Batttlestar Gallactica - The Original Series (1 Viewer)

[Jack P]

Most of its from various websites and discussions over the years. I know there was a book that covered the totality of all properties (I of course only bothered reading the first half), but that tended to summarize things that were known in the past from old articles, websites etc. The series has yet to receive anything like the true Cushman treatment.

John Kenneth Muir's book about the series by McFarland press in the late 90s made an interesting point how the reimagined Klingons of the 80s onward bear more than a passing resemblance to the "Borellian Nomen" character from Galactica than they do to the classic Klingons of Trek TOS. While I recognize that Star Trek The Motion Picture with its reimagined Klingon design was already in production when Galactica aired, Muir pointed out how in addition to appearance the "code devotion" of the Nomen is more in keeping with the later Klingons.

Galactica by being the first sci-fi series since the first six episodes of "Lost In Space" to maintain a semblance of continuity and story momentum was also the first sci-fi series to anticipate the whole broader serialized approach that's become the norm. No more are these shows mere stand-alone things like they were in the days of Trek TOS.

 

[Harry-N]

The pilot movie was insanely good - even with the dip into disco in the final third. The performances and cinematography were stellar. I refuse to call it Saga of a Star World because this rip-off title makes absolutely no sense.

Yes, I liked that a lot too and bought the Blu-ray, though I've not sprung for the full original series.

I also recall a "movie" that aired on pay-TV that combined the episode with the fire and something else. It was retitled MISSION GALACTICA: THE CYLON ATTACK. I remember going over to someone else's house, lugging my heavy VHS recorder to capture that one.

 

[ScottRE]

Yes, I liked that a lot too and bought the Blu-ray, though I've not sprung for the full original series.

I also recall a "movie" that aired on pay-TV that combined the episode with the fire and something else. It was retitled MISSION GALACTICA: THE CYLON ATTACK. I remember going over to someone else's house, lugging my heavy VHS recorder to capture that one.

Yeah the combo of The Living Legend and Fire in Space. Really an awful mishmash. Just turning the two part episode into a movie would have been fine, but the story was nonsensical mashed together like that. I have the MCA VHS tape of that somewhere.

 

[Jack P]

That was in a tradition of Universal mashing stuff together that had gone on since the late 60s. "Mission Galactica" which combined "Living Legend" and "Fire In Space" was done like the pilot for theatrical and cable airings. When Universal wasn't sure that the regular episodes of Galactica would justify a syndication sale they then produced a series of "telemovies" which mashed together the single part episodes into incomprehensible junk but the two part episodes were not only left alone they had additional scenes shot at the time put back into them.

1-"Lost Planet of The Gods" gave us cut scenes of Serina successfully performing her first shuttle flight which is alluded to in the broadcast episode. Also restored a key scene of Adama on Kobol describing how the original settlers of the 12 colonies as a sign of repentance for the destruction of Kobol, destroyed all their technology when they settled the world.

2-"Gun On Ice Planet Zero". I alluded to those cut scenes a while back. Most significant was the one that had Apollo insisting he go on the mission and mentioning the deaths of his younger brother and mother.

3-"Living Legend". A key scene between Apollo and Sheba after she angrily walks out after seeing Cassiopeia and Apollo tries to put in a good word for Cassiopeia about how she's a med-tech now and no longer a socialator. The words they exchange in this scene that was cut explain Apollo's remark to Sheba later in the episode, "I guess we have found a weakness."

4-"War Of The Gods." A scene at the end of the episode of Apollo, Starbuck and Sheba returning to the Galactica and being greeted by Adama, Boomer and Boxey.

If you think "Mission Galactica" was bad though, even worse was the G80 telemovie "Conquest Of The Earth" which combined most of Part 1 of "Galactica Discovers Earth" with the dreadful "The Night The Cylons Landed" and incredibly also shoehorned footage from the original series episode "The Young Lords" simply to get scenes of Baltar in the final project! (who never appeared in G80 at all).

 

[ScottRE]

If you think "Mission Galactica" was bad though, even worse was the G80 telemovie "Conquest Of The Earth" which combined most of Part 1 of "Galactica Discovers Earth" with the dreadful "The Night The Cylons Landed" and incredibly also shoehorned footage from the original series episode "The Young Lords" simply to get scenes of Baltar in the final project! (who never appeared in G80 at all).

Ha! Yes, I had that from MCA home video as well. What a damned mess.

 

[Harry-N]

20th Century Fox did a similar mashing of TIME TUNNEL episodes into 5 two-hour "movies". They took similarly themed episodes and tied them together with footage from the pilot in an effort to sell the one-season show back into some sort of profitability.

Here's the opening to one called ALIENS FROM ANOTHER PLANET:

 

[Blimpoy06]

Yeah the combo of The Living Legend and Fire in Space. Really an awful mishmash. Just turning the two part episode into a movie would have been fine, but the story was nonsensical mashed together like that. I have the MCA VHS tape of that somewhere.

It's available on DVD in PAL format. Region 2.

 

[Jack P]

There are also some scenes on the Cylon baseship that come from "The Hand Of God" when Cain moves in on the two baseships and then we cut inside the baseship manned only by centurions. The line from HOG, "Scan for the Galactica" is redubbed "Scan for the Pegasus."

