Galactica 1980

[B.J.]

One rejected proposal that got me quite wet, was that when the Galactica found Earth, it wasn't 1980, it was the 25th century and Col. Buck Rogers was holding the line against the Cylon vanguard.

That's an urban legend.

Too bad. Would have been interesting to see the Viper and the almost-Viper flying next to each other!

My favorite moment from G80 (and the only one I can really remember) is seeing William Daniels driving along with a Cylon in the back seat. From a post-1982 perspective, it was hilarious seeing the voice of KITT with a red eye going back and forth behind him!

 

[Joel_Kirk]

One rejected proposal that got me quite wet, was that when the Galactica found Earth, it wasn't 1980, it was the 25th century and Col. Buck Rogers was holding the line against the Cylon vanguard.

That's an urban legend.

Too bad. Would have been interesting to see the Viper and the almost-Viper flying next to each other!

My favorite moment from G80 (and the only one I can really remember) is seeing William Daniels driving along with a Cylon in the back seat. From a post-1982 perspective, it was hilarious seeing the voice of KITT with a red eye going back and forth behind him!

I wonder if his character was named 'Michael.'

And, yes, "The Return of Starbuck" was my favorite episode of this series. For the longest time, I always thought it was an episode of the original series...lol (Also, I recall years ago - after watching this particular episode - I wanted my own Cylon pal like Cy).

 

[Silvercrest]

Galactica:1980 brought three Colonial technology changes that I liked:

1-Time travel ability of the Colonial Viper that should have been used beyond the pilot episode to explore Earth's history.

2-Invisiblity for both the Colonial Viper and the individual Colonial Warrior person too.

3-Colonial Viper now having two seats.

The two-seat adaptation is the only one of those that seems worthwhile to me. Time travel was too much of a gimmick, and invisibility would've taken the suspense out of the series by making it too easy to hide from the Cylons.

Anyway, the problem with all of G80's tech enhancements is that they were all the single-handed creations of that horrible Doctor Zee character, this know-it-all demon child who held absolute authority over the fleet and had reduced Adama to his spineless lackey. At least "The Return of Starbuck" explained why he was so super-gifted, although it didn't make the character any better in retrospect.

Kind of makes you wonder about the true character of the Beings of Light, doesn't it? Come to think of it, how different is Doctor Zee from Count Iblis really?

Excellent reviews, Christopher. Personally I always thought the microwave oven knocking out the centurion was pretty funny ... I remember it from when I saw the series in first-run. (I did not remember the android fired a beam from his finger though; I thought he used a gun.) There was a VHS release that edited together "Galactica Discovers Earth" and "The Night the Cylons Landed", but that scene was cut.

In "Saga of a Star World", didn't both Apollo and Adama use Apollo's Viper to go down to Caprica? At least I believe that was the intent as the Viper was the only ship shown. With one seat, I wonder how that worked.

 

[Marc]

In "Saga of a Star World", didn't both Apollo and Adama use Apollo's Viper to go down to Caprica? At least I believe that was the intent as the Viper was the only ship shown. With one seat, I wonder how that worked.

it was a bit ambiguous. Adama talked about going down to Caprica in a shuttle but Apollo objected saying it was dangerous.

Then we see the two of them on the surface with Apollo's viper and Boxey asking if kids could go it.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

One truly ingenious bit of filming in G1980: Taking the big scene from Earthquake! and simply editing Cylon fighters into it in order to produce the VR simulation of a Cylon attack.

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They get a scene of massive destruction, which was essentially already made for them - inserting the Cylon fighters probably counted for chump change. Brilliant!

Kind of makes you wonder about the true character of the Beings of Light, doesn't it? Come to think of it, how different is Doctor Zee from Count Iblis really?

Iblis originally WAS one of the Beings. He was cast out for trying to get others to follow him. An obvious allusion to Lucifer/the Devil.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

Come to think of it, how different is Doctor Zee from Count Iblis really?

Only one makes me want to throw things at my TV.

 

[Guy Gardener]

I used to think that the Beings of Light were the Original 9 feet tall lizard Cylons.

There's some canon towards that, but there's canon against it too.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

I used to think that the Beings of Light were the Original 9 feet tall lizard Cylons.

There's some canon towards that, but there's canon against it too.

Well, sort of; the only connection *they* have is that Count Iblis was indirectly responsible for their fall, because he tricked the original reptilian Imperious Leader into it. That's why Baltar recognized Iblis' voice, because it's the same as the original Imperious Leader's was (and why all subsequent IL's have it as well).

Oh, and RDM never mentioned a nuIblis on nuBSG, but IMHO it's totally obvious that the "Cylon God" was Iblis. Think about it...

