Galactica 1980: The Final Season

Very corny and dated but highly enjoyable, and c'mon - Kent McCord!

This is unique. When they came out, everyone loved it, even me. The special effects were actually pretty good for the day. However special effects have moved so far ahead of these it makes them look a little corny today. Even with that, I really love this set of videos.

I'd heard for many years how awful this show was. Well, it is, kind of. But I liked it. I was very entertained by even the most (for that time) politically correct episode (there are many environmentalist issues at hand since "higher intelligence" deals with we "dumb modern day humans"). It's about the Galactica finding earth and then two guys making sure earth is safe from Cylons, that is, making sure that we could in fact battle Cylons if they happened to attack, and follows their adventures in a modern day society with their special space skills, and flying motorcycles, and bionic children. And a cylon actually lands on earth and kidnaps Wolfman Jack. Now if I were to have read this a month ago, I'd think there wouldn't be any way for it to be good... But every episode keeps you interested, somehow. Seeing Robbie "Cousin Oliver" Rist and Robert "Mr. Brady" Reed in the same episode (although never on screen together) was kind of funny. Kent McCord as the grown up "Boxey" is good; Barry Van Dyke (son of Dick) as his sidekick (McCord is the "Apollo" while Van Dyke is the "Starbuck", per say) isn't good at all. Van Dyke is about as wooden as a log cabin as far as acting goes, and his voice sounds like an FM dj. "Adama" played by Lorne Greene and "Boomer" (who has basically replaced "Col. Tigh" as second in command) are the only original cast members, and it's kind of relaxing to have them there even though they aren't involved much since they stay in space, and most of the show is on the ground. "Starbuck" (Dirk Benedict) is the center of the final episode. The entire series (including the original) ends with our hero "Starbuck" (the "Han Solo" of BG) stranded on a barren planet. A total cliffhanger, leaving me to realize the show was canned while trying to "tease" the studios into letting it stick around. And do we ever get to hear about what happened to "Appolo" and his sister, or "Cass"? Anyhow, this show had time travelling, space dog fights, and a very, very cool visual-scenerio of Cylons blowing up earth. Pretty neat. And as I've mentioned, the stories are involving. Kept me watching. While I wasn't on the edge of my seat, I was firmly planted on the middle of my couch, and enjoyed myself the entire time.

It's great to finally have this show released onto DVD.I was a little apprehensive that they might have chopped up the episodes(like they did with several earlier VHS releases back in the '90s).Thankfully,they were all the complete and unaltered original shows that I remembered.Many of the episodes of Galactica:1980 were actually better than several original Battlestar Galactica episodes,the most memorable of which for me was "The Return of Starbuck".It's too bad that the show wasn't able to provide quality episodes like the Starbuck story every time,but we all know how things like a limited budget can affect things like that.The original show cost $1 Million dollars per episode and often failed to deliver the goods,so what coud you really expect with Galactica:1980?.Both shows might have done well if they had delivered more interesting and better storylines.The best episodes of Galactica:1980(Listed in broadcast order)were:Galactica Discovers Earth,parts 1,2,&3.The Night The Cylons Landed,Parts 1&2.The Return of Starbuck.Unfortunately,as with the original Battlestar Galactica,they saved the best episode for last(I consider the BSG episode "The Hand of God" to be among the very best episodes of the original show.It was the last original broadcast episode until the debut of Galactica:1980).One thing I never uderstood is why they got rid of Apollo,Starbuck,Athena,Colonel Tigh,and all the others.Kent McCord(Troy) and Barry Van Dyke(Dillon) were Ok,but I liked Richard Hatch(Apollo) and Dirk Benedict(Starbuck) a whole lot better than those other two guys.Hollywood people make a lot of stupid decisions by changing casts on shows like this,especially when the original cast is what made the show work in the first place(just look at Airwolf-the same thing happened in season 4 with Barry Van Dyke once again replacing the main character,Stringfellowe Hawk, who was played by Jan Michael Vincent.Of course that show also suffered a major budget cut ,and was moved to the USA Network for its' final season ,and we all know how that worked out.)Overall,in spite of its' inherient flaws ,Galactica:1980 is a good old fashioned Sci-Fi romp and it's great to see it again and to finally own it on DVD.Buy it if only for The Return Of Starbuck.At a cost of less than $11.00(I paid $10.54 with shipping)it's well worth the price of admission.

I'm a big fan of car-crash tv (especially of the late 70s/early 80s 'failed spin-off series' variety) and I admit I only bought this because everyone seems to slate it. And yes, this is clearly from the pre 'look-at-how-edgy-cool-and-intelligent-we-are' era of horrible self-important rubbish like Breaking Bad, The Wire, and The Sopranos... None of those 3 shows ever attempted to fuse the disparate worlds of intergalactic space travel, little league baseball, halloween parties, and accidental bank robbery like Galactica 80 does in such a fearless way here. The special fx are actually better than I expected too, and the stories were pretty solid. It's watchable and good fun.If people want really bad 70s/80s tv sci-fi go for the lamentable 'Beyond Westworld' or the dismal 3rd series of The Bionic Woman instead.. Galactica 1980 is like a Spielburg production in comparison to those.

I love this series and it is about 11 years after the series with Apollo, Starbucks and Boomer. They found Earth and it was mostly about stories of Troy and Dillon and the scouts. The cylons were also involved in the story. I am most impressed with this product.

I missed this first time round although I'd seen the original series in 1978. I bought that series on DVD after watching the reimagined Battlestar Galactica and wanted to see the original again. I bought this to round off my collection and wish I hadn't. It is a complete departure from the original (containing hardly anyone from that series) and is just embarrassing to watch. Typical trash TV of the time..I felt sorry for the actors. Only the last episode has any worth when Dirk Benedict was called back in to reprise his Starbuck role. It is the only episode that has any flavour of the original series. After watching this I'm amazed that anyone thought that it was worth reviving and make such an excellent job of the reimagined series.

No dislike about the siris very very entertaining picture quartey very re good and the sound quality is excellent

My memory of this show was an entertaining slice of sci-fi which saw the crew of the Galactica finally find Earth, the reality is so different, it is frustratingly slow, filled with terrible hammy performances and awful special effects, steer clear and just watch the original series.