Galactica 1980 (1980) User Reviews

That bad, HOWEVER. . .

[MovieBuffMarine · 4/10 · 14 November 2008]

At least this attempt at trying to revive BG still retained the FUN of the original series. I saw this series when it first came out, boy was I excited! My disappointment at the time was the lack of ninety some percent of the original cast. Other than that, as an eight year old kid, I didn't care.

Then through the years I read about the crap that it contained. I read that BG fans the world over don't consider it canon and that it's a conspiracy. I can agree with them on that, too!

(I've said this before, I'll say it again, poor Barry Van Dyke has the dismal honor of being cast in two failed revival shows, the other being Airwolf. Both shoes were on the premise of some revival, though the 1987 Airwolf was done mostly to get the show on the syndication market, and both had writing problems, continuity errors, and very limited budgets.)

Fast forward to 2008 when IMDb started having viewable episodes on site. Despite the cheesiness, corniness and continuity errors, the show is STILL FUN TO WATCH! While I still agree the G1980 was utter crap, at least it's still watchable in my humble opinion. Other than comedy, so called "serious" shows today (whether they be SciFi or Drama) lack the fun of both BG and G1980.

This was a poor execution of the right idea: meaning that we BG fans wanted it back on the air, but got less than stellar results. Too bad bickering over the years and other factors got in the way of making it "right." It's a shame the new incarnation wasn't a continuation (I enjoy it by the way. They really put their effort into the stories and characters, even if the fun is gone and it is a dark series.) While it is a superb series in its own right, the fans were just completely ignored IMHO. It didn't really have to retain the fun, but continuation would have been nice, even if it's darker. But that's another story.

Galactica 1980, crap fest? Sure. But I give it credit for retaining the fun of the original. Makes it watchable if you don't pay too much attention to all the things against it.

BSG:1980 Certainly Isn't Great, but it Has Some Merits, Honestly!

[By-TorX-1 · 5/10 · 3 May 2021]

Galactica 1980 is the very, very different series to Battlestar Galactica. So, the Galactica reaches Earth where Troy and Dillon (replacing Apollo and Starbuck) get into various scrapes on the planet. Hence, rather than battles with Cylons (although they do show up now and then), we get time travelling antics in which our heroes battle with Nazis, helped out by the intrepid journalist, Jamie, in addition to scout troop action, a lot of educational speeches about Earth history and technology, and even a top hat and tails dance routine featuring Dillon and Troy. However, the highlight is when our heroes take flight on their futuristic motorbikes, which involves some of the most hilariously bad back projection seen on terrestrial screens! So, it lacks the scope, drama, quality and budget of Battlestar Galactica, but it has an undeniable charm (usually derived from the unintentional comedy that pervades many episodes, but the onscreen chemistry between Kent McCord and Barry Van Dyke is very engaging) and Richard Lynch is good, as always. However, while Lorne Greene tries to maintain his air of gravitas as Adama, he mainly just looks bemused as he constantly is forced to consult the all-knowing child prodigy, Dr. Zee, on every issue facing the Galactica. So, it isn't great, but for all of its limitations (and frustrations), Galactica 1980 is watchable, and no episode is as tiresome as the original series episodes based on Terra/Lunar Seven/the Eastern Alliance. So that's something, I guess. However, if you find it tough going it is worth prevailing until the final episode, The Return of Starbuck, which is rather excellent.

Not the great conclusion fans had hoped for

[Jiiimbooh · 4/10 · 14 April 2013]

**minor spoilers**

The original Battlestar Galactica's (1978) sequel/spin-off show Galactica 1980 (1980), about the Galactica finally arriving at Earth, was not a great success at the time, and watching it for the first time in 2013, I can understand why. There are some good ideas here and there, but also some very, very bad ones.

Starting with the characters, they are very one-dimensional. There is never any real disagreement between the good characters, and they don't seem to have many flaws. The good ones are 100% good and the bad ones are just evil. This makes them seem very much like just characters, and not like real people you relate to or care about. In the original series the good characters didn't always agree, and at least Starbuck could be described as flawed. Boxey returns, but as an adult. This is a good idea, except the character suffers from the problems mentioned above. We find out that his real name is Troy, and he has a sidekick named Dillon. A female reporter from Earth becomes a friend of Troy and Dillon. Boomer from the original series has a supporting role in some episodes. Adama also returns for the sequel show, as a regular, but his role of being the wise leader is handed over to the super-intelligent child Dr. Zee (played by two different actors.) There could have been an interesting conflict if there was ever a disagreement between the two, Adama with his life experience, and Dr. Zee with his extraordinary intelligence, but alas—Adama even says in "Galactica Discovers Earth" that Dr. Zee has never been wrong. Adama seems wasted here, which is a shame.

