# Cylons! - what makes them tick? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 5, 2005, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cylons-what-makes-them-tick/283270 "2005-01-05T20:32:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![cryptic\_j](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/898d66/32.png) [@cryptic\_j](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cryptic_j)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2005, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cylons-what-makes-them-tick/283270/1 "2005-01-05T20:32:22Z")
I am writing a v.short film which includes a couple of Cylons from the classic TV series Battlestar Gallactica. . I’m already milking the hatred of humans - but having not seen the series for a number of years am looking for any more insights into the Cylon character that may be exploited for jokes that can appeal to fans of the series. I know that teh Dopers won’t let me down ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Scrappy\_Hero\_Pup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ea5d25/32.png) [@Happy\_Scrappy\_Hero\_Pup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Scrappy_Hero_Pup)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2005, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cylons-what-makes-them-tick/283270/2 "2005-01-05T21:33:19Z")
The Cylons hate freedom, of course. Haven’t you been keeping up? ---
**Author:** ![Terminus\_Est](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terminus_est/32/3087_2.png) [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2005, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cylons-what-makes-them-tick/283270/3 "2005-01-05T21:38:47Z")
What makes Cylons tick? It’s their own built-in metronome that goes back and forth, back and forth where their eyes should be. ---
**Author:** ![murky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9d8465/32.png) [@murky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/murky)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2005, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cylons-what-makes-them-tick/283270/4 "2005-01-05T21:57:58Z")
Richard Hatch makes them tick. He even has a cameo on the new series, which proves my point. ---
**Author:** ![Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac8455/32.png) [@Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bippy_the_Beardless)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2005, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cylons-what-makes-them-tick/283270/5 "2005-01-05T23:01:21Z")
Well they were created to be stupid and useless so that the warriors never tried to take power from the green icky guys. They really couldn’t shoot a barn door from 5 paces, and it needed three of them to be able to pilot a single fighter. So the green ickies just want complete control of the Universe and safety fany competative species. Whilst the Cylon warriors just want the next meal, and “what’s that shiney thing out the port window, doh they did that reverse thruster move again, what were we s’posed to do know? \” ---
**Author:** ![cryptic\_j](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/898d66/32.png) [@cryptic\_j](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cryptic_j)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2005, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cylons-what-makes-them-tick/283270/6 "2005-01-05T23:14:17Z")
> [@Happy Scrappy Hero Pup](#): > > The Cylons hate freedom, of course. The Cylons are Democrats??? :eek: Were they really that bad at shooting people - - that could be quite important… ---
**Author:** ![Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac8455/32.png) [@Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bippy_the_Beardless)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2005, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cylons-what-makes-them-tick/283270/7 "2005-01-06T00:02:11Z")
Yes they were really bad, and designed that way. Don’t remember now if my cite was the Battlestar Galactica Anual or a TV special, but the gyst of it was that Cylon Warriors really couldn’t shoot for sh\*t. I can’t find a web based cite for this, but I’d rank it in the pretty darned sure section of my befuddled brain. ---
**Author:** ![OttoDaFe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ottodafe/32/356_2.png) [@OttoDaFe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OttoDaFe)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2005, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cylons-what-makes-them-tick/283270/8 "2005-01-06T00:02:30Z")
I hate to admit it, but I did read the **BG** “novelization” some years after the series bit the dust. IIRC, the book never really went into great detail, but humans were frequently referred to as “vermin” or “pests.” This leads to one possible conclusion, namely that the Cylon worldview (cosmoview?) simply didn’t allow for the existence of humanity—and since they “didn’t ought to be there,” they must be wiped out. ---
**Author:** ![Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac8455/32.png) [@Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bippy_the_Beardless)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2005, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cylons-what-makes-them-tick/283270/9 "2005-01-06T00:19:29Z")
Well from searching it was the 1979 anual (UK eddition) I had, any geeks out there who can confirm the stuff my brain is telling me abou Cylon Warriors being specifically designed stupid pilots and poor shots? ---
**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2005, 7:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cylons-what-makes-them-tick/283270/10 "2005-01-06T07:09:11Z")
> [@cryptic\_j](#): > > The Cylons are Democrats??? :eek: Nah, if they were Democrats, they’d either be having protest marches with signs or suggesting that cooperating with the humans would be more effective. Besides, their collective hive-mind, overemphasis on shiny armament, and cold-blooded ruthlessness would make them perfect Republicans. 😉 \ Actually, upon reading the thread title, my immediate response was “Duracell.” 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Earthworm\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f07891/32.png) [@Earthworm\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earthworm_Jim)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2005, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cylons-what-makes-them-tick/283270/11 "2005-01-06T14:08:12Z")
\ Isn’t it obvious? They’re fascist pinko sin-lovin’ commies. ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Scrappy\_Hero\_Pup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ea5d25/32.png) [@Happy\_Scrappy\_Hero\_Pup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Scrappy_Hero_Pup)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2005, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cylons-what-makes-them-tick/283270/12 "2005-01-06T15:08:26Z")
Stop this! STOP THIS AT ONCE! If we allow ourselves to get caught up in partisan bickering in this time of species-threatening crisis… …the Cylons will have already won. ::ducks, runs:: ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2005, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cylons-what-makes-them-tick/283270/13 "2005-01-06T15:49:06Z")
> [@Bippy the Beardless](#): > > Well they were created to be stupid and useless so that the warriors never tried to take power from the green icky guys. They really couldn’t shoot a barn door from 5 paces, and it needed three of them to be able to pilot a single fighter. Commodore 64 Inside. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2005, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cylons-what-makes-them-tick/283270/14 "2005-01-06T15:56:19Z")
And OH YEAH! Cylons [love folksinging.](http://www.richardcobbett.co.uk/graphics/journal/cag.jpg) 😃😃😃 ---
**Author:** ![kingpengvin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9dc877/32.png) [@kingpengvin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kingpengvin)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2005, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cylons-what-makes-them-tick/283270/15 "2005-01-06T17:26:38Z")
Ahhh Cylcon and Garflunkle, that brings back some memries of those days of peace love and methodical human extermanations. Cylons don’t just hate humans. Accoding to Adama “Cylons hate humans with every fibre of their being” So the short answer is Cylons are created from pure undistilled human hate, which happens to look like shiny crome. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2005, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cylons-what-makes-them-tick/283270/16 "2005-01-06T23:39:38Z")
In the original concept of the series (seen in the BG novelization but abandoned by the time it got to film) the Cylons were an alien race highly modified by cybernetic and bioengineering technology. They considered humans to be so perversely un-Cylonlike that the “Perfect Order of the Universe” demanded their extermination, especially after they committed the unforgiveable sin of actually opposing the Cylons by armed force. Sort of what **OttoDaFe** said. In the actual filmed series, they were simply Evil Alien Robots, and their motives were about as well thought out as the rest of the show. (Although it could be read between the lines that the evil “Count Ibli” had a hand in their creation). The ineptitude of their warriors and pilots was so it was plausible that the humans could consistantly win even outnumbered ten to one. The new Cylons now - well, they nuked the planet. 'Nuff said.