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User:TAnthony/Battlestar Galactica

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Backstory

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Final Five backstory (from Cylons)

The named, "human" Cylon models initially refer to the five with reverence; it soon become clear that they are programmed to avoid thinking directly about the five, as their identities are hidden, even from Cylons. Circumventing this programming kills a model three shortly after her revelation, and a model one, Cavil, puts her consciousness into cold storage after resurrection to prevent her from discussing the discovery ("Rapture").

They were the original humanoid Cylons, born 2,000 years before the series, on Earth, as part of the Thirteenth Tribe ("Sometimes a Great Notion"). They were born to Cylon parents through sexual reproduction, rather than built. They were the researchers who rebuilt the Cylon resurrection technology that had been abandoned when the Thirteenth Tribe gained the ability to procreate. Saul and Ellen were married at the time, while Tyrol and Foster were in love and planned to marry ("No Exit").

While on Earth the Final Five learned of the upcoming attack on the Colonies from beings ("Angels") only they can see. They placed the resurrection technology on a ship in Earth orbit. When the nuclear attack kills them, they resurrect on the ship and head for the Colonies to warn them. They arrive during the First Cylon War, unbeknownst to the humans, and make a deal with the Centurions: stop the war and they will help them build human bodies. They build the first model, One (Cavil), who helps them build seven other models. ("Sometimes a Great Notion (Battlestar Galactica)")

Cavil then kills and boxes the Five and removes the memory of their identities from the other Cylons. He later unboxes them, replacing their memories. Cavil periodically seeds them among the human populations starting with Saul, and then Ellen, to show them the evils of humanity.[1]

Cylon War [2]

The First Cylon War lasted for twelve years. The conflict began when the Twelve Colonies began crafting robotic slaves which they named Cylon Centurions. When the creator's daughter unexpectedly dies and is downloaded into a Centurion, her consciousness spreads throughout all the Centurions, leading the Cylons to become sentient. This leads to a Centurion uprising that ultimately begins the First Cylon War. The war is a harsh conflict that lasts for twelve years, and includes the Centurions experimenting on humans to try and create humanoid Cylons called "skinjobs."

The First Cylon War ends in a hurried armistice after the Final Five makes a deal with the Centurions without the Twelve Colonies knowing. The Final Five promise to help the Centurions build "skinjobs" if they stop their war on the humans. Ultimately, the Centurions agree and the war comes to an end. For several decades after, there is peace between the Cylons and the humans with the help of the Final Five. However, forty years later, at the start of the events of Battlestar Galactica, the Centurions rise again.

The Second Cylon War, or rather, the continued conflict between the humans and the Cylons lasts until the end of Battlestar Galactica, which is roughly four years. Forty years after the end of the First Cylon War, the Centurions attack the Twelve Colonies, killing almost the entire human population. The reason for the renewed conflict is that the Final Five's Model Number One, John Cavil, becomes jealous of the new Cylon models and resentful of humans, so he convinces the Centurions to start another war. The Fall of the Twelve Colonies sets into motion the events of Battlestar Galactica.

In the end, despite conflicts, crimes, and betrayals, Battlestar Galactica's humans and Cylons end the series at peace. While the Fall of the Twelve Colonies devastated the remaining humans, they learned to ally with the sentient Cylons and fight against a common enemy. Therefore, the end of Battlestar Galactica sees humans and Cylons living side-by-side in a very familiar version of Earth. In this way, the twelve years of the First Cylon War and the remaining four years after the Fall of the Twelve Colonies ends in a satisfying form of peace.

Centurions other

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  • Unlike their one-dimensional counterparts in the original series, the Centurions in the 2004 show exhibited a range of personalities and beliefs. Some Centurions sought peaceful coexistence with humans, while others remained dedicated to the destruction of humanity. This diversity of perspectives added depth to their characters and introduced internal conflicts within Cylon society.[3]
  • The reimagined series blurred the lines between Centurions and humans, emphasizing their shared experiences and suffering. This theme explored the potential for reconciliation between the two species, challenging preconceived notions of good and evil. The parallels between Centurions and humans encouraged viewers to reflect on the consequences of their actions and the implications of creating sentient beings.[3]
  • While the original series predominantly portrayed Centurions as faceless enemies, the reimagined series embraced moral complexity. It forced viewers to confront the ethical dilemmas surrounding the treatment of sentient beings, making the audience question who the true antagonists were. This moral ambiguity added layers of depth to the show and elevated it beyond a straightforward battle between good and evil.[3]
  • The evolution of the Centurions represents a remarkable journey from mechanical adversaries to sentient beings. The reimagined, more complex Centurions became pivotal characters in the series. They helped drive the narrative, exploring themes related to artificial intelligence, sentience, and the consequences of human actions. Their struggle for identity and their complex relationships with humans introduced moral and philosophical depth, elevating the storytelling to new heights.[3]

