Cylon (Battlestar Galactica) - Reimagined Continuity

Reimagined Continuity

The Cylons of the 2003 miniseries and 2004 Battlestar Galactica series are fundamentally different from the Cylons of the original 1978/1980 series. In the new version, the Cylons were created by humans as cybernetic 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 thirteen Cylon models that are nearly indistinguishable from human beings. Although these human-form Cylons are the focus of the series, alongside the humanoid models there are also Centurions similar to those in the original series. Much of the Cylons' technology is based heavily on bioengineering and/or synthetic biology rather than conventional robotics. Humans often derisively refer to Cylons as "toasters," due to the resemblance of the Cylon centurions from the first Human/Cylon war (the design of which is based on that of the centurions from the original series) to "walking chrome toasters", as described by Gaius Baltar in the miniseries. The humanoid models are referred to as "skin-jobs" (a term originally used in Blade Runner for the replicants) to differentiate the two variants.

Prior to the massive attack on the Colonies, the Cylon civilization was considered to be a major threat but one which was contained. The interstellar military technologies of the humans and the Cylons were very comparable in capabilities such as instantaneous hyperspace Jump, guided missile weaponry, etc. In the premiere episode of the 2003 series, Commander Adama denies visiting reporters access to the Galactica if they carry networked computers, and reminds these reporters of the Cylon origins as networked Artificial Intelligence beings. In all aspects of computing and robotics, the Cylon technologies are far superior to those of humankind. Adama points out that as long as the Cylons are kept out of the networks, humankind's superior numbers and the size of the industrial base gives humankind the tactical and strategic advantage. That is lost when Gaius Baltar allows the humanoid Cylon "Caprica Six" access to the Colonial defense mainframe. Her modifications to the defense code propagate throughout the fleet, effectively disarming it, and the massive attacks begin, resulting in the near extinction of humankind.

In contrast to the reason for the original Cylons' genocidal mission, religion is the primary motivation of the Cylon race in the re-imagined series. They consider humans to be sinful and flawed creations who therefore do not deserve to survive. In the original series the Cylons, an aggressively expanding empire, declared war on Humanity because they intervened on behalf of a race of beings called the Hasaris who had been enslaved by the Cylons and who had sought the aid of the Colonials.

In the reimagined series universe, the term Cylon stands for Cybernetic Lifeform Node.