AThe series Caprica shows the creation of the Cylons on the titular planet several decades before the beginning of Battlestar Galactica. In that series, a separate group of human-looking Cylons (known as the "Final Five") was revealed to exist. These Final Five do not come from the same line of Cylons greated by the Greystones on Caprica. Their origins have to do with the origins of society in the Galactica universe and involve spoilers for the final season of Battlestar Galactica.Thousands of years ago, twelve tribes of humanity lived together on the planet Kobol. As society advanced, they created a race of robotic beings known as Cylons. The Cylons eventually advanced themselves and became sentient, and then became human-looking. Eventually, humanity left Kobol. Twelve of the "tribes", the humans, went and settled in the Twelve Colonies (of which Caprica is the most prominent planet). The "Thirteenth Tribe" were Cylons. They left Kobol and settled on a planet they called Earth. Eventually, these human looking Cylons developed their own robotic servants who turned against them. A nuclear war ensued which wiped out the entire population of Earth, both humanoids and robots. Only five humanoids survived. These "Final Five" were scientists who had been involved in researching "resurrection technology" via which Cylons could "download" their consciousness into new bodies upon death. While the technology had not gone into mass production, an experimental version existed which resurrected the Final Five after their original bodies died in the nuclear holocaust. The Final Five decided to seek out the other twelve tribes of Kobol and traveled to the Twelve Colonies in order to warn the human descendants of Kobol to avoid the cycle of oppression and violence which had destroyed their world. Lacking faster-than-light speed technology, they traveled at near light speeds, taking two thousand years to reach the Twelve Colonies (although much less time passed for them due to the effects of relativity). The Final Five arrived at the Colonies some years after the events of Caprica, but several decades before the events of Battlestar Galactica. The robotic Cylons of Caprica had already been created by this point and had already rebelled and begun a war against their human creators, which lasted ten years. The Cylons of Caprica had also begun experimenting with ways to make organic Cylons during this time. The Final Five agreed to help the Cylons of Caprica develop organic Cylons in exchange for their ending the war with the humans. This they did, and the Cylons were never seen or heard from in the Twelve Colonies until 40 years later (the events at the beginning of the Battlestar Galactica series).
AThere was enough time between the DVD-release in 2009 and the start of the series in January 2010 for spicing up the pilot by a few CGI-shots. Especially Caprica-City looked very usual on the DVD. Despite of this, there are only very little alterations, i.e. mainly some fine tuning and a couple of shortened or changed scenes containing sex or violence. A detailed comparison between both versions with pictures can be found here.
