Karl C. Agathon is a
fictional characterA character is the representation of a person in a narrative or dramatic work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr through its Latin transcription character, the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its...
on the re-imagined
Battlestar GalacticaBattlestar Galactica is a military science fiction serial drama television series and part of the Battlestar Galactica franchise. The show was created by David Eick and Ronald D. Moore as a re-imagining of the Battlestar Galactica television series from 1978 created by Glen A. Larson...
TV series, portrayed by
Tahmoh PenikettTahmoh Penikett is a Canadian actor best known for his role as Karl "Helo" Agathon on the Sci Fi Channel's television program Battlestar Galactica....
. His
call signIn broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign is a unique designation for a transmitting station. In some countries they are used as names for broadcasting stations, but in many other countries they are not...
is "
Helo."
Background
Agathon is an
Electronic CountermeasuresElectronic countermeasures are a subsection of electronic warfare which includes any sort of electrical or electronic device designed to trick or deceive radar, sonar, or other detection systems like IR and Laser. It may be used both offensively or defensively in any method to deny targeting...
Officer, part of a two-person
Colonial RaptorThe Raptor is a multipurpose military spacecraft featured in the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica. According to producer Ronald D. Moore, the Raptor is analogous to the U.S. Navy's EA-6B Prowler.-Description:...
crew based on the
Battlestar GalacticaThe Battlestar Galactica is a space battleship in the original and re-imagined science fiction television series Battlestar Galactica.The Twelve Colonies of Man in the original television series built a number of Battlestars during their thousand-year war with the Cylons, whose battleships are...
, and is paired with
Sharon "Boomer" ValeriiNumber Eight is a female humanoid Cylon model on the television series Battlestar Galactica, a reimagining of the classic show of the same name. She is portrayed by Grace Park...
before the
CylonThe Cylons are a cybernetic civilization at war with the Twelve Colonies of humanity in the Battlestar Galactica science fiction franchise, in the original 1978 and 1980 series, as well as the 2003 reimagining. In the 1978 series, the Cylons is also the name of the race who created the robot...
attack on the Twelve ColoniesThe Destruction of the Twelve Colonies is a fictitious interstellar holocaust first depicted in the 1978 motion picture Battlestar Galactica, which set the stage for the subsequent television series...
. Unlike other major characters such as
Kara "Starbuck" ThraceKara "Starbuck" Thrace is a fictional character in the reimagined Battlestar Galactica franchise. Played by Katee Sackhoff, she is a revised version of Lieutenant Starbuck from the 1978 Battlestar Galactica series.-Overview:...
or
Gaius BaltarGaius Baltar was a fictional character in the TV series Battlestar Galactica played by James Callis, a reimagining of Count Baltar from the 1978 Battlestar Galactica series.-Personality:...
, the series reveals little about Agathon's life before the events of the series. It is confirmed Helo is a Caprican, which is partly why he and Starbuck knew each other.
The (unofficial) backstory Tahmoh Penikett and
Katee SackhoffKathryn Ann "Katee" Sackhoff is an American actress known mainly for playing Captain Kara "Starbuck" Thrace on the Sci Fi Channel's television program Battlestar Galactica. In 2004 she was nominated for a Saturn Award in the "Best Supporting Actress in a Television Series" category for her work in...
came up with to explain a comment from Thrace in "
Scattered"Scattered" is the first episode of the second season of the reimagined Battlestar Galactica television series. It aired originally on the Sci Fi Channel on July 15, 2005.-Plot:...
" that she and Helo "go way back" is the two were old friends for a long time who most likely attended the academy together as cadets and as "drinking buddies."
Miniseries
During the Cylon attack, their Raptor is damaged and forced to land on Caprica. While making repairs, they are mobbed by a group of survivors desperate to get off the planet. A lottery is used to decide who will be allowed to escape due to the Raptor's limited space, but Agathon additionally sacrifices his own seat to allow Dr.
Gaius BaltarGaius Baltar was a fictional character in the TV series Battlestar Galactica played by James Callis, a reimagining of Count Baltar from the 1978 Battlestar Galactica series.-Personality:...
