Battlestar Galactica is an American science fiction television series, produced in 1978 by Glen A. Larson and starring Lorne Greene, Richard Hatch and Dirk Benedict.
The premise of the series incorporates themes from Chariots of the Gods? and Mormon doctrine, world view and culture.[1] The show lasted only one season in 1978–1979, but has since developed a cult following and several books have been written continuing the sagas of the characters. After its cancellation, its story was continued in 1980 as Galactica 1980 with Adama, Lieutenant Boomer, now a colonel in the Colonial Service, and Boxey, now called Troy, being the only continuing characters.
A reboot series Battlestar Galactica premiered in 2004 on the Sci-Fi Channel.
Universal has announced a feature film, directly based on this version of the story with some structural changes, is in development.[2] This film is not designed to be a continuation of this 1978 series, but a parallel version,[3] unlike the 2004 reboot TV series. Currently director Bryan Singer is attached to direct[4] with production input of series creator, Larson. As of August 2009, no script has been finalized though a 2011 release date has been announced.
Narrations and theme music
The show begins with a narration, spoken by Patrick Macnee:
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. That they may have been the architects of the great pyramids, or the lost civilizations of
Lemuria or
Atlantis. Some believe that there may yet be brothers of man who even now fight to survive somewhere beyond the heavens...
The short version of the narration, also spoken by Patrick Macnee:
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 that there may yet be brothers of man who even now fight to survive somewhere beyond the heavens...
During the narration, the viewer sees scenes of nebulae and other celestial phenomena. Patrick Macnee also provides the character voice of the Cylons' Imperious Leader throughout the series, and appears as Count Iblis in "War of the Gods", a two-part episode which originally aired in January 1979.
This is followed by images of the Galactica, the colonial fleet, and other scenes. The Battlestar Galactica theme song plays prominently, an orchestral piece with an emphasis on brass instruments. It was written by Stu Phillips.
The show closes with this narration, spoken by Lorne Greene:
Fleeing from the Cylon tyranny, the last Battlestar, Galactica, leads a rag-tag fugitive fleet on a lonely quest -- a shining planet, known as Earth.
Plot summary
Humanity lived on twelve colony worlds in a distant star system. They fought a thousand-year war with the Cylons, warrior robots created by a reptilian race which expired long ago—presumably destroyed by their own creations. Having never been commanded to cease fire, these warrior robots continuously waged war against the colonials. Mankind was defeated in a sneak attack on their homeworlds conceived by the Cylons, carried out with the help of Count Baltar (John Colicos). Protected by the last surviving warship, a "battlestar" (the word, presumably coined by Glen Larson, is short for the phrase "line-of-battle starship") called Galactica, the survivors fled in any ship that could fly. The Commander of the Galactica, Adama (Lorne Greene), led this "rag-tag fugitive fleet" of 220 ships in search of a new home on a legendary planet called Earth. The episodes dealt with the fleet's struggle to survive the Cylon threat and to find Earth.
The era in which this exodus took place is never clearly stated in the series itself. The implication of the final aired episode, "The Hand of God", was that the original series took place after the Apollo 11 moon landing in July 1969, almost certainly centuries later, allowing for the time necessary for the propagation at light-speed of television images of the landing to be received by the Galactica. In "Saga of a Star World" the President of the 12 Tribes states "as we approach the seventh millennium of time..." The later Galactica 1980 series is expressly set in 1980.
Pilot
The pilot to this series, the biggest budgeted (US$7 million) pilot ever up to that time, was originally released theatrically in Canada, Western Europe and Japan in July 1978 in an edited 125-minute version. (See Saga of a Star World for information on the pilot).
On September 17, 1978, the uncut 148-minute pilot premiered on ABC to spectacular Nielsen Ratings. 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 and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, witnessed by U.S. President Jimmy Carter. After the ceremony, ABC resumed the broadcast at the point where it was interrupted. This interruption, however, did not occur on the West Coast.
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 their 1972 film Silent Running (notably the robot "drones") and the Buck Rogers serials of the 1930s. Both lawsuits were eventually dismissed in 1980 as being "without merit".
Ratings
As the series progressed, the ratings began to decline, even though the show still consistently won its coveted Sunday evening timeslot.
In mid-April 1979, ABC executives canceled the still strongly-rated show. Some believed that it was a failed attempt by ABC to position its hit comedy Mork & Mindy into a more lucrative timeslot.[5] (The ratings for Mork & Mindy 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 Edward Seidel, a 15-year-old boy in Saint Paul, Minnesota who had become obsessed with the program.[6][7][unreliable source?] On May 18, 1979, the theatrical version of the pilot was released in American theaters. In later years, Universal would recut the entire series into a series of two-hour telemovies. These were then widely syndicated to theatrical and television markets around the world. The profits from this syndication effort helped Universal recoup its enormous investment in the series.
Language
While primarily English, the Colonial language was written to include several fictional words that differentiated its culture from those of Earth, most notably time units and expletives. The words were roughly equivalent to their English counterparts, and the minor technical differences in meaning were transparent to the viewer.
