Number Three
the Cylon known as D'Anna Biers
Number Three, known by the alias D'Anna Biers, was a humanoid Cylon model marked by a forbidden curiosity about the Final Five. That defiance led to the entire line being boxed, and the last surviving Three chose to die on the ruins of Earth.
Number Three, known by the alias D'Anna Biers, was a model of humanoid Cylon. The model was female and blonde, set apart from the other models, and from the Number Ones in particular, by a religious curiosity that fixed especially on the forbidden subject of the Final Five. (Battlestar Galactica, "Final Cut", "Rapture")
Characteristics#
The Number Three model was female and blonde, marked by a religious curiosity, above all about the forbidden subject of the Final Five, that set her apart from the other Cylon models. Threes were referred to collectively as "D'Annas". (Battlestar Galactica, "Final Cut", "The Ties That Bind", "Guess What's Coming to Dinner?")
Infiltration as D'Anna Biers#
The model first appeared as an infiltrator within the Fleet under the alias "D'Anna Biers", posing as a reporter for the Fleet News Service. In that guise she leaned toward a tabloid format of rumor and innuendo rather than the conventional reporting of figures such as James McManus. An early copy presented herself as a documentary filmmaker chronicling the so-called Gideon massacre and, later, daily life aboard Galactica. Her report was transmitted back to Cylon-occupied Caprica, along with information on the survival and successful pregnancy of Sharon Agathon, née Valerii. This copy is presumed to have shared the fate of her line, boxed and her consciousness destroyed with the Resurrection Hub. (Battlestar Galactica, "Final Cut", "Rapture", "The Hub")
The Temple of Five#
A later D'Anna was first seen attempting to box Caprica-Six and Sharon "Boomer" Valerii. After the two convinced the other models that the all-out attack on the Colonies had been a mistake, she went on to oversee the occupation of New Caprica, the recovery of Hera Agathon from Colonial hands, and the Cylon search for both Earth and the Final Five. That search, forbidden by a cultural imperative of Cylon society, led her to the Temple of Five, where she received a vision identifying the Five. She died as a result of the vision, only to be resurrected and then immediately boxed in a process overseen by the Number Ones. (Battlestar Galactica, "Downloaded", "Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II", "Occupation", "Exodus, Part II", "The Eye of Jupiter", "Rapture")
Boxing and the last Three#
Because of the line's defiance of the taboo against learning more about the Final Five, the entire model was boxed, its consciousnesses stored at the Cylons' central Resurrection Hub. During the Cylon Civil War, the faction led by Natalie Faust sought to unbox the Three who had visited the Temple of Five, so that the Seven and the Five might be united. The rebels formed a fragile alliance with the Colonials to retrieve her and then destroy the Hub. That raid is the subject of the season 4 episode "The Hub". (Battlestar Galactica, "Rapture", "The Ties That Bind", "Six of One", "Guess What's Coming to Dinner?", "The Hub")
She was unboxed by Cavil and Boomer, who hoped she could persuade the rebels to stand down; she answered violently, killing Cavil, before being rescued by Karl Agathon and an Eight. With the destruction of the Resurrection Hub, every other copy was lost, leaving her the last Three in existence and the only one ever to reach Earth. Fallen into despair at the discovery of a dead Earth, this final Three chose to stay and die on the planet, her death marking the extinction of her model. (Battlestar Galactica, "The Hub", "Revelations", "Sometimes a Great Notion")
Frequently asked questions
- Who is Number Three in Battlestar Galactica?
- Number Three, known by the alias D'Anna Biers, was a model of humanoid Cylon. The model was female and blonde, marked by a religious curiosity that fixed especially on the forbidden subject of the Final Five.
- What was D'Anna Biers's cover within the Fleet?
- The model first appeared as an infiltrator within the Fleet under the alias D'Anna Biers, posing as a reporter for the Fleet News Service. An early copy presented herself as a documentary filmmaker chronicling the so-called Gideon massacre and, later, daily life aboard Galactica.
- Why was the entire Number Three line boxed?
- A D'Anna pursued the Cylon search for the Final Five to the Temple of Five, where she received a vision identifying the Five. Because of the line's defiance of the taboo against learning more about the Final Five, the entire model was boxed, its consciousnesses stored at the Cylons' central Resurrection Hub.
- How was the last Three unboxed during the Cylon Civil War?
- During the Cylon Civil War, the faction led by Natalie Faust sought to unbox the Three who had visited the Temple of Five so that the Seven and the Five might be united. The rebels formed a fragile alliance with the Colonials to retrieve her and then destroy the Hub.
- What happened to the last Number Three?
- With the destruction of the Resurrection Hub, every other copy was lost, leaving her the last Three in existence and the only one ever to reach Earth. Fallen into despair at the discovery of a dead Earth, this final Three chose to stay and die on the planet, marking the extinction of her model.