, discovered in the crowd, to survive.
Series
After the Raptor leaves, Agathon flees into the wilderness and tries to elude Cylon forces, surviving by using anti-radiation injections and the other contents of his
survival kitA survival kit is a package of basic tools and supplies prepared in advance as an aid to survival in an emergency. Military aircraft, lifeboats, and spacecraft are equipped with survival kits....
. Eventually, he is captured by a
Number SixNumber Six is a family of fictional characters from the reimagined science fiction television series, Battlestar Galactica. She is portrayed by Canadian actress and model Tricia Helfer. Of the twelve known Cylon models, she is the sixth of the seven that were created and numbered by the Final Five...
copy, but is rescued by Valerii (unknown to Agathon, his rescuer is another copy of Cylon model Number Eight). Valerii's true motive in accompanying Agathon is the participation in a Cylon experiment designed to attempt to create a viable Cylon/human hybrid offspring. The Cylons track Agathon's progress toward a military base in Delphi, placing him in situations designed to result in affection and ultimately love towards Valerii. The experiment results in a successful pregnancy after Valerii has sex with Agathon, though as an unintended side effect, she falls in love with him as well. Agathon soon discovers the truth about her Cylon nature after spotting another Number Eight copy while trying to infiltrate the Delphi military base. Believing that he is being led into a trap, he runs from the base and Valerii.
She eventually catches up to him and reveals she is pregnant. Despite shooting her in the shoulder, Agathon realizes he can't bring himself to kill her and instead, at her urging, takes her with him to the Delphi museum. It is there he is reunited with fellow
GalacticaThe Battlestar Galactica is a space battleship in the original and re-imagined science fiction television series Battlestar Galactica.The Twelve Colonies of Man in the original television series built a number of Battlestars during their thousand-year war with the Cylons, whose battleships are...
pilot
Kara "Starbuck" ThraceKara "Starbuck" Thrace is a fictional character in the reimagined Battlestar Galactica franchise. Played by Katee Sackhoff, she is a revised version of Lieutenant Starbuck from the 1978 Battlestar Galactica series.-Overview:...
, who is on a special mission from
President Laura RoslinLaura Roslin is a fictional character in the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica series, portrayed by Mary McDonnell. She is the President of the Twelve Colonies.-Cylon Attack and Escape:...
to recover the Arrow of Apollo. After nearly being killed by Thrace, Valerii steals the Cylon Raider and flies off. Agathon and Thrace make their way first to Thrace's old apartment to retrieve a new mode of transportation (an old army truck she owned), and then into the woods in search of another military base. While stopping to get their bearings, they run into a group of Pyramid players-turned
resistance fighterA resistance movement is a group or collection of individual groups, dedicated to fighting an invader in an occupied country or the government of a sovereign nation through either the use of physical force, or nonviolence. The term resistance is generally used to designate movement considered...
s. After Thrace is wounded and captured by the Cylons, Agathon and the others track her down and attempt to rescue her from the hospital where she is being held. They are, surprisingly, aided by Valerii, who returns in a stolen Heavy Raider. With the Arrow of Apollo in hand, Agathon, Thrace and Valerii leave Caprica and make their way to
KobolKobol is the name of a planet in the fictional Battlestar Galactica universe.Within the context of both Battlestar Galactica stories, Kobol is the birthplace and original home of humanity, from which the civilization departed and formed the "Twelve Colonies of Man" on other worlds...
to rejoin Roslin.
Upon rejoining the Colonial survivors aboard the
Astral Queen, Agathon pulls his gun on
Lee AdamaLeland Joseph "Lee" Adama is a fictional character in the television series Battlestar Galactica. He is portrayed by actor Jamie Bamber.-Early life:...
in order to stop him from shooting Valerii, whom Adama blames for the attempt another Valerii copy makes on his father's life. Later, while searching for the Tomb of Athena on the surface of Kobol, Agathon admits to Valerii he still loves and trusts her.
