Galactica 1980

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1980

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 Television Network in the United States from January 27, 1980 to May 4, 1980.

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 planned. 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 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 a rebel Galactican trying to change the future to improve's Earth 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's fate (marooned on a deserted planet) would be revealed at the end of the series, Boxey is revealed to be Captain Troy, 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

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 featured unscreened footage of Dirk Benedict as Lt. Starbuck from the Original Series in a flashback episode; despite its popularity with fans, it wasn't enough to save the series. ("Return of Starbuck" was popular enough that Glen Larson had written a sequel episode entitled "The Wheel of Fire", but the series was cancelled before it could be filmed.[1].

Many fans see Galactica 1980 as a poor, non-canonical spin-off of the Original Series, perhaps one of the worst shows in television science fiction history. However, most fans exclude their contempt of this show when considering its last episode, "The Return of Starbuck", whose story of the fate of a popular character of the Original Series was well written and full of the same energy found in many of of the Original Series episodes. Furthermore, the books written based on the series conflict with Galactica 1980 in many respects, most prominently the death of Adama in the books.

One curious Cylon character in the two-part episode, "The Night the Cylons Landed" may be the one significant contribution to the "Galactica" saga. In the episode, Cylons disguised in human form arrive on Earth to cause mayhem. This character may have inspired the sinister and mysterious humanoid Cylons that wreak terror and havoc amongst the Colonies in the re-invented "Galactica" series that debuts 23 years later.

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. In all cases, the dubbing is of a low technical standard.

Episode list

Galactica Discovers Earth, Part I – January 27, 1980
Galactica Discovers Earth, Part II – February 3, 1980
Galactica Discovers Earth, Part III – February 10, 1980
The Super Scouts, Part I – March 16, 1980
The Super Scouts, Part II – March 23, 1980
Spaceball – March 30, 1980
The Night the Cylons Landed, Part I – April 13, 1980 (guest-starring Wolfman Jack)
The Night the Cylons Landed, Part II – April 20, 1980 (guest-starring Wolfman Jack)
Space Croppers – April 27, 1980
The Return of Starbuck – May 4, 1980

Another episode called The Day they Kidnapped Cleopatra[2] had begun shooting when the series was cancelled.

Other Resources

External links