Saul Tigh

Saul Tigh
[[Image:|200px|Saul Tigh]]
Name	{{{name}}}
Age	63-69
Colony
Birth place	{{{birthplace}}}
Birth Name	Saul Tigh
Birth Date	{{{birthdate}}}
Callsign
Nickname	{{{nickname}}}
Introduced	[[{{{seen}}}]]
Death
Parents
Siblings
Children	None
Marital Status	Married to (Ellen Tigh)
Family Tree	View
Role	Executive Officer, Battlestar Galactica
Rank	Colonel
Serial Number	{{{serial}}}
Portrayed by	Michael Hogan
Saul Tigh is a Cylon
Saul Tigh is a Final Five Cylon
Saul Tigh is a Human/Cylon Hybrid
Saul Tigh is an Original Series Cylon
Related Media
		@ BW Media
Additional Information
[[Image:|200px|Saul Tigh]]

Biography

Background

A veteran probably in his 60s, Saul Tigh is sometimes estranged from his wife and has been somewhat disillusioned with his career, seeking refuge in alcoholism - a move which has lead many in the crew to view him with contempt (Mini-Series; 33).

He is a third generation Colonial soldier. His father was a decorated fighter pilot killed in combat and his grandfather served under President Mueller. According to Billy Keikeya, Tigh was a published military historian until personal problems became apparent. (Mini-Series, deleted scene)

According to the series bible, Tigh began his career as a deckhand, where he became a chief (apparently similar to CPO Galen Tyrol) during the first Cylon War. His ship was boarded by the Cylons where he and others fought in hand to hand combat, during the bloodiest time of that war; his ship was subsequently destroyed and he survived. He was transferred to another unnamed ship, which succumbed to a similar fate as his original ship. Bearing witness to many a bloody combat, he became emotionally scarred, which had, among other impetuses, lead him to alcoholism.

His disposition was not aided by his being "dragooned" into Colonial Officer Candidate School, or his reassignment as a Viper pilot. After the cessation of hostilities, he was dismissed from service and eked out an existence as a deckhand aboard a commercial freighter. While onboard, he drowned himself in alcohol and, after a time, encountered William Adama, who had not seen as much combat experience as Tigh himself did. The two fostered their friendship and when Adama reenlisted with the service, he pulled strings to reinlist Tigh as well. (Scattered)

"If the crew doesn't hate the XO, then he's not doing his job." (C. Sci-Fi Channel)

Following the Cylon attack, Tigh recovered some of his old verve and attempted to give up alcohol. However, this, combined with the initial stress of flight from the Cylons caused him to over-compensate as a martinet, frequently driving the personnel overly-hard, and berating where encouragement might have proved the better option (33). He excuses this by using the truism that the XO is supposed to be the "hard face" of command.

With his drinking problem relatively under control, Tigh settled back into his role as the Galactica's Executive Officer and proved himself both honest and level-headed - if still hard on himself and others - in a number of circumstances, and he provided the kind of support Adama needed.

During Cylon attacks, he has proven himself an excellent battle manager and tactician, his quick actions sometimes saving the ship and the fleet from damage or destruction (Tigh Me Up, Tigh Me Down), Scattered, Valley of Darkness).

He is uneasy around President Laura Roslin (Water), and resents what he sees as her interfering with Adama's command (Tigh Me Up, Tigh Me Down) - something born out of his deep respect for Adama which even the most heated of disagreements between them (You Can't Go Home Again) cannot disrupt.

He has a personal dislike of Kara "Starbuck" Thrace, one of the Galactica's pilots, and - while grudgingly conceding she is a fine pilot, he does not understand what Adama sees in her (Mini-Series), seeing her purely as an egotistical, insubordinate youngster. While they have tried to bury the hatchet between them (Mini-Series, Water), there is potentially too much water under the bridge now for them to get completely past their differences.

Outside of Adama, Tigh has few others he can regard as confidants aboard ship; and since the initial Cylon attack, he has very much withdrawn from interacting with the crew during off-duty hours, making him perhaps more isolated than even Adama - who is at least held in awe and respect by the crew.

Wife's Return

Some three weeks after the Cylon attack on the Twelve Colonies, Tigh was stunned to discover his wife, Ellen, had not been killed as he had thought, but had been rescued from Picon, and carried aboard the Rising Star as an unconscious "Jane Doe". Whether this reunion will be for his betterment or not remains to be seen.

However, despite the emotional implications from the destruction of the Colonies and life aboard the ship, Tigh is thrust further into politics as his wife plays her schemes. Much to his disdain, his wife attempts to procure photo opportunities with the likes of Tom Zarek -- a person Tigh views with the utmost disdain. (Colonial Day) Additionally, Ellen seems to have re-established Saul Tigh's alcoholism with gratuitious drinking.

Despite this, Adama sent Tigh with a squadron of marines to arrest Laura Roslin after it was discovered that she convinced Kara Thrace to jump back to Caprica to retrieve a mythical artifact called the Arrow of Apollo. This action deprived the fleet of its own military resource -- the Cylon Raider, which would have been used to plant a nuke aboard the base star in orbit around the planet believed to be Kobol -- and convinced Adama that Roslin was misusing her authority.