Meanwhile, the Cylons realize that the Raiders' retreat was due to them discovering the Final Five among the Colonial Fleet. The Cylon models prepare to lobotomise the Raiders to forget about the Final Five as their identities are forbidden by their programming, but, after objections to this are raised by several Cylon models, a vote is agreed to mediate the issue. But, the vote ends in a draw (Numbers One, Four and Five votes for, and Numbers Two, Six and Eight voting against). Boomer is the only Eight model to vote for the lobotomising. To prevent this from happening, one of the Six models (known as Natalie) removes the higher brain inhibitors from the Centurions which gives them free will. They proceed to kill all of the One, Four and Five models in the room.

In the series, the Centurions were created by humans as robotic servants and soldiers, but quickly evolve into "sentient beings with their own desires, emotions, and motivations", and ultimately rebel against human oppression.[3] This leads to the brutal First Cylon War, which lasts 12 years and ends in a sudden armistice.[2]

Other sources

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Subsequently in season four, a schism erupts among the Cylon models which pits the Ones, Fours and Fives against the Twos, Sixes and Eights. Cavil unboxes D'Anna in "The Hub", hoping she can negotiate a truce with the opposing faction, who have made an alliance with the humans and intend to destroy the Cylon Resurrection Hub. Ever defiant, D'Anna kills Cavil, and allows Karl Agathon to "rescue" her from the Hub, after which the humans and rebel Cylons destroy it with a nuclear strike. D'Anna reluctantly joins the human-Cylon joint venture to find the Final Five, who they believe know the way to Earth. However, as the last of the Threes, she refuses to tell Roslin what she knows until she feels safe.[6] D'Anna remains wary in "Revelations", concerned for the Five's safety if she reveals them. Leoben recommends cooperation, but she reminds him that cooperation with the humans did not end well on New Caprica. D'Anna subsquently threatens to execute Roslin and her entourage on the Cylon Basestar unless Adama hands over the four newly identified final Cylons on the Galactica. Tory Foster reveals herself as one of them and joins D'Anna, and Adama, in turn, threatens to vent the remaining three Cylons into space. With moments to spare, Kara reveals that she knows the way to Earth. The humans and Cylons go there together, but find the planet devastated and radioactive. In "Sometimes a Great Notion", the humans and Cylons to leave find a new habitable planet, but D'Anna decides to stay on Earth and die with her ancestors, ending the cycle of death and rebirth.[6]

[8] [9] [10] [11] [12]

[14] This series’s central premise — war between humans and rebel robots — is founded on moral ambiguity. The enemy Cylons are a mechanical race created by humans to serve as slaves and soldiers; the Cylons evolved into sentient beings and rebelled, developing their own civilization and a monotheistic theology — one that commands them to destroy the sinful pagan human race, which was once spread across the “12 colonies of man.” A Cylon nuclear attack wiped out billions of people. The fewer than 50,000 survivors roam space in a fleet led by the Galactica’s commanding officer, William Adama (Edward James Olmos), and the civilian president, Laura Roslin (Mary McDonnell). The two occasionally clash — shifting debates that make the case for and against military dictatorship, for and against democracy. But they are close and their shared quest is to evade the Cylons hunting them and find the “13th colony,” which according to ancient scriptures is Earth.

Sci Fi plans a prequel called “Caprica,” which will describe the halcyon time before robots could think for themselves. This version, which began as a 2003 mini-series, is a “reimagined” adaptation of the original 1978 series starring Lorne Greene.

It takes the religious undertones to the forefront, adding more shades of ambiguity to the mix. The humans are polytheists (an odd mixture of classical mythology and scriptural fundamentalism). The robots are monotheists leading a crusade, or jihad, against the infidel humans — even though they know that the humans gave them life. Some Cylons think they are human, and some of the humans fear they may be Cylons. And almost everybody has a guilty conscience.

