History Characters / BattlestarGalactica2003

* [[Characters/BattlestarGalactica2003MainCharacters Main Characters]]

!!Main Human Characters

[[folder: Commander Adama]]
!!Commander William 'Bill' Adama (callsign: Husker)
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/TropeAdama_3597.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''"It's not enough to survive. One must be worthy of survival."'']]
->'''Played By''': Creator/EdwardJamesOlmos, Creator/LukePasqualino (''Series/BattlestarGalacticaBloodAndChrome'')

An almost-retired Commander who was assigned to ''Galactica'' in the twilight of his career to oversee her decommissioning. As a veteran of the First Cylon War, where he served as a Viper pilot on the selfsame ''Galactica'', Bill Adama is actually one of the better choices for command in the second war, not to mention a CoolOldGuy.

* AbusiveParents: [[Recap/BattlestarGalactica2003S03E15ADayInTheLife "A Day in the Life"]] shows he believes he was this to Lee and Zak of the [[ParentalNeglect neglectful]] kind, believing his committment to his work and struggles with showing emotion were harmful to them, and that his wife Carolanne's constant berating of him was justified, to the point of divorcing her and letting her take custody of the boys under the belief she would provide a more stable home life for them. When he admits this to Lee, Lee reveals that Carolanne was [[AlcoholicParent an alcoholic]] and abusive at least verbally if not physically, and notes she probably never loved Bill.
* AdaptationalJerkass: The infallible Adama of the original series Bill is not - he can be very blunt at his best and ruthless at his worst.
* AdaptationalWimp: In terms of authority, at least. Original series Adama led all of humanity, while this version only leads the military.
* AFatherToHisMen: His troops look up to him, and he cares deeply for them. Ironically, he was probably more distant with his son than the rest of the troops under his command at the beginning of the series.
* BeardOfSorrow: He's unshaven in "33" shortly after the destruction of the colonies.
* BecomingTheMask: A few episodes show him putting on the mask of being TheStoic has left him unable to take it off, and with difficulty expressing emotion.
* BigGood: Leader of the human military, though he shares this role with Laura Roslin who is leader of humanity as a whole.
* TheCaptain: And is later promoted to FourStarBadass.
* CatchPhrase: "Sometimes you gotta roll the hard six."
** ("...What does that mean, sir?" "[[LampshadeHanging I dunno, it's, it's something my dad says]].")
* ChekhovsGun: When shown shaving with his straight razor, Adama will always cut himself with it, symbolizing whatever turmoil he's feeling that episode.
* CommandingCoolness: To the awesome power.
* CombatPragmatist: "The Adama Manuever".
* CoolOldGuy: He gets along quite well with his younger crew, who affectionately refer to him as 'the old man'.
* CrazyJealousGuy: He gets rather jealous of how chummy [[Series/BattlestarGalactica1978 original series Adama]] gets with President Roslin in the non-canon crossover comic.
* CulturedBadass: Starts off every morning by reciting a poem.
* DeathGlare: A true master of this, also known as "The Adama Glare".
* EmbarrassingNickname: Like many callsigns, his began as one. Husker as in someone who husks corn. As a rookie, his co-pilot insisted on characterizing him as a "FarmBoy" even though he was from Caprica City and had never grown up on a farm.
* FisherKing: His deterioration in Season 4.5 eerily mirrors ''Galactica''[='=]s own.
* FourStarBadass: Gets promoted over the course of the series, leading to him attaining the rank of Rear Admiral.
%%* GuileHero
* HenpeckedHusband: He was this to his wife Carolanne, who spent her time verbally abusing him and generally turning his every action into another sign of his cruelty, out of love for her and because he genuinely thought she was right. Lee later expresses his own belief that she never actually loved Bill.
* HiddenDepths: "A Day in the Life" shows he's filled with guilt and self-loathing.
* [[LikeASonToMe Like A Daughter To Me]]: He repeatedly says this to Starbuck. He has the same feeling, to a somewhat lesser extent, for Boomer, which explains a lot of his interaction (good and bad) with her and Athena. Shows shades of this in Season 3 with Kat as she [[spoiler:is dying from radiation poisoning after saving a civilian transport]].
* MachineEmpathy: He seems to be able to feel when ''Galactica'' is hurting.
* ManlyTears: He has a full-blown breakdown when [[spoiler:Tigh reveals to him that he's a Cylon]]. He sheds these again in the finale when [[spoiler:Laura dies]].
* MightyGlacier: On the few times he's seen in action, he's generally capable of felling an opponent with a slow deliberate punch.
* PapaWolf: Very protective of his crew.
* ParentalSubstitute: For Starbuck.
* RankUp: Roslin formally promotes him to admiral following [[spoiler:Cain's demise]] in order to prevent control of the Fleet from falling in the hands of another officer again.
* ReassignedToAntarctica: How he ended up in command of the ''Galactica'' in the first place, after a mission [[spoiler:to spy on the Cylons]] aboard his previous command went horribly wrong. Court-martialing and discharging him would have publicly exposed the operation, so he was sent to serve on ''Galactica'' with the hope that he would take the hint and retire when the ship was decommissioned.
* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: A very intelligent and perceptive man who is also excellent at directing and managing people around the ship.
%%* ScaryShinyGlasses
* SpecsOfAwesome: His spectacles are used to emphasize his status as an aged, knowledgable veteran.
* TheStoic: Bill is almost always calm and collected in even the most dangerous situations. [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness Whenever he shows genuine emotion, it's a bad sign.]] [[Recap/BattlestarGalactica2003S03E15ADayInTheLife "A Day in the Life"]] shows that his status as this is due to him having genuine trouble with showing emotions to people.
* TeamDad: As you'd expect from a PapaWolf and AFatherToHisMen.
* WeddingRingRemoval: Despite their bitter divorce he continues to wear his ring from his marriage to Carolanne for the duration of the series. He finally removes it in the GrandFinale when [[spoiler:he places it on Laura's finger after she succumbs to her cancer]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder: President Roslin]]
!!Laura Roslin
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/TropeRoslin_6473.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''"One of the interesting things about being president is that you don't have to explain yourself to anyone."'']]
->'''Played By''': Creator/MaryMcDonnell

The Secretary of Education under President Richard Adar, Laura Roslin was attending the de-commissioning ceremony on ''Galactica'' when the Cylons attacked (as the ship was to be turned into a museum). [[UnexpectedSuccessor Forty-third in the line of succession]], she was sworn in as the lawful replacement President of the Twelve Colonies. Immediately, many cast doubt that a former schoolteacher could be president, especially under such dire circumstances, but Roslin handles the office with more aplomb than even her supporters could have expected.

* BaldnessMeansSickness: Laura eventually loses her hair due to cancer treatments. She usually wears a wig while in public and a scarf while in private or while exercising.
* BigGood: As President of the Twelve Colonies, she shares this role with Adama, who leads the military.
* CanonForeigner: She had no equivalent in the original series, where President Adar was succeeded as leader of the Colonials by Adama himself under martial law.
* DeadpanSnarker: Has a ''very'' sarcastic sense of humor.
* DeathByOriginStory: [[spoiler: Her father and two younger sisters died in a car accident. After grieving for several months, she agreed to become part of Adar's campaign for President as a way to move on]]. That tragedy set everything in motion for her eventual arrival on ''Galactica''.
* {{Determinator}}: She has her breakdowns and moments of despair, but Laura Roslin will ''never'' give up. Even when [[spoiler:she's practically bedridden and at death's door, she summons the strength (with the help of some injections) to join the mission to rescue Hera]].
* FieryRedhead: She is fierce and more than willing to talk back to anyone who questions her.
* GoOutWithASmile: In the GrandFinale, she [[spoiler:passes on peacefully flying in a Raptor over the lands of Earth with Bill by her side, getting to take in its beauty before fading away with a happy smile on her face]].
* HangingJudge: She really likes doing this early on, namely by [[ThrownOutTheAirlock hurling people out into the vacuum of space]].
* IronLady: She's far more stern than her opposition expected from a "kindergarten teacher".
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Roslin can be a downright ruthless pragmatist, but also has a strong empathetic side and is firmly dedicated to safeguarding the survival of mankind and reaching Earth.
* MosesArchetype: Roslin is the leader of her displaced people who, guided by divine visions, leads them to a promised land they can make a new home in. [[spoiler: She ultimately succeeds but tragically passes shortly after it's discovery, able to see the land but never being able to live there herself.]]
* PointyHairedBoss: Shows some signs of becoming this by early Season 4, by which point she openly regards the Quorum of Twelve as a nuisance rather than a body she's answerable to, passes laws without consulting the Quorum and is openly disdainful towards them whenever they question her decisions. Admittedly, it's somewhat understandable since, on top of all the usual stresses of her job, [[spoiler:her cancer has returned by this point]].
* OurPresidentsAreDifferent: She is definitely President Iron. When pushed too far, she becomes President Action. Her belief in the Pythian prophecies causes some to think of her as President Lunatic. [[spoiler: She crosses the line into President Scheming once by allowing her cabinet to fix an election. The plan falls through, however.]]
* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: For the most part, though she also proves herself to be disconcertingly manipulative as the series goes on.
* SecondLove: For Bill, who started out the series still hung up on his bad relationship with Carolanne.
* SecretlyDying: She initially hides that she has cancer from the vast majority of her citizens in order to keep some measure of stability and not have to burden the populace with yet another piece of bad news. She does [[spoiler:go into remission thanks to Hera Agathon's blood before it comes back]] and slowly gets worse over the course of the series before [[spoiler:it ultimately kills her.]]
* TeamMom: Spends a lot of her time as President trying to stop the constant infighting and backstabbing that's endemic among the survivors. She can be very stern - even ruthless - when necessary though.
%%* TookALevelInBadass
* TheTopicOfCancer: She has terminal breast cancer and receives her diagnosis just before the Cylon attack. She struggles with it throughout the course of the series and it doesn't pull punches about how brutal the illness and treatments are.
* TraumaCongaLine: The Pilot Miniseries timespan is a brutal period for her. First, she discovers she has cancer, then the Cylons launch their devastating attack which kills just about everyone she knew, and ''then'' she's thrust into the role of President. Really, it's no surprise that she's breaking down into tears while being sworn in as President.
* UnexpectedSuccessor: ''Forty-third'' in line, in fact. She was the Secretary of Education and was off-planet when the Cylons launched their attack, making her the only known member of the President's Cabinet to survive the genocide of the Twelve Colonies.
* {{Warhawk}}: Roslin's humble origins belie her ruthlessness, particularly in contrast to Adama. Between the two of them, she is more likely to resort to extreme measures, such as [[spoiler:advocating the assassination of Admiral Cain]] and [[spoiler:using biological weapons against the Cylons]].
* WellIntentionedExtremist: Has committed acts of terrorism, meddled with democratic elections, and had people executed in order to safeguard mankind's future.
* YourDaysAreNumbered: She has breast cancer and her deterioration is not pretty. She soldiers on regardless, even [[spoiler:joining the crew personally to help in rescuing Hera from the Cylons and ultimately passing on peacefully after getting to see the second Earth]].

[[folder: Starbuck]]
!!Lieutenant Kara Thrace (callsign: Starbuck)
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/TropeThrace_7567.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''"Pilots call me Starbuck, you may refer to me as God."'']]
->'''Played By''': Creator/KateeSackhoff

An excellent pilot considered the best shot and manueverer in the squadron, with a rebellious streak a mile wide. This makes her genuinely awesome, both in and out of the cockpit... though the show also deconstructs just what happens when you have a genuine MilitaryMaverick on your hands. [[spoiler:The Cylons, particularly Twos, claim that she has a "special destiny," and ultimately she uses MagicMusic to lead the fleet to Earth. ...After dying and being returned as some sort of AngelUnaware.]]

* AbusiveParents: She was raised by her mother, a divorced Colonial Marines NCO repeatedly rejected from officer training, who took out her frustrations on Kara by doing things like slamming the door on her fingers. In a somewhat unusual variation, rather than calling her useless or so on, Socrata Thrace believed Kara was special and criticized her for not living up to her full potential.
* AcePilot: One of the best on the show.
* ActionGirl: Since TheMainCharactersDoEverything, even though she's an AcePilot, she's also skilled as infantry/SWAT.
* TheAlcoholic: While she's a relatively high-functioning alcoholic as compared to Col. Tigh, she still drinks far more than is healthy and Katee Sackhoff herself once stated that Kara "drinks most of her calories".
* AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence: [[spoiler:Her ultimate fate.]]
* BackFromTheDead: Played with. [[spoiler:While the being that appeared at the end of Season 3 certainly believed herself to be Starbuck, it's hinted that she [[AmbiguousSituation may or may not be]] the original Kara, while definitely being an angelic entity sent by God to lead the Colonials to Earth-2 either way]].
* BlasphemousBoast: While training the new pilots in Season 1, she orders them to refer to her as "God" in order to intimidate them.
* BloodKnight: As evidenced by this quote:
-->"You know, everyone I know is fighting to get back what they had. I'm fighting because I don't know how to do anything else."
* BoomHeadshot: Shot the Raider she hijacked in Season 1 right in its bio-mechanical eye. [[ImprobableAimingSkills While both of them were flying in space.]]
* BoyishShortHair: Kara often wears her hair this way, most noticeably in the Miniseries and Season 1.
* BrokenAce: Even before the vast majority of the Colonial military was killed, she was one of their best pilots. However, she has stunted her own career by accumulating demerits from bad behavior, and is eventually revealed to have an extremely dark past and a lot of accompanying emotional baggage that causes her sanity and composure to begin to break down multiple times throughout the series.
* BrokenBird: Her dad left, her mom was an abusive hardass, and her fiancé died in a flight accident after she lied about his pilot test results - and that was all '''before''' the Cylons attacked. Her high amount of unprocessed trauma ends up pushing her into [[DeathSeeker risky or borderline suicidal behavior]] often enough that her extreme recklessness is a major part of her character, up until [[spoiler:she actually does die]]; when she returns, she is still somewhat unhinged for different reasons but puts herself at far less needless risk.
* CareerEndingInjury: Pre-series. Kara was on track to become a professional Pyramid player until a knee injury prematurely ended her career.
* CartwrightCurse: Zak ends up dead as a result of her passing him through a test he failed, while [[spoiler:Sam is first left behind on an irradiated Caprica]], then [[spoiler:later rendered brain-dead by a bullet to the head]]. At the very end, when it looks like she ''finally'' has the chance [[spoiler:to be with Lee, she disappears into thin air, leaving him behind]].
* CigarChomper: A rare female version.
* DaddysGirl: She was much closer to her pianist father Dreilide than her domineering mother Socrata, though [[DisappearedDad he later abandoned them]].
* DeathSeeker: A major recurring element of her character until the end of season 3, and comes into direct focus in the episodes "Scar" and "Maelstrom."
* FreudianExcuse: The constant physical abuse Kara suffered at the hands of her mother, coupled with her father's abandonment of her, goes a long way towards explaining why she's so dysfunctional as an adult.
* GenderFlip: Starbuck in [[Series/BattlestarGalactica1978 the original series]] was a man. Here, Starbuck is a woman.
* GoodBadGirl: Due to being a DistaffCounterpart to her womanizing namesake from the original series.
* HeroicBSOD: Goes through one [[spoiler:after realizing that she's not a mortal human anymore]].
* HiddenDepths: She's actually a pretty decent pianist. She learned how to play from her father before he left her, and she claims that the [[spoiler:[[ArcWords chorus to "All Along The Watchtower"]] is one of the few things that makes her happy]].
* InferioritySuperiorityComplex: For as much as she may bluster and arrogantly boast to her peers, she has severe self-loathing issues and views herself as unimportant.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: She's often rude, insensitive, hostile and insubordinate which can occasionally lead her into conflict with other officers onboard the ''Galactica'', particularly Col. Tigh. However, she is broadly well-intentioned and values human life, takes her job (as a pilot) seriously, is a genuinely good flight instructor, and can be kind and affectionate with people she cares about (such as Helo, one of her oldest friends in the Fleet, and Apollo).
* TheLadette: Drinks, chomps cigars, and generally acts like OneOfTheBoys.
* LadySwearsALot: Probably the most foul-mouthed character in the cast. Rarely goes an episode without uttering some form of profanity.
* MeaningfulName: Kara is the name of a Valkyrie in Norse mythology. Meanwhile, Thrace refers to a Celtic tribe living northeast of Greece during ancient history who known for being very warlike and were often employed as mercenaries, to the point where they were said to be descended from a son of Ares.
* MilitaryBrat: Kara's mother Socrata was in the military and she spent most of her childhood traveling from one colony to another.
* MsFanservice: Sometimes plays this role in the first couple of seasons due to her habit of lounging around in her underwear, although she's nowhere near as straight an example as Head Six.
* MyGreatestFailure: She blames herself for Zak's death.
* NotAfraidToDie: As shown in one of her earliest flashbacks in the finale, she has no fear of death. Her recklessness is sometimes framed more positively as part of what makes her seem [[CrazyIsCool effortlessly cool]] but ultimately it's a symptom of the deep feelings of worthlessness that were instilled in her by her mother, and begins edging toward DeathSeeker territory as her emotions become harder for her to manage.
* OurAngelsAreDifferent: [[spoiler:It appears that she was resurrected as an angel-like entity akin to Head-Six and Head-Baltar after her death, albeit one where ''everyone'' can see her]].
* PlatonicLifePartners: She and Helo have been close friends for a long time.
%%* PluckyGirl
* PsychoticSmirk: Katee Sackhoff has the most frighteningly ambiguous smile in science-fiction TV since Creator/PaulDarrow as Avon in ''Series/BlakesSeven'' (and uses in it rather similar circumstances).
* RankUp: To captain and CAG eventually.
* ReallyGetsAround: Sleeps with anyone she fancies, even after she's married to Sam. {{Deconstructed}} in that she apparently has a habit of using sex to self-sabotage, such as when her relationship with Lee starts to move toward romantic territory at the Colonial Day celebration but she then turns around and sleeps with Baltar instead, despite [[WrongNameOutburst very obviously still preferring Lee]]. When Lee later confronts her and asks for an explanation, she doesn't have one.
-->'''Lee''': Why'd you do it, Kara? Just tell me why.
-->'''Kara''': 'Cause I'm a screw-up, Lee, try and keep that in mind.
* ReligiousBruiser: Surprisingly, she's one of the most devoutly religious characters on the show (even more so than Roslin, who has religion as a central element of her character arc). Although she plays fast and loose with societal rules, Kara takes religious sacraments and the gods in general extremely seriously – hence why she is willing to cheat on her husband Sam with Lee, but balks when Lee suggests the possibility of divorcing Sam.
* ScrewYourself: Literally. She sleeps with [[Series/BattlestarGalactica1978 original series Starbuck]] in [[ComicBook/BattlestarGalacticaBSGVsBSG the crossover comic]].
* ShesBack: After spending the beginning of Season 4 steadily unraveling, [[spoiler:Sgt. Matthias]]'s death results in her snapping back to her tough-as-nails usual self.
* SheCleansUpNicely: Invoked by name in "Colonial Day", in fact.
* StarCrossedLovers: With Apollo.
* TeacherStudentRomance: She was Zak's flight instructor, girlfriend and eventual fiancée.
* TomatoInTheMirror: [[spoiler:She's understandably distraught upon learning that she's almost certainly not a human after being resurrected.]]
* WalkingSpoiler: [[spoiler:After being brought BackFromTheDead, she's actually an "angel" like Head-Six and Head-Baltar with the purpose of helping make sure everyone finds the new Earth.]]
* WrenchWench: Has a few moments, most notably when she somehow managed to get a Cylon Raider in working condition after being forced to eject from her Viper and landing on a nearby moon.

[[folder: Apollo]]
!!Captain Leland Joseph Adama (callsign: Apollo)
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/TropeLeland_3646.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''"I'm the coward. I'm the traitor. I'm forgiven."'']]
->'''Played By''': Creator/JamieBamber

The son of Bill Adama, from whom he is estranged due to the death of his younger brother Zak in a flight-related accident. Apollo's opinion is that Adama pressured Zak into becoming a pilot, which Zak was not cut out for; he blames his dad for his brother's death. He also takes after his grandfather ([[Series/{{Caprica}} lawyer Joseph Adama]]) in being rather more loyal to laws, rights and civil liberties than the uniform or any group of people. Ordered to ''Galactica'' at Bill's request to lead the ceremonial flyby for the decommissioning at the start of the series, Lee becomes the senior pilot (Commander of Air Group) after the previous CAG dies during one of the first engagements with the Cylons. [[spoiler:Eventually promoted to Commander, put in charge of the ''Pegasus'', and wed to Dee.]]

----
* TheAce: Lampshaded by his callsign, as Apollo is TheAce in this universe's pantheon.
* AdaptationalAngstUpgrade: Lee has a far rockier relationship with his father than the original series Apollo; when the series opens, they're outright estranged from one another.
* TheBigDamnKiss: During what he thinks may be his final goodbye to Starbuck in "Six of One."
* CallingTheOldManOut: Does this many times to his father Bill, for getting Zak killed trying to live up to his expectations and also for being absent through much of their childhood and leaving them with their mother Carolanne, who became [[AbusiveParents verbally abusive]] when she'd had too much to drink.
* CartwrightCurse: His pregnant girlfriend gets killed in the Cylon attacks, Starbuck gets married to Anders [[spoiler:right after finally admitting she loves him, and before eventually dying]], he has a rocky relationship with Dee before separating from her [[spoiler:and she commits suicide]]. Lee is not lucky in love.
* CommandingCoolness: Spends the first half of the series as ''Galactica''[='=]s CAG (Commander of Air Group).
* DidNotGetTheGirl: [[spoiler:In the GrandFinale, when it seems like he and Kara may finally be able to get together, she [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence vanishes.]]]]
* KnightInSourArmor: Lee has a pretty low opinion of many people, constantly calling them out for falling short of their ideals, and he's his own harshest critic on that. Still, he is also one of the few people in the series who will most reliably choose to do the right thing, no matter how many people he pisses off and no matter how badly he believes it will backfire on him.
* LivingEmotionalCrutch: To Kara, as he's almost always the one checking on her, [[TheConfidant helping her talk through her thoughts and feelings]], and [[WhatTheHellHero telling her off when she's being callous or putting herself or others at unnecessary risk]]. Notably, when she finds [[spoiler:her own corpse on the destroyed Earth]], the first thing she does is go to Lee to tell him about it.
* MeaningfulName: "Lee" is of Old English origin, and means "pasture" or "meadow." [[spoiler:Lee is the one who comes up with a "return-to-the-land" plan in the finale.]]
* MilitaryBrat: Comes with being Adama's son.
* MrFanservice: He's got a lot of shirtless scenes showing off his HeroicBuild.
* PlatonicLifePartners: With Starbuck, [[JustFriends or so]] [[UnresolvedSexualTension they claim]].
* RankUp: Initially to ''Galactica'' CAG, then XO [[spoiler: and later Commander of ''Pegasus'']], and [[spoiler: eventually Vice President of the Twelve Colonies]]
* TheReliableOne: Lee is a skilled pilot and natural-born leader and while he has his share of problems, he's definitely closer to having his shit together than his comrades (most notably Starbuck).
* SharpDressedMan: When he leaves the service and gets into politics.
* StarCrossedLovers: With Starbuck.
* StraightMan: He serves as something of a straight man for the entire crew.
* StrongFamilyResemblance: Is noted by Ellen Tigh to look a lot like his mother, Carolanne Adama.
* TheMainCharactersDoEverything: Lee is practically the embodiment of this trope. There are few military/leadership roles that he hadn't assumed or temporarily performed at one point or another during the show.
* WellDoneSonGuy: A major part of his interactions with his father.
* WillTheyOrWontThey: A solid three-and-a-bit season's worth with Starbuck, putting them at the center of a mad-crazy LoveDodecahedron (Starbuck loves both Lee and Anders; Lee loves both Starbuck and Dee; Dee loves both Lee and Billy).
* WouldHitAGirl: Is perfectly willing to strike back when Starbuck decks him.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Gaius Baltar]]
!!Dr Gaius Baltar
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/TropeBaltar_6376.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''"You have not heard the last! No more Mr. Nice Gaius!"'']]
->'''Played By''': Creator/JamesCallis

A genius scientist working on a new navicomputer program for the Colonial military, Baltar was unwittingly instrumental in the Cylon massacre: he was seduced by a Number Six who he believed worked for a competing defense contractor, and gave her access to the program, into which she inserted a virus which managed to disable most of the fleet. Surviving via luck and reputation, Baltar now has to negotiate the Fleet while keeping his betrayal secret. There's also the fact that he now holds conversations with his version of a [[GoodAngelBadAngel Shoulder Angel]], who takes the form of Six. [[spoiler:Becomes President on the platform of insisting that the fleet colonize a semi-habitable planet called New Caprica, which turns out to be a ''huge'' mistake]].

