Aaron Kelly is a fictional character in the reimagined Battlestar Galactica TV program. Played by Ty Olsson, Cpt. Kelly is the LSO for the Galactica's portside flight-deck.
Kelly is one of the first characters shown in the Miniseries; he converses with then-Commander William Adama, and later collects the dogtags of personnel killed in the Cylons' nuclear strike on the Galactica. While Adama is in a coma following the events of Kobol's Last Gleaming, Kelly functions as acting XO. When the ragtagfleet is forced to make a hasty jump using out-of-date coordinates, resulting in their separation from Galactica, Kelly opposes Felix Gaeta's plans to network Galactica's computers to speed calculations on the fleet's location. A few episodes later, in "Final Cut," his first name is given as Aaron. Kelly is still aboard the Galactica when she jumps away from New Caprica to avoid the Cylon invasion fleet. He serves in the CIC during the Battle of New Caprica. Shortly before the trial of former President Gaius Baltar, Kelly murders Baltar's public defender by placing a bomb in Racetrack's raptor, and attempts to kill his second lawyer with a bomb that takes the life of a marine. When Apollo uncovers the plot and confronts Kelly, Kelly explains his disenchantment at the disparity between the decorous due-process afforded to Baltar as contrasted with the lives lost by so many of his shipmates. He is placed in the brig. During Gaeta's mutiny, Kelly is released and initially sides with the mutineers; he is seen leading a fire-team of rebel marines trying to stop Baltar and Laura Roslin from escaping Galactica. He is, however, visibly shaken after Tom Zarek orders the Quorum of Twelve to be executed. Shortly thereafter, after finding Galen Tyrol trying to reach a weapon in the weapons locker, they begin to reminisce, and he allows Tyrol to escape. When he learns that Adama is about to face a firing squad, he cracks and joins Apollo, Tigh, and Athena in stopping the firing squad from executing Adama and joins them in retaking the ship.
