Gaius Baltar

This article is about the re-imagined character. For the original series character, see Count Baltar.

Template:BSG Character Gaius Baltar is a fictional character in the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica. He is portrayed by actor James Callis.

Character biography

Early Life

Gaius Baltar claims to be from the colony of Aerelon, a largely agricultural world that was known as the "food basket for the twelve worlds." He was born and raised on a dairy farm outside of the town of Cuffle's Breath Wash. At the age of ten, finding the Aerelon dialect to be detrimental to his career dreams, he trained himself to speak with a Caprican dialect in hopes that one day he might be considered a citizen of one of the more respected and wealthy colonies, Caprica specifically. This implies that a number of colonies (for example Sagittaron and Gemenon) are not only poor worlds, but also viewed as intellectual and cultural backwaters. According to his account, Baltar left Aerelon after his 18th birthday.

Baltar eventually became a brilliant computer scientist and an important defense researcher on Caprica, and a personal friend to President Richard Adar. He was perhaps best known for his controversial views on the research into Strong AI, saying in an interview: "The ban on research and development into artificial intelligence is, as we all know, a hold-over from the Cylon Wars. Quite frankly, I find this to be an outmoded concept; it serves no useful purpose except to impede our efforts."

The Destruction of the Twelve Colonies

At the onset of the miniseries, he is involved in an intense sexual relationship with a beautiful blonde woman. Believing her to be working for a corporation in the defense industry, and desiring a more permanent relationship with her, he gives her access to the Colonial defense mainframe so her employers can have an advantage in future contract bidding. In exchange for his access to government mainframes she helps him design a navigation program used by Colonial warships, covertly creating backdoors in the program. When the Cylons attack, they are able to penetrate software security firewalls, disabling entire fighter squadrons outright and sabotaging vital capital-ship systems. On the day the Cylons attack humanity, she reveals that she is an advanced Cylon (known as Number Six) and that she used the information given to her to shut down the Colonial defenses.

Having unintentionally brought about the near-annihilation of the human species, Baltar flees Caprica when Karl Agathon gives up his place on a Raptor, feeling that his own life is less important to save than a famed scientist's. The Raptor returns to the Battlestar Galactica, where Baltar endears himself to Laura Roslin, the new President of the remnants of the Twelve Colonies, and hopes to conceal his involvement in the genocide that has taken place.

Scientist for the Fleet

Once a part of the fleet, Baltar is haunted by visions of Number Six, with whom he converses often. It is unknown whether these projections are from a chip that Number Six implanted in Baltar's brain while they were together on Caprica (the explanation originally given by the Number Six vision, which she later disclaimed) or if she is simply a manifestation of Baltar's own mind. Although the vision of Number Six manipulates Baltar through his fear of discovery, she lends him an edge by granting him unique knowledge and helps him overcome weaknesses in his personality.

The model of Number Six who had seduced him (known as Caprica-Six by the other Cylons), began to experience similar visions after her consciousness was downloaded into a new body. Whereas Baltar experienced visions of her, she experienced visions of him. Both visions acted in similar ways: they were seemingly crueler than the person they were based on and often manipulated the affected party against his or her own species.

Shortly after Baltar comes on board Galactica, his Internal Six reveals that a device has been put in the CIC that he unwittingly carried onto the ship in his briefcase. Six tells him that it wasn't her job to put it in the CIC. Baltar realizes that there is a Cylon on board Galactica, but knows he cannot reveal that information, or indicate that the device is not a part of the ship without implicating himself in the destruction of the Colonies. Baltar realizes that the Cylon must be the person on board who goes by Aaron Doral because he is a civilian who has had access to the CIC during the last several weeks. Having already been put in charge of testing the fleet for Cylons, Baltar informs the Executive Officer that he discreetly collected hair samples of crew members and has found that Doral is a Cylon. Baltar, however, had no method at the time for testing for Cylons in the fleet. Baltar also explains that he saw Doral doing something with a strange looking device in the CIC that he does not recognize. With this (Doral is, it turns out, indeed a Cylon), Baltar is able to protect the fleet, but his own interests as well.

Unfortunately for Baltar, this forces him to develop an actual method for testing the fleet for Cylons, having already 'demonstrated' an ability to do so. The process he eventually creates is reliable and is done through the testing of blood samples, but is time consuming (it takes 11 hours to test one person). This meant that it would take 61 years to test the entire fleet. However, Baltar is able to help the fleet in other ways. In the episode "The Hand of God," Baltar successfully helps the fleet destroy a Cylon mining base on an asteroid with badly needed ores for fueling the fleet.

