Battlestar Galactica primer, Part 4: The main players

The military leader of the humans is Commander Adama, who is as much of a dinosaur as the ship he commands. He had two sons, both pilots. Adama's favorite son was killed in a flight accident thus leaving Apollo as his remaining loving, but sometimes morally indignant, son of a somewhat hard to cuddle father.

A principle to the end of season tension is a promise he made early in the season to just rally the people around a joined hope was that he knew the way to Earth and the thirteenth tribe. It was later exposed by the President as a lie to one of the people he respects and loves most, Cara, to get her to break her loyalty to Adama and take on a quest for her. Cara's betrayal sends Adama into a rage of anger and orders the President arrested, and her presidency dissolved.

 
Captain Lee "Apollo" Adama is a good guy, he's just a little... fiery. He's okay with the fact he's only the second best pilot, there's a job to be done and it's no time for egos. He's morally driven, and when he needs to he will fight for what's right. He's become the President's military advisor and it's caused more than one face off with his father over lapses in military ethics  - like overthrowing Presidents.

The best pilot in the fleet is Cara "Starbuck" Thrace. She's brash, gutsy and tough. She drinks hard, smokes stogies and plays poker like no one else. She now has it bad for Apollo, her best friend and former lover's brother.  Apollo feels the same, but of course is a little too straight and narrow so usually only makes things more difficult. Cara belives in Adama, and when he says he knows the way to Earth she believes him. When she finds out he lied she goes ballistic and takes a fools mission from the President to Caprica. She sleeps aournd and that gets her into trouble with Lee.

The other main pilot is Sharon "Boomer" Valerii, and over the course of the season she's slowly fearfully realizing she's a Cylon. This has been the most heartbreaking and dramatic storyline. As we learn there are two Sharon story lines, because there's more then one Sharon. Sharon1 wakes up in the armaments room with explosives in her hand or the word CYLON scrawled in lipstick on her locker mirror. It's as if her human side is trying to tell her she's a traitor. She's been romantically involved with the head mechanic who forces himself to ignore her fears of being a cylon, or at very least insane.

Another model of Sharon returned to Caprica to "rescue" her former co-pilot whom Sharon 1 had left when picking up Caprican refugees to take back to the Galactica. Her co-pilot stayed so she could fit world famous scientist Gaius Balthar on the small ship and maybe save what's left of mankind. Sharon2, now reunited with her co-pilot, works with the other human cylons on the Caprica in secret while they chase them hither and fro across a urban wasteland.  It all seems to be part of some big plan to get her close to him, and pregnant, which she does. Why that particular human is so important we do not know, except that is must be part of some prophecy.

Dr. Giaus Balthar, sexy and inasne, he was a doctor of some honest intent before having an affair with a bombshell blonde at his laboratory who he thought was just a industrial spy. Of course he gave her whatever she wanted for some nasty hot lovin'. She also just happened to be a Cylon who used the access he gave her to help destroy Caprica. Fearful of being discovered as being behind his unwitting role in the destruction of the Human way of life, he tried to break it off with her. Well, hell hath no fury like a Cylon scorned.

Balthar now lives with a invisible version cylon babe in his head - or does he? It's unclear whether she's real or he's going insane with guilt of what he's done. Six has become his own personal hell. It doesn't keep him from having hot robot sex with her all the same though - imaginationary or not. He was nominated, and elected Vice President after he developed a Cylon detector test and became a popular "saviour" of the people. Of course, his Cylon test is one he's also able to control the results of much to the pleasure of Six.

Number Six, the hot blonde cylon that Gaius Balthar was cavorting with and subsequently caused him to assist destroying mankind. Angry at being spurned, she implanted herself into his subconscious to hobble him and now lives  in his head making him appear to all the world insane, or at the very least a touched genius. Real versions pop up time to time, only driving Gaius more to the edge when others can see her.  She is the muse to his spiral into insanity. Deeply, almost manically religious she has been on a crusade to bring Giaus to "find his god". She seems to see him as the means to an prophetical end. Gaius has some role to play in the prophesy of the Human/Cylon baby as she leads him to an ancient temple and a dramatically lit baby cradle.

There you have it, that is probably enough to get you started,  you know as much as I do now. Don't ever say sci-fi is shallow.