Battlestar Galactica
| Battlestar Galactica | |
|---|---|
| File:Galacticalogo.jpg Title card from the original Battlestar Galactica series | |
| Genre | Science fiction |
| Created by | Glen A. Larson |
| Starring | Richard Hatch Dirk Benedict Lorne Greene John Colicos Maren Jensen Noah Hathaway Jane Seymour Herb Jefferson, Jr. Tony Swartz Laurette Spang Terry Carter Ed Begley Jr. Rick Springfield Anne Lockhart David Greenan Sarah Rush |
| Original language | English |
| No. of seasons | 1 |
| No. of episodes | 21 (list of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Running time | 45 minutes per episode |
| Original release | |
| Network | ABC |
| Release | September 17, 1978 – April 29, 1979 |
Battlestar Galactica is a franchise of American science fiction films and television series, the first of which was produced in 1978. A series of book adaptations, original novels, comic books and video games have also been based on the concept.
All of the Battlestar Galactica productions share the same premise: In a distant part of the universe, a civilization of humans live on planets known as the Twelve Colonies. In the past, the Colonies have been at war with a cybernetic race known as the Cylons. With the help of a human named Baltar, the Cylons launch a sudden sneak attack on the Colonies, laying waste to the planets and devastating their populations. A few thousand of the human survivors flee into space aboard any spacecraft they can reach. Of all the Colonial Fleet, the Battlestar Galactica appears to be the only military ship that survived the attack. Under the leadership of famed military leader Commander Adama, the Battlestar Galactica and her crew take up the task of leading the ragtag fleet of survivors into space in search of a fabled refuge known as Earth.
Battlestar Galactica (1978)
Glen A. Larson, the Executive Producer of Battlestar Galactica, has stated in many interviews that he originally conceived of the Galactica premise in the late 1960s, which he originally called Adam's Ark. However, he was unable to get the project greenlit for many years.
Battlestar Galactica was finally produced in the wake of the success of the 1977 film Star Wars. In fact, 20th Century Fox sued Universal Studios (the studio behind Battlestar Galactica) for copyright infringement, claiming that it had stolen 34 distinct ideas from Star Wars. Universal promptly countersued, claiming Star Wars had stolen ideas from the 1972 film Silent Running (notably the robot "drones") and the Buck Rogers serials of the 1940s. The lawsuit was eventually dismissed in 1980.
Initially, Larson envisioned Battlestar Galactica as a series of made-for-TV movies (a three-hour pilot and two two-hour episodes) for the ABC television network. A shortened version of the three-hour pilot was released in Canadian theaters (before the series aired) and American theaters (after the series aired), and instead of two additional movies, a weekly television series followed.
As this press photo shows, Tektronix, Inc., manufacturer of test and measurement equipment (especially known for their oscilloscope product line) and computer equipment, supplied their 7000-series of oscilloscopes, TM500-series of test and measurement equipment and their 4000-series of computer graphic equipment and associated software for the show's Galactica props. The "radar" style images of Cylons attacking the battle group were Tektronix graphics displays. In the photo, a Tektronix 4051 graphics computer system is shown.
In 1979 at the 6th Annual People's Choice Awards, the series won for Best New TV Drama Series. [citation needed]
Original theatrical release
The two-hour-long film starred Lorne Greene, Richard Hatch and Dirk Benedict. To defray costs, the film was recut from the pilot episode. It played in the U.S., Canada, Europe and Japan. Airing on July 7, 1978, the episode brought in many viewers considering the modest expectations.
The original series
During the eight months after the movie was released, 17 original episodes of the series were aired (five of them two-parters), totaling 24 hours of broadcasting. Citing declining ratings and cost overruns, ABC cancelled Battlestar Galactica in April, its last episode "The Hand of God" premiering on April 29, 1979.
The second film
The Battlestar Pegasus episodes were edited together as a 1978 TV Movie entitled Mission Galactica: The Cylon Attack[2], also released as a theatrical feature in Europe and Japan.
Galactica 1980
During the autumn of 1979, ABC executives met with Galactica's creator Glen A. Larson to consider a relaunch of the series. A suitable concept would be needed to draw viewers, and it was decided that the arrival of the Colonial Fleet at contemporary Earth would be the storyline. A new television movie entitled Galactica 1980 was rushed into production. Again, it was decided this new version of Galactica would be made into a weekly series. Despite the early success of the premiere, the show failed to achieve the popularity of the original series and was cancelled after only ten episodes.
