Ellen Tigh from Battlestar Galactica
Everyone I know hated Ellen Tigh. Okay, by the end of the new Battlestar Galactica, a few stray people decided that Ellen was actually pretty multi-faceted and an interesting character.
I, however, have been the Ellen Tigh fanclub since “Tigh Me Up, Tigh Me Down.” You see, when I first sat down to watch this Battlestar Galactica show with my DVDs — I’d watched a few random episodes from Season 1 and really started watching regularly in Season 2 — I found the show good, but a little flat. Like something was missing, and the appearance of Mrs. Tigh brought it all around. It was the fun; the fun was missing.
Dramas need comedy and light moments in order to make the drama more heavy hitting, and Ellen Tigh certainly brought it. (Yes, you could argue that Gaius Baltar was supposed to be this, but I have a hard time laughing with guys like him.)
Things I love and adore about Ellen Tigh:
1. Ellen knew how to have fun and enjoy life even in apocalypse.
2. Ellen deeply loved her husband, Saul. Was she faithful? No. But he was also not free of his own faults. However, she loved him, and he was always first in her heart and she believed in him. The scene on New Caprica where she helped Saul with the bandages around his missing eye speaks volumes.
3. Ellen did not have children, but yet she turned out to be the mother of an entire race of beings. And she was just as good at it as you’d expect her to be. (Good scientist, bad mother.)
4. When Ellen betrayed the rebels, she did so to save Saul. (See #2.) And when she was caught, she confessed and knew the consequences. When Saul handed her the cup, she knew it was poisoned and she accepted her fate.
5. Ellen unabashedly loved sex. And how many older than 35 women characters do we ever see hanging from parts of the Galactica getting head from their husbands?
That my friends is why Ellen Tigh is one of my all-time favorite characters. Buy Battlestar Galactica: The Complete Series
Hey, I love Ellen because of YOU! You turned me around on her.
I think I’m the only person I know who loves Gaius for the entire season. Some friends warm up to him later, some never forgive him and always think he’s sleazy. I have always thought he was awesome.
Excellent article. Although I hated the way this show ended, I remember liking some a lot of the preceding material, largely because of the way I came to it — my first episode was the poisoning one. I was immediately arrested by this interesting interplay.
@Carole — Thank you! Yes, I hated the way the show ended too. It seemed to betray its own mythology when it clearly landed on the side of religion, when I loved the complex mix of history, religion, and technology and how gooey and mixed-up it was. I cried so much during that episode. I remember having to watch it a few days afterward as my father came to visit, and retrospectively being really glad that I didn’t force him to watch it and then me cry.