Jamie Bamber, who plays hotshot space captain Lee "Apollo" Adama on TV's dark sci-fi epic Battlestar Galactica, sat down with a group of genre journos recently to discuss the upcoming final season of the show, and the special two-hour TV movie Razor, which revisits a pivotal moment in Battlestar lore--the tense struggle between Galactica and her then newly discovered sister ship Pegasus. Naturally, being FEARnet, we also asked Bamber about his starring role in the direct-to-DVD Pulse 2. [Note: Razor makes its TV debut on Saturday, November 24 at 9 PM EST on SCI-FI. A special one-night only theatrical screening will take place in a handful of select cities on Monday, November 12]:

[In Razor, you?re revisiting] your character at an earlier point, before a lot of big things had happened to him like his marriage?was it interesting for you to go back and sort of rethink where he was at that point?

Yeah, definitely. Just on a nostalgic, personal level it?s interesting to reminisce, you know, a couple of years in actor time and a couple of years in character time as well? Harking back to where Lee was and where Jamie was a couple of seasons ago, it was a lot of fun.

Could you talk a little bit about what the dynamic is like for him in Razor, since he is just taking over Pegasus?

Yeah. I mean, I remember it being one of the sort of pivotal moments in playing Lee?that moment where he sort of puts on his father?s work clothes and takes the helm of the Pegasus in a crisis, which is the episode ?Captain?s Hand?, which we made back in season 2?which was one of those crazy moments where I really did feel like the character has that goosebumps-all-over sort of thing, where he?s become his dad. There?s sort of this difficult figure in his life that he kind of envied, looked up to, admired, worshipped, and also had a great many problems with?a man who he felt distant from and didn?t really understand, felt he was disconnected from, his own upbringing and his own life. So to get the chance in Razor to sort of flesh out that process, with him gradually assuming command was really fun and really interesting. Because it was a quick thing when we shot it as part of the season. So it was nice to take a bit of time to sort of really look at how Pegasus was different and, you know, what that meant for Lee, and trying to sort of get the crew on board. And, you know, obviously in Razor there?s this very significant other character, new character, called Kendra Shaw who represents the old Pegasus that has to be won over, and that?s largely what the story is about for Lee?gaining the respect of a crew that?s had its own leaders fall and gets questioned by this other Battlestar. We?ve seen it from Galactica?s POV and now it?s time to see it from Pegasus?s POV.

What are some of the things that you like most about Lee Adama?

I enjoy his roundedness. The fact that he?s as comfortable having a discussion on Colonial One about some political or legal issue as he is in a Viper, desperately trying to stave off a Cylon attack, Cylon Raiders. He?s a man of action and yet he?s a man of words, and a man of thought. I like that sort of renaissance element to him, that he?s a fully rounded, engaged human being in every fact of his albeit somewhat bleak existence. He does explore every aspect of that existence; and over those four seasons, I think more than any character in the show, he has been sort of an aerosphere of this fleet and tried to make a difference. And as an actor that?s great fun?to play an action sequence one day and the next to have a forlorn monologue of quite some complexity in an argument that has to sway a whole fleet. So it?s the balance of all the parts that make Lee, for me, great fun to play.

What did you make of the basic concept of Razor?a prequel, building to the new season, to fill the hole between repeats and new episodes?

The basic concept I was really, really in love with--I thought it was very bold, different. You know, every one of us in the Galactica family has always nurtured a not-so-secret passion to try and make a movie out of the show because there are so many things that on a week-in, week-out one-hour drama that you have to compromise on budgetarily and in terms of storylines and how much you can fit into forty-four minutes of a narrative. It was great to tell a longer story and to have a bit more money to throw at it. And to tell a huge arc?to go right back from before the miniseries, before the very first shot that we ever picked up on, on the show, and go right the way through to the back end of season 2.

It was a huge script in its ambition and it tried to introduce a new character, which I thought was a great way to reintroduce a different angle from the Pegasus?to see it all from a pair of eyes that we haven?t actually met before, that will have to meet all the main characters all over again. I thought that was a very worthy endeavor and a good way to bring in new audience members to Battlestar, before a third season or fourth season aired. Structurally it?s very ambitious. I know we?ve had some problems editing it and making the story clear, and the story work. But when I read the script, I was really excited, and it sort of invigorated me yet again to start another year of Battlestar. It was nice to start from the beginning again.

How sad are you to see the show go? Is there something to be said for going out on top or is it too early for your taste?

No, I think it?s a good time. We?ve been saying from the very first season that the most important thing is to be able to finish this story in a way that is up to the people that create the story, and not up to the audience or up to a network, or up to the sort of financial criteria of what it is to make a TV show. It should be about ending the story because the story begs an ending. That?s the first and foremost thing about having ended. I mean, I think it is sad. I think there?s always nostalgia. It?s been an amazing learning process for me personally and this experience is, without doubt, the most interesting and rich one I?ve had as a professional working actor. And I?ve learned everything from everyone around me, so it?ll be very sad to sort of disband the team. Every day that we?re up here in Vancouver, there is an element of nostalgia about moments passing and little scenes that will never be revisited, and sets maybe that disappear because, you know, they?re gone forever. So that?s all, you know, very sad.
But, you know, personally I also?I look to the future and we all do. I?m very keen to do other work and to test myself in other ways. So it?s positive nostalgia. All good things, only in their ripening do they become truly, you know, tasty and edible. I think once Galactica is finished and the story is finished, it will be more perfect than it would be had we been cut short. So it?s inevitable.

