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By Chris Snellgrove
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While the Battlestar Galactica A remake is filled with great bad guys, not the most compelling villain is some cylon infiltration or a tin plated soldier. The best villain is arguably Tom Zarek, someone who rises from a political prisoner to Vice President before leading a rebellion and eventually killed. Generally, fans have been imagined as someone who hates his frequent sparring partner on the Laura Roslin screen, but when discussing a conspiracy that begins with a season 2 episode “Fragged,” actor Zarek Richard Hatch checked “Although Zarek is highly competitive with Laura Roslin, she has a huge respect for her.”
How Tom Zarek is Battlestar Galactica’s best villain
For a few joints, “Fragged” is an episode where the Commander Adama has been shot, leaving Colonel Alcoholic at Tigh to control the Galactica. Adama had thrown President Roslin at the top before, and after Tigh declared a fighting law, she only escapes the safety of the civil fleet thanks to her fierce critic Tom Zarek. Richard Hatch later highlighted that Zarek helped him because he respected her and because “his civil against military,” who stated fairly that fans can “guess where he collapses in that battle.”
What Richard Hatch refers to is that Tom Zarek started the show as a prisoner who had previously bombed government buildings and wrote a book that sold best about fighting government corruption. Furthermore, his first big story line in season 1 meant she took over a prison ship and insisted that there was a correct election succession When the President Birds died.
Because of this, Tom Zarek’s decision to help Roslin escape the custody on Galactica is surprising because he could have left her in there to rot. But she was caught unjustly without any kind of trial or hearing while the site military officer declared a fighting law on all the citizens in the fleet. What Richard Hatch later emphasized for his character is that Zarek is a man of principles that he would prefer to help an enemy he respects than helping military power he despises to continue his oppression of civilians.
No one understood Tom Zarek better than Richard Hatch, and the actor was excited to play a character that embodied what he considered to be a real world battle, across the country. “The story line speaks to the huge issue of balancing individual freedom with survival, something that those of us in the United States are all familiar with at the moment.”
This, of course, refers to the growing power of government during the George W. Bush administration and how citizens had to address whether they were comfortable giving up their constitutional freedom in the name of a national security. The national debate over these issues would continue in later seasons, and these frequent reflections were made on the Antics of the Llwyn Administration effectively Battlestar Galactica one of the most political sci-fi Shows in television history.
Tom Zarek would continue to conflict with Laura Roslin throughout Battlestar GalacticaBut in season 2, he saves her from military overlap custody. Hatch’s words show how much fans have traditionally misunderstood his charismatic character, someone who ultimately respects Roslin no matter how different their politics is. And in his willingness to save his most powerful enemy in the name of his beliefs, this memorable villain reveals himself as the last thing audiences would expect: the most constant ideological character in the show.
