An official non-denial denial reveals...

Just a little about who the final Cylon is not.

This week's print edition of TV Guide Magazine carries an exclusive "SCI-FI PREVIEW 21 FAN-TASTIC FAVES!" featuring a blurb about Battlestar and the upcoming pilot Caprica.
Within the blurb Sci Fi VP Mark Stern makes a seemingly reassuring comment, "It (the final Cylon) won't be some day player from Season 1." Reassuring, but odd. Whatever could prompt him to say such a thing?


Mr. Stern's comment seems to be directly motivated by one of Bradley Thompson responses at Battlestar Wiki: Official Communiques/Archive8: Identity of the Final Five

Which was duly crossed referenced at Battlestar Wiki: Humanoid Cylon Speculation: Clues from Official Source

"Four of the five were recent. If memory serves, the fifth (which may change) we've been kicking around since about the end of Season One." - Bradley Thompson, Battlestar co-executive producer and writer.

The odd part is that Bradley wrote that last summer in June 2007. There was a great deal of speculation about this tantalizing remark, last summer, but not so much during the entire year of 2008. In fact really none at all until only just very recently. Why recently?

• From last January, the Last Supper image claimed by Ron Moore to lack the final Cylon.
• Ron Moore repeating five times since then he meant what he said.
• Lee saying in the first S4 episode, "Dad, what if Zack had come back to us in that Viper?"
  
• D'Anna saying in the episode Revelations, "Four. There are four in your fleet."

Now in the hiatus, post-Revelations, if all such newer hints are to be accounted for, season four ends on its halfway point with the final Cylon revealed to be extraordinarily scarce. The list of suspects shrinks dramatically. Suddenly Bradley Thompson's year old vague comment can be dusted off and examined for new meaning. Maybe the final Cylon is a character lost, separated or dearly departed in an earlier episode. Maybe the final Cylon is a secondary or tertiary character or even a guest star. Maybe this role hearkens way back to season one. Because if so, Bradley Thompson's comment still holds true for season four. The writers had a plan after all.

A recent round of frantic final Cylon speculation incorporates Bradley Thompson's kicking around comment and the hunt expands to include Battlestar's morgue. Mark Stern also said in TV Guide that the final Cylon reveal will be "organic and satisfying." By coincidence David Weddle also recently talked about the "organic" process of writing Battlestar plot in Sci Fi's Ron Moore podcast for Revelations

Mr. Weddle was applying the term organic on this occasion to explain how they wriggled out of solving Kara's prophetic destiny of death and doom. They did it organically. (rim shot) But seriously, it involves regarding the series in it's totality up to that point, then answering one of the Big Questions with a flexible solution least contradictory to that totality of pre-established continuity. Understandably with over sixty episodes, that mass of sprawling continuity has grown quite large. Crudely put, They Make Stuff Up As They Go Along (TM).

The timing of Mark Stern's comments is a striking coincidence. As I wrote above, there was plenty of discussion about Bradley's quote... in 2007. However for this year, only just recently and not as much. Taking into account the long lead times for print articles, the July newsstand date of Mr. Stern's interview actually took place sometime during the middle of June. All of this year's references to this quote coincidentally occur just days before the actual day of Mark Stern's interview. A search of the blogosphere reveals it to be completely silent about Bradley's quote.

May 24th, Sci Fi Forums: Has any BSG writer claimed that we've seen the "missing Last Supper figure" since season 1?

June 3rd, GateWorld Forum: The Last Cylon Model is.........Speculation abounds: Post #480

June 16th, Battlestar Forum: The Last Cylon Theories: Post #123

So is this an official denial of "If memory serves, the fifth (which may change) we've been kicking around since about the end of Season One." ?

It would seem so. Until Mark Stern repeats himself five times anyway. For quality assurance, your posts may be monitored by Sci Fi executives.

And save a straight jacket for me. While I am not yet afflicted with the fever of Final Cylon speculation, it's going to be a long hiatus. Come to think of it, I spun this speculation off of one and a half sentences from Mark Stern. Got one of those jackets in 2XL?

End of line,
ThP