The Character Sheet for Battlestar Galactica (2003). MAJOR SPOILERS FOLLOW.
- Main Charactersnote
- Colonial Military (the crews of the Battlestar Galactica and the Battlestar Pegasus)
- Civilian Humans
- Cylons
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Other Entities
"Head" Characters
Head-Six
"For once, Gaius, you can stop manipulating the world and let destiny take its course. If there's one thing we know about human beings with certainty: they are masters of self-destruction."
Played By: Tricia Helfer
Introduced early in the series, "Head-Six" (as she's known in the writer's room) seemed to be a reincarnation of Caprica-Six (one never showed up when the other was around for a long time) that only Baltar could see, and essentially served as Baltar's conscience. She tends to goad him onward into taking actions he would rather not, sometimes even using physical violence to get the job done; she also seems to enjoy seducing him in plain sight.
- Ambiguous Situation: It's completely unknown if she appeared to anyone aside from Baltar and Caprica-Six. Anders mentions that on Earth he saw a woman and Tory saw a man, but it's unclear if these are the same two angels or different ones, especially since in "Maelstrom", Kara saw one that looked like Leoben, and in Caprica, Zoe saw one that looked like herself. In fact, it's ambiguous whether Head-Six and Head-Baltar take multiple forms, since they still look like Six and Baltar when the audience sees them in the final scene of the series 150,000 years later, although they probably don't actually look like Six and Baltar (if they even have forms at all).
- Blue-and-Orange Morality: Doesn't see things the way everyone else does. In fact, she outright states that the "God" she serves isn't good or evil, but a "force of nature."
- Breakout Character: In large part thanks to Tricia Helfer's amazing performance, Head-Six was written in so that the writers would be able to have more fun with Six while keeping the Cylons and Colonials separated, and is overall one of the most popular and memorable characters in the whole show.
- Deadpan Snarker: Her sense of humor can be quite dry, suffice to say.
- Ethereal White Dress: One of her other frequent oufits which she usually wears when focused on more spiritual matters. She's wearing white when she appears to Gaius during his time on Kobol, the homeworld of humanity, and in the Opera House visions.
- Fantastic Racism: Seems to have a low opinion of humanity.
- Fetishized Abuser: She frequently abuses Baltar when he argues with her; grabbing his face, throwing him into walls, screaming at him, and even snapping his neck once. It was in their head-mansion, so it didn't kill him, but it still smarted.
- Guardian Angel: Is revealed to be this, in her own words "an angel of God sent here to protect you, to guide you and to love you".
- Iconic Outfit: Her short red dress.
- Lady in Red: She wears several different fabulous outfits over the course of the series but her most iconic one, and the one she's most often seen wearing in promo images, is a very flattering red dress.
- Large Ham: A lot of scenes with her and Baltar eventually devolve into him cowering with fear as she screams at him from the top of her lungs.
- Mind Screw: The details of what exactly she is are inconsistent and confusing. At first she claims to be a projection created by a Cylon microchip that Caprica-Six may have implanted in his brain (fans joked that he was letting the bitch live rent-free in his head—literally). Later, she conveniently disappeared to put him in the awkward position of mistaking Shelly Godfrey for her. Then she declared herself to be a schizophrenic hallucination caused by Baltar's weak-minded inability to accept that he was responsible for the genocide of 11 billion people - but she was just using reverse psychology on him. And then she revealed that she was an angel sent by God.
- Moral Myopia: She's utterly distraught at the thought of the Colonials repaying the Cylons in kind as they destroy the Resurrection Ship.
- Ms. Fanservice: Even more than the rest of the Sixes, given her iconic red dress and other revealing outfits.
- Not-So-Imaginary Friend: At one point she actually picks Baltar up to face the guard at his cult's quarters, and we (and the rest of the people) see him being lifted by an invisible being.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: While normally unflappable, she is absolutely horrified to discover what has been done to Gina Inviere.
- Our Angels Are Different: She's confirmed to be an actual angel by the end of the series.
- Spirit Advisor: Her main role, beside being an awful tease, is to guide Gaius, give him advice, or simply tell him what to say.
- Time Abyss: She's countless millennia old.
