Galactica 1980 (1980)

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General		Extras
Category	TV Series	None
Rating
Year Of Production	1980
Running Time	460:53
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (23:04) Dual Disc Set	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Sidney Hayers Vince Edwards Sigmund Neufeld Jr.
Studio Distributor	Universal Pictures Home Video	Starring	None Given
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Dual
RPI	$29.95	Music	Stu Phillips John Andrew Tartaglia

    The original Battlestar Galactica TV series was a costly flop in its original run. With a budget of $1 Million per episode (reputedly a record at the time), which was frequently exceeded, the show failed to find a big enough audience to justify such exorbitant costs (not to mention the mounting cost of the numerous lawsuits George Lucas raised against the producers at Universal). Reruns and international sales, including movies cut together from episodes of the show, turned the tide somewhat and saw the studio keen to continue the saga, albeit with a broader storyline and slimmer budget. Creator Glen A. Larson was desperate to have his story told any way he could (it had taken him more than a decade to get the concept off the ground in the first place) and collaborated with the studio to relaunch the franchise with a new story and an almost entirely new cast. The resulting Galactica 1980 was a disaster and the show survived only 10 episodes before it became a footnote in television history.

    Galactica 1980 picks up several years after Battlestar Galactica left off. In that time the surviving colonial fleet has soldiered on looking for Earth, led by Commander Adama (Lorne Greene) the whole way. A super-intelligent child named Dr. Zee (James Patrick Stuart) has been born en-route and now advises the fleet on its strategy. The adventures in the series follow Captain Troy (Kent McCord), who was a child in the original series and has grown up to be a Viper pilot like his step-dad Apollo. Troy shares his adventures with Starbuck-equivalent Lieutenant Dillon (Barry Van Dyke). Boomer (Herb Jefferson, Jr.) is still about, but only enough to be considered a cameo in half a dozen episodes.

    The series opens as the fleet finally finds Earth - in the Earth year 1980. Unfortunately, Earth is not nearly as advanced as the colonial fleet had hoped and will not be able to help them stop the Cylons. In fact quite the opposite is the case. The Galactica will have to defend Earth from the Cylons who have quietly followed the fleet, while trying to establish diplomatic relations with the planet.

    The general setup of the series is a bit of a clunker, but not entirely devoid of potential. Alas that potential is rarely realised in the show, which was bloated with clumsy scripts and lousy characters. The show is particularly hampered by the fact it tries to rope in a lot of storylines and aspects to appeal to younger viewers (OK, everyone loves the Daggit, robo-dog, things but only up to a point) while simultaneously trying to please the adult audience. Reaching for such a broad audience makes for bland storylines as well as these irritating aspects. Worse still, the show has latched onto popular science and culture of the day, which I imagine seemed strained in its day and seems incredibly dated today. The special effects, many of which were recycled from other shows and movies (including notorious sequences borrowed from the movie Earthquake with an added green-screen effect), have also aged very poorly.

    The series isn't entirely without merit. It introduces the concept of humanoid Cylons, which has been exploited to great effect in the recent reimagining of Battlestar Galactica. The final episode of the series is actually quite good, but pretty much entirely leaves behind the premise of the show to tell the story of what happened to Starbuck (Dirk Benedict) - in essence providing fans with a continuation of Battlestar Galactica rather than another lame Galactica 1980 episode.

    Galactica 1980 is really for completists only. Plenty of people will get a kick out of how badly this show has aged and the overall cheesy 1980s vibe of the show, but that's unlikely to last beyond a couple of episodes. This one sits in the "so bad it's good" category, which isn't really enough to sustain interest for a whole season.

Video

    The video in this release probably looks better than Galactica 1980 ever did when broadcast on TV. That's not to say it is visually flawless, but it is a decent transfer of the original source.

    The show is presented in its original 1.33:1 aspect ratio. The image is generally clear and contains a fairly good level of detail, including a reasonable depth of detail in shadows. This clarity frequently softens in the special effects sequences, but bearably so. The brightness level appears to waver slightly during some of the darker scenes in all of the episodes, particularly during the opening credits and "previously on" montages that open some episodes.

    The level of grain is generally quite mild, save for a handful of the recycled effects shots and scenes shot in low-light. No low-level noise is noticeable.

    Colour levels are quite good, bolder than most shows of this age though a touch on the orange side of natural.

    Film artefacts, bits of dirt and grime, are a bit of an issue in some scenes - particularly during effects sequences - though this is more due to nature of the cheap special effects employed by the show. Outside of the special effects sequences, only a few film artefacts are noticeable and none are terribly distracting. A mild level of Macro blocking can be noticed in the background by anyone with a sharp display who is paying close attention, though it isn't at a level that will distract most viewers.

    The show is presented on 2 dual layer RSDL discs. The layer break occurs between scenes during the first episode of each disc (23:04 on the first disc and 25:11 on the second), but neither was noticeable on my equipment.

    No subtitles are available on these discs.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The audio is presented in a single English Mono Dolby Digital 2.0 (192 Kbps) audio track.

    The audio is adequate, though it sounds quite dated and a little muddier than you would expect of a recent show.

    Dialogue levels are acceptable and the dialogue itself is generally easy to understand. The audio sync is fine, but numerous overdubs are noticeable.

    The score is a typically brash 1980s action score - sparse and ludicrously over-the-top whenever present.

    There is no surround speaker or subwoofer usage... or stereo usage, this release contains the original mono audio.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    There are no real extras in this package, unless you count the trailer for a UK cult DVD brand.

    This release is identical to the US Region 1 release.

    Galactica 1980 is really for completists only. Plenty of people will get a kick out of how badly this show has aged and the overall cheesy 1980s vibe of the show, but that's unlikely to last beyond a couple of episodes. If you don't fall in the completist category, I'd suggest hiring rather than buying.

    The video and audio presentation is decent given the age of the material, though far from perfect.

    There are no extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall