Gaius Baltar

This page discusses the unwitting betrayer of the Twelve Colonies of Kobol in the Re-imagined Series. For information on the Original Series character that intentionally betrays the Twelve Colonies of Man, see Baltar (TOS).

Gaius Baltar
Name	{{{name}}}
Age	{{{age}}}
Colony	Born Aerelon, later moved to Caprica
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Birth Name	Gaius Baltar
Birth Date	{{{birthdate}}}
Callsign	{{{callsign}}}
Nickname	{{{nickname}}}
Introduced	Miniseries
Death	{{{death}}}
Parents	{{{parents}}}
Siblings	{{{siblings}}}
Children	{{{children}}}
Marital Status	Single, with primary involvements with a virtual Number Six and Caprica-Six
Family Tree	View
Role	Former President of the Twelve Colonies, former Fleet science advisor
Rank	{{{rank}}}
Serial Number	{{{serial}}}
Portrayed by	James Callis
Gaius Baltar is a Cylon
Gaius Baltar is a Final Five Cylon
Gaius Baltar is a Human/Cylon Hybrid
Gaius Baltar is an Original Series Cylon
Related Media
		@ BW Media
Additional Information
[[Image:|200px|Gaius Baltar]]

Doctor Gaius Baltar is a brilliant scientist. Elegantly dressed and aesthetically handsome, with the affected humility of the truly arrogant, Baltar is a deeply flawed person and almost pathologically narcissistic. Beneath his outstanding abilities lurks a dramatic weakness of character that leads humanity to disaster.

Background

• Dr. Baltar is from Aerelon. He was born and raised on a dairy farm outside of the town of Cuffle's Breath Wash. Finding the Aerelon dialect to be unpleasant, starting at the age of ten he trained himself to speak without the Aerelon accent in hopes that one day he might be considered as not coming from Aerelon. He left Aerelon after his 18th birthday. He turned his back on his family, on his heritage.
• He was formerly a lead defense systems developer working for the Colonial Ministry of Defense and came to prominence as a computer technology designer, having won three Magnate Prizes.
• He networks with others well, and became personal friends with President Richard Adar. However, Baltar is extremely arrogant at times.
• Baltar becomes responsible for the design of the critical Command Navigation Program (CNP) used throughout the Colonial Fleet, but he could not fix its shortfalls and asked his assistant (Number Six) to fix almost half of the base code and when she wrote the code, she got it up to 95% efficiency but then she put in back doors to allow the Cylons to "shut-down" space craft fitted with (CNP).
• Baltar's scientific prowess seems strongest in the medical and biological fields (Epiphanies). As a result of his lesser (although still advanced) computer programming skills, he seeks the help (and as a byproduct, the affections of) a young woman to aid him with the CNP.
• Baltar's two-year affair with the mysterious woman-- even to the extent of using code she herself wrote to overcome shortfalls in his CNP -- allowed her unrestricted access to some of the most sensitive systems of the Colonial defenses.
• Baltar's involvement with his blonde assistant does not stop him from dalliances with other women during this time, right up to when his assistant confronts Baltar and a lover in bed.

Character History

The Attack on the Twelve Colonies

• Baltar learns that his "corporate spy" lover is in fact a new type of Cylon -- a Cylon in human form, able to mimic human beings down to the smallest detail, who altered his CNP with backdoors to subvert any CNP-equipped ship.

Gaius Baltar and Number Six kissing in the Miniseries. (C. SciFi Channel)

• Appalled by the fact that his sexual folly has led to the virtual holocaust of humanity, Baltar is nevertheless determined not only to survive but also avoid having his unintended treachery revealed.
• Baltar is rescued from Caprica following the forced-landing of a Colonial Raptor -- at the cost of one of the crew staying behind (Miniseries)
• Baltar is plagued by visions of Number Six that only he can see and hear. He cannot be sure whether this is a result of his own guilt at his actions or whether -- as she initially claims -- she is part of a chip that has been implanted in his brain.
• Baltar is put to work trying to devise a means of detecting these humanoid Cylons. He luckily exposes Aaron Doral as a Cylon agent (Miniseries), using little more than invented technobabble to convince Colonel Tigh.