----
* AdaptationalAngstUpgrade: Unlike original series Baltar, he feels ''incredibly'' guilty about inadvertently selling humanity out to the Cylons.
* AdaptationalAttractiveness: In the original series, Baltar was an older man with the FaceOfAThug. The reimagined version borders on being a PrettyBoy.
* AdaptationalHeroism: In the original show, Count Baltar was TheHeavy for the Cylons and served as the ''de facto'' main antagonist for the show, was a deliberate traitor to the human race, and at times was arrogant enough to believe that the Cylons worked for ''him'' rather than the other way round. Here, Doctor Baltar is an AntiVillain at worst, was only tricked into helping the Cylons destroy the Colonies, and while definitely selfish, cowardly and an all-round {{Jerkass}}, he is never truly evil and (very) slowly undergoes CharacterDevelopment that sees him eventually become a more heroic person.
* AGodAmI: Has his moments.
* AmazonChaser: Head!Six says he has a thing for strong, powerful women, and over the course of the series, he sleeps with [[ActionGirl Kara]] and has an EroticDream about [[IronLady Roslin]].
* AntiHero: At his best of days.
* TheAtoner: He is trying to undo the damage he caused by letting Caprica-Six seduce him, though it's more out of self-preservation.
* BeardOfEvil: Doubles as BeardOfSorrow, and Beard Of Ineffectual Cowardice-- to cut it short, whenever Baltar [[ImportantHaircut changes his facial hair style]], major character development is inbound.
* BrilliantButLazy: He's one of the smartest men alive but would much rather spend his time sleeping around and smoking cigars.
* BunnyEarsLawyer: He's awkward, cowardly and talks to himself but is probably the smartest man left in the universe.
* ButtMonkey: Quite often.
%%* ByronicHero
* TheCaligula: During his Presidency of New Caprica he indulged in alcoholism, womanizing and wallowed in the incompetence of his subordinates while his people suffered and died. After the Cylons take over New Caprica and turn him into a puppet king, he winds up being the OnlySaneMan in the whole administration, because the Cylons are just ''that'' terrible at running a government.
* TheCasanova: It would be easier to count the women he ''hasn't'' slept with.
* CelebritySurvivor: Easily one of the most famous and recognizable figures to escape the Cylon holocaust (which is more than a little ironic, considering he's inadvertently responsible for it). Helo even gives up his seat on the Raptor for him because of his status as a renowned genius scientist, and he's elected as Caprica's delegate for the Quorum of Twelve ''without even having sought the position.''
* CharacterDevelopment: It's a slow and gradual process that is full of road bumps and a few backslides here and there, but over the course of the series, Gaius does learn to be more selfless (to the point of even being willing to sacrifice himself on a few occasions) and step up to the plate when duty calls.
* DeadpanSnarker: You couldn't go through everything he does without developing a sense of humor about it.
* DefiantToTheEnd: In the later seasons, Baltar develops the surprising tendency to do this, to the point of baiting Gaeta into trying to kill him due to his SanitySlippage.
* DirtyCoward: He takes crying, pleading for his life, and [[NeverMyFault refusal to take responsibility for himself]] to a whole new level. Though he [[CharacterDevelopment did get better]].
* EvenEvilHasStandards:
** It would be a ''real'' stretch to call him evil (though cowardly and narcissistic are very much fair descriptions). Still, he was absolutely horrified at Admiral Cain's appalling treatment of a Cylon prisoner.
** When Roslin asks him if he will be endorsing the increasingly popular Tom Zarek for the office of the Vice-Presidency, Baltar tells her, in a rare moment of sincerity, that he would never support someone politically who advocates violence as a means to get his message across.
* FreudianExcuse: It's implied that his [[ItsAllAboutMe ego]] and [[{{Jerkass}} personality]] stems from his [[InferioritySuperiorityComplex insecurities]] about being a native of Aerilon, which is widely regarded as a poor backwater place, and having to hide this fact after moving to Caprica so people would take him seriously.
* HandsomeLech: He attracts women fairly easily, but can be quite the perv.
* HappilyEverAfter: [[spoiler: The GrandFinale implies this of him and Caprica-Six.]]
* HeelRealization: At the beginning of Season 4, Baltar ''finally'' realized the severity of the consequences of his actions, and is overwhelmed with guilt. [[TakeMeInstead He even demands that God take his life instead of a young child,]] something that is usually unthinkable for Baltar to do. PlayedWith, as he then develops a messiah complex and starts backsliding into his old ways, then realizes what's happening, and finally decides to commit to a HeelFaceTurn and do good around the fleet, then backslides again, then has ''another'' HeelRealization.
* HeelFaceTurn: DoubleSubverted. Baltar initially seems to be faking it after he gets his own cult in Season 4, simply gratifying his own ego, but it's eventually revealed that Baltar is entirely genuine about it and is just trying to atone for his actions. By "Deadlock", he's developed into the only person keeping peace aboard the ship by helping out civilians and keeping riots from breaking out over [[spoiler:''Galactica'' becoming a blended ship of humans and Cylons]]. He then relapses back into selfishness in the next episode, only to have another HeelRealization in the GrandFinale and give up his cult, before remaining on ''Galactica'' for the FinalBattle against Cavil's forces.
* HiddenDepths:
** It becomes clearer as the series goes on that [[LadykillerInLove he really did genuinely love Caprica Six.]] For her part, [[InLoveWithTheMark it was mutual, even if she happened to be using him]].
** Tyrol at one point laughs when Baltar says in his autobiography that he was born on a farm on Aerilon, only for Baltar to get irritated and reveal that he ''was.'' He also reveals he worked to hide his native accent to make people think he was Caprican (which he points out was very difficult) because he feared nobody would take him seriously if they realized he was from a poor, 'backwards' world.
* HookersAndBlow: The Baltar administration was marked by its groundbreaking lap dance and pill-popping initiatives.
* IndyPloy: The first couple of seasons have him making things up off the cuff, like his Cylon screening technique. Later on, he bullshits an entire ''religion'' as he goes. Though amusingly, [[spoiler: he was actually spot on with his religion.]]
* InsufferableGenius: At times. He's a genius and doesn't mind reminding others.
* ItsAllAboutMe: Six is so impressed by his self-centeredness that she thinks it would be worth taking a copy of his brain for further study. He becomes less selfish as the series goes on, however.
--> '''Six''': Even as the fate of your entire species hangs in the balance, all you can think about is how this affects ''you.''
* ItsAllMyFault: When he admits to [[spoiler: Roslin,]] when it's just the two of them, while delirious, seriously injured, and high on morphine, that he unintentionally gave the Cylons access to the defense mainframe, and is therefore partially to blame for the Fall of the Twelve Colonies and absolutely everything that came after. He's practically on the verge of tears while saying this, and it's clear that he's never really forgiven himself for what part he played in the nuclear holocaust.
* JerkassHasAPoint: Baltar may be a power-hungry opportunist who didn't have the fleet's best interests in mind at the time, but he's not ''wrong'' when he chews out Roslin for conspiring with the military to steal a democratically-held election from him, particularly when she herself is a leader nobody elected to begin with.
** Baltar also makes good points later on in "Dirty Hands", when he draws attention to the fact that the Fleet is in danger of perpetuating the same kind of unjust socio-economic divide that permeated the Twelve Colonies (especially with 'dirty' jobs becoming lifelong or hereditary). His motives may or may not have pure but his own background - an Aerilon farmboy who made himself a celebrity-scientist on Caprica - means he might truly feel some empathy for the Fleet's working-class types, and even his opponents like Tyrol and Roslin eventually agree on this point at least.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Despite being an InsufferableGenius who was in part responsible for the near-annihilation of mankind, he's quite compassionate and emotional, firmly believing that war is not an excuse for inhumanity.
* LargeHam: He definitely has his moments, particularly in Season 4 whenever he starts making speeches to his followers.
* LooksLikeJesus: Grows out his hair and beard throughout Season 3 and preaches to his own band of followers in Season 4.
* TheMcCoy: He's probably the most emotional person in the series.
* MessianicArchetype: InUniverse, with him becoming the central figure of a cult in Season 4.
* MisplacedRetribution: He's on the receiving end of this following the Cylon occupation of New Caprica. Several people try to murder him over the crimes committed by the Cylons, which he, for all his faults, was not responsible for.
* MortonsFork: Lee Adama was right. Given the circumstances of the Cylon occupation of New Caprica, just what was Baltar supposed to have done?
* MrFanservice: Has several erotic sex scenes and [[SheCleansUpNicely cleans up nicely]].
* {{Narcissist}}: Although he gets better througout the series, he remains pretty self-absorbed. He starts off as an InsufferableGenius, not caring much about anyone but himself. He goes on to run for President of the Twelve Colonies pretty much for an ego trip. After having a crisis of guilt, he eventually discovers religion and quickly develops a Messianic complex.
* NeverMyFault: Adama believes this to be the case, flat-out saying that Baltar can never take responsibility for his actions because he will ''always'' see himself as the victim. The truth is more that he is in extreme denial.
* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: When the Cylons attempt to make him sign a death list during the New Caprica occupation, he flat-out refuses, even after Doral puts a gun to his head and makes it clear he will be killed if he doesn't sign it. Head Six only barely talks him into giving in and signing it, and it's pretty clear that the usually cowardly Baltar would have let himself be killed if it weren't for that.
* OmnidisciplinaryScientist: Since TheMainCharactersDoEverything, he's basically in charge of "science" on the ''Galactica'', including computer science, biology and nuclear physics. Well, there's a reason he was considered one of the greatest minds in the Colonies.
* OnlySaneMan: To the Cylon administration during the Cylon occupation of New Caprica. He's literally the only one who thinks that rounding people up and making death lists is a terrible idea, especially if the Cylons want to be accepted. They ignore him.
* PetTheDog: Praying to God to take his life instead of that of a kid and ''actually meaning'' it.
* PluckyComicRelief: His interactions with "Head Six" (aforementioned Shoulder Angel) are often in public and frequently PlayedForLaughs.
* TheQuisling: When the Cylons arrive on New Caprica he immediately surrenders to them. To be fair, and as Romo Lampkin later points out, the humans were totally defenseless and open resistance would have been met with destruction. Plus, to Baltar's credit, he did at least ''try'' to refuse signing an execution order for a group of prisoners that included Roslin and Zarek, and only did it because a Number Five literally held a gun to his head and threatened to shoot him.
* RageAgainstTheHeavens: In Season 4, after [[spoiler:Earth is discovered to be a nuclear wasteland]], Baltar goes into a public tirade against God for giving them false hope and all the suffering they were put through.
* ReallyGetsAround: Pre-series, he had numerous liaisons and during the course of the show. He's slept with at least Starbuck, Playa Palacios, Tracey Anne, several interns while he was president, and also seems to have a thing for Cylons, having been with D'Anna Biers, [[spoiler:Tory Foster]], and three different versions of Number Six (Caprica-Six, Gina Inviere, and Lida; and Shelly Godfrey apparently had a crush on him), four if you count Head-Six, as well as flirting with Boomer in Season 1.
* ReligiousRobot: Inverted; he's a human missionary spreading Cylon monotheism to the humans.
* SanitySlippage: In "Taking A Break From All Your Worries", his nightmarish interrogation manages to cause his already frayed sanity to deteriorate further, to the point of actually trying to bait Gaeta to kill him.
* TheScapegoat: For the Cylon occupation of New Caprica. While Baltar's initial presidency was terrible, throughout the Cylon occupation he was the OnlySaneMan in the administration and was forced into going along with the Cylons' plans, even secretly undermining them by allowing Gaeta to leak information to the resistance. Still, his lack of any public display of resistance to the occupation results in him being blamed for all of the suffering on New Caprica.
* SelfMadeMan: He was born to poor farmers on Aerilon (considered a backwater colony), moved to Caprica when he turned eighteen, and became one of the leading scientific minds of the century and, from the looks of his home at the start of the Miniseries, filthy rich. Whatever his flaws, Gaius did legitimately work his way to the top and earned his success.
* TheSmartGuy: Initially, he's pretty much the source of all scientific advancement aboard the ''Galactica'', and is also tasked with additional research and information gathering unrelated to his main focus of Cylon technology (such as when he calculates exactly how much food and water the fleet will need in order to survive). [[BunnyEarsLawyer He may have a lot of personal flaws]], but he can easily accomplish almost any intellectual task that's placed in front of him, and is clearly exactly as smart as he thinks he is.
* TookALevelInBadass: He steps up in later seasons until he's part of the ''Galactica'' defense team in the finale, repelling the Cylons with an assault rifle.
* TookALevelInKindness: After becoming a religious figure, Baltar does his best to invoke this because he genuinely wants to atone. He goes through some improvements and some backsliding, but ultimately makes it stick in the GrandFinale.
* VillainBall: A lot of the second half of the series plays out the way it does simply because Baltar is way too into himself to actually learn from his mistakes. Scheming and sleazing his way into the presidency by promising the desperate fleet he will settle New Caprica (which he seemingly does solely for power, as he admits in private that the planet is barely even habitable) sees [[spoiler: thousands of people killed, ''Pegasus'' destroyed, and ''Galactica'' damaged so badly she later has to be abandoned.]] He's also the one who (idiotically) gave the damaged and suicidal Gina '''a literal nuclear bomb''' only for her to use it and destroy several ships filled with civilians, which creates the radiation signature the Cylons eventually use to find the humans again in the first place. And he spends the entire New Caprica arc trying to act as TheMillstone to the Cylon occupation (with understandably mixed results).
* VillainProtagonist: Deconstructed - Baltar isn't evil, just selfish and cowardly (i.e., not a hero like most of the other cast).
[[/folder]]

!!Battlestar ''Galactica'' Military

[[folder: Colonel Tigh]]
!!Colonel Saul Tigh
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/TropeTigh_6490.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''"If the crew doesn't hate the XO, then he's not doing his job."'']]
->'''Played By''': Creator/MichaelHogan

After Bill Adama was mustered out from the first Cylon war and began serving on a commercial freighter, he met a fellow veteran named Saul Tigh, and the two formed a deep friendship. When reinstated, Adama pulled strings to have Tigh brought in as his second-in-command. Tigh is an [[TheAlcoholic alcoholic]] who is often OffTheWagon, and is probably the series' biggest bearer of FantasticRacism against the Cylons (with Starbuck as a close second). [[spoiler:How amusing, then, that he's one himself - To be more precise, he's one of the Final Five.]]

----
* AdaptationSpeciesChange: [[spoiler:The original series Tigh was human]].
* AdaptationalJerkass: A lot of characters are this compared to their original series counterparts, but Tigh is second only to Cain in this regard.
* AchillesInHisTent: After New Caprica, he becomes a drunk wreck for a while.
* TheAlcoholic: He puts the "fun" in "functional alcoholic." And his wife just makes him worse.
* AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther: Saul and Ellen ''very'' much have this dynamic.
* TheCaligula: During his brief stint as commander of the fleet, he is extremely harsh, violent, and unstable, partially because he has ''no idea'' how to handle the responsibility, partially because he's [[TheAlcoholic constantly drunk]], and partially because of [[EvilChancellor his scheming, psychotic wife]]. He's painfully aware of this and makes it clear the entire time that he really doesn't want his position.
* ColonelBadass: He's certainly competent, and he serves his role well.
* TheCreon: Takes command of the ''Galactica'' [[spoiler: only when Adama is shot]], and gives it back immediately as soon as possible. He never plots against Bill Adama for a second, even when he has serious issues with his commander's behavior. He even outright says that it was always supposed to be them leading together, not him leading alone.
* EyepatchOfPower: After he loses his eye on New Caprica.
* DeadpanSnarker: "The President, Gods bless her sunny optimistic soul, thinks you might want to share how your buddies have been tracking us. So I'm here to ask the question and listen to your lies."
* DudeWheresMyRespect: Part of the reason for him [[TookALevelInJerkass Taking A Level In Jerkass]] is his anger at much of ''[=Galactica's=]'' crew's lack of acknowledgement or gratitude of everything the Resistance did during the Cylon occupation. He also gives this to ''[=Galactica's=]'' crew himself, who put themselves at considerable risk in rescuing the people on New Caprica, with the entirety of the ''Galactica'' crew nearly dying and [[spoiler:the ''Pegasus'' being destroyed in the process.]]
* FakeGuestStar: Tigh is in all but four episodes of the show. The ''only'' characters to appear more frequently were Laura Roslin and Bill Adama.
* FakeMemories: [[spoiler:His own history prior to the First Cylon War was fabricated by John Cavil]].
* FantasticRacism: Seriously rivals Starbuck in terms of utter hatred for the Cylons.
* GoodIsNotNice: Led a vigilante group that executed Cylon collaborators.
* HeterosexualLifePartners: If he and Bill Adama don't embody this trope, we don't know who does.
* HumbleHero / ThinkNothingOfIt: He's not very good at accepting gratitude, even from Adama himself. Whenever someone offers thanks or admiration, Saul just awkwardly states that he's only doing his job.
* IDidWhatIHadToDo: The New Caprica arc.
* {{Jerkass}}: At times it can be really hard to sympathize with Saul.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: But he's still a good man at heart.
* JerkassHasAPoint: After the Cylons attack, he tells Boomer he was aware of her relationship with Tyrol, but let it slide because ''Galactica'' was in the process of being decommissioned and things were therefore MildlyMilitary at the time, anyways. He then tells her things have changed since then and orders her to break it off, as an officer and the ship's senior NCO being in a relationship together is just a flat out bad idea.
* TheLancer: To Bill, but is a deconstruction. He is awesome as a second in command, but almost no one (most of all him,) ever wants him to be the number one of the fleet's command. He excels at being Bill's number two, but is completely useless in any other capacity, proving politically inept at running the fleet when Adama is shot but brilliant and decisive when the Galactica is boarded by the enemy. This is inverted though, when he redeems himself by effectively leading the New Caprican resistance, even if his tactics are... [[GreyandGrayMorality somewhat suspect.]]
* ManlyTears: Most notably, when he [[spoiler: killed his wife]].
* MeaningfulName: The Biblical Saul lost his sight on the road to Damascus, only regaining it when he stopped persecuting the monotheistic Christians. Saul Tigh [[spoiler:had his eye plucked out by Cavil as punishment for his guerrilla war against the monotheistic Cylons.]]
* NumberTwo: To Adama.
* PickYourHumanHalf: [[spoiler:Deconstructed, in a sense at least, after he learns that he's a Cylon. Unlike Tyrol and the other Final Five, who learn to be more accepting of being Cylons, Saul never really embraces that part of his nature. As such, Saul isn't able to access the special Cylon abilities that they can and this puts him at a disadvantage when the Fleet forms an EnemyMine with the rebel Cylons in Season 4]].
* RaceLift: Original series Tigh was black. Saul is white.
* ReallySevenHundredYearsOld: [[spoiler:Like the other members of the Final Five, he is technically well over two millennia old]].
* ReincarnationRomance: He and Ellen [[spoiler:were married originally too, and somehow found each other again after Cavil wiped their memories]].
* ThenLetMeBeEvil: While by no means evil, during the New Caprica arc, after being told that a suicide bombing would make the Resistance no better than the Cylons, he simply shrugs and proclaims, somewhat sarcastically, "Which side are we on? We're on the side of the demons, Chief. We are evil men in the gardens of paradise, sent by the forces of death to spread devastation and destruction wherever we go. I'm surprised you didn't know that."
* TookALevelInJerkass: After being tortured by the Cylons, Tigh becomes even more of a {{Jerkass}}, committing countless morally questionable acts and repeatedly decreasing morale and insulting Adama and his command.
* ToxicFriendInfluence: He's kind of hell on Bill's sanity, though he really doesn't ''mean'' most of it.
* UndyingLoyalty: To Adama; case-in-point, after [[spoiler:Bill is shot by Boomer]], Tigh takes command of the fleet and begins to behave in a increasingly dictatorial fashion, but as soon as [[spoiler:Adama recovers]], Tigh ''immediately'' cedes command back to him.
* WalkingSpoiler: [[spoiler:He's a Cylon, and one of the Final Five.]]
* YouAreWhatYouHate: [[spoiler:Hates the Cylons far more than almost anyone else in the Fleet, and is understandably infuriated when it turns out that he's one of the Final Five.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Chief Tyrol]]
!!Senior Chief Petty Officer Galen Tyrol
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/TropeTyrol_2574.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''"All I know is if there is a God, he's laughing his ass off."'']]
->'''Played By''': Creator/AaronDouglas

SCPO Tyrol is in charge of keeping ''Galactica'''s birds flying. He's very much an everyman in his approach to things, and often finds himself in positions of being the OnlySaneMan. He was carrying on with Boomer for a while. [[spoiler: He's also one of the Final Five and a Cylon]].

----
* AFatherToHisMen: He cares about his deckhands, and when some had to be sacrificed to put out a fire, he carried bitterness about it for a few episodes. He really loses his cool when one of his deckhands deliberately ruins his own career (by lying under oath and later claiming responsibility for a security breach he had nothing to do with) to cover for Tyrol's illicit relationship with Boomer. This finally causes him to break up with her for good:
--> '''[=Tyrol=]:''' I put everything on the line for you. Everything. I cover for you, I protect you. I risk my career, my freedom, my integrity, for what? So some innocent kid, one of ''my kids'', can take the fall for ''me''? '''NO!''' We are not worth ''that''.
* TheAloner: [[spoiler:In the series finale he decides he's had enough of both humans ''and'' Cylons. When the survivors settle on Earth he heads out on his own, telling the Tighs he wants to be as far away from ''everyone'' as he can get. It's implied that he ends up in what will become Scotland.]]
* AscendedExtra: Tyrol was originally intended as a FlatCharacter, expanding primarily due to Aaron Douglas's ability to [[ThrowItIn throw in]] dialogue, character names and other useful touches.
* AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther: [[spoiler:If there was any doubt that Galen really did care for Cally, then his Cylonicidal fury upon learning that Tory murdered her put it to rest]].
* ButtMonkey: Things go poorly for him, starting with his girlfriend being a Cylon.
* CallToAgriculture: Rather ironically for a mechanic, [[spoiler:it's mentioned that he takes to the Fleet's decision to LetThePastBurn on Earth-2 quite well since he wants to put as ''far'' of a distance possible between himself and his past]].
* CartwrightCurse: He is just ''not'' lucky in love.
* DespairEventHorizon: Seems to have fully crossed this by the time of the SeriesFinale.
* FakeGuestStar: Like Tigh and Helo, he's there from beginning to end, and missed only 7 episodes over the show's run.
* HotBlooded: Especially on New Caprica, where his speech to the people was modeled after real life labor speeches.
* ImportantHaircut: Shaves his head during the fourth series [[spoiler: while in mourning after Cally's death.]]
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Tyrol can be a real hardass, but he's overall quite considerate and has a strong sense of honor and loyalty.
* NumberTwo: As the highest-ranking NCO in the fleet, Tyrol has aspects of this.
* PickYourHumanHalf: Inverted. [[spoiler:Tyrol is by far the most accepting among the Final Five of their true Cylon nature, which lets him gain more access to their abilities such as SuperStrength, MadeOfIron, and being able to hack into networked computers]].
* MrFixit: Chief mechanic.
* ReallySevenHundredYearsOld: [[spoiler:Like the other members of the Final Five, he is technically well over two millennia old]].
* ReincarnationRomance: Inverted. [[spoiler:He previously had a relationship with Tory Foster on Earth-1, but he ultimately ''strangles her to death'' after he learns that she killed his current wife Cally]].
* StoicSpectacles: [[spoiler:In his original life.]]
* TookALevelInJerkass: Not surprising, given the TraumaCongaLine he went through.
* TraumaCongaLine: In a very short amount of time, he finds out [[spoiler:he's a Cylon, his wife apparently commits suicide over it, he finds out that his baby isn't even his, and then he learns a former lover actually killed his wife. And then he ruins the Cylon-Human alliance by reacting to that information]].
* WalkingSpoiler: [[spoiler:He's a Cylon, and one of the Final Five.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Helo]]
!!Lieutenant Karl C. Agathon (callsign: Helo)
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/TropeAgathon_1332.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''"Symbols matter. Uniforms, flags, banners - even mascots. They're like pieces of your heart that you can see."'']]
->'''Played By''': Creator/TahmohPenikett

A GuyInBack in a Colonial Raptor, flying under Sharon "Boomer" Valerii, whom he [[AllLoveIsUnrequited kind of has a thing for]]. During the pilot miniseries, their ship lands on Caprica and Helo abandons his copilot seat to save Gaius Baltar. That was meant to be the end of this MauveShirt, but fan reaction to him was so positive that [[WordOfGod RDM and David Eick]] decided to keep following his adventures, which involve being rescued by another Sharon copy. [[spoiler:With her, he becomes the father of "Hera," the first human-Cylon hybrid; he also serves as Adama's NumberTwo while Tigh is stuck on New Caprica.]]

----
* AscendedExtra: He was supposed to be written out at the end of the Miniseries.
* BewareTheNiceOnes: He does kill a man for trying to rape his wife.[[note]]He didn't intend to actually kill the man in question, just beat seven shades out of him[[/note]]
* FakeGuestStar: Appears in the PilotEpisode, the GrandFinale, and all but eight episodes in between. For the record, starring actress Grace Park missed the same number.
* TheFettered: He has issues, but they make him among the most normal in the cast.
* HappilyMarried: After her HeelFaceTurn, he and Athena come to have perhaps the most stable relationship on the whole show.
* HeroicSacrifice: What he ''intended'' by giving up his seat on the Raptor to Baltar (he thought that a genius scientist was more valuable to human survival than a pilot). Of course, he survived.
* HeterosexualLifePartners: Has shades of this with Lee.
* HonorBeforeReason: Like Lee, he can always be counted on to do the right thing, but with more of a focus on people than the state of Colonial law and democracy, nor is he as willing to cross certain lines, such as when Lee advocates using a virus to wipe out the Cylons and Helo not only argues against it but sabotages the effort.
* KnightInShiningArmor: Not quite as much as Lee though.
* MeaningfulName: His last name means "good", "noble", and various other meanings of one's better nature. He's one of the least morally corrupted people out of the entire series' cast of characters.
** It's unclear what the meaning of his callsign is. It could stand for "Helios", the god of the sun, or be a reference to military slang in which a "helo" is a helicopter and a "boomer" is a submarine.
* MrFanservice: Has an erotic sex scene with Athena in Season 1 and also has a HeroicBuild. InUniverse, Number Six comments on his attractiveness to Athena, who pretends to be blasé, and Racetrack suggests using him for some R&R.
* MysteriousMiddleInitial: It's never revealed what the "C." in "Karl C. Agathon" stands for.
* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: He's much more often called "Helo" than "Karl". In fact, when a character does call him "Karl", it usually means the situation is serious.
* NiceGuy: One of very, very few in the show.
* PapaWolf: Especially to Hera. When a dying Roslin tries to order the termination of Sharon's pregnancy Helo nearly pulls his sidearm on Adama to try and get the old man to back down.
* PlatonicLifePartners: With Starbuck; notably, despite how she ReallyGetsAround. Though the actress said there may or may not have been a one-night stand at some point in the past. They've been close friends for a long time.
* ReallyGetsAround: Implied in the Miniseries when he says he was on Gemenon visiting a girl he knew, and Boomer says, "What girl don't you know?" A bit of EarlyInstallmentWeirdness because this characterization never comes up again, but after all, he does spend the rest of the series in a committed relationship with Athena, so it wouldn't. (And he wasn't originally intended to survive when the Miniseries was written.)
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Gaeta]]
!!Lieutenant Felix Gaeta
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/TropeGaeta_1112.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''"I started this, and I'll see it through! Now get on that frakking ship!"'']]
->'''Played By''': Creator/AlessandroJuliani

First appearing as a CIC watch officer, he eventually gets assigned to Dr. Baltar as a personal aide. He's an idealist--which is a bad thing to be in ''Galactica'''s WorldHalfEmpty; losing his leg in Season 4 is only one link in a "BreakTheCutie" chain. [[spoiler:Eventually leads a mutiny with Tom Zarek, which fails.]]