Despite the problems with the characters, the show nonetheless has an acceptable start with the sci-fi-war thriller three-parter "Galactica Discovers Earth." The fleet arrives at Earth in the present time (ca. 1980), but soon a time travel story follows in which the characters travel back to the Second World War. It at least kept my interest for all of the episodes. After this we have a change of tone, genre, and it would appear, target audience with "The Super Scouts" (two parts), and "Spaceball," which are family entertainment/silly comedy, with some sci-fi elements. In "The Super Scouts," the school ship is attacked by Cylons and has to crash-land on Earth, with Troy, Dillion, and the fleet's children on board. On Earth, the children pose as scouts, and the adults as scout leaders. (They have not made their presence known to us Earthlings.) This story has a message about pollution, with three of the children becoming sick from the water in a lake. Not shown or mentioned until "The Super Scouts" are the Galacticans' "super powers." Since gravity on board the Galactica is higher than on Earth, the Galacticans have some abilities like strength and being able to jump high into the air. This sometimes serves as an easy way out of difficult situations. I would be more comfortable with these abilities if they had been present from the beginning; this way it seems like too much of an afterthought (which I'm sure it was.) "Spaceball" is about a baseball contest. In "The Night the Cylons Landed" (two parts) Troy and Dillon quickly leave the kids behind as they go to investigate the crash of a space craft. This is a relief as the show can become more of a sci-fi show again, but it still has some of the silly humor. A story about racism follows with "Space Croppers." Although the kids return it's still not a bad episode, but not great either. I wonder if they were really passionate about making this story, or if they just wanted to make a story with a message that seemed important, because it seems like social commentary was mandatory in all of the episodes.

Saved for last is the fan-favorite "The Return of Starbuck." It's nice to see another character from the original series. With all of the cardboard characters, it's also interesting to have a character that, despite being good and likable, still has made some morally questionable decisions in the past (i.e. his womanizing behavior.) I like the first half the most, when Starbuck crashes and is trapped alone on a desolate planet. A group of Cylons also crash-land and break, and Starbuck, having no other companions, and no one helping him to survive, tries to repair one of them. This is the best 25 or so minutes of the entire series.

Galactica 1980 is much worse than both the original series, and the 2003 mini-series. (I haven't seen the episodes from 2004 onwards.) With all the different directions it took, you can tell that there were some different wills involved. All-in-all, I can't recommend it if you're looking for a good sci-fi show, but if nothing else, it's an interesting failure.

Oh, come on... it wasn't THAT bad...

[LenPal · 8 March 2003]

Galactica 1980 may not have had what the original series had, but it DID bring closure to the series by bringing them to their final destination. The scenes on Earth weren't that great, but the segment on whatever happened to Starbuck was great.

I have great childhood memories of this series. SciFi channel just started running it again and I'm watching it more for nostalgia than as any kind of groundbreaking series. And for that, I guess I'll always love it.

With apologies to Homer Simpson, I can't believe I watched the whole thing!

[Lexx-2 · 1/10 · 24 February 2004]

2003 saw the re-launch of the Battlestar Galactica in the form of a cable miniseries and the DVD release of the 1978-79 original, promoted as the "Complete Epic Series". Amidst the fan hackles that were raised over the mini-series, (a top-to-bottom remake, and not the continuation many fans had hoped for) Richard Hatch's 4&1/2min promo trailer The Second Coming gathered a new mystique. Hatch's post-series novels continued to sell and even pre-production remnants from Tom DeSanto's aborted 2001 revival attempt were gleefully feasted upon by fans.

The one thing that didn't enjoy renewed interest was Galactica 1980, a series few remember and fewer even knew existed. Every other incarnation of Galactica can be enjoyed on multiple levels, but G80 is only good for taking the p*ss, MST3K-style. This is truly one of the worst, most hilariously misbegotten pieces of television in existance.

As with all roads to hell, G80 started out with the best of intentions, as Glen A Larson's pitch to revive the recently-canned Battlestar was seized upon by ABC, who had a gap in their Sunday night schedule. But a number of problems quickly developed to ensure utter disaster. First, the budget was severely reduced from the original (hence Galactica finding earth, which minimized sets and effects). In turn, most of the original cast were either unwilling or unable to return. This led to an abrupt rewrite, which set the show thirty years after the BSG, causing major continuity problems with BSG's final episode (which ended with footage of the Moon landing), so as to accommodate the casting of Kent McCord and Barry Van Dyke. Of the original cast, only Lorne Greene (and to a distinctly lesser extent, Herb Jefferson Jr) returned, sporting a ragged fake beard and barely concealed embarrassment. ABC demanded that "educational dialogue" be shoehorned into the scripts (in accordance with the 7pm kiddie timeslot) and that a cadre of cute kids (many played by Larson's own offspring!) and a truly loathsome kid genius (the infamous Dr Zee) be added.

