Number Five
the Aaron Doral model
The Number Fives were a model of humanoid Cylon, all of whom went by the name Aaron Doral. They infiltrated Colonial society before the Fall of the Twelve Colonies and are believed extinct after the Cylon Civil War.
The Number Fives were a model of humanoid Cylon, all of whom went by the name Aaron Doral. Many identical individuals were produced, each sharing the same face and personality, and like the other models they could download into new bodies when killed. Like the other humanoid models, the Fives were represented in the Cylon political process by a single individual. The model is presumed extinct after the Cylon Civil War ended at the Colony. (Battlestar Galactica (miniseries); Battlestar Galactica, "Downloaded", "Six of One", "Daybreak, Part II")
Nature#
The Number Fives were one of the humanoid Cylon models, produced in large numbers from a single template. Every Five shared the same face and personality, and a Five killed within range of a Resurrection Ship woke in a new body. Because of this shared identity, all members of the model went by the same name with humans, Aaron Doral, and a single individual stood in for the entire model in Cylon political affairs. How the Dorals compare with the Cavils, Leobens and the rest is covered in our guide to all the Cylon models. (Battlestar Galactica (miniseries); Battlestar Galactica, "Downloaded")
Infiltration and the Fall#
A number of Fives worked their way into human society as agents in the lead-up to the Fall of the Twelve Colonies. One worked as a public relations executive coordinating the decommissioning ceremony aboard Galactica, mocking the old ship as antiquated and arguing for automated defence systems. After the attack, Gaius Baltar, steered by his visions of Six, picked Doral as a scapegoat and accused him of planting a device in the CIC. Doral protested his innocence and was left behind at Ragnar, where he showed the same symptoms as the Cylon Leoben Conoy, confirming what he was. He was later recovered by his fellow Cylons. (Battlestar Galactica (miniseries))
Another Five hid within the refugee fleet led by Galactica, working alongside a Number One copy who berated him for walking around with the face of a man the humans had already left for dead. Advised by Cavil to act as a suicide bomber, he built a bomb from explosives stolen from a small arms locker and set it off in a corridor of Galactica after Commander Adama spotted and challenged him. (Battlestar Galactica, "Litmus"; Battlestar Galactica: The Plan)
The Occupation of New Caprica#
During the Occupation of New Caprica, several Fives sat among the Cylon leaders who ran the colony through President Gaius Baltar's puppet administration. One interrogated James "Jammer" Lyman, blamed the resistance for the massacre at the temple, and gave him a key card so he could report back, turning him into an informant. Another shot Caprica Six when she dissented, forcing Baltar to sign a death list. (Battlestar Galactica: The Resistance; Battlestar Galactica, "Precipice")
The Cylon Civil War#
In the lead-up to the Cylon Civil War, the Fives sided with the Ones over the boxing of the Number Three line, which left six voting models and made deadlocks possible. Later they backed the lobotomizing of the Raiders, which had broken off the attack at the Ionian Nebula after sensing the Final Five within the fleet. The measure passed only because Boomer voted against her own model. Two Fives were then shot in the conference room by Centurions whose inhibitors had been removed by Natalie's faction, and the war began. Fives fought for Cavil at the Colony, and all those aboard died when it fell into the black hole it orbited. The model is presumed extinct thereafter. (Battlestar Galactica, "Rapture", "Six of One", "Daybreak, Part II")
Frequently asked questions
- What is the Number Five model in Battlestar Galactica?
- The Number Fives were a model of humanoid Cylon. Many identical individuals were produced, each sharing the same face and personality, and all went by the name Aaron Doral. In the Cylon political process the entire model was represented by a single individual.
- What role did the Number Fives play in the Fall of the Twelve Colonies?
- Several Fives infiltrated human society as agents in the lead-up to the Fall. One worked as a public relations executive coordinating Galactica's decommissioning ceremony, and after the attack Gaius Baltar picked him as a scapegoat, accusing him of planting a device in the CIC.
- What happened to the Five discovered aboard Galactica?
- That Five was abandoned on Ragnar, where he showed the same symptoms as the Cylon Leoben Conoy and was later recovered by fellow Cylons. Another Five, hidden in the refugee fleet and advised by a Cavil, blew himself up in a corridor aboard Galactica.
- Are the Number Fives extinct?
- The Number Fives are presumed extinct after the Cylon Civil War. The Fives sided with the Number Ones and Fours, two were shot by rebel-controlled Centurions when the war began, and the Fives aboard the Colony died when it fell into a black hole.
Sources
- EpisodeBattlestar Galactica (miniseries), Miniseries, Sci Fi Channel (2003)
- EpisodeBattlestar Galactica, "Litmus", Season 1, Episode 6 (2005)
- EpisodeBattlestar Galactica, "Downloaded", Season 2, Episode 18 (2006)
- SerialBattlestar Galactica: The Resistance, Webisodes (2006)
- EpisodeBattlestar Galactica, "Precipice", Season 3, Episode 2 (2006)
- EpisodeBattlestar Galactica, "Rapture", Season 3, Episode 12 (2007)
- EpisodeBattlestar Galactica, "Six of One", Season 4, Episode 2 (2008)
- EpisodeBattlestar Galactica, "Daybreak, Part II", Season 4, Episode 20 (2009)
- FilmBattlestar Galactica: The Plan, Television film (2009)
Spotted a factual error or a primary source we missed? Email a correction. Every flagged claim gets reviewed.
Followed from this entry

