Colonel Saul Tigh

Battlestar Galactica 2004 Continuity
(Battlestar Galactica 2004, Caprica and Blood & Chrome)

Saul Tigh
General infomation
Position:	Executive Officer, Battlestar Galactica
Rank:	Colonel
Occupation:	Commissioned Officer, Colonial Fleet
Ship:	Battlestar Galactica
Affiliation:	Colonial Fleet
Biographical information
Homeworld:	Earth
Partner:	Ellen Tigh (Wife) Caprica Six (Girlfriend)
Family:	Liam Tigh (Son)
Physical description
Species:	Thirteenth Tribe
Sex:	Male
Sexual Orientation:	Heterosexual
Height:	183 cm (6 ft 0 in)
Skin:	White
Hair:	White
Eye color:	Brown
Additional information
Portrayed by:	Michael Hogan
Series:	Battlestar Galactica 2004
First appearance:	Miniseries, Night I
Last appearance:	The Plan

Colonel Saul Tigh was a member of the Thirteenth Tribe, a race of cybernetic beings that thrived on Earth until their destruction in a nuclear holocaust. One of five survivors, he eventually found himself living with mankind, his mind altered to believe himself human.

Biography

Early life

The people of Earth developed technology for creating sophisticated machines as a labor force, unaware the sophisticated machines were sentient and poised to launch a bloody revolt. In the leadup to the revolt, Saul, his wife Ellen and three others, were contacted by Angels who helped them escape. He was revealed the truth about the humans of Earth, that they were all descended from a population of artificial humanoids that left Kobol, and that the war between man and machine was a cosmic certainty. The five re-developed the long-lost technology for downloading conscious minds into artificially grown duplicate bodies. While Galen Tyrol and Samuel T. Anders were immediately killed in a nuclear blast, Saul and Ellen died in a destroyed building. The four and Tory Foster woke up on a ship in orbit in new, identical bodies. As Earth had not yet developed (or possibly re-developed) faster-than-light technology, the five travelling at relativistic speeds took some two thousand years to reach Kobol, and from there the Twelve Worlds the humans of Kobol had left to.

When the five arrived at the Cyrannus star system, they discovered the humans there were already at war with their own mechanical creations, the Cylons. The five were able to open a dialogue with the Cylons and offered their technology in exchange for peace with the humans. The Cylons, themselves desiring biological form, agreed and signed the Armistice. Over the next several years, eight humanoid models of Cylon were created with this technology. However, their first creation, "Number One", resented the Five for their pacifism, seeing it as loving the humans more than he. To punish the five, "One" had them all killed, boxed, and over the next three decades introduced into society with their memories altered.

Life on the colonies

Tigh was released into Colonial society in the 1960s or '70s. Given memories of being a human veteran of the Cylon War, he found himself in the merchant navy where many went after being demobilized. Among his other implanted memories were his father being a Viper pilot killed in combat, and his grandfather being a military official representing President Mueller. During his years in merchant navy, he became good friends with William Adama, a retired Viper pilot who expressed interest in re-enlisting. Around 1980, some 20 years after the war's conclusion, the Colonial government began an initiative to improve the quality of the military and, through connections with Adama's new wife Carolanne, the two men found themselves in service.

He had a strained relationship with his wife, Ellen; as Adama later puts it, there were rumors "she slept with half the Fleet while Saul was in space." After her infidelity was discovered; he carried a great deal of bitterness about it, to the extent he attacks Kara Thrace for mentioning it during a card game. After Ellen's reappearance on the Rising Star and move to the Galactica, they rebuilt their relationship. Part of their marital problems apparently came from their inability to have children, though in one episode he makes a comment thanking the Lords of Kobol he was childless after seeing the issues William Adama was having with his son Lee.

Up until approximately one year before the Destruction of the Twelve Colonies, he served as William Adama's executive officer on board the Battlestar Valkyrie. After a failed Black Ops mission along the Armistice Line, the two friends were reassigned to the less prestigious Galactica to serve out the twilight of their careers.

At some point during this period Tigh had three volumes of war history published, until his personal problems interfered.

Fall of the Twelve Colonies

In the long years of peace, Tigh carries out his XO duties competently but unexceptionally; that all changes with the return of the Cylons. Almost immediately, Tigh is tested: after a nuclear missile hits Galactica, he has to decide whether to seal off the affected area and doom the crew serving there or fight the fire and potentially lose the ship. After some slight hesitation, he orders the area sealed off, dooming 87 of the crew but saving the ship.

