Battlestar Galactica (1978, directed by Richard A. Colla and Alan J. Levi)

Posted on July 3, 2026 by Jedadiah Leland

In a distant galaxy, the humans and the robotic Cylons have been at war for a thousand years. Due to the diplomacy of Count Baltar (John Colicos), it appears that a peace agreement has finally been reached. On their homeworld, President Adar (Lew Ayres) and the leaders of humanity prepare to welcome to the Cylons to a signing ceremony. Amongst the commanders of the fleet of ships that orbit and defend the homeworld, only Commander Adama (Lorne Greene) fears that the Cylons may be plotting a sneak attack.

Adama turns out to be correct. Baldar betrays humanity and the Cylons launch a sudden attack, wiping out the human leadership and almost the entire fleet of Battlestars. Only Adama’s Galactica survives. After picking up the refugees who survived the attack, the Galactica sets out to find a legendary planet that might be home to more humans. With the Cylons pursuing and brave men like Starbuck (Dirk Benedict) and Adama’s son, Apollo (Richard Hatch), fighting to protect the last of the human refugees, the Galactica searches for Earth.

With Star Wars still a cultural phenomenon in 1978, it made sense that a television network like ABC would greenlight a science fiction series. When producer Glen A. Larson pitched the idea for Battlestar Galactica, ABC was eager to move forward with it. However, when the pilot cost $8,000,000 to produce (which was then a record-setting amount for a television show), ABC decided to recoup their costs by releasing an edited version of the pilot in theaters. In Canada and the United States, the “film” hit theaters before it was subsequently aired on television. The film was then later released in Europe, where it was a huge hit.

In fact, it was such a hit that 20th Century Fox sued Universal Studios, claiming that Battlestar Galactica stole the majority of its ideas from Star Wars. Universal responded by filing a countersuit, claiming that Star Wars stole the majority of its ideas from Flash Gordon. The case was eventually settled in 1983, long after the original Battlestar Galactica television series had been canceled.

And while that is all very interesting, it doesn’t answer the question that is probably on your mind right now. Is the edited theatrical release of the Battlestar Galactica pilot any good?

Yes and no. The first part of the movie, which deals with the Cylon sneak attack and Starbuck and Apollo rescuing the human refugees is an excellent work of science fiction, a space opera that can stand up with the best of them. Even after all this time, the special effects are still effective as is Lorne Greene’s authoritative performance as Adama. Richard Hatch and Dirk Benedict are also strong as the two main fighter pilots, even if both of them are obviously meant to be television versions of Luke Skywalker and Han Solo. (Benedict’s Starbuck was the coolest character on Battlestar Galactica. He was the best pilot, he was the best poker player, and he even smoked a cigar.) The Cylons are chilling victims and the pilot even features some effective human drama along with all of the space battles. After the Cylon attack, the story follows the Galactica as it makes a stop on a planet that’s also a casino that’s being run by untrustworthy space insects. That part betrays the film’s television origins and feels like one of those episodes of Dr. Who that people try to forget. The pilot features everything that made Battlestar Galactica work but, unfortunately, it also features everything that didn’t work.

Watching it today, though, it’s impossible not to feel the welcome pull of nostalgia. In a time of cynicism, the pure idealism of Battlestar Galactica and its quest for Earth provides a nice and needed relief. To quote Commander Adama:

“Fleeing from the Cylon tyranny, the last battlestar, Galactica, leads a ragtag fugitive fleet on a lonely quest… a shining planet known as Earth.”

Retro Television Review: St. Elsewhere 3.16 “Saving Face”

Posted on April 17, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Welcome to Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Fridays, I will be reviewing St. Elsewhere, a medical show which ran on NBC from 1982 to 1988. The show can be found on Daily Motion.

This week, things continue to be awkward in Boston.

Episode 3.16 “Saving Face”

(Dir by Charles Braverman, originally aired on January 16th, 1985)

This episode of St. Elsewhere was even busier than usual.

