Online Encyclopedia
Battlestar Galactica
- This article is about the original movie and television series; there is also a miniseries of the same name produced 25 years later.
Battlestar Galactica is an American science fiction movie and television series, produced in 1978 by Glen Larson and starring Lorne Greene, Richard Hatch and Dirk Benedict.
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Synopsis of the original pilot film
Battlestar Galactica was set in a distant part of the galaxy in an age described as "the seventh millennium of time." Twelve colonies (planets) of humans had been fighting a thousand-year war against the android race of Cylons, who sought to exterminate all of humanity. The Cylons unexpectedly sued for peace, through the diplomatic channel of human councilor Baltar. In reality, though, Baltar had betrayed humanity for personal power and glory; Baltar had lulled into complacency the human fleet of military vessels, called battlestars, against a Cylon enemy with no true plans for peace.
At the "peace" accord, the Cylons suddenly attacked the unsuspecting battlestars, destroying every vessel except the Galactica, which had wisely been placed on "battle alert" by its commander, Adama. Never having fully trusted the Cylons' peace offer, Adama's worst fears were realized when his sons, Apollo and Zac, discovered the battle-ready Cylon fleet in hiding. When Zac is killed at the onset of the Cylon surprise attack, the Galactica abandoned the peace rendezvous, in order to protect its home planet, Caprica. However, the Galactica was too late, arriving home only to find devastation; they would soon learn that all twelve colonies had met the same doom.
With the colonial civilization in ruins, the Cylons began pursuing the sole-surviving battlestar, to complete their task of human extermination. Adama proposed to the new ruling council their only chance for survival: assembling all human survivors into every space-worthy craft, fleeing the Cylons and searching for an anecdotal 13th human colony, known only as Earth. Helping Adama in the quest for Earth were Colonel Tigh, the second in command of the Galactica, as well as a squadron of viper (fighter) pilots, led by Apollo (Adama's remaining son), Starbuck, and Boomer. The Cylon Imperious Leader, displeased with Baltar, orders his execution (in the theatrical version; in the television version, however, Baltar's life was spared, so that he could help the Cylons hunt down the remaining humans).
The Galactica and her "ragtag fleet of fugitive vessels" found brief respite on the resort planet of Carillon. Apollo and Starbuck, though, soon discovered that Carillon's indigenous inhabitants, the Ovions, were actually in league with the Cylons, and had been kidnapping crew-members of the Galactica. After rescuing their imprisoned comrades, Apollo and Starbuck set fire to the subterranean tylium mines of the planet, which eventually led to the destruction of Carillon, as well as a Cylon base star. Despite their victory, the humans realized that the Cylons would still be pursuing them, and thus they began their "lonely quest: a shining planet known as Earth."
Cast
(starring)
- Richard Hatch as Captain Apollo
- Dirk Benedict as Lieutenant Starbuck
- Lorne Greene as Commander Adama
(also starring, listed alphabetically)
- Terry Carter as Colonel Tigh
- John Colicos as Count Baltar
- Noah Hathaway as Boxey
- Herbert Jefferson, Jr. as Lieutenant Boomer
- Maren Jensen as Lieutenant Athena
- Anne Lockhart as Lieutenant Sheba
- Laurette Spang as Cassiopeia
- Tony Swartz as Flight Sergeant Jolly
(guest stars of movie, listed alphabetically)
- Lew Ayres as President Adar
- Ray Milland as Sire Uri
- Rick Springfield as Lieutenant Zac
(guest stars of television series, listed alphabetically)
- Melody Anderson as Brenda
- Fred Astaire as Chameleon/Captain Dmitri
- Ed Begley, Jr. as Greenbean
- Ray Bolger as Vector
- Lloyd Bridges as Commander Cain
- John de Lancie as Officer
- John Dullaghan as Doctor Wilker
- Britt Ekland as Tenna
- John Fink as Doctor Payne
- Jonathan Harris as Lucifer (voice)
- Patrick Macnee as Count Iblis, and as voice of Imperious Leader
- Edward Mulhare as John
- George Murdock as Doctor Salik
- Dan O'Herlihy as Doctor Ravishol
- Brock Peters as Solon
- Jane Seymour as Serina
- Brett Somers as Siress Belloby
Creative Cast:
- Glen A. Larson: creator, producer, writer, co-composer of theme
- Donald P. Bellisario: producer
- Leslie Stevens: producer
- Stu Phillips music score, co-composer of theme
- L.A. Philharmonic: music performers
Broadcast History
Original
The pilot to this series, the biggest budgeted ($7 million) at the time, was originally released theatrically in Canada, Western Europe, and Japan in July, 1978 in an edited 125-minute version. In most markets, Battlestar Galactica outgrossed Star Wars in terms of box office receipts. On September 17, 1978, the uncut 148-minute pilot premiered on ABC to spectacular Nielsen Ratings (attracting 65 million viewers). However, as the series progressed, the ratings began to slide, although the show still consistently won its coveted Sunday evening timeslot. Although each episode had a budget of about $1 million, many critics derided the show's over-use of canned special effects shots, which were overplayed into tedium. In 1978, 20th Century Fox sued Universal Studios (the producers of Battlestar Galactica) for plagiarism, claiming it had stolen 34 distinct ideas from Star Wars; the lawsuit would be eventually dismissed as having no merit in 1980.
In mid-April 1979, ABC executives cancelled the still strongly-rated show. Some sources indicate that the million-dollar-per-episode cost led to the show's demise. Others believe that it was a failed attempt by ABC to position its hit comedy Mork and Mindy into a more lucrative timeslot. (The ratings for Mork plummeted far below what they had been for Battlestar Galactica.) The cancellation led to viewer outrage, protests outside ABC studios, and even contributed to the suicide of a 15-year-old boy in Saint Paul, Minnesota who had become obsessed with the program. On May 18, 1979, the theatrical version of the pilot was released in U.S. theatres.
Revival attempts
The original show has maintained a cult fandom ever since which support competing efforts by Glen Larson and Richard Hatch to revive the premise. Hatch even went so far as to produce a demonstration video in the mid-1990s which featured several actors from the original series combined with state-of-the-art special effects. This video was displayed at science fiction conventions but did not lead to a new series. So far, two revival attempts have reached the public eye:
Galactica 1980 (1980)
A sequel series, called Galactica 1980, in which the fleet found and protected Earth, was a quick failure due to its low budget, widely-panned writing, and ill-placed time slot (Sundays at 7:00 PM, a time slot generally reserved for family-oriented programming and news shows). Some syndication packages for Battlestar Galactica incorporate the episodes of this series.
Battlestar Galactica (2003)
SciFi channel produced and aired a miniseries that reinvents Battlestar Galactica for the new millennium. The success of the two-part TV movie has lead directly to the startup of a new TV series which is scheduled to debut in January 2005.
- c.f.
- Battlestar Galactica (2003)
- Battlestar Galactica (SciFi Channel)
Other media
A number of novels based upon the series have been published over the years, including a mixture of novelizations based upon televised episodes (including the pilot episodes of both the original series and Galactica 1980 (qv)) and original stories. In the 1990s, original series star Richard Hatch co-wrote several new novels based upon the series as part of his efforts to spark a revival.
Marvel Comics published a short-lived comic book series based upon the show in the 1970s.
A Battlestar Galactica video game has been published on the Sony Playstation and Microsoft Xbox platforms.