Basestar: the Cylon carrier

The basestar was the primary capital ship of the Cylons, a carrier and battleship hybrid that filled the same role for the Cylon fleet that the battlestar filled for the Colonial Fleet. The modern basestar, often called the Type-D, was partly organic and operated by a living Hybrid. It launched the Raiders that led the Fall of the Twelve Colonies and harried Galactica and its civilian convoy thereafter. (Battlestar Galactica miniseries; Battlestar Galactica, "33"; "Six of One")

The Type-A basestar#

The Type-A basestar, a reference name for the warship the Cylons used during the First Cylon War, looked like two flattened cones joined at the centre, giving it a distinctive saucer-like profile. Its main armament was missiles with nuclear or conventional warheads, and it launched Raiders from openings in its hull. (Razor; Razor Flashbacks; Blood & Chrome)

The origins of the first basestars are never explained on screen. Ships of this kind took part in Operation Raptor Talon at the very end of the war, and by the time of the Fall they had been replaced by the modern design. A model of one was displayed in the museum being set up aboard Galactica for its decommissioning. (Razor; Razor Flashbacks; Battlestar Galactica miniseries)

The Type-D basestar#

The Type-D basestar, also called the Modern Basestar or baseship, was the primary capital ship the Cylons fielded at the time of the Fall of the Twelve Colonies and the war that followed, filling the same carrier and battleship role as a battlestar. It was developed at some point after the First Cylon War and replaced the earlier ships of the same name. Unlike earlier Cylon technology, it was partly organic and operated by a Cylon wired into the ship, a Hybrid, rather than a conventional crew. (Battlestar Galactica miniseries; Battlestar Galactica, "Six of One"; "Guess What's Coming to Dinner?")

Basestars led the Fall, toward which the Cylons had been building for years. Though less armoured than a battlestar, they had the CNP exploit on their side, which disabled Colonial ships before they could fight back. Basestars kept harassing Galactica and the refugee convoy afterward. After the exodus from New Caprica, the Cylon Civil War broke out, with ships under the Number One, Four and Five models fighting those crewed by the Two, Six and Eight models. After the destruction of the Colony it is uncertain how many basestars survived. The rebel basestar was handed to Centurions who had been freed from slavery by the rebel models, and they jumped away on their own. (Battlestar Galactica miniseries; Battlestar Galactica, "33"; "Six of One"; "The Ties That Bind"; "Daybreak, Part II")

Design#

As with most Cylon technology built after the First Cylon War, the basestar was partly organic, so that damage could heal like a wound. Within its central section lay living space for Humanoid Cylons and their Centurion servants, along with the chamber housing the Hybrid, the Cylon wired into the ship's systems who controlled everything from its weapons to its jumps. (Battlestar Galactica, "Six of One"; "Guess What's Coming to Dinner?"; "The Hub")

Above and below this central section were rotating sections, each extending three arms in a Y-shape, from which Raiders were launched. The arms could be entered to reach a pressurised hangar deck. The inner parts of the ship left the organic elements exposed, and during one Colonial mission to destroy a basestar with a nuclear bomb, a Raptor set down inside the ship itself. (Battlestar Galactica miniseries; Battlestar Galactica, "Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part II")

Basestars were heavily armed, firing conventional and nuclear missiles, but they relied on firepower and Raiders rather than armour, and they proved vulnerable when battlestars closed to short range. Their ability to heal made up some of the difference. (Battlestar Galactica miniseries; Battlestar Galactica, "Resurrection Ship, Part II"; "Guess What's Coming to Dinner?")