Battlestar Galactica (1978 TV Series)

''Battlestar Galactica'' is an American science fiction television series created by Glen A. Larson and starring Lorne Greene, Richard Hatch, and Dirk Benedict. The series follows the surviving humans as they flee in the fictional spacecraft of the same name in search for a new home while they are being pursued by the Cylons.

The series ran for the 1978–1979 season before being canceled after 24 episodes. It also spawned into a media franchise, which includes a spin-off show, comics, a reimagined miniseries and weekly series, theme park attractions, and games.

Plot summary

In a distant star system, the Twelve Colonies of Mankind were reaching the end of a thousand-year war with the Cylons, warrior robots created by a reptilian race which expired long ago, presumably destroyed by their own creations. Humanity was ultimately defeated in a sneak attack on their homeworlds by the Cylons, carried out with the help of a human traitor, Baltar (John Colicos). Protected by the last surviving capital warship, a "battlestar" (from "''battle'' ''star''ship"), named '' Galactica'', the survivors fled in available ships. The Commander of the ''Galactica'', Adama (Lorne Greene), led this "rag-tag fugitive fleet" of 220 ships in search of a new home. They began a quest to find the long lost thirteenth tribe of humanity that had settled on a legendary planet called Earth. However, the Cylons continued to pursue them relentlessly across the galaxy.

The main characters include Captain Apollo, a serious Viper spacefighter pilot and the son of commander Adama, and his best friend, Lieutenant Starbuck, a gambler and womanizer.

The era in which this exodus took place is never clearly stated in the series itself. At the start of the series, it is mentioned as being "the seventh millennium of time", although it is unknown when this is in relation to Earth's history. The final aired episode, "The Hand of God", indicates that the original series took place after the Apollo 11 moon landing in July 1969 as the ''Galactica'' receives a television transmission from Earth showing the landing. The later ''Galactica 1980'' series is expressly set in the year 1980 after a 30-year voyage to Earth.

Larson, a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, incorporated many themes from Mormon theology into the shows.

Pilot and subsequent changes

The pilot to this series, budgeted at $8 million (one of the most expensive at that time), was released theatrically in Sensurround. A shortened (125-minute), edited version was released on July 8, 1978, in several regions including Canada, Japan, and select Western European countries.

On September 17, 1978, the full 148-minute pilot premiered on ABC to high Nielsen ratings. Two thirds of the way through the broadcast, ABC interrupted with a special report of the signing of the Camp David Accords at the White House by Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, witnessed by U.S. President Jimmy Carter. After the ceremony, ABC resumed the broadcast at the point where it was interrupted. This interruption did not occur on the West Coast. After the pilot aired, the 125-minute theatrical version was given a nationwide U.S. cinema release in May 1979.

The pilot had originally been announced as the first of three made for TV movies. After broadcast of the second episode, "Lost Planet of the Gods", however, Glen Larson announced the format change to a weekly series, catching his writing and production staff off guard. This resulted in several 'crash of the week' episodes until other scripts could resume. "Lost Planet of the Gods" also introduced a costume change from the original, in that the warriors' dress uniform featured a gold-trimmed cape falling to upper thigh. Because of the costume change, a portion of the pilot was reshot; this refilmed version was released in cinemas in 1979. The original version of the warriors' dress uniform, a plain, mid-thigh-length cape, is documented in ''The Official Battlestar Galactica Scrapbook'' by James Neyland, 1978.

Criticism

''Battlestar Galactica'' was criticized by Melor Sturua in the Soviet newspaper ''Izvestia''. He saw an analogy between the fictional Colonial/Cylon negotiations and the US/Soviet SALT talks and accused the series of being inspired by anti-Soviet hysteria:

Isaac Asimov commented: ''"Star Wars'' was fun and I enjoyed it. But ''Battlestar Galactica'' was ''Star Wars'' all over again and I couldn't enjoy it without amnesia."

Legal actions

In 1978, 20th Century Fox sued Universal Studios (producers of ''Battlestar Galactica'') for plagiarism, copyright infringement, unfair competition