Some groundbreaking revelations come to light for the Battlestar Galactica in its final season as it trawls through space in search of the fabled refuge known as Earth. With the crew's fate only a stone's throw away, Jamie Bamber, the Battlestar's very own Lee "Apollo" Adama, sheds some light on his time aboard ship and what's in store for him, post-mission.
The final season has almost reached an end. Can you briefly explain the plot at the moment?
Well, season four continues from the aftermath of the momentous trial of Baltar who has kind of been scapegoated for all of humanities problems. I have just defended him and he is hated. My character is no longer in the military; he has a different career and is now a lawyer. There have also been four cylons who are in fact robots, but the crew have suddenly worked that out. So there is all the aftermath of all that - the realisation, and how they deal with that knowledge. And then of course, Starbuck, who was thought to be dead, suddenly appears again. So there is this strange, presumably ghost, or even a cylon, showing up which presents the paranoia that that brings. So it's a fallout of all of those things.
Did you watch the original Battlestar Galactica series and if you did, how do you think the two compare?
When I was a kid I did, yeah. The essential premise is exactly the same: a civilisation of humanity, of humans, elsewhere in space. Suddenly, they are under attack and lose their home. Everyone is wiped out. It's a disastrous holocaust really, and they have to find a new home and a new reason to live. So that's the same, but what is completely different is the tone. The original is a kind of fuzzy, escapist, pioneering western in space, and ours is just trying to be true to that original premise and more maybe philosophical and angst ridden.
How do you feel about the show's success? Did you, or anyone in the team, ever expect it to be so well received?
No, No. I mean the big surprise was how the critical press really championed us. I mean, in America we have been lauded by the New Yorker magazine, New York Times, Rolling Stone, as the best show on television. So that was a big surprise.
You have played the role of Apollo since the series began in 2003, how life-changing was it for you to take on such a fantastic character back then?
It was very scary and it has been really life-changing actually. Life-changing is the word. When I started, my then girlfriend and I were not engaged. We didn't have any children. In the process, I now have three kids and I am married. We moved to America and bought a house there. So the show was like a back-story for all those personal changes and it introduced me to some people who have really changed my life - Edward James Olmos and Michael Rymer, who directed a lot of the show, and Ron Moore who wrote them. I have learnt a lot about what I want to do as an actor and it has given me a different kind of emphasis to the way I do my work. So yeah, definitely life-changing.
So, will you continue with this type of role?
Not at the moment, I am back in London and I'm doing Law & Order: London which is a new show based on the American format, but it's all about London and the Crown Prosecution Service so yeah, it couldn't be more different really.
What have you particularly enjoyed about playing your character, and what will you miss? Are you and Apollo alike?
I think we are quite similar. I think he is ambitious. He is competitive, and those things I am. But we are also different. I mean he is calm under fire. I don't think I am as brave as he would be. He is quite scary when he needs to be and he is not scared to sacrifice himself and I think self-sacrifice is something I would not be so ready to do. So he is more heroic than I am, certainly.
How does it feel to see the show go?
It was very intense. We became very close to people, the crew, the cast, the director, the writers. We loved making the show. It was very nostalgic but also very positive. It's always good to end and to end well and we did those things so it was happy sad.
Do you think that there may be any sort of comeback for Battlestar Galactica?
I don't know, you know. I was really so pleased with the ending that I would be reluctant to go back and make any more television programmes. The one thing that we have never done is make a feature film and if the opportunity came to take the characters from the small screen to the big screen then that would be the one thing that really excites me. If that opportunity arose then who knows!
So you are working on Law & Order at the moment, is there anything else in the pipeline?
I have many aspirations but no, Law & Order is taking up all of my time right now. We are three episodes in to making 13 episodes, which will go out sometime next year and we are very excited about that. I would love to do more film work and I would love to start writing, producing, directing, and doing all those other things that people do over the years. I have got lots of ideas, but no, right now Law & Order is the focus of my attention.
Kerry Thornhill
You can buy the season 4 DVD at Universal Playback and you can catch Jamie in the final season of Battlestar Galactica as it returns to Sky 1 early in 2009.
