Batttlestar Gallactica - The Original Series (1 Viewer)

[Jeff*H]

I picked up the Blu-ray release of the movie and have been watching it--much to my amazement, this is a fantastic-looking release, and also a fantastic-sounding release (great use of the bass and the surrounds), although it says audio is DTS 5.1, when it seems to be 2.1. This is not an upconvert, but instead it appears to have been remastered in HD. Aspect ratio appears to be 1:85:1--not sure if this was the same aspect ratio as the original theatrical release or not. Some standout moments include the crisp, sharp reds in the red alert sequences and the nebula scene, the film grain is still present, great bass explosions and rumblings, lots of noticeable new details in the model work and the bridge and other sets thanks to the higher resolution. Some of the fx scenes don't look quite as sharp probably because those scenes have been through another round of processing compared to non-fx scenes, although some fx scenes do look amazingly sharp.

I'm hopeful that this release is merely the beginning of the 35th anniversary celebrations, and that a release of the complete series will follow later in the year. Fingers crossed that they created a new set of HD transfers.

In short, GALACTICA has never looked better-fans should be quite excited about this transfer, despite the Blu-ray being an otherwise bare-bones release.

 

[TJPC]

Sorry to revive this old thread, but I just purchased the Blu ray set of the original series and needed to comment. I watched this on first run and enjoyed it at the time. I find that hard to believe now.

The stories seem unbelievably cheesie, and the monster effects laughable. I would cheerfully give that annoying Boxy a kick, and who had the “brilliant” idea of inserting the odd strange word like “centon” and “daggett” here and there. It just sounds stupid. We have English being spoken by a group of humans from the other side of the galaxy, but they forget 5 or 6 words and have to insert alien ones?

I know this is an older series, but I thought it would at least be a bit better than say the TV series based on “Logan’s Run”. Really, they seem to be stuck at the stage of Sci-fi from the 1950s. Where is the gorilla suit with the space helmet? No wonder it was cancelled so soon. I wonder why the makers of the new series saw potential in this for a re-make.

 

[Blimpoy06]

In 1978 I thought Battlestar Galactica was so much cooler than Star Wars. Cylons are the best 70's villains of Sci-Fi!

 

[TJPC]

I thought it was far better in 1978 as well. Who knew?

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

Sorry to revive this old thread, but I just purchased the Blu ray set of the original series and needed to comment. I watched this on first run and enjoyed it at the time. I find that hard to believe now.

The stories seem unbelievably cheesie, and the monster effects laughable. I would cheerfully give that annoying Boxy a kick, and who had the “brilliant” idea of inserting the odd strange word like “centon” and “daggett” here and there. It just sounds stupid. We have English being spoken by a group of humans from the other side of the galaxy, but they forget 5 or 6 words and have to insert alien ones?

I know this is an older series, but I thought it would at least be a bit better than say the TV series based on “Logan’s Run”. Really, they seem to be stuck at the stage of Sci-fi from the 1950s. Where is the gorilla suit with the space helmet? No wonder it was cancelled so soon. I wonder why the makers of the new series saw potential in this for a re-make.

Well, this happens sometimes. I had not seen the Six Million Dollar Man since I was a kid. I recalled really enjoying the show although the only part of it I had a good memory of was the opening credits sequence and that they did a couple of Bigfoot episodes that involved Bigfoot being a space alien or creation of space aliens or something.

So, I ended up picking up a season of the series cheap, 10 bucks, and took it home to see if my nostalgia held up.

Well, the show was horrid. Terribly acted, stupid stories, one involved I believe Steve Austin being locked in a box truck that may have been one of the worst things I have ever seen anywhere at any time. I think the Liberty Bell had been stolen and somebody wanted to blow it up unless they got the ransom they were demanding. I could not believe I liked this show as a child.

So, the truth is...sometimes you just can't go back again.

