Season 3 (2006-07)

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Battlestar Galactica Season 3

Summary

Under the occupation of the Cylon's rule, and without The Fleet for protection, the Colonials stranded on New Caprica must once again fight for their survival and their freedom.

Pivotal Plot Points

• The first episode of Season 3 occurs four months after the events of Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II with the occupation in full swing.
• The occupation is like 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.
• 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.
• 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.[1]
• 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".
• Not all of the Cylons may believe that Baltar is the Hand of God, "Guardian of the New Order", etc.
• Katee Sackhoff has said in several 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 "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 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 dog.
• Anders will be alive for at least 7 episodes of season 3, according to news from his website.
• In an 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 interview, Tahmoh Penikett confirms that Helo is Galactica's XO at the beginning of Season 3.
• In an 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 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 interview with Leah Cairns on June 27th, 2006, 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 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 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(likely played by Carl Lumbly of Alias as David Eick mentioned he would be in episode 7) 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 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" 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"). }
    • In a blog entry, 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 Eureka on Sci-Fi Channel Tuesday, July 18. Details are 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 this page.

• According to Edward James Olmos at the 2006 Comic-Con BSG panel, the Colonials will spread this virus throughout the Cylon fleet, causing a pandemic (paralleling real world current fears of the 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.

• According to Gateworld.net, the episode after Rapture is titled Taking a Break....

• In the October 2006 edition of SciFi, the official magazine of the SciFi Channel, a photograph shows Starbuck, sporting a tatoo on her left upper arm which apparently is the brand for humans under the Cylon occupation, and the cylon Leoben Conoy having dinner together. From this and other evidence, it appears that Starbuck will be forced to enact scenes of domesticity and other fraternization with the cylon who many believe is also the father of the child conceived from Starbuck's stolen ovary ("The Farm").
  • The tattoo on Katee Sackhoff's left arm is of a crucifix and during the show is always covered up, eg in The Farm her arm is covered in bandages. Did the magazine explicitly state information about the tattoo or is it just speculation?

Cast

Stars

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

Co-stars

• Michael Hogan as Saul Tigh
• Aaron Douglas as Galen Tyrol
• Tahmoh Penikett as Karl "Helo" Agathon
• Kandyse McClure as Anastasia Dualla
• Richard Hatch as Tom Zarek
• Alessandro Juliani as Felix Gaeta
• Leah Cairns as Margaret "Racetrack" Edmondson
• Nicki Clyne as Cally
• Luciana Carro as Louanne "Kat" Katraine
• Kate Vernon as Ellen Tigh
• Lucy Lawless as 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 Battlestar Galactica Crew Guide page.

Episodes

To view the list of episodes, go to the 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.

From RDM's blog (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 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, 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 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 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 Cylon occupation began.

Related Topics

• List of Season 3 Guest Actors (RDM)
• List of Recurring Characters (RDM)
• List of Recurring Character Appearances (RDM)