Battlestar Galactica Forums

I'm not sure if there's a thread dedicated to this topic anywhere, but I keep seeing it pop up all over the place on these forums, so I thought I'd start a discussion on the phenomenon of the Cylons' mid-frak glowing spines (of lurrrrrve).

So far, we've only seen it happen twice (that I can recall): Once with Caprica Six and Baltar, and once with Athena and Helo.

Is there any significance we should attribute to it? I have to admit, I've not listened to the podcasts, so I'm not sure if this has been covered there or not (if it has, please let me know), but I can't help but wonder that, when we have so many Cylon models revealed, there are only two instances of this happening - and they're both female.

The fact that they're both female makes me wonder if it's not something to do with reproduction - I mean, Athena went on to have Hera, right? (No, I'm not assuming that Athena and Helo only frakked once on Caprica. But we only saw once, and that once we saw the Glowing Spine of Cylon Lurrrve.) There's no reason to assume that Caprica Six may not have been/gotten pregnant, as her body was destroyed in the nuclear blast. The only other Cylon/Human crossbreed (I don't want to use hybrid so as not to cause confusion with The Hybrid) is Tyrol and Cally's son Nicky, but obviously since we didn't see them frakking, we can't know if Galen's spine lights up like a Christmas tree.

Now, I know I'm probably thinking about all this way too much (this is what happens when you inhale 4 seasons and a mini-series in the space of a few short weeks to catch up - your brain goes a little crazy-like-Starbuck), but I figured I'd throw that out there and see what everyone else thinks.

So, what do you think?

The glowing eye that goes back and forth in the centurion's, and raider's head seems to have several other places that technology was applied.

The glowing spine (Up and down, up and down), the glowing red strip in the rooms aboard the base stars, (Back and forth, back and forth)

Sort of like a Cylon motif.

I've heard too that this was a mistake. Thing is, there seems to be other ways you can tell a Cylon. Take that optical cable receiver Sharon's got in her wrist. There's got to be some reader in there. I just wonder why it doesn't show up on a simple X-Ray. Even if it's organic, there has to be some anatomical difference that permits this capability.

Being MUCH stronger means that the muscle tissue must have a different chemistry than humans. Yes, perhaps just more efficient: an enhanced ability to deliver and accept oxygen and sugars to the muscle tissues. You'd think that'd be detectable.

If we can have these two things that are nearly undetectable, then the chemistry to permit bio-luminescence shouldn't be too hard to hide from those not looking for it. After all, those we have seen engaging in the act weren't doing it dagit-style.....

Mr BO

I think the glowing spines could have been a really cool plot device if better used. Instead of simply glowing while in sexual euphoria they should have made the spines glow whenever a Cylon feels intense emotion. So, sometimes they could have sex but the spine wouldn't glow because they just didn't care about the person they're in bed with at the time. Additionally, if a Cylon was made to go into a rage, or feel incredible sorrow, the spine would glow.

The reason I think this would be a good plot device is that the Cylons are shown to be somewhat cold and detached emotionally. The viewers would be let in on when a Cylon was being emotionally genuine, but the characters wouldn't necessarily know that, nor would they have to notice the spine glowing. For example, Baltar was having a relationship with Caprica Six and apparently NEVER saw her spine glow during sex even though we as the audience were allowed to see it in the miniseries. I thnk if Baltar had ever noticed the glowing he would have been tipped off immediately that something wasn't right with Six.