TotalTelly.co.uk
Devoted to Popular, Cult and Retro TV
Battlestar Galactica 1980 - Complete
RRP: £15.99
Our Price: £9.48 (subject to change)
OH MY GODS!
Review date: 2008-06-01 Rating: 2 out of 10
No need for a long and deeply insightful review here. GALACTICA 1980 is quite simply the most awful piece of garbage ever broadcast on Earth. The only reason for buying this appalling trash would be to see if its fearsome legend is true; And then, once viewed, one would simply have to toss the lot into the trash where it belongs. Yes, I kid you not, it's that bad. Please believe me.
Similar Products
- Battlestar Galactica: Razor [2007]
- Mission Galactica
- Stargate - The Ark Of Truth [2008]
- Battlestar Galactica - The Complete Series [1978]
- Battlestar Galactica - The Movie [1980]
Reviews
Disappointing!
Review date: 2008-05-02 Rating: 4 out of 10
This is just not good. It lacks all of the charm and excitement of the first series. It is clearly low budget, has a weak plot and you hardly see any cylons at all!
Barry Van Dyke is good in his Apollo-like role, but without a character like Starbuck to bounce off it just doesn't work. Troy (Boxey) is just boring and expressionless. What happened to that fun loving kid in the first series? Kent McCord displays absolutely no emotion throughout the entire series (or what they made of it). Maybe the writers were planning to reveal that Boxy has actually been replaced by a cylon in a bizarre plot twist, but then it was axed so they never got the chance!!!
My advice - don't bother!!!
This is sad
Review date: 2008-04-27 Rating: 2 out of 10
Easily amongst the worst SF ever written for TV. In this list i would include the original "BSG", "war of the worlds the tv series" "buck rogers" "primevil" "the tomorrow people" you know where i'm coming from!? I am a huge sf fan brought up on Clarke, Asimov, Heinlein, Niven, Ellison, Blish, Aldiss etc so compared to these guys visions this stuff is truly crap. Do yourself A FAVOR don't buy this but get hold of the new BSG series or a decent sf novel by any of the above authors instead.
Battlestar Galactica 1980
Review date: 2008-03-04 Rating: 6 out of 10
This series is ultimately for those who watched the series when they were in there childhood and want to re-live that memory. It is also for those who want a complete collection of the orginal Battlestar franchise. It is not for those who think they are going to get a repeat of the first series as it lacks pretty much everything the first series made it famous for. There are very few battles with the cylons and when there are they are not great. This is because of the interfering studio bosses who cut the budget and tried to make it 'educational'. When they were told Dirk Benedict was apparently unavailable at the time, and Richard Hatch didn't want to be connected with the series they should have cancelled the show full stop because they are the cast who the fans wanted to see back. But after a quick, cheap re-think it was decided the series would take place twenty years after the end of the original series rather than five, and that Boxey would take Apollo's role, while "Lt. Dillon" would take over the Starbuck part. President Baltar was written out entirely, and Xavier was created to take up his role as resident bad guy. However, the series was still watched by many and it was going somewhere until they cancelled it. Even the last episode with Dirk Benedict is poor. This is previous footage which was shot for the orginal series but never made it for the final cut so why would it be acceptable for the failing series? Neither orginal actors wanted anything to do with this new series as it had gone away from what the orginal was about. So overall, buy it if your an old fan like me or not at all because to be honest, it's not that great.
"We have at last reached Earth."
Review date: 2008-03-03 Rating: 8 out of 10
Galactica 1980 is one of those curious anomalies in the Battlestar universe in that nearly all fans choose to completely ignore it from the continuity and it has not been included in any of the comics, graphic novels or books published since the 70's. That said, it's really not as bad as people make it out to be and there are some genuinely good moments in the series.
The main arc of the story is set 20 years after the end of the original Battlestar Galactica series. Adama has finally led the Galactica and her fleet to Earth with the help of Doctor Zee, a child with a highly developed mind and consciousness who was born of a colonial warrior and a seraph (see episode 10) and sent to them years ago.
However, their discovery heralds a darker problem - Doctor Zee warns Adama that they cannot land on Earth. Arriving in the year 1980, Earth and it's people are in no fit state to help the Galactica or to defend themselves from the Cylon empire. With the Cylons closing in on the Galactica, the fleet will have to leave and draw their enemy away from the 13th tribe.
They send down covert teams to explore Earth and to make contact with the inhabitants, with the intention of slowly helping Earth's scientists with present day problems. There are those among the council who believe that they should change Earth by whatever means necessary and seek to employ drastic methods to alter technology and history.
One of the teams sent to North America is Troy, a grown up Boxey, and Dillon. They have problems on their first assignment, especially with blending in, understanding humans and trying to remain inconspicuous, often with humorous results. Their missions are further complicated by the actions of renegade council member Xavier.
Out of the ten episodes there are three that stand head and shoulders above the rest. The two part `The Night The Cylons Landed' is a great story when a new Cylon Raider and the next generation of Cylons crash land on Earth. They Cylons are now building machines that look like humans - an idea which is key to the new series. With one Cylon and one Centurion loose on Earth on Halloween (when else!) we get a great story with some funny one-liners from the cast.
The final episode `The Return Of Starbuck' is arguably the best of the bunch and explains what happened to our favourite loveable rogue when his viper is shot down in battle stranding him on a desert planet. He finds the wreck of a Cylon Raider and rebuilds one of the Centurions in an effort to stave off going crazy by himself. There are some truly comical moments in this one, teaching the Cylon Pyramid, how humans give birth and the talks about the need for female companionship.
Adama, Boomer and Starbuck are the only three of the original series cast to feature in the show as the focus is primarily on Troy and Dillon. Troy is played by Kent McCord (who has been in numerous sci-fi shows) and Dillion is played by Barry Van Dyke (yes, that guy who is also in Diagnosis Murder!) and the interplay between them is similar to the Apollo / Starbuck relationship of the original series. Their slow adaptation to life on Earth leads to some funny moments and their views on what we are like as a species allowed the episodes to make commentary on current events like nuclear power, pollution and health care.
They only made ten episodes, mainly multi-part stories so you only get six adventures in total. Alas, the series suffers from aiming the show at a child audience rather than maintaining the standards of the first series and trying to keep the loyal fan base they had established. They also employed several rather more far-fetched scenarios which had never been required in the Battlestar universe such as time travel, cloaking devices and everyone remembers the flying motorcycles. While they assist the plot in certain areas they also hinder it badly in others.
The set is released on 2 discs but has no extras at all, just the ten episodes.
So, all in all, not a bad piece of 80's nostalgia but definitely one for true completists only. Launch when ready!
Product Details/Specifications
Actor(s):
Lorne Greene
Kent McCord
Robyn Douglass
Herb Jefferson
Barry Van Dyke
Recording label: Universal Pictures UK
Manufacturer: Universal Pictures UK
EAN: 5050582534511
Binding: DVD
Number of items: 2
Format: PAL,
Release date: 2008-02-18
Audience rating: Parental Guidance
Region code: 2
Running time: 463 minutes
Theatrical release date: 1980