Cylon (1978)

This article is about the Cylons from the original 1978 Battlestar Galactica series and its spin-offs. For an overview of the Cylons in all Battlestar Galactica series, see Cylon (Battlestar Galactica). For other uses, see Cylon (disambiguation).
A publicity illustration of one of the original 1978 Cylon Centurions.

Cylons are a fictional race of robots in the original Battlestar Galactica TV series. They are the primary antagonists of the series and are at war with the Twelve Colonies of humanity. The Cylons also appeared in the short-lived 1980 spin-off series Galactica 1980.

An updated version of the original Cylon also appears in the re-imagined series: briefly in a flashback battle sequence in Battlestar Galactica: Razor, in hand-to-hand combat with a young William Adama after they had shot each other's fighters down; and several in the show finale "Daybreak", on board an old Cylon refuge known as "The Colony".

The Cylons were created by a reptilian race, also called Cylons. However, the reptilian race died out centuries earlier, leaving behind only their race of robots.

Types

Imperious Leader

The Imperious Leader is the leader of the Cylon Alliance and most advanced Cylon model. According to the IL-Series Cylon Lucifer the Imperious Leader is an IL-Series Cylon, though it does not look like a IL-Series Cylon. The Imperious Leader has a third brain and a body shell resembling the reptilian Cylons. It is stated in the original novelization of the pilot episode that the Imperious Leader's third brain is specifically designed to emulate the human mind (solely for the purpose of anticipating human actions); although, since the novelization also specifically describes the Cylons as living, organic reptilian beings rather than robots, it's debatable whether the robot Imperious Leader has a third brain or not. One was killed at the Battle of Carillon (pilot episode) and his successor was possibly destroyed during the Battle of Gamoray (episode: "The Living Legend, Part 2"). In the original 1978-79 series, the voice of the Imperious Leader is identical to that of Count Iblis. (The voice of the former was provided by Patrick Macnee, who acted out the latter on-camera.) In the Galactica 1980 episode "Space Croppers," the voice of the Imperious Leader was provided by Dennis Haysbert. All of the Imperious Leaders look identical. The reptilian look of the Imperious Leader could have raised the question whether actually all living Cylons have died out.

IL-series

Although they look much more civilian than centurions, IL-series Cylons act as commanders for the military and governors for civilians of the Alliance . They have two brains, and a mostly transparent head through which various lights can be seen pulsing. They also have a metallic, humanoid face with two eye scanners (compared to the single eye scanner of the Centurion models), and wear clothing (full-length glittering robes). Two IL-series Cylons have been featured onscreen, both of which have an effete human-sounding voice, unlike the flat mechanical tones of Centurions. They are:

Two additional IL-Series Cylons are shown on-screen on the Cylon capitol of Gamoray during the Imperious Leader's visit, which occurred during the episode "The Living Legend, Part II". Lucifer refers to the second Imperious Leader as being upgraded from an IL-model like himself.

Command Centurion

Command Centurion are Centurions with gold armor. These are the lower commanders for individual military units, though they can be responsible for entire Basestars and garrisons. The most well-known Cylon of this model is Commander Vulpa (so identified in The Cylon Death Machine, Robert Thurston's novelization of "The Gun on Ice Planet Zero"). Their voices are slightly lower pitched than regular Centurions.

In the novelization of the original series it is stated that there is an elite class of Command Centurions (referred to as First Centurions), roughly equivalent to feudal Counts, which act as executive officers to the Imperious Leader and are not subordinate to the IL-Series, and (like the IL-series) they were also said to have multiple brains. In the TV series these are actually seen on screen, though very rarely, and are distinguished from other Command Centurions by black bands on their gold armor. Vulpa was originally of this class but had been demoted and stationed on ice planet Arcta.

Centurion

Military androids with silver armor. Basic Centurions make up the ground forces and pilots of the Alliance military. Although Earth's Roman Centurions commanded a unit of eighty men, Cylon Centurions form the rank and file of the Cylon forces.

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 the execution of prisoners.

Some Centurions in the series have been given names: Flight Leader Serpentine from "Saga of a Star World", and Cyrus from "The Return of Starbuck" (Galactica 1980). In the episode "The Lost Warrior", there is a Cylon Centurion that remained active after its ship crashed on the planet Equellus and was named "Red Eye" by the humans who found it. In "The Night the Cylons Landed," (Galactica 1980), the Centurion accompanying the android Andromus was introduced as Centuri to humans in costume, but this may have been an attempt to disguise the Centurions true nature.

The Cylon Centurions – the type most often depicted in the original Battlestar Galactica — were strikingly similar to the Imperial stormtroopers of Star Wars (in fact, both were designed by the same concept artist, Ralph McQuarrie). The similarities were so strong that it was one of the factors that prompted 20th Century Fox's lawsuit for copyright infringement against Universal Studios, owners of the Battlestar Galactica copyright. However, the lawsuit was ultimately unsuccessful.

Both the gold Command Centurions and the silver Centurions had their voices vocalized with the use of an EMS Vocoder 2000.[1]

Civilian

There is also a unique Cylon with glittering robes, with a metallic humanoid 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 is said to have a very large community of civilian Cylons, though how civilian Cylon society differs from its military is never explored. This is the only known kind of civilian Cylons. However as they must have had some kind of admission to the reception of the Imperious Leader it can be assumed that they are not typical civilian Cylons; they were perhaps members of some kind of aristocracy.

