Samuel Anders

BSG Character


bgcolor = #fc0
fgcolor = #000
name = Samuel Anders
race = Humanoid Cylon
gender = Male
callsign = Longshot
rank = Ensign (Episode 3.19 - Current)
colony = Picon (Assumed)
affiliation = Colonial Fleet
portrayed = Michael Trucco
first = "Resistance"

Samuel T. Anders is a fictional character from the re-imagined "Battlestar Galactica" television series, played by Michael Trucco. After joining the Colonial Fleet, his callsign is "Longshot".

He is a former star Pyramid player for the Caprica Buccaneers, and the leader of a group of survivors on Caprica who escaped the initial Cylon attack on the Twelve Colonies. His group is encountered by Kara "Starbuck" Thrace, and Karl "Helo" Agathon in the wilderness just outside the ruins of Delphi. His group was spared from the nuclear attack on the cities because they were out in the wilderness at a high elevation performing athletic training. Since the attack, the group has rounded up supplies and weapons and formed a resistance militia which began conducting raids and sabotage on the Cylon forces occupying Delphi.

Soon after meeting Anders, Starbuck falls in love with him and promises him that she will return to Caprica and rescue his group. She secures this promise by giving Anders her fleet dogtags. However, upon returning to the fleet, President Roslin and Commander Adama deny Starbuck's request to lead a search-and-rescue team back to Caprica, stating the situation is too dangerous. Meanwhile, Anders's team struggle to survive and continue their attacks on the Cylons.

In the episode "Downloaded", during a sabotage mission, Anders is caught in the rubble of a parking structure where he encounters the Cylon humanoids Number Six, Boomer (aka Number Eight) and a copy of the Cylon reporter D'Anna Biers (aka Number Three). Three attempts to kill Anders, but Six and Eight - having decided to sympathize with the human cause, turn against Three and allow Anders to escape.

In the episodes "Lay Down Your Burdens, Part I and II", Starbuck is finally green-lighted to lead a group of Raptors to Caprica and gather the survivors. Once found, Anders's team comes under attack by Cylon Centurions who discover their encampment and drive them out. Starbuck's search team is forced to engage the Cylons, but quickly realize they are outnumbered. The team is driven further into the wilderness where they hole up in a ravine. After an unsettling 18-hour standoff, the team discovers that the Cylons have completely withdrawn from the area. A mysterious survivor among the group, (later discovered to be a copy of the Cylon Brother Cavil), announces the Cylons have left the planet.

Once at the fleet, Anders and Starbuck begin a relationship which causes torn feelings for Lee "Apollo" Adama. During the year that passes after settling on New Caprica, Starbuck and Anders marry and the two live in a tent in the ramshackle "New Caprica City" under the neglectful authority of President Gaius Baltar. Anders becomes seriously ill with pneumonia at one point and is on the brink of death, but makes a full recovery. After the Cylons invade New Caprica and Starbuck is taken into custody by the Cylon Leoben Conoy, Anders becomes one of the leaders of the New Caprica Resistance.

Following the escape from New Caprica, Anders becomes one of the six members of The Circle, a Star Chamber-like group commissioned by the newly sworn-in President Tom Zarek to try, judge, and execute Cylon collaborators. After thirteen such executions, Anders quits The Circle and is immediately replaced by his wife Starbuck as a new member. Anders and Starbuck have a fight arising from this, which exposes numerous deep rifts that had emerged in their marriage and the two separate.

Midway through the series third-season, Anders and Starbuck try to reconcile their marriage, but Starbuck's growing love for Apollo makes things difficult.

In episode "Maelstrom", the last time he sees Starbuck alive, he asks her to go with him to another ship for some much needed rest and relaxation to which she replies that she would think about it. He leaves the room and the two never really resolve their soured relationship. After Starbuck's death Anders starts to drink heavily. In mourning, he finds himself in an inebriated state atop one of the Colonial Vipers in the hangar. Apollo tries to talk him down, but Anders slips and falls, injuring his leg.

In the episode "Crossroads, Part I", Anders is seen wearing the uniform of a Colonial Fleet Ensign. He has signed up for flight training since the death of Starbuck. He also displays a rather budding relationship with Diana Seelix, a newly recruited "nugget".

As the trial of Gaius Baltar commences, Anders is one of only four people so far, (Tory Foster, Galen Tyrol and Colonel Tigh being the other three), who begins to hear strange music coming from a radio in Joe's Bar. In the cliffhanger Season 3 finale, "Crossroads, Part II", he, along with Galen Tyrol, Saul Tigh, and Tory Foster become aware of the fact that they are Cylonscite web|url=http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07085/770732-352.stm |title=Executive producer Ron Moore discusses thrilling 'Galactica' cliffhanger |accessdate=2007-03-26 |author=Rob Owen |date=2007-03-26 |publisher=Post-Gazette.com] based on hallucinatory music (which turns out to be "All Along The Watchtower" as arranged by Bear McCreary and performed by Bt4) that only they can hear, and a "switch" that goes off within them (as Chief Tyrol mentions). Anders and Foster have been having a physical relationship. As the Cylon fleet attack, Tigh defiantly declares "I am an officer in the Colonial Fleet. Whatever else I am, whatever else that means, that's the man I want to be. And if I die today, that's the man I'll be." Following this speech, Anders reports for duty with Tyrol to prepare for battle against the Cylon fleet.

In the first episode of Season 4, Anders flies his first battle mission and cannot fire upon his targeted Cylon ship. The Cylon pilot recognizes him as a Cylon, and the Cylon fighters retreat. After being reunited with the newly back from the dead Kara, who is thought by many to be a Cylon, Anders tells her he will still love her even if she is a Cylon. Kara replies that if he were a Cylon, she would kill him with no qualms. He and the other three secret Cylons meet in secret and he is later a member of Starbuck's crew on the "Demetrius", on a secret mission to find Earth.

While aboard the Demetrius, Anders tries to reconnect with his wife and constantly reassure the rest of the crew of the ship who are lacking confidence in Starbuck's ability and purpose (especially when Starbuck begins to take advice from the captured Cylon, Leoben Conoy).

When the crew mutiny against Starbuck, Anders is one of the few who comes to his wifes aid even going so far as to shoot Felix Gaeta in the foot to prevent him jumping the Demetrius back to the human fleet against Starbuck's wishes.

Anders continues to show his loyalty to Kara by accompanying her to the damaged Cylon basestar and assisting her in with her plans.

Starbuck is shocked when it is revealed in Revelations that her husband was a Cylon, but near the end of the episode they are seen together in the corridor paying respect to a photo of a deceased comrade. It is unknown if their relationship is over or not.

ee also

*List of Battlestar Galactica (2004 television series) episodes

References

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