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Some 30 years after the events depicted in Battlestar Galactica, the Galactica has finally made it to earth - earth 1980 to be precise -, but the lead scientist of the Galactica, child prodigy Dr. Zee (Robbie Rist), is quick to find out that defense systems on earth have not yet developed to a degree that the planet would withstand a Zylon attack. So Commander Adama (Lorne Greene) sends down survey teams to help earth's leading scientists to help advance technology sufficiently before it can be safe for the Galactica to actually land. Among the survey teams are top Viper pilots Troy  (Kent McCord - an all grown-up Boxey from the earlier series) and Dillon (Barry Van Dyke), who are to meet nuclear scientist Dr. Mortinson (Robert Reed) and give him some pointers. Now this goes somehow haywire as even though Mortinson acknowledges their superior knowledge, they're suddenly taken for terrorists wanting to take the scientist hostage, and somehow reporter Jamie Hamilton (Robyn Douglass) also gets thrown into the mix, and when Troy and Dillon are called back to the Galactica, Jamie just tags along. Turns out Commander Xaviar (Richard Lynch) has since their departure decided to take things into his own hands and has travelled back to 1944 to supply the Nazis with superior weaponry as they were the most weapon hungry civilisation of their time. But, as Jamie points out, arming the Nazis with superior weapons would have dire consequences for the future of the planet. So she, Troy and Dillon go back to ultimately be drawn into the conflict when they save an parachuting American spy (Christopher Stone) from being captured by the Nazis, save a Jewish girl, then a whole waggonload of Jews from being deported to a concentration camp, and ultimately shoot down Xaviar's missile just when he's demonstrating its efficiency to the Nazis. Then Troy and Dillon and Jamie travel back to 1980 to meet up with Dr. Mortinson again, but they're now wanted terrorists, so that leads to some to-and-fro, but ultimately the scientist gets the pointers he needs - and now the last problem for them is to get their Vipers back that have since been found by a boy (Adam Farrar) and impounded by the military. But of course with our heroes superior technology, as well as their invisibility devices, they manage to steal their Vipers back right under the military's noses. Happy ending - apart from the fact that Xaviar has since taken off into a different part of the past to arm some other villains, a narrative thread that's ... never picked up again.

Now in its original run, Battlestar Galactica was one of the costliest series on TV due to its heavy reliance on special effects, fancy sets and the like, and since despite high popularity it didn't become the ratings juggernaut everyone had hoped, it was cancelled after one season. But a massive write-in campaign by loyal fans made the powers-that-be at ABC decide to give the series another shot after all - if it can largely be set on present-day earth. Now unfortunately, due to a variety of reasons, of the original's cast only Lorne Greene and Herbert Jefferson jr in their roles of Adama and Boomer (the latter playing a neglectable role only though), and little reference is made to the fate of the earlier show's ensemble of characters - which brings us to this episode (or rather three-parter), that already seems to be a good indicator to where things are going: Troy and Dillon (as Apollo and Starbuck surrogates) as often misunderstood do-gooders whose fish-out-of-water predicament not only leads to lots of trouble but also some comical moments, but in the end, also with the help of some trickery (and the advice of Jamie), they save the day. Now that formula is already wearing a tad thin in the opening three-parter that despite undoubtedly having its moments is a bit on the repetitive side and lags a bit. Ok TV science fiction entertainment to be sure, but definitely a step down from the already very uneven original Battlestar Galactica.

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

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