The classic Blade Runner film is seen to be the archetypical story of machine who are men. It covers many of the classic literature conflicts, man vs man, man vs technology, man vs self, man vs society. In it, humans have created Replicants, genetically engineered machines (creatures really) that look and act so human that they can only be discovered by detecting involuntary empathic responses to emotionally provocative questions. A group of these replicants, used for military purposes, rebel off-world, killing humans, leading to their illegality and assignment for retiring (read: death-warrant). A few years later, a group of Nexus 6 Replicants escape to Earth. A Blade Runner, a cop trained to detect and kill these skin-jobs, is forced to track them down. The film delves into the question of what makes humans and replicants so different. One replicant, or more, had no idea they were even a replicant.
Battlestar Galactica, reimagined in 2004, has many if not all of these themes with a slight twist. Skin-jobs, advanced model machines that are no longer machine, but engineered by the machines who previously rebelled against humanity and started a war, return to the human worlds to enslave/destroy/other. It's difficult to detect these skin-jobs, and many had no idea they were Cylons at all.
Considering the abundance of similarities or even carbon copies, how much did Blade Runner directly influence the newer series? Is there any statements by production teams on this?
Or this just an example of common themes persuasive in Science Fiction media? Just an over imaginative, superficial coincidence?