Number Six (Battlestar Galactica)

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Number Six
Number Six
Race	Humanoid Cylon
Gender	Female
Portrayed by	Tricia Helfer
First appearance	Miniseries
Colony	Cylon Homeworld
Affiliation	Cylon

Number Six refers to a fictional model for characters portrayed by Canadian actress Tricia Helfer in the television "re-imagining" of Battlestar Galactica.

Contents 1 Background 2 Leitmotif 3 Versions 3.1 Caprica-Six 3.2 Baltar's inner Six 3.3 Shelly Godfrey 3.4 Gina Inviere 3.5 Natalie 3.6 Other versions 4 Notes 5 See also 6 External links

[edit] Background

Number Six is a seductive, statuesque Cylon infiltrator. Most, but not all, versions of Six have platinum-blonde hair. She was the first example shown of a new generation of Cylons capable of adapting to human form and emotions. Little else is known of her earlier years. She can, like other Cylons, retain memories which can be downloaded into another body if the original body is killed. Like her counterparts, her body was designed to mimic the human body at the cellular level, making her almost undetectable to testing procedures, and there are many copies of her in existence.

Although Number Six has no direct counterpart in the original Battlestar Galactica TV series, she corresponds in certain points to the character of Cassiopeia, played by Laurette Spang, who likewise has no direct counterpart in the reimagined series. Both are striking blonde women who are usually shown on screen in red dresses. Both are trained to seduce men - Cassiopeia as a 'sociolator' (Gemonese temple prostitute), and Number Six as a spy/infiltrator. (The Six model known as Gina Inviere is depicted as being of Gemonese origin.) And both have been romantically linked to Cain, commander of the battlestar Pegasus, in their respective series.

[edit] Leitmotif

Since her debut in the mini-series, a leitmotif has been used in scenes figuring Tricia Helfer as Number Six. This simple 9-note motif was composed by Richard Gibbs. The 9/8 figure is divided unevenly into a group of 3 notes, followed by 3 groups of 2. It is almost always performed on a gamelan, and also plays over the introduction to each episode of the series. On the published series soundtrack, the melody is listed as The Sense of Six.

[edit] Versions

Copies of Number Six appear regularly, mostly within Cylon society. Several notable versions have had more prominent roles:

[edit] Caprica-Six

At the beginning of the miniseries, a Six copy^[1] is involved in an intense sexual affair with Dr. Gaius Baltar. Pretending to be an employee of a rival computer corporation, Six seduces Baltar while helping him with his work on the Colonial defense system. Six then reveals her true nature to Baltar, and informs him that the Cylons will use the computer secrets that he has given her to infiltrate the Colonial defense systems, disable the Colonial military and attack the Twelve Colonies. That day, the Cylons launch their attack and destroy most of humanity. Six uses her body to shield Baltar from a blast during the attack, saving his life and sacrificing hers.

In the episode "Downloaded", this copy is downloaded into a new body. This Six, nicknamed "Caprica-Six" by fellow Cylons, is viewed as a hero amongst the Cylon civilization for her complete success in her mission to compromise the colonies' defenses. She retains her sentimentality and expresses some regret at her actions, as evidenced by her constant visions of Baltar. This "Phantom" Baltar plays a similar role to her that the virtual or 'inner' Six plays towards the real Baltar, as a critical counselor and manipulator. Caprica-Six is enlisted to motivate the resurrected Galactica copy of Sharon Valerii (Boomer, not Athena) to move out of her apartment and reintegrate into Cylon society. However, in defiance of their superiors, both Caprica-Six and Sharon opt instead to aid Samuel Anders, to the extent that Caprica-Six murders a Three, to save him. Caprica-Six and Sharon then begin preaching peace with the humans as the way of their God. This leads them to take over Cylon culture and to resume the hunt for humanity, leading them to the colony of New Caprica, which they take over in a bloodless coup facilitated by Baltar, who surrenders to Caprica-Six as soon as the Cylons arrive.

