Galactica 1980

Galactica 1980
Galactica 1980 intro
Created by	Glen A. Larson
Starring	Lorne Greene Herb Jefferson, Jr. Barry Van Dyke Richard Lynch
Country of origin	United States
No. of episodes	10
Production
Running time	approx. 45 mins
Original release
Network	ABC
Release	January 27, 1980 – May 4, 1980

This article is about the 1980 television series; for related topics, see the main Battlestar Galactica page or Battlestar Galactica (disambiguation).

Galactica 1980 is a science fiction television series, and a spin-off from the 1978–1979 series Battlestar Galactica. It was first broadcast on the ABC network in the United States from January 27, 1980, to May 4, 1980.

Development

A massive write-in campaign began with the cancellation of the original Battlestar Galactica. Such things were uncommon in those days, and it prompted ABC to re-think their reasons for canceling the show. After some deliberation, they contacted Glen Larson to see about reviving the series, albeit in some modified and less-expensive format.

Both Larson and the network felt the show needed some major change of focus to re-launch it as a spinoff, and Larson and Donald P. Bellisario decided to set the new series five years after "The Hand of God," the final episode of the original series. This would allow them to weed the cast of many supporting characters who were now considered superfluous - Colonel Tigh, Athena, Cassiopea, Boxey, etc - which would bring down production costs. The only major characters to return from the original series would be Commander Adama, Colonel Boomer (Replacing Tigh), Apollo, Starbuck, and Baltar. Baltar was to have somehow made atonement for betraying the Colonies to the Cylons, and was now the President of the Council of Twelve.

Upon discovering a 'present day' Earth completely unable to defend itself from the Cylons, Adama decided to just head off into deep space to lead the Cylons away from the planet, but Baltar suggested using Time Travel Technology to alter Earth's history so it's technology would develop more rapidly up to a Colonial level. The Council votes this suggestion down, so Baltar steals a ship capable of time travel and heads into Earth's past to carry out his plan anyway. After some deliberation, Starbuck and Apollo are sent after him to bring him back or at least un-do his changes to history. Episodes would feature a new "Time Mission" every week, generaly with Apollo at some different time in the past, and Starbuck flying back and forth between "Now" and "Then" to give information and support to Apollo. ABC approved this pitch, and gave the go-ahead to develop a pilot for the series.

Dirk Benedict was unavailable at the time, and Richard Hatch didn't want to be connected with the series at that time, so after a quick re-think it was decided the series would take place thirty years after the end of the original series rather than five, and that Boxey would take Apollo's role, while "Lt. Dillon" would take over the Starbuck part. President Baltar was written out entirely, and Xavier was created to take up his role as resident bad guy.

After the pilot was completed, the Network was unhappy with the Time Travel aspects of the story, and agreed to pick up the series only if that subject was dropped. Larson and Bellisario reluctantly agreed, and the series instead became focused on Troy and Dillon's attempts to protect some colonial orphans on Earth. Bellisario later re-tooled the original time travel concept and re-used it as the basis of the considerably more successful Quantum Leap (TV series)

Synopsis

Set during the year 1980, and a generation after the original series, the Galactica and its fleet of 220 civilian ships have finally discovered Earth, only to find that the planet cannot defend itself against the Cylons as originally hoped. Therefore, teams of Colonial warriors are covertly sent to the planet to work incognito with various members of the scientific community, hoping to advance Earth's technology.

Commander Adama and Lt. Colonel Boomer—now second-in-command in place of Colonel Tigh—on the advice of a mysterious teenager named Doctor Zee who serves as Adama's advisor, sends Captain "Boxey" Troy, who is the adopted son of Adama's own son Apollo, and Lt. Dillon to North America, where they become entangled with TV journalist Jamie Hamilton. After an initial, epic time travel adventure to Nazi Germany in the 1940s (to stop rebel Galactican, Commander Xavier, trying to change the future to improve Earth's technology level), the three friends devise ways to help Earth's scientists and outwit the Cylons in the present day. Meanwhile, Adama sends a group of children from the Galactica fleet to Earth in order to begin the process of integrating with the population; due to differences in gravity and physiology, however, the children also have to learn to deal with the fact they have near-superhuman powers on Earth.

