Battlestar Galactica (BSG) has been hailed as one of the best shows on television by many people all over the world. Who are some of these people that like the show? How about Robin Williams, the Wachowski brothers, Quentin Tarantino and Seth Green, just to name a few. A pretty impressive list if you ask me...and you can go ahead and add me to that list as well.

Since the show's beginning it has garnered a variance of viewers, whether young, old, man or woman—this show's character-driven twists and turns leave the audience biting their nails to every episode's end.

Razor, a special two-hour episode, will air this weekend, unfolding a backdrop to the events upcoming in the final fourth season of the series. With this episode serving as the beginning of the end for BSG, the cast was eager to talk about their experiences working on Battlestar Galactica over the years.

Some of the actors play Cylons, which means they play many different characters, not just one. This might be difficult for some people to do, but actress Grace Park moves through her assorted characters with ease. "It's pretty much like real life, depending on who you are with you access different parts of your personality. You have to access what each character has been going through. Essentially they are the same model, but their experience has changed them a little bit. So really, you draw upon their most recent experiences and the things that have effected them the most. That essentially separates Boomer vs. Athena," says Park.

Last season left the audience jaw-dropped when members of the crew were finally revealed to be Cylons. Some of the actors have embraced this, others are not so happy about it. "I am not happy about being a Cylon at all, but I don't imagine any of us who've been picked to be Cylons are happy about it. The scripts we've had so far are great and the only way that I can deal with it is as a human being, and so far that's all I've had to do. I'm not sure what is going on. For Tigh, so far, it's like a mental illness...the ringing in the ears, the visions...and constantly wondering what's going on.

"Almost in every scene you do, you know, it's that thing where you're thinking one thing...if you've had a personal tragedy happen to you, and then you've gotta carry on with life. You're like— isn't this amazing that I'm actually talking to people while this is all going on inside," remarks actor Michael Hogan, who portrays Colonel Saul Tigh, which is one of the newly labeled Cylons.

"I am not really sure if it matters anymore who is a Cylon or not, there are wider issues. They've (Cylons) been sort of corrupted by humanity to such a degree that they've lost their innocence and lost their sort of zealotry and they've had to become complex by their interaction with people," reflects actor Jamie Bamber (Lee Adama).

Now that this series is coming to an end, some of the actors tend to look at things a little differently when they come in to work.

"Inevitably it changes the vibe because there's suddenly a horizon you can see, and we all have personal lives, and coming up to Vancouver for some of us is quite a schlep. Knowing it's the last time changes everything, so yea, it's a different deal.

"There's also a real peace of mind that comes with the fact that we're gonna get to finish the story—the story's always begged an ending—and we get to give it to you, so there's a lot of excitement and anticipation attached to that.

"It feels like every moment that passes is gone forever now, like the last performance of a play on the last night...you know...you start off with your monologue in the first scene and you know when you finish it that's the last time you'll ever do it. There's a nostalgia that goes with every conscious moment," says Bamber.

"There was life before BSG and there will be life after BSG, so things will go back to normal," says Hogan.

"I'd like to be the next guest host on the VIEW (after BSG)," laughs actor Aaron Douglas, who plays another human-to-Cylon newbie, Gaelin Tyrol.

Douglas goes on to talk about his off-screen involvement with the fans of the show. "I love going to conventions. This year alone I've gone to Italy, Australia, New Zealand, London, Miami, New York, LA., San Francisco..I love going to conventions. I absolutely love the fans. I genuinely...it's a cliche...but I genuinely mean it when I say that the sci-fi fans are the best fans in the world. They are so much fun.

"The fans really embrace us and we in turn really embrace the fans. Every convention is a wonderful experience. The cool thing is meeting the other actors from the other shows...and there are doctors and lawyers, and the guy from Starbucks...the complete spectrum of society. These people come from all over the world and they are as passionate about it as we are, and I think it's wonderful. I am very fortunate that I get to go and talk about it and give spoilers..." Douglas muses.

Douglas pipes up, "'Dirty Hands', Season Three—I spent the whole day working with Mary (Mary McDonnell). I had never gotten the chance to work with Mary without a whole bunch of other people around and the last scene of that episode is her and I seated in a dark room across from each other just talking about the union stuff.

"We shot that thing for about four or five hours and I have never worked with someone more engaged, engaging, looking through your eyes, deep into your soul, more prepared, more caring, loving...I just felt like I was in a mother's embrace all day long...it was the most spectacular moment in my acting career. She is an absolute angel on earth and I will take that memory from the show for the rest of my life," he sighs.

There are so many things Hogan enjoys he can't pick just one, so he instead talks about the show as a whole, when, at the end of every season, he gets the DVDs and watches them just to end up exclaiming, "Oh My God."

Bamber had a few things to look back on. "Starbuck always has these great one-liners, so when I got six pages and six minutes of monologue on the courtroom stand I thought, well that's my version of a one-liner. It was definitely that tricky, tricky sort of scene of trying to work out what Lee's doing in that courtroom, and why he's there and why he's defending this man and it's sort of...

"My character is more interesting when you put him in corners that he doesn't expect to find himself in...and to see how he justifies it and how he maintains his path through that...that was a real challenge. We had to work on just the content of what that was about. I love that. I love working with Michael, that was fantastic.

"My favorite episode...I'd say '33'...the very first one, just because that was the unknown. We were in an unknown situation. We'd made a decent mini-series and we were all very excited. To read that script, I thought structurally it was really compelling. It was kind of a nutshell of what the whole of our story is, which is a nightmare, waking up constantly to find that the monster is on you again, and that's basically the modus operandi of the show, and Ron captured it in one episode. I think that is really the perfect episode of Battlestar Galactica."

The stars of the show are also fans of the show. Park explains, "Like Michael, definitely watching it has been the highlight for me."

Fellow actor, Tahmoh Penikett, who portrays Karl Agathon, says about the show, "This is my favorite show on television, obviously I am biased, but it is. I know that last year, some of Michael Hogan's work touched me so deeply that—especially in the court scene—he had this moment where he was being pressed and he breaks, and he looks at Adama...

"I talked about that for weeks...I thought about it for weeks...it just broke me. I literally was weeping when I saw that. Just that connection...he was completely mad and he had this switch, and he looked at Adama, his best friend, and he just—he admitted it—it was so horrible and so touching....but there's been so many moments like that throughout the series with so much of the cast," he recalls.

Indeed, all of the actors/characters in this mind-blowing sci-fi drama have had their chance to shine. Battlestar Galactica is one of the few in the science fiction genre where life is breathed into a moving art. The characters are real, plagued with the torturous good vs. bad impulses and behaviors as those outside the virtual world.

In the end, even the Cylons will be overrun with humanity, transforming ever-so-gracefully into the neurotic, paranoid, insecure, complex mess we call human...

You can tune in to an encore of Razor this Sunday at 1 a.m. ET if you missed it (Tivo works well in these cases). Sci-Fi will also run a marathon of the last episodes in the series December 7th beginning at 8 a.m ET.

Photos from the set/interview:

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Jess   |2007-11-28 13:05:48 Great article, just love Aarons description of woring with Mary. Can't wait to see what her fave ep was to film. Reply 0   0

Johnny Drama   |2007-11-27 13:54:56 I am glad that the series is ending and that the writers get to end the show on their terms. Had it been cancelled we probably would have gotten an ending that was rushed and felt unnatural. Reply 0   0

Alison Grendel   |2007-11-25 10:45:01 Great article! I love Jamie Bamber, but Starbuck is my favorite character. Interview her!!! Reply 0   0

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3.25 Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."