Basestar
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Basestar".

The Basestar is the primary capital ship of the Cylons in the 1978 science fiction television series and movie Battlestar Galactica, and its subsequent re-imagining in the 2003 miniseries and 2004 television series.

Battlestar Galactica (1978, 1980)

Basestar
Basestars in a typical three-ship formation.
First appearance	"Saga of a Star World"
Affiliation	Cylon Alliance
General Characteristics
Fighters	Cylon Raiders
Armaments	Laser turrets Mega-Pulsars Missile turrets
Propulsion	Reactionless drive

The Basestar is the Cylon counterpart of the Colonial Battlestar. The Basestar has also been called a Baseship and a Cylon Battlestar in one episode, but "Basestar" conforms to the Colonial ship naming system.

The Cylon Basestar is a superior warship to a Colonial Battlestar in a technological respect, as it carries stronger weapons in greater quantity, and carries a greater fighter complement as well. (Basestars can hold up to 300 Cylon Raiders each.) Because of this, the Galactica and her crew prefer to avoid combat with them as much as possible. Also, unlike Battlestars, they are propelled by a reactionless drive that appears to make the ship spin slowly on its axis while engaged.

Basestars are considerably larger than Battlestars.

In the re-imagined series, this version of the Basestar can be seen (albeit with a different weapon configuration) in the Razor flashbacks as an earlier design of basestar in the First Cylon War as a homage to the original series.

Armament

Mega-Pulsars 

In the episode "The Hand of God", the Basestar is revealed to have two of these weapons on the upper saucer. Pulsars are a beam weapon more powerful than the average laser turret and intended to engage other capital ships. They are capable of destroying a Battlestar-sized craft in only a few direct hits. Battlestars usually attempt to approach Basestars from the lower saucer to avoid these weapons.

Laser Turrets 

Like a Battlestar, Basestars have laser turrets that resemble the weapons of their fighters but on a larger scale. The laser turrets on Basestars are located at the tips of the "spokes" on both saucers and are considerably more powerful than the Colonial design.

Missile Turrets 

These turrets were seen in the episode "The Living Legend Part 2" and they are located on the inner surfaces of both saucers. They are primarily meant for close range defense, since a Battlestar's point defense weapons could easily shoot them down at a longer range.

Battlestar Galactica (2004–present)

Main article: Cylon Basestar (re-imagining)

The Basestar, or Baseship is the primary capital ship of the Cylons within the re-imagining of the science fiction mini-series and television series Battlestar Galactica. They are different in appearance and function from the Basestars of the 1978 TV series.

The Basestar is designed to make FTL jumps and is equipped to deploy large-scale missile strikes with high-yield nuclear and conventional ordnance. Basestars are biomechanical entities, with fleshy "hangars" to house Raiders. Basestars are, however, capable of carrying other Cylon models within them. Basestars are controlled by a hybrid. Cylon Basestars have a command center similar to Galactica's CIC. The computer interfaces for the human cylons appear to be water over some type of information conducting material that the hand is placed upon. The hybrid controls all autonomous actions of the Basestar such as: jumping, navigation, centurion control, and many others. These ships have two known armaments: conventional detonation missiles, and nuclear missiles. The Basestar has no recorded speed, but we do know from references in "The Eye of Jupiter" that they have normal, and high speeds.

External links

• Original series Basestar at the Battlestar Wiki
• Re-imagined series Basestar at the Battlestar Wiki