The fate of several characters from the original series are indicated during the course of the series. Apollo is apparently dead (cause unknown). Starbuck was apparently marooned on a desert planet although the script for the episode The Wheel of Fire (unfilmed at the time of cancellation) indicated that Starbuck was eventually rescued from the planet by the inhabitants of the Ships of Light and became one of the inhabitants. Captain Troy is revealed to be Boxey, and Lt. Boomer is now Adama's second in command. The fate of several other characters—Adama's daughter Athena, Colonel Tigh, Starbuck's girlfriend Cassiopeia, and the evil Count Baltar—are not revealed, and all four characters are absent from the series.

Cast

• Lorne Greene - Commander Adama
• Robyn Douglass - Jamie Hamilton
• Herb Jefferson, Jr. - Colonel Boomer
• Richard Lynch - Commander Xavier
• Kent McCord - Captain Troy
• Allan Miller - Colonel Sydell
• Patrick Stuart - Doctor Zee
• Robbie Rist - Doctor Zee
• Barry Van Dyke - Lieutenant Dillon

Greene (Adama) and Jefferson (Boomer) were the only major cast members of the original series to return, with Richard Hatch and Dirk Benedict both unable to return due to commitments to other projects, although as noted below, Benedict did appear in an episode using previously unscreened footage from the original program.

Short life

The series had a promising start with a three-hour adventure that saw Troy, Dillon and Jamie sent back in time to Nazi Germany to save the future, but the series could not sustain this momentum. For example, the next two episodes, "The Super Scouts" story, were widely ridiculed; many fans regarded the "aliens acquire super powers because of gravitational differences" aspect of the story as a rather blatant "borrowing" from Superman. Fans were also curious as to why these super powers had not been noticed by any of the characters during the first three episodes.

The show was unceremoniously cancelled after only ten episodes, many of which were multi-part stories, or what would be referred to now as arcs. The final episode—"Return of Starbuck"—featured unscreened footage of Dirk Benedict as Lt. Starbuck from the original series in a flashback episode. Despite its popularity with fans, to the point that Glen Larson had written a sequel episode entitled "The Wheel of Fire", it was not enough to save the series, which was cancelled before it could be filmed[1].

Many fans do not consider Galactica 1980 to be canonical with the original series, save perhaps "Return of Starbuck". Both Dirk Benedict and Richard Hatch had jumped-ship after reading what they considered terrible scripts and ridiculous plotlines, hence them being hastily written-out of the Galactica saga.

Many cite Galactica 1980 as one of the worst shows in science fiction history. Furthermore, the books written based on the series conflict with Galactica 1980 in many respects, most prominently the death of Adama in the books.

In the short live documentary special of "Sciography" that ran on the SCI-FI Channel in early 2000 which did a one hour show on the series. It stated almost all main stream fans of the original Battlestar Galactica won't even admit that this version ever existed.

Syndication and beyond

The ten Galactica 1980 episodes were rolled into the television syndication package for Battlestar Galactica and were given the same title as its parent program.

A feature called Conquest of the Earth was released on home video only. This feature was stitched together from sections of the three "Galactica Discovers Earth" episodes and the two "The Night the Cylons Landed" episodes. A scene of John Colicos, playing Baltar, was also spliced in to this release. The latter footage was actually taken from an episode of the original series—Baltar makes no appearance in any Galactica 1980 episode—and is partially dubbed, so as to make the speech sound relevant to the Galactica's new situation. Several early scenes involving Adama and Dr Zee are also partially dubbed, to add more explanatory detail and to explain why two actors appear playing the role of Dr. Zee. In all cases, the dubbing is of a low technical standard.

Episode list

Main article: List of Battlestar Galactica (1978-1980) episodes

See also

• Battlestar Galactica (2004 TV series)
• Battlestar Galactica, the video game
• Battlestar Galactica: The Second Coming

External links

• UGO Galactica 1980 site
• Galactica 1980 at IMDb
• Template:Tvtome show
• GALACTICA.TV Battlestar Galactica website that focusses on the people in front of and behind the camera of all Battlestar Galactica series
• Battlestar Galactica Wiki: Galactica 1980
• Galactica 1980 site on SCIFI.com