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From IMDB:
The leaders of the Twelve Colonies of Mankind are making plans to
sign a peace treaty with their mortal enemies, the Cylon Empire. On the
eve of the ceremony, the Cylons betray the pact and destroy most of the
Colonies and their entire fleet. Under the command of Commander Adama,
the battlestar Galactica leads the remaining Colonial ships into space
and seeks out a lost thirteenth colony, which turns out to be Earth.
Along the way, the Colonials encounter various races (both friendly and
hostile), the legendary human warrior Commander Cain, and the planet
Kobol, the motherworld of all the Colonies. All the while, the Cylons -
under the command of human traitor Count Baltar - closely pursue this
fugitive fleet across the universe.
* John Colicos became so
well-known for his role of Baltar that, reportedly, his performance as
Baltar was what won him the role of Mikkos Cassadine for General Hospital
(1963), for its "Ice Princess" story arc in the summer of 1981. In
1991, he was appearing in a theater in his native Toronto, and after
performances, audience members would applaud him and supportively chant,
"Baltar Lives!" He had also appeared as Kor in Star Trek (1966) season
one, episode twenty-six, "Errand of Mercy", that introduced the
Klingons, and he reprised the role in several episodes of Star Trek:
Deep Space Nine (1993).
* The classic sound of the Cylons was later incorporated to K.I.T.T. in
Knight Rider (1982) (both Cylons and K.I.T.T. have only one red eye,
moving side to side permanently). The sound of a Viper, when it was
launched from the Galactica, was also incorporated into K.I.T.T. It
sounded when Michael Knight (David Hasselhoff) activated the Turbo Boost to make the car jump.
* George Lucas and 20th
Century Fox brought a lawsuit against the producers over alleged
similarities with Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977). Although
Galactica was indeed re-worked from its original pilot to capitalize on
the popularity of Star Wars, and it employed the same special effects
team and the same concept designer, the lawsuit was eventually dismissed
in 1980.
* The Cylon centurions all had to be over six feet in height, to make them more intimidating, so
Glen A. Larson hired a team of out-of-work basketball players.
* Muffit Two, Boxey's "daggit" (a dog-like animal) "drone", or robot, was
realized by having a trained chimpanzee inside the daggit-drone costume
(which was obvious by the way that it moved). Three chimps were used
during the series.
* Many of the controls used on the bridge of the Galactica were standard
electronic laboratory equipment manufactured at the time by Tektronix,
Incorporated. This equipment was of a mainframe design, where
nineteen-inch wide racks contained test equipment components such as
multi-meters, power supplies, or signal generators that slid into these
racks like books on a shelf. One can notice tier after tier of these
racks used all over the bridge as control panels. Tektronix was even
mentioned in the closing credits as having provided "test and display
equipment".
* Much of
Glen A. Larson's
Mormon religion is evident in the series. Such details include: The
"Quorum Of The Twelve", also called the "Council Of The Twelve", which
is the Mormon ruling body under the leadership of their "Prophet", the
term "sealing" used for marriage, as in a Mormon Temple wedding, and the
reference to "sealings" being "for all the eternities", as with Mormon
"celestial" marriages being "for time and eternity". Other aspects of
the Mormon religion are also apparent in every episode. The moral
lessons of each episode are all Mormon in design.
* The first weekly television series budgeted at over one million dollars
per episode. Unfortunately for the production, much of this lavish (for
the time) sum was consumed by the visual effects. This necessitated the
frequent, and often obvious, reuse of effects footage throughout the
series wherever possible. Glen A. Larson ascribed this to ABC possibly
having been too quick to buy the program. He had originally planned on
producing it as a series of made-for-television movies.
*
Dirk Benedict modelled the character of Lieutenant Starbuck on
James Garner as
Maverick (1957), and never liked Katee Sackhoff's character of Kara "Starbuck" Thrace in the remake, derisively calling her "Stardoe".
* The helmets of Colonial warriors were inspired in the headdresses of
ancient Egyptian pharoahs. For Galactica pilots, they also featured a
bird motif, a quiet homage to Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, who
was nicknamed by cast & crew, "the Great Bird of the Galaxy".
* Respected fantasy artist Frank Frazetta was commissioned to produce four
promotional paintings for the series, all of which appeared in TV Guide
and various other magazines. One of the paintings (originally used for
"Saga of a Star World") appeared on the cover of the Berkley
novelization "Battlestar Galactica 2: The Cylon Death Machine" by Glen
A. Larson and Robert Thurston, published in early 1979.
* In the opening credits, the words that start "Life here began out
there", were spoken by Patrick Macnee, who provided the voice of the
Imperious Leader.
Title: Battlestar Galactica
Author: Glen A. Larson & Robert Thurston
Publisher: Berkley Books / Scholastic Books #04079-8
Cover Illustration: Unknown
Printing: 1st, 1978