Gaining trust

• Baltar eventually develops a genuine detector. This, together with his survival of a foiled attempt to expose him as a traitor (Six Degrees of Separation), firmly establishes his credentials within the Fleet's hierarchy.
• With this new-found trust, and despite his willingness to deliberately conceal vital information, such as "Boomer" Valerii's true status as a Cylon agent (Flesh and Bone), Baltar enters the realm of political leadership, first as the Representative for Caprica on the Quorum of Twelve, and then as the newly-elected Vice President of the Colonies (Colonial Day).
• The virtual Six continues to help and hinder Baltar, gradually drawing him to a point of near-open acceptance and participation in Cylon plans and activities (Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part II). Whether by coincidence or design, Six manipulates Baltar through repeated threats of exposing his involvement with the destruction of the Colonies ("33,", "Six Degrees of Separation"), while also appearing to aid him by giving information that appears insightful or inspired to help the Colonials.

Gaius Baltar and Number Six seeing "the shape of things to come" in "Scattered". (C. Universal Studios)

A greater purpose or insanity?

• Baltar is subjected to a final revelation of his role with the Cylons (as virtual Six sees it) when "the future" is revealed to him on Kobol, in the form of the first of "God's new generation of children" (Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part II).

Number Six showing Baltar the clearing filled with human bones, telling him they were from human sacrifices.

• While stranded on Kobol after a crash landing, Baltar's virtual Six warns him that the Colonial religion is a falsehood to cover up atrocities of their nature.
• On Kobol, Baltar shoots Crashdown in the back, killing him instantly, to save Cally from a practically suicidal and unnecessary attack on a Cylon missile battery.. The group are eventually rescued by the Raptors. Baltar tells the SAR team that Crashdown died a hero in the fight, and Chief Tyrol reluctantly corroborates his story (Fragged).
• Back on Galactica, Cally blackmails Baltar into making it a priority to prove that Chief Tyrol is not a Cylon, as Col. Tigh suspects, or Cally would reveal the truth of Crashdown's death.
• Incensed at this ingratitude, Baltar gambles that the jailed Boomer knows of the number of Cylons in the Fleet, and blackmails her into doing so, using Tyrol's life.

Baltar recieves his brain scan from Dr. Cottle, as Six watches on in amusement.

• Questioning his own sanity after his virtual Six claims that he was generally crazy, Baltar has a brain scan performed in sickbay by Dr. Cottle which confirms no "foreign objects" are present in his head.
• Baltar is ready to believe that he is truly insane until he hears Helo and Caprica-Sharon discuss Valerii's pregnancy with a Cylon/Human hybrid child from his observation room. Six tells Baltar earlier that "their child" would be born in that cell, and this leads Baltar to realize that Six must be real because his subconscious couldn't have known that (Home, Part II).

Many talents

• When D'Anna Biers films a documentary about life aboard Galactica, Six urges Baltar to give an interview to try to win people over to thinking that he should be running the Fleet. Baltar performs badly as he begins his interview but, fortunately, his interview is interrupted by a Cylon attack that Biers chooses to film instead (Final Cut).
• Baltar aids in trying to overcome the Cylon logic bomb which devastates Galactica's computers. Tigh's dislike of Baltar's involvement in this problem makes the scientist edgy enough to retort, "I'm sorry. Do you want to survive this one or not, Colonel?" (Flight of the Phoenix)

Baltar with Gina, the Cylon prisoner from Pegasus.

