Kara Thrace (callsign "Starbuck") is a fictional character in the 2004 Battlestar Galactica series. Played by Katee Sackhoff, she is a revised version of Lieutenant Starbuck from the 1978 Battlestar Galactica series. She is one of the main characters on the show.
Overview Described by a critic as "one of television's most complex, ever-evolving characters", the role of Starbuck changed over the run of the series. According to Sackhoff, Starbuck originally "didn't value her own life," and this attitude inspired her readiness to die for her shipmates. By the end of the series, however, she is prepared to sacrifice herself for others because she respects all life. The character's physical appearance is based on Sackhoff's perception of Starbuck as an extremely fit, hard-drinking individual. "I didn't want Starbuck to be completely ripped," said Sackhoff. "This is a girl who drinks most of her calories.". A psychologist who specialises in treating Borderline Personality Disorder has described Starbuck's character as showing "many borderline traits, including unstable emotions, behaviours and relationships, self-destructive behaviors, boundary diffusion, identity confusion, impulsivity, and intense attachments."
Kara Thrace bears some parallels to the original 1978 Starbuck character: both are portrayed as hot-headed and arrogant fighter pilots, considered the best in the fleet, but with a tendency to challenge authorities and get into trouble. Both are avid gamblers and enjoy drinking, smoking cigars, and having sex. Both have crashed and been marooned on a deserted planet, using a downed Cylon ship to make an escape.See You Can't Go Home Again (Battlestar Galactica) Both are best friends with Apollo. Kara had a relationship with Apollo's late brother Zak (mirroring the original Starbuck's on-and-off relationship with Apollo's sister Athena), affecting her relationship with Apollo and Zak's father, William Adama.
Whereas the original Starbuck, played by Dirk Benedict, was a slick, well-groomed ladies' man, Kara appears more rugged and grimy. The characters differ, not only in respect of their gender – complicating Kara's relationships with other characters – but also in outward appearance. USA Today described her as "the broken warrior, a young, idealistic soldier who has been fighting for all the right reasons, but has lost something along the way."
Character history
Background
The series bible developed for the TV series by Ron D. Moore states that Kara Thrace was born on Picon, but because her mother was in the Colonial Marines, she grew up as a military brat bouncing between different military bases on different planets during her entire childhood. The result is that she has no particular attachment to Picon and lived on Caprica for some years before the TV series begins. As this information is from the series bible but never stated on-screen, it is unknown if Kara is canonically considered a Caprican or a Picon. However, her situation appears somewhat similar to Gaius Baltar, who grew up on Aerilon but moved to Caprica when he left home for university, then stayed the rest of his life there and abandoned all connections to his past. As Ron Moore has said, the Twelve Colonies of Kobol united under one government only fairly recently, during the first Cylon war fifty years ago, thus many people still think in terms of affiliation to each of the "Twelve Tribes" - but technically under the new federal government, they switched to a residency system. Thus, as Moore explained, Baltar was able to become the Caprican delegate to the Quorum of Twelve as a naturalized citizen of Caprica and considered himself to be a Caprican in nationality, but he was not ethnically a "Caprican". Similarly, Kara may be ethnically a Picon, but she loosely considers herself to be a naturalized Caprican.
Kara Thrace had intended to be a professional pyramid ballplayer until her knee gave out. She eventually joined the military, where she found more acceptance than she had felt at home as an abused child.Family problems had previously been alluded to but the physical abuse is confirmed in "The Farm" when the Cylon Simon points out that every one of her fingers on both hands had been broken in the same place. Simon suggests she might not want to have children because of that, due to fears of passing the abuse on to them. There is a strong reaction from Kara but no further clarification on the topic within that episode. Later, in "Maelstrom", it is revealed her mother once punished her by placing her hand in a doorframe and slamming the door shut. Although Kara's mother, Socrata Thrace, had served as a corporal in the first Cylon war, Kara was the first person in the family to become a commissioned officer. Socrata was not content with her daughter's military record, however, claiming she was not disciplined enough and was wasting her natural talent for flying. Kara's father, Dreilide Thrace, was a pianist. He left the family when Kara was a child, as Socrata had forced him to make a choice between his beloved piano playing and a steadier job to support the family.
As a flight instructor at the Colonial flight school, Kara met and became romantically involved with one of her students, Zak Adama. Although Zak told her he did not want any special treatment from her, Kara passed him even though he failed basic flight, as she could not bring herself to crush his dreams.