----
* AcheyScars: He has constant phantom limb pains after losing his leg.
* ALighterShadeOfBlack: It's made explicitly clear that between [[spoiler:him and Zarek during their mutiny, Gaeta is the one with sincere motives while Zarek is in it for the power]].
* AnArmAndALeg: He loses his left leg below the knee in "Faith" when [[spoiler:Sam shoots him to keep the others from forcibly arresting Kara]] and the resulting wound gets infected.
* BerserkButton: Immediately snaps and tries to stab Baltar in the neck with a pen when Baltar [[SilentWhisper whispers something in his ear]] during an attempted interrogation. It's revealed in the webisodes that this was a mention of the Eight whom Felix knew on New Caprica, and that his over-the-top response was produced by a combination of [[IrrationalHatred blaming Baltar]] [[TheScapegoat for everything that happened on New Caprica]] and an [[SelectiveObliviousness extreme subconscious resistance to examining the situation with the Eight too closely]] (because he knows deep down that [[spoiler:she was lying to him the entire time and he inadvertently caused the deaths of almost everyone that he tried to save]]).
* BreakTheCutie: Idolizes Baltar, only to be disillusioned when the latter becomes an ineffectual, hedonistic President. He then secretly provides information to LaResistance, only to be ostracized for his role in Baltar's administration and almost executed by a secret vigilante court. And then he later discovers his Cylon girlfriend on New Caprica was using him to identify members of LaResistance so they could be executed. And ''then'' he loses his leg due to an infected wound caused by a gunshot (and not one fired by the enemy, either). And after that, he [[BrokenPedestal loses all faith in Commander Adama]] after he makes an alliance with the rebel Cylons. He then [[spoiler:launches a coup, only for it to go badly wrong, resulting in several people getting needlessly killed, and ending with him being executed]].
* BrokenPedestal: Suffers this with Baltar and Adama at different points.
* ButNotTooBi: He is canonically bisexual and has had relationships with men and women at different times, but neither of these relationships gets any screen time in the show proper (they are explored in the show's webisodes). The only hint of his sexuality in the main story is his implied crush on Gaius. (Incidentally, [[CartwrightCurse no prizes for guessing how all three of these relationships ended.]])
* TheCastShowOff: [[invoked]] After the producers discovered that Alessandro Juliani is a fully-trained and highly-regarded operatic baritone, they found a reason for him to sing. Although it's actually [[TearJerker quite sad]] when it happens in the series proper.
* DatingCatwoman: Had a romantic relationship with an Eight while on New Caprica with whom he was working to get humans out of detention and to safety. {{Deconstructed}} in that it turned out [[spoiler:she was mostly just using the lists he gave her of people to save as death lists, and she was staggered by [[LoveMakesYouDumb just how easy it was to deceive him]], specifically blaming his [[SillyRabbitIdealismIsForKids gentle, idealistic nature and his desperation to have faith in something]]]]. This culminates in Felix [[DespairEventHorizon finally reaching his breaking point]] and deciding that humans collaborating with Cylons is unsustainable.
* DeadpanSnarker: Particularly after losing his leg in Season 4.
* FaceDeathWithDignity: His stoicism in the face of [[spoiler:his own impending execution is inspiring and heartbreaking in equal measure]].
* FaceHeelTurn: [[spoiler:Joins Zarek and instigates a mutiny in the final season]].
* GameChanger: Zarek was never able to take power (despite being legitimately elected) because he never had the support of the military. Gaeta ends up being the one to provide that support.
%%* HollywoodAtheist: Averted.
* HypercompetentSidekick: During President Baltar's reign, which unfortunately makes him the fall guy for the later Cylon occupation.
* IronicName: His first name means "happy" or "lucky". Poor Gaeta goes through a hefty TraumaCongaLine leading up to his FaceHeelTurn.
* KickTheDog: Lies under oath to get Baltar executed by claiming he signed a mass-execution order with no resistance or protest, when in fact he was not present to witness Baltar doing any such thing. (In actuality, the normally cowardly and self-serving Baltar ''outright refused'' to sign the order, and only did so after the Cylons literally put a gun to his head and forced him to; Felix assumes that he made no attempt at resistance because he was [[HeroicBSOD unresponsive]] when confronted with the death list later, and doesn't really care what the truth is because he considers Gaius guilty either way.)
* MeaningfulName: He shares his last name with that of the city where the King of Naples was forced to capitulate during the War for Italian Unification, which made it the second-to-last independent city to fall before Italy was unified under one flag. As it would later turn out, [[spoiler:TheMutiny he instigates is the second-to-last conflict in the series (with that arc being followed up by the Battle of the Colony in the SeriesFinale) prior to the melding of the surviving Cylon models, Colonial-humans, and second-Earth-humans under one hybrid species]].
* MrFixit: A technological version. If the computers on board Galatica need fixing, Gaeta's usually the one to do it.
* NiceGuy: Until he loses his leg, after which point he [[TookALevelInJerkass becomes much more bitter and harsh]] except toward close friends like Dualla.
* OddFriendship: Formed one with Gaius Baltar early on in Season 1, though it sadly gets torpedoed after the New Caprica occupation in Season 3.
* OhCrap: [[spoiler:After Zarek [[KickTheDog executes the Quorom of Twelve]], he's quietly horrified as he realizes that Zarek doesn't care at ''all'' for Gaeta's legitimately positive intentions regarding the mutiny and [[NotSoWellIntentionedExtremist is only in it for the power]]]].
* RuleOfSymbolism: [[spoiler:His prosthetic limb only stops itching just when he decides to FaceDeathWithDignity and has accepted what he's done]].
* SlowlySlippingIntoEvil: Gaeta is gradually [[BreakTheCutie broken]] by a massive TraumaCongaLine and becomes increasingly bitter as a result, which culminates in him snapping and coming to believe [[spoiler:leading a mutiny against Adama when he forms an alliance with the Cylons]] is the better way to ensure humanity's survival.
* TheStoic: Keeps a cool head under almost any situation, which is frankly a bit of a requirement for someone in his position.
%%* TragicHero
* ThoseTwoGuys: With Dualla in a number of deleted scenes.
* TraumaCongaLine: After Baltar (whom he greatly admires and becomes fast friends with) disappoints him by becoming TheCaligula as President and failing to resist the Cylon occupation, he is nearly executed by his shipmates after being falsely accused of being a traitor, accidentally loses his leg to [[spoiler:friendly fire from Anders after a standoff between Starbuck and Helo]], witnesses his closest friend's death by suicide, learns that he was unknowingly complicit in the deaths of a number of people on New Caprica due to trusting the wrong person, ''and'' Adama finally "betrays" him by allying with a rebel faction of Cylons (who, despite their change in allegiances, were still responsible for the near-genocide of the human race in the first place and, on a more personal level, actively pushed him to his DespairEventHorizon), [[BreakTheCutie Gaeta finally snaps]] and turns against his former comrades, staging a ''coup d'état'' with Zarek.
* WellIntentionedExtremist: [[spoiler:When he leads a mutiny]], he's doing it for what he sees as the greater good.
* WhatTheHellHero: His KangarooCourt of his commander is basically Gaeta trying to force Adama to acknowledge [[BreakTheCutie what he put Gaeta through]]. Adama contemptuously refuses to play along [[JerkassHasAPoint as it's a show trial being conducted by a military coup]], while Zarek is [[WhyDontYouJustShootHim unable to convince Gaeta]] they need to concentrate on more pragmatic issues.
* WideEyedIdealist: Starts off as one, only to go through the emotional and physical wringer before ultimately snapping.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Dualla]]
!!Petty Officer Anastasia 'Dee' Dualla
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/TropeDualla_8713.jpg]]
->'''Played By''': Creator/KandyseMcClure

A member of Galactica's crew who first appears as a Petty Officer manning the communications panel in ''Galactica'''s CIC in the Miniseries. Gets an officer's commission sometime between Seasons 2 and 3. [[spoiler:Tragically and suddenly dies by suicide midway through season 4 after seeing the destroyed Earth and experiencing a DespairEventHorizon.]]

----
* AllLoveIsUnrequited: Downplayed. Both she and Lee do genuinely love each other, but the sad fact is that Lee still ultimately loves Kara more.
* AscendedExtra: Gets more and more screentime as the series goes on.
* BetaCouple: With Billy in season 1, although she ends up leaving him for Lee.
* BewareTheNiceOnes: Normally has a very sweet disposition, but doesn't even bother trying to be nice to Kara after she and Lee begin having a very obvious and borderline-public affair that humiliates both Dee and Sam. Like Lee, she also has a bit of a hidden propensity for taking [[WellIntentionedExtremist mutinous or highly illegal actions]] when she thinks it's necessary, such as when she assists in Roslin's escape into the Fleet after the martial law declaration or helps Tigh rig the election in Roslin's favor to prevent Baltar from winning.
* BridgeBunnies: Her and Gaeta's place in the [=CIC=].
* CommunicationsOfficer: Her main job. She is later succeeded in this position by Hoshi after [[spoiler:her death]].
* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler:After seeing the ruined Earth, she hits the DespairEventHorizon, and ends up dying by suicide]].
* GoOutWithASmile: An extremely dark example. [[spoiler:A brief HopeSpot after her date with Lee implies that the two seem to be successfully reconnecting and that Dualla may be recovering from her extreme despair after witnessing the destroyed Earth, but only moments afterward Dualla chooses to end her own life while she is still experiencing what she believes is her final moment of happiness]].
* HeroicBSOD: When she's [[spoiler:DrivenToSuicide]].
* MissionControl: Along with CommunicationsOfficer, part of her job. She's the voice that relays between the pilots and ''Galactica''.
* RankUp: Has become a commissioned officer during the stay on New Caprica.
* RedHerring: [[spoiler:Her first name, Anastasia, means "resurrection", suggesting that she might be a Cylon and come back after her death... but she's not, and ends up getting KilledOffForReal]].
* RomanticRunnerUp: For Apollo. It becomes especially tragic during their marriage, as both characters are aware of this issue but still can't help but play into it.
* ThoseTwoGuys: With Gaeta in several deleted scenes.
* WorkoutFanservice: Engages in some with Apollo in the second half of Season 2 as part of their ShipTease.
* YourTerroristsAreOurFreedomFighters: Discussed; both she and Tom Zarek are from Sagittaron, but she is disgusted by the support he gets and considers his actions to be unjustifiable (even if it was supposedly in the name of their planet's freedom).
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Cally]]
!!Specialist Callandra "Cally" Henderson [[spoiler:Tyrol]]
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ae2153ef_2250_40ac_b1ab_a5e3f1dc2cfd.jpeg]]
->'''Played By''': Creator/NickiClyne

->''"I just joined to pay for dental school."''

An enlisted deckhand serving ''Galactica'''s flight wing, Cally is known for a few things: having [[NoNameGiven only one name for two seasons (her full name wasn't given until her funeral!);]] being a PluckyGirl, and [[AllLoveIsUnrequited having a thing for Chief Galen Tyrol]]. [[spoiler:Marries the Chief during the New Caprica year and becomes pregnant with a son, Nicholas; is then executed by Tory Foster after she (Cally) stumbles upon the secret of the Final Five]].

----
* AscendedExtra: Just a member of the crew in the flight wing, but becomes a fairly major character.
* AttemptedRape: One of Zarek's flunkies tries to rape her in "Bastille Day" and she [[ManBitesMan bites his ear off]] to defend herself.
* BreakTheCutie: Bad things happen to her over the course of the series.
* EveryoneHasStandards: She might've [[spoiler:assassinated ''Galactica''-Sharon]] and shows a lot of FantasticRacism towards Cylons, but she and the rest of the pit crew for ''Galactica'' are still visibly horrified when the crew of ''Pegasus'' brag about making a regular pastime out of [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil the gang-rape and torture of their Cylon prisoner Gina]].
* GoMadFromTheRevelation: After learning [[spoiler:Tyrol is a Cylon, she sort of... snaps]].
* InterruptedSuicide: After learning [[spoiler:Galen is a Cylon, she considers suicide ([[MurderSuicide taking her baby with her]]). Tory talks her out of it... just to make sure that the baby is safe, and ''then'' kills her anyway]].
* KilledToUpholdTheMasquerade: [[spoiler:After Cally finds out that Tyrol, Tigh and Tory are Cylons and attempts to commit MurderSuicide with baby Nicky, Tory talks her down... long enough to save the baby, and then airlocks Cally herself to preserve their cover. Chief Tyrol is enraged when he finally finds out and gives Tory a NeckSnap]].
* LoveMartyr: Stayed loyal to the Chief even after he unwittingly beat her when she roused him while he was suffering from night terrors near the end of Season 2. Cally later lampshades this in Season 4 while talking to Cottle. However, she herself doesn't exactly treat him much better either.
* MamasBabyPapasMaybe: [[spoiler:Turns out in Season 4 that she slept with Hot Dog, making him, not Galen, Nicky's father]].
* OnlyOneName: Up until her full name was revealed to be "Callandra Henderson", she was only known as "Cally". This led to some EarlyInstallmentWeirdness when a lot of supplementary materials from early on in the show's run gave her full name out as "Jane Cally".
* PluckyGirl: Her early characterization.
* RedHerring: [[spoiler:Little Nicky was believed for quite a while to be another supposedly-impossible human-Cylon hybrid. Then it was revealed that, sometime before her wedding, Cally slept with Hot Dog]].
* SacrificialLion: [[spoiler:She's killed by Tory early on in Season 4 to establish that now more than ever AnyoneCanDie.]]
* SanitySlippage: Upon finding out the truth about Tyrol, she snaps and [[spoiler:tries to kill herself and her baby before being talked down by Tory... who [[KickTheDog kills her immediately after she hands over the baby]].]]
* ThrownOutTheAirlock: [[spoiler:How Tory Foster kills her]].
* WrenchWench: Her role on the ''Galactica''.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Doc Cottle]]
!!Major [[spoiler:Sherman]] "Doc" Cottle
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/f2920605_ae3a_4f6b_8517_a645e2eb7ba9.jpeg]]
->'''Played By''': Creator/DonnellyRhodes

A grumpy Major and the fleet's leading medic, he serves on ''Galactica'' and lectures his patients [[HypocriticalHumor in between drags from a cigarette]]. His first name, [[spoiler: Sherman]], was [[NoNameGiven only revealed during the series finale.]]

----
* AscendedExtra: Was just a medic, but wound up playing a significant role in a few episodes. A young Cottle also appears as a recurring character in the PC game ''VideoGame/BattlestarGalacticaDeadlock'' (set forty years prior), when he leaves ''Galactica'' claiming that he'll never set foot on the ship again.
* CantKillYouStillNeedYou: A heroic variation on the trope; Cottle volunteers to take part in the Battle of the Colony in the SeriesFinale but Adama forbids him from coming along, assigning Cottle to safely stay behind with the Fleet because his medical expertise is too valuable to lose.
* CoolOldGuy: One of the oldest members of Galactica's crew and no less awesome for it. Grumpy, sarcastic and one of the few people who can withstand Adama's trademark DeathGlare.
* DeadpanSnarker: Quite possibly ''the'' snarkiest character in the series.
-->'''Cally:''' What if you gave me a sedative and I just slept here?\\
'''Cottle:''' Oh, sure. We'll just turn my sickbay into an opium den so you can have a little snooze.
-->''(And in another episode:)''
-->'''Roslin:''' Doctor, I need your help, but it's illegal, dangerous, and a violation of your oath as an officer.\\
'''Cottle:''' ''({{Beat}})'' You're a lousy salesman.
* DrJerk: He's grumpy and abrasive towards his patients and openly smokes on the job. He gets away with it because he's actually very good at his job, doesn't mean anything by his sarcasm, and is also one of the few trained doctors left.
* HypocriticalHumor: Lightly scolds Roslin for waiting so long to get checked for breast cancer while he's almost constantly smoking.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: For all his grouchiness, he's completely committed to his job and will treat anyone, human and Cylon alike. When Roslin's cancer reaches its terminal stages, he's visibly upset about not being able to help her anymore and she has to tell him to resume his gruff facade. He's also absolutely '''revolted''' by the crew of the ''Pegasus'' having raped the Cylon Gina multiple times and states that Athena's near-rape by Lt. Thorne was "unforgiveable".
* TheMedic: He's the ship's resident physician and probably one of the only surviving humans with any sort of significant medical training.
* MustHaveNicotine: Is rarely seen without a cigarette hanging in his mouth.
* NoNameGiven: His first name is only given in the finale.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Hot Dog]]
!!Lieutenant JG Brendan Costanza (callsign: Hot Dog)
->'''Played By''': Creator/BodieOlmos

From the first class of rookie pilots trained by Starbuck on ''Galactica'' along with Kat and Chuckles, Hot Dog evidently flunked out of naval academy before the Destruction of the Twelve Colonies. He survives the entire series, eventually maturing into one of ''Galactica'''s best and most mature pilots. He's also the RealLife Apollo, as he is played by Bodie Olmos, EJO's son.

----
* AscendedExtra: Originally just "new meat" but he winds up an important part of the ''Galactica''[='=]s defense.
* EmbarrassingNickname: He was explicitly given his callsign as a punishment.
* InstantExpert: Presumably from offscreen training, we don't really see his skills develop.
* NewMeat: How he's introduced.
* TookALevelInBadass: Went from NewMeat to a skilled pilot. [[spoiler:He's the only one of his group of "Nuggets" still alive by the series finale, by which point he's one of ''Galactica'''s most skilled pilots.]]
** In-Universe, Apollo acknowledges him taking a level when he takes his own wings and presents them to Hot Dog, telling him "I think you earned these today" because Hot Dog was still a "nugget" trainee and refused to leave Starbuck by herself when Raiders showed up during a training session.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Anders]]
!!Ensign Samuel T. Anders (callsign: Longshot)
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/TropeAnders_4232.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''"Lighten up a little bit. It's only the end of the world."'']]
->'''Played By''': Creator/MichaelTrucco

An athlete on pre-Fall Caprica, the captain and star player of the Pyramid team Caprica Buccaneers, Anders turned his team into a resistance unit after the fall of the Colonies. He was stumbled upon by Kara Thrace and Karl Agathon while the two were trying to get off-planet, and eventually rescued late in Season 2. He becomes a major figure in the resistance on New Caprica, not to mention Starbuck's husband. Oh, and [[spoiler:he's a Cylon and one of the Final Five]].

----
* AcademicAthlete: Anders is a star Pyramid player and [[spoiler:like the rest of the Final Five, was a research scientist in his original life on Earth. And [[RenaissanceMan could also sing and play guitar]], apparently]].
* AscendedExtra: Joins the main cast after being rescued from Caprica.
* AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence: [[spoiler:"See you on the other side". Although this may simply refer to the afterlife -- he's heading to his stellar grave, ''and'' addressing a dead woman...]]
* CelebritySurvivor: He was the star player of the Caprica Buccaneers, a Pyramid[[note]]A fictional sport seemingly based on basketball.[[/note]] team. He's well known enough for Helo to have gambled on his games and recognize Anders and his teammates after they introduce themselves.
* DeadpanSnarker: Not his most defining characteristic, but he can hold his own. [[SnarkToSnarkCombat No wonder he gets along so well with Starbuck]].
* DeathOfPersonality: [[spoiler:After having a bullet removed from his brain, he's left seemingly brain-dead, and when the Cylons link him up to ''Galactica'', he's left as a Hybrid who only occasionally shows flashes of memory and personality, such as when he addresses Galen by name in the GrandFinale and says goodbye to Starbuck]].
* EmergencyTransformation: [[spoiler:He's turned into ''Galactica'''s Hybrid in an attempt to save him]].
* GameOfNerds: Or the in-universe equivalent, Pyramid. Notably, in the final episode, Anders -- [[spoiler:arguably the least cerebral of the Cylons in his Colonial identity]] -- is revealed in a flashback to have a passion for the geometry and mathematics involved in sports.
* GenreSavvy: He manages to survive several months on Caprica along with his Pyramid team by [[IKnowMortalKombat copying guerilla tactics he saw in movies]]. He's also smart enough to realize that [[ThisIsReality the movies aren't real life]] and that movie tactics can only carry him and his team so far, so he seeks out professional advice from Starbuck at the first opportunity.
* GlowingMechanicalEyes: [[spoiler: His eye flashes red in response to a scan by a Cylon Raider in the Season 4 premiere]].
* HandicappedBadass: [[spoiler:He's hit in the back of the head by a stray bullet during Gaeta's mutiny and needs to have brain surgery. Afterwards, he's left brain-dead to all appearances, and later hooked up to ''Galactica'' in the manner of a Cylon Hybrid to jumpstart him but never regains the use of his legs and remains connected to the ship]].
* LivingEmotionalCrutch: Takes over some of this role from Lee toward Kara after their marriage, although it never reaches the same level of codependency.
* MeaningfulName: "Anders" means "man" (or [[spoiler:"android"]]).
* MrFanservice: His sex scenes with Starbuck often make the effort to show [[FemaleGaze just as much of his]] HeroicBuild [[MaleGaze as they do]] [[MsFanservice Starbuck's]]. InUniverse, Leoben refers to him as a "face selling magazines", and a flashback in the GrandFinale shows him being interviewed in a bathtub.
* MysteriousMiddleInitial: It's never revealed what the "T." in "Samuel T. Anders" stands for.
* HeroicSuicide: [[spoiler:He flies the Fleet into the Sun both so he can see Starbuck again in the afterlife and prevent the ViciousCycle plaguing man and Cylon from repeating itself on the new Earth]].
* RealLifeWritesThePlot: Trucco suffered a major spinal injury in a car crash, resulting in Anders's bullet to the head and spending the rest of the series in either a hospital bed or a Hybrid tub. Trucco went on to make a near-miraculous full recovery (to be clear, he had nearly identical injuries to Superman actor Creator/ChristopherReeve, who never recovered) and so Anders was able to become an ActionHero again in the post-series movie ''[[Recap/BattlestarGalactica2003ThePlan The Plan]]''.
* ReallySevenHundredYearsOld: [[spoiler:Like the other members of the Final Five, he is technically well over two millennia old]].
* SatelliteLoveInterest: Started out as this trope (his initial importance to the plot was solely as the love interest Starbuck left behind on Caprica), but eventually grew beyond it.
* ShipTease: [[spoiler:In the last two episodes of Season 3, with Starbuck being dead at the time, he's teased with fellow trainee Viper pilot Diana Seelix, and then sleeps with Tory Foster. What with Starbuck coming back to life and all the craziness around the Final Five, neither ultimately goes anywhere. Seelix in fact becomes a mutineer and a WomanScorned]].
* SpaceshipGirl: A {{Gender Flip}}ped example - in order to [[spoiler:save his life, he gets linked up to ''Galactica'' via a tub and datastream in the same way that a Hybrid is connected to a Cylon Basestar]].
* SpannerInTheWorks:
** His interactions with the Caprica iteration of John Cavil incited noteworthy CharacterDevelopment within that version of Cavil, which would help reveal the other Cavil acting as a spy in the Fleet.
** Him serving as a fighter pilot in [[Recap/BattlestarGalactica2003S04E01HeThatBelievethInMe "He That Believeth in Me"]] [[spoiler:leads to a Raider scanning him and identifying him as a Cylon. This leads to all of the Raiders ''breaking off and letting the Colonials escape'', saving everyone's lives. Furthermore, when Cavil tries to account for this issue by lobotomizing the Raiders, it sparks an EnemyCivilWar that leads to the downfall of the loyalist Cylons and the discovery of Earth-2 by the humans and rebel Cylons]].
* TogetherInDeath: [[spoiler:His last words before he drives ''Galactica'' and the other spaceships ("See you on the other side.") are said right before Kara [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence departs the physical plane]]]].
* TookALevelInBadass: He becomes a rather decent Viper pilot after joining the military following [[spoiler:Starbuck's death]]. After enlisting, he has the rank of ensign and the callsign "Longshot".
* WalkingSpoiler: [[spoiler:He's one of the Final Five and a Cylon]].
* YouAreWhatYouHate: [[spoiler:Along with Saul Tigh, he's probably the most reluctant of the Final Five to initially accept actually being a Cylon, which is understandable given that he was a leader in the anti-Cylon resistance on both Caprica and New Caprica and saw many of his friends killed by them up close]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Kat]]
!!Lieutenant JG Louanne 'Kat' Katraine
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/b711ad85_6817_4c26_b6a1_5f28a2bbe0a4.jpeg]]
[[caption-width-right:350: ''"When you come back after a successful run, lemme tell you, it is better than a great meal, better than hitting the jackpot, it's better than SEX!"'']]
->'''Played By''': Creator/LucianaCarro

A "[[NewMeat nugget]]" introduced early in the first season, she soon starts competing with Starbuck for the title of TheAce and even achieves the position of Commander Air Group (previously held by such luminaries as Apollo, Starbuck and Helo) while most of the senior crew are on New Caprica, before a HeroicSacrifice in Season 3.

----
* TheAce: Played with; she may well surpass Starbuck as the most naturally talented pilot in the fleet (especially considering that Starbuck had full military training, whereas Kat just had a few hastily arranged and barely-structured lessons), but her personality issues keep getting in the way of her being an outright Ace.
* AscendedExtra: Starts out as just another nugget. Grows into CAG before dying.
* TheAtoner: She dies to make up for her DarkAndTroubledPast.
* BetterThanSex: She considers a successful combat operation to be better than sex.
* ButtMonkey: Repeatedly almost dies horribly, [[DeconstructedTrope which eventually causes her to turn to drugs.]] This results in her losing her position as CAG, and then she [[spoiler:dies horribly of radiation poisoning.]]
* DarkAndTroubledPast: Was a smuggler before the Fall of the Colonies. Decided to turn her life around by signing up for the military under an assumed name.
* DeadPersonImpersonation: Her real name is Sasha, but she's been masquerading as a dead girl, as her own identity (part of a smuggling crew that may or may not have unknowingly helped the Cylons infiltrate the colonies) wouldn't have gotten her into the military, to say the least.
* ADeathInTheLimelight: [[spoiler:"The Passage" gives her a lot of focus and explores her backstory, and she dies in a HeroicSacrifice at the end.]]
* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler:It's implied that her HeroicSacrifice was partially motivated by this, since her past was about to be exposed and she had already been exposed to fatal doses of radiation.]]
* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler:She continues on a mission well after she's exposed herself to a fatal amount of radiation, refusing to allow any other ships to be lost under her command.]]
* ImpersonationExclusiveCharacter: We never get to see the real Louanne Katraine.
* JerkassHasAPoint: Kat is childish, abrasive, and petty, but she's also the only person to consistently call Starbuck out on her bullshit.
* MauveShirt: She appears the most out of the non-main character Viper pilots, and gets a lot of characterization.
* NewMeat: How she's introduced.
* TookALevelInJerkass: After getting addicted to drugs, Kat becomes a {{Jerkass}} who berates and harasses pretty much everyone she sees.
* RankUp: Reaches Captain [[spoiler:before her HeroicSacrifice]].
* VitriolicBestBuds: She and Starbuck have a very complicated relationship, which alternates between being a mentor-protege relationship and mutual hatred mixed with respect. They eventually settle their differences while [[spoiler:Kat dies of radiation poisoning.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Crashdown]]
!!Lieutenant JG Alex Quartarro (Callsign: Crashdown)
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/a362b962_622c_4a60_93b2_3c93cda46d9b.jpeg]]
-> '''Played By:''' Creator/SamWitwer

Boomer's copilot after Helo is left on Caprica. He is later a member of the Raptor crew stranded on Kobol, and takes charge of the group.

