G80-01: Galactica Finds Earth

[Flamingo Girl]

Series stars: Lorne Greene, Kent McCord, Barry Van Dyke, Robyn Douglass, Richard Lynch, Robbie Rist, Richard Eastman, Vernan Weddle, Herbert Jefferson Jr.

Guest stars: Robert Reed, Pamela Susan Shoop, Sharon Acker, Fred Holliday, Christopher Stone, Albert Paulson, Louis Yurenne, Michael Strong, David Moses, Brian James, Mickey Jones, Duncan McKenzie, Douglas Bruce, Ted Ghering, Curt Lowens, James R Parkes, Adam Starr

Despite having finally reached their goal of finding the planet Earth, there is nothing to celebrate, as Dr. Zee informs Adama that the planet is too primitive to provide any real help against the Cylons, and they have in fact led their ememies to the last remaining outpost of human life.
Individual teams of two warriors are sent to the surface to seek out scientists who can help them introduce the technology, to bring them up to a level where they will be able to assist in the destruction of the Cylons. Troy and Dillon are assigned to the United States to search out Dr. Mortensen. They encounter Jamie Hamilton who helps them out, and who they accept more help from than she expected. They find Dr. Mortensen amid a crowd of protesters, giving them their first opportunity to introduce their technology to Earth.
Meanwhile, there is contention on the Galactica, Comander Xavier decides the best way to solve the problem is to use the “Time Warp Synthesizer” to introduce Galactica’s technology into Earth’s past, despite Adama’s refusal. Troy, Dillon, and Jamie travel back to Germany during the second World War to stop Xaviar and bring him back to the Galactica. They get help from an American spy, and succesfully sabotage Xavier’s plan to help the Nazis, but loose Xavier to another time warp.

[shiningstar]

I watched the Galactica1980 ........I was bored to tears.
Really. While Lorne Greene's acting was flawless ......
Nothing could save the script.

[launchcruiser7]

hoped and prayed for more battlestar this is what they seved watched again worst then thougt how did boomer stay alive and no one else still looking for the lost tribe warstar cerbesus out here

[Eric Paddon]

For as long as I live I will never forget or forgive ABC's blatantly misleading promos for the debut of this, and my naive 11 year old mind was thinking, "Horray, it's back and they're going to pick up where they left off!"

The next day at recess in school, there were plenty of us wandering about like zombies wondering, "What the hell was *that* we watched last night?"

Richard and Dirk where in the show?
with out Dr Zee?
the Cylons found earth before the Colonials?
troy and Dillen where ate by the "Hair Bear Bunch" and 'Yogi Bear'?
Mike Brady was still doing "The Brady Bunch Hour"?

24 hours a day in hell this is whats on

Portraying earth as weak was a serious dramatic mistake. They should have set this episode a few hundred years in the future.

[Eric Paddon]

Originally Posted by Thomasbombadil

Portraying earth as weak was a serious dramatic mistake. They should have set this episode a few hundred years in the future.

Not to mention that the whole setup of them discovering Earth in 1980 thirty yahrens after the original blatantly contradicts the very last episode of Galactica that had aired ("Hand Of God")

[Senmut]

Uhhh...the signal fell through a time warp???

What SHOULD have been: the radio signal had already been traveling through space for 200 or 300 years. THEN it took them another 20 to get to earth. But subtracting 20 years from 1980 gets you to 9 years before the Eagle landed. Another example of the writers just simply ignoring basic science.

how can I get these shows,are they on video?

[Hip Priest]

Originally Posted by default

24 hours a day in hell this is whats on

This is the best review I have ever read, for anything. Thank you for making me laugh, anonymous guest.

[kingfish]

Originally Posted by originalsinner

Richard and Dirk where in the show?
with out Dr Zee?
the Cylons found earth before the Colonials?
troy and Dillen where ate by the "Hair Bear Bunch" and 'Yogi Bear'?
Mike Brady was still doing "The Brady Bunch Hour"?

Good point about Richard and Dirk. There was an early draft with both in 1980:

https://s4.invisionfree.com/Battlesta...topic=155&st=0




However their contracts expired.

[Eric Paddon]

Not only their contracts, but the rest of the Galactica cast as well, which is why the scenario was different from a show like "Remington Steele" where Pierce Brosnan had to come back when NBC got second thoughts months after cancelling it. Richard and Dirk were then offered it, and having control over their choice of roles by then, turned it down.

[Senmut]

Wisely.

[luicfer7thfleet]

richard lynch was the only person to be on tos, 1980, and richards trailer as in gun on ice world,dr excaber and as count ibes in trailer also zara the reporter from the man with nine lives played mr bradys sec i think this is the only show playing 24/7 on the lowest level of hell [on christmas they play spaceballs for a treat] haha happy saint paddys day see ya [ah]

[Darrell Lawrence]

Watch the opening credits closely. Original cast is in each and every ep of BG-80

[Senmut]

Were they paid, I wonder?

