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Character in Battlestar Galactica (2004)

Kara Thrace (callsign "Starbuck") is a fictional character in the reimagined 2004 Battlestar Galactica series. Played by Katee Sackhoff, she is a revised version of Lieutenant Starbuck from the 1978 Battlestar Galactica series. She is one of the main characters on the show.

Described by a critic as "one of television's most complex, ever evolving characters", the role of Starbuck changed over the run of the series. According to Sackhoff, Starbuck originally "didn't value her own life," and this attitude inspired her readiness to die for her shipmates. By the end of the series, however, she is prepared to sacrifice herself for others because she respects all life. Kara Thrace bears some parallels to the original 1978 Starbuck character: both are portrayed as hot headed and arrogant fighter pilots, considered the best in the fleet, but with a tendency to challenge authorities and get into trouble. Both are avid gamblers and enjoy drinking, smoking cigars, and having sex. Both have crashed and been marooned on a deserted planet, using a downed Cylon ship to make an escape. Both are best friends with Apollo. Kara had a relationship with Apollo's late brother Zak (mirroring the original Starbuck's on and off relationship with Apollo's sister Athena), affecting her relationship with Apollo and Zak's father, William Adama. Whereas the original Starbuck, played by Dirk Benedict, was a slick, well groomed ladies' man, Kara appears more rugged and grimy. The characters differ, not only in respect of their gender – complicating Kara's relationships with other characters – but also in outward appearance. USA Today described her as "the broken warrior, a young, idealistic soldier who has been fighting for all the right reasons, but has lost something along the way." Kara Thrace had intended to be a professional pyramid ballplayer until her knee gave out. She eventually joined the military, where she found more acceptance than she had felt at home as an abused child. Although Kara's mother, Socrata Thrace, had served as a corporal in the first Cylon war, Kara was the first person in the family to become a commissioned officer. Socrata was not content with her daughter's military record, however, claiming she was not disciplined enough and was wasting her natural talent for flying. Kara's father, Dreilide Thrace, was a pianist. He left the family when Kara was a child, as Socrata had forced him to make a choice between his beloved piano playing and a steadier job to support the family. As a flight instructor at the Colonial flight school, Kara met and became romantically involved with one of her students, Zak Adama. Although Zak told her he did not want any special treatment from her, Kara passed him even though he failed basic flight, as she could not bring herself to crush his dreams. Her leniency cost Zak his life when he died on his first Viper mission. After his death, Starbuck met his father, William Adama. He realized Starbuck and Zak had been engaged and brought her under his command as a lieutenant. Zak's death, however, created a wedge between Adama and his other son, Lee "Apollo" Adama, who blamed his father for Zak's death, for creating an expectation that made Zak feel he needed to pursue becoming a Viper pilot in order to earn his father's affection. After the funeral, Lee broke off all contact with his father and Starbuck. Starbuck has a natural talent for flying and is considered Galactica's best pilot, although she also is known for being an avid card player and drinker as well as for an eruptive temper. Bill Adama loves Kara despite her flaws and considers her something of a surrogate daughter. However, Starbuck and Colonel Tigh share a mutual sense of loathing, despite or perhaps because of their similarities. At the time of the attack on the Colonies, she was second in command of Galactica's fighter wing.

