Sci Fi Pulse

To Be Cylon or Not To Be Cylon
By Ian M. Cullen
1-28-2005

If there is one thing that is markedly different about the Ron Moore remake of Battlestar Galactica it would be the use of humanoid Cylons. Granted a humanoid looking Cylon was used in the defunct Battlestar Galactica 1980 series, but they were portrayed more as clumsy approximations of human beings, and to be honest they never really did convince anyone. The humanoid Cylons in the new series however a far more dangerous breed and have already successfully made the remains of the colonial's paranoid as hell. One Cylon however that they do not know about as of yet is Sharon Valerii Boomer as portrayed by Grace Park and in a recent interview with David Bassom for issue 126 of Dreamwatch the actress revealed some of the complexities of her role in the series.


As fans will know Grace Park plays several versions of the same Cylon or is that person. On the one hand you have the Boomer who is living aboard the Galactica and on the other you have the Boomer who is on Caprica, and as time goes on in the series you begin to recognize that both versions of Boomer have slight differences. When talking about the Boomer aboard the Galactica Park revealed her thoughts on Sharon One's inner conflict and poses some interesting questions for us all to think about.

"I think the really interesting thing about her is that a lot of viewers will be conflicted about how they should feel about her and whether they should view her as a villain or not.

"I remember ['Crashdown' actor] Sam Witwer saying to me that you could call Sharon evil, but at the same time you do have a lot of sympathy for her," she continues. "It's hard to know how much blame you can really put on her if she's been programmed to behave the way she does and react the way that she is. So it's really up to the viewers to decide if they want to hate Sharon or feel sorry for her."

One thing viewers will notice about both versions of Sharon Boomer is that she is essentially in conflict with herself over what her true nature is; this aspect of Boomer is more apparent with the Boomer who has been living aboard the Galactica. Park feels that it is the duality and the ambiguity of her character that makes it a fun and challenging role to play.

As you may imagine one of the biggest challenges for Grace Park is playing two variations of the same character, the Cylon Operative Boomer we see aboard the Galactica and the Boomer we see taking part in a bizarre Human/Cylon Experiment. The actress revealed that this aspect was a both a fun and difficult challenge.

"The whole process was very challenging for me. I not only had to figure out what was going on with both my characters, but I also had to work out the Cylon mentality, their power structure and their mentality in my own head."

Admittedly Grace Park is not the only actress on the show that has the task of playing dual roles: Tricia Helfer who plays the seductive and deadly Number Six faces a very similar challenge, and this has resulted in Park and Helfer occasionally having to brain storm together about their dual roles on the series. Obviously the only time that Park has worked with Helfer are in a handful of scenes which take place on Cylon Occupied Caprica, and Park finds this mini subplot a fun aspect of the show.

"I especially enjoyed shooting the Caprica sequences for episode nine [Tigh Me Up, Tigh Me Down], where we are down in the tunnels and they're sky - high with water. [Commander Adama actor] Eddie Olmos directed that episode and that was very thrilling to do because of the intensity Eddie wanted. Episode nine was probably my favourite from season one because of that."

Moving on, viewers in the UK will already know what happened in the finale of Battlestar, and to say that the show does not have a few twists waiting to be revealed to those viewers who have only just started watching in the US would be a massive understatement, and Grace Park's Boomer, as in both versions, play a massive part in the big plot twists that the US viewers will eventually see in the series as it hits episode 13 'Kobols Last Gleaming: Part II'.

"It's an exciting ending," says Park. "I love it! I think what the Sharon on Galactica does at the end of the episode will come as a surprise to people, and it's definitely going to be interesting to see where we'll go from there in season two."

With regards to season 2 Sci Fi has already ordered six scripts for the new series, however there has not been any official word about there being a season two as of yet. However should the series continue with its current ratings trend in the USA , we may well see a second year of the series, you can read more of this interview with Grace Park in the new issue of Dreamwatch which is out in the UK now priced at £3.50.