Battlestar Galactica (1978 TV series)



""There are those who believe that life here began out there, far across the universe, with tribes of humans who may have been the forefathers of the Egyptians, or the Toltecs, or the Mayans. They may have been the architects of the great pyramids, or the lost civilizations of Lemuria or Atlantis. Some believe that there may yet be brothers of man who even now fight to survive somewhere beyond the heavens...""

(For the 2004 series, see Battlestar Galactica Reimagined.)

At the end of a long, genocidal war between the twelve colony worlds of humanity and a race of robots called the Cylons, there finally appears to be a hope for peace. But the supposed end of the war is nothing more than a trap; humanity is almost completely wiped out when Cylon treachery (and a human traitor) catches them almost completely unawares. The survivors gather together to form a "rag-tag fugitve fleet" of refugees under the protection of the last remaining battlestar (the humans' most powerful class of space battleship), and flee Cylon-controlled space. Their goal is a legend -- a lost thirteenth colony world, known as "Earth", which they hope can help them stand against the pursuing cybernetic enemy.

Television's supposed first attempt to cash in on the popularity of Star Wars (and hilariously, Lucasfilm tried to sue). Originally called Adam's Ark, this 1978 Glen Larson production fused a Wagon Train to the Stars gimmick to a dose of Von Danikenite "Ancient Astronauts" atmosphere and a dash of Mormon theology. The result was a Space Opera with unsupported pretensions to a Myth Arc that was noteworthy for a number of television firsts: first SF series set in a spacecraft with sets that didn't look like they were built from cardboard and drywall, first TV series to cost a million dollars per episode, and the first primetime series to recycle Stock Footage so much that everyone noticed it.

Although its first few episodes showed a certain amount of promise, the series quickly descended into a series of one Planet of Hats after another, many of them merely recycled plots from popular westerns. Its viewership ratings were high, but the TV network executives of the time had not yet embraced the notion of a million-dollar-an-episode series, so it was cancelled after one season. The fanbase was not amused.

In the face of a massive write-in campaign, the executives decided to Retool the series into a less expensive spinoff, and so Galactica was promptly resurrected as Galactica 1980, starring an older Boxey (now "Troy") as a substitute for Apollo. The Galactica and its fleet finally reached Earth, only to lead the Cylons away while agents led by Troy tried to uplift Earth science to Colonial standards while maintaining a Masquerade. This revival proved grossly unpopular and was cancelled after only a handful of episodes. To this day, fans of the original series prefer to treat Galactica 1980 as though it had never existed, and novels and comics based on the original series continuity ignore it.


