By Jonathan Klotz
| Published
It’s no secret that the opening of Battlestar Galactica, which explained to the audience that the Cylons had a plan, was a lie. The writers of the show didn’t know where the series was going to end up, and creator Ronald D. Moore ended up admitting this on his podcast and in subsequent interviews, but one example of poor foresight stands out thanks to basic arithmetic. When Moore discussed the episode “Islanded in a Stream of Stars,” he admitted that Number Seven was never seen because it threw off the math behind the Final Five.
8+5=13
The Cylons are all numbered, which was not a problem until Season 3, when the Final Five Cylons started being teased. Early on, Battlestar Galactica made it clear there were 12 Cylons, which was symmetrical with the Twelve Colonies, but after introducing Athena as Number Eight, the math no longer added up. If there were eight Cylon models, and then the Final Five, that equals 13 total models, but there could only be 12, which is why Number 7, Daniel, was killed offscreen and never seen once during the series, keeping the total number of models to 12.
Taking advantage of the concept of “Boxing,” Moore concocted the explanation that Number One (played by Dean Stockwell) sabotaged Number 7 long before the war and corrupted the entire line, forcing the Cylon to be permanently boxed. Boxing, in the Cylon sense, involves the digital consciousness of the machine being trapped in a literal box during the resurrection process, putting it in a state of limbo. It was a helpful out for some of Battlestar Galactica’s narrative issues, both of the eight plus five variety and to act as a threat to the seemingly immortal robots.
Though the model-wide boxing of Number Seven prevented the narrative from falling apart, the boxing of Number Three (Lucy Lawless) helped seal a narrative hole when the Xena: Warrior Princess star decided to leave the series. In a beautiful moment of the Cylon true believer accepting her fate, Number Three was boxed by Number One while extolling that she would see the Final Five. Seven and Three remained the only two Cylons during the course of Battlestar Galactica to experience model-wide boxing, and both for similar reasons.
The Final Five Created Problems
Failure to plan the Final Five properly introduced more plot holes than it was worth, according to some Battlestar Galactica fans, and it wasn’t only the Cylon characters that suffered. Revealing that Saul Tigh (Michael Hogan) was a Cylon undercut his evolution as a character, and Ellen Tigh (Kate Vernon) turning out to be a Cylon retroactively robbed her death of any meaning. It’s amusing that the writers put themselves in a mathematical corner, but Moore made one more strange choice with Number Seven.
Number Seven’s name was revealed to be Daniel, which happened to be the same first name as Daniel Greystone, the creator of the Cylons. Though it was a coincidence, Moore’s aiming choice led to speculation that the missing Cylon was really the creator of the Cylons, having granted himself an eternal digital life. Caprica, the prequel series, showed why it was exceedingly unlikely that Greystone would do that to himself, but it’s still a fun bit of Battlestar Galactica fan speculation.
The legendary lack of planning didn’t stop Battlestar Galactica from becoming a hit, and it’s still one of the best sci-fi shows of all time, but situations like Number Seven and everything about the Final Five make it clear how easily the whole series could have fallen apart at a moment’s notice.