Galactica 1980, anyone?...Anyone? (1 Viewer)

[Eric Paddon]

Galactica, remember was rushed into the grind of weekly series production when Glen Larson was expecting only a series of two hour movies spaced apart. When you're under that kind of writing crunch, then obviously flaws will develop. It's because of that pressure, that I think it still remains remarkable that the ratio of outstanding episodes to clunkers (and I will automatically give you "Magnificent Warriors" with guest star Brett Somers of Match game fame and the whole ridiculous "Terra trilogy" of episodes" as truly bad episodes even if one of them is clearly where Donald Bellisario got the idea for Quantum Leap) is just as good as that of a well-hailed, well-beloved sci-fi show like Trek TOS.

 

[Kevin M]

I disagree about the ratio of hit's & misses.....for god's sake, they had Irish immigrants.....IN SPACE! ...okay, maybe they didn't have green dancing girls but still...
Of course all good sci-fi tends to use the genera to mirror modern life & topics (Trek certainly did that...along with Space:1999 - Land of The Lost etc. etc.) and, as I said, had the series gone on they might have polished the rough edges, the potential was there and I liked the actors in the ensemble, but as it stands today I enjoy it's successes but can't ignore it's faults.

 

[Rutgar]

Yes. And I would add that Galactica 1980 was one of it's faults, and the New Battlestar Galactica is one of it's successes. Because without the original we would have neither.

 

[Eric Paddon]

"for god's sake, they had Irish immigrants.....IN SPACE!"

Exactly how is a random character with an Irish accent more egregiously bad than parallel planets of American Indian society and Roman Empire with 20th century trappings and Yangs and Kohms with an American flag and Constitution identical to the last detail, this coming just one year after "Miri" and it's duplicate Earth?

 

[Rutgar]

So what's your point? Are you trying to justify "bad writing" by pointing out bad writing? If I point out that sour milk smells bad, are you going to then say "Exactly how does sour milk smell more egregiously bad than rotten eggs?" Continuing to compare 60's Trek, to 70's Galactica is totally non sequitur.

 

[TomJC]

That's classic deflection. Rather than try to defend the point on its merits, turn the attention to an episode of Classic Trek. I don't remember anybody trying to defend that particular episode that Eric mentioned in the first place.

Yes, other science fiction series were guilty of some of the same things as the original Galactica. However, to go back to the Star Trek comparison, Trek's use of plots based on movies or other television were spread out over the three seasons, whereas Galactica managed to squeeze quite a few of them into just one season.

This is not to detract from the better stories, though. When I think of Galactica, I prefer to think of episodes like "The Living Legend" rather than "Experiment in Terra" (or whatever the title of that one was). However, I think Trek had a better ratio of good episodes to bad than Galactica managed.

 

[Jimmy M]

Again, Eric just chooses to ignores this. Maybe I'll just keep posting it until he responds to it.

Jimmy!

 

[Kevin M]

Random? The Long Patrol? The whole colony was Irish! Did you even watch the show?

 

[Greg_S_H]

That sounds like a rather lackluster episode of ST: TNG, where the crew found an old Irish colony and had to transport them and their animals to another planet. They revisited the Irish theme late in the show's run with a Gothic episode involving Dr. Crusher, an Irish colony, and a manufactured ghost.

 

[Britton]

Oh god, both of those were rotten episodes, although the one with Crusher's ghost took place on a Scottish planet complete with a Groundkeep Willy-like character.

 

[Greg_S_H]

Well, no offense intended to the Scottish. They ought to be glad I was so appalled I immediately assumed it was Irishmen.

 

[Jay Pennington]

He finally stopped trolling and now you're calling him back?! Please let it be.

 

[Kevin M]

Well at least with that show the idea (irish immigrants) was covered in the actual script, not so with BG......plus it gave Riker a rather good looking Irish lass to..um.."get to know". ...in fact as I remember she was very good looking.