Battlestar Galactica Characters: Every Major Character in the 2004 Series

The main characters of Battlestar Galactica (2004) are Commander William Adama, President Laura Roslin, the pilots Kara "Starbuck" Thrace and Lee "Apollo" Adama, the scientist Gaius Baltar, and the humanoid Cylons hidden among them. The show ran from the 2003 miniseries to the 2009 finale, and the episode guide lists every episode in order. This page goes through the people who matter most, grouped by side, with a line on how each one's story ends. It has full spoilers, including who the Cylons are. (Battlestar Galactica miniseries; Battlestar Galactica, "Daybreak, Part II")

Looking for Adama, Apollo and Starbuck as Lorne Greene, Richard Hatch and Dirk Benedict played them? That's the 1978 show, a separate story with different versions of the same names, covered on the original Battlestar Galactica page. (Battlestar Galactica miniseries)

Galactica's command and crew#

The fleet's military side runs out of Galactica, an old battlestar that was hours from becoming a museum when the Cylons attacked. These are the officers and crew whose decisions drive the show.

William Adama#

William Adama, callsign Husker, commanded Galactica at the Fall of the Twelve Colonies. He had refused to network the ship's computers, which is why the Cylon attack didn't cripple it, and he led the survivors away from the Colonies to look for Earth. Roslin promoted him to admiral after the battle at the Resurrection Ship. He ended the series alone on the new Earth, settled beside Roslin's grave. (Battlestar Galactica miniseries; Battlestar Galactica, "Resurrection Ship, Part II"; Battlestar Galactica, "Daybreak, Part II")

Saul Tigh#

Saul Tigh was Galactica's executive officer, Adama's oldest friend and a heavy drinker. On New Caprica he lost an eye in Cylon detention, led the resistance and later poisoned his wife Ellen for collaborating. He then learned he was one of the Final Five, and chose to stay an officer of the fleet. He survived to settle on the new Earth. (Battlestar Galactica, "Occupation"; Battlestar Galactica, "Exodus, Part II"; Battlestar Galactica, "Crossroads, Part II"; Battlestar Galactica, "Daybreak, Part II")

Kara "Starbuck" Thrace#

Kara Thrace was the fleet's best and most reckless Viper pilot, and had been engaged to Adama's younger son Zak before he died. Stranded on Caprica, she met Samuel Anders, whom she later married, and was held at a Cylon Farm. Her Viper exploded over a gas giant in season 3, and two months later she flew back claiming she had been to Earth. She found her own burned body on the dead first Earth, then used the notes of her father's song to make the jump that brought the fleet to the real one, and vanished. (Battlestar Galactica, "Daybreak, Part I"; Battlestar Galactica, "Resistance"; Battlestar Galactica, "The Farm"; Battlestar Galactica, "Maelstrom"; Battlestar Galactica, "Crossroads, Part II"; Battlestar Galactica, "He That Believeth in Me"; Battlestar Galactica, "Sometimes a Great Notion"; Battlestar Galactica, "Daybreak, Part II")

Lee "Apollo" Adama#

Lee Adama, Adama's surviving son, started the series as Galactica's CAG and his father's sharpest critic. His father gave him command of Pegasus and promoted him to commander. Lee later defended Baltar at his trial, left the military, joined the Quorum of Twelve and served as acting president while Roslin was missing. In the finale he argued for leaving the fleet's technology behind. (Battlestar Galactica, "The Captain's Hand"; Battlestar Galactica, "Crossroads, Part II"; Battlestar Galactica, "Sine Qua Non"; Battlestar Galactica, "Daybreak, Part II")

Karl "Helo" Agathon#

Karl Agathon gave up his seat on a Raptor to Baltar during the attack and was left on Caprica. There he fell in love with a Number Eight, the Sharon later called Athena, and brought her back to the fleet. Their daughter Hera was the first child of a human and a Cylon. Helo was part of the strike team that rescued her in the last episode, and lived on Earth with his family. (Battlestar Galactica miniseries; Battlestar Galactica, "Home, Part II"; Battlestar Galactica, "Downloaded"; Battlestar Galactica, "Daybreak, Part II")

Galen Tyrol#

Galen Tyrol, the Chief, ran Galactica's hangar deck. He loved Boomer, then married the deckhand Cally, and learned from the music that he was a Cylon. Cally died after finding out. At the Colony, a shared memory showed him Tory had killed her, so he strangled Tory, which wrecked the truce with Cavil. He went off to live alone on the new Earth. (Battlestar Galactica, "Crossroads, Part II"; Battlestar Galactica, "The Ties That Bind"; Battlestar Galactica, "Daybreak, Part II")

Felix Gaeta#

Felix Gaeta was Adama's tactical officer. On New Caprica he worked as Baltar's aide while secretly feeding information to the resistance. He turned against the alliance with the rebel Cylons and led a mutiny with Zarek, which failed. He was executed by firing squad. (Battlestar Galactica, "Occupation"; Battlestar Galactica, "Collaborators"; Battlestar Galactica, "The Oath"; Battlestar Galactica, "Blood on the Scales")