After the Cylon occupation of New Caprica, Caprica-Six alienates the other Cylons with her desire for peaceful coexistence with humans. Her reunion with the real Gaius Baltar, however, shatters her illusions about her former pawn, as Baltar impotently allows the Cylons to bully him into enacting their oppressive tyranny upon New Caprica.

The other Cylons insist Baltar must sign an execution order for 200 insurgents in response to two suicide bombings by the human resistance movement. Baltar initially refuses and Caprica-Six alone objects strongly to her fellow Cylons' desire for mortal retribution. These objections result in her being shot in the head by fellow Cylon, Aaron Doral. Her death and an immediate threat to shoot Baltar force him to sign the order. Caprica-Six is reborn and helps Baltar escape onto a Cylon Basestar when New Caprica is ultimately abandoned by its population.

After settling on the basestar, she becomes involved in a ménage à trois with Baltar and Biers and explicitly states that she loves both of them. She was also instrumental in rescuing an inexplicably sick Hera from the Basestar. She assists in Athena's download and witnesses the obvious bond between Athena and Hera. Caprica subsequently disables and then kills Boomer who threatens to throttle Hera despite Athena's anguished pleas. She leads Athena and her child to a captured Raptor and returns with them to Galactica, where she is promptly imprisoned. In this situation she is frequently used as a source of information about and means of understanding the Cylon's motivations.

Colonel Tigh begins to make more frequent stops to her cell, questioning her about what it's like to exist as a Cylon. He confronts her about being responsible for the deaths of billions and whether she feels any remorse or if she can just 'flip a switch' and shut out the pain. Caprica Six questions Tigh's reasons for the line of questioning, unaware that Tigh is one of the Five Unrevealed Cylon Models. When she goads him about needing to feel pain, he turns to leave but she assaults him and bludgeons him. To her surprise he cries and begs for more pain, but in response she abruptly aborts her assault, shakes her head and replies that he doesn't need any more pain. She then kisses him passionately.

Dr. Cottle later reveals that Caprica Six is pregnant. It is implied that Tigh is the father of the baby.

[edit] Baltar's inner Six

A distinct copy derived from Caprica-Six residing in Baltar's head since the destruction of the colonies, "Inner Six" appears as a figment of his imagination, invisible to everyone else. She suggests that this phenomenon might be caused by either a computer chip implant or insanity over his guilt. When Baltar undergoes an MRI-like "brain scan", it reveals no sign of a computer chip or any other foreign object in his brain. While this briefly leads Baltar to think that he has truly gone insane, he concludes this is impossible, given Six's knowledge of events unknown to him (for example, the prediction of the birth of the Human/Cylon Hybrid to Sharon Agathon while a prisoner aboard Galactica). Confronted with this, Six declares that she is neither a computer chip nor an hallucination produced by mental instability. When Baltar then asks just who or what she was, she simply replies that she is "an angel of God sent here to protect you."

This Six often appears suddenly, without warning. She often advises and gives instructions to Baltar. While she usually appears to him as part of the real world, occasionally he interacts with her in an imagined but persistent dream-like setting within his mind. In this, Number Six resembles the character of Harvey from Farscape (who in turn was based on the "imaginary" character from the Jimmy Stewart film Harvey).

While Six can physically interact with Baltar in his imagination, she also appears able to physically affect him in the real world — for example, in one episode Number Six throws Baltar into a bulkhead and grabs him by the throat, and passersby see his physical reaction to this. On another occasion, she can be seen while she ties the knot on Baltar's improvised noose. In the episode "Escape Velocity" (aired April 25, 2008), Inner Six is shown lifting Baltar from the floor to a standing position after he endured repeated blows from a Galactica Marine.

This manifestation of Six in particular is extremely religious. In contrast to the colonists, and like the other Cylons, she believes in a singular God, whom she identifies as Love. She constantly attempts to convince Baltar to believe in the Cylon God, and to accept his part in God's plan or will.

Her motivations are unclear. While some of her advice appears to benefit humanity, for example, pointing out a Cylon device to Baltar on Galactica and helping him build a Cylon detector, it more often serves only Baltar's needs, and she expresses enjoyment over what she considers the inevitable extinction of the human race.

