In my original research study, I examined Battlestar Galactica Classic Series (as it is now known), a television series created by Glen A. Larson inspired by the first George Lucas Star Wars movie that was released in May 1977. This heavily promoted series began on ABC in September 1978, but was canceled before all of its 21 episodes were broadcast. That same year, (see Wikipedia citation), 20th Century Fox, which owns Star Wars sued Universal, which owns Battlestar Galactica, for plagiarism, claiming that Battlestar Galactica Classic Series contained scores of ideas that were stolen directly from the first Star Wars film. Universal countersued, claiming that Star Wars had stolen ideas such as the R2D2-type robots from the 1972 film Silent Running and the original 1940’s Buck Rogers theatrical serials (see the sci-fi space adventures genre page). But, the legal entanglement ended in 1980 with a dismissal by the court, so there was never any legal settlement of the issue as to which studio had the original ideas. Visually, however, it would be impossible to miss how similar the 1978 Battlestar Galactica Classic Series looked to the 1977 Star Wars film.

Starting in 1977 with Star Wars, George Lucas contributed in significant ways to the storytelling traditions of U.S. science fiction motion pictures and television just as his high visual standards in special effects affected how Hollywood movies and television shows are made.  Lucas set stories in “a galaxy far, far away” populated by heroic personalities during wartime to idealize and celebrate the very best attributes of human beings who live in the real world here in contemporary U.S. culture.  Not surprisingly, the original Battlestar Galactica in 1978 employed a similar war stories approach.  In Star Wars, the phrase death star was a code name for a powerful starship with a spherical shape like that of a small moon.  In contrast, the word battlestar is best understood and appreciated for its similarity to the word battleship.  Galactica is the ship’s name; it is a heavily-armed warship that can travel in the vacuum of space at faster-than-light speeds for the primary purpose of offensive and defensive battle. 

Despite many obvious similarities, Battlestar Galactica nonetheless differed from the George Lucas film in two significant ways.  First, unlike the Star Wars emphasis on humans versus an evil empire, the war stories told in the original Battlestar Galactica dealt with life and death battles between humans and highly advanced robotic lifeforms created by humans called Cylons.  This particular science fiction theme involving human creations of advanced technology that ultimately cause harm and/or death to their creators was common in episodes of Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone television series, 1959 to 1964 on CBS-TV, as well as on The Outer Limits, 1963 to 1965 on ABC-TV. 

A second crucial difference between Battlestar Galactica and Star Wars is the use of religion in the science fiction storytelling.  Glen Larson, as someone who was a member of the Church of Latter Day Saints (Mormons), created Battlestar Galactica with religious and political themes that can easily be identified for their roots in the Mormon belief system. Larson then added further texture to Battlestar Galactica by adopting the premise–originated in 1968 by Erich Von Daniken in Chariott of the Gods–that advanced civiliation on planet Earth started under the influence of extraterrestial travelers during a prehistoric epoch whose presense among primitive peoples was interpreted as visitations from powerful dieties.  Thus, Larson gave the human race in Battlestar Galactica a polytheistic belief system that mirrors those of ancient Greece and Rome.

With an unashamed orientation toward “old-fashioned, down-to-goodness heroes,” this series is about an ongoing battle between human cousins of us Earthfolk and mechanical aliens called Cylons. There is plenty of space wars razzle-dazzle in Battlestar Galactica Classic Series, but since no episode deals with which side wins, the persuasive potential of the thousand-plus year military adventure is never realized. 

A bulging cast of characters makes some attempts at conveying persuasive viewpoints about decidedly desirable human qualities like heroism, self-sacrifice, family unity, along with mutual love and respect. At the same time, however, Battlestar Galactica Classic Series plods along the well-worn paths blazed in the 1960s by series like Combat, The Rat Patrol, Garrison’s Gorrillas, and Twelve O’Clock High, in which the predominantly White, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant, middle class soldiers fight bravely in numberless battle scenes. Such a heavily supported endorsement of staunch militarism has no clearly established rationale. Instead, the shiny robotic Cylons are portrayed as having no redeeming qualities, while the humans are merely shown to know how to put up a good fight.

