Cylons: Difference between revisions

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Old Cylon Centurion shown in a museum display in the 2003 Battlestar Galactica miniseries

The Cylons are a cybernetic civilization at war with the twelve colonies of humanity in the science fiction movie and television series Battlestar Galactica, in the original 1978/1980 series as well as the movie and the reimagining of 2003-2006. The word "Cylon" was minted in the original production and is pronounced as "SIGH-LON".

The nature and origins of Cylons differ greatly between the two Galacticas.

Battlestar Galactica (1978) & Galactica 1980

Cylon models

In the 1978 Galactica movie and series and the 1980 spin-off, the Cylons were created to serve the reptilian race of the Cylon Alliance. According to the Maximum Press comic of Battlestar Galactica, just prior to the start of The Thousand Yahren War, the Cylon imperious leader made a deal with the mysterious and demonic Count Iblis (meaning "Satan" in the Arabic language) to sell out his entire race in exchange for power that would allow him to "become like Count Iblis." Needless to say, Count Iblis lied. The process of "empowerment" changed the imperious leader into a cybernetic entity, more machine than living blood. Enraged, the imperious leader swore revenge and became more and more driven by conquest and warfare.

Also in the Maximum Press comic, the Cylons were originally led by a ruthless, conquest and expansionism-driven emperor named Sobekkta, one of the original living Cylons, who were a race of intelligent reptiles. This fact is briefly mentioned in the 1978 movie-length premier of the series (near the end of episode 2 in syndication) when Apollo relates the Cylon's origin to Boxey. In the episode "War of the Gods", during Count Iblis private discourse with Count Baltar, Baltar mentions that he recognises Iblis's voice, with Iblis countering that if that was true it must have been "transcribed" over a thousand yahren (years) ago.

At the beginning of the series the Cylons are singularly devoted to the destruction of humanity. The war between the two species is stated in the episode "Saga of a Star World" as being started when the Cylon empire sought to expand into the territory of a species allied with the colonies, that species being the Hasaries. The Cylons intentions were transparent: conquest, subjugation, and enslavement or obliteration. so their original intentions are only half-genocidal. Intervening on behalf of the Hasaries, the human colonies helped their besieged neighbors win back their freedom, but at a terrible cost: the Cylon empire now viewed the human race as their primary target. Because of humanity's most endearing traits; self-sacrifice, nobility, honor, loyalty, the desire to question, and to resist oppression, the Cylon empire views mankind as a threat. To the Cylon mind, such behavior is alien and a dangerous threat to their empire's dominion.

Cylon society is composed of five models, four of which have been well-documented:

• Imperious Leader: The leader of the Cylon Alliance and highest Cylon model. The Imperious Leader is an IL-Series Cylon with some extra augmentation, including a third brain and a body shell resembling the reptilian Cylons. One was killed at the Battle of Carillon and another was likely killed during the Battle of Gamoray. The voice of the Imperious Leader is almost always identical to that of Count Iblis (both were voiced by Patrick Macnee). However, in the Galactica: 1980 episode "Space Croppers", Dennis Haysbert was the new voice of the Imperious Leader, according to IMDB.
• IL-Series: Acts as a commander for the military and governor for civilians of the Alliance. They have two brains, a humanoid face and wear shimmering cloaks. They are almost feudal in nature and bicker among themselves frequently. This could be a tactic to help the most skilled IL-Series ascend the throne and receive a third brain. IL-series Cylons have an effete human-sounding voice, unlike the flat mechanical tones of Centurions. They pride themselves on having two brains, as opposed to the single brains of Centurions. The IL-series also have two "eye" scanners as opposed to the one scanner of the Centurion model.
  • Lucifer - Baltar's second in command. Presumably led pursuit of the Galactica after Baltar's capture. (Voiced by Jonathan Harris)
  • Spectre - Commander on the planet Atilla in "The Young Lords". Enemy of Lucifer. (Voiced by Murray Matheson)
• Command Centurion: Centurions with gold armor. These are the lower commanders for individual military units. The most well known Cylon character of this model was Commander Vulpa in "The Gun on Ice Planet Zero". Their voices are slightly different (lower pitched) than regular Centurions. (Trivia: Vulpa's voice was not lower-pitched in Part I of "The Gun on Ice Planet Zero"; rather, it was "tinnier" than a regular Centurion's voice, but the distinction was very thin. It is probably why Vulpa's voice was lowered for Part II of "The Gun on Ice Planet Zero".)
• Centurion: Military androids with silver armor. Basic centurions make up the ground forces and pilots of the Alliance military. Centurions are armed with a powerful energy weapon, often referred to as a blaster rifle. They also have bayonets and swords for close combat and execution of prisoners. (Although Earth's Roman Centurions commanded a unit of one hundred men, Cylon Centurions form the rank and file of the Cylon forces.) There are three Centurions that are given names in the series: Flight Leader Serpentine from "Saga of a Star World", Centuri from "The Night the Cylons Landed" and Cyrus from "The Return of Starbuck".
• Android: A Cylon android was featured on the Halloween episode of Galactica 1980. Named Andromus, this model had a superficial human appearance, a condescending/superior attitude toward Centurions, and was believed to be entirely biomechanical. This particular character may have inspired the creation of the humanoid Cylon agents present in the re-imagined continuity.

