Battlestar Galactica Wasted A Forgotten Character And Star Wars Proves It

Battlestar Galactica was a relatively small show during its four seasons on Syfy, and many cast members hadn’t yet become big names in TV. Stars like Katee Sackhoff and Grace Park had long enough runs on the show to eventually become icons of Battlestar Galactica, but one actor’s character was killed off early enough that he’s largely been forgotten in the years since. Even though BSG still ranks as one of the greatest sci-fi/fantasy shows of all time after killing off Crashdown, Sam Witwer’s Star Wars success proves that he likely still had more to give on Battlestar.

Before he became best known as a Star Wars star, Sam Witwer played Lt. Alex “Crashdown” Quartararo across 11 episodes of the first two seasons. After joining the Galactica crew, he replaced Helo as the ECO (Electronic Countermeasures Officer) to Sharon “Boomer” Valerii’s Raptor. He didn’t get the warmest welcome among the pilots who wanted Helo back, but he had a big chance to prove himself after he and Boomer discovered Kobol.

Unfortunately, everything started to go wrong on the surface of the planet. After an attack by Cylons, Crashdown began to unravel as he took command of the survivors: Gaius Baltar, Galen Tyrol, Cally Henderson, Diana Seelix, Tarn, and D. Socinus. When Cally refused his orders, Crashdown pulled his gun on her, leading Tyrol to then pull his gun on the ECO. With Crashdown refusing to listen to reason, the standoff seemed like it was going to end badly for Cally, but Baltar managed to shoot and kill Crashdown first.

Suffice it to say that Crashdown got one of the more memorable deaths of the first few episodes of season 2, but the character was largely forgotten after his demise. Baltar was arguably the only one who was seriously affected, and that certainly wasn’t due to any attachment to Crashdown as a person. Sam Witwer did an excellent job in portraying Crashdown’s breakdown, which makes it all the worse that he didn’t at least make it to the end of season 2. After Crashdown was killed in 2005, Battlestar Galactica ran for another four years.

On the plus side, Witwer was able to move over to another massive sci-fi franchise after being killed off: Star Wars.

Star Wars Proves Sam Witwer Had More To Offer Battlestar Galactica

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If there was one perk to Sam Witwer being killed off Battlestar Galactica in 2005 after just 11 episodes, it was that his schedule was open enough for him to switch from one sci-fi universe to another. After first joining the Star Wars franchise for the Star Wars: The Force Unleashed video game in 2008, he has continued to work in the galaxy far, far away over nearly two decades. He proved how versatile he can be as an actor by voicing many different characters, even within the same show, and he developed a knack for voicing villains.

While Crashdown wasn’t explicitly a villain by the end of his time on Battlestar Galactica, Witwer’s versatility as an actor in Star Wars proves that he likely could have delivered standout performances in season 2 and beyond if his character continued to spiral instead of being killed off. He crossed the point of no return when he pulled a gun on Cally, but it would have been interesting to see what the Battlestar team did with him (and Witwer) if the conflict had ended differently.

That said, it’s worth noting that Witwer himself only had good things to say about how the show handled Crashdown’s exit. Speaking at the Farpoint science-fiction convention in 2010 (via YouTube) about his character’s demise, Witwer shared:

I honestly couldn’t think of anything better than the way they had him go out, because I liked how you could have played that wrong… You could have really just gone nuts throughout the whole thing, and it would have been very boring. You would have seen the end coming from a mile away. The challenge of getting people to understand why things are not working for this guy was really fun, and to have it all fall apart at the very last minute, I thought it was more realistic.

Crashdown wouldn’t be the only one of Witwer’s sci-fi characters to be killed off. More than one of his Star Wars personas either died while he was voicing them, or had already canonically died in the Star Wars timeline in a way that couldn’t be undone. Of course, the various projects being set throughout that timeline meant that Maul dying in Star Wars Rebels didn’t mean he couldn’t come back in another show, and he certainly did.

Sam Witwer Is Now A Sci-Fi Icon Thanks To Maul

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While Sam Witwer made his mark on Battlestar Galactica in live-action, he ultimately became a Star Wars legend as a voice actor. He first joined the franchise via video games, credited as “Vader’s Secret Apprentice” and “Emperor Palpatine” in Star Wars: The Force Unleashed in 2008, followed by Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II in 2010 as Starkiller.

He’d continue to voice Palpatine in various shows and games, but the role he really made his own was that of Maul in Star Wars: The Clone Wars, starting in 2011. He’d reprise the role for Star Wars Rebels, the animated follow-up to The Clone Wars. Witwer even made a voice cameo in Solo: A Star Wars Story, and contributed to various Lego Star Wars projects. The series that really showcased him, however, was Star Wars: Maul – Shadow Lord, which debuted the first season in 2026. Season 2 is currently in development.

It’s a mark of Witwer’s talent in voicing Maul that Star Wars fans willingly went along with Clone Wars‘ convoluted means of bringing him back, since he seemed pretty definitively killed off in The Phantom Menace back in 1999. Maul even lasted longer in Star Wars Rebels than might have been expected at that point in the timeline. Now, his solo series as Maul is a hit on Rotten Tomatoes, with a critics’ score of 98% and audience score of 93%.

Maul is one of the most iconic villains of Star Wars TV shows, and Star Wars: Maul – Shadow Lord can continue to prove that with season 2. His status as a Star Wars icon helps soothe the sting of his early Battlestar Galactica demise.

Release Date

2004 – 2009-00-00

Showrunner

Ronald D. Moore

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  Edward James Olmos

  William Adama

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  Mary McDonnell

  Laura Roslin