Aaron Doral
Aaron Doral was a Number Five humanoid Cylon who infiltrated Colonial society as a public relations executive, running the press side of Galactica's decommissioning. Framed by Baltar, he was left behind at Ragnar Anchorage and collected by his fellow Cylons.

Cylon Raider: the living fighter
The modern Raider was a living organism fused to a metal exoskeleton, able to plan and to refuse orders. Killed Raiders resurrected into new ships.

Cylon
The Cylons were a race of sentient machines created as military robots by Graystone Industries on Caprica. Built from research into artificial consciousness, they rebelled against their human masters, fought a long war, and forty years later returned to annihilate humanity.

The Final Five
The Final Five were five humanoid Cylon models hidden from the rest of their kind, descendants of the Thirteenth Tribe and the creators of the Significant Seven.

Humanoid Cylon
Humanoid Cylons were a form of biological Cylon engineered to look and behave exactly like human beings. Created by the Final Five after the Cylon War, these synthetic humans were both wholly organic and wholly artificial, and their infiltration of the colonies made the Fall possible.

Number One: John Cavil
Number One, called John, was the first humanoid Cylon the Final Five built. He wiped out the entire Number Seven line and had the Five's memories erased.
Mentioned in11 entries
Aaron Doral
Aaron Doral was a Number Five humanoid Cylon who infiltrated Colonial society as a public relations executive, running the press side of Galactica's decommissioning. Framed by Baltar, he was left behind at Ragnar Anchorage and collected by his fellow Cylons.
Basestar Type-D: the modern Cylon baseship
The Basestar Type-D, also called the Modern Basestar, was the primary Cylon capital ship at the Fall of the Twelve Colonies and through the war that followed. Partly organic and run by a Hybrid, it served as a fleet carrier and missile platform in the mould of a Colonial battlestar.
Caprica Cavil: the Number One in the resistance
Caprica Cavil was a Number One model humanoid Cylon who took the guise of a Polytheist priest. On Caprica before the Fall he took the defense access codes from Caprica-Six, and he later infiltrated the human resistance led by Samuel T. Anders.
Cylon Civil War
The Cylon Civil War was the genocidal conflict that split the Humanoid Cylons into two factions over the treatment of their Raiders and Centurions. It shattered Cylon society and drove one faction into an uneasy alliance with the surviving humans.
Every Cylon Model in Order, by Number: One to Eight and the Final Five
All twelve humanoid Cylon models from the reimagined Battlestar Galactica, in order by number, from Cavil and Leoben to Saul Tigh and Tory Foster. Who each one was, the copies that mattered, what they wanted and how their story ended.
Fall of the Twelve Colonies
A single day of Cylon attack killed billions of people across Colonial space. Barely fifty thousand escaped in a refugee fleet.
Galactica
Galactica was a Jupiter-class battlestar that served the Colonial Fleet from the Cylon War until the discovery of Earth. Never networked, it survived the Fall of the Twelve Colonies and shepherded the last fifty thousand humans across uncharted space before being scuttled into the sun.
Galactica Cavil
Galactica Cavil was a Number One model humanoid Cylon who evacuated the ruins of Picon during the Fall of the Twelve Colonies and reached the refugee fleet. Welcomed aboard Galactica as a priest, he formed and led a hidden cell of humanoid Cylons working to destroy the fleet from within.
Natalie Faust: the Six who led the Cylon rebellion and died on Galactica
Natalie Faust was the Number Six copy who led the rebel Cylon faction demanding the search for the Final Five. She freed the Centurions to break Cavil's majority, allied with the Colonials against the Resurrection Hub, and was shot dead in a Galactica corridor by Sharon Agathon.
Scorpia Traveller: civilian ship of the Fleet
When this civilian ship docked with Galactica in the weeks after the Fall, a Number Five Cylon crossed with the disembarking passengers and bombed the battlestar.
Which Cylon Are You? Take the Battlestar Galactica Quiz
Ten questions about your cover story, your faith and your worst habits, and we'll match you to one of the eight humanoid Cylon models from the 2004 series, from Brother Cavil to the Sharons.
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