In the episode "Six Degrees of Separation," Baltar is accused of being a traitor to the human race when a flesh-and-blood Number Six (after Baltar and his vision of Number Six have a heated argument about religion) shows photographic evidence that Baltar carried an explosive device into the Colonial Defense Mainframe on Caprica, allowing the Cylons to carry out their nuclear attack. When it is found that the evidence is faked, President Roslin holds a press conference publicly exonerating Baltar. Internal Six tells him that his public position is now stronger than ever since he has been accused of a serious crime and found innocent, and even possibly been the target of a Cylon plot. Meanwhile, the real-life Six disappears from Galactica and is nowhere to be found.

Vice Presidency

In the episode "Colonial Day," Baltar demonstrates surprising charisma when he attacks vice presidential-hopeful Tom Zarek on behalf of the President while being interviewed by the fleet's media. This, coupled with Baltar's newfound fame from being falsely accused of treason, convinces Roslin to chose Baltar as her vice president over a previous choice. In the end, Baltar defeats Zarek in their race for the Vice Presidency.

In the second season episode "Home, Part II," Baltar undergoes a brain scan similar to an MRI which reveals no sign of a computer chip or any other foreign object in his brain. While this briefly leads him to think that he had truly gone insane, he then realizes that the vision of Number Six he sees could not possibly be a hallucination generated by his subconscious mind, because she is aware of facts that his own mind could not possibly know. Number Six tells him that the first Human/Cylon Hybrid will be born in the ship's brig, and soon after the Caprican version of the Cylon Sharon Valerii (pregnant with the human Karl Agathon's child) is imprisoned in it. When Baltar confronts Six with this, she states that she was neither a computer chip nor a hallucination. When Baltar then asks just who or what she is, she simply replies that she is "an angel of God sent here to protect you, to guide you, and to love you."

Baltar's relationship with Six was further complicated by the appearance of Gina, another Six copy who had been posing as a maintenance worker on the Battlestar Pegasus. After discovering Gina, who had been repeatedly tortured and raped by Pegasus crewmembers, Baltar grows fond of her, making the illusory Six jealous. He eventually helps Gina escape from the Pegasus and arranges a place for her safety. Gina later forms a pacifist movement within the fleet, though it is noteworthy their methods are not always peaceful, and Baltar is initially reluctant to support the organization despite his affections for her. Later, however, after saving President Roslin from terminal cancer, he reads the letter she had left for him to be opened upon her death (a custom performed by all presidents, written to their successors upon their leaving office) which states he has a "selfish nature" and asks that he overcome it for the well-being of the fleet. Afterwards, Baltar's vision of Number Six persuades him to give Gina and the movement a nuclear bomb Admiral William Adama afforded him in an earlier episode to test the fleet for Cylons.

Having been offended by Roslin's letter, and encouraged by outspoken Roslin-critic (and Baltar's former opponent in the race for Vice President) Tom Zarek, Baltar announces his intention to run against incumbent Laura Roslin for the presidency with the next election approaching. He does this by surprising both her and the press at a press conference after Roslin's announcement of a moratorium on abortion. Baltar hijacks the conference, establishing himself as a candidate and secular alternative to the molded prophet-like image of Roslin.

Run for the Presidency

Baltar, with Zarek as his close political advisor, proceeds to run a bitterly contentious campaign against Roslin. During most of the election, however, he is far behind Roslin in the polls, and is able to make limited progress only by painting her as a dangerous religious fundamentalist. With little time remaining before the election, a desolate but habitable planet is accidentally discovered in a region of space where heavy electromagnetic interference makes navigation and long-range observation very difficult. Baltar, although he has no personal desire to settle on the planet, announces that he will begin immediate civilian settlement of "New Caprica" if elected. The election promptly swings in his favor and, after an attempted conspiracy to commit voting fraud fails to keep Roslin in power (organized by Roslin herself), he is sworn in as president.

Just prior to his inauguration, Baltar visits Gina, who makes love to him for the first time (she had previously refused physical intimacy, having suffered severe emotional and physical scarring from being repeatedly raped aboard the Pegasus, as well as possibly firmly holding to a homosexual orientation). During the inauguration itself, she detonates the nuclear warhead that Baltar had given her, destroying the luxury liner Cloud 9 and killing herself in the process. Following this apparent act of Cylon nuclear terrorism, Admiral Adama urges Baltar to immediately focus on internal security and investigate how a Cylon agent could have carried out the bombing. Baltar refuses, however, and stubbornly proceeds with plans for settlement.