Humanoid

A rather new model, probably first built long after the destruction of the Twelve Colonies of the Humans.

Two Cylon humanoids are featured in the episode "The Night the Cylons Landed" of Galactica 1980. One of which is named Andromus. Though it is entirely mechanical beneath its artificial skin, this model is an android and has a superficial, human appearance (and a condescending attitude toward Centurions).

Spacecraft

The Cylons are described as a devoted race that spends no time in any idle pursuits, and they employ several models, but only of necessary spacecraft, such as these:

Cylon Fighters

The reimagined series analogue of this is the Cylon Heavy Raider.

Cylon Capital Ships

Civilian or Dual Use Cylon Ships

Civilization

In the 1978 Galactica movie and series and the 1980 spin-off, the Cylons were created by an extinct reptilian race that were also called Cylons, as related by Apollo in the premiere episode. In the episode "War of the Gods", Count Baltar mentions that the reptilian Cylons were ultimately "overcome by their own technology" (particularly after the Imperious Leader was created, despite having had a "slight error" in its programming),[4] and recognizes Iblis's voice as that of the Cylon leader, and Iblis counters 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 started when the Cylon Empire sought to expand into the territory of the Hasaris, and the Human Colonies intervened on behalf of the conquered Hasaris. Due to those events, the Cylon Empire now viewed the entire human race as a target.

Cylons are led by the Imperious Leader, an IL-Series Cylon elevated to a supreme leadership position over all Cylons. All Cylons from the IL-series down, typically repeat the phrase "By Your Command" when responding to any order.

The Cylon Empire is also responsible for tributary powers under the aegis of the Cylon Alliance. The Ovions (an insectoid race enslaved by the Cylons and transported to the planet Carillon for mining purposes) are the only known member of the Cylon Alliance shown onscreen. Aside from the Ovions and (the defeated) Hasaris, the only other known race conquered by the Cylons are the Delphians, which are mentioned to have been exterminated in "The Living Legend."

Cylon society appears to be almost exclusively military. Until the discovery of Gamoray, which the Colonial fleet had targeted for its rich fuel reserves, no civilian Cylon outpost had ever been seen by anyone.

Official spin-offs/related works

Novels

Multi-brain status and built-in lie detectors

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, multi-brain 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.

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." But Count Iblis proved to have lied about the process of "empowerment," and he instead changed the Imperious Leader into a cybernetic entity, more machine than being. Enraged, the Imperious Leader swore revenge and became more and more driven by conquest and warfare.

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 humanoid reptiles.

In Battlestar Galactica # 16 Berserker !, Apollo during a planetary search unfortunately comes across a lone Mark III prototype Cylon more creative and adaptive like humans in his strategy thus being more capable to conquer humans. The existing Cylons deemed this advanced Cylon prototype more a threat to them due to his unquenchable megalomania to rule and so they marooned him far from the Cylon empire until needed if ever.

Video games

The Cylons also appear in the official computer game adaptation, which is a prequel to both the original and re-imagined series.

Toys

Larami came out with a bubble toy in 1978 called the Battlestar Galactica Cylon Bubble Machine as well as a line of other inexpensive toys.[5]

References

  1. ↑ Tompkins, Dave (2010). How to Wreck a Nice Beach: The Vocoder from World War II to Hip-Hop, The Machine Speaks. Stop Smiling Books. ISBN 978-1-933633-88-6. Most likely it was the Cylons of Battlestar Galactica, happily embraced by those unimpressed with C3PO's fussy accent, too schooling, too parental—too human. The Cylons, with their glowing red wall-eye and silver armor, shiny like a lasagna pan licked clean. We wanted the Cylons to laser their names into Lorne Greene's eyebrows, even if they had to use subtitles while doing it. (The vocoder's lack of intelligibility did not suit BattlestarGalactica's prime-time slot.) When the Cylons spoke, they threatened to squeak-wipe humanity off the face of TV, in an EMS voice that said "By your command" for 2,500 pounds per unit." ... "When we reached Audiotron's house, he answered the door with the kindly gnomish squint of one who hasn't seen much daylight. He was three bites into a two-story heart attack on white bread. (Six franks on the bottom, two beef patties on top.) When we got to his room upstairs, the sandwich was placed on top of a vocoder—the EMS 2000 used by the Cylons of Battlestar Galactica—which sat on a bed flush to the wall.
  2. ↑ Moss, David. "Audio". Battlestar Galactica Memorabilia. Retrieved July 3, 2012.
  3. ↑ "Colonial Fleets Gallery". Colonial Fleets. Retrieved July 3, 2012.
  4. ↑ "Battlestar Galactica 1978 - Origin of the Cylons". YouTube (youtube.com). Retrieved 29 September 2016.
  5. ↑ Moss, David. "Larami". Battlestar Galactica Memorabilia. Retrieved 20 August 2010. Although Larami Corp made some of the worst Battlestar Galactica toys they did seem to make more than anyone else. So I have now had to make a section just for there [sic] amazing creations. This is by no means all of the items they made, but it gives you a good idea of the quality and quantity that were made.
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