Galactica

Battlestar Galactica is one of those fine and cheesy sci-fi shows of the past that still shine bright: like the Buck Rogers show and movies, Space: 1999 or the Planet of the Apes stories, the original Battlestar Galactica (like the remake) has one main feature - for its time well done special effects and settings (now looking dated of course, but in a good way, at least in my opinion) and strong casts and characters. Everyone who grew up with that kind of sci-fi (including the first Star Wars movie and Star Trek original series) will never forget characters like Starbuck or Apollo. After all those years, besides a few too cheesy episodes, Battlestar Galactica is still an epic adventure.

Battlestar Galactica protects the surviving ragtag convoy of two hundred plus refugee ships from the Twelve Colonies after the devastating conquest by the Cylon Empire. Commander Adama (Lorne Greene) leads the search for the mythical thirteenth colony Terra. Captain Apollo (Richard Hatch) and Lieutenant Starbuck (Dirk Benedict) are the leading Viper pilots. They struggle to escape the traitor Baltar (John Colicos) and his Cylon cohorts under Lucifer.

This Star Wars inspired franchise stumbles from time to time but at the end of the day, this is good sci-fi TV especially for its day. The biggest stumbles are the various human settlements that the convoy encounters. It puts the central premise under problematic rewriting. The basic premise is that these are the last of humanity looking for salvation. That's the drama. All these other human populations punch holes in that premise. They could stop at these places or gather up these survivors. It doesn't help to have unicorns either.

The best episodes are probably Battlestar Pegasus and Fire in Space. The human settlements episodes are repetitive and degenerative. I'm also not a big fan of Boxey and Muffit. The Ship of Lights is memorable and could be expanded. The idea for Ice Planet Zero is classic but flawed at its core. It's a stationary weapon after all. There are quite a bit of recycling in the action FX sequences but that's to be expected for TV. One does grade on a curve and this is one of the better ones in its era.

Who, having grown up at the time, can ever forget the good old days, when TV shows like this were the ultimate scream of fashion?

I wasn't even born in the 70's, but I still remember very well that in the early 90's TV often aired TV series like this, which now looking back were made before my time but as a child I didn't know that fact nor do I cared.

'Battlestar Galactica' was created by Glen A. Larson, who also created 'Knight Rider', another TV series from my childhood.

Now, looking at it through an adult's perspective, it is lesser great than it was in the days of innocence, but still 'Battlestar Gallactica' shines in nostalgia. Although some episodes were better than others and they always had their flaws, the show really gives that feeling of nostalgia. If not perfect, at least it is authentic. It is from a time when things were real, when things had a special magic. The opening, for example, is fantastic, with those spectacular images of space and space wars. The opening music too is absolutely wonderful, and that opening quote is memorable:

«There are those who believe that life here began out there, far across the universe, with tribes of humans who may have been the forefathers of the Egyptians, or the Toltecs, or the Mayans. Some believe that there may yet be brothers of man who even now fight to survive somewhere beyond the heavens.»

Like I said, it's by no means a perfect TV show. But the action scenes and their delicious sounds, the special effects, the space backgrounds... ahhh.... it's all so authentic and perfect (as it should be), without any of the excessive action and explosive noise seen these days.

It starred Lorne Greene as Commander Adama, Richard Hatch as Captain Apollo and Dirk Benedict as Lt. Starbuck, all of them great. Most of these episodes also had Noah Hathaway in a minor role as Boxey, Apollo's little son. Boxey is the cute little tyke. Him and his Muffit. This was a few years before he "became" Atreyu. Too bad Boxey doesn't have a bigger role.

Inevitably, this TV series resembles '2001: A Space Odyssey', 'Star Trek' and 'Star Wars'. It was even accused of plagiarism when 'Star Wars' itself heavily drank ideas from an early 70's film called 'Silent Running'.

