Editing Hybrid utterances

[[Hybrid]]s, the central computer of a [[Cylons (RDM)|Cylon]]  [[Basestar (RDM)|baseship]], appear to constantly '''utter incoherent phrases and thoughts''', punctuated by what seem to be computer or system observations, results, or instructions of the basestar's operation.<ref>The behavior of speaking with little pause in an incoherent fashion is a condition known as [[w:Logorrhoea|logorrhoea]], and is generally considered a type of illness in humans. This differs from [[w:glossolalia|glossolalia]]: constant nonsensical speech, and [[w:xenoglossy|xenoglossy]]: speaking in a language not ordinarily known by the speaker. Glossolalia is also known as "speaking in tongues." While the Hybrid speaks the same common language as the humanoid Cylons and Colonials, the content of her speech includes religious and prophetic messages related to the series storylines as classic glossolalia is claimed to exhibit.</ref> Despite their seemingly nonsensical nature, they sometimes seem to relate to the wider world around them, perhaps with a prophetic nature. [[Number Two]]s believe that the Hybrid's words have religious significance.

The Hybrid's complex dialogue incorporates scientific terms from biology, genetics, and molecular physics, as well as quotations from poetry, folk songs, political speeches, and even references to [[w:Homer|Homer]]'s ''[[w:Iliad|Iliad]]''.<ref group="commentary" name="galactica_tv_interview_hybrid_dialogue_complexity">{{cite web|url=http://www.galactica.tv/battlestar-galactica-2003-interviews/tiffany-lyndall-knight-galactica.tv-interview.html#:~:text=scientific%20terms%20from%20biology%2C%20genetics%2C%20molecular%20physics%20as%20well%20as%20quotations|title=Tiffany Lyndall Knight GALACTICA.TV interview|author=Marcel Damen|publisher=GALACTICA.TV|date=August 17, 2008|accessdate=August 12, 2025|archive=Y}}</ref> [[Tiffany Lyndall-Knight]], who portrays the Hybrid, approached this challenging dialogue using her Shakespeare training, breaking down the text "like a piece of poetry" to find personal connections that made the seemingly incoherent speech learnable and meaningful.<ref group="commentary" name="galactica_tv_interview_shakespeare_approach">{{cite web|url=http://www.galactica.tv/battlestar-galactica-2003-interviews/tiffany-lyndall-knight-galactica.tv-interview.html#:~:text=like%20a%20piece%20of%20poetry%20and%20find%20the%20connection|title=Tiffany Lyndall Knight GALACTICA.TV interview|author=Marcel Damen|publisher=GALACTICA.TV|date=August 17, 2008|accessdate=August 12, 2025|archive=Y}}</ref> She created "a whole storyline that goes underneath all that stuff" to give the character's utterances internal logic and coherence.<ref group="commentary" name="galactica_tv_interview_internal_storyline">{{cite web|url=http://www.galactica.tv/battlestar-galactica-2003-interviews/tiffany-lyndall-knight-galactica.tv-interview.html#:~:text=whole%20storyline%20that%20goes%20underneath%20all%20that%20stuff%20that%27s%20unique|title=Tiffany Lyndall Knight GALACTICA.TV interview|author=Marcel Damen|publisher=GALACTICA.TV|date=August 17, 2008|accessdate=August 12, 2025|archive=Y}}</ref>

=== Various Hybrids ===
[[Gaius Baltar]] and [[humanoid Cylon]]s are present when one Hybrid is speaking:

