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In 1977 there was a little film called Star Wars. In 1978, a TV
series called Battlestar Galactica started and there was no connection
between the two ... honest. Well, okay, maybe there is a certain
inspiration from SW, but why not? While BG may not have been made
without SW coming out, it is quite different even if on the surface,
the look of ships, etc. is similar, should we not just say that
is because Star Wars set the standard that others could follow,
until it all went CGI anyway.
The humans on a dozen colonies (named after the signs of the Zodiac)
helped their neighbours against the expanding and enslaving Cylons
(robotic types with that darting red light across their "eyes").
This is a fight that has been going on long before the series starts,
but now the nasty Cylons intend to wipe out humanity who refuse
to become slaves. They lay a trap on the promise of a peace treaty
before first destroying the fleet then the colonies. The Battlestar
Galactica is not able to help and only survived by retreating. Lots
of the humans left alive on the colonies board 220 ships of all
types to form the "fleet", led by the Battlestar Galactica.
Commander of the ship and new leader of the humans is Adama (Lorne
Greene) who wants to take them in search of that 13th colony from
the ancient writings - in another galaxy - a place called Earth.
So it begins.
They travel, in constant conflict with the Cylons. The series was
created by Glen A. Larson to be a character driven epic of biblical
style. So, although there are plenty of starships and space battles,
it is the people that make the show. Foremost amongst these is Adama
(Lorne Greene), with Apollo (Richard Hatch), Starbuck (Dirk Benedict)
and Boomer (Herb Jefferson, Jr.), who are hotshot starfighter pilots
amongst other things. Cylon head honcho is Patrick Macnee (a far
cry from his role as John Steed in The
Avengers!)
The writing was not exactly scintillating (thought to be fair,
this is partly due to being rushed) and remember this is US TV in
the 70s, so crediting the audience with much intelligence was not
something that TV studios did. Expanding interesting sub-plots was
just not on the cards. And as for anything violent or sexual - there
were heavy restrictions there too. However, viewing figures were
pretty good. Problem was that with a cost per episode of $1 million,
ABC decided that they weren't good enough and canned the series.
An effort was made to revive it with Galactica 1980, but that isn't
even worth talking about. A potential new, modern series is still
within the realms of possibility.
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