Count Baltar

Baltar
Battlestar Galactica character
First appearance	"Saga of a Star World"'
Last appearance	"The Hand of God"
Portrayed by	John Colicos
Information
Species	Human
Gender	Male
Title	Count
Colony	Picon
Affiliation	Colonials / Cylons

Count Baltar was a leading antagonist in the original 1978 Battlestar Galactica television series. The character betrayed the human race to its enemy, the robot race of Cylons. He was portrayed by Canadian actor John Colicos.

In material deleted from the final broadcast of the episodes, it is explained that Baltar was originally a Colonial military officer who led an expedition to discover new sources of tylium for mining. After discovering a particularly rich tylium deposit on Carillon, Baltar decided to go into business for himself, leaving the military. He falsified records, declaring Carillon too minimal for mining, and set himself up with the Cylons and Ovions, who were also mining Carillon.

Towards the last years of The Thousand Yahren War between the Cylons and the Twelve Colonies of Man, Council of Twelve-member Baltar acts as a liaison between the Twelve Colonies and the Cylons, and arranges for a peace conference that would bring an end to the war—with the Cylons apparently conceding defeat. Unknown to the Colonials, however, Baltar has made a deal with the Imperious Leader of the Cylons: Baltar would conduct the peace conference to lull the Colonials into a false sense of security, while the Cylons prepared for a massive attack on the Colonial military and the Twelve Colonies. In return, the Imperious Leader promised Baltar that his home colony would be spared from the attack, and Baltar would be installed as its dictator. It is never stated which of the Twelve Colonies was Baltar's home; however, the original script states that he was from "Orion," but as this did not make the final version, its canonicity is debatable. Since the Cylons are dedicated to the complete annihilation of humanity, the Imperious Leader goes back on his word, and destroys all twelve Colonies in the attack.

A handful of humans flee in civilian ships, under the protection of the (apparently) sole surviving battlestar, the Galactica. In the meantime, Baltar goes before the Imperious Leader aboard his flagship, enraged that the Cylons had not held up their end of the bargain. The Imperious Leader coldly responds by explaining that every human being must be exterminated, and then sentences Baltar himself to death, reasoning that any being who would see his own race destroyed could not be trusted. As originally depicted in the theatrical version, Baltar is supposedly decapitated when one of his Cylon escorts pushes him down and the other drawing its sword and uses it. However, when the film was presented on television preceding the television series, the scene was reshot so that the Imperious Leader instead orders that Baltar be brought away for public execution, presumably to a prison baseship or the Cylon homeworld. But soon thereafter, the Imperious Leader is destroyed when his basestar gets too close to the exploding planet Carillon.

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Wikipedia