Larson, aware that things were spinning out of control, wrote (and rewrote) most of the episodes himself in an attempt to minimize the damage, but to no avail. Last of all, ABC rushed the series into production, where all of the above factors collided into one hell of a train wreck.

And as they say about train wrecks, you can't take your eyes off Galactica 1980. From the eye-rolling dialogue, delivered with almost poignant sincerity, (you've really gotta feel for these actors, you really do) to the awful attempts at humor (an earthbound Cylon being mistaken for a Halloween reveler, for one) to the heavy, heavy, HEAVY reliance on stock footage from BSG (dig the opening five minutes of Space Croppers) and other sources, (Silent Running, Earthquake and I swear to god Close Encounters!) its an unmitigated campfest nearly all the way.

I say nearly because, if there is anything close to a decent episode in this series, it has to be the final one, "The Return of Starbuck". Dirk Benedict returns one last time as everyone's favorite space-hopping skirt-chaser for a flashback story with very little (thank god) of the regular cast. It's a suprisingly touching send off for the space cowboy and an indication of what Galactica 1980 could have been with the right kind of handling.

And yeah, I watched it all. It was mid 96, my parents had cable and I had no life. And here I am telling you all about it....

But honestly, I've probably piqued your curiosity by now, right? So go on, hop on Petition Online and start rallying Universal to release this "Complete Epic Series" on DVD straight away! The commentaries would be worth the price tag alone.....

PS: Believe it or not, the voice of the Imperious Leader in Space Croppers (sorry to bring that episode up again) is none other than 24's Mr President, Dennis Haysbert. Kinda prophetic, don't you think?

Trouble-Plagued Sequel To Battlestar Galactica

[stp43 · 7/10 · 3 June 2003]

ABC's decision to cancel Battlestar Galactica after one season didn't sit well with viewers, and the show's strong ratings (it out-rated almost every ABC series renewed for 1979-80) easily justified continuation. But with costs rising faster than expected ABC and Universal Studios wanted the show for substantially less than the per-episode costs of the original show, and at a time when SFX technology was not as advanced as today (modern SFX technology allows maintenance of a series' high production values at greater affordability, as well as allowing greater production of original SFX footage), there was no practical argument against the economics angle that hurt the show.

Nonetheless, ABC tried to continue the Galactica mythos on a budget, and regardless of whether series creator Glen Larson was involved. Larson signed on to try and make it work, but the result, Galactica 1980, was a bitter disappointment to all.

The show's weaknesses were extensive, but by far the greatest weakness lay in the deception used in promotion before the first episode aired. Promotions used the footage of Cylon raiders blasting Los Angeles extensively and gave the impression that the Cylon empire had found Earth and was in process of slaughtering the last planet of humanity, a premise that would have given the show a much stronger punch. But this footage was merely part of a "what if?" computer simulation to illustrate why the survivors of the Twelve Colonies cannot colonize Earth - "If we land, we will bring destruction upon Earth as surely as if we'd inflicted it ourselves," as Commander Adama succinctly puts it in one of the show's best lines.

With this premise of real life Cylon predation against Earth thus vetoed, the show begins to suffer, hurt even more by the excessive juvenile angle in the platoon of children rescued from the freighter Delphi after it is ambushed by Cylon raiders and forced to land on Earth, and also in the use of the mysterious Seraph youth Doctor Zee - had Doctor Zee been a Cylon creation (like the humanoid Cylon featured in "The Night The Cylons Landed" or better yet the Cylon IL Lucifer from the original series) that had turned against its masters, this angle would have made more sense - as it was, Zee's genesis did make for the show's best episode and surprisingly one of the best sci-fi episodes of any series, "The Return Of Starbuck." Subsequent graphic-novel speculations about Doctor Zee does make the character more understandable.

The show also suffered from several embarrassing incidents, notably the Halloween angle of "The Night The Cylons Landed" and the general incompatibility of the Kobollian survivors with the culture of Earth, leading to numerous bits of forced comedy that really aren't funny.

But despite these weaknesses, the show did have some superb moments - the Cylon attack on Los Angeles, deception or not, is compelling footage, lasting roughly ninty seconds on-screen and superbly mixing stock matte-FX footage of Cylon raiders over outtake footage from Universal's 1974 disaster film "Earthquake." The sequence thus becomes one the best SFX sequences ever done for television - I especially liked the shots of Cylon raiders blasting the Capitol Records building, Cylon raiders diving into strafing runs then cutting to the Cylon POV shot of a street being attacked, the street being strafed as seen from above then from low angle as a raider flies toward and then past the screen, and the triumphant flyover of Cylon raiders over the now-ravaged city.

