Exclusive Profile: BATTLESTAR GALACTICA

[GoldCylon]

BATTLESTAR GALACTICA is one of the top-ranked television programs on the air in prime time. In the new series, the Cylons were built to be servant machines to mankind. They rebel and flee to another planet to establish their own culture. When the original mini-series aired, there existed between the Cylons and humans an uneasy truce. During the forty or so odd years since the original Cylon War, they have evolved into human-looking robots. Think TERMINATOR with emotions and a sex drive. The Cylons strike out at the human colonies with nuclear weapons and force the remnants of humanity to form a rag-tag fleet protected by the Battlestar Galactica, with one purpose- to find Earth.

Tahmoh Penikett plays Lt. Karl 'Helo' Agathon, a GALACTICA crewmember that is stranded on a Cylon controlled planet. During the second season, Helo finds himself back on GALACTICA amidst friends who thought he was dead, and most significantly he is the father of a human/Cylon hybrid child carried by the humanoid Cylon Sharon "Boomer" played by Grace Park.

Penikett chatted with iF MAGAZINE about his role on the series, what it was like being resurrected after the pilot, and what sort of challenges Helo has given to him as an actor.

iF MAGAZINE: What sort of response have you been hearing about the new season so far?


TAHMOH PENIKETT: We