The Razor movie is mostly in flashbacks, but there also seems to be some hints of what?s to come, particularly with the Starbuck prophecy that we hear from the hybrid. Can you talk a little bit about whether you?ve seen elements from Razor in the episodes to come that you?ve shot already?

You know, that was one of the other things that I thought was really clever about Razor, is that it did sort of lean forward and beg some questions about season 4 and the direction we were going. I thought it was?it had a bit of everything in it. I will just comment that I haven?t actually watched Razor yet, [but] I know they are very conscious of fulfilling the hybrid Starbuck element. That?I think that was the main thing that they introduced, which was a new seed about the direction that we?re going.

And obviously season 4 opens up literally seconds after the strange reappearance of Starbuck that happened at the very last couple of frames in season 3. So it?s very much the first question served up to the audience?what?s going on with Starbuck? That sort of occupies a good chunk of the drama and the interpersonal relationships in at least the first half of season 4. So that?s not shrugged off. It?s definitely addressed.

Can you maybe tease the upcoming fourth season just a little?

This season, as we embark on the fourth, it?s really picking up the loose ends of season 3. The core of the story is really these four Cylons. They find themselves suddenly aware of being found and thought they were humans all their lives. And they?re for stake really. So it will really tie it up in those four, and how they cope with the knowledge that they are actually sort of inherently treacherous to who they thought they were. I don?t know yet because I?m in the middle of season 4, but that?s really the big question?what future is there for these two different kinds of humanoids?

What are your thoughts on continuing Battlestar Galactica with direct-to-DVD projects?

Well I love the show to death as long as the writing continues to really push the boundaries. It?s going to be tough, because hopefully we?ll resolve this story. We?ll end the show. So any future project would have to sort of acknowledge that. I think Razor is probably a good model in that it does use a new character to re-introduce everyone to a completely different audience. Yet there?s stuff there for the seasoned viewer that sheds light on questions that you already had about stuff that you?d seen. So that sort of tangential story line?I think that?s a good model to go for. If the quality was still there I would dearly love to, you know, pick up the role again and pick up the project again. I?m sure it could be done?examine different aspects of this big affect and the fleet and, maybe even continue the story beyond the ending that we find. I don?t know what the ending is so I can?t say how continuable it will be. But as a concept I?ve always sort of really deep down hunkered a wish to do at least one feature film, with the kind of budget that we have never really been able to use to flesh out the world; and to tell the stories that sometimes have appeared in the scripts that we?ve been unable to shoot.

Can you tell us a little bit about your approach to your character this season and maybe how he?s further grown and developed in the ten or so episodes you?ve shot so far?

Yeah. I mean, I?ve sort of said this every year and I guess it?s something innate to the character?he?s always looking for new challenges and he?s always trying to stretch himself and trying to contribute to those around him. I think the experience of Baltar?s trial has changed him completely; the experience of sort of re-engaging with the figure of the grandfather?this legal champion of human rights and having to examine the Baltar question and to accept that, to every angle there?s an opposite and that the fleet is a lot broader than justice acts as a power that Roslin and Adama share. That?s really the change that sort of fuels Lee in season 4 that he can see that he?s been?he?s had a front row seat. It all was a big decision that the fleet?s made and it?s all a big decision to be made between these two people. And suddenly to see Baltar hung out to dry just because he?s not one of those two people and he doesn?t really share their?he?s not in their clique as it were?in their club and so he?s hung out to dry because his presidency was a failure. I think that, well, if he really doesn?t respect or like Baltar himself that reality dawns in me that for many, many people on this fleet they live in fear because they are completely without knowledge of what is going on or where they?re going or why they?re going where they?re going and how scary and nihilistic that existence must be. That catapults me into a new direction in season 4, which I can?t really talk to you much about, but it fuels a new side to him?it means that he butts heads with characters that previously he would not have butt heads with. He finds himself in line with the characters he figured that he wouldn?t be in line with. There?s a new side of me, a new ambitious side of me that comes out too which I find interesting.

Can you talk about other projects you might be looking at post-Battlestar or perhaps even now?such as Pulse 2?

Right, yeah, no?I did get a recall on Pulse 2 in the break this summer, and I had fun doing that, working with two really great producer-directors, [Joel Flason and Mike Leahy,] who are lovely people I enjoyed working with. I took that project on as an exercise really, because I?d never carried a movie before. I thought it might be a good opportunity to do, before I leave the show, in a quite quiet arena. I quite like the script. And I love the original Japanese movie that
Pulse is based on?Cairo. I thought that was a really interesting movie, and we were trying to do something a bit more similar to that than the original Pulse remake. And that Wes Craven wrote. So, yeah, I did that one and now I am very much thinking about the future and other projects, and I?m considering a couple of pilots at the moment that I might do. I?m making those kinds of decisions, but unfortunately there?s nothing definite. I can?t really divulge anything because nothing is decided yet.