Tigh leads the marine detachment sent to overthrow Laura Roslin's presidency. Declaring it isn't worth it to sacrifice democracy, Captain Lee Adama puts his gun to Tigh's head. Calmly telling him, "This is mutiny, you know that" Tigh takes control of the situation after Roslin surrenders and is able to take both Roslin and Lee into custody.

Tigh's greatest challenge comes soon after, when Sharon Valerii shoots Commander Adama. As Galactica's interim commander, Tigh has to deal with both military matters and mollifying the civilian population. His first test comes when he orders an emergency jump to forestall a potential Cylon attack; due to Gaeta forgetting to transmit recently updated emergency jump coordinates to the rest of the fleet, Galactica jumped to a different location than the rest of the civilian fleet. With the fleet's only surgeon on another ship (and thus unable to perform surgery on Adama), Tigh orders the ship's computers to be networked in order to reunite with the fleet as soon as possible, despite the fact that Adama had strictly forbidden any networks on Galactica as the Cylons could easily infiltrate them.

Not possessing Adama's sensitivity or regard for the civilian population, Tigh finds them almost impossible to deal with. He tries to keep the press and Quorum of Twelve from seeing Roslin. When they finally make it through, she reveals she has cancer.

Perhaps Tigh's most problematic decision is his declaration of martial law and dissolution of the Quorum of Twelve. Like many of his less objective decisions, it is spurred on by Ellen. The civilian ships declare they will not resupply Galactica until the Quorum is restored. As a show of force, Tigh sends Marine contingents to important supply ships with instructions to forcibly take what is necessary. On board the Gideon, protesters begin to throw coffee at the Marines, inflicting a bloody head injury on one of them, and causing the others to open fire. Several civilians die and the media dub the event "The Gideon Massacre", The lieutenant in charge becomes mentally unhinged by the situation and later tries to kill Tigh.

With Adama's recovery, Tigh returns to his preferred position: Adama's right-hand man. However, with more and more civilians believing in Roslin, ships begin leaving the fleet and jumping to Kobol, where Roslin has told them to meet. After seeing the futility of allowing the family of what remains of humanity to be split apart, Adama goes to Kobol and uses his rapport with Roslin to resolve the situation.

Tigh supports Adama's reconciliation with Roslin even though he himself did not have the political skills to hold the Fleet together and appears to bear her no ill will. Indeed, he, along with then-Petty Officer Second Class Anastasia Dualla, instigate the attempt to rig the presidential election in favor of Roslin when it becomes clear Gaius Baltar is nearly assured victory. When the rigging attempt is discovered, he confesses his guilt to Adama.

New Caprica

Tigh in the Cylon prison on New Caprica

Saul and his wife, Ellen, join the settlers on New Caprica, a short time before the Cylon occupation.

After the Cylon occupation of New Caprica, Tigh is the highest-ranking officer left on the planet, and leads a human resistance movement, with Chief Galen Tyrol and Samuel Anders as his right-hand men. He is jailed and tortured several times by the Cylons for acts of resistance against them, and his right eye is violently ripped out. Now even more embittered, Tigh allows volunteers to carry out suicide bombings against the Cylons, despite qualms from others within the Human community. Tigh reluctantly kills his wife by poisoning after she betrays the resistance to the Cylons—she had slept with the Cylon Cavil to get Tigh out of jail and was threatened with his death if she did not provide information on the resistance. When her betrayal of the humans to the Cylons is discovered, Anders tells him "You know what you have to do"; Tigh then poisons Ellen while sharing a final drink with her. While Saul views her death as necessary, he weeps bitterly as she dies in his arms.

Back with the Fleet

Following the Second Exodus, Tigh is appointed as part of a group of 6 called "the Circle". The group is a secret jury created by President Tom Zarek for the purpose of secretly trying and punishing known (or suspected) Cylon collaborators. Colonel Tigh, along with the other members of the Circle, secretly execute 13 people, including one of Tyrol's deckhands, James "Jammer" Lyman.

