Critical Response
Despite the initial backlash, even by original male portrayer Dirk Benedict, Katee Sackhoff's Starbuck has become one of the show's most popular characters.
Seattle Post-Intelligencer's Melanie McFarland notes: ", played with a tomboyish swagger by Katee Sackhoff, is fast becoming the latest in a long line of feminist television icons." Wired's Hugh Hart praises Sackhoff's portrayal: "The actress's rough-and-tumble take on the fleet's most mesmerizing fighter jock will doubtless continue to render gender utterly irrelevant." Entertainment Weekly's Jeff Jensen states: "Sackhoff has set TV's new standard for action-heroine cool and complexity." Mary McNamara of the Los Angeles Times praised Sackhoff for creating one of the most fabulous female characters on television.
Salon.com's Laura Miller states:
"Starbuck is blond, cocky, insubordinate, a cigar-chomping, card-playing showoff; another stock figure, really, with roots as far back as Shakespeare's Hotspur -- if not for a clever twist. In the original series, Starbuck was played by Dirk Benedict; in the new version, it's Katee Sackhoff, a gender switch that knocks the character well out of type."
In 2005 Sackhoff won a Saturn Award for Best Actress on Television. Slate magazine named the character as one of the reasons they were looking forward to the return of the show in fall 2007.
Read more about this topic: Kara Thrace
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