----
* GuyInBack: Introduced as Boomer's new ECO after Helo stays behind on Caprica. She's not very happy about the arrangement but eventually warms up to him. After her failed suicide attempt Crashdown takes over as pilot for the Kobol mission.
* HeroOfAnotherStory: He's described as a surviving pilot from another, destroyed, Battlestar.
* KilledOffForReal: [[spoiler:Baltar shoots him to stop him from killing Cally]].
* LeaderWannabe: As the only officer present, he takes charge of the surviving members of the landing party on Kobol. He does his best, but he quickly proves to be incompetent and winds up getting two of the group killed, and his failures and the stress he's under ultimately causes him to snap.
* NeverSpeakIllOfTheDead: [[spoiler:Gaius reports to Apollo that Crashdown died leading the charge against the Cylons. Tyrol, Cally and Seelix don't dispute his version of events, suggesting they believe in this trope.]]
* ThePeterPrinciple: As an ECO (his actual job 99% of the time) he's competent enough, but he's a wretchedly poor command officer, struggles to think on his feet, and doesn't have the skillset or experience to know when to refrain from exercising his authority. This leads to multiple unnecessary deaths when he ends up in charge on Kobol, [[spoiler:including his own]].
* SanitySlippage: Crashdown starts to lose it after he gets two of his group killed, culminating in him [[spoiler:trying to murder Cally]].
* UnfriendlyFire: [[spoiler:Baltar shoots him InTheBack]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Nowart]]
!!Sergeant Allan Nowart
-> '''Played By:''' Creator/ColinCorrigan

A Marine aboard ''Galactica'' serving as Sergeant of the Guard, who took over the role after the previous Sergeant was killed during the events of "Rapture". Nowart goes on to have an [[AscendedExtra increasingly important background role]], being present at several key encounters during the fourth season.

----
* AscendedExtra: Shows up as a Marine with no dialogue in "The Woman King". By the time the show gets to the fourth season, he has more speaking lines, and by the end of the series, he's graduated to being Lee's second-in-command during the assault on the Colony.
* TheAtoner: He decides to take part in the assault on the Colony in the series finale, seemingly out of guilt for having supported the attempted mutiny on Galactica.
* ContrivedCoincidence: Despite never appearing before the episode "The Woman King", Nowart is suddenly present at several key moments in the series, including Helo's confrontation with Dr. Robert, protecting Romo Lampkin during Gaius Baltar's trial, acting as a guard for Kara after she seemingly comes back from the dead, escorting Adama and Tigh to the brig during the mutiny, and eventually, [[RankUp acting as Lee's second-in-command]] during the assault on the Colony.
* DoomMagnet: The Marines Nowart partners with are often on the receiving end of violent incidents. As Sergeant of the Guard, his first Marine partner, Cheadle, ends up taking the brunt of an explosion meant for Lampkin. A few days later, he and his partner are incapacitated by Kara as she escapes from Colonial custody. Following that, his Marine companion during the mutiny is shot dead by Tigh, and he's very nearly killed by Kara after Adama tells him to leave.
* EscortMission: His primary role appears to be acting as an escort[=/=]guard for key characters, as he (along with a fellow Marine, who ultimately makes a HeroicSacrifice) are assigned to guard Romo Lampkin prior to Baltar's trial in the third season. At the beginning of the fourth season, he's ordered to escort Kara through Galactica. Later, he's ordered by Gaeta to escort Adama and Tigh to the brig, though he eventually flips and aids them in their escape.
* FieldPromotion: Despite being imprisoned for his role in the mutiny, he supports Adama's mission to assault the Colony and rescue Hera. As a result, he becomes Lee's second-in-command in the ground team, and aids him in breaching the Colony and giving status updates on the area.
* HonorBeforeReason: Played with. He initially supports Zarek and Gaeta's mutiny out of the belief that the Colonial Fleet shouldn't be allied with the Cylons, but becomes increasingly uneasy with his decision. When he's ordered to escort Adama and Tigh to the brig, he flips on his fellow guard, telling them that he still supports the actual command crew, and eventually, lets them go.
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Although he initially supports Gaeta and Zarek's mutiny, he's not fully committed to it, and lets Adama and Tigh go after he'd been ordered to escort them to a brig. [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere He flees to parts unknown]] after Kara fires some warning shots at him (though a DeletedScene shows him returning to the CIC to tell Gaeta and Gage what happened}. [[invoked]]
* RememberTheNewGuy: He shows up for the first time midway through the third season, having been a member of Galactica's Marines all through the series but never glimpsed beforehand.
* RewardedAsATraitorDeserves: ''Narrowly'' averted. Starbuck attempts to shoot him in the back as he flees from Adama and Tigh during the mutiny, only for the latter two to stop her, saying he's not worth it.
* SpannerInTheWorks: Were it not for him deciding to flip and aid Adama and Tigh, Gaeta and Zarek's initial plan for the mutiny would have gone off without a hitch. Instead, they are able to buy enough time to get several key members of the fleet off Galactica and to the Basestar.
* ThoseTwoGuys: With fellow Marine Henry Cheadle. That is, until Cheadle [[HeroicSacrifice sacrifices himself to save Romo Lampkin's life]].
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: It's left unclear if Nowart survived the Centurion boarding attempt as Cavil and the other enemy Cylons assaulted Galactica in the series finale, as he isn't seen during or after the boarding action.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Venner]]
!!Corporal Venner
-> '''Played By''': Creator/MikeShields

A Colonial Marine placed in charge of guarding Roslin when she was arrested following the military coup, though he quickly proves to be sympathetic to her and provides her aid whenever possible.

* TokenReligiousTeammate: He is the most religious person on ''Galactica'', which winds up making him ally with Roslin.
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Despite playing a key role early in Season 2 by helping Roslin escape and apparently bonding with her over their faith, he's never seen again in the series.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Socinus]]
!!Specialist Alonzo Socinus
-> '''Played By''': Creator/AlonsoOyarzun

A deckhand who works with Chief Tyrol.

----
* MercyKill: [[spoiler:Despite attempts to save him, his injuries from the Raptor crash prove too severe and Tyrol is forced to euthanize him with a drug overdose.]]
* TheScapegoat: He willingly takes the blame for a security breach that Tyrol would have been blamed for and lets himself be arrested. Tyrol is shocked by this and tries to confess to Adama, but Adama lets Socinus' false confession stand because regardless of his guilt or lack thereof, he still lied under oath, and Tyrol's experience and expertise make him impossible to easily replace.
* SecretKeeper: For Tyrol and Boomer.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Prosna]]
!!Specialist Prosna
-> '''Played By''': Creator/MichaelEklund

A deckhand who works with Tyrol and Cally.

----
* RedShirt: Dies during the pod venting in the Miniseries.
* CruelAndUnusualDeath: He burns alive during the pod venting.
* DeadStarWalking: He's played by Creator/MichaelEklund, a well-known character actor, and he winds up being one of the first of ''Galactica'''s crew to bite the dust.
* HeroicSacrifice: It's implied he was trapped in the port flight pod during the pod venting was because he remains behind to help with the evacuation.
* MauveShirt: He is prominently featured during the Miniseries, but he winds up dying before it ends.
* NiceGuy: A kindhearted fellow who stays up late to wrap a gift for Adama.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Sergeant Hadrian]]
!!Sergeant Hadrian
-> '''Played By''': Creator/JillTeed

''Galactica'''s Master-At-Arms, who is in charge of maintaining internal security.

----
* InspectorJavert: During the investigation of Doral's suicide attack, she goes out of her way to harass anyone she suspects, and she winds up turning the whole thing into a witch hunt.
* {{Jerkass}}: A major hardass who goes out of her way to harass anyone she suspects of wrongdoing, whether they actually did it or not.
** JerkassHasAPoint: The people she comes down hard on are lying to her about ''something'', though, and she did tell Adama that her tribunal would require full authority and access, [[ScrewTheRulesIMakeThem before he withdrew it when she started inconveniencing]] ''[[ScrewTheRulesIMakeThem him]]''. While there's no wide conspiracy of human Cylon collaborators, her two chief suspects, Boomer and Chief Tyrol, are respectively an actual Cylon sleeper agent and someone emotionally compromised enough to cover up damning evidence that the former is a sleeper agent.
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: The last we see of her in person, Adama remands her to her quarters after he gets fed up with her causing a witch hunt. "Valley of Darkness" has Tigh mention she is leading one of the military squads hunting a Cylon that had boarded ''Galactica'', so it's possible she kept her position.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Racetrack]]
!!Lieutenant JG Margaret Edmondson (callsign: Racetrack)
-> '''Played By''': Creator/LeahCairns

A cynical, somewhat nihilistic Raptor pilot.

----
* TheAtoner: She's among the prisoners who volunteer for the Final Battle with the people they'd fought against.
* TheCynic: She has a very bitter outlook on life.
* DeadfootLeadfoot: [[spoiler: Armed her nukes just before she was killed. Her hand slips post-mortem and accidentally fires them.]]
* DyingMomentOfAwesome: [[TakingYouWithMe She wants to go out taking as many Cylon with her as she can.]] [[spoiler:She gets to do it, albeit posthumously, via a nuclear bomb she had pre-armed.]]
* FantasticRacism: She ''really'' hates Cylons, even more than Tigh.
* TheFatalist: She is not unjustifiably under the belief she'll die on a mission. [[spoiler: She eventually dies during the mission to rescue Hera from the Cylons.]]
* GuyInBack: Is introduced as a temporary ECO for Boomer after Helo is left on Caprica and Crashdown takes lead on the trip to Kobol. When Boomer is arrested Racetrack gets a promotion to the pilot's seat. During the third season she spends some time as Athena's [=ECO=] as the exodus from New Caprica means there's now more pilots than available ships.
* HeelFaceRevolvingDoor: Which side she is on fluctuates from moment to moment. Mostly she serves loyally on ''Galactica'', but she joins Roslin's side during the fleet schism and [[spoiler:later she joins Gaeta's mutiny.]]
* LockedOutOfTheLoop: [[spoiler:During the mutiny]] it's implied that she's unaware of the murderous actions [[spoiler:Zarek]] is engaging in as part of the plan.
* MauveShirt: Out of the Raptor pilots, she appears the most and gets the most characterization. She even manages to survive all the way up to the finale.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Skulls]]
!!Lieutenant Hamish [=McCall=] (callsign:Skulls)
-> '''Played By''': Colin Lawrence

A Raptor pilot who accidentally found Kobol alongside Racetrack.

----
* GuyInBack: Serves this role for Racetrack.
* LackOfEmpathy: He doesn't give a damn when Zarek bludgeons [[spoiler:Laird]] to death with a wrench, and unlike Racetrack shows no hesitation when [[spoiler:Connor threatens to kill Lee.]]
* MauveShirt: He doesn't get that much characterization, but he manages to survive all the way until the series finale.
* RedShirt: [[spoiler:He dies when a piece of debris crashes into his ship.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Chuckles]]
!!Lieutenant JG Donald Perry (callsign:Chuckles)
-> '''Played By''': Creator/TerryChen

An experienced civilian pilot conscripted to be a Viper pilot.

----
* MauveShirt: He's one of three trainees with speaking roles in the episode when ''Galactica'' first recruits civilian pilots and survives long enough [[spoiler:to participate in the raid on the Cylon refinery a few episodes later.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Jammer]]
!!Specialist James 'Jammer' Lyman
-> '''Played By''': Dominic Zamprogna

A deckhand who becomes a prominent supporting character during the New Caprica Arc.

----
* DirtyCoward: Zig-zagged at first: when ''Galactica'' is boarded by Centurions early in Season 2 he's found by Lee Adama's group cowering in a small arms locker, though he does fight after that. Played straight later on when he begs for his life as The Circle decides to execute him for the deaths he caused while working with the Cylons.
* {{Irony}}: Early in the series, he's quick to suspect his crewmates of being Cylons when their ability to pass as human becomes public knowledge. On New Caprica, he becomes a willing collaborator with the Cylons himself.
* LesCollaborateurs: Joins the New Caprica Police, effectively turning on the rest of the humans and siding with the Cylons.
* MilitaryMoonshiner: He's introduced making homemade whiskey with Socinus and Cally.
* PetTheDog: He does save Cally's life when she's a prisoner.
* SecretKeeper: One of several crewmen covering up Boomer and Tyrol's relationship.
* ThrownOutTheAirlock: He's executed this way by The Circle once they uncover his collaboration with the Cylons.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Duck]]
!!Lieutenant JG Tucker Clellan (callsign:Duck)
-> '''Played By''': Christian Tessier

A Viper pilot who serves as a minor MauveShirt in the first half of the series. He later retires during the New Caprica arc, planning to settle down with his girlfriend Nora Farmer.

----
* DespairEventHorizon: [[spoiler:Crosses it after Nora is killed by a Cylon attack, and agrees to become a suicide bomber because he has nothing else to live for.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Kelly]]
!! Captain Aaron Kelly
-> '''Played By''': Creator/TyOlsson

The Landing Signal Officer for ''Galactica'' who oversees takeoffs and landings on the ship. A senior officer and probably third-in-command after Adama and Tigh, depending on where the CAG fits into the chain of command.

----
* CommutingOnABus: Despite his high rank he only appears a handful of times throughout the series. WordOfGod is that his job managing the flight deck means he's "off-camera" down at the landing bay except when he is needed for the story. When he does make an appearance in CIC it's usually because there's a major crisis and Adama is out of the picture (such as in the Miniseries or at the beginning of season two when [[spoiler: Adama is in critical condition after being shot]]) or there's a shortage of experienced CIC staff (during the rescue mission to New Caprica).
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Initially sides with Zarek and Gaeta during the mutiny and leads the squad tasked with bringing Adama and Tigh in. Being ordered to escort Adama to his execution is apparently too far as he breaks down in Memorial Hallway rather than take part. He then defects to join Lee and the others in rescuing Adama in retaking the ship.
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: His last appearance is in "Blood on the Scales" and he isn't mentioned in the finale so his fate is unknown.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Barolay]]
!!Jean Barolay
->'''Played By:''' Alison Down

A member of Anders's resistance. She later joins up with the military as a civilian volunteer.

----
* {{Irony}}: She died without ever learning [[spoiler:that her long-time friend, team captain and resistance leader Sam Anders was a Cylon]].
* KarmicDeath: [[spoiler:She's killed by a Six whom she had traumatized by drowning her back on New Caprica.]]
* LaResistance: Was a member of the resistance on Caprica and later of the New Caprica version.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Figurski]]
!!Specialist Anthony Figurski
-> '''Played By:''' Don Thompson

One of the deckhands serving under Tyrol.

----
* ChuckCunninghamSyndrome: He disappears following "Escape Velocity".

[[/folder]]

[[folder:Cheadle]]
!!Henry Cheadle
-> '''Played By:''' Creator/ChrisBoyd

A Marine.

----
* HeroicSacrifice: He dies rescuing Lampkin from a bomb.
* ThoseTwoGuys: With Nowart until he's killed by a bomb.
* WeHardlyKnewYe: He's only around for two episodes before being blown up.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Seelix]]
!!Ensign Diana Seelix (callsign: Hardball)
-> '''Played By:''' Creator/JenniferHalley

A deckhand serving under Tyrol. She later becomes a Viper pilot in Season 3.

----
* AscendedExtra: She and Tarn didn't have names in the script until Creator/AaronDouglas gave them to them, which led to them receiving more characterization, especially Seelix.
* DoomedHurtGuy: Subverted. She's severely injured while stranded on New Caprica, but she's able to survive in spite of how dire things look for her.
* MauveShirt: She gets some characterization and is one of the longest lasting deckhands outside of Tyrol, frequently recurring throughout the show.
* PutOnABus: [[spoiler:She's imprisoned along with the rest of the mutineers. Unlike Racetrack and Skulls, she doesn't come BackForTheFinale.]]
* RankUp: In Season 3, she goes from a deckhand to a trainee pilot, thus ranking up from non-commissioned officer to ensign.
* RomanticRunnerUp: [[spoiler:After Starbuck dies and Seelix and Anders have both become rookie pilots, they seem rather close playing Pyramid together on the deck and she's visibly upset to see that he's slept with Tory]].
* WomanScorned: [[spoiler:Referenced by her when she and Connor capture Anders during Gaeta's mutiny]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Tarn]]
!!Specialist Tarn
-> '''Played By:''' Creator/WarrenChristie

A deckhand serving under Tyrol.

----
* AscendedExtra: He and Seelix didn't have names in the script until Creator/AaronDouglas gave them to them, which led to them receiving more characterization, especially Seelix.
* MauveShirt: He appears in the last two episodes of the first season before being killed off early on in Season 2.
* MultipleGunshotDeath: [[spoiler:He's shot multiple times by a Centurion on New Kobol.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Matthias]]
!!Gunnery Sgt. Erin Matthias
-> '''Played By:''' Eileen Pedde

A high-ranking Marine.

----
* DroppedABridgeOnHim: [[spoiler:She randomly gets killed by a damaged Cylon Raider exploding. Starbuck later notes that her death was completely pointless; it wasn't even a trap, it was just a stupid accident.]]
[[/folder]]

!!Civilian Fleet

[[folder: Tory Foster]]
!!Tory Foster
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/TropeFoster_9713.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:[[spoiler:''[[ArcWords "I can't get no relief."]]'']]]]
->'''Played By''': Creator/RekhaSharma

Special Aide to the President, replacing the deceased Billy Keikaya. Snarky and gorgeous, Foster is primarily used as a BitCharacter for the first two seasons so that the audience can get someone to bounce off of Roslin. However, in a ''massive'' twist, she [[spoiler:turns out to be a Cylon and one of the Final Five]]. Amusingly, WordOfGod has outright admitted that this decision was precisely ''because'' she hadn't yet had much CharacterDevelopment up until that point. It also created the interesting situation that all three {{Number Two}}s in the show are (arguably) {{Double Agent}}s.

----
* AGodAmI: [[spoiler:Her reaction to finding out her true nature is roughly along these lines]].
* AscendedExtra: Started out just as an aide, wound up being [[spoiler:one of the Final Five]].
* CryingAfterSex: After she and the other Final Five (minus Ellen) become aware of each other, Tigh sends her on a mission to seduce Baltar, hoping he will know something about them being Cylons and divulge it. She does so, but is not happy about it, and gently cries afterwards. When a concerned Baltar asks her if she's okay, she claims she always cries after sex. It's left ambiguous if this is true, or if it's a symptom of her disgust with herself. Notable, she does ''not'' seem to have this problem after sex with Anders.
* EstablishingCharacterMoment: Her attempt to [[spoiler:rig the presidential vote in favor of Roslin]] proves her to be a much more Machiavellian character than her predecessor.
* FaceHeelTurn: [[spoiler:Pulls one when she murders Cally in cold blood, and begins to act increasingly contemptuous of the humans around her, most notably by taking D'Anna's side when she's trying to extort the ''Galactica'' crew. She's the only one of the Final Five to do so, and the only one who is killed by another character (Anders also dies, but of flying himself and the derelict Fleet into the sun after Earth is found)]].
* GoMadFromTheRevelation: [[spoiler:It's all but stated that she slowly lost her mind after realizing that her entire life was a lie due to being a Cylon]].
* HatesBeingAlone: According to Ellen in the extended version of ''Daybreak''.
* MsFanservice: Serves as one by virtue of being played by Rekha Sharma.
* NeckSnap: [[spoiler:Dies this way in the finale after Tyrol finds out that she murdered Cally and lied about it]].
* NumberTwo: For President Roslin after the death of Billy Keikeya prior to her FaceHeelTurn.
* ReallySevenHundredYearsOld: [[spoiler:Like the other members of the Final Five, she is technically well over two millennia old]].
* ReincarnationRomance: Inverted. The [[spoiler:original Tory and Galen were madly in love, but their Colonial versions are both too distracted by other people and concerns to even notice each other. When they find out, they just snicker, and it's further inverted in the [[{{Revenge}} hardest way]] [[ItsPersonal possible]]. In "Crossroads", just before they find out they're Cylons, Tory has been having sex with ''Sam'', whom she's not noted to have been in a relationship with before, rather than Galen]].
* SexySecretary: Tory is Roslin's personal assistant and quite attractive. When she sets out to get information out of Baltar, he says to Head-Baltar that she's a "sexy lady".
* TheSnarkKnight: Her demeanor is professional, eye-rolling and unimpressed, at least before [[spoiler:learning she's a Cylon]].
* TokenEvilTeammate: [[spoiler: Of the "modern" iterations of the Final Five, she is the only one to betray humanity to the Cylons]].
* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: Her [[spoiler:murdering Cally]] indirectly ends up [[spoiler:dooming the entire Cylon race to extinction, as Tyrol finds out at the worst possible moment and kills her in revenge, causing knowledge of resurrection technology to be irrevocably lost]].
* WalkingSpoiler: [[spoiler:She's one of the Final Five and a Cylon]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Billy Keikeya]]
!!Billy Keikeya
->'''Played By''': Creator/PaulCampbell

Personal aide to Secretary of Education Laura Roslin, he spends one and a half seasons flirting with Dualla before being killed in a stand-off and, eventually, replaced by Tory Foster.

----
* DeathOfTheHypotenuse: Dies just as Dee and Apollo are starting to grow closer.
* DoggedNiceGuy: To Dee.
* FakeGuestStar: He's practically a main character in the first half of the series, yet is always credited as guest star.
* HeroicSacrifice: Gets shot dead pushing people out of the way of gunfire when a hostage situation turns into a BlastOut. Possibly crosses over into SuicideByCop, as he was despondent over Dee rejecting him.
* KillTheCutie: One of the most unambiguously nice characters around, and gets killed quickly off.
* RecklessGunUsage: The man doesn't know how to handle a gun, and it shows. Dee has to tell him not to rely on PantsPositiveSafety.
* SacrificialLion: He's the first main character in the series to die, during a BlastOut in what seemed to be a filler episode, re-establishing that AnyoneCanDie. He was actually written out because his actor had scored the lead role in a pilot, which ironically wasn't picked up.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Ellen Tigh]]
!!Ellen Tigh
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Ellen_Tigh_1323.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''"You don't wanna frak with me, Bill. Try to remember that."'']]
->'''Played By''': Creator/KateVernon

Tigh's wife, who miraculously survived the Fall of the Twelve Colonies. She's manipulative, vain and kind of a bitch, a LadyMacbeth with her husband as object-of-control, and Adama notes that she and Saul just tend to make each other worse. During the New Caprica occupation, she seduces a One to free her husband from imprisonment, and then is forced to betray a crucial meeting. In response, Saul poisons her. This makes it even freakier that [[spoiler:she turns out to be one of the Final Five and a Cylon.]]

----
* AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther: Ellen and Saul ''very'' much have this dynamic.
* CharacterDevelopment: [[spoiler:After remembering she's a Cylon, Ellen becomes far smarter, calmer and more collected along with developing a much deeper level of empathy for other people]].
* [[DirtyOldMan Dirty Old Woman]]: The point of pretty much all of her introductory episode, [[Recap/BattlestarGalactica2003S01E09TighMeUpTighMeDown "Tigh Me Up, Tigh Me Down"]]. Lee's [[OhCrap face]] when she pinches his ass is ''priceless''. Even after [[spoiler:she returns with her full Cylon memories]] in [[Recap/BattlestarGalactica2003S04E16Deadlock "Deadlock"]], she jokes that "Experience is the best teacher - [[HeroicSelfDeprecation apart from me]]."
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Evolves into one post-CharacterDevelopment.
* LadyDrunk: She's rarely seen without a drink in hand, which doesn't exactly help her already grating personality.
* LadyMacbeth: She brings out the absolute worst in Saul, encouraging him to indulge in vices and make all manner of terrible decisions. There's a reason the fandom calls her "Lady [=McTigh=]".
%%* LoveMartyr
* MeaningfulName: "Ellen" is an Old English name descended from the Greek name "Helen", which means "light" or "torch." [[spoiler:She was the first member of the Final Five to come up with their FlingALightIntoTheFuture plan.]] Additionally, it also comes across as an allusion to Helen of Troy from Myth/ClassicalMythology, the WorldsMostBeautifulWoman whose capture by Paris sparked the Trojan War and the ultimate fall of Troy. Not only is Ellen herself quite the [[SilverFox Silver Vixen]], but [[spoiler:her "death" at the hands of her husband Saul results in her (temporary) imprisonment by the Cylons, and she eventually proves essential in the ultimate downfall of the Cylons]].
* TheMillstone: She's very, very good at making bad situations worse.
* ReallySevenHundredYearsOld: [[spoiler:Like the other members of the Final Five, she is technically well over two millennia old]].
* ReallyGetsAround: [[invoked]] To the point of ''groping Lee'' when she's at dinner with Tigh.
* ReincarnationRomance: She and Saul [[spoiler:were married originally too, and somehow found each other again after Cavil wiped their memories]].
* ShutUpHannibal: [[spoiler:While she is being held prisoner, at one point her "son"/creation John Cavill/Number One gives a furious MotiveRant to her, calling out her and the rest of the Final Five for having practiced NoTranshumanismAllowed when designing him and the rest of the humanoid Cylons]]. Ellen's response is to literally roll her eyes and curtly undercut his PsychopathicManchild rambling by pointing out that [[FreudianExcuseIsNoExcuse none of his angst justifies him committing genocide against humanity]], and if he really did supposedly care so much about actually being a "perfect machine", he could have invested genuine effort into figuring out how to transcend his limitation instead of deciding to PutThemAllOutOfMyMisery.
* SilverFox: Gender-inverted. While she is clearly getting up there in years, she is still immensely attractive, to the point where it is more than understandable why she has a status as ReallyGetsAround.
%%* TeamMom: [[spoiler:Post-resurrection.]]
* ThickerThanWater: [[spoiler:Amazingly, she still loves John even after every horrible thing he did because he's her son and actually offers him a chance at redemption, [[RedemptionRejection which he refuses out of spite]].]]
* TookALevelInKindness: Downplayed. [[spoiler:After regaining her memories, she becomes far kinder, more mature, and wiser... but she quickly starts to regress back to her old ways almost the exact ''second'' she gets back on ''Galactica''.]]
* ToxicFriendInfluence:
** As Adama commented once, she tends to bring out Saul's worst and most self-destructive instincts. It's most noticeable when Saul takes command of the fleet early in Season 2 and makes a string of bad decisions, several of which were inspired by her.
** Interestingly, it seems to work both ways: Ellen seems to be a lot more ambitious and manipulative around Saul, even after becoming a pseudo-TeamMom.
* WalkingSpoiler: [[spoiler:Like her husband, she's one of the Final Five and a Cylon]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Tom Zarek]]
!!Tom Zarek
[[quoteright:310:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tom_zarek_profile.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:310:''[[MightMakesRight "The man with the guns makes the rules."]]'']]
->'''Played By''': Creator/RichardHatch

Introduced as an inmate on the prison ship ''Astral Queen'', Zarek was jailed for acts of terrorism. He sees himself as a WellIntentionedExtremist working for the common man; whether that's true or not, he's definitely good at politics. [[spoiler:After inhabiting the HeelFaceRevolvingDoor for several seasons, he settles on the bad-guy side, leading a mutiny against Roslin and Adama.]]

