Cylons (TOS)

A panoply of different models—Cylon civilians, Centurions, and IL-series—in a procession on Gamoray ^{(TOS: "The Living Legend, Part II")}.

The Cylons are entirely composed of robots, originally the creation of a reptilian race that were also known as Cylons.

Both types of Cylons shared a home, also known as Cylon, prior to the beginning of the Thousand Yahren War ^{(TOS: "Saga of a Star World")} in the Cyrannus galaxy ^{(TOS: "The Long Patrol")}.

Reptilian Cylons

A depiction of a reptilian, serpent Cylon from the "Experiment in Terra" television movie.

Originally, the reptilian serpent Cylons created a race of robots to service their needs ^{(TOS: "Saga of a Star World", "Experiment in Terra")}. According to Apollo, the Cylons discovered humanity. Having determined humans to be the most practical form of creature in their system and crafted robotic creations that mimicked their form. However their creations were made bigger and stronger than humans with interchangeable parts that allow the robots to live forever ^{(TOS: "Saga of a Star World")}.

The reptilian Cylons allowed themselves to be usurped by their own technology upon the creation of the Imperious Leader ^{(TOS: "War of the Gods, Part II", "Experiment in Terra")}. The robotic Cylons became an organized war machine bent on exterminating life in the galaxy after the creation of the Imperious Leader, who had a "slight error" in its programming ^{(TOS: "Experiment in Terra")}. Despite the fact that the reptilian Cylons have long since been wiped out, their robotic creations still bear their name. As such, the term has come to almost exclusively describe the robotic antagonists of the Colonials ^{(TOS: "Saga of a Star World")}.

Robotic Cylons

Cylon Centurions crash Sire Uri's party ^{(TOS: "Saga of a Star World")}.

Under the robotic Cylons, they began expanding their sphere of influence, creating what Commander Adama calls "the Alliance" ^{(TOS: "Saga of a Star World")}. The Cylons' goal is to strive to achieve "eternal perfection and order" throughout the known galaxy, although they haven't thought much (or at all) beyond that point ^{(1980: "The Return of Starbuck")}.

Centurions appear to be incapable of acting independently, having to refer to "the manual" in order to determine courses of action. Failing that, Centurions often take votes when consensus isn't clear. In addition, they do not appear to have much information on humans, outside of the different genders and general language ^{(1980: "The Return of Starbuck")}. In comparison, the IL-series exhibit more human qualities and emotions ^{(TOS: "Lost Planet of the Gods, Part II", "The Young Lords")} although the Centurions are apparently able to emulate emotions and human qualities, such as freedom of choice and loyalty as exemplified by Cyrus ^{(1980: "The Return of Starbuck")}.

Cylon Society

All of the various known Cylons before the Imperious Leader on Gamoray ^{(TOS: "The Living Legend, Part II")}.

There are five types of Cylons:

• Imperious Leader: controls all Cylon forces and rules the empire. The Imperious Leader is distinguished by taking on an appearance meant to resemble the reptilian Cylon race.
• IL-series (or the "IL group"): Robots that typically take on the administrative duties of the Cylon Empire.
• Command Centurion: Robots with gold-plated armor that are analogous with commanders in the Colonial Military.
• Cylon Centurions: These robots are the chrome-plated foot soldiers, pilots, and labor force for the Cylon Empire.
• Cylon "civilians": According to Colonel Tigh, he picks up civilian transmissions of a Cylon nature on Gamoray ^{(TOS: "The Living Legend, Part I")}. Such Cylons are typically clad in reflective robes, with a basic robotic "face" clad with electronic components, such as transistors ^{(TOS: "The Living Legend, Part II")}.

Cylon craft

There are three known Cylon spacecraft:

• Basestar: Capital ships of the Cylon military force, analogous to the Colonial battlestar.
• Raider: The primary fighter of the Cylon forces, manned by two pilots and a ship commander.
• Freighter: Ships used throughout the Cylon sphere of influence to provide fuel or supplies. May be used to support an offensive operation, as demonstrated at the Battle of Cimtar ^{(TOS: "Saga of a Star World")}.

Cylon history

The Thousand Yahren War

Main Article: Thousand Yahren War

The Thousand Yahren War between the humans of the Twelve Colonies and the Cylons began when the Colonials liberated the Hasari from Cylon rule. The Cylons then viewed humanity as a threat to their Empire and proceeded to attack Colonial installations.

The Cylons and the humans fought for roughly one thousand yahren, with losses on both sides.

The final end to the war occurred after the Cylons proposed peace through the mediation of Baltar, a member of the Quorum of Twelve. However, instead of concluding peace, the Cylons destroyed the human Battlestar force in the Battle of Cimtar and also attacked the Colonies, killing most inhabitants. Baltar, who had intended to use the Cylons to subjugate his colony under his rule, saw his colony destroyed and barely escaped execution ^{(TOS: "Saga of a Star World")}.

Cylon pursuit of the Colonial Fleet

The "rag-tag, fugitive fleet", being led by the last known surviving battlestar, Galactica, flees their homeworlds, avoiding the Cylon genocidal attacks.

