But conceiving the idea wasnt without drama.
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The attitude was, Can we make this character the most infuriating person ever?
Everett Collection
Because shes totally self-sabotaging and tremendously talented.
But a really, really big heart.
All of these things that are fighting within her.
Then we tried to come up with why would that be.
What was her freight damage, so to speak, that brought her to this spot?
I thought that was pretty cool.
Katee Sackhoff came up to me and said, So whats the deal with the mandala?
What does that mean?
Of course I didnt know yet, and I said, Well, were still developing that.
Its kind of premature to talk about it.
So I said, Thats a really interesting idea, Katee.
I said, Well, we kind of have done that over and over.
Cant we make a run at advance it in some way?
And heres what Katee Sackhoff has to say.
And I told them, and Ron just grabbed that and ran with it and said, Yes.
You know this might be a vehicle for exploring that.
RONALD D. MOORE [creator]:They were struggling with it and I wasnt in on the break.
What if we killed her?
I was like, What?
Theyre like, We kill her.
We let Lee and Adama and everyone deal with the ramifications of her death.
I was really surprised and even said, Thatsreallyunexpected.
So as we developed that, Ron said, Why does she have to pull out?
Maybe she goes all the way in and she dies.
So Kara was starting to jell as a character like that.
They were like, So we want to talk to you about something.
Youve done nothing wrong.
In my mind Im thinking, I totally did something wrong.
Were going to kill you, but were going to bring you back, so dont worry.
Youre not going to be you.
Dont worry about it.
Everyones going to think youre dead.
Were going to take your name out of the credits.
Youre going to go home.
Were not telling anyone anything.
Im like, Okay.
Youre right at the cusp of social media and the internet starting to ferret out spoilers from shows.
Various plotlines are getting blown online for the first time.
This is becoming a thing that none of us had ever had to deal with before.
Well take her name out of the main credits, we want this to be a shock.
The script comes out and shes dead.
SACKHOFF:Im like this child; I tell my mom, because I had to tellsomeone.
My moms on set.
The crew were like, So sorry about Katee.
My moms like, I know.
Shell land on her feet.
What are they doing?
Well, somehow the real draft got leaked, and there was just chaos.
Everybody thought, Youre killing off Katee?
Leading the charge was Eddie Olmos.
He was like, This is preposterous.
Shes one of the signature characters in the show.
What the hell are you guys doing?
Her mother even called, saying, Why are you killing her?
How could you possibly .
Of course we had to explain what was going on, and come clean about everything.
But it was astonishing how militant Eddie got about keeping her on the show.
SACKHOFF:Finally I was like, I cant do this anymore.
So I called him and then he told everyone.
You dont understand, people are freaking out that youre killing Starbuck.
Were like, Hey, its working.
Nobodys going to know.
This is going to be the greatest prank of all time.
A little time goes by and I get a phone call.
Eddies pissed, walking around saying, This is the death of the show.
We didnt want to upset anybody.
SACKHOFF:I dont even think we made it a week.
MOORE:It was just a matter of days and we were like, Okay, call it off.
