The Battlestar Galactica Storyline That Caused The Cast To Revolt
Battlestar Galactica had a few controversial storylines and a finale that has left fans divided for over a decade, but the death of Starbuck was so contentious that it nearly caused the entire cast to walk off the production. The decision by the show’s writing team to kill off Starbuck (Katee Sackhoff) in the Season 3 episode, “Maelstrom,” was hated by fans when it aired, and in fact, it still is, but that’s not what caused the cast revolt.
Choosing not to tell the rest of the cast that Starbuck was returning is what caused the easily avoidable problem that almost ended production.
Killing Starbuck
The story was revealed to fans in the amazing book So Say We All: The Complete Uncensored, Unauthorized, Oral History of Battlestar Galactica, put together by Edward Gross, and it came about when Ronald Moore declared, as he described it, killing Starbuck was one of the stupidest decisions in the history of the show. To avoid word about Starbuck’s death leaking out onto the internet, Moore decided not to tell the rest of the cast.
At the same time, Katee Sackhoff was walking around telling everyone she was leaving and having heartfelt goodbyes with her co-stars, even though she knew she was returning.
An Attempt To Fool The Cast
That’s bad enough, but to compound the problem, and remember, this was years before Marvel made it industry standard to circulate false information, was that the writing team wrote two scripts for “Maelstrom,” the fake one in which Starbuck lives, and the real one that has her die. The Battlestar Galactica cast received the fake one, but the one with Starbuck’s true fate got out. To this day, no one has explained how that happened, and that’s when Edward James Olmos got involved.
Edward James Olmos Was A Leader Off-Screen
Fans know that Commander William Adama is loyal to his soldiers, but that extended off-screen as well, with Olmos leading the cast in a charge against the writing team. Olmos argued that one of Battlestar Galctica’s signature characters was Starbucks, and Katee Sackhoff was beloved by all of her co-stars. Even Katee’s mom called in to complain about the decision, but the star admitted that was a misdirect, as her mom was the one person who knew the real story.
The Secret Didn’t Last A Week
Ronald Moore briefly attempted to justify his decision by insisting it would be “the greatest prank of all time.” Once he found out that Edward James Olmos was angry and predicted that Battlestar Galactica was doomed because of the decision to kill off Starbuck, Moore decided to confess and admit what was really going on. As Katee Sackhoff explained, the attempt to keep everything a secret didn’t even last one week.
You Could Argue It Really Was The End Of The Show
Again, it was Edward James Olmos taking the lead and announcing during a photo shoot for Maxim to the assembled cast that Katee was coming back to the show, and Starbuck wasn’t being killed off for real. That was the end of the cast revolt, but in a way, Olmos’ prediction about the end of Battlestar Galactica was partially correct as the choice to kill off Starbuck and what followed afterward is, to some fans, the beginning of the end.
So Say We All: The Complete Uncensored, Unauthorized, Oral History of Battlestar Galactica is available through Amazon.