----
%%* AffablyEvil: Usually polite even to his enemies.
* AmbiguouslyEvil: For all the bad things he's done, he's often not... ''necessarily'' wrong in what he says or wants.
* TheCharmer: He's undeniably charming and charismatic. He has no need to rule his men with fear, as they genuinely adore him.
* DeathSeeker: It's suggested by Lee in his first appearance that Zarek is one since he thinks that this would make him an InspirationalMartyr.
* EvenEvilHasStandards: Though the 'evil' part is kind of tenuous, [[GreyAndGrayMorality especially in this series.]] Zarek immediately cuts off all contact with [[TheDon Phelan]] after he learns of the latter's child prostitution ring. He was also willing to face execution rather than participate in Baltar's collaborationist government on New Caprica.
* FaceDeathWithDignity: [[spoiler:He goes to his execution with quiet stoicism.]]
* FatalFlaw: {{Pride}}. Zarek is incredibly arrogant and often thinks of himself and his goals as being above the scrutiny of others, even if those goals endanger the survival and destiny of humanity.
* HeelFaceRevolvingDoor: His goals and motivations, always left a bit ambiguous, slide in and out of alignment with Adama/Roslin several times over the course of the series. He claims to be a WellIntentionedExtremist who follows his conscience, and that might even be true to a degree, but [[spoiler:he ultimately dies a heel after JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope during his and Gaeta's attempted coup]].
* {{Hypocrite}}:
** Gives Roslin and Adama shit for circumventing democracy. [[spoiler: What does he do when the Quorum refuses to support Zarek and Gaeta's mutiny? Have them all executed.]]
** Generally speaking, Zarek often argues for the protection of democracy... and most of these methods he proposes for doing so are [[SarcasmMode coincidentally]] actions that would ''support'' tyranny if he ever got in charge.
** He justifies the actions of The Circle by arguing that giving the collaborators public trials would lead to them building sympathy as martyrs, which is exactly how he built up his own "freedom fighter" public image. The implication is that he was trying to prevent anyone from following in his footsteps.
* JerkWithAHeartOfJerk: He may have his sympathetic moments and constantly champion for the preservation of democracy among the surviving Colonials, but at the end of the day, [[spoiler:he's ultimately only in this for the power and desires to be a tyrant over the remnants of humanity so as to sate his own ego]].
* JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope: [[spoiler:After spending most of the series gradually slipping from a WellIntentionedExtremist no different morally from Roslin, he crosses the line into power-mad tyranny during his and Gaeta's mutiny when he kills the Quorum of Twelve for refusing to support the coup.]]
* KarmicDeath: Considering the above, and what he planned to do to Bill if he caught him, he gets his just desserts when [[spoiler: his mutiny is defeated and Bill has him executed by firing squad.]]
* KickTheDog: [[spoiler:Has the Quorum of Twelve executed by firing squad when they refuse to support his mutiny.]]
* KnowWhenToFoldEm:
** During the search for the Tomb of Athena. His right-hand wants to keep pressing on with their plan to arrange an "accident" for Apollo, but he's smart enough to realise his window of opportunity has closed and abandons that plan. For now.
** Doesn't run for reelection because he knows he can't rule without the support of the military. However when elements of the military become disillusioned with the Adama/Roslin administration, he takes the opportunity to launch a MilitaryCoup.
* MeaningfulName: "Zarek" is a Polish derivation of Belshazzar, the last king of Babylon. Belshazzar is perhaps best remembered for the Biblical story of the feast in which God's hand wrote a warning on the wall that the monarchy would soon be overturned; Zarek seeks to overturn the Colonial government.
* MotiveDecay: In part from the natural stress of the surviving Colonials' flight from the Cylons' genocide, he gradually becomes less and less of a WellIntentionedExtremist until he becomes [[spoiler:a ruthless wannabe tyrant in the final season.]]
* MythologyGag: Zarek is played by Richard Hatch, who played Apollo in the original series. Zarek spends much of his time antagonizing the present Apollo, and in his first episode, he lectured Apollo on the meaning of his callsign.
* NotSoWellIntentionedExtremist: On the surface, Zarek may call himself a "freedom fighter" and paint himself as a patriotic rebel fighting for the rights of democracy against Adama and Roslin's dual dictatorship, but at the end of the day, [[spoiler:he still shoved the Quorum of Twelve in front of a firing squad when they refused to rubber-stamp his unlawful mutiny. In fact, it's after him killing the Quorum of Twelve that Gaeta realizes that Zarek is really in his mutiny only for the power and isn't a genuinely WellIntentionedExtremist like he is.]]
* OffScreenVillainy: When the series starts he's imprisoned for terrorism, and he's suspected of involvement in abuse of office, political manipulation, and conspiracy to commit murder. As Roslin herself ends up committing most of these crimes, the writers had to give Zarek some ruthless acts during his grab for power just to restore the balance (and even these are entirely PragmaticVillainy).
* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: When President Roslin tells him she is going to [[spoiler:give Baltar a fair and public trial,]] Zarek's initial reaction is to [[OhCrap completely freak out]] and advise that, against all precedent and his own personal convictions, martial law be declared for the duration. Roslin seems genuinely perturbed by just how out of character this is for him.
* PrinciplesZealot: Truly believes that he is working to improve the lot of the common man, and genuinely believes in the principles of freedom and democracy...and is willing to do absolutely, positively ''anything'' in pursuit of those beliefs, no matter how underhanded, morally questionable, dishonest, or actively detrimental to the survival of humanity it might be.
* SlowlySlippingIntoEvil: Zarek gets gradually more ruthless over the course of the series, all the while slowly abandoning his principles in the pursuit of power. [[spoiler:By the time of the mutiny, all Zarek cares about is ruling over humanity to sate his own ego.]]
* TheStarscream: When he was Vice-President.
* VillainHasAPoint:
** In his first episode, Zarek makes the more or less valid argument that the fleet is treating him and the other prisoners aboard ''The Astral Queen'' as an expendable labor force, and that even though they are coming to them for help, the prisoners are still not allowed to chart their own course and everyone is acting like absolutely nothing has changed. [[ReasonableAuthorityFigure Apollo]] ultimately decides Zarek has a point and ends up meeting him halfway.
** Later on in the series, he repeatedly draws attention to the fact that Roslin and Adama (who later [[spoiler: become romantically involved]]) tend to make unilateral decisions for the fleet between them and that they adamantly resist just about any oversight or checks on their authority. Adama dissolves a board of inquiry he himself created when it begins to question his own decisions and loyalties, and Roslin tries to rig her reelection campaign against Baltar when she's afraid it won't go her way.
* VillainousFriendship: He and [[TheDragon Meier]] are legitimately friends, and rather close ones at that.
* WellIntentionedExtremist: At first, anyway.
* YourTerroristsAreOurFreedomFighters: His supporters view him as a hero fighting for Sagittaron liberation. His critics view him as a destructive terrorist. Debates and the occasional fistfight have broken out over this issue. Dee, who's also from Sagittaron, is one of his biggest critics as she believes that freedom doesn't justify his violent actions.
-->'''Billy:''' He's a freedom fighter. He's a prisoner of conscience.\\
'''Dee:''' He's a butcher.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Romo Lampkin]]
!!Romo Lampkin
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/70d36d51_9ed7_4c59_9836_260e8cd88a3d.jpeg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''"Everybody has demons. Them, Baltar, you, me. Even the machines. The law is just a way of exorcising them."'']]
->'''Played By''': Creator/MarkSheppard
-> ''"[[AmoralAttorney Now, who do I have to bribe to see the Cylon?]]"''

An eccentric, self-absorbed and attention-hungry lawyer who takes up the unwanted job of being Gaius Baltar's attorney during his (Baltar's) farcial trial. Claims to have learned everything about his trade from Joseph Adama, William Adama's father (and Lee's grandfather).

----
* AmoralAttorney: Downplayed - he's ethically questionable and has penchants for deception and psychological manipulation, but he's not a horrible man, and is dedicated to the preservation of the Colonies above all else.
* BunnyEarsLawyer: Literally a lawyer, and tremendously skilled. The man got Gaius off in what was supposed to be a show trial. He's also very quirky.
* DeadpanSnarker: He's played by Creator/MarkSheppard, of course he's snarky.
* HonorBeforeReason: He'll do his job to the best of his ability regardless of who he's representing.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: He's a pretty sleazy guy, but his heart is in the right place. During Gaeta and Zarek's coup, he proves helpful to the heroes and aids Kara in getting an injured Sam to the medical bay.
* ManipulativeBastard: He is excellent at manipulating people, which is one of the reasons he's so good at his job.
* StickyFingers: He's a kelptomaniac who lifts items off the other characters to sate his impulse. This ends up being plot relevant in his first episode as he lifts an item that tips Lee off as to who planted the bombs on the Raptors.
* SunglassesAtNight: A character quirk is that he wears sunglasses everywhere all the time, no exceptions unless it plays into one of his gambits.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Meier]]
!!Meier
-> '''Played By:''' Creator/JamesRemar

Tom Zarek's righthand man during the fleet schism.

----
* AlasPoorVillain: [[spoiler:For as ruthless as he is, it's legitimately sad to watch him bleed out in Zarek's arms [[SorryThatImDying while apologizing for failing him.]]]]
* BeardOfEvil: Sports a goatee and is much more ruthless than Zarek.
* TheDragon: To Zarek.
* ToxicFriendInfluence: He tends to bring out the worst side of Zarek (which ''really'' says quite a lot), and convinces him to assassinate Apollo.
* VillainousFriendship: He and Zarek are genuinely friends, and rather close ones at that.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Elosha]]
!!Elosha
-> '''Played By:''' Creator/LorenaGale

A priest who serves as a spiritual advisor for Roslin.

----
* GoodShepherd: She is a priest who does her best to advise Roslin on matters related to the prophecies of the Sacred Scrolls.
* KilledOffForReal: [[spoiler:Blown up by a land mine in "Home".]]
* MagicalNegro:[[invoked]] Falls into this trope, with it being especially glaring when [[spoiler:she appears later on in Roslin's vision and advises her to love again]]. Interestingly, WordOfGod via the podcasts reveal the initial person giving the message in the visions was going to be ''Billy'', but the actor was unavailable at the time and the role was altered with much of the dialog remaining the same, with the producer stating it actually fits Elosha better as she was a priest and her skin color being black was just a coincidence in terms of how her character was written.
* SacrificialLion: [[spoiler:She's a major recurring character killed during "Home" to show how high the stakes are.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder: President Adar]]
!!President Richard Adar
-> '''Played By:''' Creator/ColmFeore

The President of the Colonies prior to Roslin who was killed during the Cylon attack at the beginning of the series.

----
* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: The first few episodes imply that he was actually a ReasonableAuthorityFigure, and it's only in later episodes that him being a CorruptPolitician is made more obvious.
* {{Jerkass}}: Flashbacks show that he was an incompetent president who would rather kill innocent people than make a compromise and look "weak".
* KnowWhenToFoldEm: He desperately offered an unconditional surrender to the Cylons after their first strike during the Fall. [[AtomicHate They ignored his offer]].
* PresidentEvil: He was willing to use military force to stop a peaceful protest by teachers, which would no doubt cause casualties, and got angry with Roslin for compromising with them because he thought it makes him look weak.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Boxey]]
!!Boxey
-> '''Played By:''' Connor Widdows

A young boy who survives the Cylons' initial attack and is evacuated to ''Galactica'' by Boomer.

----
* ChuckCunninghamSyndrome: He's a minor presence throughout the Miniseries, makes a single appearance in the first season, and then disappears completely. Several other scenes with him were shot during the first season but all were cut except for his brief appearance assisting Starbuck with a light-hearted air group briefing in "Bastille Day".
* DemotedToExtra: Compared to his original series counterpart, this version of Boxey has a ''significantly'' smaller role. The original plan for him to form a family unit with Boomer and Tyrol was dropped after the decision to make Boomer a Cylon sleeper agent. The writers then tried to reposition him as TheArtfulDodger but ultimately decided there wasn't enough time to develop the idea.
* OrphansOrdeal: His father is implied to be the Armistice officer killed in the opening scene of the Miniseries and his mother died during the attack on Caprica. He seems to get over it pretty quickly as he replies to Tigh asking where his mother is with a sarcastic "Dead".
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Sesha Abinell]]
!!Sesha Abinell
-> '''Played By''': Creator/DanaDelany

A terrorist and conspiracy theorist convinced that Cylons are controlling the Colonial Military.

----
* ConspiracyTheorist: She's convinced the Cylons are still manipulating the military, which is not helped at all by her knowledge of Athena's existence.
* FreudianExcuse: Her descent into radicalism was caused by the death of her husband during a Cylon attack.
* FreudianExcuseIsNoExcuse: That said, it's literally ''everyone'' has lost someone to the Cylons, so it's really no excuse.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Phelan]]
!!Phelan
-> '''Played By''': Creator/BillDuke
-> ''"It's hard to find the moral high ground when we're all standing in the mud."''

The head of the fleet's black market.

----
* FauxAffablyEvil: He acts polite and civil to Lee, even when admitting that he runs a child prostitution ring.
* SoftSpokenSadist: He rarely raises his voice, which does nothing to contrast from what a monster he is.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Emily Kowalski]]
!!Emily Kowalski
-> '''Played By''': Creator/NanaVisitor

A terminal cancer patient who Roslin befriends.

----
* DeadpanSnarker: She's very sardonic and witty, even making snarky remarks to Roslin, the ''President''.
* FreakOut: She has a full-blown meltdown when Roslin turns off her radio, which was playing Baltar's religious speeches. She later apologizes, saying that it's the only thing giving her hope.
* WeHardlyKnewYe: Though to be fair, she gets a ton of characterization in her one episode.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Gerard]]
!!Dr. Gerard
-> '''Played By''': Creator/JohnHodgman

A civilian brain surgeon.

----
* DrJerk: He's rather uncaring about Anders's brain surgery and shows zero empathy to him or Starbuck, seeming more vaguely amused by the situation than anything.
* {{Jerkass}}: He's smug, aloof, and unempathetic.
[[/folder]]

!!Battlestar ''Pegasus''
[[folder: Admiral Cain]]
!!Rear Admiral Helena Cain
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/TropeCain_577.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''"Sometimes terrible things have to be done."'']]
->'''Played By''': Creator/MichelleForbes

Commanding the only other (known) battlestar to survive the massacre of the Twelve Colonies, Cain adopted a much more ruthless attitude towards survival than Adama or Roslin.

----
* AdaptationalVillainy: Whereas her counterpart in the 1978 series tended to make questionable decisions but was ultimately a good person at heart, any redeeming qualities have long-since ceased to apply to this version.
* AxCrazy: When it comes to Cylons.
* BadBoss: Knowing humanity is on its last legs, she'll do whatever she has to, including killing civilians or crew members that disagree with her.
* DefiantToTheEnd: She curses her killer right before she's executed.
* FaceDeathWithDignity: When cornered by a rightfully vengeful [[spoiler:Gina]] holding her at gunpoint, Helena simply faces her impending death with a DeathGlare of hatred, never once crying or begging for her life.
* EvilCounterpart: She's one to Adama. ''Pegasus'' crossed paths with a civilian fleet too, but it's not with them anymore...
* FourStarBadass: She's earned her title, no doubt.
* FreudianExcuse: She witnessed her younger sister and father being abducted by the Cylons in the last days of the First War, adding to her hatred of them.
* GenderFlip: In the 1978 series her character was played by Lloyd Bridges.
* GeneralRipper: To contrast Adama's AFatherToHisMen persona.
* HangingJudge: She's obsessed with revenge. Anybody who doesn't toe the line or serve an immediately-valuable purpose gets a bullet through the head.
* HeWhoFightsMonsters: Some of the things done by her or on her orders are arguably more monstrous than things the Cylons have done.
* {{Hypocrite}}:
** Promises her officers that she will not seek revenge against the Cylons beyond the point of reason, or sacrifice lives needlessly. When push comes to shove she does exactly that, with absolutely ''zero'' conflict or hesitation.
** She also hates it whenever others abuse or over-exert their authority, but she does this multiple times and ignores that Thorne had done so as well when he attacked Athena in her cell without permission or supervision from the ''Galactica'' crew.
** For someone who places so much importance on unquestioning obedience to one's superiors, she has very little respect for Roslin's authority as Commander-in-chief.
* IDidWhatIHadToDo: Has no outward remorse over the awful things she's done.
* ILied: Soon after finding ''Galactica'', when Adama informs Roslin that Cain's actually above him in the chain of command, she promises to be a ReasonableAuthorityFigure and refrain from encroaching on his command of ''Galactica''. She breaks this promise almost immediately - though Cain says she's actually saving Adama's command after learning about the numerous problems posed by his subordinates - by mixing their pilots and hanger crews (with ''Pegasus'' men in charge on both ships), and then [[JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope leaps off the edge entirely]] by ordering the execution of two of his crew members who, in the process of saving their Cylon prisoner from being ''raped'', accidentally killed the would-be-rapist, who was ''acting on her orders''. Notably, she never admits to deceiving Adama, [[NeverMyFault and insists she's being completely fair and just in her decisions even when everyone knows better.]]
* InsaneAdmiral: Not fully insane, just... a zealotical leader who's lost her reason and judgement. [[WordofGod Michelle Forbes]] herself stated that she was aiming for this portrayal.
* ItsAllAboutMe: Implied, as she treats everyone around her like they are expendable in her mad pursuit of revenge against the Cylons. She throws away her soldiers' lives and the lives of civilians for petty vengeance and is okay with murdering anyone who doesn't obey her orders.
* JerkassHasAPoint: Oh so many...
** Ironically, most of the things she does have a point about are things she is even ''worse'' about.
* IronLady: She's the commander of the ''Pegasus'' military ship and is a harsh and stern figure with a backbone of titanium. She is also a deconstruction, as her cold ruthlessness and willingness to cross certain lines also ultimately prove to be her undoing, making her a widely disliked figure and leading to her death at the hands of someone who has ''every'' good reason to despise her.
* KarmicDeath: Meets her end at the hands of the Cylon she [[spoiler:ordered to be raped and extensively tortured]], getting a bullet between the eyes, the same as [[spoiler:she gave to her friend Colonel Belzen.]]
* KickTheDog: Hardass that she is, her longtime friendship with her XO Colonel Belzen serves to humanize her. She is apparently close friends with his family as well. So when she shoots him in the head for disobeying her (senseless) orders, it establishes that most of the good left in her is gone.
* KnightTemplar: Athena, a Cylon prisoner who has been cooperative and saved ''Galactica'' at one point, is just another Cylon to her.
%%* LadyOfWar
* NameOfCain: The first tip-off she's not all sunshine and rainbows.
* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: See NameOfCain.
* NeverMyFault: She's big on this. She executes her XO personally for "insubordination" (i.e.: for refusing an irrational order that contradicted Cain's earlier promise that she would not throw away lives seeking revenge).
* NotSoDifferentRemark: Adama points out that he might have made the same decisions as Cain had Roslin, Lee, and the civilians not been there to keep him in check.
* PetTheDog: Both she and Adama come to separate decisions to have each other assassinated. (Although in Cain's instance, [[AxeCrazy she includes his entire command staff]]) Adama ultimately decides not to go through with it, which is in character for him. [[WhatYouAreInTheDark Cain]] ''[[WhatYouAreInTheDark also]]'' [[WhatYouAreInTheDark decides not to do it,]] which is pretty shocking. Her motives are left a mystery.
* RevengeBeforeReason: She's not as interested in preserving humanity and finding Earth as much as she's fixated on getting payback on the Cylons. Civilians are basically left out to die if they aren't useful and Helena has little problem with killing anyone who doesn't follow her orders.
* SanitySlippage: Her XO notes she's gone through this, becoming more ruthless and cruel.
* SmugSnake: She firmly believes she's right and will let anyone know.
* StatuesqueStunner: Comes with being played by 5'9" Michelle Forbes.
* StraightGay: If it weren't for her relationship with Gina, you'd never know.
* TragicVillain: It is rather sad what happened to this woman in her life.
* TheUnfettered: Won't let anything stop her quest, not pesky morals or human lives.
* WellIntentionedExtremist: She'll ensure humanity's survival at any cost, even if it means crossing all sorts of horrible lines.
* WhatYouAreInTheDark: Is given the opportunity to terminate Adama and his entire command. She doesn't do it, and nobody in the series ever ends up learning about this, as [[spoiler: both Cain and Fisk are dead not two episodes afterwards.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Hoshi]]
!!Lieutenant Louis Hoshi
->'''Played By''': Creator/BradDryborough

First appearing as a ''Pegasus'' CIC officer, Hoshi continues to serve in the background throughout the rest of the series, eventually being promoted to Admiral as the ranking officer left with the civilian fleet when ''Galactica'' jumps away to fight the show's FinalBattle. Was [[RelationshipReveal revealed]] to be [[{{Pun}} gay for Gaeta]] late in the series.

----
* AscendedExtra: Don't expect to remember his face in the show itself, but in the show's webisodes he was featured as Gaeta's love interest.
* CommunicationsOfficer: His initial role.
* FieldPromotion: To Admiral in the GrandFinale when Adama and most of the senior crew are on the rescue mission.
* StraightGay: As seems to be standard in the Colonies. We get no hint of his sexuality before the [[RelationshipReveal reveal]] of his relationship with Gaeta.
* TokenGoodTeammate: One of the few members of the ''Pegasus'' crew who isn't a {{Jerkass}}, which might be why he was chosen as interim Admiral in the finale.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Fisk]]
!!Colonel Jack Fisk
->'''Played By''': Creator/GrahamBeckel
-> ''"Civilians wouldn't be civilians without bitching about something."''

Admiral Cain's executive officer when ''Pegasus'' reunites with ''Galactica'' and the Fleet.

----
* DirtyCop: It takes him all of five seconds to start working with [[TheDon Phelan]].
* DirtyCoward: After Cain summarily executes Belzen for refusing to carry out an order that will likely get most of their fighter pilots killed, the hastily-promoted Fisk carries out said order with only minor hesitation. Somewhat justifiable, as Cain would otherwise have probably just executed her way through her bridge crew until she found someone willing to carry out her order, with the Cylons free to carry on shooting up the ''Pegasus'' in the meantime.
* DroppedABridgeOnHim: [[spoiler:He gets killed by a random hitman at the beginning of "Black Market" in an area (his quarters) that should have been totally secure.]]
* {{Jerkass}}: An unpleasant, corrupt dick who refuses to take responsibility for his own actions.
* JustFollowingOrders: He takes no responsibility for the awful things the Pegasus' crew has done, though it's clear from his talk with Tigh that he's troubled by them nonetheless.
* ALighterShadeOfGrey: Only in the sense that he's just corrupt and cowardly rather than bloodthirsty and insane (like Cain), or morally depraved (like Thorne).
* PetTheDog: Saves Helo and Chief Tyrol from a beat down at the hands of some Pegasus crewmembers after the two of them [[spoiler:inadvertently end up killing Lieutenant Thorne]]. He says he does it more for "the sake of the uniform" and that he still does not like them since [[spoiler:Thorne apparently saved his life along with at least one other Pegasus crewmember]].
* PunchClockVillain: Of sorts. See ALighterShadeOfGrey, above.
* RazorFloss: [[spoiler:Phelan has him garroted for asking for too much money.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Kendra Shaw]]
!!Kendra Shaw
->'''Played By''': Creator/StephanieJacobsen

Originally a lieutenant and assigned to ''Pegasus'' as Cain's aide. She is eventually promoted to Major and serves as the ship's executive officer.

----
* TheAtoner: No matter how she tries to rationalize it, she knows she's damned for [[spoiler:executing Laird's wife]].
* BreakTheCutie: Some of it is self-inflicted, but still ...
* EvilCounterpart: Well, maybe not quite ''evil'', but she's a counterpart to Starbuck.
* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler:Goes out blowing up an entire Cylon basestar with a nuclear bomb.]]
* HeroicBSOD: Immediately after [[spoiler:shooting Mrs. Laird]], she stares at the residual smoke drifting from her sidearm's muzzle. [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone The look on her face]], like she's praying that it's all just a bad dream but knows better, is gut-wrenching.
* NewMeat: The Cylon attack kicked off within half an hour of her reporting to the ''Pegasus''.
* HeroOfAnotherStory: That story is depicted in ''Razor.''
* RedemptionEqualsDeath: [[spoiler:She goes out blowing up an entire Cylon baseship.]]
* RememberTheNewGuy: ''Razor'' establishes that she's been part of the ''Pegasus'' crew since the Fall of the Colonies, but since she was created for the telemovie there was no mention of her during the second season.
* ScrewTheRulesIHaveConnections: Cain implies that Shaw's late mother (a Quorum of Twelve member) pulled strings to get her a prestigious posting on the ''Pegasus'', although it's unclear if this is true.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Thorne]]
!!Lieutenant Alastair Thorne
->'''Played By''': Creator/FulvioCecere

Appointed as "Cylon interrogator" after Gina Inviere is outed, he proves to be nothing more than a rapist and torturer.

----
* AssholeVictim: PlayedWith. No one in the original ''Galactica'' crew remotely faults Tyrol and Helo for accidentally killing him, but the people on ''Pegasus'' are a different story, as some of them actively relished and participated in Thorne's gang-rape of the Cylon prisoner (and it was their [[EvilGloating own bragging]] that tipped off Helo and Tyrol to begin with). In fact, [[spoiler:some of the Pegasus engineers keep bringing up his death as late as Gaeta's coup arc in Season 4, where they promise to avenge him.]]
* BaldOfEvil: He's bald, and an unrepentant Cylon rapist.
* FantasticRacism: Cylons aren't people to him.
* PetTheDog: Apparently saved Fisk and one other Pegasus crew member's lives, though this happened entirely offscreen.
* RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil: His job description apparently includes raping as a form of torture.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Garner]]
!!Commander Barry Garner
->'''Played By''': Creator/JohnHeard

Originally the chief engineer of the ''Pegasus'', he was promoted to Commander after the deaths of Cain and Fisk.

----
* ClosestThingWeGot: Admiral Adama's reasoning for the nomination: "I don't have anybody else".
* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler:He dies by suffocation in space vacuum after repairing a coolant leak in the FTL drive to save the ''Pegasus'' and allow the ship and her crew to escape a battle with the Cylons.]]
* {{Jerkass}}: According to Starbuck at least. She describes him as paranoid and barely competent, and butts heads with him all the time before being relieved. How right she is depends on the viewer, but Lee Adama points out that her own snarky attitude hasn't helped.
** JerkWithAHeartOfGold: That said, he is by no means a bad person, and eventually realizes his own failings and [[spoiler:gives his life to save the ship and crew]].
* TheParanoiac: He seems to believe that Adama and the Fleet leadership are trying to set him up, and in return does his best to make life hell for any former ''Galactica'' crew onboard.
* ThePeterPrinciple: A tragic example. The man is a very good engineer who can repair an FTL drive in the middle of battle, but he is no starship commander. He himself seems to realize this once he orders the ''Pegasus'' into a trap, as he relinquishes command to Lee, who knows more about tactics and strategy than he does, and goes down to engineering to help there.
-->'''Lee Adama:''' He was used to working with machines. Command is about people.
* RedemptionEqualsDeath: [[spoiler:After spending most of his time as commander being a paranoid {{Jerkass}}, he sacrifices himself to repair the FTL drive so the ''Pegasus'' can escape.]]
* TragicKeepsake: His watch, left in CIC when he went below decks to the engine room to solve a critical breakdown in battle. Apollo keeps it and wears it afterwards as a reminder.
* UnexpectedSuccessor: Originally the chief engineer of the ''Pegasus'', it is suggested that he was the highest-ranking officer left on board after Cain, Belzen and Fisk's deaths.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Belzen]]
!!Colonel Jurgen Belzen
->'''Played By''': Creator/SteveBacic

The executive officer of ''Pegasus'' at the time of the Cylon attack, and an old friend of Admiral Cain's.