Anastasia Dualla#

Anastasia Dualla, Dee to the crew, was Galactica's communications officer. Billy loved her, but she married Lee. After the fleet found the first Earth in ruins, she spent one last happy evening with Lee and then shot herself. (Battlestar Galactica, "Sacrifice"; Battlestar Galactica, "Occupation"; Battlestar Galactica, "Sometimes a Great Notion")

Louanne "Kat" Katraine#

Louanne Katraine came aboard as a rookie pilot trained by Starbuck and grew into her rival. While guiding the fleet's ships through a deadly star cluster she took a fatal dose of radiation, and before she died it came out that she had taken a dead woman's name after the Fall. (Battlestar Galactica, "Act of Contrition"; Battlestar Galactica, "The Passage")

The Colonial government#

The civilian side of the fleet sits aboard Colonial One, and it fights Galactica almost as often as it fights the Cylons.

Laura Roslin#

Laura Roslin was Secretary of Education, forty-third in line, until the attack killed everyone above her and she was sworn in as president. She had just been told she had breast cancer, and came to believe she was the dying leader of scripture who would guide her people to a new home. She lost the presidency to Baltar, took it back after the escape from New Caprica and lived long enough to see the new Earth. She died there on a last flight with Adama. (Battlestar Galactica miniseries; Battlestar Galactica, "Home, Part II"; Battlestar Galactica, "Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II"; Battlestar Galactica, "Exodus, Part II"; Battlestar Galactica, "Daybreak, Part II")

Gaius Baltar#

Gaius Baltar was a celebrated computer scientist who let a Number Six into the defence mainframe because she was sleeping with him. He spent the rest of the show hiding it. He became vice president, beat Roslin in the election, and ran the settlement on New Caprica as the Cylons' puppet. Acquitted at his trial, he became the leader of a religious following. In the finale he talked Cavil down in the CIC and settled with Caprica Six to farm. (Battlestar Galactica miniseries; Battlestar Galactica, "Colonial Day"; Battlestar Galactica, "Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II"; Battlestar Galactica, "Occupation"; Battlestar Galactica, "Crossroads, Part II"; Battlestar Galactica, "Escape Velocity"; Battlestar Galactica, "Daybreak, Part II")

Tom Zarek#

Tom Zarek was a jailed terrorist on the prison ship Astral Queen when the fleet met him, and he turned a work detail into a stand-off with Lee. He went into politics, became Baltar's vice president and later co-led Gaeta's mutiny, during which he had the Quorum shot. He was executed alongside Gaeta. (Battlestar Galactica, "Bastille Day"; Battlestar Galactica, "Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II"; Battlestar Galactica, "Blood on the Scales")

Billy Keikeya#

Billy Keikeya was Roslin's young aide, at her side from the attack onward. He was shot dead during a hostage crisis on Cloud 9 while protecting Dualla. (Battlestar Galactica miniseries; Battlestar Galactica, "Sacrifice")

Tory Foster#

Tory Foster replaced Billy as Roslin's aide and was one of the four who heard the music. She took to being a Cylon faster than the others and pushed Cally out of an airlock. Tyrol killed her for it at the Colony. (Battlestar Galactica, "Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II"; Battlestar Galactica, "Crossroads, Part II"; Battlestar Galactica, "The Ties That Bind"; Battlestar Galactica, "Daybreak, Part II")

Pegasus#

The battlestar Pegasus survived the Fall on its own and fought a very different war before it found Galactica.

Helena Cain#

Helena Cain commanded Pegasus and outranked Adama when the two ships met. She ran her ship with executions and abandoned civilians, and her crew had held and abused the Six called Gina. Gina shot her dead after escaping. (Battlestar Galactica, "Pegasus"; Battlestar Galactica, "Resurrection Ship, Part II"; Battlestar Galactica: Razor)

Kendra Shaw#

Kendra Shaw joined Pegasus just before the Fall and became Cain's protege. Under Lee she served as executive officer, and she died setting off a nuke by hand to destroy a Cylon base. Her story is the core of the TV film Razor. (Battlestar Galactica: Razor)

The Final Five#

The Final Five were people from the Thirteenth Tribe's Earth who built the other humanoid Cylons, then had their memories wiped and were hidden in the fleet. Tigh, Tyrol and Tory have entries above. The other two:

Samuel Anders#

Samuel Anders was a Pyramid star who led the human resistance on Caprica and married Kara. A bullet during the mutiny brought back his memories of Earth. Wired into Galactica as its Hybrid, he flew the emptied fleet into the sun at the end. (Battlestar Galactica, "Resistance"; Battlestar Galactica, "No Exit"; Battlestar Galactica, "Islanded in a Stream of Stars"; Battlestar Galactica, "Daybreak, Part II")

Ellen Tigh#

Ellen Tigh was Saul's troublesome wife, who sold information to the Cylons on New Caprica and was poisoned by him for it. She woke in a resurrection tank as the fifth of the Five, escaped Cavil with Boomer's help and made it back to Galactica and Saul. (Battlestar Galactica, "Exodus, Part II"; Battlestar Galactica, "Sometimes a Great Notion"; Battlestar Galactica, "No Exit"; Battlestar Galactica, "Deadlock"; Battlestar Galactica, "Daybreak, Part II")

The main Cylons#

There are twelve humanoid Cylon models. The Cylon models guide covers all of them in order. These are the copies the story turns on.

