]'s role in season three:'''

: Anyway, I think you'll be happy to know that we've got some real meaty stuff planned for the Colonel in the first few episodes. I also felt that we didn't use Tigh as effectively in the later part of [[Season 2 (2005-06)|Season Two]], and I was eager to get him back into the thick of things. He's got a sizable role in the initial episodes, and there are some enormous changes and shocks coming for his character next season.

* '''Regarding the role of [[Tom Zarek]]:'''

: ''"What happened to Zarek? Given his help getting [[Gaius Baltar|Baltar]] elected, I would have expected him to have recieved a pretty nice 'reward', perhaps as VP? Did Baltar even have a VP? We never see Zarek post-election or a year later on [[New Caprica]]. Given Zarak's penchant for political mayhem, I would think that his fate would be one of significant interest. Perhaps we will see this early in Season 3? "''

:You will be seeing Zarek again and early in the season. He was the Vice President, but his relationship with Baltar went south relatively quickly, and he simply refused to cooperate once the [[Cylons (RDM)|Cylon]] occupation began.

== References ==
<div style="font-size:85%"><references/></div>

==Related Topics==
* [[List of Season 3 Guest Actors (RDM)]]
* [[List of Recurring Characters (RDM)]]
* [[List of Recurring Character Appearances (RDM)]]

{{episode list (RDM season 3)}}

[[Category:A to Z]]
[[Category:Behind the Scenes]]
[[Category:RDM]]
[[Category:Episode Guide (RDM)|*]]