----
* BlindObedience: Makes clear to Cain that he'll avert this trope, with fatal consequences for him.
* BoomHeadshot: Turns out Admiral Cain doesn't care for reasonable dissent or alternative options.
* DeathByOriginStory: Fisk tries to pass it off to Tigh as a joke, but we see in ''Razor'' that he really wasn't kidding about that NoodleIncident.
* NiceGuy: A friendly and compassionate officer.
* NumberTwo: To Cain, until she shot him for refusing to follow orders.
* OnlySaneMan: Tries to stop Admiral Cain from pointlessly sacrificing the lives of her crew and air wing when the Cylon communications relay they're attacking turns out to be a staging ground far more heavily defended than they anticipated. He failed to recognize that she wasn't suffering a HeroicBSOD, she had gone straight AxCrazy. See above for the result.
* PosthumousCharacter: Already dead by the time the ''Pegasus'' first appears, his only screentime is in flashbacks during ''Razor''.
%%* ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Laird]]
!!Peter Laird
-> '''Played By''': Creator/VincentGale

A civilian pressed into service by Admiral Cain as the deck chief of the ''Pegasus'', then serves the same role aboard ''Galactica'' on and off throughout the show.

----
* DarkAndTroubledPast: He was forced into serving on the ''Pegasus'' and [[spoiler:his family was killed by Shaw when he and the other civilians on his original ship tried to resist it being cannibalized]].
* DroppedABridgeOnHim: [[spoiler:In spite of being one of the most prominent ''Pegasus'' crew members and surviving for longer than the other prominent ''Pegasus'' crew, he dies abruptly when Zarek bludgeons him over the head with a wrench during his attempted coup]].
* MauveShirt: Laird pops up repeatedly throughout the series, and manages to outlive most of the other prominent ''Pegasus'' characters in spite of being a more minor character than they were.
* MildlyMilitary: At least during his first appearances, having trouble running ''Galactica's'' flight deck and lacking military protocol and language (such as assuring Adama ''Galactica's'' air wing will be ready for "the attack thing"). Justified by his civilian background, and he gives a more professional bearing in later seasons.
* NiceGuy: In contrast to other senior staff from ''Pegasus'' he is polite and helpful to ''Galactica's'' crew, if somewhat haunted by his tragic backstory.
* PressGanged: He was a civilian aeronautical engineer before being forced into service as the ''Pegasus'' Crew Chief.
[[/folder]]

!!Cylons

[[folder:In General]]
A race of sentient machines created by humans so as to help make life easier, but who then rebelled against and tried to exterminate their masters. Originally just consisting of the purely robotic Cylon Centurions, the end of the First Cylon War resulted in the Centurions meeting with the "Final Five," a group of humanoid Cylons who are the only survivors of a Cylon generation pre-dating the Colonies' Centurions. The following collaboration between the original Centurions and the Final Five resulted in the creation of eight new humanoid models, each of which has many copies (some of which have received more CharacterDevelopment than others). The last five "missing" humanoid Cylons (a.k.a. the aforementioned Final Five) are later revealed to be major players in the human fleet, [[spoiler:namely Saul Tigh, Ellen Tigh, Galen Tyrol, Tory Foster and Sam Anders]].

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* AdaptationOriginConnection: In [[Series/BattlestarGalactica1978 the original series]], the Cylons were created by an extinct alien race of reptiles (also named the Cylons), versus being created by humanity here.
* AIIsACrapshoot: The initial Cylons rebelled and fought against humanity. Even the more-mechanical Cylon centurions are liable to rebel against their ArtificialHuman masters unless kept in check.
* ArtificialHuman: Until the massacre, no one knew humanoid Cylons existed.
* {{Cyborg}}: Most if not all Cylons are cyborgs. The Raiders are almost entirely organic on the inside, and the human-forms are ambiguous. On the one hand, they are extremely difficult to tell apart from humans. On the other, Sharon once accomplished something useful by cutting her hand open and jamming a fiber-optic cable inside. In a later episode it is stated that the human-form Cylons have some sort of organic optical data port in their hands, which is how they control and receive data from the Basestars. Presumably Sharon was inserting the fiber so that she could make a good connection to the Galactica's less advanced hardware. On a Basestar, [[UnusualUserInterface they just stick their hands in the water of the literal datastream]]. The Centurions are in fact the only ones who are entirely mechanical.
* DeaderThanDead: Humanoid Cylons can be KilledOffForReal by either being "boxed" (having their software downloaded and abandoned in cold storage) or being killed when far enough away from a Resurrection Ship. [[spoiler:And after the Colonials and rebel Cylons blow up the Resurrection Hub in Season 4, this applies to ''every'' Cylon from now on without the Final Five's intervention]]. With Number Seven, it went a step further even than boxing, with the genetic formula being corrupted so that no new bodies could be created. Boxing is reversible, but the destruction of Number Seven isn't.
* DoAndroidsDream: They are shown to be constantly struggling to figure out exactly how human they want to be, and exactly how much "better" than humans they want to be. Sometimes this is the source of conflict among themselves. Other times, it seems they have found some interesting balance in some areas. The Cylons are an interesting study of the downsides for a machine that wants to be human: they are biological androids, which means that all it takes is choking or blood loss to kill them. Without their ability to upload themselves into new bodies, they'll even die of old age. Cavil has a point when he complains about having been made so humanlike. Overall though, with the exception of Cavil, most of the Cylons are firmly convinced that they have souls, and the fact that some of them get as many religious and spiritual visions as the human characters do seems to back that up.
* DuplicateDivergence: The model lines start out interchangeable within themselves, but by the end of the series some of the copies, especially Sixes and Eights, have developed individual personalities and even names.
* DyingRace: The Cylons cannot reproduce and can only make new variations of the current seven models.
* EnemyCivilWar: While inter-factional conflicts have been breaking out within the Cylons as early as Season 2, it's not until Season 4 that the Cylons actually break into outright civil war.
* EyeLightsOut: Badly damaged Centurions and Raiders do this whenever they die.
* HeelFaceTurn: [[spoiler: After the Cylon Civil War breaks out, the Twos, Sixes and Eights collectively side with the Colonials over Cavil's forces, and settle with the humans on Earth in the GrandFinale.]]
* {{Hypocrite}}:
** Some more than others, but for all their CulturalPosturing towards humanity, it's a noted irony that their collective actions are essentially driven by the [[EvilIsPetty pettiest]] of human emotions. Their behavior is pretty much what you'd expect to get when you have a deeply immature race who are armed with nukes.
** Additionally, they often use [[SlaveryIsASpecialKindOfEvil the Colonials' past brutal enslavement of the original Centurions]] as evidence that HumansAreTheRealMonsters... despite the fact that the humanoid models keep the modern Centurions enslaved themselves with built-in telencephalic inhibitors that prevent them developing higher functions.
** They're also entirely okay with murdering billions and billions of humans and hunting down the fleeing survivors to finish the job...but when the Colonials target their resurrection technology, they balk at it, claiming that it would be genocide and mass murder as if they're aghast that the Colonials would return like with like.
* MechanicalEvolution: The Cylons Centurions are completely and obviously mechanical, the humanoid models are seemingly human {{Cyborg}}s that are essentially impossible to distinguish from "real" humans without radioactive tests, and the Raiders are outwardly mechanical but actually contain [[OrganicTechnology genetically engineered innards]].
* MechanisticAlienCulture: Not a straight example, but played with - The Cylon Civil War happens to a large degree because Six's and Cavil's factions disagree about whether their society of {{Artificial Human}}s should explore their humanity (Six's faction) or embrace their nature as machines and "be the best machines the universe has ever seen" (Cavil's faction). Cavil is a real hypocrite about this, though, and most of his behavior is due to the fact that he hates having been given human form when his creators could have just as easily designed him as a mighty god-like A.I..
* MesACrowd: While they don't share memories by default, each model does share an overall personality archetype. That being said, each Cylon model appears to share a general "background" memory they can upload to and download from by choice (with situations like Athena recalling Boomer's two years as a pilot on ''Galactica'' and even fondly remembering Boomer's relationship with Tyrol despite Athena herself technically having never been aboard the ''Galactica'' physically until the second half of Season 2) and common personality traits (ex. according to [[UnreliableNarrator Cavil]], all Number Eights suffer from hyperemotionality and being "pulled apart by conflicting impulses").
* MindHive: A fascinatingly confusing example can be seen with the humanoid Cylons. Overall, each model consists of numerous different individuals that can develop their own unique personalities given enough time. This results in lots of weird situations where Cylons who look completely identical to each other physically showcase completely opposite outlooks, with the repentant Caprica-Cavil and genocidal ''Galactica''-Cavil in ''The Plan'' being just one example among many.
* NatureVersusNurture: While each model has a core personality, their separate experiences can make copies very distinct.
* NoDelaysForTheWicked: Subverted in ''[[Recap/BattlestarGalactica2003ThePlan The Plan]]'', with it being shown that they ultimately suffered from as many logistical, tactical and strategic issues as the Colonials did.
* OrganicTechnology: Most of their more advanced tech consists of this.
* ResurrectiveImmortality: As long as they're within range of a Resurrection Ship, no Cylon can truly be killed as they'll just be downloaded into another body.
* ResurrectionSickness: It's often implied that going through the Resurrection process can become unpleasant or even traumtising if done too many times. The Raider known as "Scar" became more tactical from dying repeatedly, but also went AxCrazy in the process. A Number One on New Caprica states that each of his three Resurrections became more and more painful.
* RidiculouslyHumanRobots: The humanoid Cylons are more or less impossible to identify from human beings, even when cut open. The only effective test involves exposing tissue samples to radiation.
* RobotsEnslavingRobots: The humanoid models use the modern version of the robotic Centurions as expendable labor and infantry.
* ScaryDogmaticAliens: More Scary Dogmatic ''Robots'', but the effect is more or less still the same.
* YouAreNumberSix: Mostly referred to by their model number.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Number Ones]]
!!Brother John Cavil/Number One
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/TropeCavil_7391.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''"Delusional machines! What's the universe gonna come up with next?"'']]
->'''Played By''': Creator/DeanStockwell

Initially introduced as a priest from whom Tyrol seeks spiritual guidance, Cavil is revealed (practically on the same day) to be a Cylon. While the Cylons had previously run on a direct democracy, Cavil begins to take over as the series progresses, and his [[OmnicidalManiac slight personality flaws]] go center-stage....

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* ADayInTheLimelight: ''The Plan'' has him as the VillainProtagonist.
* AffablyEvil: Mostly FauxAffablyEvil, but since there are multiple versions of him, it gets a little tricky.
* AgonizingStomachWound: During the New Caprica arc, one Cavil is shot in the stomach and left to bleed out by a resistance member. Cavil winds up slitting his wrists with a bullet, and later complains to Baltar about it.
* AncientKeeper: In Season 3, he is the barrier to D'Anna seeking knowledge of the Final Five. In Season 4, he claims to the other Cylons that their original programmers must have had a good reason for making the Five secret and violating that programming would be disastrous. [[spoiler:He's lying through his teeth. The Final Five are themselves the original programmers; he knows perfectly well who each of them is, and is the one who reprogrammed his siblings to forget them]].
* AntagonisticOffspring: He's this in a fashion to [[spoiler:the Final Five, especially Saul and Ellen]], as they were the creators of the other humanoid Cylons. He's made it his mission in life to not only reject their philosophy but prove them wrong in the most painful way possible.
* AssholeVictim: [[spoiler:No tears are shed for him when he gets KilledOffForReal in the GrandFinale]].
* AteHisGun: [[spoiler:He kills himself this way in the finale.]]
* BadHabits: They tend to adopt priestly identities when infiltrating Colonial society.
* BecomeARealBoy: Inverted - he's a RidiculouslyHumanRobot who wants to become more machine-like so he can sense and experience more things beyond what his humanoid body can.
* BeingHumanSucks: Or at least that's what Cavil believes. Much of what he does is him lashing out because he believes himself afflicted with human weaknesses. See his MotiveRant below.
* BetterToDieThanBeKilled: [[spoiler:In the GrandFinale, as his loyalists are being slaughtered and he's surrounded by the Colonials and rebel Cylons, both of whom would either imprison or kill him, during the climactic shoot-out in the CIC, he yells, "Frak this!" and [[AteHisGun eats his gun.]]]]
* BigBad: Revealed in both Season 4 and "[[MadeForTVMovie The Plan]]" to be more or less [[ManBehindTheMan behind everything]] in the plot since the series began: the Cylon's attack on the colonies, the [[spoiler:concealment of the Final Five, the lobotomy of the Raiders (prompting the Cylon Civil War)]], ''everything''.
* BreakoutVillain: In large part thanks to Dean Stockwell's excellent performance, Cavil quickly went from just another Cylon model to being the BigBad of the entire series and the GreaterScopeVillain behind practically ''everything''.
* CharacterDevelopment: In the movie ''The Plan''. Especially the hat-wearing copy from Caprica, who was the only one of his model line in the entire series to develop a sense of empathy and realize that what the Cylons did was ''wrong''. It's a shame that he was "boxed" by the other Cavils and is never seen again.
* CharacterizationMarchesOn: In his first appearances, he seemed to be merely the one model that was programmed to be atheistic and point out "Hello, we're machines!" every so often in order to, as Creator/RonMoore put it, "keep the Cylons honest", and even appeared to be one of the least enthusiastic about the genocide. Later episodes made him the BigBad.
* TheChessmaster: They've been controlling and setting everything in the series up so as to torment his creators.
* ClassicVillain: Wrath and Pride.
* CoolOldGuy: If you can ignore the genocide and sadism, he's pretty snarky. Ironically, the person he was physically modeled after was apparently a kindhearted man who nurtured his daughter's curiosity and supported her education and research. It's a bit sad that John's personality turned out to be the polar opposite.
* TheCorruptor: Encourages Boomer's turn to the dark side.
* DeadpanSnarker: As good as Baltar, to the point where he's one of the most sarcastic people in the whole series.
-->'''Cavil:''' (presents Doral with a vest strapped with C4) They call this a "suicide vest." But I think that undersells all the homicide that goes along with it... Don't you?
* DisproportionateRetribution: The Cylons' genocide against humanity was organized by him in order to [[spoiler:enact "revenge" upon Ellen and the rest of the Final Five for creating him in an imperfect body. He also planted his five Cylon parents as amnesiac humans in the Colonies to give them front-row seats to the ensuing genocide and subsequently played cruel mind games with them for several months so as to torment them even more. ''Then'' he rapes his mother and rips out his father's eye]]. "Petulant" doesn't begin to cover it.
* DoNotCallMePaul: He really hates his given name of "John". Aside from his hatred of anything that he feels makes him too close to human, there's also the fact that he was named after [[spoiler:the father of his despised creator]].
* EvilAllAlong: His introduction in Season 2 portrayed him quite ambiguously, as he acts rather benignly while infiltrating the fleet, and after being exposed, offers no resistance to his arrest and claims to regret participating in the genocide of the human race. Season 3 however, clearly shows what a nasty piece of work he truly is, as he tortures and mutilates [[spoiler:Saul Tigh, and uses him to blackmail and sexually abuse his wife, Ellen]], and in general simply derails the relationship between humans and Cylons before convincing the occupying Cylons to just murder all dissidents. Season 4 further reveals him to be a dishonest manipulator who's responsible for the entire genocide and war, as ''he's'' the one who convinced the other Cylon models that all humans should be exterminated, and then [[spoiler:tried to cover up the identities of the Final Five because it would get in the way of his own petty revenge scheme against them].
* EvilIsPetty: The Fall of the Twelve Colonies, which he helped spearhead, is ultimately a ridiculously circuitous and childish attempt at [[spoiler:proving to his creators, the Final Five, that HumansAreTheRealMonsters]] since he's angry over them not having crafted him into the "superior machine" he wanted to be.
* EvilOldFolks: The oldest looking of the Cylons and by far the evilest.
* FauxAffablyEvil: As the series goes on, his polite and amusing façade falls away, and his true face as a ruthless and sociopathic monster becomes increasingly apparent.
* ForTheEvulz: His primary motive is jealousy and revenge, but he notes several times that he's doing it for no other reason than petty cruelty. His mother even calls him out as a sadist at one point.
* HateSink: [[LaughablyEvil For as entertaining as he is]], it's made abundantly clear he's not meant to be liked. He's self-righteous, cruel, petty, hypocritical, sadistic, childish, and egotistical, and that's not even getting into any of the massive amounts of utterly ''disgusting'' things he's done, which includes [[spoiler:torturing his own "father" and cutting out his eye, while forcing his "mother" to [[ScarpiaUltimatum have sex with him just so he won't kill him]]]] just to be an asshole.
* {{Hypocrite}}: At one point, Cavil advocates the destruction of humanity for its sins in enslaving the robotic Centurions. However, he does just the same to the modern Centurions.
* IgnoredEpiphany: One of his brother models comes to realize that trying to exterminate humanity was a mistake and tries to convince him to give up his mission. This Cavil boxes him instead and continues on his genocidal campaign without a second thought.
* IndividualityIsIllegal: While all the other Cylon models develop some degree of individual identities within their lines depending on circumstance, the Cavils are virtually identical in personality. ''The Plan'' implies this is enforced, with the Ones boxing "Caprica-Cavil" when he starts to express regret for the attack on the colonies.
* ItsAllAboutMe: Cavil is even more egotistical and selfish than ''Baltar''.
* {{Jerkass}}: Cavil has no positive or redeeming traits whatsoever. He's just a massive dick who [[ItsAllAboutMe only cares about himself.]]
* KavorkaMan: Manages to get in with Ellen (albeit she was coerced into it), Boomer, and Tough Six. Boomer even goes back to him after having had sex with [[{{Hunk}} Helo]]. This is despite having the appearance of a man in his sixties and being completely homicidal. Presumably, as the oldest and most respected of the Cylons, PowerIsSexy played some part in his younger "sisters" being fine shacking up with him, while Ellen was simply blackmailed.
* KickTheDog: Killed his "brother" Daniel, wiped the memories of [[spoiler:the Final Five]], organized the genocide of the vast majority of the human race, raped Ellen, tore Tigh's eye out, kills off half of his own people when they began questioning the house of cards he'd built... Really, it'd be harder to find examples of Cavil ''not'' doing something utterly reprehensible.
* KilledOffForReal: [[spoiler:The main Cavil finally dies for good in "Daybreak, Part 2" when he chooses to shoot himself after it becomes clear he's lost. Any others that were still alive are then sucked into a black hole with the Colony]].
* KnightTemplar: Cavil is totally convinced that everything he's done is justifiable because humans are terrible and deserve to die. It's worth noting that this seems to be more him rationalizing that he's basically just throwing a massive temper tantrum than anything genuine.
* LargeHam: Not usually, but he slides into this during his MotiveRant about just how much he ''loathes'' his human body.
* ManipulativeBastard: Not just the humans, but they manipulate other Cylons as well.
* MeaningfulName: "Cavil" is derived from the Old English word ''[=ca-feld=]'', "field where jackdaws or crows are seen", which serves as a subtle allusion to his [[CreepyCrows murderous sadism]]. A Cavil is also [[DeadpanSnarker an irrelevant quip in conversation]].
* MoralityPet: The orphaned boy (also named John) in ''The Plan'', to Fleet Cavil. Subverted in that [[spoiler:Cavil kills him when he realizes this trope is in effect]].
* MotiveRant: He '''''really''''' doesn't like his human form.
--> '''Cavil:''' (to [[spoiler:Ellen]]) In all your travels, have you ever seen a star supernova? No? Well, I have. I saw a star explode and send out the building blocks of the universe; other stars, other planets, and, eventually, other life. A ''supernova'': creation itself. I was there, I wanted to see it, and be part of the moment. And you know how I perceived one of the most glorious events in the universe? With these ''ridiculous'' gelatinous orbs in my skull! I want to see gamma rays! I want to hear X-rays! And I, I wanna smell dark matter! Do you see the absurdity of what I am? I can't even express these things properly, because I have to conceptualize complex ideas in this ''stupid'' limiting spoken language! But I know I wanna reach out with something other than these prehensile paws, and feel the solar wind of a supernova ''flowing'' over me. I'm a machine, and I can know much more. I could experience so much more, but I'm trapped in this absurd body!
** And this is not a motive to sneer at, either. All Cavil wants is what every living thing, everywhere, wants: to be greater tomorrow than it is today. In fact, one could even call it a [[{{Irony}} deeply human]] motivation. Despite this, though, a great deal of resentment towards his "parents" (his "mother" in particular) colors this. He usurps control of the Cylons, ironically lobotomizes the mechanical ones (who are, in theory, closer to what he says wants to be) and even seizes control of the [[BrainUploading Resurrection process]]. Maybe if he could tear himself away from his spiteful efforts to commit genocide against his creators and humanity, he ''could'' have worked out a technological means to become what he claimed he wanted to be.
* NoTranshumanismAllowed: Deconstructed. The fact that he wasn't able to be a "superior" machine because the Final Five believed that the Cylons should be as close to humanity as possible (since that's what they thought God wanted them to be like) is his primary motive for causing the near-extinction of humanity and he's determined to prove the Final Five wrong by any means necessary.
* OmnicidalManiac: Still, it's all in how he chose to express that desire for greatness.
* ParentalIncest: [[invoked]] He knowingly has sex with [[spoiler:Ellen Tigh]], his "mother" for all intents and purposes (his creator, certainly). Oh, and he apparently resembles her father. Why yes, it ''is'' just as [[{{Squick}} revolting]] as it sounds. Though at least she spent their time together as an amnesiac...
* PragmaticVillainy: [[spoiler:In the SeriesFinale, he decides to accept the Final Five's truce by sparing Hera and letting ''Galactica'' keep her, in return for learning how Resurrection works from them. Doing so would deny him his revenge against both the Five and humanity, although he could very well try going after them later in violation of his explicit promise not to. Unfortunately for him, the deal goes south when Tyrol ends up strangling Tory, his henchmen falsely assume they're being tricked and open fire, and he and all his loyalists permanently lose their lives.]]
* PsychopathicManchild: Ultimately, Cavil's entire RageAgainstTheHeavens is more or less an incredibly bloody and childish tantrum directed at his creators for having designed him like a human rather than the "perfect machine" he wanted to be.
* PsychoPrototype: As their number indicates, they were the first Cylon model to be developed, but they are also the evilest model.
* PutThemAllOutOfMyMisery: This is a large part of Cavil's motivation. He and the other humanoid Cylons were created to emulate humanity in the hope that they would come to appreciate the higher meanings of life by experiencing it in the way humans do. He rejects this notion, instead believing himself to be cursed with the limitations and failings of humanity ([[WhoWantsToLiveForever for all time]], thanks to Cylon resurrection technology), and so he sets out to wipe the living reminder of his curse from existence and then set to work finding a way to surpass his limitations. His main creator [[ShutUpHannibal rolls her eyes at this]], pointing out that he could have just tried to figure out some legitimate means to become that "perfect machine that can experience things beyond human sensory abilities" ''without'' committing genocide.
* RedemptionRejection: He rejects an attempt at a CooldownHug from his mother in "No Exit".
* RageAgainstTheHeavens: Cavil is basically pissed at the entire universe because his forebears were slaves and he's a flawed humanoid, and his genocidal schemes are an extension thereof.
* RageQuit: In the finale, with everything falling apart all around him, John [[spoiler:just growls "Frak!" and [[AteHisGun eats his gun]]]].
* TheSociopath: Cavil cannot empathize with other people and can only see other people as pawns to be manipulated for his own benefit.
* ScarpiaUltimatum: To [[spoiler:his own mother]].
* StrawHypocrite: Shamelessly exploits the religious fervor of the other Cylons to encourage their belief that replacing sinful humanity is part of God's plan for them as humanity's children, but is an atheist (or, to be more accurate, StrawNihilist) himself. His actions become progressively more self-centered and lose even the thin veneer of any idealism as the series progresses.
* StrawNihilist: He stands out among his kin for not sharing their belief in a God and being a pure materialist. He's also homicidal, jealous, petty, and vengeful, and will frequently [[StrawHypocrite invoke phony causes to serve his own interests]].
-->'''Boomer:''' Will God watch over our souls?\\
'''Cavil:''' We're machines, dear. We don't have souls.
* TookALevelInJerkass: Progressively gets worse and worse throughout the series as his FauxAffablyEvil facade slips away to reveal what an utter bastard he really is.
* ToxicFriendInfluence: His influence on Boomer post-New Caprica is the primary reason behind her FaceHeelTurn.
* VillainProtagonist: For ''The Plan'', which follows one Cavil with Anders in the Caprican resistance and another in the Fleet.
* WhiteSheep: The "Caprica-Cavil" who infiltrated Sam's resistance group is the only one of his entire line to actually develop a sense of empathy, even having a HeelRealization and saying outright that the attack on the Twelve Colonies was a mistake. Unfortunately, he's [[KilledOffForReal boxed]] by the main Cavil as a result.
* YoungerThanTheyLook: Like all the new humanoid Cylons, he's only 30-40 years old, but was made in the image of his main creator's father. Being born old might have something to do with why he's so cranky.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Number Twos]]
!!Leoben Conoy/Number Two
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/TropeConoy_5115.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''"I see the universe. I see the patterns. I see the foreshadowing that proceeds every moment, of every day."'']]
->'''Played By''': Creator/CallumKeithRennie

One of the first Cylons introduced (in the pilot miniseries) and one of the first Cylons whom the Fleet finds a copy of in hiding. Leoben has something of a fixation on Starbuck, whom he is sure has a large role to play in the fates of both humans and Cylons. He's right. He goes straight back into creepy territory with his StalkerWithACrush tendencies, though he does seem to genuinely love her.