There is also a unique Cylon with glittering robes, with what looks like a mask attached to its face. They are seen in the Imperious Leader's delegation to Gamoray in "The Living Legend". This is evidently some kind of civilian Cylon, as Gamoray was said to have a very large community of civilian Cylons, though how civilian Cylon society differed from its military was never explored.

All Cylons, from the IL-series down, typically repeat the phrase "By Your Command" when responding to an order.

Multi-brain status and built-in lie detectors

There are two amazing aspects of Cylons development, presented in the Berklee book series. One is the advancement of multiple brain status. This allows Cylons additional thinking and deductive abilities and might conceivably lead to the other fascinating development, and almost psychic talent for detecting when an opponent is lying. If the ability is not psychic, then it is voice-stress analysis and the detection of irregular heart beating, as well as the observation of other such biological clues.

Presented in The Gun on Ice Ice Planet Zero book, multi-brain status is presumed to be the upgraded inclusion of an auxiliary brain unit, allowing for higher-level thinking abilities. The command centurion and garrison commander on planet Tairac, Vulpa, demonstrated this ability.

Cylon centurions (the chrome soldiers) have single brain status.

Command centurions have three brain status.

Imperious leaders enjoy three or four brain status.

IL-series Cylons, such as Lucifer and Specter have second brain status.

The Cylon Centurions – the type most often depicted in the original Battlestar Galactica – were strikingly similar to the Imperial stormtroopers of Star Wars. The similarities were noted by many at the time and may have been one of the factors that prompted 20th Century Fox's lawsuit for copyright infringement against Universal Studios, the owners of Battlestar Galactica. The lawsuit was eventually dismissed as "groundless."

Indeed, there are few and little similarities between the Battlestar Galactica and Star Wars. First off, the stormtroopers of Star Wars are clones of the infamous bounty hunter, Jango Fett. The Cylons centurion soldier has, in some circles, been remarked as being a cyborg. Truthfully, this is incorrect. With the exception of the Imperious Leader (who is largely but not entirely cyber-organic), all members of Cylon society are machines.

Furthermore, in both the Marvel comics series and the TV episodes of the 1978 series, the chrome-colored Cylon centurions have frequently been depicted as engaging in casual conversation regarding issues that they currently consider to be of importance. Star Wars' Imperial stormtroopers never engage in non-duty oriented discourse, and thus are not depicted as doing so. The sole exception to this is apparently the conversation between two stormtroopers in the tractor beam shaft on the Death Star as Obi Wan Kenobi is attempting to disable it.

One similarity is that the largest source of evil in both series is caused from within. In BG, it is Count Baltar, whom betrays the human race to the Cylon empire in exchange for total dominion of his colony out of the coming holocaust. In Star Wars, The emperor Palpatine uses the dark side of the force and disposable internal cronies to manipulate events that will swing him into absolute power, eliminate his enemies, and secure his power-base. Similarly, the Imperious leader uses Count Baltar to betray the human colonies and then attempts to dispose of him. However, Baltar survives to present an ever-present visage of all-too-human menace and madness on the Cylon empire. All who serve the Emperor Palpatine eventually end up dead.

Cylon spacecraft

• Basestar: A large warship mounting two pulsars, many laser turrets, and carrying 350 Raiders.
• Cylon Raider: A heavy fighter with a crew of 3, two pilots and a commander. They are armed with dual-firing weapons.
• A-B Raider: An advanced variation of the Raider, crewed by three Centurions and two Cylon Androids. Seen in the

Galactica 1980 episode "The Night the Cylons Landed" Part 1.