Presidency on New Caprica

Baltar remains in office for one year, but his feelings of guilt (or possibly just his fear of being discovered) regarding his involvement in both the fall of the colonies and Gina's suicide bombing, combined with the stress of the presidency and his inexperience in dealing with policy matters, have led him to substance abuse and womanizing, which he does not hide from his Chief of Staff Felix Gaeta. Life on New Caprica has turned out to be extremely difficult, with the civilian population living in extremely rough conditions, and with shortages of basic supplies like antibiotics persisting. In addition, Baltar's government is in the midst of a major labor dispute with a union led by Galen Tyrol, who is advocating a strike for workers' rights. Baltar indicates to Gaeta that he may be willing to jail union organizers if the labor disputes continue.

The political difficulties faced by Baltar's administration are soon made irrelevant, however, when a Cylon fleet arrives in orbit of New Caprica. The remaining military fleet, which has been operating using skeleton crews, jumps away, leaving New Caprica to be occupied by the Cylons. A Cylon delegation, which includes the reborn versions of both the Number Six who had originally seduced Baltar (now known by the other Cylons as Caprica-Six) and the Sharon Valerii who was originally stationed on Galactica, lands in the human settlement and accepts Baltar's surrender. When Baltar asks how the Cylons managed to detect New Caprica, it is revealed that they were a light-year away when they detected the light and radiation from the nuclear explosion Gina set off the year before. Baltar has thus once again inadvertently aided the Cylons in their subjugation of humanity.

Baltar continues to hold the office of the Presidency, but only as a figurehead. 133 days after the Cylons land on New Caprica, a Doral model Cylon states that most humans have come to consider Baltar a traitor and would rejoice in his death. Compounding his alienation to his people, he has been forced at gunpoint to sign an execution order for hundreds of humans. However, throughout the occupation of New Caprica, Baltar tried to persuade the Cylons that their mission to rule over the human race could not succeed and that they should leave the planet. Before he evacuates the planet with Caprica-Six, Baltar reveals he has been having suicidal thoughts.

As the Colonials evacuate New Caprica, Baltar and Caprica-Six discover Hera, the child of Sharon "Athena" Agathon whom Six predicted would be born in Galactica's Brig. Roslin, it turns out, had hidden Hera's existence by falsifying her death and secretly allowing a young mother to adopt the child as her own.

Life Among the Cylons

In the episode "Collaborators," we find Baltar living on a Cylon Basestar in a room furnished with no more than a bed and table, guarded by a Centurion. It is here that Caprica-Six tells Baltar that she has had a change of heart about him and has let her feelings for him cloud her judgment, presumably ending their relationship. However, by the end of the episode, it is indicated that she has cast the tie-breaking vote amongst the Cylons to allow Baltar to remain alive aboard the Cylon Basestar, though it is clear they remain estranged.

Over time, Baltar becomes accustomed to his new environment. Once Baltar learns that no one knows what the "Final Five" Cylons look like, he begins to suspect that he himself may be a Cylon. He admits however that this is wishful thinking on his part, because of his desire to have all his 'sins' forgiven and become a hero to another people.

Shortly after he begins living with the Cylons, Baltar is allowed to investigate a stricken Basestar that had fallen afoul of a disease because of his supposed immunity. Baltar is adamant about doing this because he is desperate to prove his loyalty to the Cylons and avoid death. Once Baltar is on board the Basestar, he finds the origin of the disease--a human probe. Baltar chooses not to tell the Cylons about the probe, in fear that it will implicate him in the spreading of the disease (the Basestar went to its location only because Baltar directed it there to aid the Cylons in their search for Earth). Once the probe is discovered by the Cylons, Baltar is tortured by a highly suspicious Three model known as D'Anna Biers. During his torture, Baltar was able to induce some form of spiritual epiphany in D'Anna with the help of his Internal Six, and is let go. He subsequently had repeated ménage à trois with both D'Anna and Caprica-Six (indicating she and Baltar re-formed their relationship).

