Catshanghai

Version 1 of BSG was made in the Cold War when the baddies still looked stern, utilitarian, ugly, non-sexy and otherly like humourless Communists. This time round the scenario is somewhat different. The Cylons are now robots orginally made by man as soldiers and machines that rebelled against their creators, before disappearing and reappearing 40 years later. The old robots are still in operation as cannon fodder and visible enemies, but they have now human like beings who look like us and even have feelings. These new models can pass as humans and wreak havoc when they inflitrate the Battlestar Fleet as spies and assassins.The Cylons appear to have a religious mission, just like Islamic fundamentalist sleeper cells who quietly live in Western countries as they plot terrorist outrages. The human soldiers on the Battlestar Galactica are portrayed sympathetically, but are prone to bouts of stupidity and arrogance just like the modern American military.

How do we judge the ethics of a race of Cylon AI beings controlled by software? They are derided as being evil, but it is frequently noted that they do not have souls and were created by humans so we are ultimately responsible for their actions. Is there a point when AI beings become sentient and responsible for their own actions? Can machines exercise free will? Can they ever have souls? The show flirts with these questions, but it still ultimately casts the Cylons as genocidal adversaries. I think it would be more interesting if the Cylons and humans were given more complex treatment, leaving us wondering whether humans or Cylons have the higher moral ground.