ok.. I have read all the comments about BSG... I must say I am disappointed in many of the truly negative comments. I remember watching BSG when it first aired... I would never miss the show when it was on. I was sad to see it leave the airwaves when it was canceled. I did watch 'Galactica 1980' when the series resurfaced for a brief time. The only episode I liked from that was the one featuring Starbuck when he crash landed on a planet and had a cylon as his companion for company. Yes... the show had feathered hair styles that showed the influence of the times of the late 70's. But who cares! I liked the friendship between Apollo, StarBuck, and I loved when they added Sheeba into the group. BSG is a part of Sci-Fi History. I would really love to see Richard Hatch's film he made of BSG that he financed and made. but unless it was ever shown at a convention... I will never get to see it. I will watch SciFi channels 'Re-Imagined' BSG, but hate the fact that StarBuck and Boomer will be female characters now. With StarBuck as a Female... it will kind of take away a lot of the friendship that Apollo and StarBuck had together. It's not like you will see them going to the rising star or an officer's club looking for women together anymore. No daggit Muffy either. But I'll give the newer series a chance...Just as I did for ST:TNG(Star Trek:The Next Generation). Fans of Star Trek, and even the original Trek cast from TOS were back handed slapping TNG when it first came out. They claimed they knew Star Trek, and the new show will fail. But TNG made it through a rocky 1st and 2nd season. They really came into their own as the 3rd season began. Maybe the new BSG will be Ok? We'll see what happens when it starts in Dec.2003. I just wish people would stop slamming BSG in so many of the comments I have sat through for the last 15 mins. Some of them are by people that have just seen the series for the first time on the sci-fi channel.. It's really all about right now is what the fans of the show remember from seeing it back in 78/79 and appreciating it all over again in reruns on SciFi, and buying the DVD set due out 10/2003. It's a piece of history for SciFi. Those of you that have been slamming it. Maybe it was your first time seeing it as a rerun someplace. Watch the newer version coming out in Dec. 2003. SciFi has a web site up for it right now giving some background into the newer 'Re-Imagined' version.

Well all I want to say is. I love the show. It still stands up to the test of time as a great series. no matter what you others have been saying about it. Hopefully I will be around long enough to see all of the newer BSG if it does become a TV series... Seeing as I have cancer (Hodgkins disease) and have endured a long treatment in a year and 7 months among which was a really long treatment called 'Stem Cell Transplant'.... Anyhow. Enough said.

It is very easy to see why 'Battlestar Galactica' was popular at the time, even with its early cancellation, and had high ratings, as well as still having people very fond of it.

At the same time it is also easy to pick faults with 'Battlestar Galactica', which through adult eyes is an uneven show with the flaws much more noticeable. With me, there is still fondness for it from a nostalgic point of view, it fascinated and entertained me as a child and it still does now as a young adult. However, 'Battlestar Galactica' is a long way from a perfect show and could have done far more with the potential it had. It is a long way from a bad show, just not great.

There is a lot to like. Apart from costumes and hairstyles that feel very 70s and date the show a bit, repetitive use of effects and lack of scope for space itself (space is huge, this felt pretty compact), the look of 'Battlestar Galactica' is fine. The sets are eye-catching, it's very nicely shot and the effects themselves were great for the 70s and even though used in a repetitious and recycled fashion hold up reasonably well now with the odd limitation here and there.

With the music, one has to love the rousing bombast and playful energy of the scoring, while the theme tune is up there with the most iconic theme tunes of any show from the 70s and of the sci-fi genre. There are many nice moments in the script, with some knowing humour and thought-provoking opening narration and closing quotes. Tonally and quality-of-plots-wise, 'Battlestar Galactica' is inconsistent. When it was not good it was cringe-worthy ("The Young Lords", especially the annoying interplay of the child actors and the child actors themselves) but when it was good it was fantastic ("War of the Gods" took a darker and bolder approach and at the same time ended up epitomising what the show is all about).

'Battlestar Galactica's' stories could have benefited better from having a time-line, which would have made the tone more focused and the quality of stories more consistent. Due to that the show can get bogged down by some childish antics, that turned out not to be cheesy in a good way it sometimes got embarrassing (like they were trying too hard to appeal to children or a family-friendly audience). As well as too many homages (like in "The Magnificent Warriors" or that clumsy and weird cowboy in space episode "Lost Warrior" - in an attempt to appeal to older audiences, indicating a confusion as to which target audience to aim it at- that serve little relevance or point, loses the whole focus of the story in question and like they'd forgotten what the quest was. When it took a darker and bolder approach with more challenging subjects, it was often very engrossing and that approach could have been explored even more.

Most of the characters work very well, Starbuck (a favourite among fans and with good reason) and dignified Adama are my favourites. Apollo and Boomer are also great. The exceptions are the child actors in "The Young Lords", annoying and trying-too-hard-to-be-cutesy Boxey (played to not much better effect by Noah Hathaway, who went on to give a great performance in 'The NeverEnding Story', so the blame lies on the writing not Hathaway) and the less said about Muffit II (especially painful in his very over-exposed role in "Fire in Space") the better. The Cylons are also inconsistently characterised, sometimes menacing at other idiotic and made to look like fools.

The performances, apart from the children, are in fine keeping with the show and hold up well on their own, Lorne Green, Richard Hatch and Dirk Benedict being especially good. Patrick Macnee, Herbert Jefferson Jnr and John Colicos are sterling support as well.

In conclusion, uneven but entertaining. 7/10 Bethany Cox