Towards the end of Baltar's stay with the Cylons, he grows much closer to D'Anna, who has become obsessed with finding the identities of the "Final Five" Cylons. Pondering if he himself is a Cylon, Baltar is forced to betray Caprica-Six and align with D'Anna. Together, in the episodes "Eye of Jupiter" and "Rapture," Baltar and the Three models defy the other six Cylon models and he and D'Anna travel to the surface of an algae planet in search for an ancient ruined temple. Three believed the temple would show her the identities of the Final Five. D'Anna appears to see the Final Five, but collapses before she can tell Baltar if he is a Cylon or not. She does however say "You were right," indicating that Baltar is in fact a Cylon, though it is unclear what she was refering to. Immediately afterward, Chief Tyrol gets the drop on Baltar and knocks him out. The ex-president is then transported back to Galactica in a body bag and sent to the brig. Baltar and Caprica-Six established their relationship again later in the series because she took refuge with the Colonial Fleet after helping Sharon "Athena" Agathon retrieve her child.

Trial

Following a failed suicide attempt in his cell, Baltar is first subjected to a radical form of hallucinogen-based interrogation and then offered the possibility of escaping execution in exchange for cooperation, as Adama, Tigh and Roslin seek to learn any clues to Earth's location that the Cylons may have obtained from the Temple. Baltar reveals that he has some hold over Felix Gaeta, as Baltar assures Gaeta that his personal demons will be "our little secret" (it is unknown what Baltar was refering to), shortly before Gaeta stabs Baltar in the neck with a fountain pen, narrowly missing the carodid artery. Baltar repeatedly asks for a fair trial, even as Roslin orders him to be thrown from the nearest airlock, as a final attempt to scare cooperation out of Baltar. Roslin rejects Adama's suggestion that Baltar be made to "simply disappear" and orders him to be given a fair trial for his crimes, even after a warning from Tom Zarek, now Vice President, that doing so will provoke dangerous unrest among the fleet's civilian and military populations alike. In the course of his interrogation, Baltar admits his unwitting complicity in the original Cylon attack on the Colonies, though this information could not be submitted at trial, as it was extracted through illegal proceedings.

Meanwhile, Baltar smuggles writings out of his cell through his lawyer, which are published in a memoir, My Triumphs, My Mistakes. In the book, Baltar attempts to explain his actions as President to the public and foment class warfare by describing the fleet as a bifurcated society, accusing the elite upper class of militarism and professional civilians of exploiting the less well-educated working class. While the book is never completed (President Roslin confiscates several sections through repeated searches of Gaius), it becomes very popular among certain segments of the fleet populace (despite Roslin's repeated attempts to suppress its distribution), including workers on the tylium refinery ship and Chief Tyrol's flight-deck maintenance crew, as well as his wife Cally Tyrol. The book's popularity leads to Tyrol calling a general strike and exacerbates the fleet's already strained social order. This development is ironic due to the labor difficulties Baltar experienced with Tyrol on New Caprica.

As his trial proceeds, Baltar's first lawyer is killed in an explosion aboard a sabotaged Raptor. His second attorney, Romo Lampkin, survives a similar attempt on his life. Lee Adama, Lampkins security adjutant, then joins Baltar's defense team, and after the question of Saul Tigh, causes him to fall out with his father and resign his military commission. The trial is unfair, and includes witness Felix Gaeta deliberately lying to ensure a guilty verdict, though Felix may have done so to see Baltar dead before his secret is revealed (see above). Throughout the trial, the defense deals devastating blows to the prosecutions witnesses, but this only further exacerbates the existing hatred of Baltar in the courtroom. Baltar rejects his defense team's suggestion to demand a mistrial saying, "there will be a verdict." Baltar's defense team uses the very end of the trial, with the passionate deposition of Lee Adama, to try to persuade the jury that he is a merely guilty of being a scapegoat and symbol for the occupation to the fleet. In other words, whatever mistakes he had made as President, he is not guilty of treason. The argument is successful and Baltar is found not guilty for his crimes by a 3-2 vote, with Admiral Adama casting a vote in Baltar's favor. Roslin is disgusted that Baltar is now free as she still truly believes that Baltar was involved in sabotaging the colonial defenses in the attack. After Baltar is let free, his defense team abandons him. Baltar realizes that despite his victories, he has neither a home nor any friends, and is alone among a fleet that overwhelmingly hates him.

Life as an Outcast

Fortunately for Baltar, shortly before the Cylon fleet attacks at the Ionian Nebula, Baltar is led away to safety by three female followers of his work, one of whom had asked him to bless her child before his trial.

External links

• Battlestar Wiki biography