Lieutenant Starbuck
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| Starbuck | |
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| Race | Human |
| Gender | Male |
| Portrayed by | Dirk Benedict |
| Rank | Lieutenant |
| Colony | Umbra, Caprica |
| Affiliation | Colonials |
Lieutenant Starbuck, played by Dirk Benedict, is a fictional character in the 1978 science fiction television series Battlestar Galactica. Starbuck is a Viper starfighter pilot, gambler, womanizer and smoker. He is involved with Lieutenant Athena and Socialator Cassiopeia, and best friend of Captain Apollo.
Orphaned at a very young age, Starbuck never knew his parents. The man known as Chameleon (Fred Astaire in the episode "The Man with Nine Lives") is discovered to be Starbuck's father, but Chameleon does not reveal this fact to his son.
Starbuck is very close to the family of Commander Adama, who refers to Starbuck as a man "he loves like a son" (Galactica 1980: "Return of Starbuck").
Starbuck is well renowned as an excellent fighter pilot, but nonetheless manages to crash a Viper several times ("The Long Patrol", "The Young Warriors", "The Return of Starbuck") and a shuttle at least once ("Gun on Ice Planet Zero"), or get into a difficult situation in a dogfight.
Starbuck returned for one episode, "The Return of Starbuck", in Galactica 1980.
"The Wheel of Fire", an unproduced Galactica 1980 episode, reveals that Starbuck was eventually rescued by the beings from the Ship of Lights and that the entire affair of Starbuck finding Angela, delivering her child, and sending him to the Colonial Fleet was engineered by them, to test whether Starbuck was worthy to join them. Starbuck passes the test and becomes one of the Ship's crew.
The re-imagined Battlestar Galactica series episode "You Can't Go Home Again" gives a nod to this episode. In the episode, Lt. Kara "Starbuck" Thrace crashes on a deserted planet and must repair a Cylon Raider to rejoin the fleet.
Starbuck reappears in Richard Hatch's original Galactica novels, described as still the best pilot in the fleet, even though over 10 yahren have passed since the last episode and the start of the novel series. He and Cassieopeia have a daughter named Dalton, who becomes a fighter pilot.
[edit] In other media
Dirk Benedict was cast in the somewhat similar role of Lieutenant Templeton "The Faceman" Peck on the NBC television series The A-Team, after his work as Starbuck. In one episode, the second season's 'Steel', while on the Universal Studios film lot, a Cylon walks past Peck, causing him to double-take. This shot was used on the later second, third and fourth season opening credits for the series.
[edit] External links
- Starbuck at the Battlestar Wiki
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