Margaret Edmondson

2007-08-17T07:06:35Z

Rizzo 2686: /* Biography */

{{Character Data
|photo= MaggieCrop.jpg
|age=
|colony=
|birthname= Margaret Edmondson
|callsign= Racetrack
|death=
|seen= Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part II
|parents=
|siblings=
|children=
|marital status=
|role= [[Raptor]] pilot and [[ECO]], assigned to ''[[Galactica]]''
|rank= Lieutenant
|actor= [[Leah Cairns]]
|cylon=
|name=
}}

Lt. '''Margaret "Racetrack" Edmondson''' is a female [[Raptor]] pilot aboard ''[[Galactica]]''. She harbors a deep hatred of the Cylons, almost certainly because of the loss of loved ones during the [[Fall of the Twelve Colonies]]. In her job she is competent and trusted, although she is willing to put her personal beliefs above duty. Racetrack tends to have a dark, fairly cynical attitude after the Cylon attack.

== Biography ==
Racetrack accompanies [[Sharon Valerii (Galactica copy)|Sharon "Boomer" Valerii]] on a mission to destroy a Cylon [[Basestar (RDM)|basestar]]. She witnesses Boomer's attempted assassination of [[William Adama]] in ''Galactica's'' [[CIC]] ([[Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part II]]). Immediately after, she informs the CIC staff that Boomer returned from placing the nuclear warhead inside the basestar orbiting [[Kobol (RDM)|Kobol]] without her helmet on and that she probably gave away ''Galactica's'' position to the Cylons ([[Scattered]]).

During the [[SAR]] mission to Kobol, Racetrack pilots the Raptor carrying [[Lee Adama]], encountering fire from Cylon anti-aircraft missiles. [[Galen Tyrol]] destroys the missiles' [[DRADIS]] dish on the surface, and they fail to lock on. Racetrack's Raptor then destroys the [[Cylon Centurion|Centurions]] on the ground with a missile, and recovers the trapped ''Galactica'' crewmen ([[Fragged]]).

She aids the escape of President [[Laura Roslin]] from the [[brig]] by falsely claiming that her [[Raptor]] was having technical problems, enabling the furloughed Lee Adama to report to the hangar bay instead of the brig per his arrest. She then helps prep the Raptor used as the escape craft for launch, but remains on ''Galactica'' ([[Resistance (episode)|Resistance]]). On Boomer's death, Edmondson becomes the only person in the Fleet who has seen the inside of a basestar.

Racetrack serves as ECO on [[Raptor 1]], plotting the best point of orbital entry when taking Commander Adama to [[Kobol (RDM)|Kobol]] to find and meet with President Roslin ([[Home, Part II]]). Since then, Margaret flies basic supply runs between ''Galactica'' and [[The Fleet (RDM)|the Fleet]]. She continues to light candles for fallen comrades in the Cylon attack. She is almost certain she will eventually die on a mission, and is more focused on taking out as many Cylons as she can before that happens ([[Final Cut]]).

Along with many other pilots, Edmondson intially snubs [[Karl Agathon|Helo]] upon his return because of his romantic relationship with the Caprica-originated copy of Sharon Valerii. After she insults [[Kara Thrace]] over the matter, Starbuck pushes Racetrack face-first into a card table ([[Flight of the Phoenix]]). Racetrack later congratulates Helo on his help with the [[Blackbird]], whose [[DRADIS]]-absorbing carbon composites Helo suggested, which serves as a quiet apology for her earlier rudeness.

[[Image:Racetrack2.jpg|left|thumb|Edmondson in a Raptor]]
Racetrack is particularly overjoyed when ''Galactica'' encounters the [[Mercury class battlestar|advanced battlestar]] ''[[Pegasus (RDM)|Pegasus]]''. While socializing with ''Pegasus'' pilots in the hangar bay, she fails to understand Starbuck's contempt for the "scorecards" on which they tally their kills ([[Pegasus (episode)|Pegasus]]). Racetrack's Raptor rescues the unconscious Apollo during the [[Battle of the Resurrection Ship]], and she revives him using defibrilator paddles in her emergency gear ([[Resurrection Ship, Part II]]). When Racetrack transports Apollo and a squad of Marines to check the ''[[Daru Mozu]]'' for signs of sabotage by Cylon sympathizers, her vessel narrowly escapes the ensuing explosion ([[Epiphanies]]). Racetrack also later flew a Raptor transporting Apollo back from ''[[Cloud Nine]]'' after he spent some off duty time there with [[Shevon]] ([[Black Market]]).

During Starbuck's rescue mission for the [[Caprica Resistance]], Racetrack serves as ECO on one of the 20 Raptors to make a series of ten jumps, aided by a Cylon navigation system. On the first jump, Racetrack's Raptor jumps to the wrong coordinates, ending up in a gas cloud. Starbuck and the main group proceed on without her. Preparing to return to ''Galactica'', Racetrack picks up a lot of gravity distortions on her sensors and upon clearing the gas cloud she discovers a habitable planet that the Fleet could colonize ([[Lay Down Your Burdens, Part I]]). Though the planet turned out to be marginally habitable at best, it would later be named [[New Caprica]], and most of the human survivors of the Fleet would settle down there permanently ([[Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II]]).