The introduction of new Cylons in the human-form combat ILs in "The Night The Cylons Landed" as well as the new command-class AB raider (first seen mixed with the stock FX shot of Cylons strafing the Delphi in "The Super Scouts" but not fully explored until "Night") is also an intriguing look into the evolution of the Cylon empire; not surprisingly this idea was developed to great fruition by Ronald Moore for the 2003 version of Battlestar Galactica.

The arguments between Commander Adama and Commander Xavier (Richard Lynch) in the three-part pilot episode are well done - Lynch's Xavier gives the show as compelling a villain in his own way as John Colicos' Baltar, whose non-presence is particularly missed here. Also well done is the interaction between Troy (Kent McCord) and Dillon (Barry Van Dyke), especially early in the opening episode when we learn something of Troy's background. The presence of Boomer (Herbert Jefferson Jr.) is welcome with no other original cast members available except for Dirk Benedict's appearance in "Return Of Starbuck," and the series does tackle some moral dilemmas (notably the Nazi-Jewish angle in the three-part opening episode) generally avoided in the original series.

By no means is Galactica 1980 great television, but it does have some excellent moments, and the cast deserves credit for trying to make it work.

One great episode is not quite enough to compensate for nine laughably bad ones

[TheLittleSongbird · 3/10 · 15 October 2016]

The original 'Battlestar Galactica' is not perfect, with the flaws more noticeable when seeing it through adult or older audience's eyes, but it is still a lot of fun to watch with still many great things and there is no doubt as to how influential it is.

'Galactica 1980' was not helped by misleading advertising, things not working out as originally intended (including intentions of a higher budget and the involvement of the original cast) and that it was inevitably going to be compared to its predecessor. Even when judging it as a standalone with no comparison, 'Galactica 1980' still fares badly.

It has one great episode throughout its entire 10 episode run, and that is the final episode "The Return of Starbuck". With the return of a fan favourite and a story that is actually engrossing, is focused tonally rather than playing for laughs and goofing around, actually feels like a story and the closest the show got to matching the quality of its predecessor. In the previous nine episodes, the entertaining conversations towards the beginning of the show between Adama and Xavier and the dependably decent performances of Lorne Green, Herbert Jefferson Jnr and Richard Lynch (though they deserved more screen-time) just about save them from total doom. The Cylon attack on Los Angeles is the single best scene from the entire series, that was edge of your seat stuff and deserved a much better show.

On the other hand, it constantly felt like 'Galactica 1980' amplified the flaws of 'Battlestar Galactica', instead of correcting them, and made even more on the way. The nadir of the show is definitely the infamously terrible character of Doctor Zee. The writers clearly couldn't decide whether to portray him as a child genius or as just a "cutesy" child, instead trying and failing hard both extremes, and as a result the character comes over as truly obnoxious and unbearably dull. The very somnambulist way the character is acted also plays a large part. There is a serious underuse of the Cylons, and whenever they do appear they exude little threat and instead come over as goofy and inept.

For me, Troy and Dillon's chemistry was more forced than entertaining, the bad writing did it no favours and neither did the wooden acting of both Kent McCord and especially Barry Van Dyke (who has looked much more comfortable since, it was almost as if he was embarrassed by the material he was given). 'Galactica 1980' is also badly hindered by its low budget, 'Battlestar Galactica' did have the odd limitation but at least it managed to on the most part look good. 'Galactica 1980' is pure cheap tack, everything just screams late 1970s-early 1980s, looking like any show from that period and with little essence of science-fiction (yes even for its earth-bound concept) and it relies far too heavily on stock footage from its predecessor.

Nothing memorable about the music either, the main theme is an example of one that one hears and forgets instantly or wishes they'd never hear again. The music is very 1970s-1980s disco, and doesn't add anything to what's going on, instead it's distracting, sounds tacky and just dates the show even more. With the stories, only "The Return of Starbuck" is above worthwhile. The rest are very thin on the ground, dull, lacking in atmosphere (apart from a very of-the-time-it-was-made vibe) and filled with padding and filler that add nothing to the concept, constantly losing sight as to what the concept was in the first place.

The less said about the writing as well the better. 'Battlestar Galactica' may have had issues with tone and focus and had episodes bogged down by too many homages, but mostly it knew what the concept was, showed signs of maturity (like in episodes taking a darker tone like "War of the Gods") and target audience problems (while admittedly at times an issue) weren't as glaringly problematic. The writing in 'Galactica 1980' is eyeroll-inducing, with laughably bad attempts of humour in an attempt to appeal to younger audiences (who would actually be insulted by the writing here, and adults will find it far too cheesy and dumb to take it for what it is), with goofy antics that are overused and serve no point, that dominates the show far too much and often occurring in places that couldn't have been any more inappropriate.

