Season 1 (1978-79)

Summary

After the Cylons' surprise attack destroys the Twelve Colonies, Adama leads a rag-tag fugitive fleet with humanity's last survivors aboard the Battlestar Galactica seeking a shining planet known only as Earth.

Pivotal Plot Points

• After the devastation at the Battle of Cimtar, the last remaining battlestar, Galactica, provides escort for a 212-ship fleet, the last human survivors of the The Twelve Colonies.
• While fleeing the Cylons, Commander Adama convinces fleet members to follow his mystical quest: a shining planet, know only as Earth.
• The fleet takes a rest on the planet Carillon, only to realize that the planet's inhabitants, the Ovions, are in league with the Cylons.
• Entering into an vast, uncharted magnetic void, the fleet re-emerges at its proverbial homeworld, Kobol, but are followed by the Cylons before the location of Earth can be discerned from the hieroglphics.
• Staying just ahead of the ever-pursuing Cylons, the fleet must slip past a huge pulsar cannon mounted in the peak of an icy world.
• The Galactica is reunited with the Pegasus, another battlestar thought destroyed long ago; its roguish, daring commander, Cain, threatens the Cylons - as well as the fleet's unity - as a test of personalities divides the newly-joined crew
• The Galactica is nearly destroyed in a Cylon suicide attack, which causes an inferno aboard the ship.
• While encountering the strange Ship of Lights, the Galactica plays host to Count Iblis, who promises to deliver their goals, but at a significant cost.
• The fleet encounter another force called the Eastern Alliance, which turns out to be not much of a threat; unfortunately, they also shed no new light on the quest for Earth.
• Mutinies begin occurring: first, Count Baltar escapes from the prison barge and kidnaps members of the Quorum of Twelve; later, an outright mutiny occurs aboard the Celestra.
• Tired of running, the fleet turns and faces its Cylon foes (albeit with some unconventional means, thanks in part to a captured Cylon Raider) in a major showdown.

Cast

Stars

• Lorne Greene as Commander Adama
• Richard Hatch as Captain Apollo
• Dirk Benedict as Lieutenant Starbuck

Co-stars

• Terry Carter as Colonel Tigh
• John Colicos as Count Baltar
• David Greenan as Omega
• Noah Hathaway as Boxey
• Herbert Jefferson, Jr. as Lieutenant Boomer
• Maren Jensen as Athena
• Anne Lockhart as Lieutenant Sheba
• Sarah Rush as Rigel
• Laurette Spang as Cassiopeia
• Tony Swartz as Flight Sergeant Jolly

Recurring stars

• Ed Begley Jr. as Greenbean
• John Dullaghan as Dr. Wilker
• Dick Durock as Imperious Leader
• Jonathan Harris as Lucifer (voice)
• Patrick Macnee as Imperious Leader (voice)
• George Murdock as Dr. Salik
• Felix Silla as Lucifer

Production Crew

Producers

• Glen A. Larson - executive producer, writer
• Donald P. Bellisario - supervising producer, writer, director
• Leslie Stevens - supervising producer
• John Dykstra - producer
• David J. O'Connell - producer
• David G. Phinney - associate producer
• Gary B. Winter - associate producer

Directors

• Donald P. Bellisario
• A. Colla
• Vince Edwards
• Daniel Haller
• Rod Holcomb
• Winrich Kolbe
• Alan J. Levi
• Christian I. Nyby II

Writing Staff

• David S. Arthur
• Donald P. Bellisario
• Jim Carlson
• Herman Groves
• John Ireland, Jr.
• Glen A. Larson
• Frank Lupo
• Terrence McDonnell
• Ken Pettus
• David G. Phinney
• Paul Playdon
• Michael Sloan

Episodes

Season 1 (1978-1979)

Broadcast	Production	Episode title	Airdate
1	1	Saga of a Star World	September 17, 1978 (3 hrs)
2	2	Lost Planet of the Gods, Part I	September 24
3	2	Lost Planet of the Gods, Part II	October 1
4	4	The Lost Warrior	October 8
5	5	The Long Patrol	October 15
6	3	The Gun on Ice Planet Zero, Part I	October 22
7	3	The Gun on Ice Planet Zero, Part II	October 29
8	6	The Magnificent Warriors	November 12
9	7	The Young Lords	November 19
10	8	The Living Legend, Part I	November 26
11	8	The Living Legend, Part II	December 3
12	9	Fire in Space	December 17
13	10	War of the Gods, Part I	January 14, 1979
14	10	War of the Gods, Part II	January 21
15	11	The Man with Nine Lives	January 28
16	12	Murder on the Rising Star	February 18
17	13	Greetings from Earth	February 25 (2 hrs)
18	14	Baltar's Escape	March 11
19	15	Experiment in Terra	March 18
20	16	Take the Celestra	April 1
21	17	The Hand of God	April 29

Official Statements

• Dirk Benedict discusses the series:

Benedict: Being on this set for the past five months has been the most incredible experience any actor in television could have! It's better than being on Charlie's Angels with Farrah back. There's no way to make you understand the amount of money that's being spent. You come in for a shot at 7:30 [A.M.], and the camera doesn't roll until 11:30 [A.M.] because of all the special effects that have to be prepared.

• Richard Hatch discusses his take on the series:

Hatch: It's really no different from being in an acting class. There's a reality, a truth, that I have to find in every scene; and whether the people are five thousand years in the future or five thousand in the past, they're still human beings. They feel and think. we're dealing with bizarre situations – alien hardware, different terminology, spaceships – but we're still human beings who hate, love, wage war ... It is difficult trying to conjure up how a person would react in such unusual situations. That's the hard part: making up a reality for yourself.

[...]

There's another difficulty – with the texture of the show. It's in the blend of drama and comedy. It's a very narrow pathway to tread. I love lightness, comedy, but it's very important to me that it come out of the drama, out of the reality of the situation. Camp can be fun, but it defeats the reality of the moment. The best comedy – like Neil Simon's plays – has a reality, a basic truth rooted in it.