Racetrack remains with the Fleet and flies missions to detect communications from the [[New Caprica Resistance]] ([[Occupation]]). She also plays a leading role in the rescue mission to New Caprica ([[Exodus, Part I]]).

Although she is a qualified Raptor pilot, Edmondson agrees to serve as [[Sharon Agathon]]'s ECO after the crews of ''Galactica'' and ''Pegasus'' are combined and far more pilots than aircraft are available, because she thinks being ECO is better than not flying at all. When Edmondson refers to Agathon using the callsign of her Cylon doppelgänger, "[[Sharon Valerii|Boomer]]", the room of pilots gleefully offer a less controversial callsign for Sharon Agathon: "Athena".

On her first mission with Agathon, the two make a recon flight to the [[Lion's Head Nebula]] to investigate a clue to the location of Earth. The information proves to be correct, but they also find a deserted Cylon [[basestar]] ([[Torn]]). After undergoing precautionary quarantine measures due to a possible [[Lymphocytic encephalitis|viral]] infection, the two fly together again in the [[Battle of NCD2539]] ([[A Measure of Salvation]]).

Edmondson lends her Raptor talents in a harrowing series of escort flights to shepherd the Fleet through a very dangerous star cluster to a [[algae planet|planet with desperately needed foodstuffs]] ([[The Passage]]).

On a routine patrol around the Fleet, her Raptor suffers from an engine and [[RCS]] malfunction, due to impurities in its [[tylium]] fuel. Unable to regain control and on a collision course with ''[[Colonial One]]'', she and her ECO [[Hamish McCall]] are forced to eject from the Raptor. The craft collides with ''Colonial One'', causing moderate hull damage and several injuries, but no fatalities ([[Dirty Hands]]).

As the Fleet approaches the [[Ionian nebula]], Admiral Adama, worried about Cylon pursuit, tasks Raptor pickets with staying one jump point behind the Fleet to watch for Cylons. One of those patrols, Racetrack and Skulls put their Raptor to station-keeping behind an asteroid and start playing [[Triad (RDM)|Triad]] to pass the next twelve hours. Shortly after that a Cylon fleet jumps to their position. They manage to spin up the FTL drive and escape seconds before an enemy missile would have hit their Raptor ([[Crossroads, Part I]]).

Racetrack instructs [[nuggets]] in basic Raptor operations and technology to prepare them for flying ([[Crossroads, Part II]]).

==Notes==

[[Image:Edmonson caption.jpg|thumb|The incorrect spelling for Edmondson occurs here; it is, however, correct on the nameplate of the [[Raptor]] she flies.]]
[[Image:Racetrack's Raptor.jpg|thumb|A shot of the [[Raptor]] with the correct spelling.]]
*Racetrack was probably created as a replacement for [[Crashdown]], the ECO of whichever Raptor a given episode focuses on; Crashdown himself was created as a replacement for [[Karl Agathon|Helo]] after he was stranded. Racetrack was introduced in the first season finale, simultaneous with the seeds of Crashdown's demise: signs of his incompetence for command while stranded on Kobol.
*Racetrack's given name was revealed in the episode "[[Final Cut]]". Her name was misspelled in the caption during her interview, however, as noted by [[Bradley Thompson]] (See [[Sources:Margaret Edmondson]]). Confusion about her name's spelling resulted in Racetrack's last name being mispelled in the end credits of many episodes in Season 2, although is corrected in Season 3.
*Ron Moore noted in his [[podcast]] to "[[Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part II]]," Racetrack's debut episode, that she was only meant to be a one-shot character, like [[Karl Agathon|Helo]]. But, just as with [[Tahmoh Penikett]]'s performance in [[Miniseries|the Miniseries]], Leah Cairns' performance in the episode was impressive and she was decided to be a new recurring character.
*A fan of [[Karl Agathon|Helo]], "[[User:Sabaceanbabe|Sabaceanbabe]]", once wrote a short [[fan fiction]] romance scene between Helo and Racetrack (located [http://sabaceanbabe.livejournal.com/38792.html here], scroll down to part 5). [[Tahmoh Penikett]], who plays Helo, and actress Leah Cairns read it at a party, and Cairns decided that she'd work that into the character. While not canonical or acknowledged by the writers, Cairns said in an [http://podcasts.lvrocks.com/details.aspx?castid=5 interview] on June 27th, 2006, that she chose to incorporate this into her character backstory and how she plays scenes with Helo, that she is wildly attracted to him and jealous of [[Sharon Agathon]]. Although Sharon isn't supposed to know about this, Penikett reacts with underlying tension in his scenes with her. This is also referred to in the fan-made Battlestar Galactica game "[[Beyond the Red Line]]", when one of the pilots during a mission notes that whenever Racetrack sees Helo she "slobbers all over him."

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Margaret Edmondson