Following this, Tigh expresses bitterness and resentment over Captain Karl "Helo" Agathon's continued occupation of his former position as XO of Galactica, stemming from both his lack of respect for anyone not involved in combating the Cylon occupation on the ground, and also his rage toward anyone he considers a Cylon collaborator. Adama confronts Tigh, accusing him of spreading discontent and lowering morale. Adama tells Tigh he is to stay in his quarters until he can return to being the man Adama has come to know after 30 years of service together. Tigh replies, "that man doesn't exist anymore, Bill, and you won't be seeing me again," and returns to his quarters, drinking heavily from any bottle he can find.

When Lieutenant Daniel "Bulldog" Novacek is picked up by the Galactica after three years in Cylon captivity, Tigh reveals Adama's role in Bulldog's capture, again driven by his depression and anger: "Sometimes surviving can be its own death sentence," he says bitterly. Nevertheless, this incident ultimately provides the stimulus for him to break out of his downward spiral: when Bulldog attacks Adama, it is Tigh who comes to the rescue, saving his old friend's life and making Bulldog see how he was acting as an unwitting pawn of the Cylons. After Adama is awarded a long-service medal by President Roslin, Tigh visits Adama in his quarters. Although still not sure of himself, he shares a drink with Adama and the two begin to talk and repair their friendship.

After this point, Tigh begins to return to his former self, participating in ship-board activities. He acts as referee for the rank-free boxing competition held aboard Galactica and calls the event to a halt after Adama's fight with Tyrol and Adama's subsequent speech. He eventually returns to duty as Galactica's XO: before returning to duty, he stands outside the CIC self-consciously adjusting his eyepatch, then enters not via the main hatch but via a less-visible door on an upper level, eschewing the attention and praise of the CIC crew. Confessing to killing Ellen Tigh during Baltar's trial and suffering a breakdown, Tigh's position on the bridge is taken by Captain Karl "Helo" Agathon until he feels fit to resume the post.

The Final Five

Throughout the cliffhanger Season 3 finale, "Crossroads, Part II", Tigh, along with Samuel T. Anders, Galen Tyrol, and Tory Foster experience snippets of hallucinatory music, that only they can hear, yet cannot grasp. As they are drawn to meet and the music becomes clearer in their minds, a mental "switch" (as described by Chief Tyrol) is activated and gives them the revelation they are, in fact, Cylons. As the four come to terms with this knowledge and its consequences, the Cylon fleet attacks. Tigh orders the others to report to their stations and defiantly declares, "My name is Saul Tigh. I'm an officer in the Colonial Fleet. Whatever else I am, whatever else it means, that's the man I want to be. And if I die today, that's the man I'll be."

Soon after, he joins William Adama in the CIC (Combat Information Center) of the Galactica to coordinate fleet efforts to repulse the Cylon fleet. During this time, Tigh has a vision of himself calmly shooting Adama through the head with his service pistol, which is reminiscent of Boomer's attempted assassination of Adama earlier in the series. Tigh is shocked and dazed, but quickly regains his composure. However, his visions continue as he visits the captured Cylon, Caprica Six, and hallucinates her with his dead wife Ellen's face.

It was revealed in the episode "Sine Qua Non" Tigh has been involved in a sexual relationship with Caprica Six and she is apparently pregnant because of it. This relationship has therefore apparently brought about the first successful Cylon- Cylon pregnancy, something which, according to Athena, wasn't possible between two regular Cylon models. During "Sine Qua Non", Saul is temporarily promoted to the rank of Rear Admiral with the command of the Galactica by Rear Admiral Adama who resigns his position and elects to remain behind in the hope the missing Basestar holding Roslin will attempt a rendezvous with the fleet. Saul never actually puts on the Rear Admiral insignia given to him by William Adama.

In the mid-season finale episode "Revelations", Tigh reveals his Cylon status to Adama, stating, "If I had the guts to airlock myself when I first found out, we wouldn't be in this mess" showing that despite his true nature, he still identifies himself with the human fleet. Tigh offers to let himself be jettisoned from an airlock in order to provide the Colonial Fleet with leverage against the Cylons, who do not want him harmed. Ultimately, Tigh and the remaining Final Five Cylons are given general amnesty by Acting President Lee Adama.