Her leniency cost Zak his life when he died on his first Viper mission. After his death, Starbuck met his father, William Adama. He realized Starbuck and Zak had been engaged and brought her under his command as a lieutenant. Zak's death, however, created a wedge between Adama and his other son, Lee "Apollo" Adama, who blamed his father for Zak's death, for creating an expectation that made Zak feel he needed to pursue becoming a Viper pilot in order to earn his father's affection. After the funeral, Lee broke off all contact with his father and Starbuck.
Starbuck has a natural talent for flying and is considered Galacticas best pilot, although she also is known for being an avid card player and drinker as well as for an eruptive temper. Bill Adama loves Kara despite her flaws and considers her something of a surrogate daughter. However, Starbuck and Colonel Tigh share a mutual sense of loathing, despite - or perhaps because of - their similarities. At the time of the attack on the Colonies, she was second in command of Galactica's fighter wing.
After the attack In a card game prior to Galactica's decommissioning ceremony, Starbuck responds to Colonel Tigh's mocking of her call sign and her stint in the brig as a cadet by alluding to Tigh's troubled relationship with his wife. Infuriated, he flips the table over, and she punches him in the face. He sends her to the brig, promising her that her career is over. However, Adama tells Tigh he is probably overreacting: while he agrees to leave Kara in the brig until after the ceremony, Adama says there is no need to ruin her career over the incident. Following the Cylons' attack on the Twelve Colonies of Kobol, Starbuck is released to join the battle.
Starbuck keeps her secret about Zak buried inside until after the Cylon attack on the Twelve Colonies of Kobol. Soon after, when Starbuck fears she and the rest of humanity might be wiped out by the Cylons, she confesses her mistake to Lee. He is devastated. Later, he confronts her about it when she is chosen to train new Viper pilots aboard Galactica after several pilots are killed in a freak accident. The quality of recruits she is sent is subpar but still, she begins their training, ordering them to call her "God". Starbuck, blinded by guilt, washes all the pilots out for relatively minor flaws. She then admits her secret to Adama who is furious and heartbroken; he orders her to reinstate the trainees.
On the next training mission, Starbuck and the trainees are ambushed by a small group of Cylon Raiders. Starbuck engages the Raiders on her own to cover the trainees' escape. With her Viper heavily damaged, she plummets toward the surface of a nearby desert moon and is forced to eject and take her chances on the surface.
Starbuck is declared "missing in action", and Adama orders a search and rescue operation which strains the Galactica's crew and combat resources. On the surface, Starbuck struggles with a broken knee and near asphyxiation as her oxygen runs out. Luckily, she discovers the Cylon Raider she downed. Using her exceptional skill in flying, she figures out the Cylon technology and is able to pilot it back to the fleet.
Depressed by her injuries, she initially needs the incentive to work on rehabilitation and is soon rubbing people the wrong way again. Even after she is able to move around without a cane, the injury sidelines her from flight for many episodes; when given tactical charge of a mission in one episode, she cannot fly the critical role because her knee still can't handle the G-force.
During her recovery, a Number Two named Leoben is discovered aboard the Gemenon Traveller and is arrested. Adama assigns Starbuck to interrogate Leoben, believing she will be resistant to his mind games. Starbuck brutally interrogates Leoben, and he claims to have hidden a nuclear bomb on a timer somewhere in the fleet, threatening its detonation. Despite her often-crude exterior, Starbuck is revealed to have a deep-seated faith in the gods, and engages in a debate about the existence of the Colonial gods vs. the Cylon god with Leoben, and whether the humanoid Cylons are actually "human". Leoben demonstrates that he is capable of breaking free and killing Starbuck at any time, but chooses not to, believing it is not God's will. During this period, Starbuck develops respect for Leoben, and he falls in love with her. She is genuinely saddened when President Laura Roslin orders him executed by airlock after he admits there is no bomb. She experiences a brief moment of emotional connection with Leoben when they touch palms through the glass of the airlock before he is executed. Afterwards, she privately prays to the Lords of Kobol, acknowledging that Leoben might not have had a soul, but if he did, asking that they take care of it.
Starbuck's religious beliefs later come into play when President Roslin asks her to carry out a dangerous mission: return to Caprica and retrieve the Arrow of Apollo, a religious artifact supposedly pointing the way to Earth. Starbuck is at first reluctant, believing that Adama already knows the way to Earth, and is leading them there. Roslin is forced to reveal that Adama lied about knowing Earth's whereabouts to give the fleet hope. This deeply shakes Starbuck's trust in Adama, and she eventually is convinced to help Roslin. She takes the Cylon Raider she had captured, leading Adama to declare Roslin had suborned mutiny; he sends a detachment of Marines to terminate her presidency.