New Caprica Detention Center

New Caprica Detention Center during the Battle of New Caprica.

The New Caprica Detention Center is a Cylon facility on New Caprica, established circa 2 ACH (2001BYR) following the occupation ^{(TRS: "Battlestar Galactica: The Resistance")}.

Design and Construction

Physically, it is an imposing concrete structure with a motorized gate of steel bars. It contains facilities for questioning prisoners which are quite reminiscent of police interrogation rooms in the real world; they feature bare concrete walls, a small table, two metal chairs, a metal door with a small window, and harsh overhead lighting from a single source.

Set Decoration

The detention center structure was originally designed to serve as new housing for New Caprica settlers rather than as a prison facility. According to set decorator Jonathan Lancaster, when the structure was only about a quarter built at the end of Season 2, the production team needed to show that the Cylons had been present on New Caprica for four to eight months by the time Season 3 began filming. The building was designed to represent an accomplishment that both humans and Cylons could view positively — a structure where "humans and Cylons were looking at it as an accomplishment for them" — before it was repurposed as the detention center seen during the occupation.

Filming Location

The detention center structure was built and filmed at the production's New Caprica outdoor location near Richmond, British Columbia — the same site used for the entire New Caprica settlement throughout Seasons 2 and 3.

Kara "Starbuck" Thrace's cell within the facility was filmed at the Waterfall Building, 1540 West 2nd Avenue, Vancouver, British Columbia. This is the same room previously used as Kara Thrace's apartment in Delphi in "Valley of Darkness" — which is the in-universe explanation for why the cell resembles that apartment.

Use During Occupation

It is within this facility that a Number Five solicits James Lyman to inform the Cylons on the movements of the New Caprica Resistance ^{(TRS: "Battlestar Galactica: The Resistance")}.

During the Battle of New Caprica the prison is stormed by the New Caprica Resistance and Colonial Marines under the command of Samuel Anders and Gunnery Sergeant Erin Mathias, freeing all its surviving inmates ^{(TRS: "Exodus, Part II")}.

Notable Inmates

Saul Tigh is incarcerated in the center until his wife fornicates with a copy of Cavil as part of an exchange to free her husband. Suspected to be a high ranking member of the Resistance, Saul is tortured extensively, having an eye ripped out during interrogation ^{(TRS: "Occupation")}.

Laura Roslin is detained briefly while being interviewed by Gaius Baltar about a suicide bombing perpetrated by a Resistance member ^{(TRS: "Precipice")}.

Kara "Starbuck" Thrace is held captive in a spacious furnished cell where she is forced to live with Leoben Conoy for the duration of the Cylon occupation, undergoing various forms of psychological abuse for reasons not clarified ^{(TRS: "Occupation")}. The cell is not confirmed to be within the detention center itself until the building is liberated by the resistance ^{(TRS: "Exodus, Part II")}.

References