(Battlestar Galactica 2004, Caprica and Blood & Chrome)
Samuel T. Anders was a citizen of Earth, a planet colonized by the Thirteenth Tribe. Having escaped the colony's destruction with four others, Anders was able to use Resurrection technology to prolong his life through multiple bodies. Following the Cylon War, Anders' memories were compartmentalized by the Number Ones, and he was made to think himself human for a number of years. Anders survived the Fall of the Twelve Colonies, and traveled with human refugees to their new home though died before he could set foot on it.
Biography[]
Early life[]
Anders grew up on Earth, a planet populated by Kobol's Thirteenth Tribe. These people were a race of cybernetic beings who had long developed the ability to reproduce. He was one of five people who was contacted by Messengers forewarning of a coming war with their newly-sentient mechanical creations. Rather than prevent it, the five were led to re-develop Resurrection technology, which would allow cybernetic beings such as themselves to download their conscious minds into cloned bodies in order to cheat death. The five completed their scientific research, and perished in a nuclear holocaust, their conscious minds downloading into their clones, stored on a ship in orbit. The five then traveled off in search of Kobol's human population, who they eventually tracked to the Cyrannus star system. With Earth lacking FTL technology, they were limited to relativistic speeds.
The five reached the star system twelve years into an interplanetary war between humanity and their sentient mechanical creations, the Cylons. Desperate not to let the same disaster happen again, they agreed to provide the Cylons with access to their technology in exchange for ending the war. This proposal was agreed, and over the next few years the Cylon society evolved to encompass cybernetic, human-like models comparable in appearance to their creators. However, the Number Ones began to oppose the nature of their new society, and launched a violent overthrow. Anders was captured and killed. Many years later, his downloaded consciousness was uploaded to a cloned body with knowledge of his life compartmentalized, and in its place he was given false memories akin to the Cylon 'Sleeper Agents'. In the years leading up to the year 2000, Anders adapted to life as a human, and became a worlds-famous Pyramid player as captain of the Caprica Buccaneers.[1]
Guerrilla leader[]
Around the year 2000, on the fortieth anniversary of the Cylon War armistice, a major Cylon offensive took place across the Cyranus system, with all twelve planets succumbing to nuclear bombardment, followed by a Centurion ground offensive. At the time, Anders and the Buccaneers were in the mountains near Delphi, taking part in high-altitude training to improve their game performance. Over the next few weeks, the team started picking up weapons and training how to fight back the Centurions, joining forces with other people who escaped into the mountains. Anders became their leader, though without any actual military experience among the survivors, losses to the Centurions could be significant. The resistance was allowed, however, to continue surviving in the mountains by the will of the Cylons. A Number One - "Caprica One" - was living within the camp and practicing as a Priest, while a Number Four - the Buccaneers' own medic - began overdosing people on Morpha and using up anti-radiation medication to deliberately shorten the group's life expectancy. The One made sure that the resistance not be destroyed entirely, as he wanted to experience Anders' suffering longer.[2]
Around seven weeks into the occupation, Anders and the remaining Buccaneers went on patrol and ran into Lt. Kara Thrace and Lt. Karl Agathon, two Colonial officers from Galactica.[1] Anders hoped the two would stay and serve as military advisors and trainers, but they had other matters to attend.[3] With the promise of returning with help, he led the two to a Heavy Raider refueling station where they could commandeer a ship back to Galactica. This plan fell apart during a Centurion ambush, and Lt. Thrace was taken to a Cylon 'Farm' where her ovaries were harvested as part of a hybridization program. With help from a Number Eight who was impregnated by Lt. Agathon, Anders tracked Lt. Thrace down to a mental hospital used as the Farm, and set about finding and liberating others.[3]
For the next eight months, resistance operations changed towards striking Delphi itself, which was being rebuilt by Centurions for use as a settlement for the humanoid models. It was Anders' hope that they would suffer painful death and download enough times the Cylons simply abandon the entire occupation and leave. When a cafe bombing went different as planned, Anders was captured by a Number Three Cylon. She herself was killed by a Number Six and a Number Eight, who held plans to change Cylon society. They parted ways from Anders, and he was left with the understanding that there were indeed good Cylons out there.
