Battlestar Galactica

TV Series
1978–1979
TV-PG
1h

IMDb RATING

7.2/10

18K

YOUR RATING

POPULARITY

Play trailer0:32

Space Sci-Fi Action Adventure Sci-Fi

After the destruction of the Twelve Colonies of Mankind, the last major fighter carrier leads a makeshift fugitive fleet on a desperate search for the legendary planet Earth.After the destruction of the Twelve Colonies of Mankind, the last major fighter carrier leads a makeshift fugitive fleet on a desperate search for the legendary planet Earth.After the destruction of the Twelve Colonies of Mankind, the last major fighter carrier leads a makeshift fugitive fleet on a desperate search for the legendary planet Earth.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

7.2/10

18K

YOUR RATING

POPULARITY

1,303

204

See production info at IMDbPro

Won 2 Primetime Emmys
- 3 wins & 8 nominations total

Episodes21

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TopTop-rated 1 Season2 years

Trivia
George Lucas and 20th Century-Fox sued the producers over alleged similarities with Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977). The show was re-worked from its original pilot to capitalize on the film's popularity, employing the same special effects team and the same concept designer. The lawsuit was dismissed in 1980, Fox appealed, and the case was settled out of court in 1983.

Goofs
The humans' terms for time measurement appear to be simple replacements, as explained on the Trivia page - "micron" = second; "centon" = minute; and "centar," "secton," "sectar" and "yahren" corresponded respectively to hour, week, month and year - the term "centon" is the most used, often in a context that cannot possibly mean a minute: "He should have been in bed centons ago," "A route that will take us centons out of our way," etc.

Quotes
Opening Credit Announcer: There are those who believe that life here began out there, far across the universe... with tribes of humans... who may have been the forefathers of the Egyptians... or the Toltecs... or the Mayans. Some believe there may yet be brothers of man... who even now fight to survive - somewhere beyond the heavens!

Alternate versions
Two episodes were edited together to form the made-for-video movie Mission Galactica: The Cylon Attack. In syndication, the series incorporates the episodes of "Galactica 1980" (1980).

Connections
Edited into Battlestar Galactica (1978)

User reviews89

Review

Featured review

7/10

good sci-fi TV for its day

Battlestar Galactica protects the surviving ragtag convoy of two hundred plus refugee ships from the Twelve Colonies after the devastating conquest by the Cylon Empire. Commander Adama (Lorne Greene) leads the search for the mythical thirteenth colony Terra. Captain Apollo (Richard Hatch) and Lieutenant Starbuck (Dirk Benedict) are the leading Viper pilots. They struggle to escape the traitor Baltar (John Colicos) and his Cylon cohorts under Lucifer.

This Star Wars inspired franchise stumbles from time to time but at the end of the day, this is good sci-fi TV especially for its day. The biggest stumbles are the various human settlements that the convoy encounters. It puts the central premise under problematic rewriting. The basic premise is that these are the last of humanity looking for salvation. That's the drama. All these other human populations punch holes in that premise. They could stop at these places or gather up these survivors. It doesn't help to have unicorns either.

The best episodes are probably Battlestar Pegasus and Fire in Space. The human settlements episodes are repetitive and degenerative. I'm also not a big fan of Boxey and Muffit. The Ship of Lights is memorable and could be expanded. The idea for Ice Planet Zero is classic but flawed at its core. It's a stationary weapon after all. There are quite a bit of recycling in the action FX sequences but that's to be expected for TV. One does grade on a curve and this is one of the better ones in its era.