BSG actress discusses Starbuck sex change

Battlestar Galactica actress Katee Sackhoff has spoken of her struggle to win over the fans who initially criticised her appointment as Starbuck in the reimagined show.

Originally played by Dirk Benedict in the original series, Starbuck's revival as a female fighter pilot for Ronald D Moore's version has been widely acclaimed. In a conference call with Digital Spy, Sackhoff discussed the gender issue: "I think honestly what made people accept Starbuck as a woman was that she was just such a interesting character. I think once people put their guard down as far as the preconceived notions of what the show was supposed to be and just allowed it to be really good science fiction... they stopped thinking of the old show."

Sackhoff, who has recently appeared in the reimagined Bionic Woman, added: "I don't think I went into this trying to win over the old fans because I think that you can't ever please everyone. I didn't want to focus on people that were already, in a sense, spewing negative energy at me. So I just did what I did and it's nice to know that some of them have been converted."

> Click here to read our review of BSG's fourth season premiere