Battlestar Galactica (1978)

Battlestar Galactica did have a heavy impact on my childhood. I remember all of my friends trying to rebuild Battlestars and Vipers in various designs out of our LEGO space edition tiles. And how much fun it was to blast the other's ships into pieces! LEGO must have earned millions through us. Never ever has there been another spacecraft as illustrious in design as the Galactica (forget Star Trek's clumsy saucers). Unfortunately, the special effects appeared a little simple, because they were persistently reused. And YES, another commentator was right: Maren Jenson is THE reason to watch the show! Of course, there are one or two things about the story which are quite dubious. For one, the praised military leadership being better than a civilian one is a little hard-core cold-war belief. And in the series, those partially overemphasized religious elements sometimes got a little annoying in the otherwise splendid science-fantasy plot. But after all, those elements formed a heterogeneous mix promoting tolerance and gave the show its uniqueness. Definitely worth watching!

Fmovies: Created by Glen A. Larson, the master of late-1970's TV Sci-Fi, this is the best of the spate of Star Wars clones. On the surface, it is a cheesy space-opera epic with space battles, an army of genocidal robots, a traitorous betrayal, and a desperate fight against incredible odds. Going deeper, it is both a statement about the Cold War and a conscious allegory of Mormon theology (Larson is a member of the LDS church).

I grew with this series, and idolized Starbuck and Apollo. Still today, I can watch the series premiere (which was also variously released as a TV movie, and even in theaters in Canada, Europe, and later the USA) over and over again. There are some moments of great dialogue, the effects are pretty good (even if they tend to repeat...a lot), and the story and series concept are excellent. You gotta love any series that STARTS with the near-extinction of the entire human race.

Unfortunately, when the transition was made from the original concept of several special-event TV movies to a regular series, the conventions of 70's TV took over. Forget most of the series episodes, they tend to repeat plot ideas more than "Star Trek: Voyager" re-uses the "Space Anomaly of the Week" idea. But the original movie is a true sci-fi classic.

Although it is a little bit of a dated script and obviously copies off of Star Wars (don't those starfighters look an awful lot like X-wings), Battlestar Gallactica is worth a watch if you're a science fiction geek. If you've seen the new version before, you'll be amazed at how different the old version really is. In the old series, action, jokes, and flirting are much more common. The new version relies on political events and characters.

Although this 1978 version of the film moves a little slowly in places, there are the fascinating space battles. The dialog between the characters and some of the comedy is a little dated, however. I would recommend it if you're a fan of this genre.

Battlestar Galactica fmovies. This is one of my favorite sci-fi shows, but I certainly recognize its flaws.

The Good:

* the concept

---> I liked the historical context of the 12 tribes of Kobol, the Pearl Harbor-like attack, the "ragtag fugitive fleet" seeking Earth. This really framed the series well.

---> The look of the Ceylon base ships and the bat-wing Ceylon fighters was terrific. I also liked the look of the battlestars and Colonial vipers. The command center of the battlestar seemed believable.

* the casting:

---> Lorne Greene as Adama brings a commanding screen presence

---> Richard Hatch as Apollo is well-cast and believable as a leader/captain of a fighter wing

---> Dirk Benedict as Starbuck the amiable sarcastic sidekick

---> John Colicos as Baltar oozed evil with perfection

---> other minor cast members like Herbert Jefferson Jr as Boomer and Terry Carter as Colonel Tigh were very well cast too

---> I thought the three most visible female characters were all good, though not standout. Maren Jensen, Laurette Spang, and Anne Lockhart just also happened to be beautiful too.

---> visiting cast members like:

-------> Lloyd Bridges as Commander Cain was truly memorable

-------> Patrick McNee as Count Iblis was also highly memorable

-------> Ray Milland and Fred Astaire were good guest stars too

* the costumes

---> I liked the Colonial Warrior uniforms - they still have a style to them today. I liked the Warrior helmets with their Egyptian-like motif.

---> The Ceylon warriors with their shiny armor, had a great look to them too. The red strobe they used for vision was a great menacing concept.

* some episodes with great plot lines

---> the return of Commander Cain and the Pegasus stands out

---> I thought the visit to the "home" planet of Kobol, with its Egyptian motifs, was terrific. This is part of the pilot's introductory three episodes.

---> I also liked the encounter with the Ship of Lights and Count Iblis - this was especially well done.

* the music - I still like the theme song to Battlestar Galactica

* the behavior of the Ceylons was entertaining. "By your command" spoken in a tinny voice was a favorite.

The Bad:

* some cheesy special effects (by today's standards)

---> ...and reuse of the same special effects

---> why was Count Iblis' crash site off-color in one moment, and clear blue the next?

* quite a lot of cheesy cringe-inducing dialogue

* the little kid Boxie and his robot dog

* some of the episodes had really horrible plot lines, especially later in the series

---> the Lost Warrior where the kids attack the Ceylon outpost

---> why did Baltar return to the human fleet again?

The Ugly:

* the original show was cancelled after one season

* Galactica 1980, the follow-on show in which the battlestar finds earth, was pretty horrible

All in all, I am willing to forgive Battlestar Galactica's flaws and remember with fondness its strengths.

Rick

This film, and the television series that went with it, definitely had the greatest impact on a lot of boys' childhoods in the early 80s. If like me you are unsure of whether you saw Star Wars or this first, then a mutual fondness of both arises. Today Battlestar Galactica is considered to be an example of how not to do sci-fi - despite the opening promise, with the unforgettable destruction of humanity's home and the following promise of hope still bringing tears to my eyes - the series quickly degenerated into children's television aimed at the youngest and dimmest of children everywhere. But none of that affects the promise of this opening film, which has all the elements any successful film or TV Movie could hope to employ - drama, action, loyalty, betrayal, destruction and death, loss and hope, and the most lovable of characters everywhere - right down to Boxey, who by owning Muffit, was the envy of children everywhere... (In fact it's rumoured that Annakin Skywalker's look was based on him!) So overall, I would recommend this film - it symbolises all the good that made the late 70s memorable.

Having just seen a "restored" theatrical print a couple of months ago and now having seen the new DVD, I can say that it is virtually flawless. The subtlety of color makes many sequences appear almost three dimensional (especially on the Galactica). They appear to have removed most of the annoying matte lines from some scenes, although a few garbage mattes are visible. Some scenes that were almost unviewable blurs on the VHS have been restored to almost crystal clarity. Also visible are occasional film scratches, but it is far superior to anything I have seen since the 70's theatrical release in "Sensurround" or however they spelled it.

If you are a Galactica nut or even a fan, you will cherish this in your collection.

P.S. I don't work for Universal!