References to the Original Series

Part of the series on Battlestar Galactica References
References in	the Original Series Galactica 1980 the Re-imagined Series
References to	the Original Series Galactica 1980 the Re-imagined Series Caprica

Film

Airplane II: The Sequel

• The music at the beginning of the movie is the Battlestar Galactica theme music.
• The theme music is played again during the shuttle launch.
• The pilot of the shuttle is Kent McCord, who played Troy in Galactica 1980.
• Airplane II also starred Lloyd Bridges, who played Commander Cain.

IMDB Trivia page

Battlestar Orgasmica

• A 1992 pornographic film lampooning the Original Series.

IMDB page

Beverly Hills Cop III

• In the movie, Axel Foley is being chased through a series of rides, one of which is "Alien Invasion". The ride is similar to the Universal Studios' "Earthquake" ride, with the addition of Cylon Robots who shoot at the participants.

IMDB Trivia page

Dünyayı Kurtaran Adam ("The Turkish Star Wars")

• The theme is played during the introduction.

Space Mutiny

• The shots of the fleet in space are taken directly from Battlestar Galactica.
• The ship's fighters are also called "Vipers."
• Space Mutiny's plot is also somewhat similar to that of Battlestar Galactica: a refugee fleet trying to find a new home, "mystical" elements, strange names for things, etc.

IMDB Trivia page

Television

The A-Team

Dirk's A-Team 'Faceman' meets a Cylon.

• Dirk Benedict, who played Starbuck in Battlestar Galactica, plays Lt. Templeton "Faceman" Peck in "The A-Team". Face and Starbuck are very similar (handsome young officers, womanizers, humorous/roguish elements, etc).
• During the episode "Steel" of The A-Team, the A-Team attends a television convention. While there, a man in a Cylon Centurion suit walks past Face, who turns with a look of surprise on his face.
• In the second-through-fourth seasons of The A-Team, the clip of the Cylon walking past Faceman is played in the show's opening credits.
• The A-Team also starred Dwight Schultz (the voice of Lord Erebus) and Lance LeGault (Bootes/Maga).

IMDB Trivia page

Buck Rogers in the 25th Century

• Also produced and developed by Glen A. Larson and Leslie Stevens.
• Some props and footage (e.g. Viper cockpits and the Lunar Avion) were taken directly from Battlestar Galactica.

Detailed comparisons

• The star fighters of the Earth Defense Directorate are Ralph McQuarrie's original concept designs for the Viper.
• In "Space Vampire", the derelict ship Demeter that crashes into the station is the model of the Gemini and Delphi freighters seen in both the Original Series and Galactica 1980.
• In "Space Vampire", the medallion Rogers uses against a possessed Wilma Deering and the Vorvon is the Seal of the Lords prop Adama uses to unlock the Tomb of the Ninth Lord of Kobol in the "Lost Planet of the Gods" two-parter.
• The second season plot line had a crew seeking the lost tribes of Earth who had scattered after a catastrophic event.

IMDB Trivia page

Family Guy

• At the end of the episode "Road to Europe", Peter and Lois are on the KISS show. At the end of the show, the host announces, "And now stay tuned for Battlestar Galactica Forum." He dons a Cylon Centurion helmet (complete with the red-eye) and continues, in a Cylon voice, "Welcome to Battlestar Galactica Forum."
• During the episode "Brian Goes Back to College" Peter, Quagmire, Joe and Cleveland all dress up as the A-Team. After Quagmire is introduced in the credits as "Faceman" Peck. He walks past a Cylon Centurion from the original show. A deliberate reference to the A-Team reference listed above.

Futurama

Cylon and Garfunkel (Futurama episode Bendin' In The Wind)

• In the episode "Bendin' in the Wind", the band "Cylon and Garfunkel" (consisting of Art Garfunkel and an original series Cylon Centurion) play at a charity concert for broken robots.

Knight Rider

• Also produced by Glen A. Larson
• The red scanner on the front of KITT is a reference to the red "eye" of the Cylons from Battlestar Galactica.
• Edward Mulhare, who played John in "Experiment in Terra", was given a leading role in Knight Rider.

IMDB Trivia page

Murder, She Wrote

• During the episode "Incident in Lot #7" (Season 8, episode 13) a person dressed in a Cylon outfit walks past Jessica Fletcher.

Mystery Science Theater 3000

• In the episode featuring Santa Claus Conquers the Martians, Tom Servo says "You know, if they cancel Battlestar Galactica I'm gonna kill myself" referencing the actual suicide by 15-year-old Eddie Seidel, Jr. when the show was canceled.
• A similar joke about Galactica's cancellation was made in the episode featuring the film "Laserblast" in season seven.
• Space Mutiny was shown on MST3K. and the DVD of the episode made note of the movie's use of Battlestar Galactica. Ironically, jokes regarding the recycling of Galactica footage are not made in the actual episode.
• In the episode featuring "Future War," host Mike Nelson dubs a spaceship seen in the film's opening "Dustbuster Galactica!"

Robot Chicken

The Cylon skit on Robot Chicken

• The Original Series Cylons were the focus of a short skit on the adult swim series Robot Chicken episode of Junk in the Trunk in which the original Cylon actors had so many problems walking around in their suits that they were constantly falling down.

Saturday Night Live

• In the SNL Digital Short "Space Olympics", footage of the destruction of the Battlestar Atlantia is used.

