Number Six

Lore & Background

Throughout the show, Six is portrayed as a seductive, statuesque Cylon infiltrator. She was the first example shown of a new generation of Cylons capable of adapting to human form and emotions. Little else is known of her earlier years. She can, like other Cylons, retain memories which can be downloaded into another body if the original body is killed.

Like her counterparts, her body was designed to mimic the human body at the cellular level, making her almost undetectable to testing procedures, and there are many copies of her in existence. Sixes and Eights are the Humanoid Cylon models shown most frequently. Sixes tend to have individualistic traits and are considerably susceptible to the full array of human emotions. Although extremely effective and adaptive, Sixes always show a certain disdain for their given chores and dislike being treated as expendable.

Most versions of Six have platinum-blonde hair, including Caprica-Six, Shelly Godfrey and Sonja. Others such as Gina Inviere, Natalie Faust and Lida have honey-blonde hair, and one Six with black hair has been observed. It was stated by Caprica showrunner Kevin Murphy that had the prequel series Caprica continued, it would be revealed that the Sixes' default personality was modeled after that of Zoe Graystone.

Reader's Guide

Number Six appears in multiple versions throughout the series. Caprica Six is the copy involved with Gaius Baltar, who helps the Cylons attack the Twelve Colonies and later becomes a key figure in Cylon-human relations. Head Six is a distinct copy derived from Caprica Six residing in Baltar's head since the destruction of the colonies, appearing as a figment of his imagination, invisible to everyone else. She suggests this phenomenon might be caused by either a computer chip implant or insanity over his guilt.

When Baltar undergoes an MRI-like "brain scan", it reveals no sign of a computer chip or any other foreign object in his brain. While this briefly leads Baltar to think he has truly gone insane, he concludes this is impossible, given Six's knowledge of events unknown to him (for example, the prediction of the birth of the Human/Cylon Hybrid to Sharon Agathon while a prisoner aboard Galactica). Confronted with this in Part II of "Home", Six declares that she is neither a computer chip nor a hallucination produced by mental instability.

When Baltar then asks just who or what she is, she simply replies she is "an angel of God sent here to protect you, to guide you and to love you." She repeats this claim in the episode "Torn". Other notable versions include Shelly Godfrey, Gina Inviere, Natalie Faust, Lida, and Sonja. Since her debut in the mini-series, a leitmotif has been used in scenes featuring Tricia Helfer as Six.

This simple 8-note motif was composed by Richard Gibbs. The 18/8 figure, with a 120 BPM tempo, is divided into 2 groups of 4 notes: 1st group played on the downbeats, 2nd group played on the upbeats. Each group is separated by 2 consecutive eight-notes rests on the 8th and 9th ones, resulting in a syncopated line but still keeping a feeling of even 4 notes played at an even interval: the 2nd group of 4 played on the upbeats is also followed by 2 eight-notes rests to end the 18/8 bar.

It is almost always performed on a gamelan, and can be compared to an E5 note tuned at A 440 Hz. It also plays over the introduction to each episode of the series. On the published series soundtrack, the melody is listed as The Sense of Six.