• Cylon Freighter: A cargo ship referenced in the Battlestar Galactica soundtrack [1]
• Cylon Tanker: A ship for transporting the fuel tylium [2]

Cylon Government

Cylons are led by the Imperious Leader, an IL-Series Cylon elevated to a supreme leadership position over all Cylons. The Cylon Empire is also responsible for tributary powers under the aegis of the Cylon Alliance. The Ovions (an insectiod race enslaved by the Cylons and transported to the planet Carrilon for mining purposes) are the only known member of the Cylon Alliance shown onscreen, other than the Cylons themselves. This may be due to the fact that the Cylons rarely maintain alliances for longer than is necessary for efficiency; they regularly turn on and exterminate their living allies when it suits them. Cylon society is almost exclusively military - until the discovery of Gamoray, which the Colonial fleet had targeted for its rich fuel reserves, no civilian Cylon outpost has ever been seen by anyone.

Battlestar Galactica (2003-Present)

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Number Six, a humanoid Cylon portrayed by Tricia Helfer

The Cylons of the 2003 miniseries and current Battlestar Galactica series are fundamentally different. In the new version, the Cylons were created by man as robotic workers and soldiers. As in the original series, the Cylons destroy almost the entire human civilization, chasing a few ship-borne survivors into deep space. Unlike the original series, however, the reimagined series includes twelve Cylon models who are nearly indistinguishable from human beings. Alongside the humanoid models, there are also Centurions (purely mechanical soldiers and laborers) as well as partially biological spacecraft.

The humanoid Cylons are virtually indistinguishable from humans. They are specialized models which are used for infiltration, and the revelation that Cylon infiltrators can perfectly mimic human form, even down to the internal organs and lymphatic system, creates a wave of fear and paranoia among the humans. Some humanoid Cylons are "sleeper" agent, programmed with false memories so they think they are human. Cylons can interact with humans very convincingly, even being capable of intimate emotional and sexual relationships. Although they cannot successfully reproduce with each other, several episodes have shown one successful case of Cylons creating living offspring with humans. The Cylons are also capable of the same psychological and emotional responses as human beings. Nonetheless, they have certain superhuman abilities, as well as the ability to physically interface with computer systems and a seemingly universal understanding of computer software.

Many of the new Cylons also follow a monotheistic religion. Religious fanaticism partially motivates their genocide of humanity, and despite their origins, the Cylons believe themselves to be spiritual beings.

Many Cylons have the ability to download their consciousness into another body when the body they are currently using is killed or destroyed. The second season of Battlestar Galactica explored this notion in greater depth—the limited range of these downloads required the Cylons to build a "Resurrection Ship" to capture downloads from the human fleet, while the episode "Scar" established that the downloading procedure is shared by the Raider spacecraft. An entire episode, "Downloaded", also centered around the difficulties of two Cylon characters adjusting to their lives after downloading into new bodies.

The known Cylon models are as follows:

Centurions

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The updated Centurion model

The Cylon Centurion is used as a common laborer and soldier. It possesses less intelligence than the human models, and is purely mechanical. The Centurion has a streamlined look, retaining the silver appearance, robotic body, helmet-like head and oscillating red bar eye of the original series' Centurions, while being larger, stronger, and more agile. They also have retractable weapons in their lower arms, bladed fingertips, and are often heavily armored. The miniseries hints that this Centurion is descended from something not unlike the Centurion of the 1978 series. Unlike the original series, these Centurions have not been seen using speech. Ronald D. Moore has commented on his blog that these new Cylon Centurions do not download into new bodies when they are destroyed.

Humanoid Cylons

Ronald D. Moore has confirmed in interviews that there are 12 different models of humanoid Cylon, with many copies of each model in existance. Moore has also stated that the humanoid Cylons are not based on pre-existing humans: "The idea is not that there was likely an original human model that they were copied from. The idea was that these models of Cylon were sort of developed out of their own study of us. The Cylons on some level looked at humanity and said "You know what? There's really only 12 of you." If these are the 12, and sort of if you look at them they each represent different archetypes of what humanity is."

The seven humanoid models revealed so far include:

Number Six

Main article: Number Six (Battlestar Galactica)

Six is a beautiful female model evidently designed for seduction. The miniseries portrays Six having an affair with Baltar, using his access to the Colonial defense mainframe to build vulnerabilities for the Cylons to exploit in the attack. After the attack, Baltar sees persistent visions of Number Six. The nature of these visions has not been made clear, but the experience slowly drives Baltar to insanity. Six did appear once on Galactica in physical form, calling herself "Shelley Godfrey", implicating Baltar in the attack with false evidence, then disappearing as soon as the falsification is discovered.

