Article on the Cylons

Because news is a little slow at the moment, here's an article about the Cylons and the recent Home Part II:

Cylons: Can't live with them, can't live without themAugust 27, 2005
(SPOILER ALERT) I love how Battlestar Galactica continues to tease us with the mystery of the Cylons' origin, purpose and abilities.
In Friday night's episode "Home, Part II," we saw the Cylon-occupied Caprica version of Lt. Sharon "Boomer" Valerii tensely reunited with both Commander William Adama -- who was shot and nearly killed by her Galactica version -- and Chief Petty Officer Galen Tyrol -- who had been the Galactica version's lover.
The Caprica Sharon apparently shared all of the Galactica Sharon's memories up until the Galactica's departure from Colonial space, but how and why the individual Cylons are created, get their memories or are linked to some sort of Cylon "collective" remain unclear. The current Sharon says she doesn't have any of the hidden protocols of the first Sharon, but if the first Sharon could have been programmed not to know she was a Cylon, couldn't this one be deceived, too? (Evidently some Cylons don't have free will -- or don't know that they don't. Then again, who does?)
Lingering behind all this is the entire issue of how the "toaster" Cylons went away for 40 years and returned with their humanoid masters. Who -- or what -- is in charge? Did the Cylons truly evolve or just encounter something which gave them human form. Why are there only 12 master types of humanoid Cylon? (One for each colony? Or one for each of the 12 entities buried in Athena's tomb?)
We learned in the episode "The Farm" that the Cylons are trying to breed human-Cylon hybrids of some sort (we know they've succeeded with Caprica Sharon and Lt. Karl "Helo" Agathon), but as Lt. Kara "Starbuck" Thrace points out in Friday's episode the Cylons have removed all the bodies from Caprica's ruins and appear to be rebuilding the planet's infrastructure. For a humanoid Cylon civilization -- or a hybrid Cylon civilization?
"Home, Part II" also addressed the is-she-a-chip-or-isn't-she issue, the question about the seductive No. 6 that executive producer Ron Moore had said in his podcasts he wanted to remain ambiguous as long as possible. While the No. 6 apparition originally told Gaius Baltar she was from a chip in his head -- like the mental clone of Scorpius that accompanies John Crichton for much of Farscape -- we've always been given cause to suspect he may have gone crazy. That's even though No. 6 gives him real-world information he might not have known for himself, such as the presence of the original Cylon tracking device aboard Galactica and Sharon's pregnancy.
So after Baltar had his brain scan, we face the same question he does: If he doesn't have a chip in his brain, where's she coming from? Is she a spiritual entity? Is there another explanation for her ability to communicate with him, such as a widespread nanotech network in his body?
The problem with a lot of these questions is that if the answer is that the Cylons have advanced biotech or nanotech capability, why can't they just wipe out the remaining humans with a plague -- or build better Raiders or better Raider pilots? Unless, of course, it's all a big conspiracy, and the Cylons are just herding the ragtag fleet around for their still-mysterious purposes...

Good stuff. Can't wait to catch up on the latest episodes. Unfortunently, the guy who was recording them just had his computer fry on him, although I've got another friend who has tapes...