Onboard Colonial One, Tigh's men and Roslin's personal security agents were at a standoff. This was the point where Lee Adama aimed a weapon at Tigh's head, attempting to thwart the arrest. In order to defuse the sitation, Roslin agreed to be arrested and Lee Adama was arrested on charges of treason. (Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part II)

Tigh in Command

Tigh was present at the assassination attempt on Adama by Sharon Valerii. As guards restrained Valerii, he attempted to stop the bleeding from the torso gunshot wounds Adama sustained in the attempt (Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part II). Needing reliable officers, Tigh granted Lee Adama a furlough from his arrest. After his daily duties as CAG are done, Lee promises to return to the brig when off-shift.

With Adama incapacitated and with Roslin dethroned, Tigh tried to maintain order, however, his irrational and gruff command style displeased many crew. Morale and ship efficiency began to suffer. Ellen Tigh became a private advisor to her husband, frequently questioning his power to command while also suggesting ways of usurping more power and quashing his opponents. Ellen Tigh's advice would worsen an already bad situation.

Tigh's interrogation of suspected Cylon collaborators or infiltrators was brutal. After beating, then nearly shooting the Galactica copy of Valerii, other issues in the fleet diverted him from further interrogation. He ordered a special cage made for her for later interrogation. Tigh also savagely interrogated Valerii's former lover, Chief Tyrol as a possible Humano-Cylon himself. Tigh would have left him with Valerii in the new cage if Gaius Baltar did not intervene to prove medically that Tyrol was not a Cylon himself.

With Roslin in prison, uprisings began with ships that refused to give Galactica supplies until Roslin was released. Worse, the Quorum of Twelve demanded to see Roslin. Knowing of Roslin's hallucinations in the brig, he intentionally invites the Quorum to see Roslin in her poor state. However, Roslin recovered sufficiently from her Chamalla withdrawal after getting a supply smuggled to her by Corporal Venner, her guard. Unlike many Gemenon colonists, Tigh is very secular and believes that the accounts within the Sacred Scrolls weren't to be believed, and teased Roslin in front of the Quorum on her visions. Roslin not only was able to speak to the Quorum, but decisively reinforced her decisions as well as her role in the search for the location of Earth as told in the Pythian prophesies. This act greatly impressed the dominantly religiously-oriented Quorum, and greatly angered Tigh, who feared a larger civilan government uprising led by the Quorum. Tigh instituted martial law throughout the fleet in an attempt to maintain order in a rapidly chaotic shuffle of power between the civilian and military governments (Fragged).

The supply situation led Tigh to a poor decision of using Viper pilots to retrieve the supplies. On one ship, an incident led to four deaths and many injuries due to the pilot's inexperience in managing such a situation. Unlike Adama might have done when realizing he made a bad decision, Tigh blamed the pilot and not himself for the incident.

Fleet Factioning and Adama's Return

The shootings, Tigh's decision for martial law, and his unwillingness to discuss anything with anyone except Ellen Tigh (and the unconscious Adama) became the dividing point of those wanting to press on to finding Earth, and those wanting to settle on Kobol. (Season 2) Tigh's drinking became more out of control, and led to very irrational and edgy behavior that left many very concerned of his command ability, particularly the CIC staff. The situation came to a head when Roslin, tacitly aided by other officers and crew on Galactica, escaped the brig and hid amongst the many ships in the fleet with the aid of Tom Zarek. Tigh chased down the escaping Raptor using the CAP patrol, having the Viper fire across the bow of the Raptor to warn it to return. Luckily, Tigh did not worsen the issue and let the Raptor escape, rather than shooting it down, which would have killed Adama's son, the President, and could have placed himself in a grave situation.

Fortunately, Commander Adama regained consciousness soon after the escape and inquired with his friend what had transpired. Despite the serious problems that Tigh created, Adama did not blame his friend and XO, indicating that they would repair the situation together (Resistance).

Both Adama (also a rather secular man) and Tigh were astounded at the number of ships that seceded from the main fleet to join the faction that sought the Tomb of Athena with President Roslin (The Farm). Tigh backed up Adama while he maintained a similar official position on Roslin and the separated ships as Tigh had. However, after Adama realized that survival of the entire fleet would only come if everyone held together, Adama began to prepare a journey to Kobol to retrieve the remainder of the fleet and reach out to Roslin (Home, Part I). At first Tigh seemed to believe that Adama was going to do this in a more military light, and scoffed at Roslin's religious views on the quest until he realized that Adama had begun to follow Roslin's information, taking her reports and visions seriously. Tigh was left in command while Adama successfully reunited the fleet and reconciled with Roslin (Home, Part II).

Notes

• Tigh's first name has been given as "Paul" on a number of websites. This may be based on an early version of the script (PDF file), which has Adama speaking to "Paul" in their discussion of his fight with Starbuck. Since this version of the script has significant differences to the final script, its canonical value is low.
• Ronald D. Moore has indicated via the podcast commentary on the episode "Tigh Me Up, Tigh Me Down" that the character's name initially was Paul Tigh. The name, however, had to be changed due to legal issues that Moore was unable to recall in that podcast.
• Tigh is based off the character of Paul Eddington in the movie "In Harm's Way" portrayed by Kirk Douglas (with John Wayne).
• Tigh's age is one of the only ones which can be accurately deduced. In a deleted scene from Valley of Darkness, we learn that he was serving on the Brenik when it was boarded during the second year of the Cylon War. Tigh tells us that he was "just a kid. Virgin. Teenager." We know that Colonial Day is the anniversary of both the unification of the Colonies, and (roughly) the outbreak of the Cylon War (Source: RDM, April 11, 2005), and was 52 years ago (Colonial Day). Thus, Saul Tigh is between 63 and 69 years old during the series.