Upon finding Earth to have been devastated by a nuclear attack, Tigh has a vision that reveals his wife, Ellen, was actually the final Cylon. When Ellen rejoins The Fleet, she is angry with Saul for the relationship he has had with Caprica Six and votes that the Cylons leave the fleet. Saul refuses to leave and tells Caprica Six to go with the rest of the Cylons. Ellen, upset with Saul, attempts to put herself on an even keel with Caprica and claims Saul loves the ship and Adama more than both of them. Caprica becomes upset and collapses, eventually losing the child she and Saul had intended to name Liam.

Tigh is with Ellen, Tyrol and Tory in Joe's Bar when Kara starts playing the music, surprising them all. (Someone to Watch Over Me) Afterwards he's shocked when Adama decides to order Galactica's repairs to stop and the ship to be scrapped for parts. The two share a toast to the ship.

When Adama calls for volunteers for a rescue mission for Hera Agathon, Tigh volunteers immediately alongside Ellen. During the Battle of The Colony, Tigh coordinates the battle with Adama in CIC. When a fire breaks out near Anders, he goes up with Tyrol to put it out and stays on the balcony afterwards. During the attempt to get Cavil to stop all of this and release Hera who he has taken hostage in CIC, Tigh offers him resurrection technology if he agrees to let Hera go and stop chasing humanity. After he agrees, the Five combine together to send the plans for resurrection to The Colony and Tigh tells a nervous Tory they forgive her sins when she gets worried about everyone seeing everyone else's memories. Tigh is shocked to discover Tory murdered Cally and can only watch as Tyrol kills Tory in revenge, sparking a firefight that results in the demise of the attacking Cylon forces led by Cavil. After Galactica jumps away, Tigh resumes his duties as XO and reports that Galactica suffered critical structural failures, "broke her back" and can't jump anymore. After landing on their new home planet which they name Earth, Tigh and Ellen say goodbye to Tyrol who plans to go off and live as a hermit. Tigh forgives him for killing Tory, saying he'd have done the same thing if someone had done that to Ellen. Tigh and Ellen rekindle their relationship and go off to spend the rest of their lives together.

List of appearances

• Season 1
• Season 2
• Season 3
• Season 4
• Movies

Episode	Appearance	Mentioned
33	X
Water	X
Bastille Day	X
Act of Contrition	X
You Can't Go Home Again	X
Litmus	X
Six Degrees of Separation	X
Flesh and Bone	X
Tigh Me Up, Tigh Me Down	X
The Hand of God	X
Colonial Day	X
Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part Ⅰ	X
Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part Ⅱ	X

Episode	Appearance	Mentioned
Scattered	X
Valley of Darkness	X
Fragged	X
Resistance	X
The Farm	X
Home, Part Ⅰ	X
Home, Part Ⅱ	X
Final Cut	X
Flight of the Phoenix	X
Pegasus	X
Resurrection Ship, Part Ⅰ	X
Resurrection Ship, Part Ⅱ	X
Epiphanies	X
Black Market	X
Scar	X
Sacrifice	X
The Captain's Hand	X
Downloaded	X
Lay Down Your Burdens, Part Ⅰ	X
Lay Down Your Burdens, Part Ⅱ	X

Episode	Appearance	Mentioned
Occupation	X
Precipice	X
Exodus, Part Ⅰ	X
Exodus, Part Ⅱ	X
Collaborators	X
Torn	X
A Measure of Salvation
Hero	X
Unfinished Business	X
The Passage	X
The Eye of Jupiter	X
Rapture	X
Taking a Break from All Your Worries	X
The Woman King	X
A Day in the Life	X
Dirty Hands
Maelstrom	X
The Son Also Rises	X
Crossroads, Part Ⅰ	X
Crossroads, Part Ⅱ	X

Episode	Appearance	Mentioned
He that Believeth in Me	X
Six of One	X
The Ties That Bind	X
Escape Velocity	X
The Road Less Traveled	X
Faith
Guess What's Coming to Dinner?	X
Sine Qua Non	X
The Hub
Revelations	X
Sometimes a Great Notion	X
A Disquiet Follows My Soul	X
The Oath	X
Blood on the Scales	X
No Exit	X
Deadlock	X
Someone to Watch Over Me	X
Islanded in a Stream of Stars	X
Daybreak, Part I	X
Daybreak, Part II	X

Episode	Appearance	Mentioned
Miniseries, Night I	X
Miniseries, Night II	X
Razor	X
The Plan	X

Notes

• Trivia

• In the 2003 story bible, Saul was originally known as Paul Tigh.