The old cylons were in a black and white world -- the US vs the evil empire. You could spot them a mile away.Actually, the original Battlestar was a retelling of Mormonism:
Battlestar Galactica (1978)
Battlestar Galactica is the story of the
Mormons retold with the visual vocabulary of Star Wars, plus a few ideas from TV westerns and tabloid archeology. The moral of the pilot movie and most episodes is "Don't trust outsiders; Kill them before they get the chance to kill you."
The overwhelming financial success of Star Wars gave creator/producer Glen Larson the hard numbers he needed to finally convince television networks that science fiction could be profitable.
Larson is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ Latter-day Saints (the Mormons), founded by Joseph Smith (1805-1844). In 1823, while Smith was still a teenager, the angel Moroni appeared and revealed the location of several gold Nephi Plates. The plates had been buried by Moroni in 421 CE, when he was still a mortal. They were written mostly by Moroni and his father, the prophet Mormon, in the Nephi language. Smith translated the plates into English by divine guidance. He then returned the plates to Moroni, who brought them back to Heaven. Smith's translation is today called The Book of Mormon; Another Testament of Jesus Christ. The Book of Mormon recounts the early history of the world from 600 BCE to 420 CE. The Mormons believe in four canonical scriptures: The Bible, The Book of Mormon, Doctrines and Covenants, and The Pearl of Great Price; these are the sources for the basic plot and all the religious themes in Battlestar Galactica:
| Galactica |
Mormon Scriptures |
| Battlestar Galactica |
Noah's Ark (Larson recycled ideas for Galactica from an earlier pitch, "Adam's Ark") |
| The Twelve Colonies (and the lost thirteenth colony) of Colonists |
The Twelve Tribes (and the lost thirteenth tribe) of Jews |
| The Cylons, who pursue the fleeing Colonists |
The Egyptians, who pursue the fleeing Jews |
| Colonies are ruled by the "Council of Twelve" |
Mormons are ruled by the "Council of Twelve" |
| Home planet of mankind is called "Kobol" |
Home planet of mankind is called "Kolob" |
| Count Iblis |
Satan ("Iblis" is the Islamic name for Satan) |
| Seraphs (the beings who pilot the mysterious ships of light) |
Seraphim (the highest rank of angels) |
| Adama |
Adam (the first man according to the Old Testament, whom Mormons arguably believe is God) |
| Apollo opens a path in the Cylon mine field so the Colonists can escape the Cylons |
Moses parts the Red Sea so the Jews can escape the Egyptians |
| Adama wears a silver medallion of office around his neck |
Joseph Smith wore a silver medallion of office around his neck (a Hebrew puzzlebox called the "Jupiter Talisman") |
|
http://www.jitterbug.com/origins/general.html
The mythos of the original B.G. may have had the same Old Testament Biblical roots as Mormonism, but IMO, B.G. was never intended to be a Mormon message.