Battlestar Galactica (1979)

Too much of everything

So much average

Slow pace in the most part of the movie.

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

A wonderful start to BG and better than the series that follows. The Cylons, Lorne Green, Ray Milland, the disaster movie-feel in the first half of it, the grand Stu Phillips musical score...I could go on for hours!Stu Phillips would go on to do the score for Buck Rogers In The 25th Century (the movie) in 1979. And that score is even more outstanding than his BG score here!Star Wars (1977), Battlestar Galactica (1978), Buck Rogers In The 25th Century (1979)...three 1970s cinema released space movies that have a special place in my heart.

For a television movie that set up a series afterward, Battlestar Galactica was really very entertaining. There is no doubt at all that it is a no-holds barred knock-off of Star Wars. nonetheless it has an interesting plot, enjoyable characters played by enjoyable if not great actors, some top-notch special effects for its day(and some truly horrendous ones as well), and a great score. A war between robots and humans breaks out as a human betrays his people for power. Soon the survivors of a vanquished group of human colonies make their way back to Earth to find their "mythical" sister in race. Lorne Greene plays the chief leader wonderfully and his role gives this film much of its credibility. Actors Richard Hatch and Dirk Benedict are playfully acceptable and we get the likes of ray Milland, Lew Ayres, Patrick Macnee(voice very menacing), the always affable Wilfred Hyde-White, Terry Carter, and others who all enhance this production. The film end so a series can take off and though I watched it as a kid I don't remember that all that well. It appears I am not missing much. This tele-film; however, is generally well-made and very fun to sit back and enjoy. There are some detractors of course like some corny situations, dialog, and characters. The boy with the robot dog is so nauseatingly unpleasant.

The above statement, from the patriarchal Commander Adama (Lorne Green) sums up this show quite nicely. Adama has to lead the last survivors of humanity from the Twelve Colonies of Kobol to a long-lost mythic planet called Earth, home of the 13th Tribe, after the colonies are attacked by the robotic and clumsy Cylons, who strafe a city or two and kill at least one dog.The first part of Adama's statement is fair enough. Clearly another solar system would be located beyond your own solar system. Oh, but it's also in a different galaxy? You might as well say that the restaurant you're trying to find is "Just down the street, in another country". I wonder if the writers knew what they were talking about."Galactica" is full of moments like this. The Vipers, the little fighter planes our heroes fly into battle, have enormous fiery exhaust trails, implying constant acceleration, the effect of which would be to reduce our heroes to strawberry jam. (The Vipers themselves look like hastily cobbled-together knock-offs of the X-wings from "Star Wars"). Their cockpits even have a little instrument on the dashboard telling the pilot which way is "up" -- in space.The villains of the show are the infamous Cylons, renowned in the realm of televised science fiction as the dumbest, clumsiest, and most ridiculous-looking villains ever. It's to be expected that they can't shoot, but these chrome-plated robots can barely walk. According to Lorne Green, the Cylons are just plain evil, but I'm not sure "evil robots" is all that meaningful, although I did have an evil calculator once. I'm never quite sure whether the Cylons had an organic counterpart who created them, but it doesn't really matter.In many ways this show is a shallow imitation of "Star Wars," and this can be seen in the cast of characters. Particularly Starbuck (Dirk Benedict), who tries so hard to be Han Solo, but only comes off as petulant, sexist, and rather pathetic. Apollo is the noble, Luke Skywalker hero type, and as such doesn't have a personality. Starbuck has a faithful black sidekick, Boomer, who seems to be much more competent than Starbuck. Adama also has a faithful black sidekick, called Colonel Tigh, who at one point is reduced to picking up everyone's laundry. Take that, Civil Rights Movement!The destruction of the human colonies is a brief, and amazingly painless affair. A park is strafed by Cylon ships, and a small dog is killed (though the actual death is not shown, so we are left with some hope). Soon enough, our heroes have forgotten all about the genocide: Starbuck tries to get it on with two equally boring women, and Apollo enters into a creepy relationship with the little boy whose dog was maybe killed (though it might be slightly less creepy if you consider he was only trying to sleep with Jane Seymour, the boy's mother). The Cylons, meanwhile, attack again, but are destroyed because they're so utterly incompetent.Oh yes, and there's a robot dog. I think it was actually a chimp in a robot-dog costume, but either way it's quite nauseating. The special effects are all right to start off (I like those old effects from the Seventies and Eighties, sometimes more than modern CGI), but get very repetitive very fast. I could also mention the preposterous characterization of the humans, including weak-kneed pacifists who are quickly killed, the inexplicably evil and stupid Lord Baltar (John Colicos) who betrays humanity, and the unbelievably dumb Council of Twelve, who prove that democracy just doesn't work.

When Battlestar Galactica came out I was too young to know which end of a blaster to hold ;) But I was lucky and in the late 80's the show was syndicated. And I was transported across the universe to the Egyptian/Greco Alien word of Cobalt. It's sun slowly fading away. I followed Starbuck, Apollo, Sheba and the Galactgang search across the star systems with a killer robot army at there backs, mysterious aliens to the right, Lucifer Morningstar to the left, and the Confederation (the warmongering and dangerously uncaring reflection of our future) between them and that 13th Colony, Earth. I consider myself lucky, and I've seen from some other posts here (comparing Galactica with Star Wars) that I was not alone. But I just wanted to follow say that my favorite part of Galactica was how they did follow the Warrior Philosopher world that Star Wars touched on with the Jedi Knights. Except this time our heroes only special powers were there compassion and intelligence. Adama, the military leader who's spiritually made him an tragic champion who's idealism and human identity helped motivate his country men (and women). Now granted that the many of the civilian leaders were corrupt and the military were not, but I saw that as Spartan-esk and wonderfully Arthurian. And lets not forget our noble Apollo, his hot-head buddy, Starbuck (the man with the lady troubles). And Baltar the Betrayer. You are in for a treat when watching Galactica. Now sadly I've caught the new 'Battlestar Galactica' and this, thankfully, is in no way that. Nor is it 'Galactica 1980' (lame) but hey at least that had Lorn Greene ;)