| |
 |
CYLON-APALOOZA!
By: Michael Logan
Date: March 24, 2008
Source: TV Guide |
BATTLESTAR's back, and the new Cylons are getting in touch with
their inner robots Prepare for the big Cylon freak-out. In last
spring's season finale of Sci Fi Channel's Battlestar Galactica,
four of the human colonists came to the rocking, shocking realization
that they're members of the cybernetic Cylon race. In other words, they
are their own worst enemies! So when BSG returns for its fourth
and final season, viewers will find this quartet of undercover
"Toasters" -- Col. Saul Tigh (Michael Hogan), "Chief" Tyrol (Aaron
Douglas), Ensign Sam Anders (Michael Trucco) and presidential aide Tory
Foster (Rekha Sharma) -- struggling to make sense of their new
identities while staying deep in the closet. "They're all in this
together, but there's going to be a lot of dissension and distrust among
them," executive producer Ronald D. Moore says. "These are four people
who've never had close relationships with one another, and now they're
trying to figure out how the hell this happened. Are they sleeper
agents? What are their real backstories? And how do they handle
this going forward? It results in a lot of acrimony." Each of the four
reacts differently to this twist of fate. Tigh, the ultimate Cylon
hater, "will be in big denial," says Hogan. "This hits him so hard he
goes into a whole other zone, where he buries the situation like he
buries his drinking and his other vices." Good ol' boy Tyrol
"tries not to go off the deep end by being practical about it,"
Douglas notes.
"He tries to make it make sense."
Tory looks for the silver lining. The character will become more
politically prominent in Season 4, while her boss, Laura Roslin (Mary
McDonnell), fights a relapse of cancer. "Everything has been so crappy
for the humans that Tory tries to embrace being a Cylon in some way,"
Sharma says. "I think she hopes [the foursome] are the evolutionary
bridge between the humans and the Cylons and that they can fix
everything." Anders has no such lofty thoughts. "For him, this is just
a big pain in the ass," says Trucco with a laugh. "Anders is a hard-core
loyalist and resistance fighter, so being a Cylon goes against
everything he stands for. He's a staunch hero, but this brings out his
darker side." And it's not the only ton o' bricks to hit Anders. His
wife, Kara "Starbuck" Thrace (Katee Sackhoff), will return to him from
the "dead" this season, and there's widespread suspicion that she, too,
is a Cylon. "Anders tries to assess her without giving away his own
secret," Trucco says. "If she's a Cylon, it's be great to have her as
his ally. But if he admits he's a Cylon and she isn't onem then he's
screwed." Eleven Cylons now have been revealed, so who is the 12th and
final Cylon? Contrary to fan speculation, Moore swears it isn't one of
the show's primary humans. Not Starbuck or President Roslin. Not Admiral
Adama (Edward James Olmos) or his son, Lee (Jamie Bamber). Or even the
ever-dubious, Cylon-shagging Gaius Baltar (James Callis). "Even if you
guess correctly, it's still just a guess," Moore says. "There's
no way anyone can figure it out without knowing exactly where we're
going with the final season." Since much of that remains to be filmed,
the cast is clueless. "We're going along for the ride, just like the
fans," Trucco says. "We don't even know where the four new Cylons fall
in Cylon chronology. Are we predecessors? Or did we come afterward? Are
we divine?" Adds Douglas:
"So far, in scripts, there are no multiple copies of us, unlike with the
other Cylons, so maybe we're one-offs. Does that mean we can die?"
And what about the humans' quest for Earth? Moore promises that they
will arrive there -- uh, here -- before the series wraps up. But what
will they find? Dinosaurs? Ancient Greeks? George W. Bush? "We've never
revealed our time frame, and that's been one of the key questions from
the beginning," Moore says. "What is the connection between us and the
humans of BSG?" Douglas concludes,
"All I know is that everything better track when all is finally
revealed, because there's nothing like a sci-fi fan scorned!"
[click thumbnails to enlarge images] |
|
|
|
|
