Admiral Helena Cain

Character bio courtesy of Battlestar Wikipedia

Michelle Forbes

Michelle Forbes (born in Austin, Texas on January 8, 1967) is an American actress best known for her television work on shows such as Star Trek: The Next Generation, Homicide: Life on the Street, 24, and her current role on Prison Break.

Initially wanting to do ballet, Forbes moved to New York at age 16 to audition for a film role, and ended up with the William Morris Agency, and a role on the daytime soap opera Guiding Light. For her dual role as Sonni/Solita, she earned a Daytime Emmy nomination. After this role, she continued in theater, which was an early love of hers, and began appearing in small guest roles on television to raise her profile.

For a brief while in the early 1990s, Forbes was reportedly married to actor Ross Kettle. Although a long time resident of New York City, Forbes now lives in Los Angeles.

Career


Star Trek

In 1991, she had a small role in an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation as the daughter of a character played by David Ogden Stiers. The producers were evidently impressed, as she was brought back in the fifth season to play Ro Laren, a recurring character, for several episodes. Ro was a Bajoran whose bad-girl attitude made her several enemies, but the crew of the Enterprise - particularly Guinan (Whoopi Goldberg) took her in.

With Star Trek: The Next Generation such a hit, the producers decided to make another Trek series: Deep Space Nine. They originally envisioned Ensign Ro as the lead character, but at that stage in her career, Forbes wasn't interested in a long-running television role, so a new character, Kira Nerys (Nana Visitor) was created for the show.


Television

Forbes also guest starred in an episode of Seinfeld, playing a girlfriend of George Costanza (Jason Alexander), and then returned - to the enjoyment of the fans - for one final episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation entitled Preemptive Strike.

Ensign Ro remains a hugely popular character amongst Trek fandom, and Dennis Haysbert, with whom she later starred in 24 was apparently awestruck to be working alongside Ensign Ro. Perhaps because of her huge fan base, the producers asked Forbes back again when launching Star Trek: Voyager but she again declined and it is speculated that the character of B'Elanna Torres was created as a result.

Forbes appeared in "Stitch in Time", a second season episode of The Outer Limits and followed that with a role with Stockard Channing in a TV film entitled The Prosecutors in 1996. Her first major television role was as Dr. Julianna Cox in Homicide: Life on the Street from 1996 to 1998. In 1998, Forbes was written out of the show as part of a massive cast change which many fans see as responsible for the show's demise just one season later. She returned in the 2000 TV movie. For some time, Forbes was in a relationship with her Homicide co-star Reed Diamond.

In 2000, Forbes had a recurring role in the first eight episodes of the TV series The District which she followed up with the TV series Wonderland, a series set in a mental institution. Forbes played one of the doctors. The series was critically hailed, but it only aired for a few weeks before being cancelled. Forbes herself described it as a "mess that put [her] off series television".

In 2001, Forbes learned British Sign Language for the role of the deaf mute wife of Detective Red Metcalfe (Ken Stott) in the BBC television serial Messiah, and she returned for the sequels in 2003 and 2004. She also appeared in Perfume: a love-it-or-hate-it ensemble film about the world of fashion.

Forbes's next foray into television was in 2002, when she joined the cast of the Kiefer Sutherland-led FOX series 24. The series, set in real time over the course of one day, had been a critical success during its first season. Forbes played Lynne Kresge, aide to African-American President David Palmer (Dennis Haysbert). Notoriously, several plot points - including Lynne Kresge's fate - were left open and never resolved; while the show returned for a third season, Forbes did not.

In 2004, Forbes was part of the cast of Mark Milgard's Dandelion which received rave reviews at the Sundance Film Festival; appeared at the Palm Springs International Short Film Festival, in a short named Al Roach: Private Insectigator alongside James Garner; and also provided the voice of Dr. Judith Mossman, a character in the video game Half-Life 2.

In 2005, Forbes was set to head the cast of Mark Burnett's television series based on the Global Frequency series of comic books, but the pilot was not picked up. She subsequently guest starred on Alias and The Inside, as well as a three episode role as power-crazy Admiral Helena Cain on Battlestar Galactica, in 2005 and 2006.

As of 2006, Forbes is a recurring cast member on Prison Break playing Agent Samantha Brinker.


Feature Films

In 1993, she starred with David Duchovny, Brad Pitt and Juliette Lewis in the cult film Kalifornia, following this up alongside Kevin Spacey and Frank Whaley in Swimming with Sharks and in John Carpenter's Escape From L.A..

IMDb profile

Admiral Helena Cain, hailing from the colony Tauron, is commander of the Mercury class Battlestar Pegasus during the Fall of the Twelve Colonies. She is a hard woman not afraid of hard decisions and unflinching in her will to do what she sees as right. Sometimes, these traits conspire so that she see that she has been left no choice but to take controversial, unpopular or morally questionable decisions.

Biography

Cylon attack, and guerilla warfare

At the time of the Cylon attack, Cain's Battlestar was stationed at the Scorpion Fleet Shipyards for upgrades and shore leave. As the Cylons attacked, destroying other battlestars and support ships there, Cain orders a blind Jump, gambling that the result of such an impromptu (and inadvisable) escape would be better than the alternative of destruction.