After finding the Tomb of Athena, Agathon returns with the group to
Galactica, almost three months after being
MIAMissing in action is a status assigned to armed services personnel who are reported missing during active service. They may have been killed, wounded, become a prisoner of war, or deserted. If deceased, neither their remains nor grave can be positively identified...
and presumed dead. His homecoming is bittersweet; Helo's former friends turn their backs on him due to his love for a Cylon — let alone one whose doppelgänger attempted to murder the beloved Commader
William AdamaWilliam "Bill" Adama is a fictional character portrayed by Edward James Olmos in the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica television series. The character is a reimagining of Commander Adama from the 1978 Battlestar Galactica series...
. However, Helo finds support from Starbuck and Chief Petty Officer Galen Tyrol, who was in love with the original Galactica crew member version of Sharon before her ultimate betrayal of the fleet and death. Helo eventually is accepted by the crew when he recommends the Blackbird should be encased in carbon-composite skin to make it a stealth ship.
After the appearance of the
Battlestar PegasusBattlestar Pegasus is a fictional spacecraft that appears in the both the original and the reimagined television series Battlestar Galactica.- Battlestar Galactica :...
, Agathon witnesses Sharon's torture and attempted rape by Lieutenant Alastair Thorne, a
Pegasus crew member and Cylon interrogator. Along with Tyrol, Helo stops Thorne from raping Sharon but in the process, they accidentally kill him. (This incident is subject to subtly different editing. In the DVD version of the episode, they interrupt Thorne while he is raping Sharon; in the broadcast version, they arrive just in time to prevent it.) Admiral Cain's summary trial and death sentence of Agathon and Tyrol bring
Galactica to confrontation with
Pegasus. Although the death sentence is not carried out, Agathon and Tyrol remain in the brig, where Tyrol ultimately gives Helo his blessing for a relationship with Sharon. The two are eventually released by
ColonelColonel is a military rank of a commissioned officer, with corresponding ranks existing in almost every country in the world. It is also used in some police forces and other paramilitary rank structures...
Jack FiskJack Fisk is a fictional character from the 2004 TV series Battlestar Galactica, portrayed by Graham Beckel.Jack Fisk, service number 245A-34DC, was originally a Lieutenant Colonel aboard the Battlestar Pegasus and was the Executive Officer of the vessel, serving under the command of Admiral...
, with all charges being dropped.
Following his captivity on
Pegasus, Helo is reunited with his version of Sharon as her pregnancy continues. When President Laura Roslin proclaims her intention to force Sharon to undergo an abortion in order to eliminate the perceived threat Helo and Sharon's child represents to the fleet, Helo begs Admiral Adama to overrule Roslin and allow himself and the pregnant Sharon to leave the fleet and find a world where they could live in peace without being persecuted. Adama refuses and Roslin rescinds her demand for a forced abortion when Gaius Baltar extracts blood from the unborn child for use as a cure for Roslin's terminal cancer. This leads to Roslin betraying Helo again by ordering Helo and Sharon's newborn daughter to be taken from the hospital after she is born. The infant's death is faked and Helo is given what are ostensibly her ashes, which he and Tyrol release into space.
Following the discovery and settlement of New Caprica, Agathon remains on
Galactica as part of her skeleton crew. He is promoted to Captain and serves as
Galactica's
executive officerAn executive officer is generally a person responsible for running an organization, although the exact nature of the role varies depending on the organization.-Administrative Law:...
(XO), replacing
ColonelColonel is a military rank of a commissioned officer, with corresponding ranks existing in almost every country in the world. It is also used in some police forces and other paramilitary rank structures...
Saul TighSaul Tigh is a fictional character on Battlestar Galactica played by Michael Hogan.The character was named Paul Tigh in early scripts, and was renamed after a clerical error.-Overview and personality:...
. Karl Agathon marries his version of Sharon Valerii, who is commissioned as a Lieutenant in the Colonial Fleet and takes the call sign "
AthenaIn Greek mythology, Athena is the goddess of wisdom, peace, warfare, strategy, handicrafts and reason, shrewd companion of heroes and the goddess of heroic endeavour...
".
