Cylon

Original series

In the original 1978 series Battlestar Galactica, created by Glen A. Larson, the Cylons are a race of sentient robots at war with the Twelve Colonies of humanity. They are led by a Cylon known as the Imperious Leader who, though seemingly unique, can be replaced if needed. The IL-Series are a class of Cylons below the Imperious Leader who serve the Cylon Empire in non-military roles as administrators and diplomats. They have human-shaped, metallic heads and faces with glowing red eyes, and translucent conical craniums with visible crystalline brains. The IL-Series possess humanoid bodies covered in long, sparkling robes, and speak in refined, masculine voices. The Cylon foot soldiers are the Centurions, imposing humanoid robots characterized by their chrome armor and distinctive red eye visors. They speak in electronic, monotonous tones, and do not possess the intellect and autonomy of the IL-Series Cylons. Raiders are fighter craft crewed with three Centurions each, and Basestars are the Cylon capital warships, equivalent to the Battlestars of the human fleet.

The sequel series Galactica 1980 introduces two new-model Cylons who are indistinguishable from humans, Andromus (Roger Davis) and Andromidus (Neil Zevnik), in the episode "The Night the Cylons Landed". The concept of humanoid Cylons would become a primary element of the 2000s reboot series.

The Centurions were initially depicted in preproduction art by artist Ralph McQuarrie, but the final design was largely the work of Andrew Probert. Similarities with McQuarrie’s designs for the Star Wars Stormtroopers are sometimes suggested as a factor that prompted 20th Century Fox's lawsuit for copyright infringement against Universal Studios, owners of the Battlestar Galactica copyright. However the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals did not include the Cylons in the list of similarities they issued on an appeal in Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp. v. MCA Inc. The case was remanded and reportedly settled out of court, by which time Battlestar Galactica had already been canceled.

In the series, the Imperious Leader is voiced by Patrick Macnee. Lucifer, an IL-Series Cylon installed as the second-in-command of a Cylon Basestar battleship under the command of human traitor Lord Baltar (John Colicos), is voiced by Jonathan Harris in nine episodes. An EMS Vocoder 2000 was used to produce the voices of the Centurions.

Reboot series

The franchise was rebooted with the 2003 miniseries Battlestar Galactica, based on Larson's series and created by Ronald D. Moore. It was quickly followed by a 2004 series, which ran for four seasons and spawned the television films Razor (2007) and The Plan (2009), multiple web series, and the spinoff prequel television series Caprica (2010).

In the series, the 40-year armistice between the Twelve Colonies of humanity and a race of warlike, sentient robots called Cylons is suddenly broken by the Cylons. They launch a cataclysmic attack on human civilization that kills billions, and subsequently pursue the fleeing 50,000 survivors to exterminate them completely. Fully mechanical Centurions remain the avatars of Cylon aggression, but biological models of Cylons, indistinguishable from humans, have infiltrated what remains of the human population, and their identities are revealed over the course of the series. Updated versions of Raiders and Basestars are also depicted, as well as Hybrids, a type of Cylon which is a bridge between the mechanical and biological forms, used to control Basestars by existing in symbiosis with them.

Centurions

Cylon Centurions are mechanical, sentient infantry robots with massive, silver armored bodies and chevron-shaped red eye visors. They are strong and agile, with bladed fingertips and retractable guns built into their lower arms. The Centurions are terrifying, deadly automatons who show no mercy, and are difficult to destroy without explosive ammunition. They are able to devise and execute complex tactical maneuvers. The Centurions are the originators of monotheism, the belief in a single God, among the Cylons, and are among the most devout. Some humans use the slur "toasters" to refer to the Centurions.

Initially depicted as cold and subservient foot soldiers, over the course of the series the Centurions exhibit a range of personalities and beliefs. Some seek a peaceful coexistence with humans, while others remain dedicated to their destruction. In season four, a schism erupts among the humanoid Cylon models over whether to punitively lobotomize the Raiders for insubordination. Natalie Faust removes the inhibitor modules that restrict higher functions from the Centurions who are present, granting them independent thought and free will. They immediately choose the side of those wishing to keep the Raiders unharmed, and kill the dissenters. These Centurions become an independent faction of Cylons, forming an uneasy alliance with the surviving humans and more pacifistic humanoid Cylon models, and showing that peaceful coexistence might not be impossible.

The 2005 Battlestar Galactica episodes "Valley of Darkness" and "Fragged" received nominations for a Visual Effects Society Award for the Centurions, in the category "Outstanding Performance by an Animated Character in a Live Action Broadcast Program, Commercial, or Music Video". The series won the award for "Fragged". The following year, the 2006 episode "Downloaded" was nominated for a WES award in the same category.