 * Ace Pilot: Apollo, Starbuck, Boomer, Jolly, Greenbean, Cree, and Sheba. If you aren't a Bridge Bunny, good chance, you're an Ace.
 * Acting for Two
 * Aggressive Negotiations: Count Baltar arranged a peace treaty between the 12 Colonies and the Cylons. The Colonies sent all 12 Battlestars to the conference, leaving the Colonies completely undefended. The Cylons carried out a massive attack on both the Battlestars and the colonies, almost completely wiping out both.
 * Aliens Speaking English: Justified with the Colonial outposts the Rag-tag Fleet encountered earlier; becomes blatant with the Terrans, who were explicitly not Colonial, but whose only problem communicating with the main cast is not understanding what a "centon" is.
 * Ancient Astronauts
 * Apocalypse How
 * Applied Phlebotinum: Applied quite generously, in fact
 * Aristocrats Are Evil
 * A-Team Firing
 * Battle Couple: Apollo and
 * The Battlestar: Trope Namer
 * Big Bad: The Cylons
 * Black Best Friend: Lt. Boomer and Colonel Tigh.
 * Bloodless Carnage
 * Blood Knight: Cain. He is effectively Patton Recycled in Space.
 * Bright Is Not Good: The Cylons wear (or are made of) bright shiny armor.
 * California Doubling: The opening of the series pilot, showing the Cylons attacking the home world of Caprica, was filmed at the City Hall/Main Public Library complex in Long Beach.
 * Call a Rabbit a Smeerp: They don't have dogs, they have daggits.
 * They don't play poker, they play pyramids.
 * And, confusingly, "pyramid" is also the name for a basketball/handball-like indoor sport.
 * Actually, that was "Triad." The 2000s version called it "Pyramid," and the card game "Triad."
 * They don't spend dollars or Deutschmarks, they spend cubits. Which are rectangular coins.
 * The Captain: Adama
 * Captain's Log
 * Catch Phrase: "By your command."
 * Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Count Baltar. In "Lost Planet of the Gods", he tries to get into a position to backstab either the Cylons, the Rag-Tag Fleet, or both at once -- and not even the audience is sure where he actually wants to aim the knife. It all ends with him pinned under rubble at the bottom of a Space-Egyptian pyramid when both sides refuse to trust him.
 * Clip Show
 * Coming in Hot: Trope Namer
 * Contractual Immortality
 * Cool Spaceship: The Battlestar Galactica.
 * Crystal Spires and Togas: to the Nth degree.
 * Cyber Cyclops: The Cylons
 * Daddy's Girl: Sheba.
 * Dances and Balls
 * Deadpan Snarker: In one episode when Baltar is attacking Galactica while Pegasus is pulling round, his cylon pilot says, "I really think you should take a look at the other battlestar."
 * Death Ray: blasters, anyone?
 * Demoted to Extra: Athena ends up getting this treatment. She starts out as a Bridge Bunny, but isn't shown on the bridge after the pilot. Then she's used as part of a triangle with Starbuck and Cassiopeia, but that plot is dropped fast. The only time after this she's given any significant screen time is when she's one of the characters trapped in the fire during "Fire In Space"
 * Depopulation Bomb
 * Development Hell: the Bryan Singer movie.
 * Devil in Plain Sight: Count Iblis
 * Dirty Coward: Baltar. Commander Cain once altered the course of a battle just by heading the Pegasus in his direction to scare him into pulling back and leaving the other two basestars to protect him.
 * The Dragon: Baltar, to the Cylons' Big Bad; then, later, to Count Iblis.
 * Driving a Desk: Used for the in-cockpit shots.
 * The End of the World as We Know It
 * Enemy Mine
 * Everybody Is Single
 * Explosions in Space
 * Explosive Instrumentation
 * Fantastic Measurement System: according to its The Other Wiki article, the only distance unit that wasn't an Earth name was "metron" (1 meter).
 * Father to His Men: Adama.
 * Fighter Launching Sequence
 * Forgiveness
 * God Test: In "War of the Gods Part 1'', Count Iblis claims to have great powers and knowledge. The Council of Twelve gives him three challenges: to deliver their greatest enemy (Baltar) to them, to lead the fleet to Earth, and one more to be named later.
 * Greater Need Than Mine
 * Head-in-The-Sand Management: President Adar, with disastrous results.
 * Hooker with a Heart of Gold: Cassiopeia
 * Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy: You'd think intelligent computers would be better shots.
 * Hey, you try to shoot when your eye is constantly darting back and forth!
 * It's their own fault. They should make more efficient eyes.
 * Infinite Supplies
 * Averted in the pilot, when resources were so scarce that the fleet practiced Forced Socialism against Sire Uri, and braved the Nova Matigon so as to make it to Carillon for resupply before they starved.
 * Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Starbuck
 * More like a Loveable Rogue. He's a pretty likeable guy when you aren't annoyed at one of his irresponsible schemes.
 * Killer Robot: The Cylon Centurions.
 * Lady of War: Sheba. Also,
 * Living Legend: In the episode "The Living Legend", the Galactica encounters the battlestar Pegasus, whose captain is the Colonial military legend Commander Cain.
 * Lost Colony: Earth, specifically; however,
 * Microts: Honed to an art form. They had:
 * "microns" (or "millicentons") for seconds
 * "centons" for minutes (hours in the pilot)
 * "centars" for hours (after the pilot)
 * "sectons" for weeks
 * "yahrens" for years
 * MacGuffin Location: Earth
 * Misanthrope Supreme: Baltar
 * Mooks
 * Notable Original Music
 * Only One Name
 * Pardon My Klingon
 * Photoprotoneutron Torpedo: Pulsar cannons.
 * Planet of Hats
 * Planet Terra: Subverted.
 * Precursors: The Lords of Kobol.
 * The Promised Land: Earth
 * Readings Are Off the Scale
 * Recycled in Space: Many episodes were blatant retreads of popular movies, frequently Westerns, right down to their titles.
 * Red Eyes, Take Warning
 * Redshirt Army
 * Robot Buddy: Muffet, Cy
 * Robo Speak
 * Robot War
 * Road Trip Episode: Type 3 trips appeared in several episodes.
 * Sci-Fi Writers Have No Sense of Scale: The writers simply didn't understand the difference between a system or a galaxy. Made worse by the fact that only the Galactica has FTL.
 * Even worse, the Galactica only has L, without the FT.
 * Space Based Weapon Has Cutoff Range
 * Space Is Magic
 * Space Mines: In the pilot, they have to go through a Cylon minefield.
 * Space Opera
 * Spared by the Adaptation: Baltar was Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves in the pilot movie; new scenes were shot for the series to keep him around as a recurring villain.
 * Supernatural Aid
 * The Starscream: Lucifer
 * Stock Footage: The special effects were based on optically overlaying stock footage (spacecraft, explosions, and so on), and several completed scenes were used more than once.
 * Some of the completed effects from Galactica were used in the B-movie Space Mutiny.
 * The beginning and end of one establishing shot (in a city) became two establishing shots in Buck Rogers in The 25th Century.
 * Straw Civilian: Sire Uri and the Quorum of the Twelve.
 * Techno Babble
 * There Is Another: The battlestar Pegasus.
 * Tonight Someone Dies: Jane Seymour, in the second episode.
 * Too Many Mouths: In the pilot, there was a female singing group that each had four eyes and two mouths (and apparently could each sing two different notes).
 * Unusual Euphemism: Frack, felgercarb
 * Wagon Train to the Stars
 * Wave Motion Gun: "The Gun on Ice Planet Zero".
 * Whole-Plot Reference: Several, including "The Gun on Ice Planet Zero" (The Guns of Navarone).
 * You Can't Go Home Again

