Tricia Helfer is an Alberta farm girl who became a New York Supermodel and then one of the stars of the critically acclaimed sci-fi series Battlestar Galactica. The complete series is out in two box sets, a 25-disc DVD box and a 20-disc Blu-ray set.

Battlestar Galactica, a sci-fi phenomenon too good to give up on, refuses to fade away and die. That is good news for Tricia Helfer, the former Alberta farmgirl and New York supermodel whose acting career is riding the Battlestar spaceship into Hollywood lore.

"Battlestar has been huge for me," Helfer tells Sun Media from her Los Angeles home, where she lives with her lawyer husband Johnathan Marshall. "I had only been acting for a year prior to booking Battlestar so, with the show being so respected within the industry, it makes other people sit up and take notice of me when my agents are trying to get them to use me." With the quality of the Battlestar acting ensemble, and the smarts of the writing, Helfer says, "it can do nothing but help your career, especially for someone who had a resume that was pretty much non-existent at that point."

Helfer, 35, was raised on a dairy farm near the hamlet of Donalda in central Alberta. Discovered by a modeling agency while standing in line for a movie in Stettler, she stormed New York at 17. In 2002, after a decade in Manhattan, she moved to Hollywood to pursue acting. Helfer is now best known as the striking buxom blond Amazon who plays sensationally sexy Cylon, Number Six, in Battlestar.

The re-imagined Battlestar, which launched as a mini-series in 2003, ran from 2004 until it wrapped its 73 episodes with a controversial ending earlier this year. The fan base is enormous, dedicated and fantatical. The series is at an intriguing juncture between the old and the new.

On July 28, Universal Studios Home Entertainment released Battlestar Galactica: The Complete Series in a 25-disc DVD box set and in a 20-disc Blu-ray set. The packaging is awkward, especially because the discs have to be shoved into flimsy cardboard sleeves, but there is a souvenir Cylon Centurion figure. And the content of the discs, with their extensive extras, is impressive (although nothing has been added from the complete-season sets).

Helfer, meanwhile, has not yet cracked open her box set yet. So she has no comment on the packaging issue that infuriates fans. She is, however, convinced they will be excited to see Battlestar Galactica: The Plan on DVD when it debuts Oct. 27. That is the new next step. Edward James Olmos, who stars as hardened, heroic Commander Adama in Battlestar, directed The Plan, which is set during events of the early seasons.

"I really don't know what the plan behind The Plan was," Helfer says. "I don't know if it was more: 'We've got the sets up (in Vancouver), so let's do one more last-gasp thing before we knock them down!' But I think The Plan is going to be really fun for the fans because it is more from the Cylons' perspective, whereas the show is more from the human perspective." Olmos has also hinted at more Battlestar specials in the future.

The Plan means Helfer can blast geekboys with her sex appeal again. She finds it amusing. "Coming from a modeling background, it's not something that I'm scared of. I don't view myself that way, so I find it very funny. I'll have to put the video on my Maxim shoot (another of her semi-nude photo shoots for the magazine) on my website and send some fanboys hearts fluttering!"

Helfer also has a plan of her own: to broaden her career. "After Battlestar, you definitely get offered a lot more sci-fi type things but I'm really shying away from that, except in voice work (such as the animated Green Lantern: First Flight). Because you really want to make sure you're not being pigeon-holed into one type of character or one type of genre."