Baltar's inner Six appears to be somehow related to Caprica-Six, which is the Six model who seduced Baltar on the planet Caprica and encouraged him to give her access to the Colonial Defense Mainframe. This belief is encouraged by the fact that Caprica-Six has her own inner Baltar, implying some sort of transcendental connection between those two specific characters. The precise identity or nature of Baltar's inner Six is unknown.

Showrunner Ronald D Moore has stated numerous times in his official SciFi BSG podcasts that the inner Six is known in scripts and among cast as "Head Six", due to Six being in Baltar's head all the time.

[edit] Shelly Godfrey

In the episode "Six Degrees of Separation", the name of which is derived from the theory of the "Six Degrees of Separation", a copy of Number Six in the fleet using the name "Shelly Godfrey" appears. Godfrey attempts to frame Baltar for betraying the human race with supposed photographic evidence. In addition, she attempts to seduce Commander Adama. She disappears abruptly after her "photographic evidence" is proven to be fake. This leads the people of the fleet to conclude that she was a Cylon agent trying to discredit Dr. Baltar because of his Cylon detector research. Baltar's popularity increases as a result. As her appearance coincided with the temporary disappearance of Baltar's Inner Six, it is often wondered (and indeed voiced by Baltar himself) whether she was a physical manifestation of Inner Six posing in a dual identity.

The episode does cause the audience (and Baltar) to think Shelly Godfrey is related to Baltar's inner Six, however this is demonstrated to be a deliberate red herring by subsequent episodes of Battlestar Galactica. In Season 3, both when Baltar is on Cylon-occupied New Caprica and held as a prisoner on a Basestar, it is revealed that every humanoid Cylon is an individual - even amongst the same model type. Furthermore it is revealed that only the individual Cylon known as Caprica-Six has any romantic feelings or attachment to Baltar - all other Number Six models are indifferent to Baltar and his plight. Based upon this it is reasonable to conclude that Shelly Godfrey was simply just another Number Six model hiding in the Colonial fleet and unrelated to Inner Six.

[edit] Gina Inviere

In the episode "Pegasus" and the telemovie Battlestar Galactica: Razor, it is revealed that a copy of Number Six had hidden aboard the Pegasus, posing as a civilian network administrator and using the name Gina Inviere (Old Gemenese for "resurrection"). This Number Six gains the confidence of Rear Admiral Cain with whom she has a romantic relationship, and then-Lieutenant Kendra Shaw, who gives "Gina" the override codes for the Pegasus mainframe. Gina uses Shaw's password in order to disable the Pegasus during a Cylon attack, enabling the ship to be boarded by centurions. Shaw sees another Six with the centurions thereby exposing Gina as a Cylon. Cain orders her former lover's imprisonment, condemning her as a thing, and allows Gina to be subjected to torture and gang rape by members of the Pegasus crew. By the time of the events of "Pegasus," Gina appears to be catatonic from the severe trauma of her abuse. With the assistance of Baltar (who has fallen in love with Gina, vastly complicating his relationship with Inner Six), Gina escapes and flees into the civilian fleet after murdering Rear Admiral Cain. She then joins a group of Cylon sympathizers, who want humanity to make peace with the Cylons. The extensive sexual abuse she has suffered renders Gina psychologically unable to be intimate with Baltar until shortly before her death. In the finale to the second season, Gina detonates a nuclear weapon she had received from Dr. Baltar, killing herself, signaling the location of the human settlement to the Cylons, and destroying the Cloud 9 and several other ships in the human fleet.

Gina has honey-blonde hair, actress Tricia Helfer's natural hair color, instead of the platinum-blonde of most Sixes. Like Shelly Godfrey, she sometimes wears glasses.

Series creator Ron Moore says in the DVD commentary for "Pegasus" that the name "Gina" is directly meant as a jab against critics of the reimagined series who use the derogatory term "GINO" (Galactica In Name Only) to describe it.

