When Battlestar Galactica resulted in 2009, there was a significant query lingering: what was Kara “Starbuck” Thrace? Firstly of the darkish TV reboot, which could be streamed with a Prime Video subscription, that was a simple sufficient reply: Katee Sackhoff’s character was a human pilot for the Colonial fleet. However Battlestar’s ultimate season made it abundantly clear she’d grow to be one thing extra, but by no means supplied a definitive reply for this thriller. Present creator Ronald D. Moore lastly opened up about why he left this ending so open ended, whereas talking with Sackhoff herself.
It was clear one thing was amiss within the ultimate moments of the Battlestar Galactica Season 3 finale when Kara, who was thought to have died in “Maelstrom,” out of the blue reemerged in a brand-new Viper and knew the situation of Earth (the primary one). However then in Season 4’s “Generally a Nice Notion,” Kara found her personal corpse on the planet the place the Thirteenth Tribe as soon as resided. Throughout his go to to The Sackhoff Present, Moore talked about how they’d planted the seeds for Kara to have a larger future by her interactions with Leoben, in addition to how the “idea of God” was baked into the present stretching again to when it launched with the miniseries. He then defined:
Lengthy story brief, on the finish, I used to be confronted with the problem of, ‘How do you outline the indefinable?’ And we debated it so much. We had lots of chat within the writers room in direction of that final season. ‘What’s Starbuck? Is she Gabriel? Is she Jesus? Okay, that’s a bit too straightforward. Is she an angel? Is she different analogies we pulled from different spiritual traditions and theologies on Earth?’ And none of them felt proper.
Whereas Head Six and Head Baltar had been finally revealed to be angels despatched by God, the Starbuck we adopted together with in Season 4 was apparently one thing else totally, but undefinable. Someway she was a corporeal being, and but there was her physique within the Viper wreckage on that radioactive panorama. Issues received even weirder when Kara discovered how one can play “All Alongside the Watchtower,” the identical tune that Tory, Anders, Tigh and Tyrol heard of their heads after they found they had been 4 of the Remaining 5. Oh, and let’s not overlook how she simply disappeared whereas speaking with Lee Adama on our Earth.
And but, no matter clarification Ronald D. Moore and the writers got here up with simply wasn’t adequate of their minds. So as an alternative, they determined to only depart it unresolved, which made him consider one among HBO’s hottest exhibits whereas he was speaking with Katie Sackhoff. In his phrases:
Each time we gave it a reputation and each time mentioned, ‘That is what she is,’ I felt just like the thriller was gone and the particular high quality was gone, and I made a decision on the finish I’m simply not going to say which is, and we’re simply going to go away the viewers with that… The Sopranos ending is considerably related. You simply don’t reply sure questions. You let the viewers marvel, and that’s going to be actually unsatisfying to some folks.
When Sackhoff additional questioned Moore on if it’s the paradox that’s been unsatisfying for these folks greater than a decade and a half after the three-part “Dawn” aired, he acknowledged that’s in all probability the case, which is why the actress is requested by Battlestar followers so ceaselessly about this subject. As he put it:
I feel for some folks it is rather unsatisfying, and I feel that’s why you get the query so much, as a result of folks need that reply. And I feel wanting again on it, I’m not totally positive that was the appropriate alternative. Possibly I ought to have given it a solution. As a result of it’s this bizarre hanging factor from the present that does come up so much. I’ve gone backwards and forwards in my thoughts over the previous few years about, ‘Is that good? Do I like that I’m having fun with the truth that folks nonetheless give it some thought and are nonetheless wrestling with it and jut need to know?’ Or am I identical to, ‘Fuck, why didn’t I simply reply that query? Simply give it to them so it’s not simply sticking round?
Moore added that finally, he nonetheless feels “glad” that he didn’t present a definitive reply, noting that he likes the second when Kara disappears on Lee. So whereas Battlestar Galactica will proceed to gather followers and draw previous ones again to rewatch the collection, don’t ever count on a solution to the thriller of Kara Thrace’s existence in Season 4. That’s one thing you’ll simply must craft your personal head canon for or depart it alone.
As of final July, Peacock axed its plans to launch a brand new Battlestar Galactica collection set in the identical continuity because the 2004 collection. There’s additionally been a Battlestar Galactica film in improvement that, as of 2020, was being written by Simon Kinberg, however there’s been no replace on its standing for a very long time. As for Ronald D. Moore, you’ll be able to see his writing expertise being put to good use on Outlander and For All Mankind, which could be respectively streamed on Starz and with an Apple TV+ subscription.