Saul Tigh
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| Saul Tigh | ||
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[[Image: |200px|Saul Tigh]]
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| Age | 63-69 | |
| Colony | Aerelon | |
| Birth place | {{{birthplace}}} | |
| Birth Name | Saul Tigh | |
| Birth Date | {{{birthdate}}} | |
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| 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
Saul Tigh was born on the colony of Aerelon.Template:Ref A veteran of the Cylon War, 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 (Miniseries; "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).
Tigh began his career as a deckhandTemplate:Ref. By the second year of the first Cylon War, he was serving as a gunner's made onboard the Brenik. His ship was boarded by the Cylons where he and others fought in hand to hand combat, during the bloodiest time of that war. (deleted scene, Valley of Darkness). 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. Having born witness to many a bloody combat, he became emotionally scarred, which had, among other impetuses, lead him to alcoholism.
Tigh eventually achieved the rank of Chief Petty Officer (Galen Tyrol's position on Galactica). When Viper pilot numbers began running low in the war, Tigh was drafted into Colonial Officer Candidate School and was reassigned as a Viper pilot (podcast, Tigh Me Up, Tigh Me Down). As a pilot, he demonstrated considerable skill, earning several medals while posted aboard the battlestar Athena.Template:Ref
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. The became fast friends, and remained in touch after Adama reenlisted with the service. Two years laterTemplate:Ref, he was able to pull strings to reenlist Tigh as well (Scattered).
Following his reenlistment Saul met his future wife Ellen, who he courted and married after two months, about 7 years before the Miniseries. Unfortunately, Ellen did not take well to military life and her repeated infidelities drove Saul back into the bottle. The two seperated shortly before the Cylon attack.Template:Ref label
Following the Cylon attack, Tigh recovers some of his old verve and attempts to give up alcohol. However, this, combined with the initial stress of flight from the Cylons causes him to over-compensate as a martinet, frequently driving the personnel overly-hard, and berating where encouragement would prove 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 proves himself an excellent battle manager and tactician. His quick actions sometimes save the ship and the Fleet from damage or destruction ("Tigh Me Up, Tigh Me Down", "Scattered", "Valley of Darkness").
Tigh 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.
Tigh personally dislikes Kara Thrace, one of 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 regards as confidants aboard ship; and since the initial Cylon attack, he withdraws 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 is stunned to discover his wife, Ellen, has not been killed as he had thought, but was 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 re-establish Saul Tigh's alcoholism with gratuitious drinking.
Despite this, Adama sends Tigh with a squadron of marines to arrest Laura Roslin after Adama discovers that she convinced Kara Thrace to Jump back to Caprica to retrieve a mythical artifact called the Arrow of Apollo. This action deprives the Fleet of a singular military resource -- a captured Cylon Raider, which would have been used to plant a nuclear warhead aboard a basestar in orbit around the planet believed to be Kobol -- and convinces Adama that Roslin is misusing her authority.
Onboard Colonial One, Tigh's men and Roslin's personal security agents are at a standoff when Lee Adama aims a weapon at Tigh's head and attempts to thwart the arrest. In order to defuse the sitation, Roslin agrees to be arrested and Lee Adama is arrested on charges of treason (Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part II).
Tigh in Command
Tigh is present in CIC at the assassination attempt on Adama by Sharon Valerii. As guards restrain Valerii, Tigh attempts to stop the bleeding from the torso gunshot wounds Adama sustains in the attempt (Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part II). Needing reliable officers, Tigh grants 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 tries to maintain order. However, his irrational and gruff command style displeases many crew. Morale and ship efficiency begins to suffer. Ellen Tigh becomes 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 worsens an already bad situation.
Tigh's interrogation of suspected Cylon collaborators or infiltrators is brutal. After beating, then nearly shooting the Galactica copy of Valerii, other issues in the Fleet divert him from further interrogation. He orders a special cage made for her for later interrogation. Tigh also savagely interrogates Valerii's former lover, Chief Galen Tyrol as a possible Cylon infiltrator himself. Tigh would have left him with Valerii in the newly built Cylon cage if Gaius Baltar did not intervene to prove medically that Tyrol is not a Cylon himself.
