2023/09/15

45 years ago, September 17, 1978, I was a very young boy, who already loved science fiction by that time. I watched shows like Battlestar Galactica, Doctor Who, Star Trek, Logan’s Run, Buck Rogers to name but a few. Later on, also The Incredible Hulk, Blake’s 7, V, the Six Million Dollar Man. Not sure which was first of course being that it is more than 40 years ago, plus I live in the Netherlands, when something was new on TV in the US, it usually took a while before it was available to us. Nowadays this is different but back then it could take up 1 or 2 seasons.

Battlestar Galactica probably was my favorite SCI-FI show at the time, when it aired, product values were very good for that time, logically, it looked way more advanced than Star Trek because that was already 10-12 years old. Starbuck (Dirk Benedict) was definitely my favorite character, but I think this is the way for almost everyone who has watched this show. He was a charmer, an adventurer, a loyal friend, a hero but most of all I really loved the camaraderie with his best friend Apollo, the success of the show was in part due to their friendship I think, obviously also the spaceships, the battle scenes but in the end, it always comes down to the characters, the personal stories and such. I also liked the fact that Apollo had his family, his father, his sister, his son, close, because they also lived on the ship. Boxey was not his real son but adopted son from Serina who died early in the season.

Although in those days TV shows were mostly episodic, and in fact Battlestar Galactica is also episodic, however, there also is a large story arc where the crew is looking for Earth. It is interwoven into the first season. Their enemies, who destroyed almost their whole civilization, from whom they are on the run, are called the Cylons. Their leader, Baltazar, one of my all-time favorite villains! I know he is a one-dimensional villain but, in those days, villains usually didn’t have layers and, in that aspect, I love him as a villain.

After I watched Battlestar Galactica when it originally aired, I never saw it again until somewhere around the year 2004! Why? Because where I live reruns rarely were done back in those days, especially of these kinds of shows. I once read that in North America this is completely different, you could catch almost any show on whatever station over the years, but we didn’t have that luxury until the early 2000 I believe, not sure when but certainly not in the 70-80-90’s era. So, in 2004 I purchased Battlestar Galactica on DVD and I could finally watch it again. As you might also know it has been released on Blu-ray as well and again, I had the urge to buy it and watched it twice again in best possible quality.

Unfortunately, the show was cancelled after one season, one of the reasons was the product values the were high therefore also costly. So, it got cancelled but a fan campaign was partly responsible for a follow-up show called Galactica 1980. The show was mostly set on Earth to save money, but the show was not in the same league as its original, as such the viewer numbers dropped fast, and the show got cancelled with only 10 episodes under its belt.

Final Word:

Quality wise the Ronald D. Moore’s 2003 re-imaged version is far superior, still I favor the original version above the re-imagined version. Why, I think you can read that in my rewatch blogs I wrote in 2021 of the re-imagined version. The original version is campy, full of action and a lot of fun! 45 years! Happy anniversary!