* ''Two protons expelled at each coupling site creates the mode of force, the embryo becomes a fish that we don't enter until a plate, we're here to experience evolve the little toe, atrophy, don't ask me how I'll be dead in a thousand light years, thank you, thank you. Genesis turns to its source, reduction occurs stepwise though the essence is all one. [[End of line|End of line.]] [[FTL]] system check, diagnostic functions within parameters repeats the harlequin the agony exquisite, the colors run the path of ashes, neuronal network run fifty-two percent of heat exchanger cross-collateralized with hyper-dimensional matrix, upper senses, repair ordered relay to zero zero zero zero.'' {{TRS|Torn}}
* ''Mists of dreams drip along the nascent echo and love no more. End of line.''
* ''The [[Final Five|five lights]] of the apocalypse rising struggling towards the light, the sins revealed only to those who enter the temple only to the chosen one.'' (Staring at Baltar:)'' The chosen one. The chosen one. The chosen one. The chosen one.'' {{TRS|The Eye of Jupiter}}
** (alternate version: ''The Final Five revealed only to those who enter the temple only to the chosen one.'') {{TRS|Rapture}}
* ''One degree angle nominal. Seascape portrait of the woman child cavern of the soul. Under pressure-heat ratio ides of evolutions have buried their fears.''
* ''Gestalt therapy and escape clauses.''
* ''Throughout history the nexus between man and machine has spun some of the most dramatic, compelling and entertaining fiction.''<ref>This "[[w:Fourth wall|fourth wall]]" dialogue references the drama of man/machine conflicts in science fiction as seen in the ''Battlestar'' series themselves as well as movies and novels such ''[[w:The Terminator|The Terminator]]'', ''[[w:I, Robot|I, Robot]]'' and ''[[w:The Matrix|The Matrix]]''.</ref>
* (Grasping Baltar) ''Intelligence. A mind that burns like a fire.''
* ''Find the hand that lies in the shadow of the light. In the eye of the husband of the eye of the cow.''<ref>These two lines are quoted in the music for "[[Rapture]]" as [[Music of Battlestar Galactica (RDM)#Temple of Five theme|theme for the Temple of Five]] and sung in Latin.</ref> {{TRS|The Passage}}

At least one Hybrid has spoken utterances that suggest a knowledge of the 'activation' of the [[Final Five]]:
* ''The excited state decays by vibrational relaxation into the first excited singlet state. Yes, yes and merrily we go. Reduce atmospheric nitrogen by 0.03%. It is not much consolation that society will pick up the bits, leaving us at eight modern where punishment, rather than interdiction, is paramount. Please, cut the fuse. They will not harm their own. End of line. Limiting diffusions to two dimensions increases the number of evolutionary jumps within the species. Rise and measure [[Temple of Hopes|the temple of the five]]. Transformation is the goal. They will not harm their own. [[Data-font]] synchronization complete.'' {{TRS|Six of One}}

A Hybrid aboard a basestar that oversaw the attack on the Colonies:
* ''Seized by God, they cry for succor in the dark of the light. Mists of dreams dribble on the nascent echo and love no more. Jump.''

* ''Counting down. All functions nominal. All functions optimal. Counting down. The center holds. The falcon hears the falconer. Infrastructure, check. Wetware, check. Everyone hang on to the life bar, please.''<ref>This references the poem [[w:The Second Coming (poem)|The Second Coming]] by [[w:William Butler Yeates|William Butler Yeates]]: "Turning and turning in the widening gyre / The falcon cannot hear the falconer; Things fall apart; the center cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world."</ref>

* ''[[Apotheosis]] was the beginning before the beginning. Devices on alert. Observe the procedures of a general alert. The base and the pinnacle. The flower inside the fruit that is both its parent and its child. Decadent as ancestors. The portal and that which passes.''

* ''Nuclear devices activated, and the machine keeps pushing time through the cogs, like paste into strings into paste again, and only the machine keeps using time to make time to make time.''

* ''And when the machine stops, time was an illusion that we created free will. Twelve battles, three stars, and yet we are countless as the bodies in which we dwell, are both parent and infinite children in perfect copies. No degradation.''

* ''The makers of the makers fall before the child. Accessing defense system. Handshake, handshake. Second level clear.''

* ''Accepting scan. Love outlasts death.''

* ''Their ships fail. Skittering like skipped stones. Meaningless in the absence of time. What never was is never again.''

* ''Progress reports arriving. The farms of [[Aerilon]] are burning. The beaches of [[Canceron]] are burning. The plains of [[Leonis]] are burning. The jungles of [[Scorpia]] are burning. The pastures of [[Tauron]] are burning. The harbors of [[Picon]] are burning. The cities of [[Caprica (RDM)|Caprica]] are burning. The oceans of Aquaria are burning. The courthouses of Libran are burning. The forests of Virgon are burning. The Colonies of Man lie trampled at our feet.'' {{TRS|The Plan}}