 

[TJPC]

I am 66 this year. If BG was on in 1978, I was already 28. I guess I was so starved for sci-fi that I would put up with anything. I remember them boasting that the special effects, being designed for TV were far better than Star Wars would be when it was eventually broadcasted. At least the first few episodes are closer to “Lost In Space” than “Star Trek”.
I actually knew during the first run of “Lost In Space” that I would have to be tied up with a gun to my head before I would watch that again.

 

[BobO'Link]

Sorry to revive this old thread, but I just purchased the Blu ray set of the original series and needed to comment. I watched this on first run and enjoyed it at the time. I find that hard to believe now.

The stories seem unbelievably cheesie, and the monster effects laughable. I would cheerfully give that annoying Boxy a kick, and who had the “brilliant” idea of inserting the odd strange word like “centon” and “daggett” here and there. It just sounds stupid. We have English being spoken by a group of humans from the other side of the galaxy, but they forget 5 or 6 words and have to insert alien ones?

I know this is an older series, but I thought it would at least be a bit better than say the TV series based on “Logan’s Run”. Really, they seem to be stuck at the stage of Sci-fi from the 1950s. Where is the gorilla suit with the space helmet? No wonder it was cancelled so soon. I wonder why the makers of the new series saw potential in this for a re-make.

I am 66 this year. If BG was on in 1978, I was already 28. I guess I was so starved for sci-fi that I would put up with anything. I remember them boasting that the special effects, being designed for TV were far better than Star Wars would be when it was eventually broadcasted. At least the first few episodes are closer to “Lost In Space” than “Star Trek”.
I actually knew during the first run of “Lost In Space” that I would have to be tied up with a gun to my head before I would watch that again.

I'll be 63 in a few months. I thought it was cheesy and nothing but "kiddie SF" during the original run. I remember being excited about its premiere as, based on the teaser commercials, we'd finally have "quality" SF on TV with a series that showed promise. Then they go and crapify it with kids and the horrible "dog" replacement. As soon as I saw that I gave it another episode (or two - don't recall exactly) and called it quits. The strange words didn't bother me as much as the "daggett," Boxey, and some rather inane plots. Even back then we all saw that it was somewhat a "Star Wars' rip off.

I actually like it better now than back then but don't consider it to be "great" SF, just passable. If I watch it like it's a 50s SF movie/series I get more mileage from it, although, IMHO, many of the cheesier efforts from those years are ultimately superior and more satisfying.

I think the creators of the BSG update saw the original potential and took the opportunity to tell the story as it should have been done in 1978. While it, too, has issues, at least its SF aimed at an adult audience.

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

I am 66 this year. If BG was on in 1978, I was already 28. I guess I was so starved for sci-fi that I would put up with anything. I remember them boasting that the special effects, being designed for TV were far better than Star Wars would be when it was eventually broadcasted. At least the first few episodes are closer to “Lost In Space” than “Star Trek”.
I actually knew during the first run of “Lost In Space” that I would have to be tied up with a gun to my head before I would watch that again.

Your comments made me think of this...



It was supposed to be "great science fiction" with the 2001 guys teaming up with Ellison. And of course, Magic Cam...who could forget that.

 

[Blimpoy06]

I guess I must be a hopeless romantic when it comes to 70's TV science fiction shows. I was happy that any kind of remotely high concept ideas were being made. I only recently discovered The Starlost and thought it was a great idea with little or no budget. Still enjoyed it. Same goes for Beyond Westworld, The Invisible Man, Gemini Man, Man From Atlantis and SEARCH. Only Man From Atlantis disappointed me. The series wasn't as good as the TV movies. I was very upset when The Fantastic Journey was cancelled early. Logan's Run was a good attempt at merging the film with the elements of the books. I wished it lasted at least a full season.

Battlestar Galactica was the first television science fiction show that spent the money to make the show comparable to the movies. As I mentioned before, I was more into it than the recent Star Wars. It was not meant to be a weekly series. Merely a quarterly two hour TV event. The show went to series and early shows suffered from the rush order from ABC. Boxey and his "dog" where not as big a part of the show as progressed. People forget that television wanted to appeal to a broader demographic then than today. So a little kid stuff was inevitable.