- Troll: She really likes to screw with Gaius's head for her own amusement.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: The Series Finale implies that she and Head-Baltar (along with the resurrected Kara Thrace) are servants of "God" sent to help break the Vicious Cycle and ensure peace between mankind & artificial intelligence. The fact that Head-Six frequently acts as a Fetishized Abuser to Gaius is just part of her job.
Head-Baltar
Played By: James Callis
With Tricia Helfer on-set as Head-Six most of the time, it took a while for episodes to come out that focused on Caprica-Six. When they aired, it's revealed that she had a corresponding Head-Baltar walking around with her. He tends to be more observant as opposed to coercive, often coming up with answers that shouldn't be possible.
- Ambiguous Situation: It's completely unknown if he appeared to anyone aside from Caprica-Six and Baltar. Anders mentions that on the first Earth he saw a woman and Tory saw a man, but it's unclear if these are the same two angels or different ones, especially since in "Maelstrom" Kara saw one that looked Leoben and in Caprica Zoe saw one that looked like herself. In fact, it's ambiguous whether Head-Six and Head-Baltar take multiple forms, since they still look like Six and Baltar when the audience sees them in the final scene of the series 150,000 years later, although they're not really Six and Baltar.
- Blue-and-Orange Morality: Like with Head-Six, he doesn't see the world like the Cylons and humans do.
- Deadpan Snarker: A lot of his advice and insight comes across this way. For instance, here's his below response to Caprica-Six when she's talking about Baltar's lake house to Boomer in "Downloaded":Caprica-Six: (fondly) I always loved the view. Sunlight on the water. It's my favorite spot in the universe.
Head-Baltar: (drily) Yeah, it's magical. Too bad you nuked it. - Fantastic Racism: Shows a rather low opinion of Cylons while in Caprica-Six's head.
- Foil: To Head-Six. Both are Deadpan Snarkers and Spirit Advisors to their charges, but she is more of a coy tease while he's far blunter and colder. The contrast between the two characters is perhaps best shown in "Downloaded," where instead of being jokey like Head-Six would've been in his situation while Caprica-Six is enjoying tea with D'Anna in a former Colonial park, he just glares at her with naked disgust and then bitterly remarks on how there used to be children playing in the park before the Fall of the Twelve Colonies.
- Not-So-Imaginary Friend: The fact that Baltar is eventually able to see him to helps confirm to the audience that he's Real After All.
- Mr. Fanservice: He's played by James Callis, after all.
- Our Angels Are Different: All but stated to be an actual angel by the end of the series. However, Ron Moore actually describes him as a "devil" to Caprica-Six.
- Spirit Advisor: Just like Head-Six for Baltar, his main role is to guide Caprica-Six, give her advice, or simply just tell her what to say.
- Time Abyss: Like Head-Six, he's countless millennia old.
- Walking Spoiler: The mere fact that he exists confirms to the audience that both he and Head-Six are not only Real After All, but that they're something far more eldritch than either man or Cylon.
Hera
Hera Agathon
The first-ever human-Cylon hybrid, conceived by Cylon mother Sharon Agathon/Athena and human father Karl Agathon/Helo. President Roslin orders her death faked and the actual infant assigned to a foster mother, who is killed on New Caprica, causing the child to fall into the hands of the Cylons...
- Adam and/or Eve: The finale shows that she essentially became "Mitochondrial Eve", the mother of all humanity on Earth. The concept is a real one.
- Creepy Child: Downplayed - she generally behaves like a normal toddler girl but her nature and destiny make her do worrisome things.
- Fantastic Medicinal Bodily Product: Hera's hybrid blood temporarily cures Roslin's cancer. It later stops working when she ages out of being a baby since her fetal stem cells are explained as being the real "cancer cure" that worked for Roslin.
- Half-Human Hybrid: The first human-Cylon hybrid.
- Living MacGuffin: For both humanity and the Cylons. Being a successful hybrid, the Cylons (who are desperate to figure out how to reproduce) are keenly interested in her. Meanwhile, for the humans, it turns out that her fetal stem cell blood can reverse Roslin's cancer, which helps her beat the disease back for a while before it comes back.
- The Power of Blood: Her blood gets used as a cure for Laura Roslin's cancer. Unfortunately, It Only Works Once.
- The Power of Love: The Cylons attribute her existence to the genuine love between her parents, since their attempts at producing human-Cylon hybrids through medical experiments all failed.
- Waif Prophet: Her drawings turn out to have vital information to help humanity.
