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After centuries of conflict, peace has been brokered between humankind and the robot-like Cylons - so the day of the signing of the treaty should be perfect for space cadet Zac's (Rick Springfield) first patrol flight - and together with his brother Captain Apollo (Richard Hatch) as well. But then, Zac and Apollo detect a nest of Cylon battleships, hidden away from human radar, and they shoot down Zac's ship while Apollo makes it back to his homebase, Battlestar Galactica and warns everybody. But when the Galactica's Commander Adama (Lorne Greene) - incidently Apollo and Zac's father - reports this to President Adar (Lew Ayres), who's about to sign the treaty, he suppresses the information to not endanger the peace process - with the result that out of the blue the Cylons attack and shoot down all the battlestars safe for the Galactica, which came prepared, then attack all the human homeworlds, pretty much committing genocide. As a result, only a few thousand humans survive, and in all sorts of space vessels, they follow the Galactica, which also acts as their protector, to a fabled human colony called earth, even if information how to get there are hazy. Among the human fugitives, Sire Uri (Ray Milland) soon plays a significant part, especially while he opposes pretty much all of Adama's unpopular but necessary decisions - which eventually leads to the dangerous decision to lead the Galactica's convoy through a minefield in space to a little mining colony. Galactica's star pilots Apollo, Starbuck (Dirk Benedict) and Boomer (Herbert Jefferson jr) pilot three fighter ships through the minefield and successfully destroy all the mines to ultimately land on a planet that seems like paradise, housing a casino where everybody wins and entertainment is pretty much limitless - in a word something that sounds too good to not be a trap. And yet, Sire Uri wants to honour Apollo, Starbuck and Boomer in a ceremony on the planet and at the ceremony promote his plan to totally disarm and surrender to the Cylons. However, Adama smells treachery and has secretly station all fighter ships on the planet. And of course, before long there are two big reveals: For one, the natives of the planet actually feed on the humans they attract with their casino, and they're in league with the Cylons as well, with one of their battlestars hidden just behind the planet. Of course, the Cylons attack, but are caught by surprise by the fighter ships that attack them from behind. Soon, all the Cylon fighters are destroyed or take flight while Apollo and Starbuck go on a mission to force the Cylon battlestar to crash into the planet, which blows up the whole planet in return ...

Now the concept of the last of humankind searching for a planet to start afresh sure is a promising one, and on some levels, this pilot sure succeeds: The special effects are pretty good for 1978, and TV, too, the Cylons are plenty scary, there's plenty of action, and the thing's well-enough structured to keep one's attention throughout. Thing is, not counting structure, the actual writing is rather sub-par: The characters uniformly lack depth and really don't feel too much like "characters" at all but like generic TV series cut-outs that one could really throw into whatever series of whatever genre without changing them one bit. Likewise the situations they get in when they're not concerning the bigger picture seem totally generic, seen in any number of other shows all across the genre-board. And much of the dialogue feels stilted, too, but without any hint of originality. That said, the concept alone is still strong enough to carry this pilot, making it a fun romp, but once the series went weekly the deficits began to show more and more.

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

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