Battlestar Galactica (2003)/Cylon Agents

President Roslin's Cylon dossier

After the Cimtar Peace Accords, the Cylons withdrew completely from contact with the Colonials for forty years. During these forty years, the Cylons developed humanoid models of Cylon, nearly indistinguishable from real humans down to a cellular level, likely for infiltration purposes such as with Number Six and Boomer. Some Cylon agents, such as Galactica-Boomer, can be used as "sleeper agents", given a human personality with no idea that it is a Cylon. The sleeper personality appears to emerge only when needed to perform an act for the Cylons (such as bombing Galactica's water tanks), then submerges again.

Aaron Doral and Boomer Cylons on Caprica

Each Cylon agent shares the memories and experiences of the others up to a point, perhaps from regular shared updates of each others' memories. Originally, all copies of a given model, such as Sharon, have the same personality. However, an individual copy appears to be able develop its own distinct personality if it has enough experiences that are unique to itself. For example, the Caprica-copy of the Sharon model fell in love with the human pilot Helo, and subsequently apparently switched sides and started helping Helo instead of the other Cylons.

The infiltrator Cylon brain, at least part of it, is apparently based on the same "silica pathway" construction as the old-model Cylons, as demonstrated in the Miniseries. Ragnar Anchorage, a Colonial outpost dating back to the First Cylon War, is built inside a radiation cloud that does not bother humans, but is known to have a deleterious effect on Cylon silica pathways. Cylon agents may have a human-style brain augmented with Cylon technology, as the Leoben Cylon encountered by Commander Adama does not seem to have any problems expressing itself verbally, but does apparently have issues with its ability to upload its knowledge into another unit at the time of death because of the Ragnar radiation cloud.

Caprican Resistance fighters have taken to referring to the human-type Cylon models as "skin-jobs".

While some Cylons seem to believe in a Cylon God (singular, as opposed to the predominantly polytheistic Colonial religion), others apparently do not believe in a deity. Cylon agent Cavil commented that, while there was really no way to be completely sure one way or another whether or not God existed, he essentially believed that God is an invention of the weak-minded.

Some Cylon agents, notably Galactica-Sharon and Caprica-Six, apparently were able to change the Cylons' collective mind about how to deal with humanity, causing them to swing totally in the other direction: where first the Cylons wanted to completely wipe out humanity, now they apparently desire to "help" humanity, whether humanity actually wants their help or not.

Known Cylon Agents

Name	First Encountered
Number Three	Final Cut
D'Anna Biers - Fleet Reporter	Final Cut
D'Anna Biers - Caprica	Final Cut Downloaded
Number Five	Miniseries
Aaron Doral	Miniseries
Suicide Bomber	Litmus
Caprica Dorals	Various Episodes
Number Six	Miniseries
Baltar's Six	Miniseries
Resurrected Baltar Six	Downloaded
Shelly Godfrey	Six Degrees of Separation
Caprica Sixes	Various Episodes
Gina	Pegasus
Number Eight	Miniseries
Sharon "Boomer" Valerii	Miniseries
Resurrected Galactica Boomer	Downloaded
Sharon "Athena" Agathon	33
Other Eights	Colonial Day
Naked Boomer Army	Kobol's Last Gleaming (2)
Leoben Conoy	Miniseries
Ragnar Anchorage Conoy	Miniseries
Gemenon Traveller Conoy	Flesh and Bone
Simon	The Farm
Doctor Simon	The Farm
Business Suit Simon	The Farm
Cavil	Lay Down Your Burdens (1)
Brother Cavil	Lay Down Your Burdens (1)
Caprica Cavil	Lay Down Your Burdens (2)

Note: The term "Cylon Agents" to refer to human-type Cylons was seen on screen in Epiphanies, printed on a folder containing pictures of the Cylon models known to the fleet on President Roslin's desk.