Battlestar Galactica’s final season preview
Maxim gets the dish from Katee Sackhoff, better known as Kara “Starbuck” Thrace.
Forget the campy ’70s Star Wars knockoff—this Battlestar is real-deal sci-fi. Here’s the skinny: The
series began with nearly every human on 12 planets being killed by an army of Cylons, their former robotic servants. The Galactica is a military ship full of survivors fleeing extinction. Katee Sackhoff, who plays fan favorite Kara “Starbuck” Thrace, breaks down everything else you need to know to get addicted.
The Enemy Within
How did the Cylons infiltrate humanity? Some models look just like us. While a few Cylons have gone good, most are still bad, including Tricia Helfer’s viciously sexy Number Six. “There’s no black and white on this show,” Sackhoff says. “You never know who’s evil.”
Ripped From the Headlines
It may take place in galaxies far, far away, but Battlestar draws from controversies—abortion, terrorism, torture—that are sometimes uncomfortably close to home. “It could just as easily be a political drama set in New York or Washington right now,” says Sackhoff.
Cosmic Sex
We don’t know if it’s the ship’s close quarters or some sort of freaky robot mojo, but everyone on the Galactica loves to “frak,” to borrow their censor-defying euphemism for making whoopee. “When you’re scared, you turn to an animalistic comfort,” explains Sackhoff.
Destination: Earth
BG’s ragtag fleet is searching for the legendary “lost colony” of Planet Earth. Season three ended with the return of Sackhoff’s presumed-dead Starbuck, a pilot who says she can lead survivors to Earth—if she can convince them she’s not a frakkin’ robot. “Everyone thinks she’s a Cylon,” Sackhoff says. Is she? Human or not, she’s programmed not to tell.