Sources
- EpisodeBattlestar Galactica, "Final Cut", Season 2, Episode 8 (2005)
- EpisodeBattlestar Galactica, "Downloaded", Season 2, Episode 18 (2006)
- EpisodeBattlestar Galactica, "Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II", Season 2, Episode 20 (2006)
- EpisodeBattlestar Galactica, "Occupation", Season 3, Episode 1 (2006)
- EpisodeBattlestar Galactica, "Exodus, Part II", Season 3, Episode 4 (2006)
- EpisodeBattlestar Galactica, "The Eye of Jupiter", Season 3, Episode 11 (2006)
- EpisodeBattlestar Galactica, "Rapture", Season 3, Episode 12 (2007)
- EpisodeBattlestar Galactica, "Six of One", Season 4, Episode 2 (2008)
- EpisodeBattlestar Galactica, "The Ties That Bind", Season 4, Episode 3 (2008)
- EpisodeBattlestar Galactica, "Guess What's Coming to Dinner?", Season 4, Episode 7 (2008)
- EpisodeBattlestar Galactica, "The Hub", Season 4, Episode 9 (2008)
- EpisodeBattlestar Galactica, "Revelations", Season 4, Episode 10 (2008)
- EpisodeBattlestar Galactica, "Sometimes a Great Notion", Season 4, Episode 11 (2009)
Spotted a factual error or a primary source we missed? Email a correction. Every flagged claim gets reviewed.
Followed from this entry
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.
Number Eight
Number Eight was one of the seven surviving Humanoid Cylon models, replicated into many copies that typically went by the name Sharon. Marked by affection and a propensity for fickleness, the Eights produced both the sleeper agent Boomer and the loyal Athena.
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.
Number Six
Number Six was a humanoid Cylon model created by the Final Five after the Cylon War. Tall and typically blonde, the Sixes were noted infiltrators who blended into Colonial society before the Fall, and later split from the other models to help spark the Cylon Civil War.
Sharon Agathon
Sharon "Athena" Agathon was a Number Eight humanoid Cylon who fell in love with Karl Agathon on occupied Caprica, defected to the Colonial Fleet, and became the first Cylon to openly serve as a Colonial officer.
Mentioned in24 entries
"Downloaded": Battlestar Galactica season 2 episode 18 explained
"Downloaded" is the episode told from the Cylon side, following Caprica Six and Boomer after they wake up in new bodies on occupied Caprica. Here's what happens, why Hera's "death" matters and how it sets up the season finale.
"Exodus": Battlestar Galactica season 3 episodes 3 and 4 explained
"Exodus" is the two-part escape from New Caprica: the resistance gets the launch keys, Galactica drops through the atmosphere and Pegasus is lost. Here's what happens in Parts I and II, and what the episodes reveal.
"The Hub": Battlestar Galactica season 4 episode 9 explained
In "The Hub", humans and rebel Cylons destroy the Resurrection Hub and end Cylon immortality, while Roslin, stuck on a basestar with Baltar, finally hears his confession. Here's what happens, what Roslin's visions of Elosha mean and where it leads.
Battlestar Galactica Characters: Every Major Character in the 2004 Series
The main humans and Cylons of the reimagined Battlestar Galactica, from William Adama and Laura Roslin to Starbuck, Baltar and the Final Five. Who each one is, what they do in the story and where they end up, with a short section on the Caprica and Blood & Chrome prequels.
Battlestar Galactica Timeline: every major event from Kobol to the arrival on Earth
The Reimagined Series chronology in order, from the exodus from Kobol and the death of the first Earth to the Fall of the Twelve Colonies and the fleet's arrival 150,000 years ago. A shorter section at the end covers the separate 1978 series and Galactica 1980.
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.
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.
Earth
Earth was a world settled by the Thirteenth Tribe roughly four thousand years before the fall of the Twelve Colonies. Once home to a flourishing Cylon civilization, it was reduced to a radioactive ruin by a nuclear holocaust, and the Colonial fleet abandoned it days after at last reaching it.
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.
Eye of Jupiter: the BSG artifact, the Temple of Five and the supernova
The Eye of Jupiter was the marker on the road to Earth that both humans and Cylons went looking for in season 3 of Battlestar Galactica. Everyone expected an object hidden in the Temple of Five. It turned out to be the dying star overhead.
Gaius Baltar
Dr. Gaius Baltar was a celebrated computer scientist whose vanity and manipulation by a Cylon agent handed the enemy the keys to the Colonial defenses, enabling the near-extermination of humanity. He survived to become Vice President, President, prophet, and finally a reluctant penitent.
Gina Inviere
Gina Inviere was the alias of a Number Six copy who infiltrated the battlestar Pegasus as a systems analyst, sabotaged it during the Fall, and after months of captivity assassinated Admiral Cain before destroying the liner Cloud Nine.
+ 12 more
Get new articles in your inbox
No spam. New lore drops, canon conflicts, and deep dives only when they’re worth reading.
Some links on Lore Fortress are affiliate links. If you buy through them we earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.