Generally, 'Galactica 1980' has to be down there with the most pointless and unnecessary shows ever made in my opinion. Just did not see the point to it whatsoever because it did nothing with its concept (often completely neglecting it and focusing too much on ill-judged humour), and while 'Battlestar Galactica' had its flaws it was fun to watch and achieved a lot that was good. 'Galactica 1980' is just a painful reminder that that show was a flawed one and repeats its mistakes and amplifying them. In addition it makes even more, making it a very poor show albeit with one great episode and one great scene.

3/10 Bethany Cox

Fun show!

[stevenfallonnyc · 7/10 · 27 March 2008]

I have no problem at all admitting I like "Galactica 1980". I deliberately avoided buying any bootlegs of the show because I figured the new (and bad) Galactica show would eventually see this released.

Sure it's flawed, but it was a fun show. It actually started off with a really good three-parter, when Troy and Dillon first come to Earth to check things out for the Galactica. I liked that Apollo did appear in a photograph and that one of the main adult characters was a grown-up Boxey. And seeing Boomer again was also great.

I remember as a kid being disappointed that the Cylon attack on Los Angeles was "fake" (a "computer simulation" to see what would happen if the Cylons found Earth) because it was done so clever and well, using the "Earthquake" movie footage. The subplot with Robert Reed as the doctor who makes friends with Troy and Dillon starts off good but Reed's character is simply forgotten about after a few episodes unfortunately. Instead, an Earth woman befriends the Galactica guys and the focal point eventually becomes a bunch of bratty kids, which is where the show starts to get a bit annoying.

The plots are cool, but frankly there just were not enough Cylons in the series. Finally towards the end of the series they start to appear, but in a goofy Halloween setting.

The last episode is generally regarded as the best because it shows the return of Starbuck, who actually makes friends with a Cylon after being stranded from the fleet in flashback. It was very cool seeing Boomer behind the controls of a Viper again. Even this episode has a few problems, such as the Cylon's voice, and where DID he find that girl? The ending is downright sad. Also, there was no Troy and Dillon for this final episode (the actors must have loved that).

So yeah, it has tons of stock footage, goofy kids and thin plots. But it is a fun show, and definitely a fun watch. I for one and very glad it is on DVD, although no extras is a disappointment.

Five stars for "The Return of Starbuck"

[pery-1 · 3/10 · 20 January 2014]

"The Return of Starbuck was fun, with great humor. The rest were mostly very cheap looking, with silly lame stories, and set on earth. It really dragged. There were some scenes about Galactica in space, and some dogfights. Old Adama seemed weary and listless. Some of the explanations of how they were evading the cylons when traveling to earth were not believable. Baltar was one of the best parts of the original Battlestar Galactica and is sorely missed here. Where is the Cylon Imperious Leader?

I'm glad I watched it all so I didn't miss the one great episode- the last.

Definitely Not as Good as Original Series

[lindhardt09 · 6/10 · 15 May 2013]

This series is not as bad as some people have made it out to be, but neither is it any where near as good as the original series. The FX are a bit cheesier for this one, but considering how much the original series cost, I guess that shouldn't come as a surprise. The characters were all pretty strong, though the acting come across as either too dead-pan or just plain monotone many times. The flying motorcycles are pretty awesome! Dr. Zee was plain annoying! It didn't help that they changed actors just a few episodes into the season either. Commander Adama should have been far more intelligent than he often come across, especially toward Cylon tactics. I think the story had a lot of potential and it is too bad that they were not able to to go along further, but it was a little hard to get past the bad acting.

Better than the sci fi channel soap opera

[stargatemd · 4/10 · 11 January 2008]

While Galactica 1980 was not anywhere near as good as the original series (10 out of 10 in my opinion)with it's few new but cheesy special effects shots. Come on a strobe light as a special effect? how disco. Even with the later kiddie scripts it is still better than the sci fi channel remake. This show did have some humor with it's fish out of water bits that many find fault with but I find funny, wouldn't't any alien dropped into a strange culture and trying to blend in would have that problem?. I will agree with some that the show was a pale imitation of the original but......it was far better than the political soap opera that they are trying to pawn off on us as entertainment today. If I wanted to watch a soap opera I would watch a soap opera. I for one am enjoying my new set of DVD's of Galactica 1980 and will enjoy them long after the bad taste of the new series has left my mouth. *hint I don't watch it*

Seriously underused series

[gritfrombray-1 · 10/10 · 6 February 2007]