[edit] Natalie

An assertive and authoritative version of Number Six named Natalie appears in the episode "Six of One" ^[2]. Following a vote to lobotomize Cylon raiders in which a single copy of Number Eight (Boomer) voted against the rest of her model, Natalie, along with the remaining Number Eights and Twos, leads a coup against the other models. They decide to give sentience to the Cylon centurions, making them self-aware and capable of feeling for the first time. The other models, led by Cavil, are dumbstruck by this decision and attempt to destroy Natalie and her followers permanently in the episode titled "The Ties that Bind" ^[3]. Natalie makes a deal with Admiral Adama on the Galactica to reveal the location of the main Cylon Resurrection hub as long as she can bring the "final five" with her off the Galactica after Earth is located. Natalie is on her way to speak to Rear Admiral Adama again when she is confronted and shot by Athena because of a dream Athena had in which a Number Six took her daughter Hera.

[edit] Other versions

• A copy in a red tunic, who arrives aboard the Armistice Station and seduces the Colonial representative shortly before the station is destroyed. Similar copies are part of the group that board Ragnar Anchorage to rescue and debrief Aaron Doral.
• A copy, wearing a white rain-coat, who captures and kisses Helo before being shot by Sharon Agathon. Another raincoat-wearing Six observes their escape, and another (possibly one of these two) later leads Centurion troops in pursuit of them. In "Razor," a copy in a white rain-coat is the one seen and shot by Kendra Shaw during a Cylon boarding raid on the Pegasus.
• A copy of Six in a black suit, who acts as "overseer" to the breeding experiment concerning Helo and Sharon Agathon. This copy (or a similar one)is killed by Starbuck when she escapes the farm.
• Two copies (one in a black suit and one in a white raincoat) who are talking to each other as Helo and Sharon Agathon are trying to steal a transport to escape the planet.
• A copy seen by Starbuck when she is captured and taken to a "farm".
• Numerous naked copies of Six (presumably in storage) aboard a resurrection ship, seen both in reconnaissance pictures and when the ship is destroyed.
• A copy who sits in a movie theatre (with other Cylon models) and watches the footage broadcast from the Colonial Fleet by D'Anna Biers.
• Copies, clad in gold tunics, who act as "nurses" or "midwives", helping Caprica-Six and Boomer through their respective resurrections.
• Several copies seen walking around Cylon-occupied Caprica going through daily life in the episode "Downloaded", in a variety of different outfits.
• Copies who are killed when Samuel Anders and Galen Tyrol detonate a bomb near a heavy raider.
• Two copies that take part in a meeting aboard Colonial One on New Caprica, and agree with the proposal to execute over 200 human detainees. They vote on behalf of the majority of the Number Six model (Caprica-Six dissents).
• A raven-haired copy, dying from a disease aboard a basestar, whom Baltar strangles after she hysterically accuses him of deliberately leading them to the disease-carrying beacon.
• A copy, dying from a disease aboard a basestar, who is taken captive by Galactica. Later, she and the rest of the Cylon prisoners are killed by Helo in an attempt to prevent genocide against the Cylons.
• A copy from "Faith" aboard the damaged Basestar. She recognizes crew-member Jean Barolay as a resistance fighter from New Caprica who gagged her, threw her into a septic tank and watched her drown. After Barolay tells her she'd be happy to do it again, the copy attacks and kills her. Shortly afterwards she is shot and killed by another Six copy, Natalie.
• Several copies from "The Hub" who serve as Heavy Raider pilots.

[edit] Notes

[edit] See also

• List of women warriors in folklore, literature, and popular culture

[edit] External links

• Number Six at Battlestar Wiki
• Gina Inviere at Battlestar Wiki
• Gateworld biography
• Tricia Helfer interviewed on spacecast.com ::On acting like a machine|::On watching the show

v • d • e Characters on Battlestar Galactica Humans Lee "Apollo" Adama · William "Husker" Adama · Karl "Helo" Agathon · Gaius Baltar · Anastasia "Dee" Dualla · Felix Gaeta  · Laura Roslin  · Kara "Starbuck" Thrace  · Cally Henderson Tyrol Cylons Number One  · Number Two  · Number Three  · Number Four  · Number Five  · Number Six  · Number Eight  · Samuel Anders  · Tory Foster  · Saul Tigh  · Galen Tyrol Minor characters  · List of Battlestar Galactica characters