Battlestar Galactica Villain’s Heel Turn Came Earlier Than Anyone Thought
In the Battlestar Galactica reboot, who do you think is the main villain? While it’s easy to point fingers at the Cylons, these antagonists never pretended to care for humanity…because of that, many fans think Baltar, the hypocritical human narcissist, is the show’s chief antagonist. And while he didn’t show his true colors until later in the series, showrunner Ronald D. Moore intended to forecast this character’s heel turn much earlier in the Season 2 episode “Resistance.”
In retrospect, it’s a bit obvious that “Resistance” sets up Baltar’s transition into a villain…in this episode, he is asked to determine whether or not Chief Tyrol is a Cylon after the revelation that his girlfriend, Boomer, is secretly one of these enemy robots. He is supposed to use his so-called Cylon detector, but he instead takes the expedient of simply poisoning Tyrol so he can extort information out of Boomer. From her, he learns how many other Cylon agents have secretly infiltrated the human fleet and then cures Tyrol; he never gets to interrogate Boomer again, though, because she is shot dead by Callie.
It’s obviously a shocking decision on Baltar’s part to threaten the life of a human, but most Battlestar Galactica fans at the time didn’t think it was the move of a villain. The show often explored what otherwise good people would do when pushed past their breaking point, and this episode shows how Tigh’s controversial use of martial law while Adama is injured gets people killed in a Boston Massacre-esque shooting. When the commanding officer of the title ship is getting multiple people killed with his rash decisions, it’s easy to overlook the sinister overtones of Baltar poisoning a guy and then healing him.
Interestingly, Battlestar Galactica showrunner Ronald D. Moore didn’t consider the poisoning of Tyrol as the beginning of Baltar’s villain era…at least, not directly. On his podcast commentary for “Resistance,” he confirmed that the beginning of Baltar’s character getting darker was actually his decision to extort Boomer, and poisoning Tyrol was just a way of doing that. Moore further confirmed that Baltar had hoped to continue his extortion of her in the future, a plan that was only foiled by her getting murdered by Callie at the end of the episode.
What makes the darkening of his character notable is how relatively early it happened…”Resistance” is only the fourth episode of Season 2, and many Battlestar Galactica fans think that Baltar doesn’t fully become a villain until he is elected president and begins directly collaborating with the Cylons in Season 3. Moore’s comments reveal that Baltar secretly wanted power all along and that he wasn’t afraid to threaten others to get it. Once you realize that he planned to extort Boomer indefinitely, it makes sense that Baltar would sell out humanity and generally do whatever he needs to do in order to maintain power.
Even if you’re a Battlestar Galactica fan who sees Baltar as more a victim than a villain (he did win his day in court, after all), it’s fascinating to consider the different ways his character could have evolved. Heck, Moore even considered putting Baltar in a love triangle with Six and Boomer, which would have made his extortion of the latter feel downright kinky. Of course, that’s one thing we can always count on from this legendary series: plenty of (ahem) shades of grey.
