Written By Ken Hulsey
Battlestar Galactica (TV 1978-1979)
Directed By: Richard A. Colla & Alan J. Levi
Written By: Glen A. Larson
Cast: Richard Hatch as Captain Apollo, Dirk Benedict as Lt. Starbuck, Lorne Greene as Commander Adama, Herb Jefferson Jr. as Lt. Boomer, Maren Jensen as Athena, Tony Swartz as Sgt. Jolly, Noah Hathaway as Boxey, Terry Carter as Col. Tigh, Lew Ayres as President Adar, Wilfred Hyde-White as Sire Anton, John Colicos as Count Baltar, Laurette Spang as Cassiopeia, John Fink as Dr. Paye, Jane Seymour as Serina, Ray Milland as Sire Uri, Anne Lockhart as Sheba, Ed Begly Jr. as Ens. Greenbean, Patrick Macnee as Imperious Leader (Voice), Jonathan Harris as Lucifer (Voice), Janet Julian as Lt. Brie, Sarah Rush as Flight Cpl. Rigel.
No TV series that lasted only one season can boast a bigger fan base than Battlestar Galactica. The series that Newsweek Magazine dubbed "Son of Star Wars" still, decades later, hosts hordes of loyal, die-hard fans. What is the appeal of the series so many years after it left the airwaves in 1979? It was a popular series revived by the Sci Fi Channel as a new reinvisioned series. This fleet-on-the-run story, based loosely on Mormonism, may be more popular today than it was then. As a fan of the show from its original airing, I can tell you that the series left a lasting impression. I can still remember being that eleven-year-old boy who tuned in every Sunday night with joy for a new episode of Galactica. Star Wars had come to TV, or at least the next best thing. Remember, there were no DVDs or VCRs in the late 1970s.
Galactica was intentionally designed to capture the momentum of the hugely popular George Lucas epic. It did the trick. The show was a huge hit with my generation. But this show was no clone. The series itself stood on its own. Great special effects, good acting, and stories that sparked imagination made the show unique for its time. What did in Galactica? Simple. Money. Each episode was heavy on the special effects side. Each episode ran around the million-dollar mark to produce. Today, that may not be much, but back then it was unheard of. No amount of ratings could equal the cost.
Actor Richard Hatch (Apollo) explains: "Many good shows go off the air before their time. Sometimes it is because of ratings. Sometimes networks don't stay with a show long enough for it to find an audience. Sometimes shows start off at the bottom in the ratings, but someone up top believes in the show strongly enough to stick with it. Ultimately, those shows rise in the ratings, sometimes into the top ten. Network executives normally don't always stay with sci-fi shows. If they don't do well immediately, they take them off. Battlestar would have stayed on except for the fact that we were the most expensive show in history. We were the most publicized show in history. We had the highest ratings for a sci-fi show in history, but the technological challenges of mounting a show like that every week were impossible."
Yet despite this, the fans have stayed loyal to the show throughout the decades. The story itself focused on the last remaining refugees from a once great intergalactic society running for their lives from the Cylon Empire. The Cylons manage to destroy almost all of humanity in a "Pearl Harbor" like sneak attack on a day that was to bring peace between the two races. Survivors of the Holocaust boarded what ships they could find and formed a fleet behind the last surviving Battlestar, the Galactica. The only hope for these survivors was to reach a lost tribe of mankind that existed in myth. Their home world is known only as Earth, and its exact location is a mystery. The fleet plotted the best course they could with the limited information available and began a journey to save mankind.
The weary survivors must navigate the dangers of uncharted space while constantly evading the relentless pursuit of their Cylon enemies. Along their journey, the fleet takes refuge on the mysterious planet Carillon, only to discover the inhabitants, the Ovions, have secretly allied with the Cylons. Narrowly escaping, they later find themselves in a vast magnetic void before re-emerging at humanity's ancient homeworld of Kobol, where they hope to uncover clues to Earth's location from ancient hieroglyphics - but the Cylons are never far behind. Desperate to stay one step ahead, the fleet must slip past a massive Cylon pulsar cannon on an icy world. A glimmer of hope emerges with the shocking reunion of the Galactica and her sister ship, the Pegasus, long thought destroyed. However, the brash tactics of the Pegasus' commander, Cain, threaten to fracture the fleet's tenuous unity. Catastrophe strikes when a Cylon suicide attack nearly destroys the Galactica, engulfing her in flames. Amidst the chaos, a mysterious Ship of Lights appears, carrying the enigmatic Count Iblis who promises salvation, but at a terrible price. Further trials await the weary travelers, from encounters with the underwhelming Eastern Alliance to dangerous mutinies aboard the prison barge and the Celestra. Yet through it all, the indomitable spirit of the human survivors never wavers. In a daring final gambit, the Galactica turns to face the Cylon armada head-on, employing unconventional tactics and captured Cylon technology in a desperate bid for victory. As the dust settles, a faint radio signal from Earth crackles across the ship's sensors - a beacon of hope guiding them onward through the stars.
It was the fan base that convinced the network, ABC, to give the show one more try with the ill-fated Galactica 1980. Most of the main cast was replaced and the storyline just plain sucked. Gone were the flashy special effects. It was much cheaper to produce a show that is based here on Earth rather than in space. Let's face it, "V" did this whole thing a lot better. I remember as a youth the series held my attention for about five seconds. Where were Starbuck and Apollo? Alas, the viewing public shared my view and the series lasted ten episodes. This did surprise me because I could have sworn it lasted three or four tops. The potential for a series where the Galactica finds Earth could have been awesome... it wasn't.
Richard Hatch explains: "Galactica 1980 was kinda the network's way of cutting the show's budget in half. They were trying to make the show fit a TV venue, but unfortunately, it destroyed the whole epic journey to find Earth, and it basically changed what made Battlestar so wonderful and so compelling. Everything was taken out once they got to Earth."
There were many attempts to produce a sequel to the original Battlestar Galactica in the late 80s and throughout the 1990s. Richard Hatch explains: "This all started a long time ago when I was trying to revive the series, and I was having meetings with Universal, investors, and other production companies trying to find ways to bring the show back. I kept meeting up with resistance from a lot of people. The original actors weren't all that excited that I was trying to promote a revival. A lot of them had mixed feelings about a fellow actor trying to do all this stuff. Glen Larson got upset even though he had sold his rights to the show to Universal many years ago. He didn't like the idea of one of the actors from the series trying to do something with it. I basically wanted to follow the original story with the original actors. I didn't want to change the core story. I wanted to build upon it. He didn't like the idea of someone besides himself doing it. I understand that, being a writer myself. There seemed to be more interest in doing the Pegasus (Battlestar) story, and I wanted to do the Galactica story, so they were resistant. Finally, Bryan Singer (X-Men, X2 & Superman Returns) came on board, and his version was to continue the story down the line so that they would only have three or four of the original actors in the show. I felt that was much more in line with what the fans wanted to see and was more in line with what I was doing. I was supportive of that project. The only problem I had with it was that it seemed like they were bringing some of the main characters back in main roles, yet my character was being brought in through the back door. I felt that the story Tom DeSanto was working on was very interesting. My character was to find redemption after being captured by the Cylons, maybe even being turned into a Cylon himself, much like what was done in the new series. I thought that would be a very compelling story. In the opening two-hour pilot, however, I basically didn't have a word. I felt like Herb and Dirk were given the main roles in the show, and I felt like I was being brought in through the back door. Maybe to do a real interesting role that for me as an actor I would have loved doing. As Richard Hatch, Captain Apollo, I felt my character was on the outside looking in."
Richard Hatch's comments come directly from an interview I had with him in the early 2000s.
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