Cylon (reimagining)

Cylons are a fictional artificially-intelligent "species" envisioned in the Battlestar Galactica science fiction series and related franchises. Originally created to serve human needs like other machines, a series of events involving the transfer of a human's consciousness into a Cylon's neural network led Cylons to evolve into sentient, self-aware beings. The original Cylons were purely mechanical.

The Cylon was reimagined in the second Battlestar Galactica television series and its prequel Caprica. The first configurations (Centurions) were robots. Others were cyborgs whose different configurations incorporated biological elements, including some that were nearly indistinguishable from humans.

Background

The Cylons had different origins in the Battlestar Galactica reboot (BSGr) and Caprica. In BSGr they were created thousands of years earlier, and fought a war against the Thirteenth Tribe on Earth. This origin is at least mostly compatible with their origin in the original series. In Caprica they were created by Zoe Graystone and her father Daniel Graystone, owner of Graystone Industries.

Cylon

Cylon may refer to:

People

Places

Science fiction

Companies

See also

Cylon (1978)

Cylons are a fictional race of robots in the original Battlestar Galactica TV series. They are the primary antagonists of the series and are at war with the Twelve Colonies of humanity. The Cylons also appeared in the short-lived 1980 spin-off series Galactica 1980.

An updated version of the original Cylon also appears in the re-imagined series: briefly in a flashback battle sequence in Battlestar Galactica: Razor, in hand-to-hand combat with a young William Adama after they had shot each other's fighters down; and several in the show finale "Daybreak", on board an old Cylon refuge known as "The Colony".

The Cylons were created by a reptilian race, also called Cylons. However, the reptilian race died out centuries earlier, leaving behind only their race of robots.

Types

Imperious Leader

The Imperious Leader is the leader of the Cylon Alliance and most advanced Cylon model. According to the IL-Series Cylon Lucifer the Imperious Leader is an IL-Series Cylon, though it does not look like a IL-Series Cylon. The Imperious Leader has a third brain and a body shell resembling the reptilian Cylons. It is stated in the original novelization of the pilot episode that the Imperious Leader's third brain is specifically designed to emulate the human mind (solely for the purpose of anticipating human actions). One was killed at the Battle of Carillon (pilot episode) and his successor was possibly destroyed during the Battle of Gamoray (episode: "The Living Legend, Part 2"). In the original 1978-79 series, the voice of the Imperious Leader is identical to that of Count Iblis. (The voice of the former was provided by Patrick Macnee, who acted out the latter on-camera.) In the Galactica 1980 episode "Space Croppers," the voice of the Imperious Leader was provided by Dennis Haysbert. All of the Imperious Leaders look identical. The reptilian look of the Imperious Leader could have raised the question whether actually all living Cylons have died out.

Cylon (Battlestar Galactica)

The Cylons are a cybernetic civilization at war with the Twelve Colonies of humanity in the Battlestar Galactica science fiction franchise, in the original 1978 and 1980 series, the 2004 reimagining, as well as the spin-off prequel series, Caprica. In the 1978 series, Cylon is also the name of the reptilian race who created the robot Cylons.

The nature and origin of the Cylons differ greatly between the two Battlestar Galactica continuities. However, both series feature Cylon Raiders, Cylon Basestars and Cylon Centurions. The prequel series, Caprica, focuses on the creation of the Cylons, which differs from all the previous Battlestar Galactica series.

Original continuity

The Cylons of the 1978/1980 series are not the mechanical foils seen throughout the series, but an advanced reptilian race who created the robots (called Cylons within the show) to serve them, maintain their vast empire and to man their military forces in the face of a sudden population drop that eventually led to the Cylons' extinction — seemingly overnight. This fact is briefly mentioned in the 1978 movie-length premiere of the series (near the end of episode 2 in syndication) when Apollo relates the Cylons' origin to Boxey. In the episode "War of the Gods", during Count Iblis's private discourse with Count Baltar, Baltar mentions that he recognizes Iblis's voice, referring to Patrick Macnee's voicing of the Imperious Leader in the opening episode/theatrical movie (Macnee also played Iblis), with Iblis countering that if that was true it must have been "transcribed" over a thousand yahren (years) ago and programmed into the mechanical body of the Imperious Leader.

Remake

A remake is a film or television series based on one produced earlier. The term "remake" can refer to everything on the spectrum of reused material: both an allusion or a line-by-line change retake of a film. However, the term generally pertains to a new version of an old film. A reproduced television series could also be called a remake.

Film

The term "remake" is generally used in reference to a movie which uses an earlier movie as the main source material, rather than in reference to a second, later movie based on the same source. For example, 2001's Ocean's Eleven is a remake of the Ocean's 11, while 1989's Batman is a re-interpretation of the comic book source material which also inspired 1966's Batman. In 1998, Gus Van Sant produced a shot-for-shot remake of Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 film Psycho.

With the exception of shot-for-shot remakes, most remakes make significant character, plot, genre and theme changes. For example, the 1968 film The Thomas Crown Affair is centered on a bank robbery, while its 1999 remake involves the theft of a valuable piece of artwork. The 1999 remake of The Mummy was viewed primarily as "a reimagining" in a different genre (adventure). Similarly, when the 1969 film The Italian Job was remade in 2003, few aspects were carried over. Another example is the 1932 film Scarface which was remade in 1983 starring Al Pacino; whereas the setting of 1932 version is the illegal alcohol trade, the characters in the 1983 version are involved in cocaine smuggling.