After nine months, the resistance was down to only a handful of members, with no anti-radiation medicine left. Caprica One, aware of the Cylon cultural evolution, was able to kill a number of resistance members by luring them into a Centurion trap using the Six and Eight. Soon after this, Raptors descended from the sky and began deploying Marines in the nearby forest. The two forces were able to link up, though remained still for much of the night when Centurion activity dramatically halted. Caprica One returned once more, claiming the Cylons to have departed the colonies for good, and followed Anders and the others in climbing into the Raptors. He would be unmasked as a Cylon upon arrival on Galactica and air-locked with his counterpart there.
New Caprica[]
Once at the fleet, Anders and Thrace begin a proper relationship which causes torn feelings for Lee Adama. During the year that passes after settling on New Caprica, Thrace and Anders marry and the two live in a tent in the ramshackle "New Caprica City" under the neglectful authority of President Gaius Baltar. Anders becomes seriously ill with pneumonia at one point, but makes a full recovery. After the Cylons invade New Caprica at the end of the second season, and Starbuck is taken into custody by the Cylon Leoben Conoy, Anders once again finds himself as one of the leaders of the resistance against a Cylon occupation as seen at the beginning of the third season.
Following the escape from New Caprica, the episode "Collaborators" sees Anders becoming one of the six members of the Circle, a group commissioned by the newly sworn in President Tom Zarek to try, judge, and execute Cylon collaborators. After thirteen such executions, Anders quits The Circle, having lost his taste for revenge, and is immediately replaced by his wife as a new member. Anders and Thrace subsequently quarrel, which exposes numerous deep rifts that had emerged in their marriage and the two separate.
Midway through the series’ third season, Anders and Thrace try to reconcile their marriage, but Thrace's growing love for Lee Adama makes things difficult.
In the episode "Maelstrom", Anders asks her to go with him to another ship for some much needed rest and relaxation to which she replies she would think about it. He leaves the room and the two never fully resolve their soured relationship. After Starbuck's apparent death in the same episode, Anders starts to drink heavily. In mourning, he finds himself in a drunken state atop one of the Vipers in the hangar. Lee Adama tries to talk him down, but Anders slips and falls, breaking his leg.
Revelation[]
In the episode "Crossroads, Part I", Anders is seen wearing the uniform of a Colonial Fleet Ensign, having signed up for flight training since Thrace's death. He also shows the beginnings of a relationship with Diana Seelix, another new pilot recruited from among Galactica's deck crew.
As the trial of Gaius Baltar commences, Anders, along with his fellow hidden Cylons, Foster, Tyrol and Saul Tigh, begins to hear strange music coming from a radio in Joe's Bar. Anders and Foster sleep together at this time. In the season 3 finale, "Crossroads, Part II", the four become aware of the fact they are Cylons based on hallucinatory music only they can hear, and an apparent mental "switch" that goes off within them. Initially appalled by the discovery, after Saul Tigh declares his loyalty to the Fleet, regardless of who he might be, Anders follows his lead and reports for duty to prepare for battle against the Cylon fleet.
In the first episode of the fourth season, "He That Believeth In Me", Anders flies his first battle mission and cannot fire upon his targeted Cylon ship due to the weapons being jammed. The Cylon pilot recognizes him as a Cylon, and the Cylon fighters retreat to their baseships and jump away. After being reunited with the newly returned Thrace, who is thought by many to be a Cylon, Anders tells her he will still love her even if she is. Kara replies if he were a Cylon, she would kill him with no qualms. He and the other three secret Cylons meet in secret and he is later assigned as a member of Thrace's crew on the Demetrius, on a secret mission to find Earth.
