Messengers

The virtual Six and Gaius Baltar in his lab aboard Galactica.

Virtual beings denote the curious virtual images seen by Gaius Baltar and Caprica-Six.

The Season 3 episode "Torn" establishes the humanoid Cylon visualization process known as projection. In the Miniseries and Season 1, before the term "projection" was introduced, the character of Gaius Baltar has frequent visions of an image of his Cylon love interest from Caprica, now known as Caprica-Six.

After her resurrection from the Caprica mission, Caprica-Six herself is haunted by a virtual image of Gaius Baltar.

Neither character has revealed the presence of these images to each other or any other character as of the episode "The Woman King" (where the virtual Baltar makes an appearance).

The personality of each image is often represented in the clothing that they wear. Virtual Six often appears in a revealing red dress, and the virtual Baltar appears in a pinstriped suit, apparently custom-tailored (Miniseries, "Downloaded").

Each personality is not a copy of the original character's personality, but generally behaves as a militant version of the original. The Virtual Six espouses Cylon philosophy and religion in a zealous, unwavering manner. Likewise, the virtual Baltar often criticizes Caprica-Six when she attempts to rationalize the destruction of the Twelve Colonies or other Cylon motivations. Both personalities tend to sway its actual opposite to side with their philosophy: For virtual Baltar, the need to become more human (and, like the actual Baltar himself, selfish); for virtual Six, worship of the Cylon God and distancing Baltar from any opportunity to give support to the Colonial causes.

The purpose and origins of the visions experienced by Baltar and Caprica-Six have not been disclosed in aired episodes.

Baltar's Virtual Six

Baltar's virtual Six first appears as he escapes the destroyed world of Caprica on Sharon Valerii's Raptor (Miniseries, Night 1).

Baltar receives his brain scan from Dr. Cottle, as his virtual Six looks on in amusement.

Baltar initially believes that the virtual Six is a hallucination in its first few weeks of appearances, but later believes the virtual Six's initial suggestion that she is generated from a Cylon cybernetic implant. He disproves this notion when Doctor Cottle gives him a brain scan (Downloaded).

Baltar's virtual Six is aware of events, people and places that Baltar does not appear to know consciously. She tells him of a Cylon transponder hidden in Galactica's CIC, and appears to aid him in his conversion from Colonial polytheism to Cylon monotheism through guiding him in how to destroy a Cylon tylium refinery (The Hand of God). The source for virtual Six's data is unclear.

Virtual Six and Baltar on Kobol.

Baltar's visions of Six not only have the Cylon appearing with him on Galactica, but the two also envision themselves in Baltar's now-destroyed home, on the beach, and other locales. The virtual Six projection seems to be able to force Baltar to see additional items in his environment, such as the human skulls on Kobol as well as visions of the interior of the ancient Opera House and an image of what virtual Six believes to be a Cylon-human hybrid child. When an actual child does appear in the Fleet, the virtual Six claims it is her vision fulfilled (Downloaded).

Over time, Baltar is seen by some characters speaking to himself, which is often the case when he is speaking to Virtual Six. In several instances, the virtual Six appears to Baltar to be a physical entity, grabbing him by his clothes or body, or assisting him with objects ("Six Degrees of Separation", "Taking A Break From All Your Worries").

The virtual Six has been present when Caprica-Six is near only twice. She is also conspicuously absent during Shelly Godfrey's tenure on Galactica (Six Degrees of Separation). The virtual Six seems to, for the most part, vanish during the period when Caprica-Six and Baltar renew their relationship on New Caprica. When Baltar is aboard a Cylon basestar, Caprica-Six explains the projection process to him while the virtual Six hints that this process is very similar to how she and Baltar communicate and that Baltar may himself be a Cylon (Torn). Virtual Six also appears to Baltar, when he discovers Hera under Maya's dead body and disappears when the real Number Six comes near Baltar and the baby (Exodus, Part II).

Virtual Six has a musical theme, a simple 9-note motif with a staccato xylophone and some violins, which plays behind almost all her appearances. This theme also plays without Six present in "Rapture" after D'Anna Biers collapses in Baltar's arms after her vision of the Final Five, until Baltar is clubbed by Galen Tyrol.

