Have any of you watched Battlestar Galactica?

   Battlestar Galactica..?  Yup.  I still watch it thanks to the wonders of digital video discs...

   Between the first two Star Wars releases BG was sort of like a light snack between meals...

   Edited to add:  I always liked the premise of the show.  The notion of far flung human tribes being the forefathers of the Incas, Toltecs and Egyptians is way cool... 8)

   

   

Can someone please give me the name of the Birdman who touched my soul as a young child (I guess I started early, lol)?

I have long been a fan of the series.  I watched the original movie, and the entire TV series many times.  I even remember the theatrical release of the original movie, and actually saw it in sensaround! (for those that do not remember, it was a kind of early version of THX).

Contrary to popular belief though, the actual creation of the show predates Star Wars by several years.  In his original draft, the Cylons were a race of insectoid creatures.  Universal Pictures made him change it to robots, and to make them resemble the Stormtroopers from Star Wars.

When Lucas tried to sue for infringement, the original script dated from 1974 was a key piece of evidence, since it shows that the idea actually came along before Star Wars was even started.  Glen Larson was even able to trace the original idea to an earlier script he pitched in the 1960's called "Adam's Ark".  During a later re-write, "Adam" became "Adama".

I have in my DVD collection the original series, the miniseries, and the season 1 & 2 remake.  And I am eagerly awaiting the fall when the series continues.

And the connections with "lost civilizations" was something that was actually popular at the time.  There were a string of movies and books at the time trying to connect the Pre-Columbian civilizations with the "Lost Tribe of Israel", and many other things.

In fact, a lot of people do not realize the strong connections between BG and the Mormon faith.  Glen Larson is a member of the LDS faith, and he purposefully wrote in a lot of connections between the two (similar to what L. Ron Hubbard did with "Battlefield Earth").

The "Lost 13th Tribe" is key to Mormon pre-history.  Kobol is a word play on Kolob, which is where they claim God lives.  Their 5th President Lorenzo Snow stated "As man is God once was, as God is, man may be."  Almost the exact same quote was given by the people who lived on the "Ships Of Light" in the later shows.  When the fleet was battling Count Iblis, they people on the SHip of Light stated that they could not interefere with mankind's right to "free will".  The same belief is also key in the LDS faith.

If anybody has ever read the "Ender's Game" series of books will also find similar connections between another future space-war setting with the LDS faith.  Mormon writers tend to be very subtle when adding portions of their belief into their works.

i was just watching buck rogers, which came out around the same time and i think features a lot of the same behind-the-scenes people. the laser noise is exactly the same!

i'm going to scandalize everyone by saying i like buck rogers better than the original BG. buck rogers has much more camp value, whereas BG seemed like it kept wanting you to take it seriously. um, plus, the cylons sucked? they pretty much exploded the second you THOUGHT about shooting at them. and they kept showing the same damn dogfight footage over and over again, cheap bastards. and that damn kid with that damn yippy robot dog. i wanted someone to shoot them out of an airlock.

on the plus side, the vipers were great, even if they were an obvious rip off the x-wings. and there was a two-hour special where the galactica finds another battlestar, the pegasus, that's quite cool. i dunno if that was the theatrical one or not.

the new battlestar galactica seems to be very unlike the old one, and i don't think much of it either. i distrust space action TV shows that seem to want to be taken seriously. they're supposed to be fun dammit!

i was just watching buck rogers, which came out around the same time and i think features a lot of the same behind-the-scenes people. the laser noise is exactly the same!


That is not surprising, since Glen Larson was behind both shows.  In fact, both shows started the same way: with a 2 hour movie as the pilot, with hopes it would become a series.

In fact, a lot of props and ships were reused in Buck Rogers.  The control sticks were the same as those in the Viper, earth starfighters were an early prototype of the Viper, and most of the explosions and background art/scenes were recycled from BG.  Many of the ships from the "Galactica Fleet" made cameos during the series run.

In fact, part of the "Cylons" were recycled in 1982, with "Knight Rider".  That is another Glen Larson production, and the moving "eye" at the front of KITT is unquestionably influenced by the eye on the Cylons.

I LOVED Battlestar Galactica as a kid. Being a HUGE Star Wars fan this was something that kept me (and most of my friends) interested in sci-fi.

Recently Ive bought the complete Battlestar Galactica on DVD as well as the theatrical version of the pilot. I also bought Galactica 1980 as well as the theatrical final film: Conquest Of The Earth.

I have to say that I like ALL of the Galactica incarnations from theatrical releases to original TV series to second TV series. Sure, Galactica 1980 wasnt as good as the original series, but it wasnt too bad.

Sure, now when I watch the original series I see the re-used footage etc, but back in the day, being a kid, I didnt even notice them.

The original series, though, is a prime example of great 1970's TV for the younger viewer.





AN

I LOVED Battlestar Galactica as a kid. Being a HUGE Star Wars fan this was something that kept me (and most of my friends) interested in sci-fi.

Recently Ive bought the complete Battlestar Galactica on DVD as well as the theatrical version of the pilot. I also bought Galactica 1980 as well as the theatrical final film: Conquest Of The Earth.

I have to say that I like ALL of the Galactica incarnations from theatrical releases to original TV series to second TV series. Sure, Galactica 1980 wasnt as good as the original series, but it wasnt too bad.

Sure, now when I watch the original series I see the re-used footage etc, but back in the day, being a kid, I didnt even notice them.

The original series, though, is a prime example of great 1970's TV for the younger viewer.





AN


   How is the theatrical version different from the pilot?  Last time I've seen it was the first time and that was yarons ago...

   The only tidbit I can remember was Baltar being jammed-up before Imperious Leader and a nearby Cylon guard drawing it's sword and swinging as if to decapitate Baltar (scene cuts before sword does)...

   Speaking of Galactica 1980 I'd love to see The Return of Starbuck.  Even the most unforgiving critics seem to respect this one episode...

To be honest, Ive not watched the theatrical release of the pilot for some time and the DVD I bought is still in its shrink wrapping. I think I last watched it around 5 possibly 6 years ago on VHS. I will get around to viewing it one day though. It may take a while because Ive not long ago watched the first three episodes, which were cut up to make the original pilot film.

The Return Of Starbuck is a great episode...I also like The Night The Cylons Landed parts 1 and 2, which is what the film Conquest Of The Earth was mainly cut from, as well as other episodes.




AN

   How is the theatrical version different from the pilot?  Last time I've seen it was the first time and that was yarons ago...


Well, there were very few differences.  The only noticeable difference is that at the end of the Pilot, Baltar was not killed, where as in the movie they killed him off.

Most of the other edited scenes were relating to backplot.  Some scenes with Serina and Boxy were trimmed or cut, because it mostly revolved around things we would learn in the series and was not needed in a 2 hour film.  Some of the fight scenes were expanded with footage from later on in the series run.

Mostly, the other major affect was the addition of the Sensaround soundtrack.  This was the last movie released with this technology, and many consider it to be the only movie that truely used the full potential of it.