Actress Tricia Helfer
Cylon Tricia Helfer on Battlestar Galactica’s final season
The end is coming — the upcoming fourth season of the current Battlestar Galactica series will be the last. While many reports contend that a prequel series is in the works (set on a pre-apocalypse planet Caprica) the 20 episodes of season four promise to be the last.
“With Battlestar it’s important that it ends with the story all wrapped up in a tightly wound ball instead of going on season after season” says Canadian actress Tricia Helfer who plays many different incarnations of a humanoid Cylon (Number Six) on the show. “It’s not your typical science fiction show where you can keep inventing funny-headed creatures. Battlestar is such a serious show. The things we deal with are the sort of things people experience during wartime.”
Indeed the modern re-imagined Galactica series has always remained a universe apart from its campy ’70s TV predecessor. While both shows tell the tale of a rag-tag space fleet of humans trying to outrun an insidious synthetic race known as the Cylons the new show does it with a grim realistic tone relevant storylines and complex multi-layered characters.
Audience appetite for the show’s final season could not be stronger. The season three cliffhanger finale was a stunner. Four well-established characters including the Galactica’s second in command Colonel Saul Tigh (Michael Hogan) were revealed to be Cylons. Also the presumed blown-to-bits Captain Kara “Starbuck” Thrace (Katee Sackhoff) returned claiming she knew the location of planet Earth.
A preview viewing of the first two episodes of season four reveals that the show’s creators are not interested in slowing down the fast-paced drama. Starbuck’s return quickly becomes a less than happy occasion. The four newly aware Cylons come to a consensus on how to proceed amongst their human Galactica shipmates. The continually self-absorbed and cowardly Gaius Baltar (Jamie Callus) makes a surprisingly selfless plea on behalf of another and new version of Number Six Natalie Six who becomes embroiled in the battle to determine the future of the Cylon race.
Throughout her run on Battlestar Galactica Helfer has enjoyed the challenge of playing many alternate versions of the same character. “If I was just playing the [same] Number Six it would be a little bit monotonous for me because you’re really not part of the overall scene when you’re doing that” she says. “This year I have Natalie who is much more of a leader. I wanted her to have a nervous energy. She fidgets with her hands. She walks less seductively. She’s much more strong and straightforward.”
The business-like Natalie seems like just the right Six to ride the major difficulties of a revelation-filled wrap-up year of this landmark show.