2025/01/25
On January 27th, 2025, Galactica 1980 turned 45! Yes, the title says it already of course, the show started in 1980, some 8-9 months after Battlestar Galactica ended. The original show was too expensive and the ratings were in decline unfortunately. So ABC decided to order a follow-up show on a much lower budget and the setting was here on earth, which meant that were not as many special effects needed, plus a lot of the special effects were used from the original show, which was often very obvious also.
Where the original show had a big cast, Galactica 1980’s main cast only was 4 people. Kent McCord was Captain Troy, Barry van Dyke was Lt. Dillon, Robyn Douglas was Jamie Hamilton, Lorne Greene, who plays commander Adama and Herbert Jefferson Jr., who plays Colonel Boomer was recurring.
The last two initially were the only ones who reprised their role from the original show, and there was also Dr. Zee, played by James Patrick Stewart but he and Lorne Greene did have little more than a recurring role. Yes, Lorne Greene was there each episode, but not in a big way. In the series finale, “The Return of Starbuck” we see the 3rd original member return, Dirk Benedict’s Starbuck, which also makes it the best episode of the series.
The show originally had 13 episodes but ABC cancelled the show after 10 episodes for obvious reasons. In one of these last 3 episodes, Starbuck would have returned again, it would have been the season finale “The Wheel of Fire”. I have to say, knowing that Starbuck would return again in the season finale, I would like to have seen a second season, perhaps Starbuck would have become a recurring character or maybe even a lead character. But who knows, we will never know.
In a Crusade blog (Final Word) some two years ago I compared Galactica 1980 with Crusade, in regard that either show would not have existed were it not for their original parent shows, Babylon 5 and Battlestar Galactica. Where Crusade is a show which is not perfect but it still was a decent spin-off, let’s be honest, Galactica 1980 really is a weak show with almost no really good episodes. Well one, the series finale, which happens to revolve around an original character, Starbuck. The rest really is mediocre at best. There is one tiny highlight besides the series finale and that is the 2-parter “The Night the Cylons Landed”, I thought was okay. Here we see a first glimpse of the evolution the Cylons go through as we see also happen in Ronald D. Moore reimagined version of Battlestar Galactica but a bit further along the way. What bothered me a bit was the fact that the Andromus (Roger Davis) let the heavy lifting over to the original version Cylon, as if the more evolved Cylon wasn’t strong enough or something. Sidenote, William Daniels who is the voice of K.I.T.T. in The Knight Rider, is the clown we see here in this episode, he plays Norman.
As I mentioned also, to save money, a lot of the effects were ‘borrowed’ from Battlestar Galactica, and it was so obvious too. And even with all my complaining, I managed to enjoy myself with watching Galactica 1980. I did a rewatch back in 2021 and yes I also complained in my Galactica 1980 blog back then, but I also admitted that enjoyed the rewatch, I think because I accepted the low story quality, the clunky way of acting, the annoying kids in the episode “The Super Scouts”. What I also noted in that blog is that I thought that commander Adama, who was a strong commander in the original series, in Galactica 1980 he seemed little more than an assistant to Dr. Zee.
Final Word:
Yes, Galactica 1980 is a weak show indeed, normally this would not even have been made but it did as a spin-off, a failed spin-off. When I rewatch Battlestar Galactica, I also rewatch Galactica 1980, same with Babylon 5 and Crusade, that is the order of things! 😊And it still can be enjoyable, just except that it is the weaker offspring and enjoy it, there are always moments you like, little moments or a few episodes even. And when you start you also know that the best is yet to come, at the end, so something to look forward to. In a few years time I am confident that I will do another rewatch of Galactica 1980 and yes, I again will complain but I will also enjoy parts of it. Ultimately, I think it is mostly nostalgia, but that’s okay. Happy 45th Anniversary Galactica 1980!
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