S.C.I.F.I. World

A Cylon sitting in Intergalactic Land

• In the weekday programming block for the Sci Fi Channel, Wednesday was Intergalactic Land which often aired Battlestar Galactica. Among the many commercials for Intergalactic Land and S.C.I.F.I. World in general are: a Cylon watching a game of PONG and Cylons with the laughing, drunk Spock shooting a Kirk below making him dance.

The Simpsons

• In the episode "Mayored to the Mob", an ad for a sci-fi convention announces, "Tag-team robot wrestling! It's the mighty robots of Battlestar Galactica, versus the gay robots of Star Wars!" The ad shows two Cylons beating up R2-D2 and C-3PO.
• In another episode, "Burns Verkaufen der Kraftwerk", Homer is bored late at night and takes out a Galactica jigsaw puzzle, delightedly saying "Oooooh, Battlestar Galac-tic-a!"
• An episode of the series is called "Saddlesore Galactica".

South Park

• In the episode "Imaginationland Episode II", one of the many fictional characters that come from the evil side of Imaginationland are original series Cylons.

Star Trek: Voyager

• In the episode "Flesh and Blood", both the Ovions and Borays are mentioned.
• Tylium is used in both "Flesh and Blood" and "Workforce".

Tripping the Rift

• The episodes "Mutilation Ball" and "Love Conquers All...Almost" feature a character named 'Commander Adam.'
• The episode "Totally Recalled" features a character named Baltar, who owned an android-manufacturing corporation called Baltar Industries. Despite his name, however, CEO Baltar looks like Lucifer.

Welcome to Eltingville

• In the Trivia Off, two of the questions are: "How many brains does a Cylon commander have?" and "What was Galactica 1980's time-slot?"

Games

Escape Velocity Nova

• In this computer game, carrier ships can be equipped with squadrons of snub-nosed, delta-winged, laser-armed 'Viper fighters.'

Homeworld

• The computer game Homeworld revolves around a race of people who were exiled from their homeworld by a cruel empire to a distant desert planet many thousands of years ago. After their planet of exile is obliterated by their ancient enemy the survivors take to the stars on a long and perilous journey across the galaxy in search of their ancient homeworld, Hiigara. A rumor persists that Homeworld’s development began as a Battlestar Galactica computer game which developer Relic Entertainment failed to acquire a license for.

StarCraft

• In this computer game, units often answer with quotes from movies. Some of the Protoss respond to orders with the phrase, "By your command".
• The game's humans have been exiled from Earth, and live in a confederacy of colonies; these colonies are, throughout the game, decimated by the Zerg and Protoss - the latter of which are feudal, cybernetically-enhanced aliens, like the Cylons.

FreeSpace 2

• One of the Vasudan pilots respond to orders with the phrase, "By your command".

Space Attack & Space Battle

• Mattel's game, Space Battle for Intellivision and its M-Network counterpart, Space Attack for the Atari VCS/2600 platform, were originally slated to be games based on the Battlestar Galactica series. However, the project was changed to be more generic, due to unknown reasons. The "flying saucers" in the game are actually Cylon Raiders, since they did not change graphics; this change is mostly imperceivable, due to the lack of detail that could be used in graphics of the platforms of that era.

VGA Planets

• In this shareware game, two of the predefined races are modeled after the Cylons and Colonials: Robotic Imperium and the Missing Colonies of Men.

Literature

More Information Than You Require

• John Hodgman claims that the original Battlestar Galactica was a "re-imaging" of the classic Battlestar Galactica radio program of the 1920s.

Star Trek

The upside down battlestar Galactica

• In the first numbered Star Trek: The Next Generation novel Ghost Ship, the ship on the cover is actually the upside down battlestar Galactica.
• In the The Original Series novel Ishmael, Apollo and Starbuck make an appearance on page 13 (as well as Han Solo) with the description: "a pair of brown-uniformed pilots from some down-at-the-heels migrant fleet".

Star Wars

• The swear word, frak (as well as "frakkin'"), makes an appearance in the 1996 Star Wars novel of Shield of Lies.

Comics

Star Wars

• In The Return of Tag & Bink: Special Edition, when Palpatine arrives on the Death Star II, his honor guard includes two Cylon Centurions.

Webcomics/Comic strips

Brewster Rockit: Space Guy!

• In a comic strip of various cereals, an exogorth (the space slug from Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back) is seen preferring "Frosted Min-Fleets". The ships on the cover are Cylon Raiders.

General Protection Fault

• In the comic for Monday, June 21, 1999, whilst at the Space Con, Fooker disappears as Nick and Ki pass the Battlestar Galactica booth.

Sluggy Freelance

• In the comic for Sunday, August 10, 2003, the webcomic presents the Battlestar Galactica musical, The Cylon King.

Radio

"Hour of Slack"

• In "The Hour of Slack", the theme music is played at the beginning of first Post 4X-Day episode #794. It is also the first track on the CD "4X-DAY".

Other

Hartsfield Atlanta International Airport

• From the opening of the midfield terminal in 1980, until its refurbishment in 1996, the computerized announcement voices were referred to by fans as Cylon and Logan's Run voices.

Mozilla

The Mozilla "Cylon" progress bar

• All programs made by Mozilla feature an oscillating status bar which, in the code, is called a "cylon."

External links

• IMDb's Movie Connections
• Frak (swear)
• Tylium

Original Series definition: interchangeable term for a computer monitor and television set (see: scanner)