Battlestar Galactica (2003)/Louanne Katraine

Louanne "Kat" Katraine
Battlestar Galactica (2003)
Actor	Luciana Carro
First Appearance	1x04 - Act of Contrition
Last Appearance	3x10 - The Passage
Series Billing	Co-Star
Episode Count	18
Notable Episodes	2x08 - Final Cut 3x10 - The Passage

Basic Information

Kat serves as a Viper pilot onboard the Galactica. She is one of the "new" pilots drafted from the civilian fleet after the death of several Viper pilots in Act of Contrition.

Character History

Louanne Katraine was a civilian pilot drafted into the Colonial Fleet after an unfortunate accident aboard the Galactica which resulted in the death of 13 Viper pilots. She was initially "washed out" by Starbuck along with the rest of the draftees, but completed the training successfully when given a second chance. She has since then become something of a veteran, but was clearly unprepared for the long-term stress of her duty, resulting in her becoming a stim addict. This made her behaviour increasingly irrational and frantic, until she nearly crashed her Viper upon landing in Final Cut. She disappeared for a while, presumably in whatever passes for a detox program in the Fleet, but was back on flight status in time to fly as Apollo's wingman in Pegasus. Later, she flew as lead of the Galactica's air wing during the sortie against the Pegasus during the standoff in Resurrection Ship (1), nearly colliding with a Pegasus Viper pilot during a deadly game of chicken.

As Kat's skills as a Viper pilot improved, she ended up at odds with Galactica's top pilot, Starbuck, increasingly often. This reached a head during the fleet's mining operations for ore to be used in construction of fresh Vipers. An ace Cylon Raider, nicknamed "Scar" by the Galactica pilots for the crisscrossing network of scrapes and gouges in its metal hull, began taking out Colonial pilots one by one, making it a bit of a contest to see who could take it out first. Competition and then overt hostility broke out between Kat and Starbuck, not helped by the fact that Starbuck seemed to be becoming a drunk, leading Kat to describe her as a second Tigh. In the end, Starbuck lost the crown (or, actually, the beer stein) of Galactica's top pilot to Kat by purposefully using her Viper as bait, leading Scar on a chase ending with him square in the middle of Kat's gunsights.

During the New Caprica colonization, Kat served as Galactica's CAG.

Memorable Moments

• Home (1): During a live-fire training exercise, Kat narrowly escaped death when a mistake by the Galactica's then-CAG (Captain Birch) resulted in Hotdog firing a missile into the asteroid she was strafing.
• Final Cut: Kat is nearly killed when she crash-lands a Viper into Galactica's flight pod. It is revealed that she has been taking large doses of stim pills due to combat fatigue, and she is temporarily removed from flight status.

Trivia

• Kat is occasionally confused with Racetrack and vice-versa, mostly because of people having issues keeping secondary characters' callsigns straight.

Quotes

"When you come back after a successful run, lemme tell you, it is better than a great meal, better than hitting the jackpot, it's better than SEX!" (2x08 Final Cut)