Katee Sackhoff Reflects On The Battlestar Galactica Fan Backlash That Still Stings
Before she became a fan favorite, Katee Sackhoff walked into Hall H in 2003 and was booed for being cast as Kara Starbuck Thrace in Battlestar Galactica — then hit an internet café to find out why fans were so furious.
File this under: fandom was not always kind, and the internet used to be a field trip. Katee Sackhoff says her Battlestar Galactica debut was met with actual boos at San Diego Comic-Con back in 2003 — and she only discovered how loud the backlash was by buying time at an internet cafe. Yes, really.
What she says happened
On The Joe Rogan Experience, Sackhoff looked back at the BSG rollout and the reaction to her casting as Kara 'Starbuck' Thrace. Before the big Comic-Con panel, someone told her the early message boards were lighting up about the show and her role. This was the pre-smartphone era, so she literally went to a cafe, paid for 30 minutes online, and found a thread loaded with bile aimed at her casting. Then came the in-person part.
'They had us in Hall H, and I was booed. I was booed!'
She says it did sting. But there were also voices in the room pulling for the show, and at 23 she had what she calls the blissful ignorance of youth — the kind that makes you shrug and think, maybe this thing does not even go the distance. Plus, it was Hall H in 2003. For a young actor, that alone is a rush.
How it played out
- Pre-panel, she hears fans are sounding off on message boards.
- She heads to an internet cafe, buys a half hour, logs in, and finds a hate-thread aimed at her.
- At San Diego Comic-Con 2003, the Battlestar Galactica team hits Hall H — and she gets booed.
- It upset her, but she focused on the supporters and kept perspective; she figured the show might not last anyway and stayed grateful to be on that stage.
- Over time, the grumbling faded. Later conventions brought cheers, and fans told her they did not want to like the reboot but ended up loving it — including her Starbuck.
Where she is on it now
Looking back, Sackhoff says that kind of public rejection could probably crack someone in today’s social-media pile-on climate. In 2003, the noise was easier to tune out. The arc since then is pretty simple: the boos did not age well, Battlestar Galactica did, and so did her Starbuck.