Comic Review: Battlestar Galactica Issues 1 and 2

Just before the peace negotiated by Baltar between the alien created Cylons and the humans of the Twelve Colonies, can be ratified, there’s a surprise Cylon attack.  But they don’t just destroy the fleet, they also target the colonies themselves.  Only one battleship remains: Battlestar Galactica, which escorts the remaining survivors on a quest to find their ancestral home: Earth.

Written in 1979 and based closely on the TV show that aired the year before, the comic books are fun to read.  Some scenes from the show are removed, likely due to space (some of the set up with Zac and Apollo’s mission, Starbuck talking with Athena while she’s changing, etc.).  The missing scenes tend to be character development moments, things that help with getting to know who everyone is and the interpersonal relationships between them.  Unfortunately, losing Zac’s scenes removed some of the tension the TV episode builds up.

The first issue ends with the ships heading out on their quest to find Earth.  The second comic covers the pilots checking over the ships in the new fleet and ends with them beginning their mine field piloting mission.  I suspect a third issue would finish the events of the pilot episode. 

The artwork is nice, and follows the designs of the show closely.  I didn’t realize until I watched the show that the pilots helmets look like ancient Egyptian headdresses, which was kind of neat.

The comic also does away with the narration that the episode begins with, which explains that this all takes place somewhere distant.

I suspect the comic was meant to drum up interest in the show and/or be a collector’s item.  It’s a neat piece of history.

TV Show Review: Battlestar Galactica Episode 1 (1978)

IMDb listing

I saw this a few years ago when I watched the 2004 remake, but watched this again today so I could compare it to the first two issues of the 1979 comic books (volumes 1&2), which I will be reviewing on Tuesday.

Pros: some great characters, brilliant world-building, good special effects, excellent music

Cons: rushed storytelling

Just before the peace negotiated by Baltar between the alien created Cylons and the humans of the Twelve Colonies, can be ratified, there’s a surprise Cylon attack.  But they don’t just destroy the fleet, they also target the colonies themselves.  Only one battleship remains: Battlestar Galactica, which escorts the remaining survivors on a quest to find their ancestral home: Earth.

The pilot episode had a lot of ground to cover and clearly didn’t want to spend much of that time on the destruction of the fleet and colonies, taking a fair amount of time to set up some of the characters on Galactica, then jumping ahead to the humans in their scrounged ships leaving on their quest.  Having said this, a surprising amount of time is also spent on a planet they encounter later in the episode that might have been better served as the plot of the next episode, as it tells a mostly self-contained story.  But this first episode was apparently marketed as a TV movie, so maybe they needed to fill out the time slot.  And maybe the battle/destruction would have cost too much to do properly, so they opted to bypass most of it.

The character building at the beginning does mean several protagonists are quickly remembered, which I thought was well done considering the size of the cast.  I also liked that there was some diversity in the cast.   

The acting’s pretty good, if at times over the top - I’m looking at you, Starbuck.  The scene with Zac at the beginning gets quite tense.  

I have to admit that Boxey, the kid, is kind of annoying, as he’s always running off.  While I liked his mother (played by Jane Seymour), she’s clearly unable to keep track of him.

The special effects are quite good considering when this came out.  There are a lot of similarities to Star Wars in this respect, with the heavy use of models and lazers lights.

The world created is quite rich, with specialized terms.  It’s only touched on but the different colonies appear to have some different accents/dialects, religious practices, etc. 

One of the best aspects of the show is the music, which was fully orchestrated and sounds amazing.

The show has a bit of camp - as must be expected given when it was made.  But the remake took a lot of liberties with the story (and made some great changes), which makes the original worth watching.