A Star Wars fixture played a small but powerful role in Battlestar Galactica

Actor Sam Witwer loves “Star Wars” just as much as “Star Wars” loves him. Since his performance as the voice and motion capture model For Starkiller, Darth Vader’s apprentice, in the video game “Star Wars: The Force Unleashed”, Witwer appeared again and again in the galaxy far, far away. (His encyclopedic “Star Wars” knowledge helped his performance.)

While Starkiller has his face, Witwer is even more beloved by “Star Wars” fans for playing Darth Maul since the Sith Lord’s unlikely but acclaimed return in “Star Wars: The Clone Wars.” Witwer is now the definitive Maul actor. Witwer and Maul’s original voice, Peter Serafinowicz, was brought back to record Maul’s lines for “Solo”, and Witwer’s voiceover was chosen for the final cut. He will also return under the name Maul for the new series, “Star Wars: Maul – Shadow Lord”, released in 2026.

“Star Wars” isn’t Witwer’s only dance with space opera, however. Before becoming Starkiller, his first recurring television role was in the reimagined “Battlestar Galactica” as Alex Quartararo, call sign Crashdown. Crashdown, who served on a “Raptor” spaceship, was partnered with Sharon Valerii/Boomer (Grace Park), the Raptor pilot. (If “Galactica” Vipers are space fighters, a Raptor is both a signal jamming plane and a troop transport helicopter.)

In a chat with his former “Battlestar” and “Clone Wars” co-star, Katee Sackhoff on “The Sackhoff show”, Witwer said that being a big fan of the “Galactica” pilot miniseries, he was looking for a role in the series. “I thought it was just the coolest show I had ever seen,” Witwer recalled, and so he pushed his agent to get him to audition for it. Even if he ultimately didn’t stay long in the series, he still left happy to have the chance to “contribute” to it.

Speaking to a fan at Boston Comic-ConWitwer said he was hired under the name Crashdown to be comic relief. “This was before they knew whether the show should be funny or not. Turns out it shouldn’t be that funny,” Witwer recalls. “James Callis will bring all the entertainment you need.”

Feeling that this left Crashdown with little identity and not much to do, Witwer suggested co-creators Ronald D. Moore and David Eick to give it a strong exit. So in the season 1 finale, “Kobol’s Last Gleaming”, the Raptor from Crashdown is shot down above the titular planet. He, along with several deckhands and Doctor Gaius Baltar (James Callis), are stranded and hunted by the Cylons for three episodes. As the only soldier, Crashdown takes command and fails to rise to the occasion.

Moore began writing on “Star Trek” but became frustrated with the creative constraints. While working on “Galactica”, he used his experience writing for “Trek”, but he was doing space opera in his own way now that he was the boss. This meant that the continuity, stakes and interpersonal conflicts that “Trek” had begun to avoid on “Voyager” were all present on “Galactica.” The Crashdown arc on Kobol demonstrates this. For a story like this, “Trek” would use Red Shirts we’d never met before, while “Galactica” used a mix of new and old small characters. This added verisimilitude to the size of the Galactica crew and made the story tighter.

On Kobol, the Crashdown group loses two survivors: Tarn (Warren Christie) is killed by the Cylons, then Socinus (Alonso Oyarzun) succumbs to injuries from a crash. The group decides that the ethical act is to give Socinus an overdose of morphine to make his death quicker and painless. Crashdown balks, so Chief Tyrol (Aaron Douglas) does.

In the next episode, “Fragged”, Crashdown attempts to lead the survivors in a suicide attack against the Cylons. Cally (Nicki Clyne) freezes and eventually Crashdown raises a gun to her head; trembling, he threatens to shoot her for insubordination. Tyrol pulls out his own gun and aims it at Crashdown. “Fragging” is the term used when soldiers deliberately kill a superior officer, and true to the episode’s title, it happens here because Baltar (not Tyrol) shoots Crashdown before he can kill Cally. At the end of the episode, the survivors are rescued and Crashdown’s death is covered up as a heroic attack on the Cylons.

It’s a dark conclusion that leaves you with unanswered questions. Did Crashdown really shoot Cally? It looks like it, even though his voice trembled and his eyes watered. Yet we cannot know for sure. For his part, Witwer said the “Battlestar Galacticast” that he played it as if Crashdown regretted firing his gun the second he did: “Oh my God, what have I done? But I can’t go back”, is how Witwer summed up Crashdown’s thoughts.

Baltar’s filming of Crashdown doesn’t make for easy reading either. It is logical that it was he who rebelled; he is a civilian scientist, and therefore the only one present who has never been convinced by the mindset of the military chain of command. But even if he saved Cally’s life, does that make his act of compassion an act of compassion? Baltar is a coward and an opportunist; Crashdown was also forcing him to go on the suicide mission, and him shooting Crashdown may have been him taking the opportunity to save himself. One of the reasons why “Battlestar Galactica” is so good and has such complex character is that it doesn’t paint good and evil with black and white strokes.