• Admiral Helena Cain requests that Baltar examine Pegasus' own Cylon prisoner to see what information he could glean from it. Baltar is horrified to discover the Cylon was a terribly abused and tortured copy of Number Six named "Gina". Baltar vows to help her and begins by having her restraints removed and bringing food to her (Pegasus).
• Over the course of his examination of Gina, he uncovers both her wish to die and the secret of the Cylon Resurrection Ship. He passes this information to Adama and Admiral Cain, who develop an operation to destroy it (Resurrection Ship, Part I).
• Baltar continues to spend time with Gina, eventually helping her escape from the brig. He tells Gina that he can hide her, and also that he loves her. Gina goes on to kill Cain and escapes from Pegasus through unexplained means (Resurrection Ship, Part II).
• Torn between the "flesh and blood" copy of the Number Six copy, Gina, the demands of his internal Number Six, and his continuing attempt to cover his own multiple duplicities, Baltar becomes more aggressive and confrontational. With President Roslin's advice to abort the Cylon-hybrid fetus of the incarcerated Sharon Valerii, Baltar reacts to defend it as if it were his own child. Admiral Adama admonishes Baltar, telling him that, on Roslin's death, he will become President and that he needs to behave like one.
• Desperate to save Valerii's fetus, Baltar reviews Dr. Cottle's medical tests and performs experiments of his own, learning a striking revelation: the blood of the fetus can destroy cancer and repair its damage to human tissue. With Admiral Adama's permission, he injects the dying President Roslin with some of the fetal blood, which works miraculously, saving both Roslin and Valerii's child by circumstance (Epiphanies).
• Baltar keeps his fumarello supply fresh by trading in the black market through new Pegasus Commander Jack Fisk. Not realizing that Fisk had been murdered, the scientist visits Fisk's quarters, only to meet Captain Lee Adama, who has started an investigation on the black market and Fisk's murder. Baltar truthfully tells Adama that he knows nothing of Fisk's murder, but Adama correctly deduces Baltar's association with Fisk and the black market since the "Caprican Imperial" fumarellos are a known favorite of Baltar's (Black Market).

Increasing political ambitions

• After saving Roslin's life, Baltar reads the letter given to him in the event of her death, in which she says he lacks compassion and asks him to open his heart if he becomes president. Furious, and goaded on by Six who tells him that Roslin doesn't trust him, Baltar delivers the nuclear warhead used for the Cylon detector to Gina and her militant Demand Peace movement.
• Baltar is also unaware that his involvement in the destruction of the Colonies is partially revealed. In Galactica's sickbay, Laura Roslin recalled those final days on Caprica, and remembered Baltar in the company of a woman on Caprica who she knows now is a Cylon (Epiphanies).
• Baltar is summoned to Colonial One, where Roslin offers him, without explanation, the chance to resign from the Vice Presidency to return to his studies. Baltar becomes immediately suspicious (and frightened) in Roslin's succinct and direct vote of no-confidence in her vice president. Realizing that the Vice Presidency now has greater importance (if nothing other than to save his own hide), Baltar turns down what Roslin calls a "one-time offer" to save himself as he saved Roslin on her deathbed (Black Market).

Gaius Baltar as President, from Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II.

• Dr. Baltar decides (with no small influence from Six and Tom Zarek) to run for President in the coming Colonial Elections (The Captain's Hand).

New Caprica

• Roslin is declared the winner of the elections, but is caught by Adama for manipulating the tally. Baltar is declared president. While Baltar demands an investigation initially, he backs down under Adama's glare.
• President Baltar orders the Fleet to return to the marginally habitable planet New Caprica seconds after his inauguration. Baltar shows incompetency as president a few days later, when he orders the colonization of the planet. In an attempt to cover up his role in giving Gina the nuclear warhead used to detonate Cloud Nine, Baltar orders Adama to stop any further investigation into the destruction of Cloud Nine and two other ships (he correctly guesses that the conflagration was started by Gina).
• During his first year in office, Baltar indulges in women, wallows in the incompentence of his administration, and is callously unsympathetic to the supply and resource problems plaguing the new colony, whose inhabitants continue to live in tents. The public, including the labor union lead by Galen Tyrol, is notably displeased with his administration.
• 380 days after Baltar's ascention to the presidency, a Cylon armada finds the planet after discovering the radiation cloud left by the destruction of Cloud 9. This event heralds the return of the dormant virtual Number Six noting to him that "judgement day" has come at last. Copies of a Five, Caprica-Six and Boomer meet with Baltar and his cabinet, recommending surrender; it is here that he is reunited with the Six he fell in love with on Caprica (Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II).
• After four months of Cylon occupation, the citizens of New Caprica despise their president. Baltar fears for his life and turns down public appearances, such as the New Caprica Police Academy graduation, to avoid assassination attempts (Occupation). It is even commented by the Cylon occupiers while discussing the notion of public executions to discourage uprising that publicly executing Baltar would be counterproductive, since the populace would cheer his death.
• Baltar is diposed after Admiral Adama organizes and executes a daring rescue mission of New Caprica's occupied inhabitants. During the exodus of those willing to leave New Caprica, Baltar happens across the dead body of Maya and the Cylon hybrid Hera, and stays behind with the Cylons (Exodus, Part II).

