I have an odd relationship with Battlestar Galactica. When it first began, I thought it was the best thing since Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - unsurprising, since Ron Moore, new Battlestar's prime mover, was an influential figure on DS9, my all-time favourite TV show. And I still think it's great... but I've gotten out of the habit of watching it. I guess, with every few weeks seeming to bring a new world-shattering twist, with characters going up and down and their lives altering dramatically every which way, with 'nothing will ever be the same' practically the byword of the show, I've gotten a bit jaded with it all - I just want to settle in and get to know the show, not have it go and reinvent itself every five minutes. Right now I'm just waiting for the finale so I'll know how it ended up. Still, it's nonetheless one of the highest quality shows on TV - kind of The West Wing in space in many ways - and between that and my fondness for it to begin with, there's no way I'm missing out on this action figure. Starbuck is a kind of heroine who defies the usual stereotypes - she's brash and loud, but can be introspective and even spiritual. She's crude and guy-like, but not overly masculine. She's no girly girl, but she has a deeply felt femininity to her, which only occasionally reaches the surface. A mass of contradictions - or to put it another way, very much like a real person. That's rarer than you'd imagine. Her action figure is no slouch either. From the neck down she's all Colonial Viper pilot, and indeed her running mate in this series of figures, Kat, shares the same body. That's no drawback - with the heavy flight suit, especially the solid chest armour, fine details of physique are quite concealed, so one woman looks much like another. The suit is open at the neck, and there's just enough of her chest visible beneath the armour to see that it really is a female body, but there's nothing stylised about it. From the neck up she's a credible representation of Kara - Katee Sackhoff has a really distinct face, and while this figure's likeness of her doesn't capture either of her iconic looks, as typically seen in publicity photos (either confident and sleek, or 'little girl lost'), it's a decent likeness of her generally, and carries more than a hint of her perverse, pugnacious personality beneath a veneer of professionalism. Articulation is plentiful. There's the obligatory ball joint neck - no long hair to limit it, but the high collar of her jacket does impede the joint's movement quite a bit. Recessed ball joint shoulders, swivel biceps, peg elbows and swivel wrists make for mobile arms, capable of a lot. She has a swivel waist, then swivel/peg ball joint hips, peg knees, swivels just below the knees, and shallow ball joint feet. The legs aren't terrific - it can be tricky finding a pose that looks really good, with the hip joint design seeming to angle out a bit too low on the hips, and the ankles having a fairly limited range - but compare Kara to the next-to-nothing articulation on the legs of Stargate SG-1's Samantha Carter, and you can see Diamond Select has progress by light years. Making up for the absolute lack of accessories on Six, Kara comes with a plethora of goodies. First of all there are a total of three pairs of hands - one pair gloves, one pair bare skin, and a second bare skin pair with accessories built in, the right holding one of Kara's trademark cigars, the left a hand of Triad cards (or is it Pyramid? Well, the show's creators got them mixed up too). Either of the open right hands fits the pistol holstered on Kara's right leg, though the bare hand is better at getting its forefinger into the trigger ring - though unless you really work at it, you won't get the finger onto the trigger itself. She also has a Pyramid (or Triad) ball, the Arrow of Apollo from the season one finale/season two debut, and her flight helmet. The helmet is two pieces, with a separate faceplate very much like the ones on the show - with Kara's short hair it's easy to get it on, though with the open-neck flight suit, she can't really carry off the illusion of having an airtight seal. Overall, she's a very good figure - fans of Battlestar, or collectors of figures, should find little fault with her.