During an attempt by
Galactica to spread a virus in order to wipe out the Cylon race, Agathon disobeys orders and sabotages a key part of the plan in order to prevent the elimination of the Cylon race because he considers such an action to be genocidal, and therefore profoundly immoral.
When Colonel Tigh finally returns to the position of
Galactica's XO after a long depression brought on by his experiences on New Caprica (in particular his execution of his wife,
EllenEllen Tigh is a fictional character from the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica series.-Overview:Ellen Tigh is the wife of Colonel Saul Tigh, who believes she has been killed during the Cylon attack of the Colonies while he was on Galactica...
, for collaboration), Agathon returns to the flight line. He pilots one of the Raptors used to guide the fleet through a nearly un-navigable and highly radioactive stellar cluster. He becomes one of the second highest pilots left after the deaths of Kara "Starbuck" Thrace and Louanne "Kat" Katraine. He is next in line with Ricky "Two Times" Richardson and Marcia "Showboat" Case, respectively.
Two weeks after the death of Kara, Helo takes over as C.A.G. (Commander, Air Group) from the still visibly shaken Lee Adama, who is subsequently removed by Admiral Adama. Mere days later, he once again temporarily replaces Col. Tigh as XO, when it becomes apparent the latter has returned to the bottle.
Helo returns to his duties as CAG after Colonel Tigh returns to duty. When Starbuck returns Helo is placed second in command on the
Demetrius in the mission to find earth. During the mission to destroy the Hub, Helo rescued the Number Three D'Anna before the Hub was destroyed.
During the mutiny Helo was beaten unconscious by the mutineers and thrown in the brig along with his wife and daughter. After the mutiny was resolved, he and his family returned to life as usual. This equilibrium was disrupted when Boomer, the Raptor pilot he had formerly served with, impersonated his wife and allowed him to seduce her (while Athena, bound in a closet, watched in helpless fury), and then abducted Hera for study. Boomer fled with the child to the Colony, where John Cavil intended to dissect her to determine the secrets leading to her conception. In the aftermath of the abduction, with Athena in a listless depression, Helo begged Adama to let him take out a Raptor for a search-and-rescue mission, despite the risk he would not find her—or, for that matter, return. (Adama, stern if sympathetic, denied the request.)
When Adama finally obtained the location of the Colony, Helo and Athena were among the many who volunteered to crew
Galactica for the attack-and-rescue mission. He devised the plan of using Raptors as boarding craft, inserting small teams of Marines into the Colony—a plan made extremely dangerous by the dense asteroid agglomeration and gravitational distortions caused by the Colony's orbit around a
black holeIn general relativity, a black hole is a region of space in which the gravitational field is so powerful that nothing, not even light, can escape. The black hole has a one-way surface, called an event horizon, into which objects can fall, but out of which nothing can come...
. He and Athena were the only Raptor crew to survive the entire process of insertion, combat and withdrawal, but (with a little help from a repentant Boomer) successfully retrieved their daughter. Shortly thereafter,
Galactica herself was boarded, and Helo was shot in the thigh. Hera fled the scene, and, despite knowing he would die of blood loss unless Sharon attended him, Helo demanded she protect their daughter.
Helo did not appear again until the last few minutes of the episode. Though he used a walking stick to counter his limp, he was still alive, still mobile, and evidently not severely distressed by his injury; instead, he bantered with Sharon over what they would teach Hera (and who should get to teach it) on this new planet called
EarthEarth is the third planet from the Sun. It is the fifth largest of the eight planets in the solar system, and the largest of the terrestrial planets in the Solar System in terms of diameter, mass and density...
.
While Karl and Sharon Agathon passed namelessly into history, Hera was eventually identified by Earth scientists as "
Mitochondrial EveMitochondrial Eve is the name given by researchers to the woman who is defined as the matrilineal most recent common ancestor for all currently living humans. Passed down from mother to offspring, derivatives of her mitochondrial DNA are now found in all living humans: all mtDNA in every living...
".
Character arc
Helo was originally conceived as a
"red-shirt" characterRedshirt is a slang term for a minor stock character in an adventure drama who dies violently soon after being introduced to dramatize the dangerous situation faced by the main characters...