While aboard the Demetrius, Anders tries to reconnect with his wife and constantly reassure the rest of the crew of the ship who are lacking confidence in Thrace's ability and purpose (especially when she begins to take advice from the captured Cylon, Leoben Conoy). When the crew eventually mutiny against Thrace, Anders is one of the few who comes to his wife's aid even going so far as to shoot Felix Gaeta in the leg to prevent him jumping the Demetrius back to the human fleet against Thrace's wishes. Anders continues to show his loyalty to his wife by accompanying her to the damaged Cylon basestar and assisting her with her plans.
Thrace is shocked when it is revealed in "Revelations" that her husband is a Cylon, but near the end of the episode they are seen together in the corridor paying respect to a photo of deceased comrade Louanne Katraine. On the destroyed Earth, Anders finds the remains of a guitar and begins to subconsciously play the song "All Along the Watchtower" on it, and remembers he had once played the song for the woman he loved. He then realizes that he, along with the other members of the Final Five, had lived their past lives on Earth.
Hybrid[]
During the mutiny led by Felix Gaeta and Tom Zarek, Anders is badly beaten and thrown into the brig with the other prisoners loyal to Admiral Adama. They are eventually freed by Thrace and Lee Adama. Anders is shot in the neck during their escape, and a tearful Kara Thrace refuses to leave his side. Romo Lampkin, encountering them in the corridor, helps Kara take her husband to Dr. Cottle.
In the episode "No Exit", Anders experiences a reawakening of his Cylon memories due to the brain damage caused by the wound. He frantically attempts to educate his fellow 'Final Five' crew-members regarding their purpose and destiny, but eventually succumbs to his wounds. The bullet is removed, but he remains comatose. At the end of the following episode, "Deadlock", Anders begins to show brain activity. In "Someone to Watch Over Me", it is shown that Anders' brain activity is very unusual but not indicative of conscious thought. A Number Eight suggests linking him to the data-stream aboard the Baseship might help.
Acting on the Eight's idea the Cylons immerse him in a Hybrid pool much like those on Cylon baseships and connect him to the data-stream. Once connected, he begins mimicking the mannerisms of the baseship Hybrids, down to the incoherent (to casual observers) but prophetic ramblings. Thrace visits him and requests to be alone with him. Saying her goodbyes she attempts to kill him by gunshot to the head, but Anders, acting on reflex, catches and almost crushes Thrace's forearm, telling her, just as another Basestar Hybrid did, that she is the Harbinger of Death. As he does so power fluctuations, which have been going on for sometime on Galactica grow much worse, including surging power levels of the main engines. Anders releases Thrace and the power fluctuations subside but do not end
It is determined Anders is directly (though inadvertently) interacting with Galactica's power grid (but not the fire-walled computers) via the Cylon organic resin applied to her superstructure for repair purposes. It is theoretically possible for Anders to jump the ship on his own just like a Hybrid on a Baseship; in effect, Anders has become Galactica's own Hybrid. Disturbed by this development, Colonel Tigh orders that Anders be disconnected. Removed from the data-stream, Anders reverts to his comatose state.
Later, in the episode "Islanded in a Stream of Stars", Thrace once again visits her husband, because she believes there is a pattern in a drawing given to her by Hera Agathon, which turned out to be a representation of musical notes for a song Thrace's father played for her as a child. She is determined to get answers from Anders and reconnects him to talk to him. When he is plugged back in, the power surges briefly return but then subside as Samuel Anders vocalizes the line of code "New command". By this point, Thrace has apparently accepted the permanence of Anders’ condition.
During the final episodes of the series, "Daybreak", Anders plays a pivotal role in the Battle of the Colony, as, acting in the role of Galactica's Hybrid, he is able to remotely access the Cylon colony's Hybrids and take both them and the weapons that they control offline, preventing Galactica's destruction. Despite his state, he is able to share his memories during the attempt to recreate resurrection by the other members of the Final Five connecting to the data-stream in his tank.
Finale[]
Once the fleet finally arrives at the new Earth, the decision is made for Anders to pilot Galactica and the rest of the fleet into the sun, leaving humanity to resettle on the planet below with minimal technology. When Kara leaves after saying her final goodbyes to Sam, Anders quietly responds, “see you on the other side”. With the last of the crew on Earth, Anders pilots the fleet into the sun.