Cylon (reimagining)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The
Cylons
are a fictional race of bio-mechanical beings appearing in the reimagined
Battlestar Galactica
television series.
Contents
1 Background2 History3 Centurions3.1 Earlier Model3.2 Current Model4 Cylon Raiders5 Humanoid Cylons5.1 Number One (aka Brother Cavil)5.2 Number Two (aka Leoben Conoy)5.3 Number Three (aka D'Anna Biers)5.4 Number Four (aka Simon)5.5 Number Five (aka Aaron Doral)5.6 Number Six (aka Caprica-Six / Head Six / Shelley Godfrey / Gina Inviere / Natalie)5.7 Number Eight (aka Lt. Sharon "Boomer" Valerii / Lt. Sharon "Athena" Agathon)5.8 The "Final Five" Humanoid Cylons6 Hybrids7 Religion8 Vulnerabilities9 References10 See also10.1 Cylon vessels11 External links
Background
Unlike the Cylons of the original series, they were originally created by the Twelve Colonies of Kobol asrobotic workers and soldiers. At some point they rebelled and warred against their creators, vanishing afteran armistice was signed at the end of the conflict. Since their disappearance, the Cylons have evolved intoa complex society which include a variety of 12 models that are biomechanical in nature and nearlyindistinguishable from human beings. After approximately 40 years the Cylons returned and, as in theoriginal series, destroyed the 12 colonies and relentlessly chase the survivors through deep space. Alongwith the humanoid models, Cylon society consists of a labor/warrior class of Centurions, often calledtoasters because of their shiny metal construction, and a transport/air warrior class of Basestars andRaiders. By season three, it is established that Centurions, Basestars and Raiders are partly biological andas such vulnerable to viral infection.
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The humanoid Cylons are the leaders of the Cylon empire and the revelation that these infiltrators canperfectly mimic human form, even down to the internal organs and lymphatic system, creates a wave offear and paranoia among the humans. Some humanoid Cylons are "sleeper" agents, programmed withfalse memories so they think they are human. Cylons can interact with humans very convincingly, evenbeing capable of intimate emotional and sexual relationships. Although prior to the episode "Sine Qua Non"Cylons were presumed to be incapable of successfully reproducing with each other, there have been twocases of Cylons reproducing with humans. During the episode, "Sine Qua Non", Commander Adamareveals to Col. Saul Tigh that Caprica-Six is pregnant with Saul's child, suggesting that Cylons are capableof intra-Cylon reproduction. The Cylons are also capable of the same psychological and emotionalresponses as human beings. Nonetheless, they have certain superhuman abilities, such as increasedstamina and strength and the ability to physically interface with computer systems.Cylons had the ability to download their consciousness into another body when the body they are currentlyusing is killed or destroyed until the fourth season episode "The Hub". The second season of
Battlestar Galactica
explored this notion in greater depth — the limited range of these downloads required the Cylonsto 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 on the difficulties of two Cylon characters adjusting to their lives afterdownloading into new bodies.
History
The first Cylons were built as workers for the Twelve Colonies, but their advanced programming causedthem to become sentient and they rebelled against their creators. The colonies counter-attacked withmilitary force and the first Cylon War commenced, lasting roughly twelve and a half years. During the war,the Cylons began conducting biotechnological experiments on humans. At the end of the war an armisticewas signed establishing diplomatic relations between the two warring parties. The Cylons disappeared andwere not seen again by the colonies for another forty years.During isolation the Cylons developed twelve models of humanoid Cylons based on their study of humanitywith each model exhibiting a different archetype of humanity. The models were so precise that theymimicked human form down to a cellular level. Each model was designated by a number from one totwelve. For each model, millions of identical copies were created and an entire system of downloading theconsciousness of not only the humanoid Cylons, but the Raiders as well came into existence. Thehumanoid Cylons began infiltrating the colonies and the Cylon race as a whole adopted a monotheist beliefsystem.Having not heard from the Cylons in forty years, the colonial admiralty became suspicious and sent thebattlestar
Valkyrie
on a covert mission close to the armistice line to gather intelligence on Cylon activity. A stealth ship from the
Valkyrie
crossed the armistice line and the pilot was captured by the Cylons. Threeyears later the Cylons initiated a surprise simultaneous nuclear attack on the twelve colonial homeworldsafter a Number Six model successfully infiltrated the colonial defence network on Caprica and createdbackdoor programs to shut the network and its defenses down. The attacks decimated the entire colonialpopulation. Two battlestars, the
Galactica
and the
Pegasus
