The Golden Toaster Awards are a fan-created, fan-operated annual awards show which was created by the posters on the official Scifi.com Battlestar Galactica messageboard. Over a period of several months leading up to the awards, nominations and categories are developed and put foward to the fan organizers of the event, who then issue an official award and nomination ballot on the messageboard. Votes are then e-mailed in to those responsible for running the event. Finally, the awards are "presented" in an "online awards show": in an official live Golden Toaster Awards message thread, several posters have been pre-selected as "presenters" for a certain category, and in the Awards message-thread they then introduce their assigned category. They introduce the category, give a short speech about it, and list the nominees (just like in any "live" awards show), and soon afterwords that person announces who won. Although it takes place on a messageboard, it occurs in real time, and the "show" lasts several hours. However, this event is not limited to only those fans who are presenting awards: anyone can post in the middle of the awards thread to chime in with their feelings, cheer on hopeful candidates, etc.
The First Annual Golden Toaster Awards occurred on October 14th, 2005, and was an incredible success; literally hundreds of ballots were cast, and it was a major event within the fanbase. The first awards were held at GalacticaActual.com because the Scfi.com messageboards were being upgraded at the time to deal with hacker attacks, bandwidth issues, etc. Incredibly, physical copies of the awards (printed up with the Golden Toaster Award art seen at right) were mailed to the Battlestar Galactica production office, and they were actually handed out to all cast members at the season two wrap-party. Again, the awards were not the production team's idea, but the fans that ran the awards on the messageboard thought they'd like them.
Categories and nominations are made up entirely by the fans, and then agreed upon as an eligible category by consensus. For example, Season 1 had no "Best Battlestar" category because besides side references to other ships like Atlantia, Galactica was the one that was really showcased, so this would not really be a fair competition and was not made into a category. However, practically anything in which three or more eligible competitors can be found can be turned into a category, such as the "Best Usage of the Word "Frak" category. Different years might therefore have several new categories. Also, during the creation of the Golden Toaster Awards, it was decided that Cylons who have destinct enough personalities should be considered separate characters, thus "Galactica-Sharon" and "Caprica-Sharon" are considered separate characters and actually competed against each other in the several of the same categories; likewise the Number Six who oversaw the Cylon experiment with Helo and got into a fight with Starbuck in "Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part II", Shelly Godfrey, and the copy that claimed to be a computer chip in Baltar's mind, are considered different characters and actually competed with each other.
The first annual awards covered both the Miniseries and the 13 episode first season. All subsquent episode will cover one full 20-episode season (thus there are no awards for the first ten episodes of Season 2, then a separate set of awards for the final 10, but one comprehensive set of awards that includes all 20 episodes).
First Golden Toaster Awards - Miniseries & Season One[edit]
Held October 14th, 2005
The Solium
- Season one cliffhanger of Sharon/Boomer shooting Adama.
Most Dramatic Moment
- Kara telling Adama she was responsible for Zak's death - "Act of Contrition"
Best Ship/Spacecraft/Fighter
- Battlestar Galactica
Best FX Shot or Sequence
- Viper battle & Lee’s destruction of the tylium mine (“Hand of God”)
Best Guest Actor
- Donnelly Rhodes (Doctor Cottle)
Best Guest Actress
- Lorena Gale (Priest Elosha)
Funniest Moment
- Kara walking in on Baltar having sex with the invisible Six, ending with Kara telling him to zip up his fly.
Best Script/Writer
- Ronald D. Moore and David Eick for "Kobol's Last Gleaming Parts 1 & 2"
The Caravaggio
- Sharon/Boomer shooting Adama (“Kobol’s Last Gleaming, pt. 2”)
Best Musical Track
- Wander My Friends (“Hand of God” victory celebration music, by Bear McCreary)
The TOSser
- Sharon's Cylon test takes a matter of minutes, while they later say it takes 11 hours. (by two votes!)
Most Shocking Moment
- Sharon/Boomer shooting Adama (“Kobol’s Last Gleaming, pt 2”)
Best Line
A tie:
- Adama: “If it were you... we'd never leave.” (from “YouCan’t Go Home Again”)
and
- Baltar: “No more Mister Nice Gaius!” (from “Six Degrees of Separation”)
Best Relationship
- Bill Adama/Laura Roslin
Best Usage of the word "Frak"
- Crashdown: “We are well and truly frakked.” (from “Hand of God”)
Best Supporting Actor
A tie:
- Aaron Douglas (Chief Petty Officer Galen Tyrol)
and
- Michael Hogan (Colonel Saul Tigh)
Best Supporting Actress
- Kandyse McClure (Petty Officer 2nd Class Anastasia Dualla)
Best Action Sequence
- Lee’s piloting through the tunnel & the destruction ofthe Cylon tylium mine in (“Hand of God”)
Best Hero/Heroine
- Lieutenant Kara “Starbuck” Thrace
Best Villain/Villainess
- Number Six (Dr. Baltar’s internal “Harvey”-Copy)
Sexiest Male Character
- Lee “Apollo” Adama
Sexiest Female Character
- Lt. Kara “Starbuck” Thrace (won by frakkin' votes!)
Best Director
- Micheal Rymer for "33"
The Gino
- Ronald D. Moore! (barely edged out Olmos, McDonnell and Hatch! Won by two votes.)
Best Actor
- Edward James Olmos (Won over James Callis by a single vote)
Best Actress
- Mary McDonnell (Won by 2 votes)
Best Episode
- "33"