NBSG Series Bible

[Thanas]

PDF link

I am surprised this was not posted any sooner.

[MKSheppard]

If you want it in a HTML form; get it HERE

Yes, I was geeky enough to OCR and clean it up. I probably will do the same for the TOS and TNG bibles at some point.

[sirocco]

The Colonials have a poly-theistic belief system that worships at least some of the God-like beings on the planet Kobol. Hence, characters in prayer are likely to offer thanks to or ask for blessings from the "Lords of Kobol." Who the "Lords" are and how many there are is not yet known, but they are roughly analogous to the Greek and Roman gods of Earth (this linkage also helps tie Earth's belief systems and roots to those of Colonial society, remembering that we are all supposed to come from the same homeworld, namely Kobol).

So basically our Earth (aka Earth 2 in the series) was originally supposed to be the new home of the 13th colony. I wonder why they didn't kept that idea...

[Eternal_Freedom]

That's a fascinating read. It's interesting to see the bits in there that never made it into the series proper, for instance all the Colonial Officers being in charge of an enlisted division, and that the Quorum of Twelve was a religious body analagous to (I'd say) the General Synod or maybe the College of Cardinals.

I also find the repeatedstatements "The Cylons are not the Borg" to be particularly amusing.

Thanks Thanas!

[MKSheppard]

That's a fascinating read. It's interesting to see the bits in there that never made it into the series proper, for instance all the Colonial Officers being in charge of an enlisted division

Actually, I think that was shot. Basically there's a scene where Cally is bitching to Tyrol about Tyrol boinking Sharon.

Cally says "She's our DIVO, she signs our frakking evaluation reports!"

I think it's on one of the deleted scenes on the DVDs or Blu Rays

[Guardsman Bass]

That's an interesting read, Shep.

The "no networks and weaker-than-IRL computers" thing is strange, but interesting.

[Darth Tedious]

No planet-killers, please?

Where's the fun in that?

Good thing they reminded us that Cylons aren't Borg, though. Otherwise they might have started getting beaten every single week! Damn that Janeway...

[Sarevok]

Interesting how the human form is core to the Cylons. They really are not robots as many believed but transhumans. Viewing them through the lense of transhumanity makes the series a lot more sensible.

In simple terms Cylons are not Skynet. They are humans with machine parts in them who still seek pride in their humanity.

[Cykeisme]

I'm curious, though.. what are the physical differences between a human and a Cylon? I understand that it's quite difficult to differentiate the two.

There was the whole deal with Baltar's "Cylon detector" where he discovered that the cells from a Cylon react differently to radiation than a human's.. would I be wrong in saying that suggests that they're only different on a sub-cellular level?

Or was it just the lack of proper medical equipment on Galactica like CAT and MRI scans and things like that?

[Thanas]

That's a fascinating read. It's interesting to see the bits in there that never made it into the series proper, for instance all the Colonial Officers being in charge of an enlisted division

Actually, I think that was shot. Basically there's a scene where Cally is bitching to Tyrol about Tyrol boinking Sharon.

Cally says "She's our DIVO, she signs our frakking evaluation reports!"

I think it's on one of the deleted scenes on the DVDs or Blu Rays

Yes, deleted scene of season 1. Though Cally of course was being her typical own hypocritical self, seeing as how this suddenly did not matter when the chief started boinking her.

[Uraniun235]

Interesting how the human form is core to the Cylons. They really are not robots as many believed but transhumans. Viewing them through the lense of transhumanity makes the series a lot more sensible.

In simple terms Cylons are not Skynet. They are humans with machine parts in them who still seek pride in their humanity.

So why did the robot Cylons want to build transhumans then?

[Samuel]

I'm curious, though.. what are the physical differences between a human and a Cylon? I understand that it's quite difficult to differentiate the two.

There was the whole deal with Baltar's "Cylon detector" where he discovered that the cells from a Cylon react differently to radiation than a human's.. would I be wrong in saying that suggests that they're only different on a sub-cellular level?

Or was it just the lack of proper medical equipment on Galactica like CAT and MRI scans and things like that?

All the different individuals of the 12 models look the same. They probably have some genetic changes to prevent them from aging (although they could just switch to different bodies when their old one breaks down).

Interesting how the human form is core to the Cylons. They really are not robots as many believed but transhumans. Viewing them through the lense of transhumanity makes the series a lot more sensible.

In simple terms Cylons are not Skynet. They are humans with machine parts in them who still seek pride in their humanity.

Transhumans... who make themselves 12 identical bodies? And they only use a single one? That seems... odd. They seem less human that play acting at being human.

[Thanas]

Why would Cylons not age?

[Skylon]

The Skinjobs clearly do age. Just look at Saul Tigh. He had hair when he met Adama.

[Thanas]

Otherwise, it would be kinda peculiar to have thousands of blonde and asian women running around on earth tens of thousands of years after they landed.