Another copy of Number Six, named "Gina", infiltrated the Battlestar Pegasus but was later captured by its crew. After being taken prisoner, she was tortured and gang-raped by Pegasus crewmen on a routine basis. By the time Dr. Baltar examined her, after Pegasus reunited with Galactica, she was in a catatonic state from the trauma of her abuse. Gina ultimately escaped captivity with Baltar's help. She then killed Admiral Helena Cain before escaping from the Pegasus entirely. For a time she was at large within the fleet, leading a movement of Cylon sympathizers. In Lay Down Your Burdens Part II, Gina detonates a nuclear warhead given to her by Dr. Baltar, destroying the starship called "Cloud Nine" and other nearby craft.

The episode "Downloaded" shows the Six who infiltrated the Colonial defenses reborn and living on Caprica. She is something of a celebrity for the Cylons, and has been nicknamed "Caprica Six" by other Cylons. Interestingly, she is accompanied by a Baltar that only she can see or hear, much as Baltar is plagued by an illusory Number Six. However, while Baltar's illusory Number Six tries to manipulate him into acting in what could be considered unethical manners, Caprica Six's illusory Baltar appears to be her conscience.

Six is played by Canadian supermodel and actress Tricia Helfer.

Sharon Valerii

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Sharon Valerii

Main article: Sharon Valerii

Sharon Valerii first appears as a pilot aboard the Galactica. Her true nature as a Cylon was only revealed at the end of the miniseries, and the series quickly establishes that Sharon is a sleeper agent, unaware of her true nature and programmed to carry out attacks on the fleet without her human side realizing what she is doing, including bombing the ships water tanks and shooting Commander Adama. This copy is eventually killed by an enraged Galactica crew member and downloads to a new body on Cylon-occupied Caprica.

Another Sharon is fully aware she is a Cylon and accompanies Galactica crewmember Lt. Karl "Helo" Agathon on Cylon-occupied Caprica. She ultimately falls in love with him and the two conceived a child together. She ultimately helps Helo and other humans to escape the Cylons, although her loyalties are still in question, especially after she comes to believe that the humans ordered her child to be killed.

Sharon is played by Canadian actress Grace Park.

D'Anna Biers

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D'Anna Biers

D'Anna Biers first appears as a reporter for the Fleet News Service, and is asked by President Roslin and Commander Adama to create a documentary to help the fleet relate to the hard-working staff on the Galactica. With full access to the ship, this D'Anna stumbles across a copy of Sharon Valerii and relays a transmission of the documentary back to the other Cylons on Caprica. In the episode "Downloaded", a copy of her appears on Cylon-occupied Caprica.

D'Anna is played by actress Lucy Lawless. This is the first time Lawless has used her native New Zealand accent onscreen in many years.

Aaron Doral

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Aaron Doral

In the miniseries, Doral appears as a public relations worker for the abortive Battlestar Galactica museum—Baltar implicates Doral as a Cylon, and Doral is stranded at Ragnar Anchorage by Adama. Doral re-appears in "Litmus" as a suicide bomber, as well as filling smaller Cylon roles in other episodes.

Doral is played by Canadian actor Matthew Bennett.

Leoben Conoy

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Leoben Conoy

Leoben first appears as a smuggler at the munitions depot at Ragnar Anchorage. His role appears to be one of manipulation and deceit. Adama kills this copy and has the body taken back to the Galactica. The second is an agent provocateur, an apparently unsuccessful saboteur who is captured aboard a passenger ship, claiming to have planted a nuclear warhead somewhere in the fleet. Starbuck tortures this copy for information, to no success. President Laura Roslin realizes nothing he says can be trusted and has him thrown out the airlock, but not before Conoy tells her that Adama is a Cylon. Another copy, possibly with the same consciousness of the second, appears on New Caprica looking for Starbuck when Cylons take over the planet.

Conoy is played by Scottish-Canadian actor Callum Keith Rennie.

Simon

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Simon

Simon appears to be a tall, slender, dark-skinned male with close cropped or balding hair. He first appears posing as a human physician treating Starbuck for a gunshot wound in what was supposedly a hospital on Caprica. In reality, he was also performing invasive tests on her reproductive organs. After Starbuck begins to suspect Simon's true nature and kills him, she escapes from the facility, her fears confirmed when a second copy of the model greets her on her way.

