Merrick here...


On a Sunday evening thirty years ago today, BATTLESTAR GALACTICA premiered on ABC.

Opening "somewhere beyond the heavens", the series dramatized a genocidal attack on twelve human homeworlds by "Cylon" aggressors. The human survivors gather a "rag tag" space fleet, and begin an exodus towards Earth...where they believe they'll find long lost brethren.

The series ran for 24 episodes before being canned by the network. Wobbly ratings and, above all, cost overruns during production made a second season undesirable to The Powers That Be.

Had a second season been put into play, many changes would've been brought to the show - most notably the appointment of Isaac Asimov as the show's creative consultant. More information about the directions a second season might have headed can be found HERE.

The last sequence of the original series was set in one of the Galactica's celestial observation domes...where an Apollo 11 transmission telling us "The Eagle has landed" is received, unnoticed by the Battlestar's crew. This would (somewhat inadvertently) portend the coming of GALACTICA: 1980, a subsequent rethink/relaunch of the concept by original series creator Glen A. Larson and ABC.

In GALACTICA: 1980, the "rag tag" fleet finds Earth, and immediately encounters a shit load of dicey scripts. Intriguingly, the underlying premise driving G: 1980 didn't altogether suck: the Galacticans find Earth, but are shocked to learn that us Earthlings are nowhere near as developed/advanced as they thought we'd be. This is quite a problem given that the the Cylons have followed them here, and are still bent on destroying all humans.

G: 1980 offered flashes of conceptual smarts that were never supported by the series' overall vibe, style, or budget. For example, one intriguing conceit found the Galacticans considering time travel to seed higher technologies into our past...thus altering our timeline & forcibly evolving Terran tech to a point where we might feasibly fend off the bad guys in our reinvented present. Kind of cool, but underplayed and shoddily executed. G: 1980 is mostly remembered for appearances by Wolfman Jack and MEGAFORCE-like flying motorcycles.

Over the decades, various relaunches were attempted, including a Tom DeSanto produced continuation that Bryan Singer was set to direct (details and designs HERE). This spun apart in the wake of 9/11, which caused shifting schedules that made viability wain.

Original series star Richard Hatch also made a noble run at revitalizing the franchise (more details HERE) with BATTLESTAR GALACTICA: THE SECOND COMING, a lavish, effects-filled trailer he hoped would galvanize a direct continuation of the original series. Despite his best, impassioned efforts, THE SECOND COMING never happened. Although, Hatch was later cast as Tom Zarek, major and recurring character in...

The Sci Fi Channel's BATTLESTAR GALACTICA - a spectacular, bold, and often peculiar reimaging of many of Glen Larson's conceits, masterminded by Ronald D. Moore and David Eick. Currently at (roughly) the mid point break of its fourth and final season, BG will conclude its run sometime next year. CAPRICA, a spin-off TV movie prequel & backdoor pilot, has already been shot - and a companion movie set parallel to the Eick/Moore series is in production. Further stand alone films may follow.

People often knock around the original series...sometimes justifiably so. Although, personally, I have a very warm place in my heart for it. As misguided as it often was, I find myself inexorably drawn to its spirit and spirituality, both of which are interpreted quite differently in the franchise's current iteration.

And, I'm sure simple nostalgia plays no small part in my affection for GALACTICAs both old and new. I remember the kid I was back in '78. I remember the excited chatter in my school's lunch room on September 18th, the day after the premiere. Kids were talking about how cool it was that some space fighter explosions folded in on themselves - "I guess it has something to do with vacuums and decomprssion and stuff" they postulated while eating Cheetos. It was awesome that some of the ships could fly through the debris clouds of disintegrating enemy craft, which made it "way cooler than STAR WARS". It was magical that the laser hand guns emitted a really pretty star burst/pulse effect instead of a regular old ray beam. But all of this is the stiuff starry-eyed kids love. Clearly the show offered more than 'zip-pop-bang', or it would never have endured. Oh, even then, everybody hated Muffy the Daggit. It seems some things never change.

Most of all, I remember the red-faced jealously of the kid who sat across the lunch table from me when he saw the BATTLESTAR GALACTICA lunchbox my mom had bought for me as a surprise. Funny how such small, cosmically insignificant moments resonate through so many years.

That kid's name was Paul. He had red hair and freckles, and sometimes I wonder what happened to him. And often I wonder where I put that lunch box...