Tricia Helfer Talks about Six – Appeal
2 December 2004
One of the biggest changes in Ron Moore remake of Battlestar Galactica was that the main protagonist the Cylons had suddenly become far less irksome and clumsy and had taken on human form. This idea as many people will tell you is hardly new, they had humanoid looking Cylons in the ill fated Galactica 1980 series. However for the remake these human looking Cylons work more on creating a sense of paranoia within the fleet. The most prominent of these new Cylon characters is Number Six, who is apparently a sort of Tribute to the cult 1960's series ‘The Prisoner' and is not a reference to ‘Star Trek: Voyagers' (Seven of Nine). Tricia Helfer who plays Number Six spoke to Dreamwatch magazine about her character.
In the mini series viewers only really got to see one aspect of Number Six, however in the series thus far we have seen Three different variations on the character. Helfer was happy to talk us through the different aspects of Six – Appeal.
“Each Number Six is based on the same model, but shaped by her environment and job. The ‘imaginary' Number Six is more seductive, and she wants to be loved by Gaius. I looked at the one on Caprica as the base model – she's stronger and more militaristic. She also has a different vulnerability that you'll find out about as the series progresses.
In around about the 6 th or 7 th episode US fans will get to see an episode called ‘Six Degrees of Separation' which will introduce a new aspect of Number Six who will call herself Shelly Godfrey. Helfer revealed a little about her.
“Shelly is a bit more intellectual than the other Number Sixes, and she's the most human Number Six we've seen at this point,” She reveals. “I think Six Degrees Of Separation was probably the most interesting episode of season one for me, because I got to have scenes with a lot more people than usual. Most of my scenes are with James and I love working with him, but it was fun to do an episode where other people could see me and relate to me.”
As many people will know, there were quite a number of steamy scenes between Six and Baltar in the mini, and there is more of this to come in the new series. Helfer does not mind doing these scenes; in fact she was surprised that there were not more of these scenes dotted throughout the first 13 episodes.
“Number Six and Baltar have a really interesting relationship and James is a lovely guy to work with,” she says. “And if there's anyone to do raunchy scenes with he's certainly a good person because he's very respectful and makes light of the situation and protects you.
“But I actually had less scenes like that than I thought I was going to have,” she adds. “There's a lot of intimacy and closeness, but there's not to many scenes of pure raunch. Some of the other characters got to take on some of that in season one – Katee [Sackhoff, Lieutenant Kara ‘Starbuck' Thrace] gets it on a little bit and so does Grace [Park, Lieutenant Sharon ‘Boomer' Valerii], so it wasn't just on our shoulders.”
When asked to reveal which are her favourite episodes to date Helfer refers to the aforementioned ‘Six Degrees Of Separation' and the 2 part finale ‘Kobols Last Gleaming' as her personal highlights.
“I really liked the finale,” reveals the actress. “You start to get an idea of the Cylons' master plan – and it's different from what people are going to expect, which I think is really cool. There's also a bit of a cliffhanger.”
You can read much more of what Tricia Helfer had to say about her character of Number Six in the new issue of Dreamwatch which is out now in all good UK Stores.
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