Among the Cylons

• Once on board the basestar, Baltar must prove his worth to the Cylons or be killed. He seeks help from the basestar's Hybrid, and gleans information which leads the Cylon fleet to the Lion's Head Nebula, where they recover an ancient beacon. The beacon is also a plague carrier. To further prove his worth, Baltar takes on a mission to the dying basestar (Torn).
• Baltar is tortured by a Number Three for information on the viral plague. Misinterpreting his screams of love for the Internal Six as feeling for her, Number Three enters into a sexual relationship with Baltar and possibly Caprica-Six as well and starts to share a bed with both of them (A Measure of Salvation).
• Learning more about Cylon culture among them, he develops doubts about his identity, starting to belief that he might be one of the final five Cylons.

Return to the Fleet

• Seeking answers to his questions about his identity, Baltar travels with Number Three and Cavil to the surface of the algae planet in order to visit the Temple of Five. After killing Cavil and watching the death of Number Three, he is unsuccessful in finding answers, and is captured and returned to Galactica (Rapture).
• He attempts to commit suicide and is tortured by President Roslin and William Adama under the influence of an interrogation drug. While offering no substantial information, Roslin's belief that he played a role in the attack on the Twelve Colonies is strengthened. She and Adama decide to give Baltar a public trial instead of quietly executing him (Taking a Break From All Your Worries).
• Baltar, in an attempt to curry favor with the fleet concerning his trial, secretly publishes a book called "My Triumphs, My Mistakes". This book causes a labor strike, led by Galen Tyrol, but instead of bringing the Fleet to a screeching halt, it actually helps Tyrol and President Roslin stop a problem that was beginning to form in the Fleet (Dirty Hands).
• Before his trial begins, Baltar's lawyer, Alan Hughes, is killed by sabotage, and is replaced by Romo Lampkin. Security for both Lampkin and Baltar is high, as many people believe fervently that Baltar should not be given a trial at all. Major Lee Adama is placed in command of this security detail, and eventually becomes Lampkin's aide for the trial (The Son Also Rises).
• Baltar's trial becomes a frenzied media circus. Lampkin manages to keep mob rule from overwhelming the proceedings, but it is Lee Adama's testimony that ultimately acquits Baltar. The son of William Adama notes many, many abuses of justice, crimes and mistakes committed by himself and other leadership in the Fleet that were ignored or punished lightly. Baltar's only distinction, in comparison, was that he was unlikeable and thus more useful as a scapegoat for the problems of the Fleet that stemmed from colonizing New Caprica.
• With the end of the trial, Baltar finds his acquittal bittersweet, with no home, no work, and no allies.
• When the Fleet jumps into the Ionian nebula, the confusion caused by a power outage allows the homeless Baltar to be secretly carried off by a group who claim they are leading him to his new life (Crossroads, Part II).

Notes

• There is speculation that Gaius Baltar could be a Cylon himself. See the Baltar as Cylon speculation article for the pros and cons of this theory.
• Ron Moore has stated in several episode commentaries that when the role of "Gaius Baltar" was originally written in the script, the writing team never intended Baltar to have a "funny" aspect, but James Callis himself decided to play up that aspect of the frantic predicaments Baltar finds himself in during the Miniseries (which although the writers never anticipated, they enjoyed, and started writing him with that in mind).
• While Edward James Olmos and Mary McDonnell were hand-picked for their roles, the rest of the characters were cast by audition: among the actors in the running for the role of "Gaius Baltar" was Two and a Half Men's Jon Cryer, though the role ultimately went to James Callis. Callis was suggested by Angela Mancuso, who ran the studio at the time, who knew him from the Helen of Troy miniseries, in which he played Menelaus.

References

Preceded by: (unknown)	Caprican delegate to the Quorum of Twelve	Succeeded by: (unknown)
Preceded by: (unknown)	Vice-President of the Twelve Colonies of Kobol	Succeeded by: Tom Zarek
Preceded by: Laura Roslin	President of the Twelve Colonies of Kobol	Succeeded by: Tom Zarek