Doctor Zee was a recurring character in the short-lived science fiction series Galactica 1980.

The role was portrayed by two actors. In the three-hour pilot episode, titled "Galactica Discovers Earth," child actor Robbie Rist, best known for his appearance as "Cousin Oliver" in The Brady Bunch, played Zee. Later, when Galactica 1980 was picked up as a continuing series, another young actor, Patrick Stuart, took over the role and appeared in all subsequent episodes: "The Super Scouts, Parts 1 and 2"; "Spaceball"; "The Night the Cylons Landed, Parts 1 and 2," "Space Croppers" and "The Return of Starbuck."

["The Night the Cylons Landed, Part 1" tries to explain Zee's change of appearance. While explaining the Cylons' use of new models that appear to be human, Zee mentions to Adama that the Galacticans also have experimented with alterations in appearance. However, Zee never directly says that he was a test subject.]

Doctor Zee is a child prodigy of about 12 years of age, and appears to be the most-intelligent being in the Fleet. He was born during the period of time between the end of the original Battlestar Galactica series (circa 1969, or after the first Moon landing), and when the Galactica finds Earth in 1980. His origin isn't explained at the start of the series, but he's soon introduced as a scientific "whiz" who has great influence over Commander Adama and the Council of Twelve. However, not everyone is comfortable with the young Zee having so much influence; Xavier expressed this in the pilot.

Zee convinces Adama not to attempt direct contact with humanity, because the nations of Earth aren't unified and are ill-equipped to resist the Cylons, who have been clandestinely following the Fleet.

Zee is responsible for creating most (if not all) of the gizmos used throughout the series - for example, the invisibility screen, as well as the method of time travel first employed by the renegade Xavier. Zee is an expert on any topic about which he's consulted, including sociology, history and agriculture. Just after the pilot episode, he completes construction of an antigravity craft that resembles a UFO ("The Super Scouts, Parts 1 and 2").

At the end of the series, in The Return of Starbuck, we finally learn the origin of Doctor Zee. He's the "godson" of Lieutenant Starbuck and was born on a planet where Starbuck was stranded years earlier. While on that remote planet, Starbuck was visited by Angela, who may have been from the race that created the Ship of Lights (introduced in the original series' two-part episode "War of the Gods"). [This race was never named on-screen, but was referred to in the scripts as the Seraphs]. Angela gave birth to Zee, and Starbuck shipped them off to rendezvous with the Fleet in a small escape pod that was too small to carry him. Angela herself disappeared and didn't accompany Zee all the way to the Fleet. Although Adama confirms this information, much of Zee's origin remains a mystery.