The Original Battlestar Galactica Revisited
One of my favourite television shows as a child was Battlestar Galactica. It was a magical time as the first Star Wars movie had just been released and science fiction was experiencing a renaissance.
While compared to Star Wars, Battlestar Galactica had a much different premise from it or even the earlier Star Trek. The Twelve Colonies had been suddenly attacked by the robotic Cylon empire, destroying their fleet and most of the people. Only one Battlestar (space-version of an aircraft carrier) and a fleet of random civilian ships escape and begin a quest to find the home of thirteenth tribe – Earth!
While I enjoyed the Ronald Moore rebooted version of Battlestar Galactica, I had some great nostalgic memories of the original series. But my nostalgia can be misleading and forgetful of bad quality.
I decided I would go back and rewatch the original Battlestar Galactica. It had been over forty-five years since I had seen it.
Of course, the special effects are late-1970s quality and cannot be compared to what we have in our current CGI technology. This series had a limited budget and had to reuse many shots to make things work.
Having said that, I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the special effects. The design of the Battlestar and the Vipers are incredible. For the time and the budget available, it was actually really good.
Were there some cheesy episodes? Absolutely, but really only a small minority. As a season, the stories were better than the first season of Star Trek: The Next Generation.
The overall quest to survive by finding Earth was compelling. And the stories that accompanied that quest were quite thoughtful and kept my interest. It was much better storytelling than much of what was coming out at that time.
I think part of what makes Battlestar Galactica so good is that it is really about relationships. It is about families and friends and a band of brothers and sisters. The friendship between Apollo and Starbuck (and to a lesser extent with Boomer) is the core of the story. There is also the relationship between Commander Adama and his Apollo. I wish they had done more with his daughter Athena.
In many ways, Battlestar Galactica was way ahead of its time. It was very diverse ethnically and it put women into strong positions, such as Viper pilots.
Returning to Commander Adama, played by the legendary Lorne Green, he is such a great character and leader. His leadership style is one that needs to be emulated today. He is strong in a thoughtful way but avoids toxicity. This really shines through in the episodes with the Battlestar Pegasus.
Rewatching this series, it was fun to see some great actors in some of their first roles. One of the surprises for me was seeing Apollo’s brother being played by singer Rick Springfield.
I thoroughly enjoyed rewatching this series. It was not because it was nostalgic, but because it was a really good series. It is too bad that it was only one season. Still, it was an influential science fiction series that continues to inspire new stories.
You can purchase Battlestar Galactica: The Original Series (Amazon affiliate link)
You can purchase a Viper pilot jacket (Amazon affiliate link)