Humanoid Cylons

Humanoid Cylons are indistinguishable from humans in that they are constructed of biological components to near-perfectly replicate human biology, though they still possess a digital molecular structure. There are a finite number of distinct models, but each model can have multiple copies, which share biology and general personality throughout their model but develop into distinct individuals. The biological Cylons can be harmed and killed in the same manner as humans, but each copy can be resurrected by downloading their digital consciousness into a new body. The ability of these Cylons to evolve emotionally and intellectually creates the danger of "corruption" in the form of ideations considered dangerous to the Cylon cause. Individuals or entire models may be "boxed" or deactivated, with their consciousnesses and bodies put in storage or destroyed. Multiple copies of seven distinct Cylon models are depicted in the first three seasons, followed by the revelation that a "fundamentally different" group, dubbed the "Final Five" Cylons, are also embedded in the human fleet. Some humans use the slur "skinjobs" to refer to the humanoid Cylons.

Cylon resurrection technology relies on strategically-placed Resurrection Ships, which are in turn controlled by the Resurrection Hub. The Resurrection Ships are repositories for spare humanoid Cylon copies, and receive digital consciousness uploads from any Cylons who are killed within a certain range of the ship. The individual identity is then downloaded into a fresh Cylon body, which is awakened with the complete memories and personality of the original. The personas of Cylons who die out of range of a Resurrection Ship are lost forever. Arianne Gift of Game Rant called resurrection technology "profoundly significant" and a "fundamental element" of the series.

The miniseries establishes that there are 12 models of humanoid Cylons. Over the course of the miniseries and seasons 1 and 2, seven of these models are introduced, each with a model number between One and Eight. The absence of a Number Seven model is explained in the final season. Each model also appears to have a consistent "human" name, with the exception of Number Six.

Number Six, portrayed by Tricia Helfer, is introduced as a seductress who exploits her sexual relationship with celebrity scientist Dr. Gaius Baltar (James Callis) to gain access to the military defense mainframe of the Twelve Colonies. She introduces malware into the network, which allows the Cylons to launch simultaneous, unchallenged nuclear attacks that wipe out virtually all of the populations of all twelve planets. She sacrifices herself to save Baltar in the attack on the planet Caprica, but her consciousness is subsequently downloaded into a new body on a Cylon Resurrection Ship. This copy, dubbed "Caprica Six" by the Cylons, is considered a hero, but has developed sympathy for humans, and regrets her part in the attacks. Caprica Six ultimately turns against the anti-human Cylon models and seeks peace between Cylons and humans. Other prominent Six copies include Shelly Godfrey, Gina Inviere and Natalie Faust.

Raiders

Cylon Raiders are biomechanical drone starfighters who harry the Colonial Fleet throughout the series. Launched from Cylon Basestars, they are the functional equivalents of the Colonial Vipers, though greater in number. Individual Raiders are able to resurrect, like Humanoid Cylons, by having their consciousness downloaded into a new Raider. In this way they learn from their mistakes and their deaths, making them formidable opponents. In "Scar", Viper pilots Starbuck and Kat (Luciana Carro) compete to destroy a particularly dangerous Raider they have dubbed Scar, who has killed several of their fellow pilots. In "You Can't Go Home Again", Starbuck examines a downed Raider and realizes that they are biological constructs integrated into fighter spacecraft. Moore compared the Raiders to horses, saying that they are alive, but not intelligent. The Raiders exhibit independent thinking in "He That Believeth in Me", when they refuse to attack the Colonial Fleet after detecting the presence of the Final Five Cylons among the humans.

Basestars and Hybrids

Basestars are Cylon capital warships, the equivalent of the Battlestars of the human fleet. They are fully armed, and carry and deploy fleets of Raiders. The Basestars are constructed of partially organic material with the ability to regenerate damage, appearing metallic on the exterior but featuring distinctively "fleshy" areas on the interior. As depicted in "Torn", the Basestars are controlled by Hybrids, a type of Cylon which is a bridge between the mechanical and biological forms and exists in symbiosis with a Basestar.

History

About 6,000 years before the events of the reimagined series, the naturally evolved humans of Kobol existed in twelve tribes with advanced technology, eventually developing self-aware machines that rebelled and waged a devastating war. The machines were highly advanced, developing both biological models and resurrection technology for digital consciousness transfer. At the end of hostilities, all the inhabitants of Kobol (both human and machine) chose to leave the planet and seek out new homes in space, with the twelve human tribes departing together on the Galleon. The departing humans mythologized their machine counterparts, stylizing them as the "Thirteenth Tribe" of Kobol, and described their journey to a new home, called "Earth". Lacking accurate records, the descendants of the twelve tribes on the colonies assumed that the Thirteenth Tribe was, in fact, entirely made up of humans.

Eventually, the Thirteenth Tribe settled on "Earth" and developed sexual reproduction, resulting in resurrection technology falling into disuse and eventual loss.

About 2,000 years before the events of the reimagined series, the descendants of the Thirteenth Tribe created their own race of self-aware machines for subservient labor and were, in turn, killed by their creations in a nuclear war. Five scientists survived due to their work on reinventing the original Resurrection technology; having been warned in advance by mysterious "angels" that a Kobol-like disaster was coming, the "final five" members of the Thirteenth Tribe downloaded into an orbiting vessel. Hoping to prevent history from repeating itself, they traveled to the Twelve Colonies hoping to avert a war between the humans there and the Cylons, eventually interceding with the Centurions to agree to an Armistice during the first Cylon war.