[Anguirus]

As Helo makes his way across the planet, we will start to realize that the Cylons seem to have some larger plan for Caprica and the rest of the colonies, that devastation and genocide were not the only goals of the attack and that this was only the first step in a long-term strategy that ultimately will tie into the escape of the Galactica and her eventual arrival on Earth.

Uh...oops?

I"m not even entirely dissatisfied woth how the show turned out, but...seriously, way to fail at keeping on track.

[Samuel]

Why would Cylons not age?

I was trying to come up with a reason they would have genetic differences that can be detected by Baltar. It seems to be the sort of thing you would engineer into your population if you could.

[Thanas]

Why would Cylons not age?

I was trying to come up with a reason they would have genetic differences that can be detected by Baltar. It seems to be the sort of thing you would engineer into your population if you could.

That would make them bad long-term infiltrators though, no?

I think they were right to go for hidden super-strength and intelligence instead of no-aging, seeing as how they could always swap bodies for new ones if needed.

[Sarevok]

Interesting how the human form is core to the Cylons. They really are not robots as many believed but transhumans. Viewing them through the lense of transhumanity makes the series a lot more sensible.

In simple terms Cylons are not Skynet. They are humans with machine parts in them who still seek pride in their humanity.

So why did the robot Cylons want to build transhumans then?

The important thing to remember is that AI, in the classic science fiction sense does not exist in nBSG. As much as I dislike Caprica that series explained why this is so rather well. The Cylon war robots were mind uploads, for lack of better technology at the time they were given clanking droid bodies.

The Cylons prefer to be biological. It's not just skinjobs but their whole military as well. They ditched their old Raider designs in favor of a new one flown by live organism. The new Baseships are organic bioships. The old baseships and Raiders were piloted by hand instead of computer controlled. The new ones got living breathing pilots instead hooked up to the machinery.

It's not a simple case of skinjobs taking over. The whole Cylon society and military moved towards being a fusion of biological and mechanical.

As much as RDM failed epically it was a fantastic concept at heart.

[Sarevok]

Why would Cylons not age?

I was trying to come up with a reason they would have genetic differences that can be detected by Baltar. It seems to be the sort of thing you would engineer into your population if you could.

That would make them bad long-term infiltrators though, no?

I think they were right to go for hidden super-strength and intelligence instead of no-aging, seeing as how they could always swap bodies for new ones if needed.

The series is inconsistent in this. Saul Tigh looked exactly same as he did now 2000 years ago. Ellen Tigh resurrected into a body of same age as before she died. It seems to be implied Cylons are kept at the same age.

[Solauren]

Or Caval wanted to keep her that age.

[Thanas]

The series is inconsistent in this. Saul Tigh looked exactly same as he did now 2000 years ago. Ellen Tigh resurrected into a body of same age as before she died. It seems to be implied Cylons are kept at the same age.

There is no inconsistency. After all, it may just have been a coincidence that he was at that age when he died the first time. And we do know that he visibly ages in the series, compared to flashbacks from before.

[Stravo]

It's pretty evident that his time working on Trek really soured him to the Trek story style if you will. This document is littered with references to how this will not be Trek - Cylons are not the Borg, no space anomalies, no evil twins, no time travel, etc.

[Sarevok]

The series is inconsistent in this. Saul Tigh looked exactly same as he did now 2000 years ago. Ellen Tigh resurrected into a body of same age as before she died. It seems to be implied Cylons are kept at the same age.

There is no inconsistency. After all, it may just have been a coincidence that he was at that age when he died the first time. And we do know that he visibly ages in the series, compared to flashbacks from before.

Upon further observation it appears you are correct. There is also the case of Hera. Despite being half Cylon she aged at the same rate as a normal human child.

That said I think they should have used different looks for the final five during the Cylon Earth scenes. It does not make sense they were all the same age as seen in the series. Especially when they were not even in the same bodies !

[Sarevok]

It's pretty evident that his time working on Trek really soured him to the Trek story style if you will. This document is littered with references to how this will not be Trek - Cylons are not the Borg, no space anomalies, no evil twins, no time travel, etc.

On the other hand RDM eventually fell prey to his own brand of silliness. Instead of technobabble he invented mysticism-babble where instead of chronoton particles we are subjected to New Age kooky terminology. We still have unrealistic space anomalies playing a major role in what was intended to be semi hard science fiction. No evil twins ? Totally unlike Athena/Boomer ? (I was immediately was reminded of Will Rikers clone in DS9, a series RDM helmed) Even lame holodeck stories featured into the show - since they don't have holodecks all the character started having vivid imaginations that are more realistic than being plugged into the frigging Matrix !

Anyway towards end of season 3 the series started doing plots that would not be out of place in a trek episode. Starbucks return from death alone introduces more headaches for anyone trying to make sense of the series than all plotholes in first 2 seasons combined.