The first three episodes of the original Battlestar Galactica

There are those who believe that life here began out there, far across the universe, with tribes of humans who may have been the forefathers of the Egyptians, or the Toltecs, or the Mayans. That they may have been the architects of the great pyramids, or the lost civilizations of Lemuria or Atlantis. Some believe that there may yet be brothers of man who even now fight to survive somewhere beyond the heavens...

So say the opening lines of the 1970s Battlestar Galactica television series.

I was a bit young when these first came out (five!). Star Wars was the hottest thing in the universe and everyone with a television studio was trying to capture the hype of space shows. Star Trek became revitalized because of the hype and came out with the first of, what, nine movies now. Think of it in today's terms of all the comic book movies coming out.

So it was cool to see these Colonial Vipers in a resemblance of X-Wing Fighters. Cylons looked like different kinds of Stormtroopers. There were similarities but there were also differences. The biggest being the fact that they were fleeing to Earth. Earth is a dream.

The basic concept of Battlestar Galactica is pretty cool, cool enough for the spectacularly perfect revitalization on the SciFi Channel 25 years later. However, as I watch these original 1970s episodes, all available for free on NBC.com, I remember why I didn't like the bloody show in the first place.

It stinks.

It was 25 years too early. There are parts of me that thinks it was necessary to engage in this show for the betterment of science fiction on tv, and parts of me that think it just wasn't handled right.
It is sort of like watching the 1970s Spider-Man movies and then watching the new Spider-Man. They wanted to do stuff but just couldn't.

That's one of the reasons I waited so long to watch the new show. I waited until DVD, got it through my Netflix account. I was worried, I really was, that it would be a cheesy remake of the 1970s show. But it wasn't. It was one hundred times better, and that first Battlestar Galactica mini-series remains some of the best science fiction I have ever watched.

So I have gone through every episode on NBC.com and have gathered my thoughts on the show. Pointless, I know, but I am a geek that likes doing this crap.

Episode 1: "Battlestar Galactica--Part One"

Even the opening music sounds like Star Wars. It's good theme music though. It still actually has good space effects that stand up today. Those ships are pretty cool, all of them. Then the episode starts...
Do they ever really explain who the Cylons are, or are they just an alien race? (Not until episode 2.) Why do they hate the humans? In the light of retrospective history, this episode has nothing on the first episode and mini-series of the new show. I remember my jaw dropping with awe when I saw the new show. Not here. I distinctly had the feeling that they were taking the annihilation of the Twelve Colonies quite well. There was no "utter devastation" and hopelessness that should have been there. The only thing it seemed to have is that kind of Empire Strikes Back feeling of being beaten. Although, it still did not seem hopeless.

Apollo and his brother Zack (played by Rick Springfield) go out to fly by the Cylon convoy for a peace conference. It was kind of fun to watch Rick Springfield get blown up! Apollo also has a sister, Athena, in this show.

Starbuck, a male Starbuck by the way, feels the worse of anyone but is still tying to make a play for love on Athena. All during an utter holocaust.

Baltar is so different on this old show than on the new show. The new show is definitely a change for the better, whether you think the new Baltar is whiny or not on the new show.

All in all, it seemed to be an episode that focused on cool effects over story. Flashiness over substance. And that is exactly what it lacks--a heart. Sure, it is cool to see the Colonial Vipers take off but there is really no concentration of the effect that this devastation plays on its characters.

Episode 2: "Battlestar Galactica--Part Two"

The continuation of episode one. The Ray Milland character Yuri as a hoarder was quite cool. That plays well into some of the best new BG episodes on the black market and such.

Now the real differences, apart from Baltar, take shape. The Council of Twelve is said to be still active, Yuri being one of them. The Laura Roslin--Secretary of Education now President--character is not there at all. Adama seems to have complete control.

I still have a soft spot for that stupid robotic dog character, Muffet the Daggit. I remember having a figure of him as a kid.

Now it gets...strange. As the Galactica is fleeing, they come to a SPACE DISCO! I kid you not. The entire human race gets wiped out and the people left alive are hanging out in a space disco and gambling in the casino. It's a planet called Carillon, inhabited by some insect people. And a really strange woman/man alien with two faces. This was the obligatory CANTINA scene knockoff from Star Wars. Bad space music and aliens drinking. And it has that classic feeling of "too good to be true."

Interestingly, in a side conversation with that kid Boxy, Apollo talks about the Cylon origins.

Apollo: [Cylons] are machines created by living creatures a long, long time ago.

Boxy: Who created them?

Apollo: We didn't. Another race did called the Cylons.

He goes on to say that the organic form of the Cylons was dying off. They created the robotic Cylons in human form because of the apparent perfection of the human form. Makes you wonder what the original Cylons looked like. Still never answers the question of why they hate humans. They just do. Remind me one day to talk about this compared to the Matrix movie.

Episode 3: "Battlestar Galactica--Part Three"

Part three of the three-part opener. They are still having the time of their lives in a space disco. Colonel Tigh says, "The people are having the time of their lives." On another note, this Colonel Tigh is extremely one-dimensional compared to the foibles of the drining Colonel Tigh of the new series. Will they ever give this Tigh a personality? Substance? (The answer is no, because they completely removed his character as being superfluous when they go to create the Galactica 1980 tv series.)

Cylons are already part of the Carillon planet. They are going to finish the humans in one stroke. Apollo and Starbuck accidentally find the food chambers that the insect people are putting the humans into, and accidentally start a chain reaction with the made-up combustible substance they are mining in the planet. They escape. The planet explodes. The Cylon Base-Star blows up with it.

And I have to ask--this is the first storyline?? This is a story that had to be told? No, it wasn't. It was simply a way for the writers and producers to get their series into space so that they can explore, like Star Trek, a new world each week, fly some Vipers and blow up some Cylons. I see that now and I don't care what anybody else says about it. That was the plan.