BATTLESTAR GALACTICA (1978) - Ship Of The Week #8 1/9/2015
- Thread starter Admiral2
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Now THIS is my favorite Galactica. Both the ship and the show it comes from. 
I'd hit it.
I'd probably break my hand, but I'd hit it.
I'd probably break my hand, but I'd hit it.
Agreed. The remake version always struck me as a bunch of bubbles on a stick. The original actually looks like an aircraft carrier.
Definitely. When I was little I made my own version of Galactica with some styrofoam packing material. I poked holes in it for windows and put a small flashlight inside.Now THIS is my favorite Galactica. Both the ship and the show it comes from.
Oh, and Maren Jensen.
Awesome!
I'm the same kind of crazy. Why do you think I gave them both threads?
Same here. The old Galactica was always one of my favorites growing up, and admittedly, when I first saw the new version, I was a little put off at first by the incomplete/"armor stripped exposing the frame" look. But the nuGalactica grew on me, especially when we saw the old girl in action. I honestly expected that when they showed flashbacks to its time in the Cylon War that it would have a full armor plate covering like Pegasus, but that might have been too expensive to render or they didn't want to "confuse" fans by changing the design. Either way though, they're both awesome designs.
Now I want to share a little bit of geekiness with you.
I used to be a faithful reader of MAD magazine back in the olden days (when it was all black and white and actually funny, and didn’t have shit like The Fundalini Pages in it) and I remember getting the issue that had the Mad TV Satire of Galactica in it called “Cattle Car Galaxica.” I recently found the pages on line, and looking at them reminded me of something I thought when I first read the comic. Take a look at pages two and six:
Look closely at the lower left panel on page two and upper left panel on page six. Those are supposed to be drawings of the Galactica, but as you can see while they’re similar to the ship from the show they don’t look exactly like her. At the time I thought that was odd, because MAD’s satire artists were usually good at getting details right - or at least, if the details were wrong it was usually done for satirical purposes, and at the time I could see no reason for the drawings to look that different from what I’d seen on TV. Finding the satire on line again brought back that question mark in my head from ages ago…
...until I started researching this thread (those of you who can see where this is going shhh! so that the readers as slow on the uptake as me can catch up) and found Ralph McQuarrie’s concept sketches for the ship:
And that was my duh! moment. The artist did get the details right. The pre-production details.
Comics are always done months in advance of the actual publication date, so it’s possible the artist - Angelo Torres - didn’t have the show to look at and see how to draw the production version of Galactica, but did have access to promotional images released to media magazines, and that must have included the McQuarrie images. They were his Galactica reference.
Not relevant to anything. Like I said, just sharing a geek moment.
I used to be a faithful reader of MAD magazine back in the olden days (when it was all black and white and actually funny, and didn’t have shit like The Fundalini Pages in it) and I remember getting the issue that had the Mad TV Satire of Galactica in it called “Cattle Car Galaxica.” I recently found the pages on line, and looking at them reminded me of something I thought when I first read the comic. Take a look at pages two and six:
Look closely at the lower left panel on page two and upper left panel on page six. Those are supposed to be drawings of the Galactica, but as you can see while they’re similar to the ship from the show they don’t look exactly like her. At the time I thought that was odd, because MAD’s satire artists were usually good at getting details right - or at least, if the details were wrong it was usually done for satirical purposes, and at the time I could see no reason for the drawings to look that different from what I’d seen on TV. Finding the satire on line again brought back that question mark in my head from ages ago…
...until I started researching this thread (those of you who can see where this is going shhh! so that the readers as slow on the uptake as me can catch up) and found Ralph McQuarrie’s concept sketches for the ship:
And that was my duh! moment. The artist did get the details right. The pre-production details.
Comics are always done months in advance of the actual publication date, so it’s possible the artist - Angelo Torres - didn’t have the show to look at and see how to draw the production version of Galactica, but did have access to promotional images released to media magazines, and that must have included the McQuarrie images. They were his Galactica reference.
Not relevant to anything. Like I said, just sharing a geek moment.
While i really liked the remake for the first 2 seasons when everybody thought that the Cylons (and the producing team) had a plan it is this show that i so fondly remember from my childhood.
From the main theme in all its glory, the ad nauseam repeats of space battle scenes and the hot babettes on the ship.. it was all there. It was and is cheesy, it was a product of its time with no high message concepts and it was trying to capitalize on Star Wars but it was just so much fun!
From the main theme in all its glory, the ad nauseam repeats of space battle scenes and the hot babettes on the ship.. it was all there. It was and is cheesy, it was a product of its time with no high message concepts and it was trying to capitalize on Star Wars but it was just so much fun!
Point of order: TOS did have a high concept message. Count Iblis, John, The Ship of Lights and the Lost Planet of The Gods two-parter are all indicative of a message of faith. Adama's search for Earth is nothing if not a religious quest. And why else would the name of the episode where they get a glimpse of Earth be "The Hand of God?"
The difference is that the people in TOS who have religious experiences are considered good and rational and never questioned seriously, while everyone in nuBSG who has a religious experience is portrayed as some kind of crazy asshole.
The messengers are the key. The message in both series is the same.
Yeah, the original series was heavily influenced by creator Glen Larson's Mormon beliefs, with a helping of Egyptian, Greek, Roman, Norse and other symbolism thrown into the mix. The re-imagined series inherited a lot of the Mormon terminology, but downplayed the Mormon beliefs while playing up the Greek and Roman symbolism.
The Ralph McQuarrie BSG art is every bit as amazing as his art for Star Wars.
Very distinctive styling.
Think his design for the Galactica beats the original series design.
Not sure how possible it would have been to build a physical model that was detailed enough for the FX shots.
Probably scrub up quite well as a CGI model though.
As for Cattlecar Galatica I remember reading that in MAD magazine though the only bit I rember is Boxey denying that Muffy crapped in some-one's bunk only to be told it was a steaming pile of nuts and bolts.
...until I started researching this thread (those of you who can see where this is going shhh! so that the readers as slow on the uptake as me can catch up) and found Ralph McQuarrie’s concept sketches for the ship:
I'm a fan of both versions of the Galactica. I seem to remember the first image being in the original BSG novel though I'm not sure about the second. It's been a while since I've looked at the book
Does anyone have a screencap of the (supposed) TOS-style battlestar that appears in nuBSG's pilot?
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