We caught up with actor Mark Sheppard at Comic Con, and he explained why Battlestar Galactica's Romo Lampkin really was a good guy — and why Romo's pet dog was the ancestor of all other dogs on Earth.

Sheppard doesn't agree with our assessment that he always tends to play "shifty" characters (like Badger in Firefly, or Manservant Neville in The Middleman.) Look at Romo Lampkin, he says — he's completely altruistic and trying to do the right thing. Sure, he manipulates Lee Adama like a pro, but that's just for the good of the Colonies. But Sheppard freely admits the business with Romo Lampkin's dead cat was a terrible mistake. Lampkin was carrying his dead cat around for two whole weeks, according to Sheppard — and they almost cut that whole business out of the episode, except that then they wouldn't have had an excuse to give Romo a pet dog, something they'd promised to do.

And yes, that dog is the forebear of every dog living today — in fact, says Sheppard, he's the "mitochondrial dog." Which should be the name of an indie-punk thrash band, if it isn't already.

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