13 Most Despicable Scumbag Characters In TV History

10. Gaius Baltar - Battlestar Galactica

Gaius Baltar, brilliant scientist with quite a few fatal flaws, among them his arrogance and his weakness for beautiful women (and one in particular, Six the Cylon. While Gaius is charming in his own way and can be surprisingly silly if you consider his brilliance in science, he was the one that made the destruction of the Colonies possible for the Cylons, giving Six the access codes to the defense mainframe of Caprica. He never admitted to his treachery and after the collapse, he slowly gained the trust of the leaders of the Colonial Fleet, making his way into politics and after he was elected president, he (not entirely willingly) collaborated with the Cylons during their occupation of New Caprica. After the Cylons were temporarily beaten and Baltar was deposed, he became a much hated man in the Colonial Fleet, but found his way into a cultist group that revered him like a Messenger, the bringer of the word of the One True God. Gaius, at first baffled by this group's stupidity, embraced them and used them to gain renewed power as a spiritual leader, because that's exactly what a magnificent cad would do. While Baltar is a very despicable scumbag indeed, selfish and power hungry, he is extremely significant to the plot of BSG and makes its story even more interesting than it already was.