Bringing in one of the biggest opponents of the new "Battlestar Galactica" remake was considered a major coup in different circles. But not everyone was happy about it, including the man who took over Richard Hatch's role of Apollo in the new series: Jamie Bamber.

"When I found out he'd been written in, I felt a bit betrayed by the writers," Bamber recently told SFX Magazine. "That what I'm doing is somehow not interesting enough or good enough that we've got to get the original back and stick him in the same shot as me and make even more comparisons."

Hatch appeared as a political prisoner named Tom Zerak in the first season's third episode, "Bastille Day." The portrayal put the current Apollo and the original Apollo in the same jail cell, and has been lauded by many critics as one of the best episodes so far this season. However, Bamber wasn't shy on sharing his feelings in bringing Hatch in.

"It's always going to be a gimmick, it's always going to be method television," Bamber said. "It's referring to wider context in the story itself by having two actors who have played the same role talking to each other. But when I read the scenario, they were quite cheeky, the writers, because there's a subtle nod and a wink to the fact that he's been trying to shoot down our show and then he shows up.

"He's this dissident who's a sort of naysayer to this new escapade and he wants to bring the whole fleet down and take control and turn it around."

Despite Bamber's apprehensions about bringing Hatch in, the younger actor said he felt being with Hatch was a surreal experience.

"When I first met Richard at the read-through, I was very nervous, but he was the most gracious, charming individual and really in love with the whole intellextual subject matter of 'Galactica,' in whatever form it's in," Bamber said. "He said a lot of interesting things to me. I could see some nostalgia, and a bit of regret in him, and he had a lot of advice for me, which I think he was giving to a younger version of himself."

Bamber said that Hatch provided a lot of input into the story that eventually became "Bastille Day."

"He was in the producer's office all the time, trying to get a more social, political, adult view of this amazing opportunity ... to explore all these mature themes than perhaps they were able to do," Bamber said. "I got the impression by the end of it that we were making the show that he would have liked to have been in. So I asked him, 'So, you love our show and what we're doing. If you could choose your show, the one you wanted back, or our show, which one would it be?' And he said, 'My show, of course. Your show's rubbish."

"Battlestar Galactica" currently airs Mondays on Sky One in the United Kingdom. It will premiere on Space in Canada and the Sci-Fi Channel in the United States in January.