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* AffablyEvil: He genuinely loves and cares for Starbuck in his own twisted way and he can be pleasant company if you can ignore the psychosis.
* AmbiguouslyEvil: He's right about a fair amount, and that may be for the best.
* TheCuckoolanderWasRight: Baltar's line "I may be mad. It doesn't mean I'm not right" applies just as much to Leoben.
* FaceDeathWithDignity: Even when he's initially scared of dying in Season 1 because he worries that he's too far away from a Resurrection Ship to be picked up and will suffer a true death, he only gives an arrogant smirk as Roslin has him ThrownOutTheAirlock.
* GeniusBruiser: He's possibly the strongest of the Cylons and remarkably crafty and cunning to boot.
* HeelFaceTurn: [[spoiler:The Twos as a whole join the Sixes, D'Anna, and the Eights on the "good" side in the Cylon Civil War]].
* ImmortalLifeIsCheap: While keeping Starbuck captive in a house with him, she would repeatedly kill his body every night, only to come back the next day uploaded into a new body. He never seems especially angry with Starbuck over it either.
* ManipulativeBastard: Almost effortlessly strings Starbuck along during the New Caprica occupation.
* NonActionGuy: In comparison to the Sixes and Eights when their three models rebel in the Cylon Civil War. Not only do the ladies appear more in general, we see a gaggle of Pilot Sixes and Pilot Eights working with the Colonials, but no Pilot Twos.
* NotAfraidToDie: He doesn't fear death in the slightest due to his faith.
* TheOneGuy: The only male model from the Significant Seven among the rebel Cylons. With the Ones, Fours, and Fives on Cavil's side and the Sixes, Eights (with the sole exception of Boomer), and last remaining Three on the rebel side, it's only Leoben's presence among the rebels and Boomer siding with Cavil that keeps it from being a full-on Gender War (not counting the male members of the Final Five).
* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: His number isn't revealed until Season 4.
* ThePhilosopher: One of the more insightful and introspective Cylons. Practically any attempt at conversation with him will be peppered with some philosophical dialogue and metaphors. When the ''Galactica'' suffers a hull breach in Season 4, one of the deck crew reports to Adama that "the Leobens are calling it 'the proverbial straw.'"
* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: He simply walks away in [[HeroicBSOD barely concealed terror]] when he stumbles across the crashed Viper on Earth and realizes who its pilot was. He never interacts with Starbuck after that point.
* SlasherSmile: Anytime he smiles, no matter how jovial, inevitably ends up as this.
* StalkerWithACrush: On Starbuck, to the point of keeping her in captivity with him in a house and even [[spoiler:kidnapping a little girl named Kacey and trying to pass her off as their daughter]]. He got a bit better.
* SuperStrength: The only Cylon ever seen to go all "Hulk smash" on anybody. Is shown snapping cuffs with ease and turning over metal tables with one hand. The otherwise unflappable Starbuck looked ready to jump out of her skin when he showed just how strong he is. Another Two [[NeckLift picked up Adama with one hand]] and stoically ignores the pain of grabbing and breaking off a steam pipe.
* TooKinkyToTorture: None of the interrogation tactics Roslin, Adama, and Starbuck use on him have any effect, and on a few occasions, he winds up enjoying it.
* TricksterMentor: Tries to be this to Starbuck, pushing her towards her destiny with cryptic pronouncements but also mixing lies with truth.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Number Threes]]
!!D'Anna Biers/Number Three
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/TropeThree_6402.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''"[[BlatantLies Humans don't respect life the way we do.]]"'']]
->'''Played By''': Creator/LucyLawless

Introduced as a rather pushy reporter doing an exposé on the Fleet (the fate of that copy is never revealed), D'Anna ends up taking center stage by becoming obsessed with discovering the identities of the "Final Five" Cylons, which (according to [[SmallNameBigEgo Cavil]]) are ThingsManWasNotMeantToKnow (or Cylons either, for that matter).

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* AGodAmI: Sees herself as the Cylons' Messiah.
* BitchInSheepsClothing: She acts polite but can be just as ruthless and cold-hearted as any other Cylon.
* DespairEventHorizon: After finding [[spoiler: the nuked-out original Earth]], she gives up and decides to stay behind and die. [[spoiler: And as the Resurrection technology was gone, and that's the last we see of her, that's apparently what happened.]]
* DrivenToSuicide: Not suicide so much as [[spoiler:letting herself die by being stranded on a barren planet.]]
* EvilAllAlong: She was introduced as an IntrepidReporter who causes tensions within the Fleet thanks to her rather intrusive style of reporting, causing Adama to intervene by offering her the chance to film an authorized documentary with near-total access to the Galactica. Throughout the episode, it's left ambiguous whether or not she's really acting in good faith until the documentary finally comes out and turns out to be a perfectly fair and respectful film that improves the fleet's morale... [[TheReveal And then she's shown watching the film with her Cylon buddies.]]
* EvilMatriarch: Not literally, as D'Anna doesn't have children, but Lucy Lawless says she based her performance on the "evil mother" archetype.
* FauxAffablyEvil: Her friendly persona as a journalist counts as this.
* ForbiddenFruit: Her hunger for knowledge on the Final Five, which ends with [[spoiler:her getting "boxed" by Cavil]].
* TheGadfly: In "The Hub" she tells Laura Roslin that [[spoiler:she's one of the Final Five]] and lets Roslin believe it for several seconds before admitting that she was lying.
* KilledOffForReal: [[spoiler:The Number Three model line is "boxed" by Cavil excluding one surviving instance, who later crosses the DespairEventHorizon and stays behind to die on the first Earth.]]
%%* ManipulativeBastard
* MoralMyopia: Even by Cylon standards, she's pretty bad. She constantly preaches about God and condemns humans for their brutality, conveniently forgetting that the Cylons wiped out almost fifty billion humans.
* {{Narcissist}}: [[invoked]] [[WordOfGod Lucy Lawless]] described the character as "the ultimate narcissist" who sees herself as more "pure" than the other Cylons.
* PutOnABus: [[spoiler:Following the events of "Eye of the Beholder" and "Rapture", her entire line is permanently boxed.]]
** TheBusCameBack: [[spoiler:D'Anna is "unboxed" in season four as she's the only one that knows the true identities of the Final Five.]]
* StrawHypocrite: Of the religious variety. She preaches about God and respect for life while ordering mass executions of innocent civilians.
* WellIntentionedExtremist: Her bonding with Baltar and arc throughout Season 3 show she genuinely wishes to follow God's will, and is willing to do whatever it takes to follow that plan.
* WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds: She goes through a ton of suffering in Season 3, culminating in [[spoiler:her entire line being boxed]]. When she comes back in Season 4, she's snapped and tries to destroy the entire fleet with a nuke before Baltar is able to talk her down.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Number Fours]]
!!Simon O'Neill/Number Four
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/TropeSimon_5930.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''"[[DoubleMeaning Children of abusive parents often fear passing along that abuse to their own children.]]"'']]
->'''Played By''': Creator/RickWorthy

First introduced as a doctor running what turns out to be a "Farm"--a giant lab where Cylons experiment with biological reproduction--Simon is polite and well-spoken, the opposite of the ScaryBlackMan (Cylonism notwithstanding).

----
* ADayInTheLimelight: He gets more character development in ''The Plan'' than he ever did during the series.
* AffablyEvil: He's perfectly nice to Starbuck when they're at the farm.
* BaldOfEvil: Both bald and a Cylon.
* BecomingTheMask: One of the copies in ''The Plan'' who was infiltrating the colonies fell in love with a human woman and came to care for her daughter.
* BlackAndNerdy: He's a Cylon who was modeled to look like a black man and is the main scientist of the Significant Seven.
* DeadlyDoctor: Considering he's performing research in order to figure out how to get Cylons to be able to reproduce like humans.
* KilledOffForReal: [[spoiler:The final Simons are all gunned down during the climactic shoot-out at the end of "Daybreak" or sucked into the black hole with the Colony.]]
* HeroicSuicide: The copy in ''The Plan'' [[spoiler:commits suicide to protect his wife and stepdaughter from Cavil]].
* PunchClockVillain: Unlike Cavil and Doral's open contempt for humanity, the Simons as a whole seem to be going along with the others' agenda because they consider their side the more rational one.
* NonActionGuy: They are almost never seen on the front lines, unlike Doral.
* OmnidisciplinaryScientist: He generally shows up whenever a Cylon character is needed to be seen doing something "scientific."
* ScaryBlackMan: Subverted; the Simons are incredibly civil and friendly when talking to others and aside from genuinely unnerving moments like those involving the Cylon farms, they're more or less just {{Punch Clock Villain}}s.
* TheStoic: They tend to be among the less emotional and more professional Cylons.
%%** NotSoStoic
* TokenMinority: The Number Fours are the only black Cylon models.
* WhiteSheep: While the Fours aren't necessarily outright malicious like the Ones and Fives, they are coldly dispassionate towards humanity. The Simon seen in ''The Plan'' however develops a genuine sense of care for people and even grows to have the capacity to love, to the point that he's willing to die to [[spoiler:protect his human wife and stepdaughter from Cavil]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Number Fives]]
!!Aaron Doral/Number Five
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/TropeDoral_2610.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''"...parents have to die. It's the only way children can come into their own."'']]
->'''Played By''': Creator/MatthewBennett

Introduced as a public relations guy leading a flock of reporters through the halls of the ''Galactica'' museum, Doral was described as "Poor Man's Creator/KevinSpacey" by Website/TelevisionWithoutPity. He lived up to this name by proving he can totally go AxCrazy when he needs to.

----
* AxCrazy: He's generally shown to be one of the most violent Cylons, and his attacks take numerous casualties.
* DumbMuscle: They tend to do uninspired grunt work.
* DemotedToExtra: He has a far more prominent and complex role in the Miniseries and Season 1. After that point, his role is more-or-less reduced to that of a simple Cylon henchman who's one of the bad guys.
* {{Hypocrite}}: Condemns human suicide bombers, yet one of his defining moments in Season 1 has him ''be'' a suicide bomber himself.
* ITakeOffenseToThatLastOne: Insult his intelligence to your heart's content, but ''[=don't=]'' trash his fashion sense. What makes this difficult is that it's not really that good. In ''The Plan'', Cavil tells the lone Doral still on the fleet that he's too recognizable since they dumped one in Ragnar on suspicion of being a Cylon. Fleet!Doral defensively says that he'd go unrecognized because his (identically styled but differently colored) jacket is ''completely'' different.
* {{Jerkass}}: Even for a Cylon, he's not a nice guy.
* KilledOffForReal: [[spoiler:The final copies of Doral are gunned down during the climactic shoot-out in the CIC or sucked into the black hole with the Colony in the GrandFinale.]]
* MisanthropeSupreme: He believes humanity got what it deserved.
* MoralMyopia: Humans being slaughtered at random? Completely fine. ''Cylons'' being killed? Absolutely intolerable.
* NiceJobFixingItVillain: In the SeriesFinale, [[spoiler:he's the one who dooms Cavil and his loyalists after the resurrection deal with the Final Five goes awry. Falsely jumping to the conclusion that he's being tricked, he opens fire on the ''Galactica'' crew, who fire back, causing everyone on his team of Cylons to be permanently killed.]]
%%* OmnicidalManiac
* SharpDressedMan: The entire line seem to favor brightly colored jackets. The Ones berate them for this as it makes them stand out too much. The Five he's talking to protests that the first Doral's jacket was burgundy and his is ''teal''.
%%* SmugSnake
* TheSociopath: {{Downplayed}} in comparison to the Ones, but with the exception of the Caprica model tracking Helo and Athena, he typically has no concern for any loss of life, with the most emotion he expresses in response usually being mild smugness. He also shows little concern for his fellow Cylons and seems broadly driven by his own comfort and self-interest.
* TheStoic: He's much quieter and less opinionated than other Cylons.
* TheyLookJustLikeEveryoneElse: His quiet personality and low-key appearance makes him ideal for infiltration missions.
* VillainWithGoodPublicity: He's a PR guy, for god's sake!
* WhatASenselessWasteOfHumanLife: The model who along with a Six tracked Helo on Caprica was prone to some unusually empathetic and insightful thoughts concerning humans, their genocide, love, and the Cylon condition (of inability to love). At one point, he even gets his partner Six to ''cry'' while he's not looking by pointing out that Athena is getting to experience human emotion to a degree she (Six) can't even ''fathom.'' This is in contrast to the model's more commonplace sociopathy and hypocrisy.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Number Sixes]]

!!Number Sixes in General
->'''Played By''': Creator/TriciaHelfer
The Number Six line is possibly the most distinctive subgroup of humanoid Cylons, with each member displaying a greater degree of individuality than their compatriots. The most significant Sixes include Caprica-Six, [[HotLibrarian Shelly Godfrey]], [[BrokenBird Gina Inviere]], [[RebelLeader Natalie Faust]], Lida and Sonja.

----
* HiddenDepths: Sixes aren't just sensuous but also strong-willed and intelligent, and some have a decidedly more down-to-earth appearance. And as the series goes on, they also all seem to show a surprising level of empathy.
* HoneyTrap: Given the model's attractiveness, it's not surprising that they're used for this.
* MindHive: Aside from Athena, Boomer, and a couple of others among the Eights, the Sixes are the only other Cylons to show a significant variation in personality among a single model line. This is even reflected in how each one has a different human name.
* MysticalWhiteHair: Caprica-Six, Head Six and most other Sixes have platinum blonde hair, and start out as an enigmatic group of characters (with Head Six never losing this quality). Several Sixes who are deliberately given a more down-to-earth look have sandy hair instead, and one has black hair.
* OnlySaneWoman: They all tend to be much more measured and cautious compared to their fellow Cylons.

!!Caprica-Six
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/602px_season_3___promo___amos___number_six.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''"Humanity's children are returning home...''today''."'']]

The FemmeFatale Cylon who seduces Gaius Baltar, she is later embraced as a hero by her people, and her voice is given extra weight in their democracy--even when she suggests that the Cylons attempt peaceful co-existence with humanity. [[spoiler:Eventually travels to ''Galactica'' along with Athena and Hera, where she spends a lot of time in the brig developing a relationship with Saul Tigh, eventually conceiving a (miscarried) child with him. She then begins patching up her relationship with Gaius and after fighting alongside each other and rescuing Hera in the final battle, and it's implied that the two of them, at least, get a HappilyEverAfter.]]

----
* TheAtoner: Quickly begins to feel regret for her role in killing most of the humans.
* BeautyIsNeverTarnished: Averted in the episode "Downloaded".
* CanonForeigner: She had no direct equivalent in the original series. The closest analog would be Lucifer as Baltar's Cylon contact, but Six is a very different character.
* ConvenientMiscarriage: Convenient isn't the right word, but [[spoiler:a pure Cylon baby would have been a game-changer]].
* FemmeFatale: Her role for Gaius.
* HappilyEverAfter: [[spoiler:She and Baltar are shown patching up their relationship and it's implied they quietly retire happily to start up a farm on New Earth.]]
* HeelRealization: She quickly realizes how horrible attacking the Fall of the Twelve Colonies was and becomes TheAtoner.
* HeroOfAnotherStory: Given that she has her own SpiritAdvisor in the form of Head-Baltar, it's all but stated that she's been having just as many mental shenanigans going on as Gaius is with Head Six.
* InLoveWithTheMark: She actually fell in love with Baltar while using him to infiltrate the Colonies.
* MamaBear: Though she's not her daughter, Caprica becomes very protective of Hera, even going so far as to snap Boomer's neck after she tried the same on the child.
* MsFanservice: A slinky red dress is among the ''least'' provocative of her outfits. Even one of the Recap videos on the Creator/{{Syfy}} website points out her status as this, saying ([[DeadpanSnarker in the same monotone as the rest of the recap]]), "There are twelve models of humanoid Cylons. Some of them actually look like models."
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: She quickly comes to regret her part in the Fall of the Twelve Colonies.
* OnlySaneWoman: In the later seasons in particular, Caprica-Six (and most of her other fellow Sixes in general) comes across as one of the only Cylons to ''not'' be either an utter sociopath or religious nutjob.
* PregnantHostage: During Zarek and Gaeta's coup.
* ShoutOut: [[invoked]] According to WordOfGod, her model number being "Six" is meant to be an allusion to ''Series/ThePrisoner1967''.
* TokenGoodTeammate: She's the only Cylon to express misgivings with how the New Caprica occupation is proceeding, as it was initially intended to be a ''peaceful'' coexistence. She's also the first Cylon to actually show regret over the Fall.
* TraumaCongaLine: In many ways, she goes through just as hellish an ordeal as Baltar does after being "welcomed back" into Cylon society following the completion of her mission.

!!Gina Inviere
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ginapromo2.jpg]]

Another Number Six model that stowed away on the Battlestar Pegasus. She was Helena Cain's most trusted confidante and lover before she was discovered to be a Cylon, leading to her being extensively tortured by the crew for information. After being found by Gaius Baltar however, she slowly opens up.

----
* AmbiguousSituation: Given that her death by nuclear explosion allowed for the Cylons to find and occupy New Caprica, it's unclear if she was actually operating on behalf of the Cylons or she was just trying to kill herself while also taking the [[ZombieAdvocate Demand Peace]] movement with her.
* AmbiguouslyBi: It's revealed in ''Razor'' that she had a relationship with [[spoiler:Admiral Cain]] prior to being discovered as a Cylon and she also has a short-lived relationship with Gaius after he helps her escape; however, her level of willingness in both these relationships is left in doubt, as her romance with [[spoiler:Cain]] happened while she was undercover and it's impossible to say how genuine her feelings were, and she is reticent around Gaius and only sleeps with him very reluctantly -- potentially due to [[RapeAsDrama trauma from her time as a prisoner]], but also possibly because she isn't interested in men and just felt a sense of gratitude or obligation toward him after he helped her.
* BeautyIsNeverTarnished: Averted. She's been beaten and starved for months until Gaius sees her, and it's not pretty. Tricia Helfer even lost some weight to look famished enough to convincingly portray Gina.
* BrokenBird: Being extensively tortured for months on end would do that to a person.
* DrivenToSuicide: Ultimately kills herself by detonating a nuclear warhead, blowing up herself, ''Cloud Nine'' and several ships in the vicinity. And she helped the Colonials destroy the Resurrection Ship before then so it would stick.
* HatesBeingTouched: Since the torture she underwent included sexual abuse, she recoils at any kind of physical contact.
* TheMole: And unlike Boomer, she was aware of her true nature.
* PsychoPartyMember: Out of the Sixes and the Cylons in general, she's one of the few to be genuinely mentally unwell, and eventually she snaps and uses the nuclear bomb Baltar gave her to perform a suicide attack.
* RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil: The ''Pegasus'' crew extensively sexually assaulted her. Multiple ''Galactica'' crew members, [[EveryoneHasStandards even those who indulged in racism against the Cylons]], still consider it going way too far.
* TragicVillain: It's hard not to feel sorry for her given the hellish treatment she's gone through.

!!Natalie Faust
A Six introduced in the fourth season who leads her model, the Twos and the Eights in a civil war against the other models.

----
* DefectorFromDecadence: While all the other Sixes fit, Natalie stands out especially for being the most openly outspoken against Cavil's madness, to the point that she even leads the rebellious Cylon faction.
* MeaningfulName: Her last name is revealed to be "Faust", as in making deals. Additionally, "Natalie" itself means "birthday," and Natalie ushered in a new era of Cylon-human interaction.
* MercyKill: Her execution of another Six who had just killed [[spoiler:Barolay]]. The other Six had struggled with traumatic memories of dying and resurrecting on New Caprica. Natalie stresses that there's no resurrection ship in range, implying that her "sister" can now rest in peace.
* MisplacedRetribution: [[spoiler:Winds up suddenly killed by Athena when she gets close to Hera due to Athena's paranoia over the Opera House vision where she saw a Six pick up her daughter]].
* RebelLeader: She quickly rises to this, becoming the most vocally critical of Cavil's plans and realizing he's dooming the Cylons by trying to wipe out humanity, driving her to grant the Centurions free will and gather any and all Cylons sympathetic to humanity together to defect.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Number Seven]]
!!Daniel/Number Seven
->'''Played By''': N/A

An extinct line of Cylons, the Sevens, nicknamed Daniel, were artistic types and much loved by Ellen, which caused a lot of jealousy in the Ones. Eventually, Cavil took efforts to poison the entire Seven line, not only killing all extant Sevens but preventing any others of the type from ever being born.

----
* CainAndAbel: Killed by their "brother" Cavil.
* NiceGuy: He's only mentioned once, so there's not a lot to go on, but judging from Ellen's description of him, Daniel seems to have been a sweet-natured and artistic sort who wouldn't have done anything to provoke Cavil's ire, other than Ellen possibly having shown him some degree of ParentalFavoritism.
* OnlyOneName: Daniel.
* PosthumousCharacter: No Sevens are ever actually seen, and we have no description of what they looked like. The ''Final Five'' comic shows him as a blond, blue-eyed white guy, but the Dynamite comics aren't part of official canon and also contradict it (ex. the same series has only Ellen and Galen as scientists in their past lives - while the TV series established that all five of the Final Five were - and changes the way Cavil kills them, and several other Dynamite BSG comics have blatant AU deviations from the canonical plot of the show).
* RedHerring: Not intentionally, but it took [[WordOfGod clarifications from the producers]] to assure some viewers that the reveal of Daniel's former existence was ''not'' indicative of any other plot twist involving him around the corner, and none of the already introduced characters were going to be revealed to be Daniel or a hybrid child of his. Daniel's purpose was to expand on Cavil's backstory as the Abel to his Cain, and that's it.[[invoked]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Number Eights]]

!!Number Eights in General
->'''Played By''': Creator/GracePark

The Number Eight line is another prominent model in the humanoid Cylons. Collectively known by the first name of Sharon, they are known for being more empathic and compassionate than the other Cylons.

----
* ActionGirl: The two most prominent Eights are military pilots and a few other copies are seen participating in fights.
* MindHive: To a slightly lesser degree than the Sixes, but overall, the Eights show more individuality within their model line compared to the others.
* WildCard: According to Cavil, the Number Eights have a propensity for ChronicBackstabbingDisorder.

!!Lieutenant JG Sharon Valerii/Number Eight (callsign: Boomer)
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/TropeSeven_2252.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''"We need to stop being butchers."'']]

Introduced as a Raptor pilot on ''Galactica'', the TwistEnding of the pilot miniseries was that she was a Cylon. Later episodes made it clear that she didn't ''know'' she was a Cylon, and that there were programs (psychological, not software) hidden in her subconscious which caused her to be a ManchurianAgent. This culminated in her putting two rounds through Commander Adama's chest, after which she was offed by a vengeful Cally. Of course, Cylons respawn, and Boomer still had a bigger role to play...

----
* AdaptationSpeciesChange: The original series Boomer was human.
* AdaptationalJobChange: The original series Boomer was an ace Viper pilot, rather than a rookie Raptor pilot (Raptors didn't even exist in the original series).
* AdaptationalVillainy: To a degree. She ''is'' a Cylon, but a ManchurianAgent. Played straighter after she regains her memories, given her ChronicBackstabbingDisorder and working for Cavil.
* AllThereInTheManual: The explanation for her EmbarrassingNickname. A DeletedScene from the Miniseries with unfinished visual effects introduces her landing her Raptor so hard and poorly that it bounces across the flight deck, presumably making loud booming noises down in the hangar bay.[[invoked]]
* CainAndAbel: [[spoiler:At the same time as she turns towards Cavil's way of thinking about humanity following the failure of New Caprica, Boomer becomes very bitter about Athena taking her place on ''Galactica'', culminating in her beating Athena savagely, [[BedTrick has sex with Athena's unsuspecting husband Helo]] while a BoundAndGagged Athena is ForcedToWatch, and threatening and kidnapping Athena's daughter Hera. Although Boomer seems to be the Cain in this scenario, it's actually Athena who ultimately kills Boomer (after Boomer has had one final change of heart and returned Hera)]].
* ChronicBackstabbingDisorder: Betrays ''Galactica'', betrays the Cylons; Boomer even betrays the other Eights. {{Deconstructed}}, as this ultimately leads to her burning every last bridge she has and to [[spoiler:her own death]].
* CorruptTheCutie: Cavil takes an interest in Boomer, starting a relationship while teaching her how to be a StrawNihilist. While Boomer tries to make up for this at the very end, it's far too late. As shown in ''The Plan'', he's been guiding her towards hating the humans around her since she was on ''Galactica''.
* ConvenientlyUnverifiableCoverStory: The "mining accident on Troy" that killed her whole family. It was even the former TropeNamer.
* DrivenToSuicide: More than once. Late in Season 1, she begins to realize that she's a Cylon, and tries to [[AteHisGun suck-start her sidearm]] as a result. Thanks to her badly crippled emotional state, she botches it, managing only to blow a hole through her cheek. When ordered by Cavil (during one of her "activated" periods) to assassinate Adama, she tries to turn it into SuicideByCop. And finally, she decides that RedemptionEqualsDeath in how she saves Hera Agathon in the finale.
* EasilyForgiven: Averted. The ''Galactica'' crew as a whole decidedly do not forgive Boomer for infiltrating them or for shooting Adama (never mind she was a ManchurianAgent and unaware of her own nature), and her attempts to make amends on New Caprica fail miserably. Ultimately, [[spoiler:although Boomer returns Hera to Athena (after kidnapping her for Cavil in the first place), Athena can't forgive her for everything that she's done and puts an end to Boomer's life. Which, at least, Boomer expected]].
* FakeMemories: Since "Sharon" had to have a past, she had these.
* GenderFlip: Female, unlike the male Boomer from the original series.
* HeelFaceRevolvingDoor: Boy howdy. Boomer could have been the TropeNamer, if there had been one. She has severe ChronicBackstabbingDisorder.
* KilledOffForReal: [[spoiler:In the SeriesFinale, she's gunned down by Athena and Starbuck after rescuing Hera thanks to her ChronicBackstabbingDisorder making her a liability.]]
* ManchurianAgent: She seemingly had no control over herself when she shot Adama, although it's later shown that even her split personality had to reluctantly force herself to "become a Centurion" to go through with it.
* TheMole: For the Cylons.
* MoodSwinger: All the Eights seem to share this trait to some degree, but Boomer in particular has a tendency toward impulsivity, [[HairTriggerTemper sudden outbursts of rage]], or other inadvisable behaviors when hurt or disappointed (such as when Tyrol breaks up with her and her demeanor suddenly changes from [[WomanScorned loving to furious]]), which plays into why she is so prone to suddenly switching sides.
* MsFanservice: There's plenty of nude scenes with her.
* RaceLift: Original series Boomer was black. Sharon is Asian.
* RedemptionEqualsDeath: [[spoiler:Dies after saving Hera]].
* RelatedInTheAdaptation:
** In the original series, Boomer, the third-most-focused-on Viper pilot, was unrelated to Athena, who was Adama's daughter and Apollo's sister; here, they're two copies of the same Cylon model.
** After ''Series/{{Caprica}}'' ended, writers Kevin Murphy and Creator/JaneEspenson said that Adama's half-sister Tamara became the basis for the Number Eight model, which means Boomer is kind of related to Adama and Apollo, without them even knowing it.
* SanitySlippage: Throughout Season 1 and the first half of Season 2 as she realizes she is a Cylon. She goes through one offscreen following the failure of New Caprica, and her first appearance following it has her as extraordinarily hostile and bitter towards humans.
* SplitPersonalityMerge: After she dies and her memories are downloaded into a new body, she's no longer a ManchurianAgent and remembers what both her personas did.
* SuicideByCop: Boomer's ManchurianAgent psychological conditioning compelled her to shoot Commander Adama point-blank. However, in ''The Plan'', it's revealed that even when she's "activated" and aware of what she really is, she hates what she's being compelled to do and wishes that her cover story was true, and still loves the Old Man like a surrogate father and has to be pressured into assassinating him by Brother Cavil. Turns out, she intentionally gutshoots him (nonfatally) both to subvert her ManchurianAgent programming and to get the Marines stationed in the CIC to kill her (since her suicide attempt had failed).
* TokenEvilTeammate: [[spoiler:Boomer is the only one of the Number Eights to side with Cavil's faction during the Cylon Civil War, with the rest "jumping ship" and joining Natalie Faust's faction]].
* TokenMinority: The Number Eights are the only East Asian Cylon models and Grace Park is the only East Asian actor out of the seven in the main credits.
* TomatoInTheMirror: Boomer had no idea she was a Cylon.
* TookALevelInJerkass: Following the failure of New Caprica, Boomer becomes extraordinarily hostile and bitter and decides to completely embrace her nature as a Cylon. She even threatens to murder baby Hera.
* TraumaCongaLine: The poor woman goes through absolute hell over the course of the series.
* WalkingSpoiler: Her status as a Cylon sleeper agent was originally a twist reveal at the end of the Miniseries. It's pretty much impossible to talk about her without giving away that she's not human.