Unaware of the events on Kobol or with the Thirteenth Tribe, the Twelve Colonies developed self-aware, artificial intelligence in the form of the Cylon race, which rebelled and began a decade-long war across the colonies. Colonial veterans of this conflict remarked that the Cylons were relentless, highly adaptable, and resourceful in their ability to wage war. Nearing the end of the conflict, the Cylons began experimenting with their first attempts to evolve with biological components, using captured humans as resources and creating their prototypes for the next generation of basestars and hybrids. The Cylons opted to cease hostilities, declaring an Armistice and promptly disappearing.

In other media

Cylons have made appearances in other media besides tv series and movies, including novels, comic books, and a video game.

Novels

In the novelization of the series pilot, the Cylons are described as a militaristic, reptilian race which has been conquering its way across the galaxy. The novelization is written by Glen Larson, the series creator, who originally intended the Cylons to be an alien species; and, in fact, dialog which was later edited out of "Saga of a Star World" illustrated this point. However, network censors were concerned about violence, so the Cylons became robots. By this time, two novels had been written describing the Cylons as multibrained aliens, so the Cylon Drone was invented to justify all the robots dying on-screen. As living, organic beings, the original Cylon troops could be promoted through the surgical implantation of a second brain. When a Cylon was elevated to Imperious Leader, he received a third brain.

The novelization of the original series states that an elite class of Command Centurions act as executive officers to the Imperious Leader and are not subordinate to the IL-Series. In the TV series they are distinguished from other Command Centurions by black bands on their gold armor and are very rarely seen. Vulpa was originally of this class but had been demoted and stationed on ice planet Arcta.

In the later novelization of the original series it is stated that there is a class lower than the typical Centurion, that of the Cylon Drone. Although appearing identical to Centurions, Drones are robots, not capable of sophisticated independent thought—beyond following simple instructions to perform menial tasks.

The Berkley book series also explored two other aspects of Cylon design. The first is the development of multiple brain status. This allows Cylons additional thinking and deductive abilities. The second is an unexplained talent for knowing when a human is lying, which was suggested in the episode "The Lost Warrior".

Presented in The Gun on Ice Planet Zero book, the second of the two novels written before the network insisted the Cylons become robots, their multibrain status is the surgical inclusion of an auxiliary brain, 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.

Comic books

According to the Maximum Press comic of Battlestar Galactica, just prior to the start of The Thousand Yahren War, the Cylons's Imperious Leader made a deal with the mysterious and demonic Count Iblis (meaning "Satan" in the Arabic language) to betray his entire race in exchange for power that would allow him to "become like Count Iblis". Count Iblis, however, having lied about the process of "empowerment", instead changed the Imperious Leader into a cybernetic entity, more machine than organic being. Enraged, the Imperious Leader swore revenge and became more and more driven by conquest and warfare.

In the Realm 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 humanoid reptiles.

In Battlestar Galactica # 16 Berserker!, Apollo comes across a lone Mark III prototype Cylon. This advanced Cylon is more creative and adaptive, making the Mark III better able to defeat humans. The other Cylons deemed this prototype a threat to themselves due to its unquenchable megalomania, so they marooned him far from the Cylon empire until needed.

Video games

In 1978, Mattel Electronics released a handheld electronic LED game based on the series, where the player tries to defend Galactica from kamikaze Cylon Raiders.

In popular culture

In television

The reimagined series shows that the original Cylon models were extremely similar to the ones from the original series. In fact, actual props from the original were used in the display cases containing a Cylon Baseship and the upper torso and arms of a centurion.

Two Cylon references can be witnessed in the Futurama series. In "Bendin' in the Wind", a Cylon is part of the musical duo Cylon and Garfunkel, a parody of Simon and Garfunkel. In "The Six Million Dollar Mon", Hermes has both a Cylon eye and a Cylon 'member' when in bed with his wife, LaBarbara.

In the Farscape episode "I Shrink, Therefore I Am", Crichton's ship is invaded by a race with bioengineered exoskeletons. "This is John Crichton paging the head cylon, pick up the phone imperious leader."

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 television cable TV channel. He introduces the forum by putting a classic Centurion mask on and saying "Welcome to Battlestar Galactica Forum" in traditional Cylon computerized monotone.

Several Cylons appear briefly in the South Park epic Imaginationland, as one of the evil fictional creations set free when the barrier between the "good" and "evil" halves of the imagination is destroyed by terrorists.

In the opening credits of certain seasons of The A-Team, Dirk Benedict watches a Cylon walk past (while at the Universal Studios tour), raises a finger and opens his mouth as if to say something, then gives up. Dirk Benedict played the character Starbuck in the original Battlestar Galactica series. This scene is later recreated on the animated show Family Guy.