Television

BATTLESTAR GALACTICA’s Ronald D. Moore Admits: Cylons Did NOT Have a Plan

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Jun 13 2017 • 3:00 PM

“The Cylons were created by man. They rebelled. They evolved. There are many copies. And they have a plan.”

If you watched Battlestar Galactica, Ronald D. Moore’s groundbreaking reboot of the 1970s science fiction series, you are intimately familiar with those words. From the very first episode that sprung from the Syfy (formerly SCI FI Channel) miniseries, the credits opened with the basic premise of the show. Decades after the giant robots rebelled against their makers in a devastating war, the Cylons returned from deep space disguised as humans, integrated themselves into society and destroyed it from within. With the last remaining vestiges of the human race on the run, the men and women on Battlestar Galactica had no idea there were Cylon spies within their midst. And they had a plan…Or so we thought.

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Last weekend at the ATX Television Festival, the gang got back together to look back on the series and its legacy on genre television. There, Edward James Olmos (Admiral Adama), Mary McDonnell (President Laura Roslin), Katee Sackhoff (Starbuck), James Callis (Gaius Baltar), Tricia Helfer (Number Six), Grace Park (Boomer/Number Eight), Michael Trucco (Sam Anders) were joined by executive producer Ronald D. Moore, who revealed that the Cylons never had a plan at all! Nope, according to The L.A. Times‘ account of the panel, those iconic words were dreamed up by co-executive producer David Eick, who thought they “sounded cool.” Moore added that he thought they would figure it out by the end of the series, but, as we know, they didn’t.We’re going to give you a moment to pick your jaw up off the floor, since we’re sure you’re as flummoxed by this news as we are.

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Look: No matter where you stand on Battlestar Galactica and its controversial ending, it ultimately doesn’t matter that the Cylons didn’t have “the perfect plan.” As we learned in the series, the Cylons are imperfect beings — just like humans. What really matters is that the show was a brilliantly written, impeccably acted story that wove together political and social commentary together as all great science fiction should. Were there some slip-ups along the way? Sure. Do we wish we’d learned more about how angels potentially tie into all this robot stuff? ABSOLUTELY. Do we still inexplicably loathe Gaeta with every fiber of our being? YOU BETCHA. But that doesn’t mean we’re not going to keep loving Battlestar Galactica, flaws and all. It’s just that good.All we can do now is start our annual rewatch of the series and admit that yeah, that intro is still pretty cool.

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But what do you think? Are you upset that the Cylons/writers didn’t have a plan, or are you numb to the pain after everything we went through with Lost? Let us know in the comments below!

Images: SyfyGIFs via Giphy

Rachel Heine is the Editor-in-Chief of Nerdist and the world’s biggest Gaius Baltar apologist. Chat with her about BSG, Lost, and James Callus’ excellent turn on 12 Monkeys on Twitter!