The third-season finale ended with the shocking revelation that four of the most prominent and dedicated crew members were actually Cylons, members of a special breed of sleeper robots who were “awakened” to their true nature by faint strains of music (a version of Bob Dylan’s “All Along the Watchtower”). They believe they are humans first and foremost, but worry that they may be programmed to betray their friends and lovers by remote control. And a fifth Cylon lurks somewhere among them, still unidentified, but possibly even more dangerous than all the rest.

  • Why are the Cylons so bent on destroying humanity? There have been various discussions about that on the show, and one of the ideas offered is that humans don’t deserve to exist. Is that what motivates the Cylons?
  • “That’s part of it for them. There are a variety of issues. On a philosophical basis, they see themselves as the children of humanity, and their worldview says they’ll never really achieve their full potential while their `parents’ are still alive, as it were. It’s the idea of children coming into their own when their parents are dead. And it’s also practical. Knowing humans as intimately as they do, they know if they allow this ragtag fleet to escape and establish colonies, they’ll eventually come back and seek vengeance. So the Cylons are driven by a strong need to foreclose that possibility.”[15]

Themes and allusions

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Time described Battlestar Galactica as "a gripping sci-fi allegory of the war on terror, complete with monotheistic religious fundamentalists (here genocidal cyborgs called Cylons), sleeper cells, civil-liberties crackdowns and even a prisoner-torture scandal".[16] The show attempted to maintain its realism by referring to familiar elements of contemporary history – Laura Roslin's swearing in on Colonial One directly "cited the swearing in of Lyndon B. Johnson after the Kennedy assassination"[17] – and the developing political situation since the September 11, 2001 attacks. Many people have drawn parallels between the Cylons and Al Qaeda"[18] and according to The Guardian "Battlestar Galactica is the only award-winning drama that dares tackle the war on terror".[19] The show has also tackled issues regarding terrorist sleeper cells with stories involving the reality and fear of Cylon suicide attacks, Cylon Number 5 (Aaron Doral) in the episode called "Litmus," sneaks aboard Galactica and blows himself up in the middle of the corridor and sleeper agent Lt. Sharon "Boomer" Valerii activates after destroying a Cylon basestar and shooting Commander Adama at the end of season 1. (Note that Sharon, as with some of the other human-form Cylons, had no idea that she was a Cylon.) Similar themes are revisited in season 3 (Episode 3.1, "Occupation") with a far different perspective: the humans, rather than the Cylons, are the suicide bombers. It has been suggested that these plotlines extensively "hinted at war-on-terrorism overtones."[20] After 9/11, the original series' "broad premise – the human military's struggles in the wake of a massive terrorist attack – suddenly gained resonance"[19] and let the show tackle issues like suicide bombings, torture ("evoking the darker side of the war on terror"[20]) and "civil liberties crackdowns".[19]

Executive producer Ronald D. Moore points out that the Cylons and Al Qaeda are not necessarily intended to be allegorical: "They have aspects of Al Qaeda and they have aspects of the Catholic Church and they have aspects of America."[18] On the other hand, abortion is illegal throughout the fleet, because the survival of what remains of humanity is at stake. In contrast, with the New Caprica storyline the show's humans have been discussed as an allegory not for an America under attack but for an occupied people mounting an insurgency and turning to suicide bombings as a tactic. There is a consensus that with "its third season, the show has morphed into a stinging allegorical critique of America's three-year occupation of Iraq"[21] as the "cameras record Cylon occupation raids on unsuspecting human civilians with the night-vision green familiar to any TV news viewer. The reasoning of the Cylons is horrifically familiar, they would prefer not to be brutal but they won't accept the failure of a glorious mission."[20] According to Slate "If this sounds like Iraq, it should",[20] and "In unmistakable terms, Battlestar Galactica is telling viewers that insurgency (like, say, the one in Iraq) might have some moral flaws, such as the whole suicide bombing thing, but is ultimately virtuous and worthy of support."[20] The "really audacious stroke of this season was showing us a story about a suicide bomber from the point of view of the bomber and his comrades... because the cause of this terrorist was unquestioningly our own. We sympathize with the insurgents wholeheartedly."[17] If the Cylon occupying force is an allegory of the Coalition Forces in Iraq, then some of the other references are equally controversial; the "scene of the shiny, terrifying Cylon centurions (a servant class of robots that actually look like robots) marching down the main road of New Caprica while the devastated colonists looked on was the Nazis marching into Paris."[17]