 

[Galileo7]

Galactica:1980 brought three Colonial technology changes that I liked:

1-Time travel ability of the Colonial Viper that should have been used beyond the pilot episode to explore Earth's history.

2-Invisiblity for both the Colonial Viper and the individual Colonial Warrior person too.

3-Colonial Viper now having two seats.

The two-seat adaptation is the only one of those that seems worthwhile to me. Time travel was too much of a gimmick, and invisibility would've taken the suspense out of the series by making it too easy to hide from the Cylons.

Anyway, the problem with all of G80's tech enhancements is that they were all the single-handed creations of that horrible Doctor Zee character, this know-it-all demon child who held absolute authority over the fleet and had reduced Adama to his spineless lackey. At least "The Return of Starbuck" explained why he was so super-gifted, although it didn't make the character any better in retrospect.

Kind of makes you wonder about the true character of the Beings of Light, doesn't it? Come to think of it, how different is Doctor Zee from Count Iblis really?

Excellent reviews, Christopher. Personally I always thought the microwave oven knocking out the centurion was pretty funny ... I remember it from when I saw the series in first-run. (I did not remember the android fired a beam from his finger though; I thought he used a gun.) There was a VHS release that edited together "Galactica Discovers Earth" and "The Night the Cylons Landed", but that scene was cut.

In "Saga of a Star World", didn't both Apollo and Adama use Apollo's Viper to go down to Caprica? At least I believe that was the intent as the Viper was the only ship shown. With one seat, I wonder how that worked.

Yes, exactly why they needed two-seat vipers since the first episode in '78.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

^ Didn't they actually show Adama sitting in the back seat of Apollo's viper during the approach to (or departure from) Caprica?

 

[RandyS]

^ Didn't they actually show Adama sitting in the back seat of Apollo's viper during the approach to (or departure from) Caprica?

Nope, other than the dialoge on the bridge, that was completely glossed over.

 

[Guy Gardener]

I used to think that the Beings of Light were the Original 9 feet tall lizard Cylons.

There's some canon towards that, but there's canon against it too.

Well, sort of; the only connection *they* have is that Count Iblis was indirectly responsible for their fall, because he tricked the original reptilian Imperious Leader into it. That's why Baltar recognized Iblis' voice, because it's the same as the original Imperious Leader's was (and why all subsequent IL's have it as well).

Oh, and RDM never mentioned a nuIblis on nuBSG, but IMHO it's totally obvious that the "Cylon God" was Iblis. Think about it...

Some nerds freak the shit out when I suggest that the Cylon God is Zoe Graystone.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

^ Maybe Zoe is nuIblis...and always was, even when she was alive.

 

[Guy Gardener]

You just have to answer a very simple question, if you met Alessandra Torresani in real life, would you fall to your knees and praise God, or fall to your knees and praise her as God?

 

[Silvercrest]

Kind of makes you wonder about the true character of the Beings of Light, doesn't it? Come to think of it, how different is Doctor Zee from Count Iblis really?

Iblis originally WAS one of the Beings. He was cast out for trying to get others to follow him. An obvious allusion to Lucifer/the Devil.

I don't mean Iblis compared to the beings, I mean Iblis specifically compared to Zee.

The character has won over the entire fleet. He has them enthralled with all the gifts he's provided. They'll do anything he requests.

Which character am I talking about?

 

[Christopher]

In my reviews, I described Doctor Zee as the Colonials' Imperious Leader, but the Iblis analogy is interesting too.

 

[Relayer1]

I used to hope they'd use G80 as donor material and make a proper continuation of Galactica.

Adama looked older with the beard so they could have digitally extracted him and with use of stand-ins and technology like the DS9 Tribbles episode, put him in with older versions of the rest of the cast.

Pretty long shot now...

 

[Shawnster]

Actually I think "The Return of Starbuck" is one of the better episodes of the original Galactica franchise. It's certainly the best, most complex portrayal of the Cylons in the entire Larson era.

It was also interesting how they mixed in some of the "dry" track of Gary Owens' voice to give the Cylon's speech more expression.

Which brings up this interesting documentary:

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_YDcXyX22JU[/yt]

I hated, hated, hated Cy's voice since it didn't sound like the other Cylons. Which is odd because I loved Space Ghost.

 

[Guy Gardener]

So a half Colonial, half Cylon node catches up with the the fleet and out ejects a walking, talking pompous super genius 6 month old star child.

In my head, I see Stewie Griffin playing the part of young Doctor Zee.

 

[Warp Core Breach]

What in the Hell was up with the disclaimer at the end of the second episode about the US government discontinuing searching for UFO's?

Going back to this, didn't pretty much every episode end with that? I could never figure it out either, but it's pretty amusing.