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I am – Hercules!!
Is NBC Universal issuing the no-frills 10-episode series-set for “Galactica 1980” because it looks like we’re going to have to wait till 2009 before Ron Moore’s “Battlestar Galactica” finally finds Earth?
Here’s how the saga ended, as detailed in these final 10 episodes. (Note that the opening titles of the first two episodes in this set indicate we’re watching “Galactica 1980,” but the final eight are titled “Battlestar Galactica.”)
IT’S 30 YEARS LATER. Despite the fact that the “final” episode of the first “Galactica” series, titled “The Hand of God,” aired only eight months earlier, the “1980” series takes place three decades later. The huge leap forward in time may have had something to do with Dirk Benedict’s availability. An early draft of the first “1980” episode, dated Nov. 26, 1979, was set only five years after the conclusion of the original series and featured Starbuck, Apollo and Baltar as central characters. But in the shooting script their words and actions were assigned to other characters.
STARBUCK, APOLLO, ATHENA, TIGH AND BALTAR ARE HISTORY. Presumably they were lost in battle, or died of old age. In “Galactica 1980,” only Adama (Lorne Greene), Boomer (Herbert Jefferson Jr.) and Adama’s grandson Boxey (now played by 38-year-old “Adam 12” vet Kent McCord) are still on the scene.
THE CYLONS DISAPPEAR FOR 30 YEARS. The colonists’ ruthless cybernetic foes don’t attack for decades, but we learn that they’ve been secretly shadowing the human fleet, waiting to be led to Earth so they can kill all the humans here too.
WHILE GONE FOR 30 YEARS, THE CYLONS “EVOLVED.” A new breed of Cylons, who look and sound exactly like humans, first turn up in episode seven, “The Night The Cylons Landed.” One of them effortlessly infiltrates human society. So Ron Moore may have been a fan.
DOCTOR ZEE SHOWS UP. The teen “Dr. Zee” (played first by “Brady Bunch” refugee Robbie Rist, then by Patrick Stuart), now bosses around Adama and everybody else in the fleet because Zee is super-brainy, and he’s never wrong. In the famous final episode, we learn of a connection between Zee and the absent Starbuck (guest star Benedict). In the first episode Zee is described as a mutant. In the final episode we learn he is the spawn of a strange but beautiful woman claiming to be from another dimension. Or something. (California-born Stuart – not the Captain Picard guy – went on to become busy grown-up actor James Patrick Stuart, who played Keith on “Andy Richter Controls The Universe.”)
EARTH IS FOUND. That was all backstory. The first thing that happens in the first episode of “1980,” written by original series creator Glen Larson, is the colonial fleet finds Earth.
NOBODY TELLS THE CYLONS. When it’s learned how primitive Earth technology is, the fleet alters course so as to not tip the Cylons to the planet’s location. Boxey and another colonial pilot, Dillon (Barry Van Dyke), are dispatched to work secretly with Earth scientists (the first they meet is played by Robert Reed, another “Brady” refugee) to elevate the planet’s technology.
A REPORTER JOINS THE FRAY. Boxey and Dillon, who have flying motorcycles but no fingerprints, have to learn about things like money, telephones, muggers, revolving doors and anti-nuke protests. Along the way they hook up with spunky young broadcast news-hen Jamie Hamilton (Robynn Douglas, a long way from 1979’s “Breaking Away”), who learns their secrets and is ultimately recruited by Adama to help the boys navigate Earth culture.
A NEW COLONIAL VILLAIN EMERGES. A fleet leader named Xavier (first played by Richard Lynch, then by Jeremy Brett) uses a Zee invention to travel back to 1944 Germany to give the Nazis rockets and jet engines. The idea was to accelerate Earth technology so it would be up to speed by the time the Cylons arrived 36 years later. Boxey and Dillon follow Xavier, stop him, and save a trainload of Jews along the way.
ALL THE COLONIALS GET SUPERPOWERS. In episode four, it’s revealed that because of Earth’s low gravity, all the colonists on Earth gain “Six Million Dollar Man”-like speed and strength.
THE WARRIORS HAVE TO BABYSIT A DOZEN SUPERKIDS FOR THE REST OF THE SERIES. Also in episode four, the first Cylon attack in decades forces Boxey, Dillon and a shipload of (now superpowered) preteens into to an emergency landing on Earth. Boxey, Dillon and Jamie inexplicably have to babysit the supertots for the rest of the series.
WOLFMAN JACK BECOMES A CYLON PAWN. Not content to borrow liberally from “Star Wars,” series mastermind Glen Larson co—opts a major element of George Lucas’ “American Grafitti” in episodes seven and eight as the Cylons learn disc jockey Wolfman Jack pretapes his shows. Accidentally crashing near New York on Halloween, the lost Cylons plan to use the Wolfman’s transmitter to alert their brethren to the location of Earth. Boxey and Dillon prevent the broadcast. (William Daniels, playing the radio station owner, at one point gives a car ride to a metal centurion. This may or may not explain why KITT from “Knight Rider” has that big cylon eye on his hood.)
DIRK BENEDICT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE IN MORE EPISODES. Here’s what’s not on the new DVD. An unshot script, dated March 25, 1980 and titled “The Wheel of Fire,” would have reunited Boxey with Starbuck, who by this time has become one of the “Guardians of the Galaxy.” So maybe Dr. Zee’s mom was a Guardian. Whatever that is. And does the fate of the Dirk Benedict Starbuck offer a clue as to what’s become of Kara Thrace?
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TWILIGHT ZONE: THE COMPLETE SERIES!!
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The extras-crammed Definitive Editions!!
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