The stakes couldn't have been higher.

Certainly for the character of Laura Roslin, played by Mary McDonnell, who literally stood to live or die.

But also for the entire series, "Battlestar Galactica," for how its writers and producers handled Roslins fate would say much about the series and its quality going into the future.

We, the viewers, had been with Roslin--the former schoolteacher and president of the Twelve Colonies--from the very beginning since she learned early on that she had developed terminal breast cancer.

Her diagnosis played centrally with the character as she had to struggle not only with humankinds mortality but her own personal mortality, as well.

The producers upped the ante through the second season as Laura's cancer progressed to the point of bringing her to the verge of death. Letting her die would have been difficult, given that Roslin played such a large role in the human struggle to find a new home. Also, Mary McDonnell, played the character with such dynamism and as a veteran actor brought the series a lot of gravitas. Her departure would have left a hole not easily filled.

Letting her live, however, was as equally problematic.

Her cancer, her impending death, was so much of what made Laura Roslin a compelling character.

Just making the disease "go away" could have gravely diminished the character. And after asking viewers to invest so much in the character and her battles, personal and political, letting Laura off too easily threatened to cheat viewers of a satisfying emotional payoff that had building for two years.

Such a trick would have undermined BSGs creative integrity for the rest of its run.

If Laura Roslin were to live, she would have to pay a price -- a heavy price.

Fortunately, life behind-the-scenes cooperated in a fortunate way.

Actor Paul Campbell played Billy KeiKeya, Roslin's aide. Roslin herself regarded Billy much more closely, nearly like a son. And we viewers had been with Billy nearly as long as we had been with Laura. But Campbell was in the midst of a tussle with series producers.

Off set, Campbell had been looking for other work and had BSG's producers feared for his commitment to the series, leading, he said, in an ultimatum.

"But Id already been cast in another show and decided to go off on my own and see if it worked," Campbell told an interviewer at The Scifi World website. "As it turned out it didnt work, and I ended up having a two episode hiatus after episode 4. I was gone for 5 and 6, then came back for Home Pt. 1, I think it was. Or Home Pt 2, I came back for. So after that kind of gave me the ultimatum and said sign a contract for 5 years, or we kind of need to go our separate ways. And I kind of put it off and put it off, then eventually they just said, 'Look, we can tell your [sic] not really committed to the show, and we cant write story lines. So weve decided to kill the character.' It wasnt really a surprise, but I wasnt expecting it to happen when it did. But I certainly wasnt surprised that they had to do that."

In the appropriately enough titled episode "Sacrifice," Billy gives up his own life in the midst of a hostage situation even as he loses his love, Dualla.

In losing Billy, Laura has paid her price.

In his podcast, BSG honcho Ronald Moore said he was pleased with the scene at the end of "Sacrifice," in which Laura deals with Billy's death.

"I like the tone of this scene, I like Laura's emotional response," he said. "I like the fact that Adama's feelings in this scene are apparent. It's about their relationship, it's about Billy. It's a really powerful interesting emotional moment, and again, this is one of Mary's standout pieces. And then was it worth it?was an interesting thing to say. And he has trouble arguing with it. And there's something very powerful about this."

The actor Campbell has no hard feelings for being written out, having said, "I don't blame them at all for letting me go."

So in the end, Billys death became a sad "win-win" scenario in a sense both within the BSG universe and in our own.

A former entertainment journalist, Scott Nance is a member of the USS Chesapeake, an independent science-fiction and Star Trek club in the Washington, DC, area. He is a columnist for Airlock Alpha, and can be reached at scottnance@airlockalpha.com.