Simon is played by Rick Worthy.

Brother Cavil

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Brother Cavil

Cavil first appears on Galactica, posing as a priest. His nature as a Cylon is revealed when a second copy appears on Caprica. Cavil tells Adama that the Cylons have given up their campaign to destroy humanity. This model has expressed atheism, unlike other models, who all appear to believe in the Cylon religion.

Cavil is played by American actor and former Quantum Leap star Dean Stockwell.

Cylon spacecraft

Cylon spacecraft in the new series are of a biomechanical design. Most are Cylons themselves, but there is little indication that they have significant intelligence beyond the specialized tasks for which they are designed.

File:Cylonraider.jpg

Cylon Raider with the red eye

• Raider: The new Raider is a biomechanical fighter craft with twin cannon weapons, missile hardpoints, and FTL (Faster-than-light) capability. Unlike the original Raiders, these are autonomous craft without a separate pilot. It appears to be an oxygen-breathing biomechanical organism housed within a metallic exoskeleton. In one episode of the 2004 series, the stranded Starbuck finds a downed raider and discovers that once inside its "head" she can control the propulsion and weapons systems by manipulating its biomechanical actuators. Number Eight (Sharon Valerii) describes the Raider as being somewhat like a pet in episode "Six Degrees of Separation". In the 2006 episode "Scar", it is revealed that Raiders reincarnate when they die in a fashion similar to humanoid Cylons, and do possess some learning intelligence, advanced enough to a point where they can grow to loathe and hate specific enemies. This episode also features the eponymous Scar, as an individual.
• Heavy Raider: A previously unknown Cylon craft, introduced in the ninth episode of season one (though first deployed in combat in the season 2 premiere), which is capable of transporting squads of Cylon Centurions for boarding actions. Ronald D. Moore confirms this craft's name as "Heavy Raider" in his podcast for this episode. It appears to be loosely analogous to a Colonial Raptor transport in this respect, and is heavily cannon-armed and armoured. It may not require a pilot, but it has been described and shown as being controlled by a humanoid Cylon on one occasion. There was once very briefly glimpsed a "head" with red-bar eye, about identical to the heads on all the Raider fighter-crafts, but offset to the side instead of centered, and quite small in proportion to the Heavy Raiders' size. The Caprica Sharon once mentioned the Heavy Raider possessing a "brain" which had to be removed in order to steal the craft. Presumably, this "brain" was the organism Starbuck found and removed from within the standard Raider.

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Cylon Basestars, one firing missiles (2003 series)

• Basestar: The Basestar is the primary Cylon capital ship yet identified in the series, on par with the Colonial Battlestar. Basestars are designed to make hyperlight jumps and equipped to deploy large-scale strikes with high yield nuclear ordnance. Their only weapons seem to be long range missiles, relying on an overwhelming number of fighters for defense. Although superior at longer ranges, Basestars are no match for a Colonial Battlestar at close range. They carry at least 250 Raiders on their exterior service pods, and an indeterminate number of additional fighters inside. Although the staggering number of Raiders they can deploy at a moment's notice suggests an enormous crew, it is suspected that much of a Basestar's internal workings may be automated. They are themselves biomechanical entities, with fleshy "hangars" to house Raiders. Basestars are, however, capable of carrying other Cylon models within them.
• Resurrection Ship: The identity of the unknown ship from "Pegasus" is finally revealed in "Resurrection Ship Part 1". It is a massive vessel housing many dormant copies of humanoid-Cylons, serving to replace lost copies. The fleeing human fleet led by Galactica traveled so far from the 12 Colonies that the Cylons are out of range from the Cylon homeworld for the normal consciousness-downloading process to work. The Resurrection Ship is a signal booster which picks up transmitted Cylon consciousnesses onto the ship. Each humanoid-Cylon that dies has its memories transferred to one of the thousands of copies aboard this vessel, ensuring that valued information is not lost with the destruction of the Cylon's body. Thousands of copies - presumably of all 12 models of humanoid Cylon - are held in racks aboard the ship. "Resurrection ship" is the name given to the vessel by the Cylons, as revealed by the Cylon prisoner aboard the Pegasus. The destruction of this vessel would mean that any Cylons that die fighting Galactica's fleet would actually die, permanently, rather than their mind simply transmitting away. It is currently unknown if this vessel has any kind of armaments, or if it is entirely dependent on an accompanying fleet of Basestars for support. It was destroyed as the result of a combined engagement of Galactica and Pegasus against a Cylon fleet in "Resurrection Ship, Part II", dealing a significant blow to the Cylons chasing the human fleet.
• The main Cylon fleet is mentioned as being accompanied by about a dozen various "support ships", of unknown design. Some are probably responsible for mining and refining tylium fuel from asteroids, or constructing tylium mining bases like the one seen in "The Hand of God". Others might be analogous to Colonial support cruisers, which have also been mentioned but not yet seen on screen.

