STACK #121 Nov 2015

DVD&BD

FEATURE

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It’s been 36 years since humankind first went to war with the Cylons, in the 1978 television series Battlestar Galactica . A stunning re-imagination in 2003 was followed by four seasons and several telemovies, and now the complete series – the old and the new – has been assembled into the ultimate Blu-ray collection. If you’re new to BSG (where have you been?), this is what you need to know…

Richard Hatch played Captain Apollo in the original 1978 series of Battlestar Galactica . And much to his surprise, he was also given the opportunity to play a recurring character in the 2004 reboot – former terrorist turned political activist Tom Zarek. ”I was obviously involved in the original, and I was also asked to write the novels and the comic books for Maximum Press,” says Hatch of his relationship with BSG. “But when you have a story that’s political, sociological and says something about the human condition, it’s like a dream come true.” Hatch’s return to the Galactica universe initially got off to a frosty start, however. “There was cold ice in the room after I saw some of the early trailers,” he admits. “It was so different. They’d changed it so much it was hard to look at objectively – Starbuck [originally played by Dirk Benedict] was a woman!” But new series writer and producer Ronald D. Moore managed to win over Hatch with storylines that had “the original, core Battlestar feel”. “Knowing Ron’s vision, I knew it was going to be something more than just entertainment – it had a lot to say about the world post 9/11. So I said ‘yes, if it could be a win-win situation, I would love to be involved’.” With Moore at the helm, Universal allowed the new Battlestar Galactica the freedom to explore stories related to the life and death experience of surviving a holocaust – something that Hatch felt was missing from the original series. “30 years ago they left us in the middle ground, because the networks and studios were afraid of sci-fi in general, and more afraid of alienating the audience,” he explains. “This time we were able to go into more powerful directions for the core story.”

Fleeing from the Cylon tyranny, the last Battlestar, Galactica , leads a rag-tag fugitive fleet on a lonely quest for a shining planet known as Earth. Star Lorne Greene’s narration (above) succinctly sums up the gist of Glen A. Larson’s sci-fi series, launched in the wake of Star Wars mania. Following the destruction of the Twelve Colonies of Man (named after the signs of the zodiac: Caprica, Gemenon, Sagittaron…), the Galactica , under the command of Adama (Lorne Greene), engaged in weekly skirmishes with the robotic Cylons, their lizard-like Imperious Leader, and the human

traitor Baltar (John Colicos). There was no shortage of aerial dogfights between the X-wing-like Colonial Vipers – piloted by hotshot flyboys like Apollo (Richard Hatch), Starbuck (Dirk Benedict) and Boomer (Herb Jefferson Jr.) – and the Cylon fleet, while a robot dog (or Daggit) named Muffit kept younger viewers entertained. Battlestar Galactica ran for 24 episodes, several of which were edited into pair of feature films – Battlestar Galactica (1978) and Mission Galactica: The Cylon Attack (1979) – released theatrically in cinema-shaking ‘Sensurround’. Despite strong ratings, the show was cancelled prior to the Galactica and its tag-along civilian fleet actually reaching Earth – a casualty of counter-programming by rival networks in the same timeslot.

BSG returned in 1980, the result of a campaign launched by outraged fans and more tragically, the suicide of 15-year-old Edward Seidel – a Minnesota boy who simply couldn’t live without his favourite television show. Galactica 1980 was more a spin-off series than a direct continuation, retaining key cast members Lorne Greene and Herb Jefferson Jr. and introducing new heroes Captain Troy (Kent McCord) and Lt. Dillon (Barry Van Dyke). Having finally reached Earth during the 1980s, Troy and Dillon infiltrate the population in order to advance technology in the event of a Cylon attack. Ultimately the show failed to find an audience and was cancelled after 10 episodes, the last of which featured the return of Starbuck. Galactica 1980 was subsequently absorbed into the original Battlestar Galactica series for syndication. And as with the original, a trio of episodes were edited together for a theatrical feature, titled Conquest of the Earth (1980).

NOVEMBER 2014 JB Hi-Fi www.jbhifi.com.au

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