Resurrection: death is not final
the technology of prolonged consciousness
A technology that carried a conscious mind past the death of its body. It surfaced on Kobol, on Earth, on Caprica, and last of all among the Cylons.
Resurrection was a technology that let a mind survive the death of its body, and it was developed more than once across the long history the series calls the cycle of time. From its earliest appearance on Kobol to its final form among the Cylons, its purpose was always to carry a consciousness past death. (Battlestar Galactica, "No Exit")
Origins on Kobol and Earth#
The earliest form of resurrection was developed on Kobol, where it was used by the humanoid Cylons who became the Thirteenth Tribe. After they left Kobol and settled on their Earth, the technology fell out of use, and later generations were born through procreation instead. It was recreated by the Final Five, researchers on that Earth, as a nuclear holocaust approached. When they died in the attack, their minds were downloaded into new bodies aboard a ship in orbit. (Battlestar Galactica, "No Exit")
The Avatar Program on Caprica#
Long afterwards, on Caprica, the teenage programmer Zoe Graystone wrote a program that could build a living digital copy of a person from the data they left behind. The result was Zoe-A, an avatar of herself who lived on after Zoe was killed in a train bombing and was later trapped inside her father's prototype robot. The same approach produced Tamara-A, an avatar of Tamara Adams, who died in the same attack. By the end of the series, Zoe had been given a new, lifelike body. (Caprica, "Pilot"; Caprica, "There Is Another Sky"; Caprica, "Apotheosis")
The Cylon Resurrection system#
Resurrection came to the Cylons of the Twelve Colonies when the Final Five reached them during the Cylon War. They offered the Centurions a deal: stop the war, and the Five would help them create humanoid Cylons, complete with resurrection. Eight humanoid models followed, each existing as many copies. When a Cylon died within range of a resurrection ship or the Resurrection Hub, its consciousness was downloaded into a new body of the same model, waking in a resurrection tank with its memories intact. A Cylon killed out of range died for good. (Battlestar Galactica (miniseries); Battlestar Galactica, "Resurrection Ship, Part 1"; Battlestar Galactica, "Downloaded"; Battlestar Galactica, "No Exit")
Frequently asked questions
- What is Resurrection in Battlestar Galactica?
- Resurrection was the technology that let a mind survive the death of its body. For the Cylons, it meant a copy who died within range of a resurrection ship or the Hub woke up in a new body with its memories intact.
- Who developed Resurrection technology?
- It was invented on Kobol, used by the Cylons who became the Thirteenth Tribe and later abandoned, then recreated on Earth by the Final Five. On Caprica, Zoe Graystone worked along similar lines with her avatar program, and the Final Five finally gave resurrection to the Cylons of the Twelve Colonies.
- How did Cylon Resurrection work?
- Each humanoid Cylon model existed as many copies. When a copy died near a resurrection ship or the Resurrection Hub, its consciousness was downloaded into a fresh body of the same model, waking in a resurrection tank with its memories intact.
- What was the Avatar Program?
- On Caprica, Zoe Graystone wrote a program that built a living digital copy of a person from their data. Her avatar, Zoe-A, survived Zoe's death in a train bombing, and the same approach produced an avatar of Tamara Adams, who died in the same attack.
- How did the Final Five use Resurrection to survive Earth's destruction?
- The Final Five, researchers on the Thirteenth Tribe's Earth, recreated resurrection as a nuclear holocaust approached. When they died in the attack, their minds downloaded into new bodies aboard a ship in orbit.
Sources
- EpisodeBattlestar Galactica (miniseries), Miniseries (2003)
- EpisodeBattlestar Galactica, "Resurrection Ship, Part 1", Season 2, Episode 11 (2006)
- EpisodeBattlestar Galactica, "Downloaded", Season 2, Episode 18 (2006)
- EpisodeBattlestar Galactica, "No Exit", Season 4, Episode 15 (2009)
- EpisodeCaprica, "Pilot", Season 1, Episode 1 (2010)
- EpisodeCaprica, "There Is Another Sky", Season 1, Episode 5 (2010)
- EpisodeCaprica, "Apotheosis", Season 1, Episode 18 (2011)
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.
Kobol: humanity's lost homeworld
Kobol was the ancestral home of the Twelve Tribes, abandoned for two thousand years. The fleet found the Tomb of Athena there, and with it the way to Earth.
Tamara-A: the avatar of a lost daughter
Tamara-A was a sentient artificial intelligence created in the years before the Cylon War through the Avatar Program. Based on Tamara Adams, a girl killed in the Caprica City Maglev bombing, she was conceived as part of a bargain between Daniel Graystone and the Adama family and was abandoned soon after her creation.
Thirteenth Tribe: the lost Cylon people of Kobol
The Thirteenth Tribe were a race of cybernetic beings who originated on Kobol and left it to found their own world. They settled Earth, where the sentient machines they built rose against them in a war that ended in mutual destruction.
Zoe-A
Zoe-A was a sentient artificial intelligence created by the Caprican prodigy Zoe Graystone as a digital recreation of herself. Through a damaged chip placed in the U-87 battle robot, the program from which she sprang came to underlie every mechanical Cylon built before and during the Cylon War.
Zoe Graystone
Zoe Graystone was a Caprican computing prodigy and one of the earliest pioneers of Cylon technology. The daughter of Daniel and Amanda Graystone, she created a digital recreation of her own consciousness, Zoe-A, that would shape the future of artificial life.
Mentioned in17 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.
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.
Ellen Tigh
Ellen Tigh was the wife of Colonel Saul Tigh, a scientist of the original Earth, and the eldest of the Final Five Cylons. She led the work that rediscovered Resurrection and created the humanoid Cylon models, and was the only one of the Five to fully regain her memories.
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.
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.
Heavy Raider
The Heavy Raider was an FTL-capable Cylon craft introduced with the renewed war on humanity, combining the roles of troop transport and gunship. Armored, windowless, and brain-piloted, it ferried Centurions to the colonies and later carried both Cylon assaults and a rebel alliance with the Colonial fleet.
Jack Fisk
Commander Jack Fisk was a Pegasus officer who survived the Fall, rose to command the battlestar after Admiral Cain's death, and was garroted for his grip on the fleet's black market.
Number Four
Number Four, also known as Simon O'Neil, was a model of humanoid Cylon created by the Final Five after the Cylon War. Often serving as doctors and medics, the Fours sided with the Ones and Fives during the Cylon Civil War.
Number Three
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 Two
Number Two was a model of humanoid Cylon, the second of the eight types created by the Final Five. Deeply spiritual and prone to manipulation, every copy took the name Leoben, and the line was all but exterminated in the Cylon Civil War.
Resurrection Hub
The Resurrection Hub was the central computer processing facility of the Cylon Fleet, the installation that made resurrection technology work. Every resurrection ship depended on its signal, so its destruction ended Cylon immortality for good.
Resurrection Ship
A Resurrection Ship was an FTL-capable Cylon vessel that extended the reach of the resurrection network, downloading the consciousness of dying Cylons into new bodies far beyond the range of the Resurrection Hub.
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