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Galactica 1980

Every time I see the BSG TOS bridge I can't help but think "it's only been 9 years since Star Trek- wow!"

Well, at the time, it wasn't that long after the original "Star Wars"....and we had our Luke Skywalker/Han Solo clones in Apollo and Starbuck, Adama's power that resembled the force....the dogfights that resembled "Star Wars" dogfights....the Cylons that resembled the stormtroopers....and that Princess Leia clone on the BSG OS bridge.

I remember reading in one of George Lucas biographies that he was blamed for creating BSG since it beared a lot of similarities to "Star Wars"...lol

Boy some people really are thick. But for anyone that wants to claim the BSG ripped off Star Wars (which is a load of bollocks) they need to take a closer look as Lucas's derivations.

Tell me about it. I remember reading about a crowd who were offended by the second "Lord of the Rings" film by Peter Jackson because they thought he was trying to cash in on the 9/11 incident. (Obviously not realizing the movie was based on a book published decades earlier and based on a fantasy world).:lol:

Well, at the time, it wasn't that long after the original "Star Wars"....and we had our Luke Skywalker/Han Solo clones in Apollo and Starbuck, Adama's power that resembled the force....the dogfights that resembled "Star Wars" dogfights....the Cylons that resembled the stormtroopers....and that Princess Leia clone on the BSG OS bridge.

I remember reading in one of George Lucas biographies that he was blamed for creating BSG since it beared a lot of similarities to "Star Wars"...lol

I remember reading somewhere that Glen Larson spent five years trying to sell the concept and that no one was interested until Star Wars came out.

Interesting...
 
yeah.

According to the info found at http://www.kobol.com/archives/BG-FAQ.html

The bridge set cost $US850,000 (today that equates to $US3.1 and used $US3mil worth of donated Tektronix equipment.

The pilot chewed $7mil and production costs were about $750,000 per ep.

So location shooting for 1980 was probably cheaper.

Every time I see the BSG TOS bridge I can't help but think "it's only been 9 years since Star Trek- wow!"

Well, at the time, it wasn't that long after the original "Star Wars"....and we had our Luke Skywalker/Han Solo clones in Apollo and Starbuck, Adama's power that resembled the force....the dogfights that resembled "Star Wars" dogfights....the Cylons that resembled the stormtroopers....and that Princess Leia clone on the BSG OS bridge.

I remember reading in one of George Lucas biographies that he was blamed for creating BSG since it beared a lot of similarities to "Star Wars"...lol

Except for the fact that (aside from a similar color scheme; 'red and gray', the Vipers looked nothing like X-Wings, Y-Wings or TIE Fighters, and the Cylons resembled nothing out of Star Wars (and neither did the Galactica, again, the only similarity to a Star Destroyer was the fact rge BSG was white; nor a Cylon Baseship.)

As for the 'similar looking' space combat visual effects shots; it's probably because John Dykstra (the same person who oversaw production of the space visual effects shots in Star Wars) also oversaw visual effects production for the BSG1978 series because he took a job at Universal studios after Star Wars wrapped.

And 'Adama's Powers' were nothing like 'The Force' per se because the one time he displayed ANY psychic ability, it was simple telekinesis, which had been a science fiction staple long before 'Star Wars' was made.

Gorge Lucas went after BSG because he did feel it was somehow riding on the coattails of, and could possibly dilute interest in future 'Star Wars' projects (Universal was spending near feature film amounts getting the series going at the time); AND was a bit upset/hurt that John Dykstra was part of the project.

If you really look at both IPs - the only real similarity is they both take place in 'space' using 'futuristic' technology and spacecraft. It was funny back in the day because Lucas was attempting to claim he invented 'laser fights' and 'space dogfights'; and a lot of legal analysts at the time said Lucas' claims were so broad, if he won, Lucas might face a lawsuit from Paramount claiming 'Star Wars' ripped off elements of 'Star Trek'.:lol:
 
Wow, this "ripped off" argument has been going on since the show originally aired.

Yes, there were similarities, but mainly because both shows used similar sci-fi tropes (space fighters, armored space soldiers, etc). As someone mentioned up-thread, the similarities were because most of the same SFX team worked on both. And of course, Ralph McQuarrie also did pre-production art for both.
 