- Distance and time units Colonial times were never fully explained, but appear to have been primarily in a decimal format. Time units are millicenton (approximately equivalent to one second), centon (minute), centar (hour), cycle (day), secton (week), quatron (unknown, perhaps 1/4 yahren), sectar (month), yahren (Colonial year), centuron (Colonial century). Distance units were metron (meter), micron (possibly a kilometer but also sometimes confused with a unit of time), and parsec.
- Expletives — frack (interjection), felgercarb (noun), golmonging (adjective)
- Misc — daggit (Dog), ducat (ticket), pyramid (card game), triad (a full-contact ball and goal game similar to basketball)
- Figures of speech — there were a number of these used in the series, such as "daggit dribble," a term used to condemn falsehood.
Video releases
The series first saw selective release on VHS videotape from Universal Studios Home Entertainment in the 1980s and 1990s. The full series was available in PAL format on VHS in the European and Australasian markets. In the North American (NTSC) market, only selected episodes were released - the theatrical edit of the series pilot episode, "Saga of a Star World," plus all one-hour episodes except for "Take The Celestra." Universal would eventually add two of the two-part episodes, "Lost Planet of the Gods" and "The Gun on Ice Planet Zero", as well as the feature film "Mission Galactica: The Cylon Attack" (a theatrical edit of "The Living Legend" and "Fire In Space"), the Galactica 1980 feature film "Conquest of the Earth" (composited from "Galactica Discovers Earth" and "The Night The Cylons Landed") and the Galactica 1980 episode "The Return of Starbuck". Sadly, Universal never released the remaining two-part episodes - "War of the Gods" and "Greetings from Earth" - for North America in any form. Series fans in America had to wait until the 2003 DVD release in order to purchase the complete series.
There are reports that Universal test-marketed a VHS release of the uncut series pilot movie, "Saga of a Star World", in selected markets in North America. This extended VHS version is considered extremely rare by series fans. The only major differences between the regular and extended versions are the background color of the box and the listed running time of the movie.
Three of the feature film edits saw a limited release on Pioneer's laserdisc format. These were "Battlestar Galactica", the theatrical edit of the series pilot; "Mission Galactica: The Cylon Attack", and "Conquest of the Earth". In the case of the pilot movie, time compression techniques were used to squeeze the movie down so it would fit on a single laserdisc.
In the 1990s, Playback Video of Great Britain released a limited edition VHS box set of what was supposed to be the entire series. Fans who bought the set were surprised to discover that several of the one-hour episodes had been replaced with two-hour syndicated telemovie edits. These were "Space Prison", "Space Casanova", and "Curse of the Cylons". Also included was the telemovie version of "War of the Gods," complete with extra footage. This marked the first time that a series episode had been released on video with additional footage that was not part of its original broadcast format. Oddly enough, the syndicated two-part version of "Greetings From Earth" was included instead of the original television movie edit. Even so, this VHS boxset proved popular with fans. Fan reaction subsequently prompted Universal to secure prints of all of the telemovie edits, along with their extra footage, for a future DVD release of the series proper. The Playback Video VHS box set has since been discontinued but can still be found in aftermarket channels. As present, it marks the only release of any of the syndicated telemovies in any form.
The full series was released on Region 1 DVD in 2003 as Battlestar Galactica: The Complete Epic Series which was packaged in a limited edition "Cylon head" box set with six double-sided discs. Extras for the Region 1 release included an ultimate comprehensive episode guide and collector's book, over 3 hours of deleted and alternate scenes, new interview with television series creator Glen A. Larson, 45-minute documentary on the making of Battlestar Galactica, a featurette on scoring the television series, featurette on the creation of the Cylons, an audio commentary for the television pilot episode with Richard Hatch, Dirk Benedict, and Herbert Jefferson Jr., and never-before-seen photos and concept drawings. It also features the original television movie edit of "Greetings from Earth" as originally broadcast. This set is currently available in two different packaging styles - one with an oversized "Cylon head" box, and one with a smaller, bas-relief "Cylon head" embossed on the front of the box. The series was also released on Region 2 DVD in 2004 on seven single-sided discs. This set includes all of the episodes but omits some of the above extra features.
"Mission Galactica" made its DVD debut in 2008, in a plain-vanilla format without any extras but digitally restored to the same level as the series itself. As of 2009, "Mission Galactica" is only available in PAL Region 4 (R4) format. It has yet to see a Region 1 (R1) release.
As of September, 2009 the complete classic series can be watched online in its entirety at Hulu.com [8]
See also
References
- ^ The Millennial Star, Battlestar Galactica and Mormonism
- ^ Universal in Talks for "Battlestar" Movie, Hollywood Reporter, February 20, 2009
- ^ Bryan Singer to Direct and Produce "Battlestar Galactica" movie, Entertainment Weekly.com, August 13, 2009
- ^ Bryan Singer to Direct "Battlestar Galactica", Variety.com, August 13, 2009
- ^ Larson confirmed this on the Sci-Fi documentary "Sciography"
- ^ Associated Press. "TV Death". AP, August 25, 1979.
- ^ Associated Press. "St. Paul's High Bridge: Suicide Hot Spot". citypages.com, February 5, 2008.
- ^ http://www.hulu.com/battlestar-galactica-classic
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