Trivia

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Cylon and Garfunkel on Futurama

In the novelization of the Battlestar Galactica pilot (released as a movie in Canada and the U.S.), the Cylons are described as being three eyed creatures inside metallic armor. This contradicts all other accounts of the Cylons being completely robotic. Producer Glen A. Larson did originally intend to make the Cylons living alien beings wearing full body armor (similar to Star Wars stormtroopers) but changed his mind in the interest of sanitizing the violence in the show as many Cylons would be "killed" in battle during the course of the series.

In the classic arcade video game Berzerk, the playing character is pursued by armies of robots in every room with electronic walls, which could kill the character instantly as well as the robots themselves. The robots in pursuit do resemble the classic Cylon Centurions, except they appear to be wider and bulkier, and the red eye circles the head instead of the traditional back and forth.

Sci-fi fans traveling through Hartsfield International Airport in Atlanta were always quick to note that the automated voice on the trains connecting the passenger concourses to the main terminal was a perfect match for the voice of a Cylon. However, in preparation for the 1996 Summer Olympics, the airport was renovated and the Cylon voice was retired in favor of a pre-recorded "human" voice. The voice heard going down the escalator to the trains, however, still reminds them of Box, the robot guarding the path to sanctuary in Logan's Run.

In the source code of Mozilla (and its Netscape predecessor), the "undetermined" progress bar that slides back and forth -- rather than filling up the bar from left to right -- is referred to as the "Cylon".

A Cylon appears in the Futurama episode "Bendin' in the Wind". He’s part of the musical duo Cylon and Garfunkel, a parody of Simon and Garfunkel.

The classic Cylons have also appeared on The Simpsons on several occasions, the most notable in Mayored to the Mob during a sci-fi convention. There's a quick gag in a boxing arena where three Centurions square off against R2-D2 and C-3PO from Star Wars. ("See the mighty robots from Battlestar Galactica fight the gay robots from Star Wars!") They easily pin C-3PO to the floor, and R2 refuses to help.

In the FOX Animated Series Family Guy, the host of 'KISS Forum' also hosts 'Battlestar Galactica Forum' on Quahog's public access channel. He introduces the forum by putting a classic Centurion mask on and saying "Welcome to Battlestar Galactica Forum" in traditional Cylon computerized-monotone.

In the opening credits of certain seasons of The A-Team, Dirk Benedict watches a Cylon walk past (while at the Universal Studios tour), initially expresses concern, and then decides to ignore it. Dirk Benedict played the character Starbuck in the original Battlestar Galactica series. This scene is later recreated on the animated show Family Guy.

Glen A. Larson produced both the original Battlestar Galactica and Knight Rider. He incorporated the Cylon scanning moving eye into KITT, and it is speculated in fanon that KITT's electronic brain was originally part of a Cylon that crashed on Earth in Galactica: 1980.

In the Knight Rider third season episode "Halloween Knight", the episode villain is shown briefly in a Cylon mask.

In his podcast, Ron Moore revealed that the Pegasus cylon based on Number Six was named "Gina" as a back-handed reference to the numerous fans of the original series who had referred to the reimagined series as "GINO," or "Galactica in name only."

Although the term "Centurion" for Cylon warriors is commonly spelled as such, several sources from the original series, as well as the "Cylon datasheet" in the opening scene of the 2003 miniseries, actually spell the term: "Centurian" .

Cylons were the focus of a short skit on the Adult Swim program Robot Chicken in which it is said that the original cylon actors had so many problems walking around in their suits that they were constantly falling down.

Ronald D. Moore has said in the podcast of "Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part II", that his original idea original ending of Season One called for actor Dirk Benedict to appear to Baltar on Kobol and introduce himself as "God" (half as an intentionally big cliffhanger if the series wasn't renewed for another season). However, the rest of the writing staff was aghast at the idea, and it never materialized.

External links

• "Cylons" at Battlestar Wiki