At the time, there was nothing like it

PlugInYourBrain

The Original 1978 Battlestar Galactica TV Series has copped a panning compared to the vastly superior 2004 "gritty reboot".

To rate the original series fairly you need to understand not what it is like now, but what it was like then.

In 1978 we had never seen anything like it. We had "Star Wars" the year before, but that was just 2 hours and 15 minutes in a cinema, and it was three years until the next one.

Battlestar Galactica offered us the same thing on TV every week. Girls didn't much care, but boys went crazy. Battles in space, every week! What's not to like?

After an impressive opening the show took a dive. Apparently intent on attracting a family viewing, they de-emphasized war-in-space and started copying other shows. The Dirty Dozen... in space. High Noon... in space. Murder She Wrote... in space.

Adults weren't fooled and didn't watch anyway. Half-way through "The Living Legend" offered some respite, but Kids wondered what happened to their space opera.

Towards the end they switched back to science fiction. We got a string of very good shows such as "War of the Gods", "Experiment on Terra" and "Greetings from Earth". This was good sci-fi and what we'd wanted to watch all along. But by then the ratings had fallen and although still good, not enough to justify the show's huge budget. After just one season the show was axed.

The acting wasn't up to much, but I doubt kids noticed or cared. Lorne Greene made a great Adama; a warmer and more loving fatherly figure than the reboot's Edward James Olmos (awesome, but in a different way). They replayed the same special effects shots every week, but they were spectacular nonetheless. The production design was camp, but in the 70's people wanted mindless escapism. They didn't want the gritty realism we see in today's sci-fi dramas.

One thing teenager boys were heartbroken over was the disappearance of Maren Jensen as Adama's daughter Athena. We never forgave Starbuck for dumping her for Laurette Spang's character of Cassiopea. Why? Why? Why?

As I rate shows on IMDb I realize the futility of a ratings system. It depends on who is watching, and when they were watching it. I'll try anyway:

A kid in 1978: 8 / 10. An adult in 1978: 5 / 10. A kid in 2013: 4 / 10. An adult in 2013: 2 / 10. An adult watching only the better episodes in 2013: 8 / 10.

Unless you're in nostalgia mode and really want to watch everything I recommend you only watch the better episodes: 1-5, 12-13, 15-16, 19-20, 22-24.

score 7/10

PlugInYourBrain 11 April 2013

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw2780590/