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Cylons refer to several different races or classifications of beings featured in the Battlestar Galactica television franchise. In each instance, the Cylons are presented as the primary antagonists of their respective programs. According to series creator Glen A. Larson, the original Cylons were actually a sentient reptilian race that existed several thousand years (yahrens) ago. They created robotic servitors dubbed Cylon Centurions to serve as support staff and military, but it is believed that the Centurions turned against their makers, rendering them extinct.
The term Cylon had since been re-applied to the robots themselves. Having developed a means to operate outside of their initial programming, they mass-produced themselves and forged the Cylon Empire. The leader of the Cylon Empire was an L1 series Cylon dubbed the Imperious Leader. The Imperious Leader wore a robe and had an outer shell and head covering designed to resemble the original organic Cylons. The Imperious Leader occupies a central command chamber aboard a Cylon Basestar and coordinates attack strategies with it's command staff, usually a different variation of an L1 series robot.
Cylon Cenurions are drone warriors who serve as the military arm of the Cylon Empire. They are distinguished by their chrome-plated outer casings, their hollow voices and an occular sensor scanner that glows red and moves back and forth across their eyeline. The most commonly heard phrase amongst Centurions is an affirmation of their programming, "By your command".
Cylon Centurions[]
Both versions of the Battlestar Galactica mythos present different models of Cylons. With the original series, there was the Imperious Leader model, the L1 (Lucifer) model and the Centurion. The Centurions are the standard traditional robot soldiers that executive offensive maneuvers against the Colonial Fleet, including ground assault and piloting the Cylon Raider ships. Their weaponry usually includes a saber and a laser rifle.
The remake series also present Cylon Centurions, which are completely robotic, making them easily distinguishable from the Humanoid Cylon models. They are an upgraded version of the robot models originally designed by Daniel Graystone on Caprica four decades earlier. The visual design of those Cylons bore a close similarity to classic Cylons.
The re-imagined Centurions are taller, sleeker and have weaponry incorporated into their form, as opposed to carrying rifles and such. These Cylons do not speak, and are programmed to follow basic commands. Squadrons of Centurions were left behind on Cylon-occupied Caprica after the assault on the planet, and followed the direction of a Humanoid Cylon code-named Caprica Six.
Notes & Trivia[]
- The original living Cylons were first identified as an extinct race of Reptilian aliens in the "Saga of a Star World" novelization of the Battlestar Galactica pilot movie. The novelization was written by teleplay writer and series creator Glen A. Larson. The Cylons' reptilian origins are also briefly referenced at the end of "Saga of a Star World (Part 2)" in a conversation between Apollo and Boxey.
Notes[]
- Cylon Centurion and Cylon Centurions both redirect to the "Cylon Centurion" section header on this page.