Katee Sackhoff Stole A Major Starbuck Item From The Battlestar Galactica Set

Actors keeping items from movies or television shows they were on is nothing new. Sometimes cast members are given the chance to pick out a special item, while other times they get a little sneaky and pilfer props or costume pieces when nobody's looking, but "Battlestar Galactica" star Katee Sackhoff decided to go big or go home when she stole a very important item from the costume department after her time on the series had ended. On an episode of her podcast, "The Sackhoff Show," the actor who played the hard-drinking, cigar-smoking antihero Kara "Starbuck" Thrace revealed that she kept two items from "Battlestar Galactica." One was given to her by the production team but wasn't all that personal, while the other she cared about a lot more and obtained using a little bit of thievery and the kind of guts her fictional counterpart would appreciate. 

According to Sackhoff, everyone from "Battlestar Galactica" was allowed to keep one item from the series, but she wanted more and wasn't quite happy with how things went when she requested her helmet through the proper channels. So she took things into her own hands, literally, by taking her Starbuck flight suit home with her. That's pretty gutsy in and of itself, but then she went ahead and wore the stolen flight suit during her guest appearance on "The Big Bang Theory," which is easily the coolest thing anyone's ever done in the history of that series, no matter how many other killer cameos they've had over the years. 

In the episode, which featured "Star Trek" star George Takei as a special guest, Sackhoff explained that when she and Takei were on "The Big Bang Theory" together, she realized that appearing in her stolen flight suit might be a bad idea: 

"When we did ' The Big Bang Theory' and I had stolen my flight suit from Battlestar Galactica [...] because they would only let us keep one thing and I was like, 'I want more than one thing.' So, I stole my flight suit and then requested my helmet. The irony was that they gave me Kat's helmet, which just was mindboggling to me and really pissed me off. But anyway, my point. [...] It's fine. It doesn't matter. I got a helmet and that's cool. But I also have my flight suit so they can go f*** themselves. I wore it on the Big Bang Theory and I was so nervous cuz I was like, 'oh my god, they're going to find out like I stole my flight suit.' And I said to George, I said, 'Oh, I'm so nervous. They're going to find out I stole my flight suit."' And he goes, 'Honey, I stole this cape, too.'"

The cape in question is one from "Star Trek," where Takei played Lieutenant Hikaru Sulu on the original series and in the first run of "Star Trek" movies, so at least she was in great company regarding her costume thievery. In the "Big Bang Theory" episode, both she and Takei visit Howard (Simon Helberg) in his dreams, which is pretty ironic given Helberg himself also stole a piece of his Howard costume. Starbuck and Sackhoff both went through a lot over the course of "Battlestar Galactica," so it makes sense for her to have a memento that matters. What's funny is that she basically told producers that she was going to take the flight suit for a long time before she did, so is it even really a theft at that point?

Sackhoff says on the podcast that she's been pretty open about stealing the flight suit, and that's for sure: She even told reporters in 2008 that she was going to take her flight suit, helmet, and gun belt after the series ended, and she had some special plans for the flight suit. She joked: "I'm going to bronze that flight suit and put it in my bathtub so when someone comes over and showers, they have to stand next to it. It was hell for so many years, it's only appropriate that I get to take it with me." 

While she clearly didn't bronze it before wearing the suit on "The Big Bang Theory," at least she managed to take it home and can bronze it if she feels like it one day. Maybe she can secretly sneak her Bo Katan flight suit from "The Mandalorian" to go with it, but this time, they really better get the helmet right.