The Man Who Created The Cylons

 

No, I'm not referring to the scientists who will be shown to create the first Cylons in the new Battlestar Galactica spinoff show Caprica.  I'm talking about Andrew Probert.  This is the guy who actually designed the appearance and costumes for the original Cylons in Battlestar Galactica 30 years ago.

 

Darthmojo has a really interesting article up with him in which he discusses the influences behind the original design and how and why the original Cylons ended up looking the way they did.  I actually even learned some stuff from reading the article too.  Things like:

 

• Ralph McQuarrie (of Star Wars fame) was originally hired to design the Cylons


• Andrew Probert was the lead designer on Star Trek: The Next Generation and he is responsible for the design of both the Enterprise D and the new Romulan Warbirds.


• The Cylons were originally supposed to be blind lizard people, but they were turned into robots so the writers could get away with killings tons of them in a single show.


• The face and chest plates of the soldiers was designed to look like the backside of the Cylon Raiders.


• The heads of the Cylons were inspided by ancient Greek helments.

 

Wow, the guy who created the Cylons is the same guy who designed the Enterprise D.  Who woulda thunk it?  And he redesigned the Romulan Warbird, which was always my favorite designed ship in that show.  I always loved when the Romulans showed up because their ships were the only ones in the series that looked like they could actually kick the crap out of the Enterprise in a one on one fight.  Sadly, we never did get to see that battle.  We did sort of get to see it in the movie Star Trek: Nemesis, but by then it was a different Enterprise and a different Romulan Warship and it just wasn't the same.  Although that battle did kick ass.