Tough-as-nails Dr. Mary Woodley (Karen Austin) has been hired to oversee the ER. Dr. Fiscus isn’t happy about it. He’s going to have to work for a woman? Agck!
Dr. Cavanero is also not happy. Of course, the last time that St. Eligius hired a new female doctor, Cavanero told everyone at the hospital that she was a lesbian and, for some reason, this led to the doctor having to leave town. (It was the 80s.) Maybe, just maybe, there are reasons to have doubts about Cavanero’s professionalism.
Dr. Westphall shows Dr. Woodley around the hospital and, as usual, comes across as being the saddest man on the planet.
Dr. Westphall informs Jack that he will be allowed to continue on as a resident. However, Westphall also rather glumly states that he will be watching Jack from now on. Jack better not screw up or Westphall will “come down” on him. Personally, I think Westphall is too depressed to really do much of anything.
Feeling guilty about Murray’s death, Elliott brings Mrs. Hufnagle a ham. Mrs. Hufnagle has an allergic reaction and ends up back in the hospital. “She thinks I tried to kill her!” Elliott says.
A teenager (Tim Van Patten) brings in his pregnant girlfriend, who has OD’d. Dr. Woodley says she is required to call family services. Myself, I started shouting, “I am da futah!” as soon as Tim “Stegman” Van Patten showed up on the screen.
Dr. Caldwell performs extensive plastic surgery on a disfigured young woman. When Dr. Ehrlich says that the patient looks like she got hit with the “ugly stick,” Caldwell kicks Ehrlich off his team.
Nobody wants to work with Ehrlich! Dr. Craig declines to invite Ehrlich to his 34 year anniversary party. Cavanero agrees to take Ehrlich as her date. “What are you doing here!?” Craig snaps as soon as he sees Ehrlich in his living room.
Dr. Craig’s younger brother, William (Lou Richards), also shows up. He was invited at Ellen’s insistence, despite the fact that William and Mark haven’t spoken in over four years. Mark feels that William has wasted his life and his potential. But when William proves to be the life of the party, it becomes apparent that Mark is actually jealous of how likable his younger brother is.
In the kitchen, Mark and William have a long conversation. William admits that he’s struggling to pay the bills. Mark writes him a check. For a few minutes, the brothers actually reconcile.
However, Mark later hears William joking about how much money surgeon’s make and he loses his temper. In front of the entire party, he calls out William and reveals that he doesn’t have a dime to his name.
That night, after everyone else has left and William has gone to the guest room, Ellen tells Mark that he should apologize. Mark agrees and says he’ll do it in the morning.
Later, during the night, Mark steps out of his bedroom and discovers that William has gone home. He left behind the check, which he ripped in half. Mark stares at the check and starts to cry.

This was another episode that did a good job balancing the serious and the humorous. Dr. Ehrlich’s inability to say the right thing will never not be funny. For that matter, the same can be said of Dr. Craig’s general irritation with everything. And yet, seeing Dr. Craig break down and cry was truly heartbreaking. Dr. Craig and Dr. Ehrlich share an inability to socialize and a habit of screwing up even the kindest of gestures. Even when they try to do the right thing, they somehow always manage to screw it up.

I wanted to cry for all of them.

Retro Television Review: St. Elsewhere 2.10 “A Pig Too Far”

Posted on August 8, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

This week, we learn about something called hacking.

Episode 2.10 “A Pig Too Far”

(Dir by Linda Day, originally aired on January 11th, 1984)

I’ve got a family thing going on today so I’m just going to do a bullet-point review.

The bigger, richer hospitals are transporting their indigent patients to St. Eligius. When one of those patients dies, Joan Holloran and Dr. Cavanero (making one of her infrequent appearances) attempt to find out why. It turns out that other hospitals view St. Eligius as being a dumping ground. It’s not ethical or particularly nice but everyone seems to agree that it’s a common practice.
Ehrlich wants to ask Roberta (Jean Bruce Scott) to marry him, despite the fact that he’s extremely immature and has no idea how to have a meaningful relationship with anyone.
Matthew Brody (David Knell) is a teenage computer nerd who, from his hospital bed, is able to hack into the hospital’s computer system. You can tell this episode was from the 80s because of a lengthy scene in which Matthew explains what hacking is. Everyone is stunned that such a thing can be done.
Bobby shaves his mustache. Now he looks like the handsome Mark Harmon we all know!
A woman with violent mood swings is brought into the psych ward. Dr. Ridley diagnoses her as having PMS. He and Dr. Morrison have a good laugh about it while this reviewer narrows her eyes and considers throwing her laptop out the bedroom window.
Shirley and Dr. White are still under investigation. What’s odd is that Shirley says that she’s currently not allowed in the ER but actually, we saw her working in the ER in the previous episode. That leads me to suspect that the episodes were aired out of their extended order.
EXCEPT — last week’s episode was a Christmas episode. This week’s episode features a somewhat random scene of Dr. Craig demanding someone take down a Christmas tree because Christmas is over. So maybe Shirley being in the ER last week was genuine mistake on the part of the writers.

This was a bit of a bland episode, to be honest. At this point, I assume anyone who shows up in the hospital is guaranteed to eventually die a terrible death.