 

[Dave Scarpa]

I remember there were quite a few Planet of the apes mishmash movies after the series ended

 

[Jack P]

One season TV series had that happen a lot back in the day. If a show ran long enough for regular syndication, it didn't need to be subjected to that. Ironically, after going to the trouble of doing the hash jobs on it, Galactica did make it into regular syndication around 1983-84.

 

[jcroy]

One season TV series had that happen a lot back in the day. If a show ran long enough for regular syndication, it didn't need to be subjected to that. Ironically, after going to the trouble of doing the hash jobs on it, Galactica did make it into regular syndication around 1983-84.

I would have been all over this, if I lived anywhere which had a local channel which played Battlestar Galactica reruns in the 80s. But alas that never happened for me.

 

[The Drifter]

The Return of Starbuck, however, almost makes this all worthwhile. What a beautiful sendoff to the character and the concept. Such a lovely episode and very sad. Everyone involved was proud of this one and with good reason. Just incredible.

Agree 100%. I wrote up a review of this episode in the dedicated BG on Blu-ray thread:

The very best episode in the series was E10: The Return of Starbuck. This was the story of how Starbuck had crash-landed on a planet years before, and gotten stranded there. Very poignant episode, especially the way he formed an actual friendship with a Cylon, "Cy",

Spoiler: SPOILER

who ended up saving him at the end (at the cost of Cy's "life").

This was a fascinating episode on a lot of other levels as well. I.e., who was the mysterious woman whom Cy found, and where did he find her? Was she an alien or an angel? Who was the father of her child (Doctor Zee)? She somehow ended up back on the planet (on a cliff) after Starbuck had put her & her baby in the spaceship, which was also mysterious, though the baby in the ship made it's way to the Galactica (shades of Superman's origin!). Also, did Starbuck ever end up getting off the planet? You would have thought he could have used the Cylon craft that the 3 enemy Cylons landed in, since that was presumably still operational.

 

[BobO'Link]

One season TV series had that happen a lot back in the day. If a show ran long enough for regular syndication, it didn't need to be subjected to that. Ironically, after going to the trouble of doing the hash jobs on it, Galactica did make it into regular syndication around 1983-84.

There are 2 ways stations run syndicated shows:

Strip - Run the same show in the same time slot 5 days per week every week. This is the most common and why shows "need" ~90 episodes before they're normally considered. That's ~4 months worth when stripped.

Checkerboard - Run a different show in a specific time slot once per week. Basically - 5 shows, hour or half-hour, but a different one each day in the time slot. This is the way Prime Time scheduling is typically done. This is great for shorter run shows, especially if you can get genre/themes going for you.

I worked for a local TV station for about 20 years and constantly argued with the programming dept. that they could checkerboard shorter run series to create something entirely different in the schedule and likely get more viewers. Battlestar Galactica was one of the shows I told them could work well that way. Star Trek and Lost in Space were a couple others I'd pitched for a SF block with a different SF show every day of the week. It's a college town and a SF block could have done very well for them. Instead, they ran Little House on the Prairie to death and then ran Bonanza to death.

 

[Jack P]

I would have been all over this, if I lived anywhere which had a local channel which played Battlestar Galactica reruns in the 80s. But alas that never happened for me.

WOR in New York carried it where I lived (the regular local schedule not the superstation lineup which never aired locally in the NY market)

 

[bmasters9]

I worked for a local TV station for about 20 years and constantly argued with the programming dept. that they could checkerboard shorter run series to create something entirely different in the schedule and likely get more viewers. Battlestar Galactica was one of the shows I told them could work well that way. Star Trek and Lost in Space were a couple others I'd pitched for a SF block with a different SF show every day of the week. It's a college town and a SF block could have done very well for them. Instead, they ran Little House on the Prairie to death and then ran Bonanza to death.

Why would Little House and Bonanza be run ad nauseam, instead of Trek and Lost in Space being checkerboarded?

 

[BobO'Link]

Why would Little House and Bonanza be run ad nauseam, instead of Trek and Lost in Space being checkerboarded?

Because we're in the south and they thought "more rural" type programs would get better ratings. It didn't help that the person in charge didn't like SF at all but *did* like those two programs.

 

[bmasters9]

Because we're in the south and they thought "more rural" type programs would get better ratings. It didn't help that the person in charge didn't like SF at all but *did* like those two programs.

Ah! I somewhat see the reasoning on that one; it would be somewhat different if you were in San Francisco or Hawaii, as those areas would very likely have at least one station having The Streets of San Francisco and Hawaii Five-O respectively (being that those are the namesake shows of those areas).

 

[jcroy]

Because we're in the south and they thought "more rural" type programs would get better ratings. It didn't help that the person in charge didn't like SF at all but *did* like those two programs.

I didn't live in the south.

When I was a kid after school every day I came home to see the Little House reruns were on. It wasn't my favorite show, but I was watching it every day.

 

[Jack P]

Now that I think back to the history of Galactica on WOR, I *think* what they did was air Galactica, then Buck Rogers and then go back to Galactica.

 

[jcroy]

Now that I think back to the history of Galactica on WOR, I *think* what they did was air Galactica, then Buck Rogers and then go back to Galactica.

Did Universal offer all three shows as a giant all-in-one syndication 71-episodes package in those days?