2:45PM, Aug 27, 2008
His insubordination has brought him to the brink of personal and military ruin, but for Jamie Bamber, Lee 'Apollo' Adama could not have made a better choice.
For Jamie Bamber, signing up for an extended second year as Lee 'Apollo' Adama meant more than just an increased work commitment. "I'm away from home for so much longer," explains the British actor. "In that sense I approached season two in a completely different way, in that I think to myself that I've kind of emigrated. I've thrown everything at it as a show." Just as well, too, as season two kicks off with the same action-packed intensity as the conclusion of season one. The episode Scattered opens the season in the seconds immediately following William Adama's shooting, and Bamber reports that he had to work very hard to get back into the right mind-set so quickly. "We'd had six months off and the whole thing had been way down my list of priorities," he explains. "Then, you walk back in and you're literally playing the next second of something you finished half a year ago. That takes a lot of concentration and it makes it difficult."
In fact, the speed with which the first episode takes off is sustained for the early part of he season, propelling events at breakneck speed. Episode one (Scattered), two (Valley of Darkness) and three (Fragged) take place within hours of each other. It's a place that Bamber finds astonishing. "I have a bruise under my eye that has been there since episode 11 of last season, and now we're filming episode four of season two and it's still there," the actor laughs. "So that tells you that it's been what, a week? That's a really deliberate choice, to not have much time (between episodes). We're presenting the reality of the situation as it unfolds and trying to be as realistic as possible. The situation is so pressurised and there is so much going on. There's no sense that we are trying to make it comfortable. It's one long story that we're telling. This saga is an unfurling of events, and that's really what we want to capture every week."
Lee's position of loyalty to the democratic order of government has been further complicated by his connection to a President whose own convictions and personal circumstances continually affect her decisions. In the opening episode of the season, while still confined to the brig for refusing to support the coup that overturns Roslin's leadership, the Captain makes a shocking discovery. The President that he has followed and supported so faithfully – to the detriment of whatever career can survive in such a post-apocalyptic environment – is treating her fatal illness with a drug that is a known hallucinogen. In the wake of traumatic events that have turned his already fractured world upside down and pulled his family even further apart, Lee must now face a terrible possibility. That he has put his confidence in a woman whose own convictions may have been created by the side effects of a dangerous and controlled substance.
"I don’t think he sees things the way she does," Bamber says, revealing that the character's feelings on the subject of Roslin's unconventional quest had originally been explored by a scene in the first season. "There's a cutting-room floor scene at the end of the first season between Lee and the President, where he clarifies where he stands. It didn't make the final cut, but basically he says, 'I'm not really sure what you're doing but I believe in the office you hold and I believe in your judgement. I can't share the conclusions you are drawing but I believe that you are rightfully in command.' He has issues with Laura. I don't think he buys in to the whole prophecy and scriptures thing like she does, but I think he is brutally aware that without some form of civilian government then all we are is just one great reactionary fighting machine. And even this community requires so much more than that."