In this 1980 sequel series, the fleet finds Earth and covertly protects it from the Cylons. This series was a quick failure due to its low budget (e.g., recycling footage from the 1974 Universal Studios film Earthquake, during a Cylon attack sequence), widely-panned writing, and ill-placed time slot (Sundays at 7:00 PM, a time slot generally reserved for family-oriented programming and, more specifically, 60 Minutes). [citation needed] The show was also obligated to adhere to strict content restrictions such as limiting acts of violence and being required to shoe horn educational content into the script and dialogue. To cut costs, the show was set mostly on contemporary Earth, to the great dismay of fans. Some syndication packages for Battlestar Galactica incorporate the episodes of this series.
The third film
Several episodes of Galactica 1980 were edited together and released as a movie titled Conquest of the Earth[3] in cinemas in Europe and Australia.
Attempted Revivals
The original series maintained a cult fandom, which has supported efforts by Glen A. Larson, Richard Hatch and Bryan Singer (independent of each other) to revive the premise. Hatch even went so far as to produce a demonstration video in 1998–1999 which featured several actors from the original series combined with state-of-the-art special effects. This video, titled Battlestar Galactica: The Second Coming, was displayed at science fiction conventions but did not lead to a new series.
In 1999, Wing Commander producer Todd Moyer and original series producer Glen A. Larson revealed plans to produce a motion picture based on the television series.[1]
In 2000, the director and an executive producer of the X-Men film, Bryan Singer and Tom DeSanto, began developing a Galactica television miniseries with Studios USA for FOX. Intended to air as a backdoor pilot in May 2002, filming was scheduled to begin in November 2001.[2] However production delays caused by the September 11, 2001 attacks meant Bryan Singer had to drop out due to his directing commitments on X-Men 2. This led Fox to lose interest and redirect their attention to Joss Whedon's Firefly television series. [citation needed]
2003 re-imagining
Despite attempts to revive the series over the years, none came to fruition until it was reimagined in 2003 by Universal Television in association with Sky One and the Sci Fi Channel with Ronald D. Moore as the creative force behind it. Edward James Olmos stepped into the role of Commander Adama. A weekly new Galactica series followed, premiering on Sky One in the UK in October 2004, and on Sci-Fi in the U.S. in January 2005.
Miniseries
In December 2003, the American Sci Fi channel broadcast a three-hour miniseries that reimagined Battlestar Galactica. This miniseries was so successful that Sci-Fi opted to develop this new version of Galactica into a television series.
Television series
See also: List of Battlestar Galactica (re-imagined series) episodes
Featuring critically acclaimed veteran actors such as Edward James Olmos as Commander William Adama and Mary McDonnell as President Laura Roslin, the new series began in October 2004. Many fans of the original series were disappointed in how different in tone, style, and content the reimagined version was from its original source material. On Internet message boards, many came to refer to the show as GINO, an acronym for Galactica In Name Only. In the second season episode "Pegasus," Ronald D. Moore named one of the Cylon characters Gina as a reference to the show's nickname. [3]
The series was aired first in the UK and Ireland on Sky One, and then later in North America in January 2005. Ronald D. Moore agreed to give Sky the first showing because Sky provided the financing to shoot the first season. Unlike NBC, Sky had faith in the success of the show, mainly due to the mini-series having been a hit in the UK and Ireland. However, due to massive downloading from BitTorrent sites by North American broadband users, any further seasons will air in North America first. [citation needed]
A heavily edited [citation needed] version of the miniseries was broadcast on NBC—a corporate sibling of the U.S. Sci Fi Channel—on January 9, 2005, five days before the American debut. NBC additionally aired three selected first season episodes as a sampler, to entice new American viewers in advance of the second season premiere in July 2005. Unfortunately, the NBC-TV network showings were not as high in ratings as the producers had hoped for. The second season episode that was shown in July, 2005 was rank #115 in Neilsen Ratings out of 115 shows that week.
The series won widespread acclaim among many mainstream non sci-fi publications. Time magazine[4], Rolling Stone magazine[5] and New York Newsday[6] named it the best show on television in 2005. Other publications like The New York Times[7], The New Yorker[8] and National Review[9] also gave the show glowing reviews.
In January 2006, the second half of the second season began broadcasting in the United States, while the full season premiere ("Scattered") aired on Sky One in the UK on 10 January 2006. The second season ended on 10 March 2006 with the two-part season finale episode "Lay Down Your Burdens".