Tropes Specific to "Galactica 1980":

 * Aliens Steal Cable: how Dr. Zee finds out about Earth cultures.
 * Armor-Piercing Question: In one episode, a Cylon states that their goal and purpose is to organize the entire universe. Another character asks what they'll do after that. The Cylon hesitates and finally admits that no one has ever asked that question.
 * Back for the Finale:
 * Benevolent Alien Invasion: Galactica's plan for
 * Big Applesauce: in the episode, "The Night the Cylons Landed".
 * Canon Discontinuity: for the continuation comics and novels, at least.
 * Culture Clash: invokes Fridge Logic since Dr. Zee is monitoring Earth's transmissions.
 * Executive Meddling: Part of the reason why Galactica 1980 was such a disaster. The show was originally supposed to be based around Time Travel stories, as seen in the three-part pilot. The network on the other hand thought that science fiction should appeal primarily to kids, and so forced the producers drop the time travel aspect, have children making up over half the main cast (resulting in the Super Scouts), and give the series a primarily educational focus.
 * Human Aliens
 * Innocent Aliens: played straight and averted.
 * New Super Power: In Galactica 1980, we discover that the artificial gravity they've been living with in the fleet is several times the surface gravity of Earth; so, when they land on Earth, they can jump several meters in the air.
 * Which is pretty amazing, considering we've seen crew members wrestle and/or drop things in the original series, and they didn't seem to fall any faster than they would on Earth.
 * Teen Genius: Dr. Zee.
 * They Look Like Us Now: Cylon human-form infiltrators appeared on this show decades before the "Skinjobs" in the new series.
 * Time Travel