My current favorite television series is SciFi's Battlestar Galactica (or BSG for short). It is a truly great show full of action, drama and flat out engaging storytelling. I make sure not to miss an episode. However, it is not an original series, but rather it is the re-imagining of the well-known, but short-lived 1979 television series which was launched by the 1978 film of the same name. It was the late 70s and with the huge success of Star Wars in 1977, science fiction was again finding life on the big screen.It is somewhat surprising to me that, until this past weekend, I had never actually watched the original film that started it all. I have seen random episodes now and then on TV and I can recognize the theme music, but I had never experienced the original. On a whim, some friends that I regularly watch the show with happened to find a copy for $10 and bought it out of curiosity. We weren't expecting a masterpiece, but there was some genuine excitement.
Before I dive right in, let me set the stage for those unfamiliar. Battlestar Galactica is the story of a civilization's epic struggle to survive. The setting is somewhere out among the stars where a human civilization is thriving (the 12 colonies, each sharing a name with one of our zodiac signs). It is a time of peace in the new series (and just prior to an armistice in the original) between the humans and the robotic race known as the Cylons. Long story short, the Cylons launch a massive surprise assault and almost completely exterminate the human population, hold for one human battleship - the battlestar Galactica, and a small fleet of civilian ships with around 50,000 people aboard. The story focuses on the humans fighting and running from the Cylons while they desperately search for a "fabled" 13th colony name Earth. This is the plot of the series and of the 1978 film.
Oh... my... GOSH! It turned out to be a complete bore fest and time never seemed to move so slow as it did for the those two hours that the film lasted. Of course, we felt that we should tough it out, but it was beyond trying. As I write this I fully recognize that on a certain level I really can't make an objective observation of the original Battlestar since I've already been enjoying the re-make for 2 years. It is truly like comparing apples to oranges. Yet, I don't lie when I say that the original was a misguided mess of a film. It absolutely was!
It is unfortunate that the original Battlestar fell short because it started out really very well, full of potential, even if its special effects were clunky by today's standards. The story transcended that fact. For a time. Then it fell into complete disarray, seemingly unable to maintain a focus and most certainly unable to maintain tone. If the whole of humanity was just wiped off the face of the cosmos, you could have fooled me because these characters sure seemed to be indifferent for the whole second half of the movie.
Equally bad was the bumbling romance which was as convincing as that Skywalker/Amidala affair of the Star Wars prequels. It wasn't. It was awkward, boring and wholly unnecessary. But ultimately I feel that the worst aspect of this film was that it lost its epic feel after the first 30 minutes only to devolve into what felt like an overextended episode that could have been, no, SHOULD have been captured in one hour rather than two.
I felt worse about the film seeing as two other friends who don't watch the new series watched it with us. One was visibly bored beyond belief and yet to his credit didn't complain. The other, who stayed much later and got a taste of the new series afterward, did seem legitimately interested and was sold on the new series after "sampling" 1 hour and 15 minutes of the mini-series... which flew by in what seemed like 10 minutes. It blew him away! I felt like we made it up to him for the two previous wasted hours.
Like I've said, I'm sure part of my reaction is due to the fact I was watching a much older version of a series I love. Even though I really wasn't entertained by it, I did see potential in it at the beginning. It did start off very well. In a rare testament to the cause of "re-makes", the creators of the new BSG have managed to capture all of the right elements from the original while taking in a whole new direction of their own. It just proves that, if handled well, re-makes can be great and even necessary.
In the end, 1978's Battlestar Galactica went down in flames. Unless you are a real sci-fi junkie, I cannot recommend watching the original Galactica. Most likely you'll just end up wishing the Cylons would have gotten them all. 2/10
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