Baltar

The character in the 1978 original

In the original 1978 Battlestar Galactica movie and television series, Count Baltar was a leading antagonist character who betrayed the human race to its enemy, the robot race of Cylons. Towards the last years of The Thousand Yahren War between the Cylons and the Twelve Colonies of Man, Baltar acted as a liaison between the Twelve Worlds and the Cylonss, and arranged for a peace conference that would bring an end to the war. Unknown to the Colonials, Baltar had made a deal with the Cylon Imperious Leader: Baltar would conduct the peace conference to lull the Colonials into a false sense of security, while the Cylons prepared for a massive attack on the Colonial military and the Twelve Worlds. In return, the Imperious Leader promised Baltar that Baltar's own Colony would be spared from the attack, and Baltar would be installed as dictator of that Colony. (It was never stated which of the Twelve Worlds was Baltar's home Colony). Since the Cylons are dedicated to the complete annihilation of humanity, the Imperious Leader went back on his word, and destroyed all twelve Colonies in the attack (with a handful of humans fleeing in civilian ships under the protection of the sole surviving Battlestar, the Galactica). Baltar went before the Imperious Leader, enraged that the Cylons had not held up their end of the bargain. The Imperious Leader responded by explaining to Baltar that every human being must be exterminated, and sentenced Baltar to death. In the theatrical version, Cylon Centurions executed Baltar on the spot.

In the television version, the Imperious Leader ordered that Baltar be brought away for public execution; soon thereafter the Imperious Leader was killed when the Colonials (in a viper attack led by Apollo and Starbuck) destroyed his base ship over the planet Carrilon. The succeeding Imperious Leader spared Baltar's life, believing that Baltar, being human, would have a superior insight into the minds of the remnants of humanity which the Cylons were pursuing. To this end the Imperious Leader installed Baltar as the commander of a Cylon base ship, with Lucifer as Baltar's second in command. For approximately the first half of the televised Battlestar Galactica series, Baltar was the commander of the Cylon forces that ruthlessly pursued the Galactica and its rag-tag fugitive fleet of civilian ships. In the episode "War of the Gods," the charismatic miracle worker Count Iblis influenced Baltar to voluntarily surrender himself to the Colonials. For the remainder of the series, Baltar was a prisoner on board the Colonial prison barge. The episode "Baltar's Escape" featured an attempt by Baltar and other imprisoned villians (Borellian Nomen and Eastern Alliance officers) to escape from the prison barge. In the final episode of the series, "The Hand of God," Baltar made a deal with Adama: Baltar provided the Colonials with technical information on Cylon basestars (which Apollo and Starbuck used in that episode to destroy a basestar), in exchange for which Adama agreed to release Baltar on the first inhabitable planet that the Fleet passed.

The character in the new series

In the 2003 Battlestar Galactica miniseries, Gaius Baltar is a brilliant scientist who is a key player in the Twelve Colonies' defense research. At the onset of the miniseries, Baltar is involved in an intense sexual relationship with a beautiful blonde woman. Believing the woman to be an employee of a rival computer corporation, Baltar slips to his lover certain computer secrets from his defense work. The woman (known as "Number Six") reveals to Baltar that she is in fact an advanced version of Cylon, and that the Cylons will use the computer secrets that Baltar has given her to infiltrate the Colonial defense systems, disable the Colonial military and attack the Twelve Worlds. That day the Cylons launch their attack and destroy most of humanity. Having thus recklessly (although unintentionally) brought about the near-annihilation of the human race, Baltar manages to flee Caprica, finding refuge with the Galactica and its refugee fleet of civilian ships. There Baltar endears himself to Laura Roslin, the new President of the remnants of the Twelve Colonies, while nonetheless continuing to look out for his own interests above all else -- particularly his interest in preventing knowledge of his role in the genocide of humanity from being revealed. Baltar is haunted by visions of Number Six, with whom he converses often. It is intentionally left ambiguous whether these visions are the product of a computer chip that Number Six implanted in Baltar's brain while they were together on Caprica (which is the explanation that the vision of Number Six told Baltar); or whether the visions are a manifestation of Baltar's own mind, as Baltar grows insane from the guilt that he feels over his unwitting role in the genocide of humanity. The vision of Number Six manipulates Baltar through his fear of anyone discovering his betrayal -- such manipulation may represent the Cylons influencing Baltar to work to their ends, or it may represent Baltar's own subconscious desperately seeking to avoid a discovery of his role in the Cylon attack. In a twist of events, Baltar was later voted in as Roslin's Vice President.