- This article is about the original movie and television series; for other versions, see Battlestar Galactica (disambiguation).
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. It was reimagined in 2003 by the Sci-Fi Channel with Edward James Olmos stepping into Lorne Greene's role of Commander Adama. A weekly series on Sci-Fi followed in January 2005.
Synopsis of the original 1978 pilot film
Battlestar Galactica is set in a distant part of the galaxy in an age described as "the seventh millennium of time." Twelve colonies (planets) of humans have been fighting a thousand-year war against the android race of Cylons, who seek to exterminate all of humanity.
The Cylons unexpectedly sue for peace, through the diplomatic channel of human councilor Count Baltar. The human leaders and commanders of the military fleets are lulled into complacency by the Cylons offer of peace. All of the human military vessels, including the twelve carrier vessels called "battlestars", are supposed to meet at the armistice talks for the final actions sealing the peace. This is a trick: Baltar has betrayed humanity for personal power and glory, and the Cylons have no true plans for peace.
Adama, commander of the Battlestar Galactica, had been suspicious of the Cylons' motives. He sent out a regular patrol consisting of two of the best pilots. But Adama's son Zac convinces the other pilot to let him go on the patrol with Adama's other son Apollo. This patrol discovers the battle-ready Cylon fleet in hiding and the fleet discovers them. The patrol must warn the fleet, but Zac is killed by the Cylons on the way back to the Galactica.
The Cylon fighter fleet attacks the unprepared battlestars at the peace accord. Apollo tells Adama that tankers were discovered with the fighters to allow them to extend their range from the Cylon carrier ships, Basestars. Adama realizes that the carriers are likely engaged elsewhere — probably directly attacking the colonies. He orders the Galactica to withdraw in order to protect its home planet, Caprica, but he is too late; upon arriving home he finds only devastation. He soon learns that all twelve colonies have met the same fate. Adama also receives news that all of the remaining battlestars were also destroyed at the "armistice talks".
With the colonial civilization in ruins, and the Cylons likely to continue their extermination of humanity, Adama sends out a call for every craft that can make it to space to flee the Cylons. The hope is that the Galactica can find a legendary thirteenth human colony, known only as Earth, that hopefully has sufficient technology to be able to defeat the Cylons. Stories say that this colony is known only to the last lord of Kobol, the planet abandoned thousands of years earlier during humanity's mass exodus to explore the galaxy.
Helping Adama in the quest for Earth are 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, disdainful of harboring even a temporarily useful traitor, orders Baltar's execution (in the theatrical version; in the television version, however, Baltar's life is spared, so that he could help the Cylons hunt down the remaining humans).
The Galactica and her "ragtag fleet of fugitive vessels" find brief respite on the resort planet of Carillon. Apollo and Starbuck soon discover that Carillon's indigenous inhabitants, the Ovions, are actually in league with the Cylons. The Ovions are to delay the human fleet while the Cylons gather forces to destroy the fleet. The Ovions take advantage of the situation and have been kidnapping and consuming crew and passengers of the refugee fleet. After rescuing some their imprisoned comrades, Apollo and Starbuck, in a firefight with Cylons, set fire to the subterranean tylium mined on the planet.
The new ruling council, believing that the Cylons are far behind them, have arranged a party and award banquet that all fighter pilots must attend. The Cylons, believing that all of the fighter pilots are at the award banquet on Carillon, launch a fighter attack against the Galactica. Adama and Tigh suspected a trap and arranged for support crew to impersonate most of the fighter pilots, who are actually on standby for trouble. The Cylon fighters are defeated.
Again, Apollo knows that the Cylon fighters couldn't have gone far without support ships. Apollo and Starbuck go hunting for these additional vessels and find a Cylon basestar on the far side of Carillon. Apollo and Starbuck fool the Cylon base star in to thinking that it was going to be attacked by multiple viper squadrons. The base star descends into Carillon's atmosphere to avoid detection, and is destroyed when the planet explodes due to the spreading fire.
Despite their victory, the humans realize that the Cylons will still be pursuing them, and thus they begin their "lonely quest: a shining planet known as Earth."
Cast
(starring)
(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)
(guest stars of television series, listed alphabetically)
Creative Cast:
Broadcast history
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). 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, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, and witnessed by U.S. President Jimmy Carter. After the ceremony, ABC resumed the broadcast at the point where it was interrupted.
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. Universal promptly countersued, claiming "Star Wars" had stolen ideas from the 1972 film "Silent Running" and the "Buck Rogers" serials of the 1940's; the lawsuit would be eventually dismissed in 1980 as having no merit.
As the series progressed, the ratings began to slide, even though the show still consistently won its coveted Sunday evening timeslot. Although each episode had a budget of about $1 million, the show reused so many special effects shots due to budgetary constraints that many critics derided as "overplayed into tedium."
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 & 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 Eddie Seidel, a 15-year-old boy in Saint Paul, Minnesota who had become obsessed with the program. [1] (http://www.kobol.com/archives/suicide.html) On May 18, 1979, the theatrical version of the pilot was released in U.S. theatres.
See also: List of Battlestar Galactica episodes
Mormon influence
Battlestar Galactica contains references to the theology of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (more commonly known as the Mormon church). Producer Glen Larson is a member of this church.
Some parallels between the series and the religion include:
These parallels are explored in more detail at Battlestar Galactica and Mormonism (http://www.michaellorenzen.com/galactica.html).
Other versions of Battlestar Galactica
Galactica 1980
Main article: Galactica 1980
In this 1980 sequel series, the fleet finds Earth and covertly protects it from the Cylons. This series 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, more specifically, 60 Minutes). Some syndication packages for Battlestar Galactica incorporate the episodes of this series.
Revival attempt
The original show has maintained a cult fandom, which has supported efforts by Glen Larson and Richard Hatch (independent of each other) 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, titled "," was displayed at science fiction conventions but did not lead to a new series.
Battlestar Galactica (2003)
In December 2003, the American Sci Fi channel produced and aired a four-hour miniseries that reimagined Battlestar Galactica. The success of the miniseries led to a new series (October 2004, UK; January 2005, North America). A highly edited version of the miniseries aired on NBC on January 9, 2005, five days before the American debut of the series. Notable changes from the original series include: Cylon models closely resembling human form; Starbuck is a female character; Boomer, formerly an African-American human (and genuinely human), is now portrayed by a Korean woman and covertly a Cylon infiltrator; and Col. Tigh, formerly portrayed by an African-American actor, is now portrayed by a white actor.
This incarnation of the franchise is far darker and more serious than the original. There are scenes depicting graphic violence, as well as suggestive sex scenes. The new version has also taken a deeper approach with its characters, who are addressing thorny social issues such as alcoholism, addiction, divided loyalties, and coping with both personal and community grief and tragedies. Despite controversy from fans of the original series, the reimagined series has met with considerable success, with all-time record high ratings on Sci-Fi 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) 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 between 1978 and 1981.
A Battlestar Galactica video game has been published on the Sony PlayStation 2 and Microsoft Xbox platforms.
External links
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