Katee Sackhoff is re-teaming with Netflix for the space drama Another Life. She most recently worked with the streaming site on the drama Longmire where she played deputy Vic Moretti for six seasons. Netflix rescued the show after its cancellation by A&E after three seasons. The actress has also played a role this season on CW’s The Flash as the villainous metahuman Amunet Black.

Sackhoff is best known for portraying the tough talking, fearless pilot Lieutenant (later Captain) Kara “Starbuck” Thrace on Battlestar Galactica. The 2004 sci-fi series was a reboot of the 1978 television show where the character of Starbuck was male, played by Dirk Benedict. Sackhoff brought the same cigar-chomping swagger to the role of the hotshot pilot and became a fan-favorite despite the character’s murky role in later seasons.

Now Sackhoff will be returning to space for Another Life. According to Deadline, she will play an astronaut named Niko Breckinridge who is focused on a search for alien intelligence. She leads a young crew on a mission to explore the creation of an alien artifact as they face increasing danger on what they come to realize might be a one way mission. The series has already been picked up for 10 episodes. Aaron Martin (Slasher, Killjoys) created the show and will act as showrunner alongside producer Noreen Halpern (Alias Grace).


Sackhoff has made a career of playing strong women in leadership roles and it will be great to see the actress return to her sci-fi roots. The combination of her involvement plus the potential for aliens is sure to get fans excited about the upcoming show. Undoubtedly there will be people who will want to compare her performance as Niko to that of Starbuck, but hopefully this new character will allow for some differences. After all, it has been years since Battlestar Galactica and Sackhoff has grown as both a person and actress since then.

Another Life continues Netflix’s recent growth in sci-fi programing. In 2018 alone the streaming giant has released Altered Carbon, Lost in Space, Duncan Jones’ Mute, Cloverfield Paradox and the soon to be released Danish series The Rain and Sense8 series finale, which will be available to stream on June 8th. And that’s not even including Black Mirror, Stranger Things, Dark, 3%, and The OA. One thing all these shows and films have in common (for the most part) is that the future seems pretty bleak. It sounds like Another Life will be continuing that trend. Isn’t there any version of the future where the aliens are more like E.T.?