by Andrew Marshall
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Battlestar Galactica Overview (1978-2020)


Introduction

Battlestar Galactica (BSG) is an American science fiction media franchise created by Glen A. Larson.

The franchise began with the original television series in 1978 and was followed by a short-run sequel series (Galactica 1980), a line of book adaptations, original novels, comic books, a board game, and video games.

A re-imagined version of Battlestar Galactica aired as a two-part, three-hour miniseries developed by Ronald D. Moore and David Eick in 2003. That miniseries led to a weekly television series, which aired until 2009. A prequel series, Caprica, aired in 2010.

Outline of the Franchise

All Battlestar Galactica productions share the premise that in a distant part of the universe, a human civilisation has extended to a group of planets known as the Twelve Colonies, to which they have migrated from their ancestral homeworld of Kobol.

The Twelve Colonies have been engaged in a lengthy war with a cybernetic race known as the Cylons, whose goal is the extermination of the human race.

The Cylons offer peace to the humans, which proves to be a ruse. With the aid of a human named Baltar, the Cylons carry out a massive attack on the Twelve Colonies and on the Colonial Fleet of starships that protect them.

These attacks devastate the Colonial Fleet, lay waste to the Colonies, and virtually destroy their populations. Scattered survivors flee into outer space aboard a ragtag array of available spaceships.

Of the entire Colonial battle fleet, only the Battlestar Galactica, a gigantic battleship and spacecraft carrier, appears to have survived the Cylon attack.

Under the leadership of Commander William Adama, the Galactica and the pilots of “Viper fighters” lead a fugitive fleet of survivors in search of the fabled thirteenth colony known as Earth.

Battlestar Galactica TV Series, Films & Webisodes

  • TV Series:
    • Battlestar Galactica (1978-1979).
    • Galactica (1980).
    • Battlestar Galactica: The Miniseries (2003).
    • Battlestar Galactica (2004-2009).
    • Caprica (2010).
    • Battlestar Galactica: Blood & Chrome (2012).
    • Battlestar Galactica (reboot set to air in 2020).
  • Films:
    • Battlestar Galactica (1978).
    • Mission Galactica: The Cylon Attack (1979).
    • Conquest of Earth (1981).
    • Battlestar Galactica: The Second Coming (1999).
    • Battlestar Galactica: Razor (2007).
    • Battlestar Galactica: The Plan (2009).
    • Battlestar Galactica: Blood & Chrome (2013).
  • Webisodes:
    • Battlestar Galactica: The Resistance (2006).
    • Battlestar Galactica: Razor Flashbacks (2007).
    • Battlestar Galactica: The Face of the Enemy (2008).

Battlestar Galactica (1978-1979)

Galactica 1980 (1980)

Battlestar Galactica (1978)

  • Edited version of “Saga of a Star World” (Part 01, 02, and 03).

Mission Galactica: The Cylon Attack (1979)

Conquest of Earth (1981)

  • Edited merger of “Galactica Discovers Earth” (Part 01, 02, and 03) and “The Night the Cylons Landed” (Part 01 and 02).

Battlestar Galactica: The Miniseries (2003)

Battlestar Galactica (2004-2009)

Caprica (2010)

Battlestar Galactica: Blood & Chrome (2012)

Battlestar Galactica: The Second Coming (1999)

Battlestar Galactica: Razor (2007)

  • Battlestar Galactica: Razor is a 2007 television movie produced and broadcast in the gap between Seasons 03 and 04 of the re-imagined series.
  • Razor is also the first two episodes of Season 04.

Battlestar Galactica: The Plan (2009)

Battlestar Galactica: Blood & Chrome (2013)

  • The 10-part series was broadcast as a film on 10 February 2013 on the SyFy Channel.

Battlestar Galactica: The Resistance (2006)

Battlestar Galactica: Razor Flashbacks (2007)

Battlestar Galactica: The Face of the Enemy (2008)

Television Movies

Following the cancellation of the series, all of the episodes from the original series were re-edited into television movies for syndication, including a third edit of the pilot.

The four two-part episodes (“Lost Planet of the Gods”, “Gun on Ice Planet Zero”, “The Living Legend” and “War of the Gods”) were all combined and expanded with about five minutes of scenes deleted from the original broadcasts.

The remaining single episodes were edited into two-hour blocks, combining two episodes into a single narrative, occasionally including over-dubbed dialogue.

The final TV movie, an expanded version of “Experiment in Terra” with some scenes from the Galactica 1980 episode “The Return of Starbuck”, featured new footage of an astronaut finding Commander Adama’s logbook, which retold the premise of the show.

It is believed that this version of the episode was to be released as another theatrical film in other countries, but never materialised.

  1. Battlestar Galactica “Saga of a Star World”.
  2. Lost Planet of the Gods “Lost Planet of the Gods” (expanded).
  3. Gun on Ice Planet Zero “Gun on Ice Planet Zero” (expanded).
  4. The Phantom in Space “The Hand of God” and “The Lost Warrior”.
  5. Space Prison “The Man with Nine Lives” and “Baltar’s Escape”.
  6. Space Casanova “Take the Celestra” and “The Long Patrol”.
  7. Curse of the Cylons “Fire in Space” and “The Magnificent Warriors”.
  8. The Living Legend “The Living Legend” (expanded).
  9. War of the Gods “War of the Gods” (expanded).
  10. Greetings from Earth “Greetings from Earth”.
  11. Murder in Space “Murder on the Rising Star” and “The Young Lords”.
  12. Experiment in Terra * “The Return of Starbuck” (edited) and “Experiment in Terra” (expanded).
    1. * The Experiment in Terra telemovie is not included on the UK PAL VHS box set; it has only the original episode “Experiment in Terra” without any clips from “Return of Starbuck.”
    2. However, all the other telemovies appear to be in this set.

Trivia

You can read interesting trivia and background details about the BSG franchise here.

Production & Filming Details

  • Creator: Glen A. Larson.
  • Owner: NBC Universal.
  • Release Date: 17 September 1978.
  • Running Time: 60 minutes.
  • Country: US.
  • Language: English.

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