As a lover of good science fiction and the original Battlestar series I have to say I enjoyed this. It started off with a good pilot and explored the factions growing in the fleet regarding Earth. The time travel story was quite well done too. The series had so much room for development. But there was not nearly enough Cylon involvement. The episode The Night The Cylons Landed was pretty good, but sadly we were only to see them one more time before the series untimely demise. This episode, Space Croppers was fantastic. The Cylons damaged and or destroyed Agro ships prompting Adama to establish a farming colony on Earth. If this had been the direction the series had taken from minute one I really believe it would have worked. Doctor Mortinson's involvement with Troy and Dillon was too quickly forgotten about too. Another idea would have seen Commander Cain return in the Pegasus with his own fleet in tow and boot the Cylons across the Galaxy in a battle that would have really drawn all the non believers back! Kent McCord said clearly that if they had not been given the terrible time slot of Sunday evening the series would have done far better in the ratings. Waiting patiently for a decent DVD release with some behind the scenes footage.A potentially brilliant series gone, but not forgotten....

surprisingly bad and pointless

[impfac · 1/10 · 1 May 2012]

Galactica 1980 is the rushed, pointless follow up to Battlestar Galactica. Almost the entire thing takes place on Earth, decades after the end of the original. It is poorly written with a threadbare budget and none of the feeling of the original, itself inferior to its remake.

The whole production feels rushed and cheap. I was impressed how the effects of the original held up-not so with 1980.

Add in kids and the all knowing "Doctor Zee," who makes Adama constantly look like a moron, plus lots of cheap laser effects and invisible pilots/planes, and this show is consigned to the ashbin of TV history.

It even has a crummy disco-ized BSG soundtrack.

Not worth watching. Most don't even consider it cannon to BSG.

*/**** (One star out of four)

Laugh out loud bad

[gtc83 · 29 May 2004]

After Battlestar Galactica was canceled, the network decided to try and wring some more dollars out of the series by giving us this low budget thing. It was incredibly childish, featuring a bunch of little kids who could jump really high, like up into trees. I think they could turn invisible as well. They used these powers to throw apples at bumbling cops and stuff like that. The cops would look around, all confused, like "Where are the apples coming from?! I can't figure it out!". You get the idea. Then there were the two main characters who gave comically bad performances. When they first got to earth, they couldn't figure out what a phone booth was, and had trouble with our vocabulary. It could have been done in such a way as to make it realistic, or perhaps even funny, but the way it was done just came off as these two guys being idiots. And yes, they were the stars.

Plots were very much like a Saturday morning cartoon of the '70s, like Isis or Shazam. Packed full of "educational" material (did you know that cars have internal combustion engines?) and environmentalist schlock - the same guys who didn't know what a phone was got upset that people didn't like environmentalists.

Then there was Dr. Zee, the little kid who was supposed to be really smart. But because he was so smart, he spent a lot of time staring off into space, almost as if in a coma, and spoke his lines as if reciting from a cue card. Definitely in the top 10 most laughably bad character I can remember in any TV show right now.

I have to say this thing rates extremely high on the "so bad it's good" scale. I mean, you just can't help but laugh at it.

Most likely one of the worst sequels ever

[Angel_Peter · 1/10 · 5 November 2009]

I saw the 2004 series first that was not good. But I figured there had to be a reason they made a sequel. Therefore I saw the 1978 series that really was great.

Unfortunately the 1980 version that is Galacticas attempt to interact with earth.

Humor is a great part of this series. Unfortunately it is all painfully failed. None of the great parts of 1978 series survived. It became like a soap opera with really bad script that even the most brilliant actors could not even have made somewhat acceptable.

This one was far worse than the 2004 series and my only positive thing to say was it was a limited number of episodes.

Feldercarb

[Ron-223 · 2/10 · 5 August 2008]

I am a die hard SciFi fan, but even as a young boy, this 'remake' was IMHO truly a waste of my time. I do not say this lightly as I love SciFi, but this effort is crap to put it in its best light.

Even putting aside everything else, one thing even as a youth 'jumped the shark.' I remember where two characters were arrested. What do you know, but they did NOT have any fingerprints. I remember earlier that Starbuck and Apollo in the original series had to have their prints scanned to enter a secure area.

Now this may be nit picking, but this IMHO is a glaring gaff. Add this up to the sorry acting in this follow on and it truly sucks.

My eyes! My eyes!

[GenFX · 1/10 · 11 March 2007]

I have tried to re watch this... whereas TOS is just sorta campy SF combined with Mormons In Spaaaaace, this was just a bad idea star to finish. Even as an 11 year old who thought TOS was about the best TV show ever, Galactica 1980 was unforgivably bad...

Sure it was low budget. But good writing might have solved some of the shows problems... well barring the awful premise to begins with. It is more insulting to SciFi fans than a show catered to them...

However... I should say something good about it... when SciFi airs it it is an hour we do not have to watch an infomercial....

Except maybe the informercials have higher production values and script standards...

Ok, I get it.

