Sherman Cottle

Dr. Sherman Cottle
Battlestar Galactica character
First appearance	"Act of Contrition"
Last appearance	"Daybreak"
Portrayed by	Donnelly Rhodes
Information
Species	Human
Gender	Male
Title	Major
Colony	Unknown
Affiliation	Colonial Fleet

Major Sherman Cottle is a fictional character in the reimagined Battlestar Galactica series. He is the battlestar Galactica's Chief Medical Officer. The character is played by Donnelly Rhodes.

Cottle is eccentric, gruff and sarcastic, and portrayed as a heavy smoker. He isn't impressed or easily swayed by those in authority: he has been known to make less than deferential remarks to Colonel Saul Tigh and President Laura Roslin. He holds the rank of Major in the Colonial Fleet, but is not a line officer: he does not form a part of Galactica's chain of command. Although his military rank insignia is seen on his occasionally worn service tunic and his fatigue shirt, he is invariably addressed by his medical title, doctor; unlike Gaius Baltar, Cottle does not object to the abbreviation "Doc".

Cottle appears to have a strict sense of medical ethics (possibly having sworn the Colonial equivalent of Earth's Hippocratic oath), and does not discriminate between human and Cylon patients: he describes the sexual assault of Sharon "Athena" Agathon as "unforgivable"; he delivers her baby, Hera, by Caesarean section; after the Cylon occupation of New Caprica, Cottle even provides medical care to critically injured Cylons.

President Roslin is a long term patient of Doctor Cottle's: she informs him of her breast cancer diagnosis two weeks after the destruction of the Twelve Colonies, and continues to see him at various points until her near death and successful treatment by Doctor Gaius Baltar. Cottle opposes but does not obstruct Baltar's treatment method, which uses the blood of Sharon Agathon's unborn child, calling it "un-natural".

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