[Tabitha]

I dont really know a lot about BSG80 but I did see a couple episodes. If they all lived and grew up on a space craft, and assuming that they are all normal human stock, how on Earth or off of it, would they be stronger? That being said, the Wonder Twins idea sucked. Now take the damned kids out of BSG80 and it gets a tad better. Instead of making it a WWII fixer upper, they could have made it set in the timeline more akin to Space 1999. That would have been intersting. Now consider, maybe setting it in the setting of Babylon 5. Theres an idea, that level of technology? I can think of many crossover ideas, and several just plain new ideas, Im supprised that the writers couldnt, but in the end I believe that it was basically just using the BSG name to promote a show designed to appeal to cchildren, not the older fans. Am I wrong here?

tabbi

[Darrell Lawrence]

tabbi, ABC execs were what went wrong for G-80. They put the show in the "kid's time slot" and thus it had to be "educational" or geared for children's entertainment, with children strongly represented. Hence the "Super Scouts".

Myself, I tend to put G-80 into a mirror universe- Adama's beard gives it away

[peter noble]

Originally Posted by Warrior

Myself, I tend to put G-80 into a mirror universe- Adama's beard gives it away

[Darrell Lawrence]

A few years back a video store had a copy of the conquest of earth.
A mash up of Galactica Finds Earth and the night the Cylons landed.
I borrowed it and watched it, although bad, I thought there was some
attempt at trying to make it good. Troy jumps onto Dr Mortensons computer
and finishes of an equation for atomic travel, very similar idea I think to the
original "the day the earth stood still" were Klaatu makes some corrections to
Dr Barnharts stellar mechanics equations on his black board. Imagine if G80
could be rewritten with the same tension.

All the way through out the series theres tiny snippets (only a few seconds)
of good writing/ideas and acting that makes you wonder what could've been.

Then they spoil G80 with invisibility, Dr Zee/Zed demonstrates that on a
viper, and states, "merely placed in a colour field beyond that of the human
eye." script is stuffed up further by the F-15's chasing the vipers, vipers go
invisible then the pilot says "thats impossible Russians don't have anything
that fast" if there invisible to the human eye they'd be visible by radar
Even as kids we thought that, (we were nuts on aviation and model building)

Originally Posted by Eric Paddon

The next day at recess in school, there were plenty of us wandering about like zombies wondering, "What the hell was *that* we watched last night?"

I think that was a world wide phenomenon, kids all over the world like
zombies. scratching heads "huh...."

Cheers.

[Benedict]

I watched this for the first time probably since I was a kid and on the back of a recent BSG-athon-apalooza. Just the whole thing's a mess. The terminology of the original series is half there, one moment Adama says micron than years. Barry Van Dyke. Troy. The recycled clips. I found this time round seeing the '78 clips in the opening, like Hatch et al playing triad made me nostalgic and almost like we're seeing something else. Even the attack on LA features clips from "Earthquake" (which funnily, featured Lorne Greene...)

Oh well, as Boxey once said. I've been doing episode reviews (as it were, they tend to get carried away) for a forum of nonbelievers and so far, so meh but BSG80...even I can't swing that.

Have to get around to adding my cubits to the original series episodes in short order.

[Tzigone]

I like G80. I'm not saying it's great television, but I like it. I enjoy Troy, Dillon, and Jamie. I liked Dr. Mortinson. I was a kid watching on the Sci-Fi channel when I first saw the series (early nineties?), and that may contribute. That, and that kid characters have never bothered me. This first story is the best story of G80, I think. I'd have liked to have seen Mortinson and the clean nuclear energy revisited. And with Troy, Dillon, and Jamie's pictures showing up in the newspapers, it would not have been totally out of line for Major Stockwell to show up again, as well.

[Senmut]

Well, blame the Network suits. For all it's faults, they never gave it a chance, but kept fiddling with it.

[Golddragon71]

My biggest problem was that Dillon looked more like a grown up Boxey than Troy did.
I mean, I understood the reasoning that they would make Apollo's Son have some of his father's traits (very serious about the job, short black hair natural leader etc etc....)
the problem is that Boxey was NOT Apollo's biological son. (He wasn't even Serina's if youy read the novel (and/or storybook!) Boxey was complete orphan who was unofficially adopted by Serina and then apollo after the destruction of the Colonies in SoASW.
Dillon, of Course got subsequently lumped into the Starbuck role of best friend. but he didn't come off nearly as well as Starbuck (certainly not to me anyway)
When I went back and re-watched the series again, I found myself surprised more than anything about their handling of the WWII scenario. Now we've seen a dozen series about WWII on television both before and since Battlestar, but I don't think I can recall any (around that time) that really flat-out addressed the Holocaust. I mean the Nazi's are more than commonly used on television. but mostly as just a power hungry body out to rule the world.
Of course you could draw parallels between the Colonials and the Jews regarding the attack on the Colonies/Holocaust and the Cylon/Nazi attitudes.