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I remember it. Especially near the end, when they finally "came home" to earth to find themselves in, of all places, Los Angeles. As they were flying over LA, one character remarked, while looking at one of the interstates, "Look at how tight the formations are!" If there was another show after that, I never saw it.
I didn't know the original had an ending like that. The reboot did, and I kind of liked how it played out.
I would put Buck Rogers in The 25th Century, over Battlestar Galactica, including the second season soft reboot over the Galatica 1980 soft reboot . Even if the single guy out of time and place has been done to death and the survivors of genocide fleeing was something new.
Buck Rogers in the 25th Century was schlock. It was entertaining schlock, but it was schlock.
Digging up an older review I wrote up re: this series:
A while back I watched - in chronological order - the entire original Battlestar Galactica series (1978-1979). I have never seen the majority of these episodes, and the few that I had seen were as a kid on their original broadcast release, over 35+ years ago.
And, I was pleasantly surprised that the show was a lot better than I remember it being - at the time it was on, I remember thinking it was a Star Wars-rip off. However, on re-watching it many years later as an adult I definitely see the SW-like elements, but the series is actually much more nuanced than I previously gave it credit for.
The 2-hour premiere with the Cylons attacking the humans & forcing them off their home planet was quite gripping, especially the scenes with the Cylon raiders attacking the civilians/buildings. Also liked the "nightclub" where Starbuck, Apollo & co. find themselves with all of the aliens; the four-eyed, two-mouthed female singers were both groteque & fascinating, and the Ovions (and what they were doing with the humans) were quite disturbing.
I also thought it was interesting that that these humans were possibly descendants of the Egyptians - this was mentioned in the opening sequence of some of the episodes & heavily implied by the design of the Colonial warriors' helmets...
Also liked the iconic theme music - this is one of the few things I remember about the show when watching it as a child...
The rest of the series was impressive as well; IMHO, there weren't any bad episodes, though some were obviously better than others. Some high-points included:
- "Lost Planet of the Gods, Part I & II": Great two-parter where the BG crew stopped on a desolate planet to get furthur clues about how to get to Earth; I thought the Egyptian-like pyramids were interesting...
- "The Lost Warrior" - this episode was an homage to old Westerns; Apollo was marooned on a frontier planet, and had to go up against "red eye", a Cylon who had been damaged in a crash & who was controlled by one of the corrupt officials on the planet.
-"Experiment in Terra" - great episode involving a totalitarian government in an almost "alternate reality" Earth; liked how the aliens from the War of the Gods episodes made an appearance here....was intrigued by the interesting artwork/designs in the blonde woman's apartment...
-"The Magnificent Warriors" - well-done episode involving the Colonial warriors battling a group of Boray aliens on a remote planet; liked the alien make-up re: the Borays here - these are some of the few actual aliens we see in the series...
-"The Hand of God" - excellent final episode, and one of the few where we get a good glimpse of the rarer gold-armored Cylon. Very cool ending where they inadvertendly picked up the Apollo-11 moon landing transmissions from Earth.
-"War of the Gods, Part I - II": I felt these were the strongest two episodes of the series; extremely creepy episode dealing with Count Iblis, an individual who may or may not have been the devil?! I remember seeing this episode as a kid & being extremely disturbed - especially by the scene when they found the crash site...Also very interesting was when Apollo, Starbuck, and Sheba found themselves in the "White Light" ship, and were all wearing those very cool white uniforms...
Several points about these two episodes:
I found it intriguing that Patrick M. played both Count Iblis & was also the voice of Imperious Leader, the Cylon leader/mastermind. This was also mentioned by Adama?! in one of these episodes. I'm sure this was not coincidental...it sounds like Count Iblis & Imperious Leader were supposed to be the same being...Also, Patrick M. did the voice-over for the intro to some of the episodes...
It was also interesting that you never got a full glimpse of Imperious Leader - his face was always in the shadows. However, the late 1970's action figure looked quite bizzare...
The only real complaint I had about the series was Baltar: I honestly thought that he was a pointless villain. The Cylons should have just eliminated the character off in the beginning, as they actually did in the original two-hour premiere & the Marvel comics; they re-did this scene for the series to show Baltar begging for his life, and he was then spared. However, this never made any sense to me - the Cylons, who considered themselves an advanced race, didn't trust Baltar since he had betrayed the other humans - but they spared him anyway, presumably because he convinced them that he could be of service to them - even though they considered themselves superior to all humans?! Bull$#$#! And, to top it off, they gave him his own Base-star to command?! Yeah, right....That all being said, it did seem that they tried to take him out by bombing the pyramids in the "Lost Planet of the Gods" two-parter...
A couple of side-notes:
In the past, I have compared this original series to the re-imagined 200x series - however, after seeing this original series in it's entirety, I won't be making these comparisons any longer. Both series are completely different, and a show from the late 1970's shouldn't be put up against a show from the 200x's...
The Cylon Raider/Colonial Viper space battles were obviously "inspired" by the Space battles at the very end of the original Star Wars film (1977); not a criticism, however, since J. Dysktra did the effects for both Star Wars & BG...
Last edited by The Big Lebowski Dude; 08-23-2017 at 11:26 PM..
I can understand if one grew up with the original Battlestar Galactica and likes it, but for me it was unwatchable. But then again I can't watch Star Trek The Original Series either, but I did make it a lot farther in Star Trek.
The modern BSG is a great high quality show. Looking back I'm still surprised the SciFy channel put out something that high quality. Nothing, and I mean nothing good comes from SciFy. Some reason I'm thinking Stargate was SciFy, that may be the other exception.
Anyway, I digress. I'm happy the Original Battlestar Galactica exists as it gave way to the modern version, but I can't watch it.
I can understand if one grew up with the original Battlestar Galactica and likes it, but for me it was unwatchable. But then again I can't watch Star Trek The Original Series either, but I did make it a lot farther in Star Trek.
The modern BSG is a great high quality show. Looking back I'm still surprised the SciFy channel put out something that high quality. Nothing, and I mean nothing good comes from SciFy. Some reason I'm thinking Stargate was SciFy, that may be the other exception.
Anyway, I digress. I'm happy the Original Battlestar Galactica exists as it gave way to the modern version, but I can't watch it.
Stargate didn't start on SyFy, it was Showtime if my memory serves but from the middle of SG-1 through Universe it was a SyFy original
Well, you're not a mouldy old schmo. Because I was 22 when this show came out which would mean that you are 10 years or more younger than me... and which would put you in your late 40s, early 50s.
But anyway, I probably shouldn't even be posting in this thread because I really HATED this show. It was a Star Wars rip off in every possible way imaginable. Plus, it had weak characters and villains who had a ridiculous looking red light going back and forth across their eyes.
I find that if I concentrate on something else, I can go for years without re-experiencing the horror.
Thanks for ruining my winning streak! LOL!
LOL! Good one. And I had to rep you on that.
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It was a Star Wars rip off in every possible way imaginable. Plus, it had weak characters and villains who had a ridiculous looking red light going back and forth across their eyes.
Good one. And I had to rep you on that. 
