Starbuck
 

This is perhaps the best character in TOS. Here is a complex man and Dirk called the character a reluctant hero in an interview. Starbuck can be self-centered at times but there is a quality one must love about him, that of loyalty. Starbuck places himself in danger to rescue Cree who is lost under his command. Starbuck is also one to run away from commitments. I wonder if fear was the reason. Fear of losing the ones that you love. Today characters must have disfunction for us to like them. Well that is a plain old BS story. TOS Starbuck wasn't perfect, just human.

TOS Starbuck was a great character.

Compassionate and passionate.
Strong yet afraid.
Fun yet serious.

He knew when to laugh at life - and he knew when to take life by the horns and drag it to the ground.

And his number one quality, as you mentioned is LOYALTY.

That's our Starbuck.

--Rhonda

There was a reason that Starbuck was the most well liked character by most fans.

He was the most well rounded. Freed from the tyranny of the archetype that the nominal hero Apollo laboured under the writers were able to write a much more complex portrait.

Apollo was the man to admire, Starbuck the man to relate to.