1978
Battlestar Goldmine
Jul 9th
A Cylon - 2007 reincarnation
As we all await the arrival of the second half of the fourth and final season of Battlestar Galactica, the Ron Moore reincarnation, we find ourselves rushing to the net for more and more information and possible gossip in the hiatus. Well, in my quest for more Galactica in this lul of TV nothingness, I have stumbled across a superb blog written by a designer on the Galactica series. He has posted some informative and very interesting pieces about the Cylon centurions of the latest series and how they tried to stay true to the orignal vision of the Cylons we saw in the 1978 Battlestar Galactica.
You can view the “Anatomy of a Cylon” – Battlestar visual effects, blog post at Darth Mojo’s site here.
More recently, Darth Mojo, has written an article about the recent half season (season 4) cliff-hanger, which includes a visual effects breakdown of how they achieved the final scene of Revelations (season 4 episode 10), a scene that will be imprinted in our minds until we see the rest of the season appear on our screens in 2009, unless of course, a T.V. movie appears before then.
You can read the article BSG VFX: REVELATIONS here. In the coming weeks, on Darth Mojo’s blog, he will be breaking down the visual effects of each episode in the season so far, starting off backtracking with “The Hub” (ep 9), so keep checking back there for more BSG goodies.
Darth Mojo’s site has been added to the blogroll, I love the site personally and I’ll back him all the way as he keeps the nostalgic view of Battlestar Galactica (1978) as well as bringing it into the 21st Century with the new show, which of course, we all know is something special!
Talking of something special, BSG re-creator Ron Moore certainly has brought us more than our fair share of superb sci-fi, starting with Star Trek: TNG as well as DS9 and Voyager. He is continuing to produce quality stuff with BSG, what’s next for him and what does he make of his phenomenal success story? Take a look at Wired Magazine’s extended interview with him here. Honestly, you need to read it, it’s eight pages of mind numbing goodness!
More on BSG soon, if you’ve had a look around Mojo’s blog, you’ll also see Star Trek stuff too, also very interesting visual fx reading, that’s what’s next for this blog…Star Trek: TOS! See you soon.
The rise and fall of Battlestar Galactica (1978)
Apr 30th
Battlestar Galactica
It started out in 1978 as an idea from Glen A. Larson, who went on to create Knight Rider amongst others. He states that the idea was conceived in the late 60’s and was given the name ‘Adam’s Ark’. That idea was stifled for a number of years, until it was clear that the Star Wars phenomenon had hit the big time, Battlestar Galactica was born.
The premise of the show was simple, mankind in the distant galaxy, on a planet called Caprica, decide that to make life easier on themselves, they want to build robots that can do all the dirty jobs that they don’t like. After a successful evolution, the robots, named Cylons, end up getting more and more intelligent and with that intelligence comes power. They end up forging war with the humans and Caprica is devastated.
Commander Adama, in charge of the Battlestar Galactica, one of the most powerful ships ever built, takes what’s left of the human race and leads a fleet of ships across the galaxy in the hope of finding solace on Earth. A planet that they have only heard of and hope of reaching.
The original Battlestar Galactica with Starbuck, Apollo, Adama and an old school Cylon
Being a completest and having the urge to watch things from their infancy through to their death, I decided late last year that I’d try to watch the full story. I know what you’re thinking, “why start with the original when the new series is so much better?”, I heard this so many times when I posted on forums etc. I guess I just wanted to see the evolution of Battlestar, from what it was to how it turned out. So I started with the 1978 story hoping that I’d watch the 24 episodes of the original series, then move on to watch the remaining 10 episodes that made up ‘Galactica 1980′, the follow up TV series.
