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Cylons
The original novelization of Battlestar Galactica portrayed the Cylons as rebellious slaves of a non-human species who rose up against their masters. The Cylons were nonetheless designed around the humanoid form, presumably because it was efficient.
Cylon society, as depicted in the original series, was apparently divided between three classes: the I-L (Imperious Leader) series, the Centurion series, and a vague worker series (or groups of specialized workers). In the show, we usually only saw Centurions and I-L Cylons, although the Centurions could be divided into regular soldiers and Command Centurions.
Cylon I-L series androids and command centurions were capable of sophisticated independent thought, but just about every other Cylon in the Alliance required some sort of oversight or specific direction to function. The units were capable of taking direct action within a narrow scope of behaviors.
How realistic were the Cylons? About as realistic as a spaceship made out of bubble gum. Battlestar Galactica was always just fun-for-all space opera and not even serious science fiction. The fact that some hard-core SF fans have criticized it shows that the gentle pokes-in-the-eye were sometimes misunderstood.
Space Opera is not driven by science, but by plot, characterization, or both (though it's usually driven by plot, relying more on stereotypes). The Cylons were stereotypical pseudo-Nazi villains. They were a metaphor for the complete loss of individual perspective. J.R.R. Tolkien would have called them mindless Orcs.
Cylon achievements, nonetheless, were portrayed as considerably impressive. They built and maintained extensive fleets of sophisticated base stars (with hundreds of fighters), conquered an empire, and conducted massive, complicated campaigns of extermination. Their biggest problems were their slow reflexes (Colonial Warriors were always outshooting them) and their poor navigational abilities (Cylons make terrible pilots, especially in dog fights).
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The original series took the viewing audience through at least two galaxies (called "star systems" by the characters). The galaxy where Kobol and the Twelve Colonies were located was also home to the Cylons, the Ovions, the Hassarians, and presumably the Delphians. It may have also been home to the Borays, who lived on the pathetic world of Sectar (the location of which is unclear).
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The humans who lived in the Twelve Colonies were prosperous, technologically advanced, and ethnically diverse. In fact, the majority appear to have been rather conservative, even to the point of being almost completely reactionary. In "Saga of a Star World", the pilot story for the series, Cassiopeia's function as a Socialator incensed a Gemonese woman to the point where Starbuck had to remove Cassiopeia to the Galactica for her own safety.
But perhaps the most rabidly insular and conservative people among the Colonials were the Borellian Nomen, who were feared by the other Colonial peoples and who held themselves as special, elitist, and as sort of a Promised People. The Borellian Nomen were clearly based loosely on desert Arabs or Berbers, with a mix of Jewish mysticism thrown in. Unlike other ethnic groups, the Borellian Nomen held themselves as superior to all other humans. They may have had a breeding program, selecting for specific physical traits and personality types.
By contrast, the people of Caprica (who comprise the majority of the Galactica's crew) seem to have been cosmopolitan urbanites who were comfortable with technology and social experimentation. While it is never explicitly stated that Caprica was more important than the other colonies, the viewing audience was given a strong Capricated point-of-view about what was generally acceptable and not acceptable in Colonial society.
The existence of numerous secondary colony worlds, especially in farflung parts of the galaxy, implies that at some point in time a lot of people wanted to get away from the Twelve Colonies. There were hints of social upheaval in Colonial history but no real details were forthcoming. It is interesting, however, that Cassiopeia recognizes "An Arien merchant code" being broadcast from Starbuck's stolen Recon Viper One in the episode "The Long Patrol". The Ariens, it seems, were the merchant class among the Colonials. And they may have been responsible for settling many of the secondary colonies.
At the very least, they appear to have been well-connected to whatever space pirates were around, as Robber, the thief who took Starbuck's Recon Viper One, knew the Arien merchant code. How many of the prisoners on the Proteus prison asteroid were of Arien descent?
The people of Terra are an interesting bunch. Clearly intended to deceive the viewing audience into believing Terrans were the people of Earth, they drove cars, used telephones, and dressed very much like us. They even had names like Charlie and Brenda. But at the very end of the episode, John (from the Ship of Lights) told Apollo that Terra was not Earth. Well, looks like Ronald Moore had a precedent to follow after all....
The Terrans from the Eastern Alliance built ships which looked a lot like World War II submarines. Their uniforms were Nazistic and their rigorous military discipline could easily have been that of the East Germans or the Soviet Union's military. The Eastern Alliance portrayed everything bad about Communism in the eyes of the western world: they were war-mongering would-be conquerors who really had no human compassion for their neighbors. Of course, it was really only the leaders who were that bad, and in the end they had to come to grips with the fact that there were greater powers in the universe than their nuclear weapons.
The Terra story arc is an interesting contemporary projection in Battlestar Galactica. It actually addressed the long-feared nuclear world war that, in the late 1970s, still seemed like a very real possibility. So, the Terrans weren't simply modelled on us, they were metaphorically intended to be us. They just weren't destined to be Adama's Earth.
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