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PLEASE NOTE: Michael D's is currently in READ ONLY MODE. Anything submitted will simply not be written to the database.
Lots of stuff is still broken, but at least reviews can now be looked up and read.
Battlestar Galactica (1978)

Battlestar Galactica (1978)

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Released 23-May-2001
Cover Art

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Details At A Glance

General		Extras
Category	Science Fiction	Production Notes Web Links Biographies-Cast & Crew
Rating
Year Of Production	1978
Running Time	124:18 (Case: 119)
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (54:14)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Programme	Cast & Crew
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Richard A. Colla
Studio Distributor	Sony Pictures Home Entertain	Starring	Richard Hatch Dirk Benedict Lorne Greene
Case	?	Starring	Richard Hatch Dirk Benedict Lorne Greene
RPI	$36.95	Music	Stu Phillips

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 1.1 (192Kb/s) German Dolby Digital 1.0 (96Kb/s) Italian Dolby Digital 1.0 (96Kb/s) French Dolby Digital 1.0 (96Kb/s) Spanish Dolby Digital 1.0 (96Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.85:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No	Miscellaneous
Subtitles	English French Portuguese Danish Finnish Swedish Norwegian German Dutch Czech Polish Greek Hungarian Bulgarian	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

NOTE: The Profanity Filter is ON. Turn it off here.

Plot Synopsis

This movie predates the TV series of the same name, which ran for two seasons. I hadn't seen this movie before, and I didn't watch the TV series, but I was vaguely aware of it - I knew Lorne Greene was in it, for example. So I came to the movie without too much in the way of preconceptions. I wasn't expecting too much, because this movie hadn't had the impact that Star Wars had the previous year. Just as well.

Permit me a small indulgence - I must start with an aside. I must say that their attempts to create a civilization unlike ours are seriously flawed, probably by a combination of ignorance and a lack of attention to detail. They set their story in a time and place well away from ours, but one of the computer displays comes up with "Made in USA". OK, that's the most egregious flaw, but there are many others - they go to the trouble of labelling fire extinguishers in a symbolic language, but they paint the names on their starships in English. They invent new units of distance (centon) and time (micron), and then apply ISO standard prefixes to them (milli-centon). Shame the scriptwriters didn't check that a micron already exists: it's not a unit of time - it's a unit of distance (one millionth of a metre). Last grizzle - why must every futuristic clothing design include a cloak or cape? For an example of a better effort, have a look at Sylvia Anderson's futuristic clothing designs in, for example, the TV series UFO - she manages to create clothing that looks distinctive, but practical. Ahem, we now return you to our scheduled programming...

This movie is set a long time ago in a galaxy far far away... oops, wrong movie. Close enough, though. All the armed forces of 12 human colonies are gathered for a peace conference with the Cylons. They are betrayed, and the fleet is attacked by over a thousand Cylon fighters, while the Cylon base ships attack the human colonies, pretty much wiping them out. Only one Battlestar and its fighters survives the attack, and they lead an assorted fleet of spacecraft carrying the human survivors on a voyage to attempt to find a lost human colony in another galaxy. Inevitably, that lost colony is reputed to have the name Earth.

Although I have information to the contrary, this movie feels like it was always intended to be a "movie-length pilot episode" for the TV series.

I have been unable to confirm it, but the initial narration, and the voice of the Cylon leader, sound awfully like Patrick MacNee (John Steed in The Avengers TV series).

Don't wish to see plot synopses in the future? Change your configuration.

Transfer Quality

Video

If this was really a movie, then we have been ill-served - the video transfer is rather bad. If it were the pilot episode for a TV show, then I'd understand it more readily. There are some examples (perhaps the worst is at 37:00) of poor image compositing. Some of the footage using models to show the human fighters attacking Cylons is repeated - in particular, there's a shot of two fighters attacking a Cylon swooping over the Battlestar. It appears both in the first battle, and again in the final one - a bit sloppy.

The video is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.85:1. It is not 16x9 enhanced.

The transfer is not sharp. There's a lot of grain in any long shots, and interiors are only a little better. Shadow detail is fairly poor, with most shadows being smudgy black. There is some low-level noise in most of the transfer.

Colour is acceptable, but not vivid. I can't tell if this is a deliberate decision, because the palette used in the wardrobe department is confined mostly to white and browns.

I didn't notice much in the way of MPEG artefacts, and no telecine wobble, but I'd be surprised to see any - this transfer was done by WAMO. There is some aliasing, but not more than on other non-16x9-enhanced transfers. There are some flecks and spots on the film, but that's not surprising for something made in 1978 - I'd consider the film very clean for something of its age - there's nothing distracting.

The disc is RSDL-formatted, with the layer change placed at 54:14. It comes in the middle of a close-up of a woman speaking, and is quite noticeable. Moved back or forward a few seconds it could have been placed at a scene change. Not a good one.

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

Audio

This soundtrack is unusual, not because it is especially good or bad, but because it is the only 1.1 soundtrack I've ever seen. I'm not kidding - this soundtrack consists of two tracks, one of which is an LFE (subwoofer) track. The reason for this is that the sound was originally recorded in Sensaround, which was supposed to provide more feeling to the movie by using low frequencies.

There are 5 audio tracks on this DVD. The default English soundtrack is Dolby Digital 1.1. The other soundtracks are all Dolby Digital 1.0, in German, French, Italian, and Spanish. I only listened to the English soundtrack.

Dialogue quality is fine. The voices of the Cylons are a little difficult to understand, but that is because of the processing used to make their voices alien. I didn't notice any audio sync problems.

The music is by Stu Phillips, and is unadventurous. Bold brassy sounds for the martial stuff - you know what to expect.

This is a mono soundtrack - no stereo image, and no surrounds.

The subwoofer got a track of its own, and it is used, mostly during battle sequences.

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

Extras

We don't get a lot of extras - just some text screens.

Production Notes

This is 10 pages of text about the movie and its creation.

Cast and Filmmakers

This is more pages of text, covering the three main actors and the director.

Universal Web Links

I didn't try this, because my DVD player isn't hooked to the Net.

R4 vs R1

NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.

The Region 1 and Region 4 versions appear to be identical. Ordinarily, that would lead me to suggest getting the Region 4, for the advantages of PAL. With the video quality of this disc, however, I'd think it's a toss-up.

Summary

Battlestar Galactica looks like an attempt to ride the wave of popularity created by Star Wars. It's not that bad a movie, but it pales in comparison to the real thing.

The video quality of this DVD was not good.

The audio quality is not a lot better.

The extras are fairly minimal.

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

Review Equipment
DVD	Pioneer DV-737, using Component output
Display	Sony VPL-VW10HT LCD Projector, ScreenTechnics matte white screen with a gain of 1.0 (280cm). Calibrated with Video Essentials. This display device is 16x9 capable.
Audio Decoder	Built in to amplifier/receiver. Calibrated with Video Essentials.
Amplification	Denon AVC-A1SE
Speakers	Front Left and Right: Krix Euphonix, Centre: Krix KDX-C Rears: Krix KDX-M, Subwoofer: Krix Seismix 5

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