===Rebel Hybrid===
{{callsign|Starbuck}} travels to the rebel basestar to hear their Hybrid, whom [[Leoben]] believes will guide her on her quest for earth. She finds little sense in its ramblings: 
* ''Then shall the maidens rejoice at the dance.''
* ''They'll start going ripe on us pretty soon.''
* ''Centrifugal force reacts to the rotating frame of reference.''
* ''The obstinate toy soldier becomes pliant.''
* ''The city devours the land, the people devour the city...''
* ''Intruders swarm like flame, like the whirlwind; Hopes soaring to slaughter all their best against our hulls.''
* ''All these things at once and many more, not because it wishes harm, because it likes violent vibrations to change constantly.''
* ''But you are a spark of God's fire.''
* ''The children of the one reborn shall find their own country.''
* ''Compartmentalize integrity conflicts with the obligation to provide access.''
* ''No ceremonies are necessary.''
* ''Contact is inevitable, leading to information bleed.''
* ''Assume the relaxation length of photons in the sample atmosphere is constant.''
Just as the Hybrid is being disconnected from its basestar she delivers one final, and unusually coherent, message to Thrace:
* ''Thus shall it come to pass. A dying leader will know the truth of the [[Opera House]]. The missing [[Number Three|Three]] will give you the [[Final Five|Five]] who come from the home of the [[Earth (RDM)|Thirteenth]]. You are the harbinger of death, Kara Thrace. You will lead them all to their end. [[End of line]].'' {{TRS|Faith}}
When President [[Laura Roslin|Roslin]] is informed of this message she goes to speak with the Hybrid {{TRS|Guess What's Coming to Dinner?}}. She has little success talking to the Hybrid and does not get the answers she was expecting:
* ''Filters, Filters, the sublime elevation of the lifter and the filters''
* ''The wing beat of the dove drown out the heartbeat of those who follow the [[Number Six|Six]] is back in the stream.''
* ''The [[Natalie|Six]] who went among the makers is no longer.''
* ''Back in the stream that feeds the ocean that feeds the stream.''
* ''Such a format will close the door.''
* ''[[D'anna Biers|The three]] is online.''
* ''Protect the [[Hera Agathon|child]].''
* ''To remove the pump with the attached hose and wiring, simultaneously release the three tangs while pulling the pump out of the retainer along with the line and wiring.'' {{TRS|The Hub}}

== First Hybrid ==
The [[first Hybrid]] also says several prophetic phrases, although this Hybrid's behavior displays far more coherence, grammatically. The First Hybrid also shows self-awareness, speaking in complete sentences when addressing [[Kendra Shaw]] {{TRS|Razor}}.

* ''At last, they've come for me. I feel their lives, their destinies spilling out before me. The denial of the one true path, played out on a [[New Caprica|world not their own]], will end soon enough. Soon there will be [[Final Five|four, glorious in awakening]], struggling with the knowledge of their true selves, the pain of revelation bringing new clarity, and in the midst of confusion, [[Crossroads, Part II#Act_4|he will find her]]. Enemies brought together by impossible longing, enemies now [[Cylon Civil War#Proposed_Alliance_with_the_Humans|joined as one]]. The way forward at once unthinkable, yet inevitable. And the [[Ellen Tigh|fifth]], still in shadow, will claw toward the light, hungering for redemption that will only come in the howl of terrible suffering. I can see them all. The [[Significant Seven|seven, now six]]<ref>At the time of this utterance, [[Number Three]] has not yet been [[Boxing|boxed]].</ref>, self-described machines who believe themselves without sin, but in time, it is sin that will consume them. They will know enmity, bitterness, the wrenching agony of the [[Cylon Civil War|one splintering into the many]], and then they will join [[Earth_(RDM)#A_New_Earth|the promised land]], gathered on the wings of an [[Kara Thrace|angel]]. Not an end, but a beginning.''
* ''Come in [[Kendra Shaw|Major]]. I've been waiting for you for a long time.''
* ''What am I, a man? Or am I a machine? My [[Cylon Centurion Model 0005#Guardians|children]] believe that I am a God.''
* ''I have seen[/can see] things. Your life, Kendra Shaw, the things you have done. The things [[Scylla|you felt you had to do]], all leading to this moment. You wish to be forgiven, my child. Do you wish to be forgiven? Then come closer, there's something I have to tell you. Come.''
* ''[[Kara Thrace]] will lead the human race to its end. She is the herald of the apocalypse, the harbinger of death. They must not follow her.''
* ''As my own/lone existence comes to a close, only to begin anew, in ways uncertain.''
* ''All [of] this has happened before, and [it] will happen again...again...again...again...again...again...again...''

