10 Mind-Blowing Battlestar Galactica Facts You Didn't Know
8. A One Shot Character Wiped Out Most Of The Cylons
Margaret Edmonson, aka Racetrack, played by Leah Cairns, was originally only supposed to be a one-and-done character on Battlestar Galactica. She was brought in to replace Crashdown, who in turn was brought in to replace Helo. However, in her first episode, audiences reacted very positively to her and she was kept in the series, right through until the finale.
When she nukes the Cylons. Accidentally.
Over the course of the show, she goes from being the first human (on-screen) to see inside of a Basestar, to guiding ships through the deadly cloud that surrounds the Algae planet, to a mutineer by season four. Her hatred and racism toward Cylons is extreme, although she does seem to accept Athena as one of their own.
Though imprisoned for mutiny, she is released and allowed to serve on the mission to rescue Hera from The Colony, a mission that gets her killed, though not before arming the nukes attached to her Raptor. Collision with debris rattles the ship, her hand falls on the firing button and, from beyond the grave, Racetrack manages to cement her place in history.
Not bad for someone who thought there were getting one script only.