Despite the impossible odds, Cain intended to sustain a campaign of guerilla warfare against the occupying Cylon forces. Shortly after her escape, however, Pegasus encountered a small refugee fleet of fifteen ships. Unwilling to be shackled down by the responsibility of protecting them, she striped the refugee fleet of useful hardware and personel, and left them stranded without FTL engines. She then led the Battlestar away from the Twelve Colonies, following a Cylon fleet that trailed what they discovered as fellow Battlestar Galactica.

Galactica

Upon meeting up with Commander William Adama's Fleet, she assumes command and transfers personnel from Galactica to Pegasus, including Lee Adama and kara Thrace, indicating that Adama has let military discipline become too lax. Cain is more interested in fighting the Cylons, seemingly oblivious to the point that she and the ships around her are all that was left of the human race, whose survival is more paramount than offensive assaults. While Adama initially welcomes such attacks against a mysterious Cylon force that followed the Fleet (to stop it from following them), his attitude begins to cool about Cain's very strict and unmerciful leadership.

Cain's actions also raise concerns with President Laura Roslin. Cain recognizes Roslin and her former role as Secretary of Education. After the Fleet command transfer from Adama to Cain, Roslin makes several attempts to call Cain to request supplies for the civilian fleet, but all of Roslin's calls are ignored.

Cain may also show brutal behaviour when commanding her own staff, according to a conversation over alcohol that Colonel Saul Tigh has with his Pegasus counterpart, Colonel Jack Fisk. Fisk comments that, after Pegasus' initially escapes, the Battlestar once tries to attack a Cylon communications relay -- an easy target. On arrival in the system, however, it turns out the target is a Cylon staging area, filled with 15 squadrons of Raiders. Admiral Cain ordered her previous Executive Officer, a man she had served with for years, to carry out the attack anyway, but he refused the order in the face of such odds. Admiral Cain asked the XO for his gun, and shot him in the head in front of the crew in the Pegasus CIC. Cain then turned to Fisk and ordered him to launch the attack, which he did. After relating this story to Col. Tigh, Col. Fisk says he is joking about the incident.

Although the story could be unreliable because Fisk is drunk at the time, Tigh relays the story and his suspicions of his likelihood to Adama. Adama cautions that Galactica's crew has also made some questionable actions since the attack, and they don't know if the story was taken out of context or not. Even if the story is true, Adama is willing to give Cain the benefit of the doubt and not question the matter further.

Court-martial, standoff

After the suspect fatal assault of one of her crew members, Lieutenant Thorne, Cain arrests Chief Tyrol and Lieutenant Karl " Helo" Agathon and flies them to Pegasus, under Adama's protest, since traditionally a trial is held on the ship where an incident has occurred. Cain uses Galactica's log against Adama when he asks for a tribunal; Cain notes that Adama dismissed the last council unilaterally when the verdict did not suit him. Cain summarily court-martials the prisoners herself in a matter of hours, sentencing them to death. Commander Adama is far from pleased, and orders an assault crew to head for Pegasus to bring his men back. Cain responds by deploying her squadrons of advanced Mark VII Vipers against Adama's museum collection of Mark II Vipers in a tense standoff (Pegasus).

The tense game of chicken that begins is ended by kara, flying the Blackbird as she returns from her unofficial recon mission on the unknown Cylon ship. kara transmits the pictures she took of the Resurrection Ship back to Pegasus CIC. Upon Thrace's return to Pegasus, Cain is so impressed with her performance that she promotes Thrace to Captain and Pegasus CAG, replacing the competent but uncreative and inflexible Capt. Taylor. Cain tasks kara with planning the joint strike on the Resurrection Ship.

Attack on the Resurrection Ship, and assassination

After Captain Thrace briefs both Adama, Apollo, and Cain on her plan to attack the Resurrection Ship, Adama pulls kara aside and outlines a plan to assassinate Cain following the attack. At the same time, Cain instructs Jack Fisk to lead a detachment of marines to "terminate Adama's command" after the battle (Resurrection Ship, Part I).

When the moment arrives, neither commander decides to send their execution orders, leaving Thrace and Fisk visibly relieved. Cain survives Adama's plan, ironically, because Adama solicits advice from the second copy of Sharon Valerii, who reminds him of his decommissioning speech that asked whether humanity asked itself if it deserved to survive (Miniseries). That is, Adama's actions in assassinating Cain would be a good example of why humanity deserved what the Cylons dealt to them so many months ago.

Unfortunately for Cain, shortly after Adama's window to assassinate Cain had passed, Baltar helps the Cylon agent Gina escape from the brig. Gina makes her way to Cain's quarters and shoots Cain at point blank range. A soldier to the last, Cain's final words are "Frak you."

Cain's funeral is given full military honours, with Fisk and Thrace giving eulogies. Though Thrace only knew Cain briefly, she obviously admired the woman, stating "We were safer with her than we are without." (Resurrection Ship, Part II).