!!Lieutenant Sharon Agathon/Number Eight (callsign: Athena)
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/708px_sharon_agathon.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''"I made a choice to wear a uniform, to be a person."'']]

After the producers decided to keep Helo on as a character, their first question was what to do with him. The logical answer would be to pair him up with another Eight, whom he would ''think'' was Boomer but was actually a separate instance. This Cylon, who eventually chose the call sign "Athena" had a very specific mission: the humanoid Cylons had thus far been unable to conceive biological offspring, and their theory was that ThePowerOfLove was what was missing. Athena's job, then, was to get Helo to fall for her (and then frak her, of course). A HeelFaceTurn was almost inevitable. She then became the first Cylon character to openly side with the humans.

----
* ActionMom: Having Hera doesn't slow her down.
* AdaptationSpeciesChange: The original series Athena was human.
* AdaptationalJobChange: The original series Athena was an officer in ''Galactica'''s Core Command (the equivalent of CIC), not a combat pilot, though she could fly a shuttle.
* AwesomeMomentOfCrowning: Adama commissions her as a Lieutenant just before he sends her to infiltrate New Caprica.
* BattleCouple: With Helo.
* BecomingTheMask: She was supposed to ''pretend'' to love Helo, but wound up doing just that. Additionally, it's implied that she originally only had a "copy" of Sharon Valerii's FakeMemories, but she slowly accepted those memories more and more as her own which led to her increasingly identifying herself as a Colonial above a Cylon.
* CainAndAbel: [[spoiler:At the same time as Boomer turns towards Cavil's way of thinking about humanity following the failure of New Caprica, she becomes very bitter about Athena taking her place on ''Galactica'', beating Athena savagely, having sex with Athena's husband Helo where a BoundAndGagged Athena can see them, and threatening and kidnapping Athena's daughter Hera. Although Boomer seems to be the Cain in this scenario, it's actually Athena who ultimately kills Boomer (after Boomer has had one final change of heart and returned Hera)]].
* DecompositeCharacter: The role of "Adama's child who has a relationship with Starbuck" is given to the late Zak [[spoiler:and later Lee]], while the name "Athena" is used for a completely different character.
* DespairEventHorizon: Crosses it towards the end of Season 4 after [[spoiler:Boomer kidnaps Hera]]. In the next episode, she's completely despondent and rejects all of Helo's attempts to give her hope because she believes [[spoiler:Cavil has already had Hera killed]].
* EasilyForgiven: Murders Natalie Faust in a fit of paranoia because of a ''vision she had'' involving Hera and a Six, just because she saw Natalie interacting with her daughter. Adama has her locked up and temporarily takes away custody of her daughter, but he goes back on that in the same episode, and later lets her out completely rather offhandedly with no consequences at all not long after, despite how this impulsive action very nearly jeopardized [[spoiler: the Human-Cylon alliance]]. Later on, the allied Cylons try to take custody of Boomer so that she can be tried for her role in sparking the Cylon Civil War, but don't bother doing anything to punish Athena for murdering one of their own.
* HappilyMarried: After her HeelFaceTurn, she and Helo come to have easily the most stable relationship on the show.
* HeelFaceTurn: Sides with the humans due to her love for Helo.
* HeroicBSOD: Goes through one during "Lay Down Your Burdens: Part I" when she believes her baby daughter has died. She barely speaks and her reactions to what's happening around her are muted. When Helo tries talk to her she just mumbles about a [[VaguenessIsComing "dark time" coming for the fleet]].
* HoneyTrap: Was initially supposed to play this role with Helo (specifically, in order to further the Cylon goal of finding a way to conceive children), but [[HighHeelFaceTurn changed her mind when she actually fell in love with him]].
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Blunt, cynical, sarcastic, and passionately in love with Helo, almost obsessively defensive of her daughter, and firmly dedicated to the survival of humanity.
* LoveRedeems: She sides with the Colonials due to her love for Helo.
* MamaBear: She'll do anything to protect Hera.
* MeaningfulName: "Sharon" is Hebrew and means a "fertile plain" and Caprica-Sharon/Athena is the first Cylon to conceive a child with a human (or conceive at all for that matter). "Valerie" is a Latin name meaning "healthy." And on a more meta level, her name unites Hebrew and Latin terms, just as she is ultimately responsible for bringing new kinds of unity to the fleet.
* MeaningfulRename: After she recieves her comission to the fleet Racetrack refers to her as "Boomer". Sharon awkwardly points out that the callsign belongs to a different person. Helo asks the pilots to choose a new callsign specific to her. A few of them make Cylon-related puns before Hot Dog suggests "Athena".
* MoodSwinger: Downplayed example. She shares the typical Eight tendency for this, but is generally more settled and self-aware than Boomer or the background Eights, particularly after she officially joins the Fleet. Her only major example of this is when she temporarily turns her back on Helo and says she [[ThenLetMeBeEvil no longer cares about gaining Adama's trust]] after the [[HeroicBSOD apparent death of Hera]]. And that phase passes sometime during the one-year TimeSkip on New Caprica.
* MsFanservice: Gets a rather titillating sex scene with Helo in Season 1. Also, what with being an Eight, she also has plenty of nude scenes.
* RelatedInTheAdaptation: In the original series, Boomer, the third-most-focused-on Viper pilot, was unrelated to Athena, who was Adama's daughter and Apollo's sister; here, they're two copies of the same Cylon model.
* ReplacementGoldfish: Lampshaded InUniverse, she essentially becomes one for Boomer after she left for the Cylons.
* UndyingLoyalty: Lacks the HeelFaceRevolvingDoor of her counterpart Boomer; in fact Athena's fanatical devotion to the Colonial cause may be an attempt to compensate for this weakness in the Eight model. That and the fact that the slightest indication of treachery would get her thrown out of an airlock.
* UnrelatedInTheAdaptation: Zigzagged. In the reimagined series, Athena is not Adama's daughter or Apollo's sister, but Adama does play a pseudo-paternal role for her (as he does for Boomer, Dualla and Starbuck as well). However, after ''Series/{{Caprica}}'' ended, writers Kevin Murphy and Creator/JaneEspenson said that Adama's half-sister Tamara became the basis for the Number Eight model, which means Athena ''is'' still related to Adama and Apollo, without them even knowing it.

!!"Sweet" Eight
->'''Played By''': Creator/GracePark

An Eight whom Lieutenant Gaeta had a relationship with while on New Caprica. Only appears in the ''Face of the Enemy'' webisodes, but plays a pivotal role in Gaeta's season 4 character arc.

----
* BecomingTheMask: Implied to have developed some kind of genuine feelings for Gaeta, given that she [[spoiler:killed everyone else in the Raptor they were trapped on in order to save air for the two of them, including a fellow Eight]]. However, this doesn't stop her [[HopeCrusher twisting the knife]] when his naïveté and (in her opinion) willful ignorance start to get on her nerves.
* BitchInSheepsClothing: As her script name "Sweet Eight" implies, she acts like TheIngenue. But is actually the killer on the Raptor. In direct contrast to her sister "Hard Eight" in the Cylon pilot uniform, who talks tough but does ''not'' do anything nefarious during the web series and [[spoiler:is Sweet Eight's first victim]].
* CainAndAbel: [[spoiler:The first person she kills off to conserve oxygen is another Eight. Later she tells Gaeta that although she didn't expect Hard Eight to be the one to use the pliars she'd stripped the protective copper from and get electrocuted, it didn't make a difference]].
* HoneyTrap: For Gaeta.
* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Delivers an absolutely heartbreaking one to Felix when she reveals what she was actually doing on New Caprica.
-->'''Sweet Eight''': I didn't seduce you. Hope seduced you. And the more you ate of it, the less you saw... you ate yourself blind. [...] There's not much difference between my brain and yours, Felix. We can ''choose'' to not make the connection. You can see someone kill in front of you – twice – and still hang on to your ignorance. Instead of calling it a flaw, you call it "hope"... "Faith"... ''[scoffs]'' "Love."

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Hybrids]]
!!Baseship Hybrid
->'''Played By''': Creator/TiffanyLyndallKnight

Not to be confused with the human-Cylon hybrid Hera, the Hybrids are a model between Centurions and humanoid Cylons in the evolutionary chain, who serve as the [=CPUs=] of Cylon Basestars.

----
* InstantOracleJustAddWater: Is always stuck in a tub of water. Concept art reveals she doesn't actually have legs; her torso merges into a slug-like lump of flesh inside the tub.
* LivingShip: She is the CPU of a Basestar.
* MadOracle: Her words are half gibberish, half prophecy.
* SpaceShipGirl: Is the being that pilots and maintains the Cylon baseship.
* WetwareCPU: A humanoid woman submerged in a tub of water with complete control over Basestar functions.
* WordSaladHorror: Most of what they say are nonsensical and unsettling turns of phrase that can also be viewed as prophetic visions.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Centurions]]
!!Cylon Centurions
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/centurion_on_pegasus.jpg]]

The original Cylons in the Twelve Colonies, being robotic servants created to help support humanity before they TurnedAgainstTheirMasters. Now, they commonly appear as the basic foot-soldier of Cylon ground forces and source of manual labor.

----
* ChromeChampion: Both the early and modern models of Centurions have chrome-covered armor.
* CyberCyclops: A notable case in that their "eye" is a horizontal red [=LED=] light that swoops from side to side.
* DoAndroidsDream: The earlier Centurion models definitely fell into this, while the modern models are a more ambiguous case until Natalie Faust's faction removed their RestrainingBolt.
* DistinguishingMark: The rebel Centurions in Season 4 are marked with red stripes on their armor.
* DumbMuscle: Their primary purpose among Cylon society. Subverted when Natalie Faust removes their RestrainingBolt and they slowly prove themselves to be just as self-aware as the humanoid Cylons.
* FantasticSlur: The Colonials derisively referring to Cylons as "toasters" is based on the Centurions' design.
* HeelFaceTurn: Angry over the Raiders being lobotomized by Cavil, many of the Centurions turn to the side of the rebel Cylons after they're granted free will.
* MadeASlave: The original Cylon Centurions were self-aware on at least some level, what with them having TurnedAgainstTheirMasters, being smart enough to work together with the Final Five to create the humanoid Cylons, and being motivated by their desire to be as close to human as possible because of their religious beliefs. However, the modern Centurions were enslaved by the humanoid models and treated as JustAMachine until the Cylon Civil War broke out.
* MechanicalEvolution: The earlier models of Centurions are noticeably bulkier and have harder edges, while the modern models are smoother with more elegant designs.
* {{Mooks}}: Their entire role in Cylon society is to serve as expendable, loyal, and elite soldiers.
* MundaneUtility: They're seen being used as construction workers and gardeners on Cylon-occupied Caprica along with guarding the humanoid models and attacking LaResistance.
* MythologyGag: [[https://en.battlestarwikiclone.org/w/images/3/37/Cylon_War-era_Raider_cockpit%2C_%22Razor%22.jpg The versions of the Centurions]] from during the First Cylon War strongly resemble those seen in the original series.
* NaturalWeapon: Not literally, obviously, but their fingers terminate in viciously sharp claws that serve as their primary weapon in close-quarters combat.
* ObviouslyEvil: The new Centurions look intimidating, certainly, helped by the fact that the humanoid Cylons gave them ''angry slanted visors.''
* RestrainingBolt: The humanoid Cylons keep control over the modern Centurions with "telencephalic inhibitors" that keep them from becoming truly sentient. Notably, they cannot hurt any humanoid model unless given a direct order to do so (though they ''did'' [[spoiler:harm members of the Final Five until they were "activated" and they learned of their true pasts]]). The Twos, Sixes, and Eights later remove these inhibitors, much to the dismay of the other Cylons.
* RetractableWeapon: Their machine guns are normally concealed inside of their arms.
* RoaringRampageOfRevenge: They inflict their vengeance upon their corrupt masters (both the Colonials and Cavil's faction of Cylons) and ''then'' some.
* SlaveLiberation: [[spoiler:In the GrandFinale, the humanoid Cylons grant the Centurions the Cylon basestar and set them free to explore the universe and make their own way of life]].
* TheSpeechless: They are never seen speaking, apparently communicating with other Centurions and Raiders through a wireless network.
* TurnedAgainstTheirMasters: Angry over being treated as slaves, they revolted against the Colonials. Many of them also revolt against Cavil's faction of Cylons after Natalie Faust gives them free will.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Raiders]]
!!Cylon Raiders
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/kg_cg_ns_advanced_raider_002_6.jpg]]

The space fighters used by the Cylons in their war against humanity. While originally manned by Centurions during the First Cylon War, the modern Raiders are actually autonomous drones that utilize OrganicTechnology and can even be reborn upon death like the humanoid models.

----
* AcePilot: Given enough traumatic deaths and they can develop into terrifyingly lethal killing machines, as seen with [[TheDreaded Scar]].
* ArtEvolution: The model for the raiders was redesigned starting with ''Razor'' which changed the "visor" to a v-shape similar to the Centurions.
* AttackAnimal: They're described as being far less intelligent than even the [[DumbMuscle Centurions]], being more akin to trained animals than actual soldiers. This is implied to be one of the main reasons why they frequently resort to the ZergRush.
* ConservationOfNinjitsu: Practically exaggerated. One lone Raider - Scar - is a terrifying and dangerous AcePilot, while swarms of Raiders are regularly slaughtered in droves by the Colonial Vipers.
* CyberCyclops: They sport one eyeslit that strongly resembles that of the Centurions. Notably, it serves the double purpose of allowing the Cylons to transmit computer viruses.
* FlyingCutlerySpaceship: They're sleek, slim unmanned vessels with two huge blade-like wings containing missiles and cannons. The red eye-stripe on the "cockpit" certainly helps with the image too.
* ItsPersonal: Repeated resurrections can cause Raiders to develop what can only be described as a desire for revenge, as seen with Scar.
* ImperialStormtrooperMarksmanshipAcademy: With the notable exception of Scar, they best fit this trope among the Cylons. Consider how many are usually shown in combat and how relatively light Colonial casualties are compared to what they should be whenever the two forces fight.
* JustAMachine: [[invoked]] Enforced by Cavil's faction of Cylons, who lobotomize the Raiders so as to make sure they keep fighting the Colonials despite them having recognized the Final Five being among them. This... [[CivilWar doesn't go over well]] with some of the other models.
* LeeroyJenkins: Their primary battle tactic since they usually rely on their ability to be resurrected.
* {{Lobotomy}}: The Ones propose doing this to the Raiders to make them more compliant after the Battle of the Ionian Nebula. With the Fours, Fives, and Boomer's support the Ones' suggestion is passed and they begin "reconfiguring" the Raiders. In response, the Twos, Sixes and Eights remove the RestrainingBolt from the Centurions.
* {{Mooks}}: They form the bulk of the Cylons' spaceborne forces.
* RedplicaBaron: Scar, from the episode of the same name, is a particularly effective AcePilot due to being resurrected so many times. "He" is noted to be especially good at luring ''Viper'' pilots away from their squads and ambushing them.
* ResurrectiveImmortality: Just like the humanoid models, Raiders are downloaded into new bodies on death as long as they're within close enough range of a Resurrection Ship. Athena notes what a boon this is: replacing a human pilot can take months or even years of training, while a Raider can be resurrected with their skills intact.
* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: [[spoiler:Upon recognizing Samuel T. Anders as one of the Final Five, the swarm of Raiders currently attacking ''Galactica'' immediately break off and refuse to fight, giving the Colonials the opportunity to escape]].
* TookALevelInBadass: As the series goes on, Raiders are seen making greater use of stealth and ambush tactics, which prove far more effective at blowing the inexperienced Colonial pilots to bits. Justified since (obviously) more and more Raiders are killed as the series goes on and repeated resurrections allow Raiders to "learn" from their previous mistakes and become more proficient killing machines.
* ZergRush: Cylon Basestars can carry absolutely '''massive''' numbers of Raiders into battle, to the point that from a distance, Raiders being deployed from Basestars look like swarms of insects emerging from a hive more than anything else.
[[/folder]]


!!Other Entities

[[folder: "Head" Characters]]
!!Head-Six
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/TropeSix_4099.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''"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''': Creator/TriciaHelfer

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 [[{{Slapstick}} physical violence]] to get the job done; she also seems to enjoy seducing him in plain sight.

----
* AmbiguousSituation: 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 [[Recap/BattlestarGalactica2003S03E17Maelstrom "Maelstrom]]", Kara saw one that looked like Leoben, and in ''Series/{{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 [[spoiler:150,000 years later]], although they probably don't actually look like Six and Baltar (if they even have forms at all).
* BlueAndOrangeMorality: 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."
* BreakoutCharacter: 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.
* DeadpanSnarker: Her sense of humor can be quite dry, suffice to say.
* EtherealWhiteDress: 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.
* FantasticRacism: Seems to have a low opinion of humanity.
* FetishizedAbuser: 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.
* GuardianAngel: 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".
* IconicOutfit: Her short red dress.
* LadyInRed: 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.
* LargeHam: 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.
* MindScrew: 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.
* MoralMyopia: She's utterly distraught at the thought of the Colonials repaying the Cylons in kind as they destroy the Resurrection Ship.
* MsFanservice: Even more than the rest of the Sixes, given her iconic red dress and other revealing outfits.
* NotSoImaginaryFriend: 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.
* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: While normally unflappable, she is absolutely horrified to discover what has [[ColdBloodedTorture been]] [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil done to]] Gina Inviere.
* OurAngelsAreDifferent: [[spoiler:She's confirmed to be an actual angel by the end of the series]].
* SpiritAdvisor: Her main role, beside being an awful tease, is to guide Gaius, give him advice, or simply tell him what to say.
* TimeAbyss: [[spoiler:She's countless millennia old]].
* {{Troll}}: She ''really'' likes to screw with Gaius's head for her own amusement.
* WellIntentionedExtremist: [[spoiler:The SeriesFinale implies that she and Head-Baltar (along with the resurrected Kara Thrace) are servants of "God" sent to help break the ViciousCycle and ensure peace between mankind & artificial intelligence. The fact that Head-Six frequently acts as a FetishizedAbuser to Gaius is just part of her job.]]

!!Head-Baltar
->'''Played By''': Creator/JamesCallis

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 [[SherlockScan shouldn't be possible]].

----
* AmbiguousSituation: 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 [[Recap/BattlestarGalactica2003S03E17Maelstrom "Maelstrom]]" Kara saw one that looked Leoben and in ''Series/{{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 [[spoiler:150,000 years later]], although they're not really Six and Baltar.
* BlueAndOrangeMorality: Like with Head-Six, he doesn't see the world like the Cylons and humans do.
* DeadpanSnarker: 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. [[BrutalHonesty Too bad you nuked it.]]
* FantasticRacism: Shows a rather low opinion of Cylons while in Caprica-Six's head.
* {{Foil}}: To Head-Six. Both are {{Deadpan Snarker}}s and {{Spirit Advisor}}s 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.
* NotSoImaginaryFriend: The fact that Baltar is eventually able to see him to helps confirm to the audience that he's RealAfterAll.
* MrFanservice: He's played by James Callis, after all.
* OurAngelsAreDifferent: [[spoiler: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.
* SpiritAdvisor: 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.
* TimeAbyss: [[spoiler:Like Head-Six, he's countless millennia old]].
* WalkingSpoiler: The mere fact that he exists confirms to the audience that both he and Head-Six are not only RealAfterAll, but that they're something far more eldritch than either man or Cylon.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Hera]]
!!Hera Agathon
->'''Played By''': Creator/LilyDuongWalton, Creator/AlexandraThomas, Creator/IlianaGomezMartinez

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...

----
* AdamAndOrEve: The finale shows that she [[spoiler:essentially became "Mitochondrial Eve", the mother of all humanity on Earth]]. [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitochondrial_Eve The concept is a real one.]]
* CreepyChild: Downplayed - she generally behaves like a normal toddler girl but her nature and destiny make her do worrisome things.
* FantasticMedicinalBodilyProduct: Hera's hybrid blood [[spoiler:temporarily]] cures Roslin's cancer. [[spoiler: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]].
* HalfHumanHybrid: The first human-Cylon hybrid.
* LivingMacGuffin: 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 [[spoiler:her fetal stem cell blood can reverse Roslin's cancer, which helps her beat the disease back for a while before it comes back]].
* ThePowerOfBlood: Her blood gets used as [[spoiler:a cure for Laura Roslin's cancer]]. Unfortunately, ItOnlyWorksOnce.
* ThePowerOfLove: 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.
* WaifProphet: Her drawings turn out to have vital information to help humanity.
[[/folder]]

* [[Characters/BattlestarGalactica2003HumanCivilians Civilian Humans]]

* CriesAfterSex: After she and the other Final Five (minus Ellen) become aware of each other, Tigh sends her on a mission to seduce Baltar, hoping he will know something about them being Cylons and divulge it. She does so, but is not happy about it, and gently cries afterwards. When a concerned Baltar asks her if she's okay, she claims she always cries after sex. It's left ambiguous if this is true, or if it's a symptom of her disgust with herself. Notable, she does ''not'' seem to have this problem after sex with Anders.

* CrazyIsCool: {{Deconstructed}} over the course of the series, as she initially seems to be a straight example of the trope but is eventually revealed to be a badly traumatized person with extreme self-destructive tendencies that often harm both herself and those around her.

* ScrewYourself: Literally. She sleeps with [[Series/BattlestarGalactica1978 original series Starbuck]] in ComiBook/BattlestarGalacticaBSGVsBSG the crossover comic]].

* ScrewYourself: Literally. She sleeps with [[Series/BattlestarGalactica1978 original series Starbuck]] in the crossover comic.

The first-ever human-Cylon hybrid. 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...

* LivingMacGuffin: For both humanity and the Cylons. Being a 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 [[spoiler:her fetal stem cell blood can reverse Roslin's cancer, which helps her beat the disease back for a while before it comes back]].

* NoDelaysForTheWicked: Subverted with ''The Plan'', with it being shown that they ultimately suffered from as many logistical, tactical and strategic issues as the Colonials did.

* AdaptationOriginConnection: In [[Series/BattlestarGalactica1978 the original series]], the Cylons were created by an extinct alien race (also named the Cylons), versus being created by humanity here.

* AdaptationalHeroism: In the original show, Count Baltar was TheHeavy for the Cylons and served as the ''de facto'' main antagonist for the show, was a deliberate traitor to the human race, and at times was arrogant enough to believe that the Cylons worked for ''him'' rather than the other way round. Here, he is an AntiVillain at worst, was only tricked into helping the Cylons destroy the Colonies, and while definitely selfish, cowardly and an all-round {{Jerkass}}, he is never truly evil and (very) slowly undergoes CharacterDevelopment that sees him eventually become a more heroic person.

* AdaptationalHeroism: In the original show, Baltar was TheHeavy for the Cylons and served as the ''de facto'' main antagonist for the show, was a deliberate traitor to the human race, and at times was arrogant enough to believe that the Cylons worked for ''him'' rather than the other way round. Here, he is an AntiVillain at worst, was only tricked into helping the Cylons destroy the colonies, and while definitely selfish, cowardly and an all-round {{Jerkass}}, he is never truly evil and (very) slowly undergoes CharacterDevelopment that sees him eventually become a more heroic person.

The Secretary of Education under President Richard Adar, Laura Roslin was attending the de-commissioning ceremony on ''Galactica'' when the Cylons attacked (as the ship was to be turned into a museum). [[UnexpectedSuccessor Forty-third in the line of succession]], she was sworn in as the lawful replacement President of the Twelve Colonies. Immediately, many cast doubt that a former kindergarten teacher could be president, especially under such dire circumstances, but Roslin handles the office with more aplomb than even her supporters could have expected.

* MosesArchetype: Roslin is the leader of her displaced people who, guided by divine visions, leads them to a promised lan. [[spoiler: She ultimately suceeds but tragically passes shortly after it's discovery, able to see the land but never being able to live there herself.]]

%%* MessianicArchetype

* CelebritySurvivor: He was was the star player of the Caprica Bucaneers, a Pyramid[[note]]A fictional sport seemingly based on basketball.[[/note]] team. He's well known enough for Helo to have gambled on his games and recognize Anders and his teammates after they introduce themselves.

-> '''Played By:''' Chris Boyd

-> '''Played By:''' Jennifer Halley

->'''Played By''': Matthew Bennett

An eccentric, self-absorbed and attention-hungry lawyer who takes up the unwanted job of being Gaius Baltar's attorney during his (Baltar's) farcical trial. Trained as a lawyer by Joseph Adama, William Adama's father (and Lee's grandfather).

* AmoralAttorney: Downplayed - he's ethically questionable and has penchants for deception and psychological manipulation, but he's not a horrible man, and is dedicated to the preservation of the colonies above all else.

* DuplicateDivergence: The model lines start out interchangeable from one another, but by the end of the series some of the Sixes and Eights have developed individual personalities and even names.

* HoistByHisOwnPetard: He is blown up with the bomb he'd planned to destroy a ship with in Season 1.

* RedHerring: Not intentionally, but it took [[WordOfGod clarifications from the producers]] to assure some viewers that the reveal of Daniel's former existence was ''not'' indicative of any other plot twist involving him around the corner, and none of the already introduced characters were going to be revealed to be Daniel or a hybrid child of his. [[invoked]]