"God in the Machines" Part 3 Battlestar Galactica: Cylon War #3 (Dynamite) Writers: Joshua Ortega and Eric Nylund Pencils: Nigel Raynor Colors: Adriano Lucas Letters: Simon Bowland Cover A: Stephen Segovia, Cover B: Nigel Raynor 2009

As the Colonial civil war looms on the brink of Armageddon, the robots take action.

Notes from the BSG chronology

This issue takes place entirely within Admiral Tanner's flashback to 40 years earlier (begun in "God in the Machines" Part 1) to show events leading up to the events of the first Cylon War.

Didja Know?

Battlestar Galactica: Cylon War is a 4-issue mini-series published by Dynamite Entertainment. Though the mini-series itself is titled Cylon War, the bonus script pages included in each issue show that the story was titled "God in the Machines" Parts 1-4, a better title in the first place, so I have used those titles in PopApostle's studies of the mini-series.

This series tells the story of the build-up to the first Cylon War 40 years before the events of BSG2000. It was published the year before the premiere of the Caprica TV series on Syfy, so it unfortunately contradicts a lot of the canon information about the origin of the Cylons depicted therein. To make this mini-series fit into the continuity at all, one must imagine that the Tanner corporation here has merely taken a role in helping to improve the Cylon robotic designs already introduced by Graystone Industries in the aforementioned TV series. 

Characters appearing or mentioned in this story

Commander Tanner

Clive Madras

Isak

Admiral Jennings

Aurelia Lorelei

Lt. Hamilton

Ensign Tigh

Captain Fos

Didja Notice?

On page 2, the Sagittaron robots are being built at the Hunter-Madras Production Facility. The "Madras" portion of the name must come from the hardline Sagittaron politician named Clive Madras seen in the previous two issues.

On pages 2-3, the Sagittarons and Capricans use the same radiation warning symbol we use internationally here on Earth!

Peace talks between Caprica and Sagittaron are held at Bainstrom Space Station in geosynchronous orbit over Picon.

On page 7, we see the first of what appear to be Mark II Vipers among the Caprican fleet.

On page 11, "infrared" is misspelled "inferred".

Isak's message transmitted to other robots telling them to turn against and destroy humanity does somewhat conform to events hinted at in The Cylons' Secret.

On page 13, "frak" is misspelled "frakk".

A Caprican ship called the Tityus under Captain Fos is destroyed by a nuke on page 18. Tityus was a giant in Greek mythology.

On page 19, Tanner makes a shipwide announcement over the Eos' P.A. system. But he incorrectly identifies himself as Captain Tanner instead of Commander. And on page 22, he makes an announcement to all vessels in the fleet identifying himself as Admiral!

On page 22, panel 1, Tanner declares an "immediate sensation of hostilities." It should be "cessation" not "sensation".

A kind of mini-Viper is seen on page 22. Cute!