Keeping the Secret

This in from the LA Times:

'Battlestar Galactica' star
'Galactica' producers teased fans in Season 3, but what they did to the cast/crew was worse.
By Kate Aurthur, Times Staff Writer
April 4, 2007

Over the summer, Katee Sackhoff, who plays Kara "Starbuck" Thrace on "Battlestar Galactica," received a nerve-racking phone call from Ronald D. Moore and David Eick, the show's executive producers.

"David and Ron said, 'We want to start this phone call out by saying that we love you,' " Sackhoff recalled last week.

Sackhoff knew she might not like what came next. And she didn't. "They said, 'You're not really gonna die — but we're gonna blow you up.' "

At the end of the March 4 episode of "Battlestar Galactica," Starbuck, the swaggering, troubled pilot who has been one of the show's leads during its three seasons, did indeed blow up. The series' voracious fans' reactions ranged from mourning to disbelief that the producers would kill off such a popular character.

Those in the latter category turned out to be right: Three episodes later, in the season finale's last moments, Starbuck reappeared, flying alongside her friend Apollo (Jamie Bamber). She said she had been to Earth — the search for Earth is the show's overarching story — and would lead everyone there.

In a spoiler-centric world, where the plots of television series leak throughout the Internet, the so-called death of Starbuck was a big secret to keep in the months-long lag time between shooting "Battlestar Galactica" and its broadcast. Adding on that she wasn't actually dead, along with the surprising circumstances of her return, made it even more difficult. After all, the Sci Fi Channel show isn't so much watched by its moderately sized but fervent audience as it is dissected.

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