John Cavil#

Cavil was Number One, the first model the Five built, and the real villain of the show. He killed his makers, wiped their memories and wiped out the Sevens. When the other models rebelled he started the Cylon Civil War. At the Colony he agreed a truce, saw it collapse and shot himself. (Battlestar Galactica, "No Exit"; Battlestar Galactica, "The Ties That Bind"; Battlestar Galactica, "Daybreak, Part II"; Battlestar Galactica: The Plan)

Caprica Six#

Caprica Six was the Number Six who seduced Baltar and used him to bring down the Colonies' defences. After resurrection she turned against the killing, later lived aboard Galactica, and settled on Earth with Baltar. Another Six, Gina Inviere, was the prisoner who killed Cain. (Battlestar Galactica miniseries; Battlestar Galactica, "Downloaded"; Battlestar Galactica, "Resurrection Ship, Part II"; Battlestar Galactica, "Daybreak, Part II")

Head Six#

Head Six was the Six only Baltar could see. She guided and mocked him through every season, and the epilogue shows her and a matching version of Baltar walking a modern city 150,000 years later. (Battlestar Galactica miniseries; Battlestar Galactica, "Daybreak, Part II")

Sharon "Boomer" Valerii#

Sharon Valerii was a Galactica Raptor pilot who didn't know she was a Number Eight until her programming made her shoot Adama twice. She later sided with Cavil and kidnapped Hera for him, then handed the girl back at the Colony and was shot by Athena. (Battlestar Galactica, "Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part II"; Battlestar Galactica, "Someone to Watch Over Me"; Battlestar Galactica, "Daybreak, Part II")

Sharon "Athena" Agathon#

Sharon Agathon was the Eight who loved Helo, defected and became a Colonial officer. She is the mother of Hera Agathon, and once killed herself to download aboard a basestar and get her daughter back. She lived out her life on Earth with Helo and Hera. (Battlestar Galactica, "Home, Part II"; Battlestar Galactica, "Rapture"; Battlestar Galactica, "Daybreak, Part II")

Leoben Conoy#

Leoben Conoy was the Number Two who told Starbuck she had a special destiny, and became obsessed with her. On New Caprica he kept her prisoner in a fake apartment. Later a Leoben brought the rebels' offer of an alliance to her ship. (Battlestar Galactica, "Occupation"; Battlestar Galactica, "Exodus, Part II"; Battlestar Galactica, "The Road Less Traveled")

D'Anna Biers#

D'Anna was the Number Three who posed as a reporter aboard Galactica. She chased the faces of the Final Five until Cavil had her whole line boxed, and as the last Three she forced the hidden Cylons into the open. She chose to stay and die on the ruined Earth. (Battlestar Galactica, "Final Cut"; Battlestar Galactica, "Rapture"; Battlestar Galactica, "Revelations"; Battlestar Galactica, "Sometimes a Great Notion")

Aaron Doral#

Aaron Doral was a Number Five posing as a public relations man. Suspected in the miniseries, he was left behind at Ragnar Anchorage, and another Doral later blew himself up aboard Galactica. The Fives stayed loyal to Cavil, and a Doral died in the final battle. (Battlestar Galactica miniseries; Battlestar Galactica, "Litmus"; Battlestar Galactica, "Six of One"; Battlestar Galactica, "Daybreak, Part II")

Caprica and Blood & Chrome#

Two prequels fill in the decades before the Fall. Caprica is set 58 years earlier and shows how the first Cylon was made. Blood & Chrome follows a young William Adama in the first Cylon War. (Caprica; Battlestar Galactica: Blood & Chrome)

Daniel Graystone#

Daniel Graystone ran Graystone Industries on Caprica and built the U-87 battle robot. When he put his dead daughter's digital copy into the prototype, he made the first true Cylon. The other grieving father in the story is the Tauron lawyer Joseph Adama, William's father, who lost his own wife and daughter in the same train bombing that killed Zoe. The bombing brings the two men together, and Daniel uses Joseph's links to the Tauron mob, the Ha'la'tha, to have the chip he needs for his robot stolen from a rival firm. (Caprica)

Zoe Graystone#

Zoe Graystone was Daniel's teenage daughter, a Monotheist and a computing prodigy who built a digital copy of herself, Zoe-A. Zoe died in a terrorist bombing. Her copy lived on inside the U-87, and every mechanical Cylon after it came from that chip. (Caprica)

Young William Adama#

Blood & Chrome shows Adama as a rookie pilot stuck in a Raptor with a cynical ECO, Coker Fasjovik, and a civilian engineer, Becca Kelly, on a secret mission into Cylon space. Kelly turns out to be working for the Cylons. By the end Adama has his Viper and his callsign, Husker. (Battlestar Galactica: Blood & Chrome)