From the end of Season 2 on, the virtual Six claims more often to be an angel from God.

Caprica-Six's Virtual Baltar

Turnabout is fair play: Caprica-Six, the virtual Baltar and an actual Number Three

When a virtual Gaius Baltar appears to Caprica-Six in "Downloaded", the notion that the actual Gaius Baltar was part of a Cylon plan to manipulate him via the virtual Six is revealed to be highly unlikely, as other Cylons are unaware of him and do not mention the plan or its effects to Caprica-Six.

The virtual Baltar's appearance and demeanor is just as much an extreme opposite of the actual Baltar as the virtual Six's behavior is to Caprica-Six.

At her resurrection, the virtual Baltar immediately tells Caprica-Six that only she can see and hear him, and not to reveal what she sees to the other Cylons present. The virtual Baltar is never asked by Caprica-Six about his origins.

The virtual Baltar confronts Caprica-Six with her guilt in the slaughter of billions of human beings, and with the logical error behind the Cylons' actions. Under the influence of the virtual Baltar, Caprica-Six speaks out against the war alongside another resurrected "hero of the Cylon", Sharon Valerii. The two forge a new quasi-benevolent path, albeit temporarily, for the Cylon race.

The revelation in "Torn" about the Cylons' projecting abilities suggests that the virtual Baltar is generated by Caprica-Six's own projection ability. Since the actual Baltar is not confirmed as a Cylon, the origins of his virtual Six are questioned by Dr. Baltar himself during the revelation of the principles of projection.

The virtual Baltar appears irregularly in seasons 2 and 3. In "The Woman King", Caprica-Six is observed by Laura Roslin and Tory Foster as Caprica-Six speaks and kisses the virtual Baltar, who is, of course, invisible to Roslin and Foster.

While Baltar's virtual Six claims to be an angel sent from God, Six's virtual Baltar seems to be contemptuous of the Cylons' concept of God (Downloaded). He is also described by Ron Moore as more of a "devil" figure in Six's consciousness.

While the virtual Baltar acts mostly as a conversational foil for Six, in "Crossroads, Part I" he informs her that Saul Tigh has suffered the loss of a woman close to him, to assist Six in dealing with the interrogation by Tigh. It is uncertain how he or she obtained this information.

Notes

• The virtual "Leoben" that appears to Kara Thrace in the episode "Maelstrom" only appears to her in a vision while the pilot is unconscious. Since this virtual Leoben does not fit the Baltar-Six analogue, Battlestar Wiki considers him separately to the above.

• The returned Kara Thrace, who appears to Lee Adama at the conclusion of "Crossroads, Part II", is also not a virtual being.

• William Adama sees and converses with his deceased ex-wife each year on their anniversary as demonstrated in "A Day in the Life". While the episode where this occurs shows Bill and Carolanne together in places and settings (ostensibly at their home on Caprica), this is a dramatic representation of Bill's ordinary imagination of what Carolanne may have thought about his predicament. As such, the visualizations of Carolanne Adama are not a virtual being similar to those above.
  • In the fifth Razor Flashback, while exploring the lab, Adama has a hallucination of a hand reaching out to grab him from a device similar to a resurrection or Hybrid tank. However this could be a stress-induced hallucination. He also may have had hallucinations of screaming prisoners in the lab, which could also be explained as a visualization. However, the voice Adama hears of the First Hybrid is the real voice, so this part, at least is not a hallucination.

• When asked by a fan at a convention about the differences between this Baltar and the real Baltar, actor James Callis described Six’s Baltar as a man who “finally has his shit together.”. (Warning: Video contains some explicit language)

• Callis mentioned at the same convention that his personal theory is that Baltar's internal Six is a being from another universe or higher plane of existence who only Baltar can interact with. This may relate back to the "angel" theory . (Warning: Video contains some explicit language)

• Actress Tricia Helfer has said that she has long since given up on trying to figure out just what Baltar's internal Six is. She believes Caprica-Six and Baltar both having internal counterparts is related to the scene from the Miniseries where she saves Baltar from the shock wave of the nuclear bomb that destroyed Caprica City.