The GALACTICA Group: Full Disclosure!

Or nearly, anyway...

It's not often that I do this, but if you HAVE NOT SEEN Episode 4.15 "NO EXIT," then please, stop reading right now!!

Still here? Ok...

Last night we learned the history of the Cylon nation, and perhaps origin of the proverb "All this has happened before, and all this will happen again." So, if you're as confused as some of us in the group, let me try and re-cap this.

In the beginning, mankind lived in paradise on Kobol. As master geneticists, they developed skinjob slaves...the original Cylons, the 13th tribe. War broke out, and the tribes left for destinations unknown. The 12 human tribes went out and settled in the colonies, and the 13th tribe went to Earth.

Originally, the 13th tribe, the Cylons, never died or reproduced, the only ressurrected by downloading. But eventually, the Cylons learned to reprodcue and downloading was forgotten. Thousands of years past...and the Cylon tribe on Earth created robotic Centurians as slave labor. The Centurians rebelled, and another great war broke out. Warned (by who, we don't know) the Final Five worked to restore ressurection, and when Earth was nuked, the five downloaded to a ressurection ship in orbit.

Recognizing the cycle of destruction, the Final Five backtracked to Kobol and followed the steps of the 12 tribes to the colonies, to warn of the cycle of genocide and war. But by the time they arrived, the first Cylon war between the centurians (developed by Daniel Graystone in CAPRICA) and the humans had already broken out.

To stop the war, the Final Five granted the Centurians greatest desire: skinjob bodies and downlaod capabilities. The Five created eight models, starting with Brother John Cavil--Number One, instililng in them the greatest belief the colonial Centurians had--belief in the one true God. But then something unexpected happened. Cavil killed all the Number Sevens AND the Final Five. Then he created memory blocks when the Five downloaded, and introduced them back on Caprica as part of the colonial forces. Then, with his army of skinjob Cylons, he broke the armistace and attacked the 12 colonies.

What he didn't count on was the Five surviving and helping the colonial forces, or recovering their memories. Cavil had hoped that when the Five downloaded, they would admit their mistake in his imperfect creation. With the Ressurrection Hub destroyed, Cavil needed the Final Five to restore the hardware allowing for Cylon download. Though he had Ellen as a prisoner, she couldn't tell him alone. She needed the other Final Four to make the system work. Their equipment, and a full planet of Cylons, remains hidden on an unknown world.

So then, what of the Number 7? Does he exist? Is he Starbuck? And who warned the Final Five on Earth of the coming attack? Tori saw a man, and Galen saw a woman. Could it be Baltar and Red Six?

I guess we have to keep watching. Five episodes remain.

Oh! I almost forgot to mention. Several members of THE GALACTICA GROUP have seen a workprint of CAPRICA. They had less than flattering things to say about the new pilot, though they did confirm that the first Cylon of the series is a Centurian, and that belief in the One God stemmed from a virtual reality cult. I won't give away more than that, but let me say that the premise did not sound like a good one. The origin of the Centurians, and their belief in the One God sounds like something William Gibson would have made up on a bad day when he needed money. We'll see, when CAPRICA airs.

Now, for the podcast. On your panel tonight: