BATTLESTAR GALACTICA: THE COMPLETE EPIC SERIES - No, the other one.

Since I seem to be stuck in the 1970's for this months reviews, I thought I'd put another old classic from my youth under the spotlight: Battlestar Galactica.

For those of you who don't know the premise (all three of you), let me cut and paste from the opening, read by the always excellent Patrick Macnee:

There are those who believe that life here began out there... Far across the universe... With tribes of humans who may have been the forefathers of the Egyptians. . . or the Toltecs. . . or the Mayans. . . that they may have been the architects of the great pyramids... or the lost civilizations of Lemuria... or Atlantis... Some believe that there may yet be brothers of man who even now fight to survive... far, far away amongst the stars. . . .

The series opens with the Twelve Colonies of Man and the chrome plated baddies, the Cylons, on the verge of signing a peace treaty. But treachery is afoot as the sinister Baltar (played deliciously over the top by the great John Colicos) has set up the humans to be wiped out once and for all. As the peace treaty is signed, a massive Cylon sneak attack devastates the human fleet and lays waste to the colonies.

However the job isn't quite done yet - one lone Battlestar survives, the Galactica, under the command of Adama (played by Mr Alpo himself, Lorne Greene).

And so the series goes - with their home planets destroyed, the survivors of the Twelve Colonies set out to find the legendary thirteenth colony - a mysterious planet known as Earth. The Cylons of course, now led by Baltar, will not rest until all humans have been (to steal a phase from another race of robotic space baddies) exterminated.

And contrary to popular belief, Galactica was not a response to overwhelming success of Star Wars. Glen Larson had been shopping the premise around for quite some time before George and his movie hit it big. Galactica was picked up, however, thanks to the Science Fiction hungry studios grabbing up everything they could in the post Wars tidal wave.

You have to hand it to the series. Despite whatever perceived flaws you may think of it, you have to admit that the show is really ambitious and epic. If nothing else, it's big and bold and was nothing like what we've seen on broadcast TV at the time. The problem is - much like when the early Doctor Who got ambitious and daring - their vision occasionally overshoots their abilities and resources.

While Galactica had a massive budget by television standards, the budget was puny compared to your standard Hollywood science fiction budget. Realizing star wars quality special effects on a television budget (and time table) was a mighty task indeed - which lead to the heavy use of stock footage. John Dykstra manages to do some really good work, and a shot of a Viper swooping through an explosion of a Cylon raider looks really cool the first time you see it, but considerably less so the fifth time around.

Despite this, the set design, costumes and overall production of the series looks really nice. The production design also really sells the Chariots of the Gods, a book written in 1968 by Erich von Daniken that puts forth the hypothesis that many ancient civilizations' technologies and religion were given to them by space travelers who were welcomed as gods. The uniforms and Egyptian inspired flight helmets are just a few of the design elements that are totally successful.

Okay, the production design is VERY firmly stuck in the seventies. Starbuck and Apollo sport Man-Perms, the costumes tend to lean towards metallic-looking fabrics, and we get regular excursions to the Space Disco, complete with tacky rope lights that the dancers swing and cavort about with on the dance floor. All we needed was a Space Indian, Space Construction Worker and a Space Seaman and we've have been all set!

As far as storylines go, everyone claims that Galactica ripped off Star Wars - but Glen Larson and his team show that they are willing to steal from everywhere. We get the Guns of Navarone (in space), High Noon (in space), the Towering Inferno (in space) and Lord of the Flies (in space) - just to name a few. Eventually the show shakes the "Cylons versus Humans" storyline and settles down with some good old fashion space adventure with Nazis and lost civilizations and some human on human intrigue (with the occasional "Hey, the Cylons are still after us!" story from time to time).

Being that the Galactica has a huge fleet of refugee ships in tow, this makes it easy to supplement our usual cast of characters with all kinds of guest stars. We get greats like Patrick Macnee, Lloyd Bridges, Lew Ayres, the luscious Jane Seymour, Ray Milland, Fred Astaire (who does no dancing) and Ray Bolger (who does some brief goofy robotic dancing). In fact, I'd say that this would be the highest concentration of guest stars you'll find until we got the Love Boat and Fantasy Island a couple of seasons later.

The regular cast is great too. Lorne Greene as Adama is the fatherly figure to the fleet but with a sense of real badassed-ness bubbling just underneath. John Colicos manages to single-handedly make the series completely non-kosher, thanks to the huge helpings of ham that he serves up with every moment of screen time - oh, but it's very tasty ham. We see Dirk Benidict lay the groundwork for his time on the A-Team here with Starbuck and Richard Hatch (the not-gay one) is likeable as Apollo.

Don't let me give you the wrong impression - the show does have it's flaws too. Episodes like The Young Lords where Starbuck crash lands on an medieval-ish planet where a group of children are being threatened by a battalion of Cylons is not one of the series' high points.

Sadly Battlestar Galactica lasted only one season (well, a season and a revival). While the show managed to consistently perform well in it's time slot, the production costs weighed in at over a million bucks an episode and ABC pulled the plug and retooled the series the next season with Galactica 1980.

Oi vay - what a way to go.

THE DVD -
Considering the age of the show, Battlestar Galactica looks fantastic - far better than anything we've seen on television. Occasionally we do get print damage - specks scratches and whatnot - but these are usually during the effects and model sequences.

THE EXTRAS -
Holy smokes - brace yourself, gentle readers. We get a TON of stuff! First - nearly every episode has some deleted scenes, bloopers, alternate takes or alternate angles. The footage is often unfinished, with no ADR, no sound effects or music - so the video and audio quality is all over the map. Still, it's nice to see Universal diving deep into the vaults for some never before seen stuff.

Then we get two and a half hours of commentary on the series pilot Saga of a Star World. Sitting in, we get Richard and Dirk of course and Herb Jefferson, Jr. It's not the most informative track I've ever heard, but its fun to listen to some old friends chat and chew the fat.

There's a handful of short documentaries, where Glen Larson talks about the Chariots of the Gods inspiration and influence, an interview with Stu Phillips about scoring the series and the headaches involved. There's a brief look at the problems of filming the Cylons, a segment on how Muffitt the Dagget worked and a really extensive Photo Gallery. And then we get the forty-five minute documentary with interviews from pretty much everyone on the show that is still alive Hatch, Benedict, Jefferson, Terry Carter, Noah Hathaway, Laurette Spang, Anne Lockhart, Patrick Macnee and Lance Le Galt all get some face time. It's more information that one man can possibly stand!

Rounding out the disc are a couple of cross promotion items - a five minute preview of the really dreadful Galactica Game for the PS2/Xbox and a two minute promo for the really, really dreadful Galactica remake.

THE BOTTOM LINE -
Is it kind of cheesy? Yeah - but then, that's the seventies for you. Does it have problems? Yeah, the recycled special effects and occasionally dud episode are evident. But despite that, Battlestar Galactica has heart and warmth and a sense of mythology and otherworldly-ness that holds a viewer's attention (and that the remake seems to have forgotten all about). Perhaps it's the rose tinted glasses of youth, but the series stands up well, even today.