With Roslin in prison, uprisings begin with ships that refuse to give Galactica supplies until Roslin is released. Worse, the Quorum of Twelve demand 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 recovers 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 teases Roslin in front of the Quorum on her visions. Roslin not only is able to speak to the Quorum, but decisively reinforces her decisions as well as her role in the search for the location of Earth as told in the Pythian prophesies. This act greatly impresses the dominantly religiously-oriented Quorum, and greatly angers Tigh, who fears a larger civilan government uprising led by the Quorum. Tigh institutes 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 leads Tigh to a poor decision of using Viper pilots to retrieve the supplies. On one ship, an incident leads 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 blames 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) becomes the dividing point of those wanting to press on to finding Earth, and those wanting to settle on Kobol (Season 2). Tigh's drinking becomes more out of control, and leads to very irrational and edgy behavior that leave many very concerned of his command ability, particularly the CIC staff. The situation comes to a head when Roslin, tacitly aided by other officers and crew on Galactica, escapes the brig in an attempt to hide amongst the many ships in the Fleet with the aid of Tom Zarek. Tigh chases 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 does not worsen the issue and lets 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 regains consciousness soon after the escape and inquires with his friend what had transpired. Despite the serious problems that Tigh created, Adama does not blame his friend and XO, indicating that they would repair the situation together (Resistance).
Both Adama (also a rather secular man) and Tigh are astounded at the number of ships that secede from the main fleet to join the faction that sought the Tomb of Athena with President Roslin (The Farm). Tigh backs up Adama while he maintains a similar official position on Roslin and the separated ships as Tigh has. However, after Adama realizes that survival of the entire Fleet would only come if everyone held together, Adama begins to prepare a journey to Kobol to retrieve the remainder of the Fleet and reach out to Roslin (Home, Part I). At first Tigh seems to believe that Adama is retrieving the faction by more military means, and scoffs at Roslin's religious views on the quest until he realizes that Adama is beginning to follow Roslin's information, taking her reports and visions seriously. Tigh is left in command while Adama successfully reunites the Fleet and reconciles with Roslin (Home, Part II).
Notes
- Tigh's first name has been given as "Paul" on a number of websites. This is based on an early version of the script (PDF file), which has Adama speaking to "Paul" in their discussion of his fight with Kara Thrace. 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.
- In the DVD commentary of "Act of Contrition", Ron Moore notes that actor Michael Hogan won the role of Tigh over Donnelly Rhodes, who was one of two other actors vying for the part. Rhodes however went on to play the role of Dr. Cottle, Galactica's CMO.
- We have two conflicting claims on Saul Tigh's rank during the early days of the Cylon War:
- A deleted scene from the episode "Valley of Darkness" states that Tigh was still a gunner's mate by midway through the Cylon War's second year.
- Issue 3 of "Battlestar Galactica: The Official Magazine" states that he had acheived the rank of Chief Petty Officer by the time the Cylon War broke out.Template:Ref label
- Since neither of these sources are strictly canonical, it is not clear which is meant to stand.
Sources
- Template:Note"Cylon Intelligence Report: Personnel File: Saul Tigh." Battlestar Galactica: The Official Magazine. Feb./Mar. 2006: 62.
- Template:NoteTemplate:Note labelIbid. "Saul Tigh entered the fleet as a deckhand but rose through the ranks and was a CPO (Chief Petty Officer) by the time the First Cylon War broke out."
- Template:NoteIbid. "Tigh joined the Colonial Officer Candidate School and was reassigned as a Viper pilot, something he excelled in, earning a string of medals in his post aboard the Battlestar Athena."
- Template:NoteTemplate:Note labelIbid. "Adama reenlisted with the service and Tigh spent two years drinking before Adama pulled strings to get him back into service. Saul Tigh was straightening his life out when he met his wife Ellen, who he courted and married within two months. Ellen did not take well to military life, and her repeated infidelities drove him back to drink. Ellen and Saul separated shortly before the Cylon attack."