Movies - Battlestar Galactica

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	Movies - Battlestar Galactica

Battlestar Galactica is a franchise of American science fiction films and television series, the first of which was produced in 1978. There are also a series of book adaptations, original novels, comic books, and video games that have been based on the concept.

All of the Battlestar Galactica productions share the same general premise. In a distant part of the galaxy, there exists a civilization of humans who live on planets known as the Twelve Colonies. The Colonies have long been at peace with a cybernetic race known as the Cylons, but with the cooperation of a human collaborator named Baltar, the Cylons launch a sudden, coordinated, and unprovoked attack on the Colonies, laying waste to the planets and devastating their populations. The last few thousands of human survivors flee into space aboard any spacecraft they can reach. Of all the Colonial Fleet, the Battlestar Galactica appears to be the only ship which survived the attack. Under the leadership of the 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.

The title is sometimes formatted with a colon as Battlestar: Galactica, but it is more commonly seen without.

Battlestar Galactica (1978)

Glen A. Larson, the Executive Producer of Battlestar Galactica, has stated in interviews that he originally conceived of the Galactica premise in the late 1960's, 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 Episode IV: A New Hope. In fact, 20th Century Fox sued Universal Studios (the studio behind Battlestar Galactica) for plagiarism, 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, Battlestar Galactica was envisioned by Larson as a series of made-for-TV movies (a three-hour pilot and two two-hour episodes) for the ABC television network. The three-hour pilot was released in theaters, 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 (or it could be the later 4052) graphics computer system is shown.

The original film

The three-hour-long pilot episode starred Lorne Greene, Richard Hatch and Dirk Benedict. To defray costs, the pilot was recut as a theatrical release which played in Canada, Europe and Japan. Opening on July 7, 1978, the theatrical release did quite well given modest expectations. It was first broadcast on ABC on September 17, 1978.

The original series

During the eight months after the three-hour pilot episode aired, 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.

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 weekly series failed to deliver and Galactica 1980 was unceremoniously cancelled after only ten episodes.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Battlestar Galactica ]

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Movies - Battlestar Galactica

Battlestar Galactica (1978)

The original film

The original series

Galactica 1980

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