Sparing Baltar's life, the newly ascended Imperious Leader gives Baltar the command of three basestars and a cogitator, Lucifer ^{(TOS: "Saga of a Star World", "Lost Planet of the Gods, Part I")}. With Baltar pursuing the Fleet, Galactica and the 220 ships she leads from their aggressors avoid Cylon death traps, such as those on Arcta (the "Ravashol pulsar"), and all out attacks (e.g. Battle of Gamoray and the Destructive Suicide Missions).

Eventually, a daring, successful attack on a lone basestar leads Adama to believe that they may have outwitted the Cylons—who have, apparently, spread their resources thin in an attempt to locate the remaining humans ^{(TOS: "The Hand of God")}.

Tie-in Material Information

• According to Encyclopedia Galactica (a non-canonical piece of merchandise published in 1979):

The original Cylons were a technologically advanced reptilian race from a far corner of the Galaxy. As they died out many millennia ago, little is known of their society. They must have been warlike and imperialistic since at the time of their extinction they had already conquered hundreds of other worlds.

The key to the success of the early Cylon's conquests was their development, first of sophisticated robots, and then of fully intelligent androids. These machines were built to withstand enormous stress, to have great strength and powerful computational capacity. Armies of them swept through sector after sector of the Galaxy. But ultimately, the machines became the superiors of their creators, and the Cylons themselves were destroyed by their own machines.

The Cylon androids, reptilian in form like their masters, continued the mission of destruction to which they had been assigned. Machines that they were, they swept through the Galaxy even more ruthlessly than their masters. The directives of their programming crystallized into a single Edict of Extermination, that called for the destruction of all intelligent life forms in the Galaxy.

The Cylons have occasionally combined forces with beings like the Ovions, but few creatures are more useful to the Cylons alive than dead. Therefore, the number of members of the Cylon Alliance is likely to remain small. Cylons have no concept of friendship or loyalty, and are programmed to exterminate their living allies at the earliest convenient date.

Modern Cylons are basically humanform. The most common type is the Centurion, a heavily armored soldier capable of operating a Raider and piloting a Baseship or Dreadnought, and also adaptable to planetary invasion and extermination. They are not of high intelligence, but can be cheaply mass-produced. A common Cylon strategy, therefore, is to overwhelm the enemy with large numbers of Centurions, many of whom will be destroyed, leaving a sufficient number of survivors to carry the day. The most advanced Cylons are from the I-L Series (sic). Both Lucifer, aide to Commander Baltar, and the Imperious Leader itself are of this type. I-L series Cylons have acute reasoning abilities, and can directly monitor electronic telemetry from up to fifty sources simultaneously. Much more than simple automatons, the I-L's at times exhibit humanlike drives for power. Human cylonologists speculate that this ambition response was deliberately programmed into the I-L's to insure prompt replacement of incompetent leadership.

The first human-Cylon contact occurred in 5547, when combined human forces came to the defense of their amphibious allies, the Hasaris. The humans were unprepared for the massive Cylon offensive, and their fleet was soon forced back to the outer defense perimeters of their own Colonies. This was the beginning of the thousand-yahren Great Cylon War.

The humans proved to be the most formidable foes the Cylons had ever faced. Lacking the imagination to respond to human advances creatively, the Cylons adapted in the only way they could: by imitation. Their Centurions were designed to resemble humans more and more, and their weapons were redesigned accordingly. Human weapons advances were quickly met by Cylon copies, so that the war remained in stalemate for hundreds of yahren. The Colonial Unification Movement and the military genius of Commander Cain had pushed the Cylons to the breaking point, when the treachery of Baltar led to the near-final destruction of humanity.

Cylons in other media

In the Berkley novelizations for the Original Series, the Cylons' status in the Cylon Empire is determined by the number of brains they possess.

Centurions start off with one brain, but can achieve a "second brain" status. The Imperious Leader itself achieves a third brain status.

Achieving a second or third brain status resorts in the Cylon becoming a "reptilian sort of beast" mentally.

Cylon customs

Cylons have various customs in their society. One such custom is having both an official name and a secret name. Official names are used when communicating to non-Cylons and it is considered humiliating if a Cylon's secret name is learned by outsiders. Further, the secret name is part of the secret sector of Cylon language.

Lucifer, despite not being an actual Cylon in the novelizations but rather a robotic construct, is permitted to adopt this custom. In his conversation with Baltar, Lucifer informs him that "Lucifer" is actually an acronym of his secret name.

Cylon constructs

In the novelizations, Lucifer is a Cylon construct. He is considered an "ambulatory cybernetic sentience" and is the result of Cylons' developments into different technologies during the Thousand Yahren War. Further, Lucifer claims that he can manufacture machines and that he has a soul, as he was able to create his own personality.

Cylon History

The Realm Press comic series gives a backstory to the Cylons in the 1999 Tourbook.

• Cylon Origin
• 
  Cylon Origin 1
• 
  2
• 
  3
• 
  4
• 
  5
• 
  6
• 
  7
• 
  8
• 
  9
• 
  10
• 
  11
• 
  12
• 
  13

Notes

• Both the Gold Command Cylon Centurions and the Silver Cylon Centurions were voiced with an EMS Vocoder 2000 [1] (verified in the book 'How to Wreck a Nice Beach' by Dave Tompkins) by voice-actor Michael Santiago.

References

 

Subjects: Saga of a Star World