Peter Laird

Peter Laird
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Name	{{{name}}}
Age
Colony
Birth place	{{{birthplace}}}
Birth Name	Peter Laird
Birth Date	{{{birthdate}}}
Callsign
Nickname	{{{nickname}}}
Introduced	Pegasus
Last Known Appearance	[[{{{lastseen}}}]]
Death	Bludgeoned by Tom Zarek, c. 4 ACH (2003BYR) (TRS: "The Oath")
Parents
Siblings
Children	Unknown (implied)
Marital Status	Widower (assumed)
Family Tree	View
Role	Deck Chief, battlestar Galactica, previously Pegasus
Rank	Chief Petty Officer (coerced, c. 1 ACH (2000BYR)) Lieutenant (c. 4 ACH (2003BYR))
Serial Number	{{{serial}}}
Portrayed by	Vincent Gale
Peter Laird is a Cylon
Peter Laird is a Final Five Cylon
Peter Laird is a Human/Cylon Hybrid
Peter Laird is an Original Series Cylon
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[[File:|300px|Peter Laird]]

Peter Laird is a civilian aeronautical engineer pressed into service by order of Admiral Helena Cain after the Fall of the Twelve Colonies.

Biography

Conscription and Scylla

Laird is aboard the civilian transport Scylla when it, along with several other vessels, is found by the battlestar Pegasus about a week after the attack. Admiral Cain places military priorities above all else and orders that the ships be scavenged for anything that would be of use to Pegasus: supplies, weapons, parts and skilled civilian personnel. Laird, because his aeronautics background, becomes a selectee dragooned into Pegasus's crew along with 14 other people on board.

Colonel Fisk and Lieutenant Shaw take a team of Marines to the Scylla to carry out the order. Laird speaks as the passengers' representative and refuses to cooperate. When Fisk's show of intimidation fails to persuade the civilians, Cain orders that the selectees' families be shot to demonstrate the alternative. Fisk continues his threat to shoot them, but Shaw takes the initiative and shoots one woman in the head, triggering the Marines to kill nine more. Word spreads throughout the civilian vessels and breaks all resistance, and Laird and the others are transferred to Pegasus. Laird's wife and family are likely among the dead, if not left behind ^{(TRS: "Razor")}.

Service on Pegasus and Galactica

He is put into uniform and assigned deck chief. When he pays Galactica a visit, he meets his counterpart, Chief Tyrol. Laird is both appalled and impressed by the Blackbird, Tyrol's new stealth fighter, and is surprised to find the plane is fitted with obsolete DDG-62 engines he designed ^{(TRS: "Pegasus")}.

Laird is transferred to Galactica as part of Admiral Cain's crew reassignments, and assigned as deck chief prior to Tyrol's arrest for Lt. Thorne's death . He also makes a suggestion to Galactica's deck crew that increases the Blackbird's fuel efficiency by two percent ^{(TRS: "Pegasus")}.

Laird has difficulty managing the hangar deck as Tyrol's substitute and lacks military bearing, but assures Commander Adama that all ships will be ready for "the attack thing" ^{(TRS: "Resurrection Ship, Part I")}. Following Admiral Cain's death, her crew transfers are reversed and Tyrol is re-instated as Galactica's deck chief. Laird presumably returns to his previous assignment as the Pegasus deck chief ^{(TRS: "Resurrection Ship, Part II")}.

Promotion and Death

Over two years later, Laird is promoted to Galactica's chief of the deck after Tyrol's demotion by Admiral Adama; he retrieves the navigational data from Eammon "Gonzo" Pike's damaged Raptor that tells them where the rebel baseship jumped to ^{(TRS: "Sine Qua Non")}. He is briefly seen on the hangar deck with Marcie Brasko where, elsewhere further down the deck, Tyrol hears The Music and is summoned to the pristine Viper 8757, with other select persons ^{(TRS: "Revelations")}.

In the early stages of a mutiny aboard Galactica, Laird finds several individuals attempting to steal a Raptor reserved for emergency medical transport to fly Tom Zarek to Colonial One. Felix Gaeta attempts to convince Laird that this is simply a change of orders that he wasn't informed of, but when Laird moves to confirm that story, Zarek kills him by striking him in the head with a wrench ^{(TRS: "The Oath")}.

Notes

• Ron D. Moore said in his podcast that he was tempted to give Laird a Scottish accent as a tribute to James Doohan (Star Trek's Montgomery Scott) at his recent death at the time of the episode's filming, but reluctantly decided against it.
• In the Credits for "Revelations", he is credited as "Lt. Peter Laird." Credits for "The Oath" credit him as "Chief Peter Laird." It is entirely possible that he was promoted to an officer, much like Anastasia Dualla and others had been during the New Caprica period and Second Exodus.