In the spring of 2006, the show was awarded a Peabody Award for its creative accomplishments.[10]
The show was renewed for a third season, and production began in April, 2006 in Vancouver. The season premiered on October 6, 2006 and then went on mid season hiatus on December 15, 2006. The show then returned on a new day and time in 2007. Sci Fi Channel has changed the show's time slot to Sundays at 10:00pm EST/PST starting on the show's mid season premier in 21 January 2007.
The third season ended on 25 March, 2007 with "Crossroads, Part 2". The Sci-Fi channel announced officially on February 13, 2007 that the series would be renewed for a fourth season.[11] The fourth season is slated to include 22 episodes, with an expected premiere in January 2008. The fourth season will be the final season for the series.[12] Battlestar Galactica: Razor, was announced to be released in November of 2007, serving as a special two hour episode event regarding the history of the Battlestar Pegasus and its crew prior to rendezvous with the Battlestar Galactica.[13]
Webisodes
The webisodes were a series of shorts produced to promote the third season of the show. They filled in some of the events between the second and third seasons and featured some of the main cast. These webisodes were made so as not to reveal what would happen in the beginning of season three. Season 3 was also set up so that missing the webisodes would not leave a viewer confused about the story.
Each of the ten webisodes was approximately 3 minutes in length, and they were released twice a week leading up to the U.S. Season 3 premiere.
Caprica
Caprica is a proposed television series described as "television's first science fiction family saga". Caprica will be set on the fictional planet Caprica around fifty years before the events depicted in the 2004 re-imagined series. The show will revolve around two families, the Adamas and the Graystones, the building of the Cylons, and the beginnings of the Cylon War. Whether this series will ultimately be produced was unclear as of May 2007. [citation needed]
Comic books
A series of comic book publishers have adapted Battlestar Galactica since its inception.
Marvel Comics published a 23-issue comic book series based upon the show between 1978 and 1981. Other comics have since been published by Maximum Press, Grandreams, Look-in Magazine, Realm Press and, currently, Dynamite Comics. Of all these series, only those by Marvel, Grandreams and Look-In actually completed their storylines and brought the story to a conclusion. All the other series were canceled at various points during their run, with no resolutions.
Both the Grandreams and Look-In comic strips take place early in the series. The other comic series based on the 1978 series have been set after the final episode of the series and ignored Galactica 1980.
The Maximum press series began with the discovery of a completely unpopulated Earth some fifteen years after the conclusion of the TV show. The look and the feel of the comics had been changed considerably from the series, to give the stories a "more nineties" feel.
The Realm Press series picked up immediately after the conclusion of the final episode of the original series in an attempt to present what they called "Season two" of the original show.
Dynamite Entertainment are currently publishing comic books featuring both the Classic and Re-Imagined Battlestar Galactica series.
Games
A Battlestar Galactica video game has been published on the Sony PlayStation 2 and Microsoft Xbox platforms. It didn't repeat the success of the series and movies. [citation needed]
Wiz Kids, Inc. (a collectible game manufacturer) produced The Battlestar Galactica collectible card game based on the 2003 mini-series and 2004 TV show. The premier set of this game was released in May 2006. After one expansion, Wizkids announced the game's cancellation on March 13, 2007.[4]
The original series inspired a Battlestar Galactica board game. The game is set during a training mission, where two to four players maneuver pieces representing Colonial Vipers in order to capture a damaged Cylon Raider. Skillful play includes using terrain elements and a number of special-ability cards to the players' advantage.
In December 2006, it was announced that Margaret Weis Productions had reached an agreement to create a Battlestar Galactica role playing game based on the re-imagined TV series. [5]
A community-created project called Beyond the Red Line released a multi-player demo, including three single-player missions. Work on the full version of the game is continuing, using the open-source FreeSpace 2 game engine. Players can participate in deathmatch-style dogfight missions, or in team-based missions, on either the side of the Colonials, or the Cylons.
Religious and mythological references
Man
As seen in the first two seasons, mankind is polytheistic, believing in multiple gods with inspiration from Greek mythology. Mankind is the descendant of the gods, or the Lords of Kobol as they're called. During mankind's Exodus from the 12 colonies looking for the mythical planet Earth, they find out that the holy scriptures are true and that that Kobol is a cursed planet, due in part to the practice of human sacrifice. Time is perceived in classical Greek fashion of cycles (in contrast to the Judeo-Chrisitian concept of linear time); All of this has happened before and all of this will happen again.
There are also parallels between the twelve Colonies and the twelve tribes of Israel in the search for the promised land and that the Exodus is a trial of faith often personified in the president Laura Roslin. She finds herself a reluctant prophetic figure whose visions help uncover the path to Earth. Her opposite, Dr. Gaius Baltar, is a scientist, and traitor who puts his own welfare ahead of that of others, even to the detriment of the entire remaining human race.
