Imperious Leader

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Imperious Leader
Imperious Leader
Race	Cylon
Gender	Male
Portrayed by	Patrick Macnee (voice) Dick Durock (body)
Rank	Leader
Affiliation	Cylons

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 mispercepted 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.