References

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  1. ↑ Ryan, Maureen (January 17, 2009). "Battlestar Galactica's Ron Moore Addresses the Shocking Developments of 'Sometimes a Great Notion'". Chicago Tribune. Archived from the original on March 10, 2009. Retrieved March 10, 2009.
  2. 1 2 Hemenway, Megan (June 25, 2023). "How Long Battlestar Galactica's Cylon War Actually Lasted". Screen Rant. Retrieved June 18, 2024.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 Gift, Arianne (October 11, 2023). "Battlestar Galactica: Who Are the Centurions?". Game Rant. Archived from the original on October 16, 2023. Retrieved April 29, 2024.
  4. ↑ Bernardin, Marc (April 12, 2008). "Battlestar: A Cylon Smackdown". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved June 19, 2024.
  5. ↑ Goldman, Eric (April 14, 2008). "Battlestar Galactica: 'Six of One' Review". IGN. Retrieved June 19, 2024.
  6. 1 2 Richards, Sarah (January 15, 2023). "Every Battlestar Galactica Cylon Model Explained". Screen Rant. Archived from the original on August 23, 2023. Retrieved January 11, 2024.
  7. ↑ Vine, Richard (January 21, 2009). "Battlestar Galactica: season four, episode 13" – via The Guardian.
  8. ↑ Sepinwall, Alan (February 14, 2009). "Battlestar Galactica, 'No Exit': The Areas of My Cylon Expertise". The Star-Ledger. Retrieved March 10, 2009.
  9. ↑ Dahlen, Chris (February 13, 2009). "Battlestar Galactica: 'No Exit'". The A.V. Club. Retrieved April 9, 2025.
  10. ↑ West, Kelly (February 13, 2009). "TV Recap: Battlestar Galactica - 'No Exit'". Cinema Blend. Archived from the original on February 16, 2009. Retrieved February 14, 2009.
  11. ↑ Ryan, Maureen (February 14, 2009). "Talking about Battlestar Galactica's 'No Exit': Back to the Future". Chicago Tribune. Archived from the original on December 24, 2016. Retrieved March 10, 2009.
  12. ↑ Ryan, Maureen (February 15, 2009). "You Asked, They Answered: Battlestar Galactica Writers Take on Your 'No Exit' Questions". Chicago Tribune. Archived from the original on February 17, 2009. Retrieved February 15, 2009.
  13. ↑ Vine, Richard (February 18, 2009). "Battlestar Galactica: season four, episode 17" – via The Guardian.
  14. ↑ "Battlestar Galactica - Fourth Season - TV - Review - NYTimes.com". web.archive.org. December 27, 2011.
  15. ↑ Moore, Ronald D. (January 4, 2006). "President Roslin Gets Tough on Battlestar Galactica". Chicago Tribune (Interview). Interviewed by Maureen Ryan. Archived from the original on 20 September 2011. Retrieved August 24, 2011.
  16. ↑ Poniewozik, James (December 16, 2005). "Best of 2005: Television". Time. Archived from the original on May 27, 2008. Retrieved December 3, 2021.
  17. 1 2 3 Miller, Laura (November 10, 2006). "Space Balls". Salon. Archived from the original on February 15, 2011.
  18. 1 2 Gavin Edwards (January 27, 2006). "Intergalactic Terror". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on February 8, 2009. In its second season, this remake of the 1978 camp classic has become -- no joke -- TV's most vivid depiction of the post-9/11 world and what happens to a society at war.
  19. 1 2 3 Martin, Dan (January 13, 2007). "The final frontier". The Guardian. London. Archived from the original on March 14, 2016. Retrieved December 14, 2016.
  20. 1 2 3 4 5 Ackerman, Spencer (October 13, 2006). "Battlestar: Iraqtica. Does the hit television show support the Iraqi insurgency". Slate. Archived from the original on July 14, 2009. Retrieved May 6, 2009.
  21. ↑ Reed, Brad (October 27, 2006). "Battlestar Galacticons". The American Prospect. Archived from the original on October 1, 2011.
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