Five Reasons I Love "Battlestar Galactica 1978"

On Feburary 7th of this year, Richard Hatch, the actor who portrayed Captain Apollo in the 1978 Space Opera series Battlestar Galactica, passed away. I loved this show growing up, and I am forever sad that they never finished the story (no, none the reboots count because they messed up everything).

I finally got around to re-watching Saga of a Star World, the three part opening story arc of the show. I was reminded again of some of the many reasons that I love this Space Opera.

Here are five of those reasons listed below:

5. The Costume Design

For some odd reason costume design is an important aspect of a film to me. Maybe because I always felt contemporary America has such a poor fashion sense? I think it goes back to being wowed in my childhood by Cecil B. Demille's The Ten Commandments and the stunning visual picture he painted (maybe this also explains my affinity for silent films). Whatever the source, I absolutely love the costume design for Battlestar Galactica 1978. Even the impractical design of the Cylons. Who cares if there lumbering and noisy, they're awesome.

4. Laurette Spang/ Cassiopeia

Okay guys, I have confession to make. I had one (just one) screen crush growing up (and maybe I still do, but I decline to incriminate myself) and that was Laurette Spang's Cassiopeia. I think I enjoyed how she managed to be independent without being a feminist jerk or anything. She also had a sense of humor and fun that her rival Athena just never came close to matching. Oh and yeah, I thought she was pretty. I guess I should include that.

3. Lorne Green

I grew up watching westerns like Bonanza. I actually wanted to watch Battlestar Galactica when I realized Lorne Green was in the cast. Space show + Lorne Green? Yes please.

Green's Commander Adama is hands down one of my favorite characters from a TV show. He is strong, but tired of the burden he carries. He wants peace but the real peace not some fake peace that requires the humans to surrender themselves into the mercy of the Cylons.

2. The premise

The whole premise of the show is fascinating. Twelve tribes of humans fleeing genocidal (yes genocide, not tyranny contra what Commander Adama says at the end of each episode) robot killing machines? Oh yeah. Not only does it provide action, it provides a compelling story arc of a people, a race, seeking to survive. They have their differences but a common goal binds them and drives them onward toward the thirteenth colony.

1. The Ethos

Battlestar Galactica was the product of Glen A. Larson, a Mormon. While that should give cause for concern, the show still has religious ethos that is general enough to encompass Christianity but exclusive enough to not include general spiritualism. There is a concreteness to the faith of the colonials. They have a book that guides them, they have a high value of human life (which is probably why today's pc culture doesn't share my enthusiasm for the show). They have a strong culture of respecting the past and seeing something beyond themselves.

It's also a clear bad guy/ good guy situation that also drives one to consider the conflict of man versus the machine. This theme has been the subject of science fiction since the days of Jules Verne but classics such as Metropolis (1927) and Star Wars also grapple with this issue. In Battlestar Galactica it's not that the machines are inherently a bad idea (e.g. the ship itself) but that when machines try to replaces humans there is a line to be drawn.

Apollo summaries this idea in Saga of a Star World when he tells Boxy that the Cylons borrow the human build but are stronger and think faster. Humans? Humans are spontaneous and unpredictable which, "is about all we've got."

So there you have it, five reasons I love Battlestar Galactica 1978. If you have never watched this classic show, go do so. Sure it has its cheesy moments and there are episodes some of us wish never happened or character we would have been happy without (*cough* Muffet *cough*).

But it's worth it. Let the character's steal your heart and you'll love this old show.