. After stranding him on the post-nuclear attack Caprica, the writers had no further plans for the character and intended his fate to be that he died (off-screen) in the radiation that followed the nuking of the planet. However, many fans took a liking to the character and wanted to know what happened to him after he was left on Caprica. This factor caused the producers, who were also impressed by Penikett's performance when watching the premiere of the miniseries on the big screen, to revise their original plans for the series to include the character and his activities on Caprica after the mini-series.
Name
Like many of the characters on the series, his name has its origins in
ancient GreeceAncient Greece is the civilisation belonging to the period of Greek history lasting from the Greek Dark Ages ca. 1100 BC and the Dorian invasion, to 146 BC and the Roman conquest of Greece after the Battle of Corinth. It is generally considered to be the seminal culture which provided the...
,
AgathonAgathon was an Athenian tragic poet. He is best known for his appearance in Plato's Symposium, which describes the banquet given to celebrate his obtaining a prize for his first tragedy at the Lenaia in . He is also a prominent character in Aristophanes' comedy the Thesmophoriazusae...
being the name of an Athenian tragic poet. The Greek
proverbial phraseA proverbial phrase or a proverbial expression is type of a conventional saying similar to proverbs and transmitted by oral tradition. The difference is that a proverb is a fixed expression, while a proverbial phrase permits alterations to fit the grammar of the context.Another similar construction...
kalon k'agathonKalos kagathos , sometimes written kalokagathos or kalos kai agathos, is an idiomatic phrase used in ancient Greek literature , attested to since Herodotus and the classical period. The phrase is adjectival, composed of two adjectives, and...
("the beautiful and the good") — also written as
kalos k'agathos — was used to describe the ideal man, the epitome of both
aestheticsAesthetics is commonly known as the study of sensory or sensori-emotional values, sometimes called judgments of sentiment and taste...
and
ethicsEthics is a branch of philosophy which seeks to address questions about morality, such as what the fundamental semantic, ontological, and epistemic nature of ethics or morality is , how moral values should be determined , how a moral outcome can be achieved in specific situations , how moral...
, as well as the Form of the Good in Platonic philosophy. Helo's full name, Karl C. Agathon, wasn't revealed until the release of
"33""33" is the first and pilot episode of the reimagined military science fiction television program Battlestar Galactica, immediately following the events of the 2003 miniseries. It was written by series creator Ronald D. Moore, and directed by Michael Rymer...
— after the writers revised their original plans and expanded the character's storyline. His call sign, "Helo," could possibly originate from the Greek
TitanIn Greek mythology, the Titans , were a race of powerful deities that ruled during the legendary Golden Age...
HeliosIn Greek mythology the sun was personified as Helios Homer often calls him simply Titan or Hyperion, while Hesiod and the Homeric Hymn separate him as a son of the Titans Hyperion and Theia or Euryphaessa and brother of the goddesses Selene, the moon, and Eos, the dawn...
, though it is also military slang for a helicopter.
Agathon is also the name of a Prince of Troy in the
Iliad. King Priam scolds Agathon and his 8 brothers for being cowards after
HectorIn Greek mythology, Hectōr , or Hektōr, is a Trojan prince and the greatest fighter for Troy in the Trojan War. As the son of Priam and Hecuba, a descendant of Dardanus, who lived under Mount Ida, and of Tros, the founder of Troy, he is a prince of the royal house. He acts as leader of the Trojans...
is killed by
AchillesIn Greek mythology, Achilles was a Greek hero of the Trojan War, the central character and the greatest warrior of Homer's Iliad.Achilles also has the attributes of being the most handsome of the heroes assembled against Troy....
. On page 475, beginning on line 263 in Book 24 of Stanley Lombardo's translation:
"And he [Priam] waded through them, scattering them
With his staff. Then he called to his sons
In a harsh voice--Helenus and Paris,
Agathon, Pammon, Antiphnus, Polities,
Deiphobus, Hippothous, and noble Dius--"
External links
- Karl Agathon on Battlestar Wiki