- Imperious Leader
BSG Character
bgcolor=#f40
fgcolor=#000
name=Imperious Leader
race=Cylon
gender=Male
callsign=
rank=Leader
colony=
affiliation=Cylons
portrayed=Patrick Macnee (voice)Dick Durock (body)
The Imperious Leader is the ultimate office of the Cylons' society in the original "Battlestar Galactica" television series. The term may have been derived by series writers from their attempt at translating the real-world title of Reichsführer. The authors rendered "Reich", which from German translates into "State", as "Empire" instead, thus creating the Imperious Leader moniker.The Imperious Leader's body is built to resemble the reptillian race which originally built the Cylons, but is not organic in any way. Imperious Leaders are stated to have six brains, each one capable of individual or unified thought, making them incredibly adept strategists and leaders.If an Imperious Leader dies, a new one is chosen from suitable IL-series Cylons.
The term 'imperious' actually means arrogant or overbearing, although the Imperious Leader does not seem to act that way; it is unknown why that term was used, although it may have been to avoid comparisons with the 'Imperial' characters of "
Star Wars " (to which "Battlestar Galactica" was often compared).The Imperious Leader was never seen closeup in the series.
Glen A. Larson was reportedly unhappy with the costume and requested that there be no closeup shots of it, in particular no frontal shots. Publicity photos do exist that show closeups of the face, however. Also, an action figure of the character was released with the toy line so his appearance was not a mystery. Although frequently assumed to be a dummy due to its lack of movement, there was an actor (Dick Durock ) in the costume.The Imperious leader does not have an analogue in the reimagined series produced by
Ronald D. Moore . This is due to the hive-mind nature of the Cylons in that series which would eliminate the neccessity for a ruling individual.Further reading
* on the
Battlestar Wiki Imperious Leader is a world renown poster and designer of many Variants for Axis and Allies family of games.
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