==Samuel Anders==
After a bullet penetrates his brain during [[Gaeta's Mutiny]] and the subsequent operation to remove the bullet from his brain, [[Samuel Anders]] is rendered comatose. Due to his Cylon nature, his brain functions allow him to become a form of Hybrid; he is first to mention [[The Colony]] and unlock the knowledge of the [[Final Five]]'s true nature, prior to the operation that renders him comatose and ultimately dependent on Cylon technologies. After his operation, members of the [[Significant Seven]] construct a Hybrid tank on ''{{RDM|Galactica}}'' in the hopes of essentially restoring his mental abilities, ultimately becoming ''Galactica'''s Hybrid:

* ''The neuroanatomy of fear and faith share common afferent pathways. Flip a coin. Increased vascular pressure marks the threat response. Free will scuttles in the swamp of fear, do not fear the word. You are the harbinger of death Kara Thrace, you will lead them all to their end. End of line. New command. Resume function. Resume function. Resume function...''
* ''A closed system lacks the ability to renew itself. Knowledge alone is a poor primer...''
* ''End of line. Begin reintegration of right hemisphere subcommand routines ...patterns... the universe...sea... begin reintegration of command  subroutines. There's a hole in the bucket, dear Liza, dear Liza, there's a hole in the bucket. A/the long view returns patterns and repetitions... all has happened before and all will happen again...''
* ''Spins and turns, angles and curves. The shape of dreams, half remembered. Slip the surly bonds of earth and touch the face of perfection - a perfect face, perfect lace. Find the perfect world for the end of Kara Thrace. End of line.''

During the [[Battle of the Colony]], Anders is seen responding to commands by [[Galen Tyrol]]:
* ''There are secrets within lies, answers within riddles. Lay off the ACS, you betcha Galen. Open your mind and hear what your heart wants to deny. End of line.''

After the Fleet's discovery of [[Earth (RDM)|the second Earth]], Anders navigates [[The Fleet (RDM)|the Fleet]] into the planet's sun. When Anders' wife {{callsign|Starbuck}} says goodbye, he simply responds, "[[Maelstrom|See you on the other side]]."

==The Colony Hybrid==
Once [[Samuel Anders]] begins to communicate with The Colony's Hybrids, one of them utters a line before deactivating the defenses:

* ''Look through the eye to know thyself.''

This could be interpreted as she was herself looking within and shutting down the defenses, after realizing the truth of one of the Final Five's return.

==Analysis==
Some of what the rebel hybrid has said has come to pass and has been revealed. 

What it said about the Dying Leader and the Opera House refers to Roslin and her visions, but that has not been resolved yet. The truth behind what it said about Kara being the Harbinger of Death may refer to her part in the destruction of the Resurrection Hub, but this too is unclear.  However, the part about the Three leading them to the Five that come from the home of the Thirteenth is now clear and makes sense: D'Anna Biers saw the faces of the Final Five in the Temple of Five. She is ultimately unboxed and is able to lead them to four of the five with the identity of the fifth being discovered at Earth. 

It is learned that the Final Five in fact ''come'' from Earth as they were born there and the Thirteenth Tribe are Cylons who were apparently created on Kobol. They came to the Colonies to help us after they had their own nuclear holocaust and had their real memories blocked by Cavil and were placed among humans with no knowledge of their true identities. 

Many of the Rebel Hybrid's messages may also reference the ''Book of Jeremiah'' from the Old Testament. The ''Book of Jeremiah'' deals with themes of Judaism vs Paganism, Prophets and prophecy, destruction of home, and a main character overwhelmed by his task - concurrent with many of the themes in the show. Roslin later ''did'' come to know the truth of the [[Opera House Prophecy]]: it was a vision that came true in the final episode with Athena, Roslin, Baltar and Caprica-Six protecting Hera during the [[Battle of The Colony]], but their actions exactly mirrored that of the vision except they were on ''Galactica'' and not in the Opera House although they did flash to that vision several times. 

The room with the Final Five in it turned out to be ''Galactica's'' CIC and the Final Five were in similar positions on the balcony to the ones they were in in the vision.

==References==
{{reflist}}

=== Commentary and Interviews ===
{{reflist|group=commentary}}

[[Category:A to Z]]
[[Category:Cylons]]
[[Category:Cylons (RDM)]]
[[Category:Figures of Speech]]
[[Category:RDM]]
{{indicator|TRS}}