[wolf_bluehaven · 8/10 · 3 August 2019]

Yes, I know the writing can be cheesy with plot holes a planet can float through, but this series takes more grief than it deserves. Saw the version that condensed the season into a two hour movie as a kid and loved it. I still love it, and face it, it is BSG cannon. Don't take it too seriously, and enjoy.

It's The only way to make another season fly.

[Stebaer4 · 5/10 · 22 March 2017]

Yes Just when Battlestar Galactica got canceled after one season The only way to take it any further was to have them achieve their goal to find earth many years later and with among other things Boxy being grown up as Captain Troy.Having a 14 year old boy with a British accent who's equivalent to a Wiseman and even played by 2 different actors as I'd read in a Sci-Fi TV book.We still see Lord Commander Adama who's looking the same as before.Two Spacemen chased by cops in a police car and get way from them when their motor cycles turn into sky cycles with the cops getting out to look at them fly way into the sky.The Star children who discover their superpowers on earth and their capacities to jump high into the sky and spread seeds for planting and even get to be the winning baseball team.Yes I liked this better than the first season.Because among other reasons you can experience The Gilligan's Island theme more than once too often til you've had it even more than up to here in this they achieve their goal to find earth and stay while if you've seen "Rescue from Gilligan's Island." it's first presented in 2 halves of which if you see the first half first it's as my Sister Maureen said it's bad enough i saw the second half first of which is more tolerable than the first even though you know how it's going to go by their planning to launch the 2nd Minnow.this is exactly why they originally presented it in 2 halves because you just know how it's going to go.

I also liked The Halloween Episode for how a Bad Human and Cylon made it to earth at Halloween time and the outcome too.

As I also read this ends with among other things The return of Starbuck. Yes and I saw it too it's a flashback story being told to the 14 year old Wiseboy.

Truthfully,Stephen 'Steve" G. Baer a.k.a."Ste" of Framingham,Ma.

A truly awful series and not at all like the original.

[Rob_Taylor · 20 December 2002]

The worst series in the world....ever!

After the events of the REAL Battlestar Galactica and series, this troll of a series came along. Gone are Starbuck and Apollo and replacing them are Troy and Dillon. Wannabee heroes who can't act. They might as well have cast Troi (StarTrek TNG) and Dillan (Magic Roundabout) for all the effectiveness they have.

Lorne Greene must have had a mortgage to pay off or something, because I can't see any other reason he'd want to be on board this turkey.

There's a new character, in the form of the obnoxious Dr Zee. A child genius who basically tells Adama what to do. I couldn't help thinking that maybe Adama had gone senile and Zee was his nurse - he always dressed in white, anyhow. It certainly seemed like Adama was senile, he didn't seem to be able to make a decision without consulting the boy-wonder. A far cry from the confident, decisive war veteran of the original Galactica series.

Anyway Troy and Dillon get to inact it up a little and go to Earth on repetitive boring missions. There's none of the interesting space-going malarkey from the original series (even though a lot of it was stock footage) and I don't think I ever saw a starfighter. No budget for anything remotely interesting.

The only gadgets on display were the flying motorcycles (I kid you not) that the heroes use now and again. The special effects of them flying through the air are particularly guffawful, reminding me of those old rear-window shots of roads in black and white films, where the road movements in the background bore no correlation to what the driver did with the wheel.

A truly awful series and not at all like the original. Only one episode is remotely worth watching. Entitled "The Return of Starbuck" it focuses on what happened to Starbuck and has a kind of "Enemy Mine" plot involving a Cylon. Mercifully, it features only very few scenes of Dr Zee and Adama talking and none at all of Troy and Dufus. Nearly all Starbuck.

But, apart from this one episode, the rest of the series is just awful.

No scientific or technical advisers?

[cmv32261 · 2/10 · 1 July 2013]

No scientific, or technical advisers?, if so they must have all been tripping on LSD. This is John Edwards speaking to the spirit of Timothy Leary, "turn on, tune in, drop out", whoa!, can you hear me bro.? Come on now, the science was way off the wall, 1 does not have to be a astrophysicist/geophysicist/xenobiologist to know humans would not evolve on a planet with that much more mass than Earth, young children springing off from the ground and ascending at least 30 ft. into the air. Kent McCord spoke in monotone he would have made a much better Cylon, as for Barry Van Dyke he spoke like he was not certain of anything he said. Did I not catch Barry Van Dyke's character mention something to the children while still on the freighter about how they would be stronger than Earth humans and able to move around more easily, because it was the gravity on Galactica and the other ships of the fleet applied more gravitational force than Earth, that in itself would be impossible. Here is another thing to consider, any living organism with muscles used to walk, or lift, possibly even the heart for that matter since it is a muscle would immediately begin to atrophy, unless you constantly worked them as in 24/7. Sound reasoning would dictate that after losing communication with Base ship after Galactica destroyed it the Cylons would have immediately dispatched another ship to investigate, leaving Adama with no choice but to lead Cylons away from Sol system abandoning shuttle crew and passengers. Anyone with an IQ over 70 would have given this pathetic television series no more than a 2 or 3 rating. I will admit that the science and general plot of Battlestar Galactica was perfect either. Caprican units of measurement conversion to Earth standard was never provided, nor were Caprican slang terms ever defined. Ascended beings confined to ship, everyone but John shrouded in veils, Count Iblis able to control the elements, thunder and lightening, but only able to move a candelabra across the the table, real test of his strength would have been giving the order to all commanders of the fleet to shutdown engines and have Iblis move them at same speed with his energy. Episode Experiment In Terra sci/tech level was all over the board, force fields, energy weapons, slide open doors as opposed to automobiles and missiles made no sense. Galactica when fighting against Cylon raiders using pulse cannons that more often than not miss the target, yet have LASER weapons far more accurate, why did they not use them to shoot and destroy raiders, or for that matter the Cylon Base ship in series finale The Hand Of God?