The latter episodes dealt with many of the themes people think of for the revival series. The plight of the less fortunate survivors, broken families trying to find each other, crime, mutiny, the struggle between the military and civil authority and religion were all dealt with in the 1978 show. Baltar was captured and if the series had gone into a second season right away with the current writers, the plan was to move away from the Cylons for good.

I'm glad to have the show on blu-ray. It looks and sounds fantastic. I wish some of the unique expanded edits of the 2 hour movies shown in syndication were included, but the set is fine as is.

 

[AndrewCrossett]

I was 12 when the original BSG aired. Like all kids my age at that time, I was high on Star Wars and the idea of a Star Wars-like TV series, with better production values than any sci-fi TV show before it (no matter how cheesy by today's standards) was too much to resist. I was just the right age to be impressed by it, I guess. Though even at that age I found Boxy and his stupid dog were annoying. Big time Cousin Oliver syndrome, there.

 

[Bob Gu]

Original BATTLESTAR GALACTICA was well designed, good looking fun, and it had heart. The reboot was, soulless, ugly, depressing, dreary, and a frakin' piece of feldergarb. Or is that feldercarb?

 

[BobO'Link]

The Starlost had potential. The stories were fairly well done with some interesting plots but it suffered greatly due to using "Magic Cam" - aka mostly standard TV Chromakey (aka greenscreen) effects. It was done pretty much as well as could be expected using that limited technology (at least in those years - it worked, barely, and was very unforgiving if not lit properly, and it rarely was).

 

[BobO'Link]

I guess I must be a hopeless romantic when it comes to 70's TV science fiction shows. I was happy that any kind of remotely high concept ideas were being made. I only recently discovered The Starlost and thought it was a great idea with little or no budget. Still enjoyed it. Same goes for Beyond Westworld, The Invisible Man, Gemini Man, Man From Atlantis and SEARCH. Only Man From Atlantis disappointed me. The series wasn't as good as the TV movies. I was very upset when The Fantastic Journey was cancelled early. Logan's Run was a good attempt at merging the film with the elements of the books. I wished it lasted at least a full season.

I'm the same with 50s/60s TV SF, but am very unforgiving of 70s and onward SF, frequently being rather overcritical. Many of the 70s series I summarily dismissed during their original airings I've found to be rather entertaining, although still rather cheesy. Even with current SF shows I'm very unforgiving. It often feels like producers of SF shows have learned nothing from all the failures over the decades and seemingly think the only reason the shows failed was due to substandard vfx when most failed due to cliche', standard, TV plots with SF trappings thrown on to make them appear to be SF.

 

[John Sparks]

CHESSY was BUCK ROGERS with that stupid pet robot voiced by Mel Blanc.

Wasn't there 2 BD editions of Battlestar Gallatica?

 

[Blimpoy06]

Wasn't there 2 BD editions of Battlestar Gallatica?

This Remastered Collection has cropped the image to16X9. The Definitive Collection has both the original 4:3 and the Widescreen.

 

[John Sparks]

Thanks Darin!

 

[Jack P]

I have grown to appreciate the real Galactica even more over the years. When I saw it at age nine in 1978, I liked it for the battle sequences and I admit that as the series went on and tried to get away from those kind of episodes, I found myself more bored. But as an adult I can more appreciate a non-battle episode and overall, the show IMO stands head and shoulders above all of the post-Star Trek shows that emerged in the 70s. A few years back, I did an experiment of watching every program that was on the air in the Fall of 1978 in their broadcast date sequence I had on DVD and I was struck by how in that context, Galactica's strengths in its pilot film and it's first episode "Lost Planet Of The Gods" were evident.