They could've saved the colonies if everyone used their microwaves at the same time! :guffaw:
 
I have to give them props for using almost entirely old footage for the first five minutes of "Space Croppers". :lol:
 
I have to give them props for using almost entirely old footage for the first five minutes of "Space Croppers". :lol:

Yeah... and since the shots of the "Agro ships" were recycled from Silent Running to begin with, it's actually stock footage of stock footage!
 
I have to give them props for using almost entirely old footage for the first five minutes of "Space Croppers". :lol:

Yeah... and since the shots of the "Agro ships" were recycled from Silent Running to begin with, it's actually stock footage of stock footage!

I must admit that I did not mind seeing the stock footage of the impressive models of the American Airlines Space Freighters from Silent Running when they first appeared in episodes of the original BSG 1978-79. It was a good addition to the Colonial fleet.;)
 
I have to give them props for using almost entirely old footage for the first five minutes of "Space Croppers". :lol:

Yeah... and since the shots of the "Agro ships" were recycled from Silent Running to begin with, it's actually stock footage of stock footage!

Speaking of recycling, BSG was on the receiving end of that treatment to. Check out a film on You Tube called "Space Mutiny", it reuses space footage from the show. Be warned though, its so bad that it makes G80 look like NuBSG. It was also a candidate for MST3K.
 
^Yes, I remember Space Mutiny from MST3K. Not only did it use stock footage of the Galactica, it used it upside-down.
 
I have to give them props for using almost entirely old footage for the first five minutes of "Space Croppers". :lol:

Yeah... and since the shots of the "Agro ships" were recycled from Silent Running to begin with, it's actually stock footage of stock footage!

Maybe they should remake Silent Running and work the G:1980 footage into it. Better yet, update the effects of the original (a la "Silent Running-R") and work the G:1980 footage into that!

Would this constitute a nice, tidy "stock footage loop", or would it would destroy the universe?
 
Galactica 1980 is "interesting" because despite having only 10 episodes, it's basically three shows in one.

Originally, 1980 was conceived as a show which primarily deals with time-travel and attempts to change Earth's past and we can still witness that element in the three-part pilot Galactica Discovers Earth. Had they continued to follow that path the show might have been a whole lot more bearable. But they were pressured to retool their show into "Troy and Dillon watch after a group of schoolchildren with superpowers in present-day California". That's were the real suckfest started.

And then there was "The Return of Starbuck", which had almost nothing to do with Galactica 1980 (short of a brief appearance by Dr. Zee) and served mainly as a coda to the original show.
 
You'll recall that Zee was the baby inside the pregnant lady?

Which means that it was all a plot by the Ship of Lights who must have made sure that Starbuck crashed there with a nice Cylon to make Zee's arrival look cool rather than an obvious trick to screw over humanity making it's own destiny.

It's like God set Starbuck up on a blind threesome.
 
But they were pressured to retool their show into "Troy and Dillon watch after a group of schoolchildren with superpowers in present-day California". That's were the real suckfest started.

Except it was more like "Troy and Dillon make Robyn Douglass watch after a group of superpowered schoolchildren while they go do space-guy stuff." Which was actually to the show's credit, since Douglass's Jamie Hamilton was the only character on the show with any personality or charisma. I argued in my reviews that she was more the actual protagonist of the series than the interchangeable Troy and Dillon were.
 
But they were pressured to retool their show into "Troy and Dillon watch after a group of schoolchildren with superpowers in present-day California". That's were the real suckfest started.

Except it was more like "Troy and Dillon make Robyn Douglass watch after a group of superpowered schoolchildren while they go do space-guy stuff." Which was actually to the show's credit, since Douglass's Jamie Hamilton was the only character on the show with any personality or charisma. I argued in my reviews that she was more the actual protagonist of the series than the interchangeable Troy and Dillon were.

They should have had Jack Webb produce it. Then it would have made sense. :lol:
 
The folks on Alien Nation didn't even bother to do that--they just used the saucer from V.

No, they didn't, as you can see here:

http://www.blastr.com/2009/11/hovering_spaceships.php

The Alien Nation ship is flatter and has more tapered edges. The V motherships are sort of chubby compared to most flying saucers.

But there are two types of motherships shown in V. The ones shown in the original mini series were quite thick and they were not consistent since they were mostly matte paintings.

The ships shown in The Final Battle and series were thinner.
 
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