Episodes
- Saga of a Star World, Part 1
- Saga of a Star World, Part 2
- Saga of a Star World, Part 3
- Lost Planet of the Gods, Part 1
- Lost Planet of the Gods, Part 2
- The Lost Warrior
- The Long Patrol
- The Gun On Ice Planet Zero, Part 1
- The Gun On Ice Planet Zero, Part 2
- The Magnificent Warriors
- The Young Lords
- The Living Legend, Part 1
- The Living Legend, Part 2
- Fire In Space
- War of the Gods, Part 1
- War of the Gods, Part 2
- The Man With Nine Lives
- Murder On the Rising Star
- Greetings From Earth, Part 1
- Greetings From Earth, Part 2
- Baltar’s Escape
- Experiment In Terra
- Take the Celestra
- Hand of God
The Main Cast
- Lorne Green – Commander Adama
- Richard Hatch – Captain Apollo
- Dirk Benedict – Lieutenant Starbuck
Other cast that pop up around the place are Anne Lockhart, Jane Seymour and even the legendary Lloyd Bridges.
To many, this really looked like a Star Wars rip off, to others, who were young enough to get sucked into the universe, it was sci-fi fantasy at it’s best! I remember watching as a kid in awe of how cool Starbuck was and how much I wanted an X-Wing looking ship that flew through tunnels of a bigger ship to propel itself into space! Awesome!
On the re watch in 2007 however, it did end up looking quite dated, which of course is understandable. It still captivated me though, and it still held up it’s end of the bargain and caused those nuances of nostalgia to come trickling back!
At times though it was a little hard to keep my concentration, almost 45 – 50 minutes worth of old fashioned sci-fi can sometimes take it out of you, but after all no one can knock the quality of story telling. It’s this quality that has become a trademark of anything Battlestar Galactica, the storytelling, and it’s this trademark that sets alight the new imagining by Ronald D. Moore.
Unfortunately, Battlestar Galactica got cancelled in 1979 by ABC, and it was a major blow to the cast, crew and the fans. So, after much campaigning, a year later, Galactica 1980 was born. Featuring only Adama and Boomer of the original characters, the other characters were given time off! Apparently Dirk Benedict (Starbuck) was unavailable (although he made an appearance in the 10th, the final and best, episode of the series) and Richard Hatch (Apollo) wanted nothing to do with the series. Ironic, seen as he has caused so much fuss since the demise of the original!
Galactica 1980 Episodes
- Galactica Discovers Earth, Part 1
- Galactica Discovers Earth, Part 2
- Galactica Discovers Earth, Part 3
- The Super Scouts, Part 1
- The Super Scouts, Part 2
- Spaceball
- The Night The Cylons Landed, Part 1
- The Night The Cylons Landed, Part 2
- Space Croppers
- The Return Of Starbuck
Enjoyable, but just didn’t cut it as much as the original. It centres on Troy, who is Boxey from the original series, but now he is all grown up! The Galactica reaches earth and it tries to give us the adventure of what it was like being foreigners on a new planet, unfortunately it doesn’t work for me. The cylons still as shiney and menacing as ever though, but the best episode is really saved for last when it gives us a story of Starbuck and his misfortune of landing on a planet, and his trials and tribulations of finding inhabitants. On his way he befriends a cylon and finds a female inhabitant. (Join the dots, Starbuck was always a smooth guy!)
Anyways, not much more I can say but go and check them out yourselves, both at bargain prices across the web and well worth the nostalgic view or two! Go for it. However, I must stress, they are in no way linked to the current, critically acclaimed, Battlestar Galactica show. Only the premise is the same, but the storytelling is completely different. There is absolutely no need to watch the original first, unless you’re like me and just wanna do it for the fun of it! Or if you’re intrigued as to how the idea evolved, and boy, it does evolve!
On that note, I’ll leave you with the immortal words…
“Fleeing from the Cylon tyranny, the last Battlestar, Galactica, leads a ragtag, fugitive fleet on a lonely quest: a shining planet known as Earth.” – Commander Adama (Lorne Greene)
For more info on Battlestar Galactica visit http://nottslanding.yuku.com/topic/495
Click the DVD’s for the amazon listings…
 Battlestar Galactica - The Complete 1978 Series |
 Battlestar Galactica 1980 DVD |