Lorne Greene plays Commander Adama, yet another of television’s patriarchal space leaders. The actor’s professional credibility from having portrayed Ben Cartwright on Bonanza for 14 seasons bolsters an otherwise unsubstantial role. While the silver-haired television Westerns pioneer clearly showed viewers the stuff with which a man must face his daily struggles, Adama does not.

Captain Apollo is Adama’s handsome son, the leading hero model aboard the Galactica. Apollo’s wisecracking male sidekick, Lieutenant Starbuck by is as equally valiant and glory-bound as is Apollo. The chief difference between the pair of brotherly chums is a minor one—Starbuck scores well with many women, but Apollo’s apparent bad luck with love confines him to lonely nights.

Typically flimsy stories are given a touch of class by guest stars like Fred Astaire, Patrick Macnee, and Lloyd Bridges. Astaire provides comedic grace as the long-lost father of Starbuck in one of the few episodes that departs from the military themes. “War of the Gods” features Macnee as a reincarnated Satan whose evil influences upon the Galactica fleet and murder of Apollo are too-quickly undone by shimmering angelic beings who save the day. Bridges stars as “The Living Legend,” a lost battlestar commander who, along with his ship the Pegasus, appear out of nowhere to assist the Galactica and then vanishes as quickly.

Apparently, the plan for the series was to regularly feature such guest stars. What resulted instead was too little credible characterizations and many laser fights, explosions, and general aggressiveness. In fact, all but 5 Battlestar Galactica Classic Series episodes deal with the war with the Cylons, giving the series a weak, unidimensional flavor. The essential humanitarianism of the colonials is thus reduced while most episodes clearly communicate that readiness for warfare is somehow integral to being human. Apollo, Starbuck, and Adama, along with their fellow colonials, face each new episode showing little evidence that their past experiences have contributed much to their present attitudes and behaviors. This leaves one central question unanswered: For what purposes are the humans so brave, heroic, and loving if it earns them so little?

Battlestar Galactica Classic Series emphasizes brauny, young warriors of matchless machismo, but makes few fresh statements about how and why young or older people face war. Its persuasive significance is thus limited to the reinforcement of standard pro-war values. Produced at a time when the U.S. was not involved in a war, Battlestar Galactica Classic Series has the opposite of the original Star Trek series’ antiwar tone, which was deeply rooted in the Vietnam War era.

A short-lived spinoff called Galactica 1980, brought, if nothing else, a hopeful promise of what future sci-fi space adventures can be. This series brings the great ship Galactica to Earth in the 1980s. Troy and Dillon, two young, inventive former warriors are assigned by Commander Adama to mingle among us, searching for some way for Earth to assimilate what’s left of the fleetload of human refugees from the space wars with the Cylons. Troy is played by Kent McCord, who appears in another sci-fi space adventure nearly 20 years later, Farscape.

These genuinely likeable emissaries suffer an inevitable culture shock which is played for its comedy. “The Night the Cylons Landed,” for example, is a two-part episode that focuses on how Troy and Dillon must cope with not only an invading Cylon leader, but also Wolfman Jack and a spirited, costumed Halloween party of Earthlings.

Humor already was proven as a persuasive device for sci-fi decades ago by Gore Vidal on the big screen in Visit to a Small Planet starring Jerry Lewis. Galactica 1980 showed much potential for developing dry humor, rather than slapstick, to convey specific viewpoints about desirable human qualities like mutual respect, self-sacrifice, and optimism. This series should be remembered as having had a promising start at adapting ideas to viewers successfully, and might well have made pioneering steps, as did Star Trek, had it not been canceled too soon.

In 2003, when the Ronald D. Moore version debuted on Sci-Fi Channel, CNN reported how some fans of Battlestar Galactica were upset with the decision to produce an updated version. But, on all counts, the Ronald D. Moore version clearly is a far better sci-fi space adventure than the classic series.