Basestar (TOS)

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This article is about the Original Series basestar. For the Re-imagined Series version, see Basestar (RDM).

Basestar
Race	Cylon
Type	Military
FTL
Propulsion
Crew	Centurion troops
Capacity
CO	Imperious Leader, Lord Baltar or other commander, usually a Command Centurion or an IL-series Droid.
XO	{{{xo}}}
Role	Carrier / battleship hybrid
Weapons	Laser turrets, missiles, pulsar cannons, Raiders
Armaments	{{{arm}}}
Status	{{{status}}}
Other Images	More images...
Dimensions
Length	{{{length}}}
Width	{{{width}}}
Height	{{{height}}}
Weight	{{{weight}}}
Wingspan	{{{wingspan}}}
Other	{{{otherdi}}}

A basestar is a large capital warship of the Cylon Alliance.

Basestars are immense vehicles that, like their Colonial counterparts, the battlestars, serve as a combination of aircraft carrier and capital warship. They are capable of carrying and supporting over three hundred Raiders. Armed with missiles, over one hundred defensive laser turrets, and two long range mega pulsar weapons, the capital warship of the Cylon Alliance is more than a match for any unprepared or unaware battlestar (The Hand of God). Basestars are also designed for orbital bombardment of a planet, and, true to their name, also serve as a moving base of operations. Four complete squadrons of Raiders is the typical complement of a basestar (The Living Legend, Part II).

Basestars, and their fighters are the key in the Cylons' genocidal destruction of the Twelve Colonies and the battlestar fleet. To fool the Colonials, the Cylons split up their fleet into two destructive units: a massive Raider fleet is sent to the Cimtar Peace Accord rendezvous, while the basestars are deployed separately to attack the Twelve Colonies. Apollo encounters a Cylon Tanker near a gas cloud, which had been used (in lieu of the elsewhere basestars) to give extended fuel reserves that enable the Raiders to reach Cimtar. Apollo finds the Raiders soon after discovering the tanker and unsuccessfully tries to warn the battlestar fleet in time.

Only the battlestar Galactica is initially known to survive the holocaust and gathers an odd assortment of civilian spacecraft with the remnants of Humanity, leaving the dead Colonies behind in search of the lost 13th Colony - Earth.

Following the flight from the death trap at Carillon, the succeeding Imperious Leader sends a basestar under Baltar's command to seek out the Fleet. Baltar's basestar is able to follow the Fleet, yet stay outside Galactica's scanning range (Lost Planet of the Gods, Part I), suggesting that basestar scanners have a longer range than their Colonial counterparts.

Notes

• This basestar class existed in the Re-imagined Series continuity, if only in appearance, and likely with a different command and crew structure. A model of an Original Series basestar is displayed in Galactica's new museum in the Miniseries. However, because the new series does not use the same weapons as the Original Series, it is not really the same ship, as the the basestars in the Re-imagined Series rely on missiles for defensive and offensive engagements.
• According to Encyclopedia Galactica, a non-canonical piece of merchandise published in 1979:

The basestar is modeled after the Colonial battlestar, however they are not highly maneuverable and thus rely on their shields and Raiders for defense. The shields themselves are incapable of withstanding repeated strikes from laser torpedoes, which can be delivered by a squadron Vipers, should they break through the Raider's defense.^[1] Furthermore, the ship is armed with turbo-lasers and nutron cased laser torpedoes for space warfare and wide-angle space-to-ground laser generators for planetary bombardment.^[2]

The core of a baseship is said to be "specifically sealed and shielded"^[1], as it is the location from which IL series Cylons, in addition to the Imperious Leader, command from. The core can be jettisoned from the ship in case of severe hull damage and can travel up to ten light-yahren.

A third of the basestars are dedicated to the repair and maintenance of Centurions, but are not constructed aboard ship unless circumstances require it. The section is also dedicated to recycling parts from Cylons who are irreparably damaged; such parts are melted down and forged into all new parts.

In addition to the Raiders, basestars contain a "full complement of armored landing craft used for planetary subjugation".^[2]

References