In a card game prior to Galactica's decommissioning ceremony, Starbuck responds to Colonel Tigh's mocking of her call sign and her stint in the brig as a cadet by alluding to Tigh's troubled relationship with his wife. Infuriated, he flips the table over, and she punches him in the face. He sends her to the brig, promising her that her career is over. However, Adama tells Tigh he is probably overreacting: while he agrees to leave Kara in the brig until after the ceremony, Adama says there is no need to ruin her career over the incident. Following the Cylons' attack on the Twelve Colonies of Kobol, Starbuck is released to join the battle. Starbuck keeps her secret about Zak buried inside until after the Cylon attack on the Twelve Colonies of Kobol. Soon after, when Starbuck fears she and the rest of humanity might be wiped out by the Cylons, she confesses her mistake to Lee. He is devastated. Later, he confronts her about it when she is chosen to train new Viper pilots aboard Galactica after several pilots are killed in a freak accident. The quality of recruits she is sent is subpar but still, she begins their training, ordering them to call her "God". Starbuck, blinded by guilt, washes all the pilots out for relatively minor flaws. She then admits her secret to Adama who is furious and heartbroken; he orders her to reinstate the trainees. On the next training mission, Starbuck and the trainees are ambushed by a small group of Cylon Raiders. Starbuck engages the Raiders on her own to cover the trainees' escape. With her Viper heavily damaged, she plummets toward the surface of a nearby desert moon and is forced to eject and take her chances on the surface. Starbuck is declared "missing in action", and Adama orders a search and rescue operation which strains the Galactica's crew and combat resources. On the surface, Starbuck struggles with a broken knee and near asphyxiation as her oxygen runs out. Luckily, she discovers the Cylon Raider she downed. Using her exceptional skill in flying, she figures out the Cylon technology and is able to pilot it back to the fleet. Depressed by her injuries, she initially needs the incentive to work on rehabilitation and is soon rubbing people the wrong way again. Even after she is able to move around without a cane, the injury sidelines her from flight for many episodes; when given tactical charge of a mission in one episode, she cannot fly the critical role because her knee still can't handle the G force. During her recovery, a Number Two named Leoben is discovered aboard the Gemenon Traveller and is arrested. Adama assigns Starbuck to interrogate Leoben, believing she will be resistant to his mind games. Starbuck brutally interrogates Leoben, and he claims to have hidden a nuclear bomb on a timer somewhere in the fleet, threatening its detonation. Despite her often crude exterior, Starbuck is revealed to have a deep seated faith in the gods, and engages in a debate about the existence of the Colonial gods vs. the Cylon god with Leoben, and whether the humanoid Cylons are actually "human". Leoben demonstrates that he is capable of breaking free and killing Starbuck at any time, but chooses not to, believing it is not God's will. During this period, Starbuck develops respect for Leoben, and he falls in love with her. She is genuinely saddened when President Laura Roslin orders him executed by airlock after he admits there is no bomb. She experiences a brief moment of emotional connection with Leoben when they touch palms through the glass of the airlock before he is executed. Afterwards, she privately prays to the Lords of Kobol, acknowledging that Leoben might not have had a soul, but if he did, asking that they take care of it. Starbuck's religious beliefs later come into play when President Roslin asks her to carry out a dangerous mission: return to Caprica and retrieve the Arrow of Apollo, a religious artifact supposedly pointing the way to Earth. Starbuck is at first reluctant, believing that Adama already knows the way to Earth, and is leading them there. Roslin is forced to reveal that Adama lied about knowing Earth's whereabouts to give the fleet hope. This deeply shakes Starbuck's trust in Adama, and she eventually is convinced to help Roslin. She takes the Cylon Raider she had captured, leading Adama to declare Roslin had suborned mutiny; he sends a detachment of Marines to terminate her presidency. During her time on Caprica, Starbuck encounters a Number Six (who beats her soundly) but manages to kill the Cylon out of sheer luck. She then meets up with Karl "Helo" Agathon (a close friend she believed dead after he stayed on Caprica) and the Sharon Valerii copy pregnant with his child. Immediately realizing that Sharon is a Cylon, she attempts to kill her, while Helo stops her. This causes Sharon to flee in the stolen Raider, abandoning Starbuck and Helo. While attempting to find an alternative route off Caprica, they meet a resistance group that had been waging a guerrilla war against the Cylons, led by fellow pyramid player Sam Anders. Kara and Anders develop a bond over their shared past as pyramid players and develop a romantic relationship. At one point Starbuck is injured in battle, captured, and wakes up in a Cylon "farm" as part of their experiments to create human/Cylon hybrids, but is originally led to believe she is in a hospital run by the resistance. A Cylon named Simon, posing as a doctor, experiments on her, claiming to be treating her for internal injuries, and keeps her in a drugged state. Without her knowledge, apparently one of her ovaries is surgically removed before she escapes; a fact discovered only much later. Starbuck escapes with the help of the resistance, killing Simon. Sharon returns with a Cylon Heavy Raider, and Starbuck plans to return to the fleet with her and Helo. However, she personally promises Anders that she will return with reinforcements to rescue the Resistance, giving Anders her dog tags as part of her promise. She, Helo, and Sharon arrive on the planet Kobol, joining Roslin in her search for the Tomb of Athena. Sharon is able to guide them to the tomb, and Adama joins them. They are able to place the Arrow of Apollo in the tomb and gain a rudimentary map to Earth. Soon after returning to Galactica, the Battlestar Pegasus, commanded by Rear Admiral Helena Cain, is discovered. Cain promotes Starbuck to captain and assigns her as the CAG of the Pegasus. After the fleet leadership denies her request to return to rescue the Caprican resistance fighters, Starbuck is depressed and guilt stricken: she has broken her word, failed her duty, and assumes the man she is "hung up on" is either dead or will be soon. After Lee Adama's promotion to Commander and appointment as commander of the Battlestar Pegasus, Starbuck transfers back to the Galactica and assumes the role of its CAG.