Why the 1978 Battlestar Galactica Doesn’t Suck

One thing I really liked about the original was the aesthetic tie in to the ancient tribes of man with the pharaoh helmets. It was a shame they didn't keep that aesthetic in the new series.

Both BG and The Phoenix were constructed around the popular "ancient astronaut" mythos of the '70s that the pyramids had to have been made by aliens or some other advanced civilization.
 
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logan_run said:
May of worked if done as originally planed a series of t.v. movies rather then rushed into a series.if they kept Jane Seymore as well.
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Sorry to reply again , I think that was the original plan, but the Network wanted a tv series instead . The problem here was that given the cost of 1 million dollars per episode made it the most expensive who on television . The ratings for the show were decent but not enough to justify the cost of keeping the show on the air. Cost is what killed the original series.
 
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The Vipers and the Cylon ships were cool - excellent design. I used to enjoy this show as a child, and the effects were generally good for television at the time.
 
Steve S said:
The Vipers and the Cylon ships were cool - excellent design. I used to enjoy this show as a child, and the effects were generally good for television at the time.
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Neither have aged particularly well.
 
BAYLOR said:
Neither have aged particularly well.
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Why do you say that? They are fairly straightfoward and orginal, much like SW fighters, but they have their own style. I like them better than the reboot versions.
 
RX-79G said:
Why do you say that? They are fairly straightfoward and orginal, much like SW fighters, but they have their own style. I like them better than the reboot versions.
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The control panels in the ships , the computers all of of them look like 1970's tech even the Cylon stuff look old . It comes under the heading of most Science fiction doesn't age well. Of the original series , I like thee pilot movie which a has a cinema quality to it, even thought the writing is pretty mediocre , but after that the quality of the writing really drops off.

I prefer Ron Moore's reboot and the ships in that series.
 
The original series was a Star Wars rip off, but it was an inspired rip-off.
Using the production designer and FX team from SW helped a lot.
The Pharoah helmets, costumes, and mishmash of names (Apollo, Starbuck) were inspired.
But most of all,
the CYLONS were cool.

Major fail with the new cheaper series to not have them. They should have just called it a new series like Space: Above and Beyond did.

[youtube]
 
BSG was very enjoyable at the time. I remember watching it (and Buck Rogers) with my Dad and we loved it. It was a good sci fi romp and although often described as a Star Wars rip off, I always felt that it was an unfair label. Different story was being told and there's room enough for both.

I tried to re-watch it a few years ago when the DVD version was released and I struggled. I can see why I enjoyed it as a child, but as an adult (and as a wider audience), we have all matured and the quality of story telling now has evolved so much. I too preferred Ronald D. Moore's grittier SF extravaganza. I do hope that we get to see BSG on our screens again soon.
 
The selling point of the 70s BSG was the spaceships and robots, and for older people, faces like Lorne Greene. I don't think late 70s tv was as strong as early 70s tv. There wasn't much sci-fi in the first half, but the writing for hour dramas and detective shows was good.

One big cheat in BSG -I remember when Galactica 1980 premiered--it was jarring that they jumped a generation--but they also showed a Cylon attack on modern Earth! It never happened in the series!
 
I remember seeing Battlestar Galactica and Buck Rogers at a movie drive-in.
And I remember those bubblegum cards for various movies and tv shows.
 
KGeo777 said:
The selling point of the 70s BSG was the spaceships and robots, and for older people, faces like Lorne Greene. I don't think late 70s tv was as strong as early 70s tv. There wasn't much sci-fi in the first half, but the writing for hour dramas and detective shows was good.

One big cheat in BSG -I remember when Galactica 1980 premiered--it was jarring that they jumped a generation--but they also showed a Cylon attack on modern Earth! It never happened in the series!
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Originally BSG was supposed to be a miniseries titled Star Worlds Lost . In this format, BSG probably might have proved viable. Im thinking that beyond this Larson wanted to to BSG Tv moves instead. 3 or 4 BSG movies a year would have been more economical and sustainable for a longer period . Galactica 1980 . which had not a big budget, most of the original cast members nor any kind of good writing was doomed from the start.
Some of that attack on Earth footage in Galactica 1980 was reused footage from the 1974 disaster film Earthquake which only a attack simulation of what would happen of the Cylons discovered Earth. Very Cheesy stuff.
 
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I could never take Battlestar Galactica seriously. The Cylons sounded like Metal Mickey.
 
Surely the other way round, as the cylons came first.

But all simply because square waves are easier to generate electronically than sine waves and therefore have a robotty feel about them.
(Remember the stylophones that all young budding electronics nerds, like me, used to build to prove how clever we were?)

Could you take Stephen Hawking seriously? His voice was a more evolved version of the same thing. :)
 
"By your command."

The Boney M song "Night Flight to Venus" also used vocoders.
I assume it was the same type as the lead robot whatever in the song sounds just like the BSG Cylon.
 
I used to like Lucifer. There was a chilling calm in that droid Model.
 
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