Battlestar Galactica Cast Was Sleep Deprived on Purpose for “33”

There’s a reason the stars of Battlestar Galactica looked so frazzled and exhausted in the pilot episode of the acclaimed SYFY series — many of them were literally sleep-deprived. On purpose.

Battlestar Galactica ran from 2003-2009 on SYFY, winning plenty of Peabody awards, Emmy awards, Saturn awards, and TCA awards along the way. The show followed a small, rag-tag group of human survivors huddled on a makeshift space ship fleet on the run from the killer Cylons who destroyed their home worlds.Edward James Olmos, who starred as fleet commander William Adama, recently popped by fellow star Katee Sackhoff’s podcast to reminisce about their time on the SYFY hit. Sackhoff played the young hot-shot pilot Kara “Starbuck” Thrace, and was just in her early-20s when she joined the cast of BSG.

Why some of the Battlestar Galactica cast didn’t sleep while shooting “33”

Olmos still holds the show as one of the acting experiences he’s most proud of, and notes that in the first episode of Season 1, “33,” he literally brought in an expert on sleep deprivation to talk to the cast about how they might act and react in this real life situation, so they could get it just right — and some even stayed up to make sure they looked believably tired.

The episode “33” was the first installment of the series proper, coming after the two-part miniseries that kicked off the story, and found the crew scrambling to FTL jump every 33 minutes while trying to stay one jump ahead of the Cylon ships hunting them. And doing so, understandably, left little time for sleep.

“I remember going and getting help from the university, I brought in a sleep deprivation doctor to speak with us,” Olmos notes. “A lot of us did not sleep, and they looked it.”

Sackhoff added: “I remember people staying awake, I was like you guys can do that [laughs]. I’m going to go sleep and pretending that I’m tired. Try memorizing dialog when you haven’t slept, it’s impossible!”

Edward James Olmos on how BSG tackled nuclear war

Battlestar Galactica was one of the only shows to ever have the cast and creators invited to the United Nations to talk about its themes and events, and Olmos said he believes the series’ deft handling of a nuclear apocalypse helped introduce the concept viscerally to an entire generation. Which could come in handy, in the event of a real nuclear apocalypse.

“People who have watched our show … will be able to understand that when there is a nuclear holocaust, and you’ve lost everybody, no aunts, no uncles, every single human being you knew, every book, everything is gone. What are you going to do?” Olmos said. “Are you going to commit suicide, or understand you have to go on living and push forward the humanity that we live in, and help? How are you going to handle it. And if you’ve watched our show, you’ll know how to handle it.”

Looking for more deep space action and intrigue? SYFY’s The Ark is currently airing its second season, with new episodes every Wednesday night. Catch up on all of Season 1 now on Peacock.