Cylon Raider

Cylon Raiders are a classification of fictional spacecraft featured in the Battlestar Galactica television franchise. They first appeared in the three-part pilot episode of the original series, "Saga of a Star World", and have made regular appearances throughout the entirety of the show. The concept behind the Cylon Raider was re-imagined for the 2003 Battlestar Galactica miniseries and the 2004 Battlestar Galactica regular series.

A Cylon Raider is an interceptor fighter craft employed by the Cylon Empire. In the original series, they were piloted by teams of three Cylon Centurions, who served as commander, gunner and pilot/navigator. Cylon Raider ships were small and compact and offered little room outside of the crew. When not in use, Cylon Raiders were staged aboard a Cylon Basestar. Cylon Raiders were equipped with twin laser torpedos, which were housed beneath the wing assembly on each side of the command cockpit.

During missions that placed them into situations outside of their programming, the command crew of a Raider would vote on what course of action to take, indicating some small measure of democratic ideaology within the Cylon command strucutre.

Revival series
In the 2003 miniseries and the 2004 reimagined series, Cylon Raiders are cybernetic drone ships employed by the Cylon race. They are non-sentient bio-mechanical organisms and are programmed to carry out predetermined mission parameters. On one occasion however, A Cylon Raider, has been shown to develop quasi-sentience in the form of seemingly indepedent action from that of the rest of the squadron as well as a severity and ruthlessness, beyond that of a normal Cylon Raider. Due to visible battle damage seen upon the Raider's forward cowling, some have taken to calling it Scar. One theory as to Scar's quasi-sentience and aggressive demeanor is that is is an unexpected side effect of repeatedly being destroyed and resurrected.

In the season one episode, "You Can't Go Home Again", Galactica pilot Kara Thrace crash-lands on a small moon and must use her skills to "hotwire" the internal organs of a downed Cylon Raider. She succeeds in understanding the interface between it's biological components and it's mechanical components and manages to fly it back to the Galactica. President Roslin believed that the recovery of the Cylon Raider would help point the fleet towards the planet Kobol.

Notes & Trivia

 * The Mattel company produced a Cylon Raider modular toy in 1978 which came with moveable landing gear, an opening cockpit, extending wings to reveal pop-out (non-firing) laser torpedo cannons and a two-inch removeable Cylon Centurion. Other toys in this line include the Colonial Stellar Probe, the Colonial Scarab and the Colonial Viper. Product number: 2532.

Related categories

 * Cylon Raider images
 * Cylon Raider appearances