10 Most Notorious Battlestar Galactica Urban Legends
6. Are The Cylons An Allegory To Al-Qaeda?
The reimagined Battlestar Galactica is heavily influenced by 9/11, and the political climate of the real world is felt in every corner of the show. The tactics that the Cylons use, including the apparent hijacking of the commercial passenger vessel Olympic Carrier, directly reference the attacks. It is too simple, however, to bow to the idea that the Cylons and Al-Qaeda are directly allegorical.
In a 2006 Rolling Stone interview, Eick warned against such a straightforward interpretation, saying "they [the Cylons] have aspects of Al-Qaeda, and they have aspects of the Catholic Church, and they have aspects of America." While the Colonials have a belief system more akin to the polytheistic religion of the Roman Empire, the Cylons' insistence on the existence of a one true God is closer to Catholicism than anything else. Moore meanwhile stated back in 2005 that there was as much a parallel to the demise of paganism in Europe as there was the modern war on terror.
BSG is a show of such complexity and depth that straightforward comparisons, while inviting, prove almost always to be only one part of the narrative. The undertones of its story are pulled from a wide variety of sources.