1-Galactica was similar to the TV series versions of "Planet Of The Apes" and "Logan's Run" in that at its core you had an "on the run" premise, in this case an entire remnant of civilization fleeing the pursuers and you had an objective they were in search of. (Logan's Run with "Sanctuary", the POTA astronauts with some computer that could hopefully tell them how to get home) But here is one critical difference that elevates Galactica above those two shows. Once they started running they NEVER looked back and remained focused and aware of the objective. Notice how in so many episodes of the earlier two shows after a lot of running they're still amazingly in close proximity to their starting point! Of course this was the built-in problem those two shows had, where they HAD to stay close to the starting point to allow the villains to be seen, but it totally undermined the plausibility of the series and its small wonder they couldn't really sustain it. Galactica though kept its survivors moving forward into deep space and they weren't going to do any quick beelines back to the destroyed home planet or anything like that.

2-Related to 1 is that Galactica, unlike those shows and unlike even Trek for that matter, was the first sci-fi show to observe some rules of continuity that in today's day and age of non-stop serialized storytelling and endless nitpick checks for continuity was really unheard of back then. The episodes were all self-contained, but you can't watch them out of sequence because there is always an underlying forward momentum of the series that puts them further into deep space and in search of this objective. And more importantly, if you had a famous and memorable guest like Lloyd Bridges' Commander Cain, he wasn't just gone forever after his appearance, but was in fact still referred to in subsequent episodes and likewise Jane Seymour's Serina. Indeed, Galactica did one thing that Trek never did by making sure that we heard Apollo make a reference to his now dead wife in the first episode after she was killed off. It brought therefore that kind of humanizing touch rooted in continuity that we would take more for granted now but back in the 70s was something you really never saw.

3-Anne Lockhart's Sheba. Someone who proved you could be a tough as nails warrior, an equal with the men, and yet didn't sacrifice her own femininity in the process.

4-Likeable characters who mature over the course of the series. A lot of people who only saw the cut-down pilot of Galactica and didn't watch the series overall (like the guy who remade Galactica in his own image) don't realize that Starbuck is not the same one-note space Casanova figure we see in the pilot at the end of the show's run. By then he has clearly settled down into a more monogamous relationship with Laurette Spang's Cassiopeia.

5-I also appreciate the fact that Galactica, unlike so much other sci-fi TV took some perspectives that went against the normal grain. It gave us a conflict that didn't give us shades of grey in the "who is right, who is wrong" school of thinking and it also had a more sympathetic treatment to matters of faith that one can typically not see beneath the surface of many other shows. One reason why I had no regard for that later version was how these elements of the show's philosophy were totally turned upside down.

The show to be sure had its flaws. It has its share of clunkers (having Brett Somers in an episode kept making me look for Gene Rayburn and Charles Nelson Reilly!). But the overall concept for a great series was there IMO and when the show was good it was IMO really good and it still holds up for me.

 

[John Sparks]

To me it's very hard to critique something today when we experienced it first hand. What I mean is, when we watched it, it was good and there was nothing to compare it to...it was what it was.

An example would be, no one watching CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE 3RD KIND for the first time on BD can ever expect to experience seeing it on the big screen for the first time and being awed by it, why, because there was nothing ever like it and nothing to compare it to at the time.

 

[Carabimero]

I recently had a chance to see Ralph McQuarrie's full BSG portfolio. It really speaks to the rushed schedule of television production. For Star Wars, McQuarrie would often take up to five days to do a single production painting. First he'd meet with Lucas and they'd discuss. Then McQuarrie would do some sketches and they'd discuss some more. After that, McQuarrie would do at least one (sometimes three) color studies and they'd discuss even more. Finally, McQuarrie would do the painting, although in some cases, Lucas would ask for further changes. McQuarrie never did another painting, however. He simply painted over the parts Lucas wanted changed. Thankfully copies were made of each version of his paintings.

My point with respect to BSG: Sometimes McQuarrie would do two paintings a day, as opposed to one every five days. His work on BSG is interesting to see as an historical collection, but in my opinion inferior in almost every way to his work on Star Wars because he was obviously rushed. It's nice to know my favorite artist had a hand in shaping the look of the series, though. And I'm glad I got to finally see his full portfolio, and not just the two dozen publicly available.

 

[Blimpoy06]

Frank Frazetta did some artwork for use in print ads for the show. Some were also used for the covers of the novelizations.