The opening theme song for seasons one, two, and three is a famous Hindu mantra, the Gayatri Mantra, taken from the Rig Veda. The words are "OM bhûr bhuvah svah tat savitur varçnyam bhargô dçvasya dhîmahi dhiyô yô nah pracôdayât", which may be translated in various ways but means approximately "may we attain that excellent glory of Savitar the God / so May he stimulate our prayers".[citation needed]
Cylon
The Cylons are monotheistic in believing in one god, this god however is not the creator. The Cylons look upon themselves as the children of mankind and see their human creators as essentially evil and want to destroy them. Thus the genocide in the beginning of the Miniseries 2003. This resembles Gnostic or dualistic faith with the view of the material creation and the creature as evil (Demiurg) and true salvation comes from a timeless God beyond the creature (personified in Christ in Christian-Gnostic belief). It also resembles the Gnostic idea whereby God's true apparation is concealed from man, not relevated in any scriptures, and can only be perceived by a chosen few in a spiritual way - as Dr. Baltar perceives, the will of the one god by Cylon Number 6 in his mind. But both man and Cylon seems to be living by divine (Judeo-Christian) commandments such as procreation, life is sacred and God is love.
Life and Death
Man seems to have a notion of joining the gods after death, Starbuck seems to favor Athena (Goddess of Knowledge) before Mars (God of War) which rules out a war cult. The Cylons don't have a childhood or die - in fact, they reincarnate with their minds born in to new adult bodies and join the collective culture where there is no room for individuality. But the few Cylons who have experienced deep love or great pain develop feelings and stand out from the collective and become more integrated with their corporeal bodies. A Cylon Number 6 named Gina (mentioned above), who was tortured and abused on the Battlestar Pegasus in the second season, tries to escape reincarnation by ending her life permanently, similar to the Hindu or Buddhist belief of ending the cycle of the material world.
Names
The twelve colonies are named after the astrological signs of the Greek zodiac; for example, Scorpia (Scorpio), Caprica (Capricorn), and Aquaria (Aquarius). Also, several of the characters in the series have names or call signs corresponding to significant characters in Greek mythology, including Apollo, Athena, and Cassiopeia. Kara's last name, Thrace, refers to a region that includes Greece, Bulgaria and Turkey. In Greek mythology this region provided a number of Greek kings (including Lycurgus, Phineas and Orpheus's father) and was known for its mercenaries.
Colonial Warriors (Galactica's Viper pilots) wear a patch on the right shoulder of their flight jackets depicting the Sri Chakra, a yantra.
See also
- Comparison of Battlestar Galactica (1978) and Battlestar Galactica (2003)
- List of Battlestar Galactica characters
- Battlestar Galactica units
- Battlestar Galactica (ship), which appears in the above works of fiction
- Battlestar Galactica (video game), the 1978 and 2003 video games
- Battlestar Galactica Collectable Card Game
- Battlestar Galactica (comic book), the various comic book adaptations.
- Battlestar Galactica terminology
References
- ^ Glen Oliver (March 16 1999). "GALACTICA Reborn ((Todd Moyer talks to Glen about the new movie, Richard Hatch press release, etc. !!!))". aintitcoolnews.com. Retrieved 2006-06-14.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|year=(help) - ^ El Cosmico (February 22 2001). "A New BATTLESTAR GALACTICA Series Is Coming!". aintitcoolnews.com. Retrieved 2006-06-14.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|year=(help) - ^ Ron. D Moore's official podcast, Episode: Pegasus, Act 2
- ^ Time Magainze Dec. 16, 2005 issue
- ^ Rolling Stone Magazine Jan. 27, 2006
- ^ New York Newsday Dec. 25, 2005
- ^ "Ron Moore's Deep Space Journey," The New York Times July 17, 2005
- ^ "Across the Universe," The New Yorker Jan. 23, 2006
- ^ "Starborn Society," The National Review Jan. 20, 2006
- ^ The Peabody Awards press release Apr. 5, 2006
- ^ SciFi Wire 14Feb2007
- ^ [1]
- ^ SciFi Wire 22Mar2007
External links
- Official site
- Battlestar Galactica (pilot movie) at IMDb
- Battlestar Galactica (1978 series) at IMDb
- Battlestar Wiki
- Battlestar Galactica Hub
- BattlestarGalactica.com - Richard Hatch's Battlestar Galactica site