, managed to escape the massacre due to theirsystems either being un-networked or undergoing retrofit. The others were destroyed when their systemswent offline during the attacks. A fleet of civilian ships were also left scattered throughout the neighboringvicinity of space.Following the victory, the Cylons began pursuit of a fleet of civilian ships led by the battlestar
Galactica
aswell as initiating the next phase of their evolution, procreation. Female survivors on the planet Caprica weredetained and used in experiments to create Cylon-human hybrids. The experiments were unsuccessful andthe Cylons believed that the missing component in their attempts at procreation was love. They tested this
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by using a Number Eight posing as Lt. Sharon “Boomer” Valerii from the battlestar
Galactica
to seduce amarooned Galactica officer, Lt. Karl “Helo” Agathon, on Caprica. Helo fell in love with this copy and thecouple produced the first viable human/Cylon pregnancy. However, this copy of Number Eight also fell inlove with Helo and turned her back on the Cylons, helping Helo to escape the planet.Ten months after the initial attacks, the Number Eight from Galactica, Boomer, was killed and downloadedinto a new body. She settled on the now Cylon-occupied Caprica and, along with the Number Six who hadinfiltrated colonial defence networks just prior to the attacks, began leading a Cylon revolution. The word ofthese two Cylons considered "war heroes" by the others, carried weight. The newly educated Cylonsdetermined their actions to be a mistake, going against God's will and withdrew from the colonialhomeworlds then discontinued their pursuit of the fleet, vowing to go their separate ways from humanity.The half-human, half-Cylon hybrid, Hera Agathon was born on
Galactica
but fearing the outcome of theCylons potentially capturing the child, President Laura Roslin faked Hera's death and secretly had heradopted out to a human woman within the fleet.The human/Cylon separation lasted a year before the Cylons traced the radiation signature from a nuclearexplosion back to the fleet who had now settled on a planet dubbed New Caprica. The Cylons decided tooccupy the new human settlement, at first peacefully but later forcefully. A year later the colonials were ableto escape from the Cylons with the help of an insurgence movement and the efforts of both the battlestars
Galactica
and
Pegasus
, though not without a very large loss of life. A Number Three, having spoken with ahuman oracle was told that Hera was alive and somewhere on the planet. She managed to rescue Heraafter her adopted mother was killed during the escape.Having failed at their occupation, the Cylons then adopted the colonials’ mission to find the home of thefabled thirteenth tribe, a planet called Earth, with the intent of making it their new home. They resumedpursuit of the fleet but upon reaching the Lion's Head Nebula, dispatched a basestar to investigate. Thebasestar took onboard a canister left by the thirteenth tribe. The canister was found to contain an airbornevirus that proved highly contagious and deadly to the Cylons, yet had no effect on humans. The virus wasalso found to be capable of accompanying a Cylon during the download process so the basestar that hadbeen dispatched for the investigation was abandoned by the rest of the Cylon fleet for fear that any rescuewould contaminate the entire Cylon fleet. The colonial fleet soon thereafter discovered the disabledbasestar and sent its own investigative team on a Raptor and captured a small number of ailing Cylons.The colonial fleet attempted to use the virus to wipe out the Cylons but the plan backfired when Helo hadthe captive Cylons killed before they were within range of a resurrection ship. As the pursuit continued, internal relations between the Cylons began to break down. A Number Threeviolated her programming by actively seeking information about the final five models, resulting in her entireline being boxed. A Number Six later helped Sharon "Athena" Agathon retrieve her baby and escape from abasestar. Within the fleet, four of the final five humanoid models became simultaneously aware of theirorigins after hearing the same hallucinatory music, drawing them to each other. Their awakening wassensed by the Cylon Raiders during battle who broke off the attack, refusing to fight. This set off a debatein the Cylon governance regarding the failure of the Raiders to fight. The Number Ones, Fours, and Fivesvoted to "lobotomize" the Raiders to make them more quiescent and compliant with instructions. TheTwos, Sixes and Eights, convinced that the Raiders had sensed the presence of the final five, voted againstthis measure but lost their vote against having the Raiders reconfigured when the 3-3 tie was broken after asingle Eight (Boomer) voted against her model, something which had never been done before. Theyretaliated by removing inhibitors from the Centurions, granting them independent thought. The Centurionsthen sought retribution against the models who were “lobotomizing” the Raiders.With the awakening of four of the final five humanoid Cylons, the identity of the fifth and final has neverbeen revealed to either the other Cylons or the colonial fleet.
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Cylons: Threat or Friend?
Cylons are about in the Colonies. Is this good for the Colonials? What do the scrolls have to say?
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