SPOILER ALERT! I loved it.....When I was 13.

[jim_lhm99 · 2/10 · 16 March 2015]

SPOILER ALERT!SPOILER ALERT!SPOILER ALERT!SPOILER ALERT!SPOILER ALERT!

Now that I've appeased the IMDb gods shall we continue?

I loved Battlestar Galactica. I love the reboot and Caprica and everything else, including Galactica 1980. But for the latter I love it for what it could have been and for the potential it had but sadly wasted. I went so far as to read the novelization, which incidentally, was much better than the actual TV show. Now to reasons why the show was not a great success.

Plan to thwart the Cylons possible attack on Earth by integrating into society and incrementally increasing Earth's technology? Brilliant! Over about a thirty year period. Don't have time for that! Now what?Okay fine Galacticans can now travel through time. Cool! Oh by the way we need to blend in to Earth society without being detected. Any problems with that? Nope. Hold on while I use my invisible Viper and FLYING motorcycle right in the middle of downtown LA!! Oh and here's a bunch of Galactican ragamuffins that could be the offspring of Steve Austin and Jamie Sommers. I won't even get into the Halloween episode. At least it went out on a good note as we got to, sort of, find out what happened to Starbuck.

Mostly dull and uninteresting

[ivan2012 · 5/10 · 7 June 2015]

The last episode in this series (#10 The Return of Starbuck) is the only one worth watching if you are a BSG fan. Fortunately, it has little connection with the first nine episodes so it can be watched on its own. The problem with this series is that most of the scenes (90-95%) take place on earth. Thus, there is no sense of a space travel adventure that the original BSG and re-imagined BSG had. Another problem with this series is that some of the stories are just boring. The episode that had the kids playing baseball is one example.

On a positive note, I did get a few laughs from the two episodes that took place in New York. Overall, there are some funny moments in this series that mostly relate to a lack of understanding of the culture and language of earthlings. That made some of the first nine episodes bearable to watch. For BSG fans, I would give this series a 5, which means that it's worth watching once but never again. For non-BSG fans, this series is more like a 3 and not worth watching at all.

be careful what you wish for

[SnoopyStyle · 4/10 · 9 July 2017]

Commander Adama (Lorne Greene) finally gets Galactica and what remains of the colonies to Earth 30 years later. A whole generation has been born in space. Among them are the brilliant Dr. Zee, and Apollo's son Captain Troy. Fearing that the Cylons have secretly followed them to wipe out the last of humanity and shocked at the relatively primitive Earth, Dr. Zee advises to lead the Cylons away from Earth and send down teams to advance Earth science surreptitiously. Troy and Lieutenant Dillon are sent to America to recruit famed nuclear scientist Dr. Mortinson. Jamie Hamilton gives the boys a ride on her way to a TV reporter job interview. Commander Xavier ignores Adama and uses Dr. Zee's recent time travel invention to change history in 1944.

It's the death of a good idea until it gets reborn decades later. The 1979 original TV series starts with a great premise. It meanders around until cancellation at the end of its first season after a few good episodes. The network submitted to popular demands to revive the show. It should have left things alone. This is the result and it's not good.

It's clunky cheese. Some of it is memorable cheese like the flying motorcycles. The new premise is questionable. Even the dialog is clunky. There are usable parts like aspects of "The Day the Earth Stood Still". However, it all goes downhill by turning to sci-fi time travel. For some reason, everything turns white when they time travel. It's a callback to the Ship of Lights from the first series but that had overtones of Godly afterlife. It's odd to have such clunky cheese trying to incorporate the serious Nazi storyline. It adds more Cheese Whiz by bringing in the super kids. What the Hell? It makes no sense and it becomes Bad News Bears. It all collapses and the network quickly canceled the show after ten additional episodes.