Battlestar Galactica

Battlestar Galactica is a science fiction franchise. It includes two separate television series, one sequel series, movies, books, comic books, toy and other merchandise. The series are named after the main spacecraft, the Battlestar (a large type of warship in space) Galactica.

Original series

The first series was created in 1978 after the successful theater release of Star Wars. The series was shown on the American network ABC. The series lasted for eight months and 17 episodes before it ended. The cost of making the series was said to be one of the reasons for it ending. The series starred Lorne Greene as Commander Adama, captain of the Galactica. Richard Hatch played his son, the pilot Apollo. Dirk Benedict played Apollo's friend and fellow pilot, Starbuck.

In 1980, ABC made the sequel series Galactica 1980. This series took place after the fleet got to Earth. The series did not do well in the ratings and quickly ended. Several movies were made using edited version of both series.

Remake series

In 2003, Universal Television along with the Sci-Fi Channel and Sky One created a three-hour mini-series based on the original television series. This series was very well liked by both the audience and critics. This led to the Sci-Fi Channel making it into a series in 2004. After the 2007 season of Battlestar Galactica, the Nielsen ratings said that over 119 million people watched the series. This made it the highest rated and most watched series on cable networks. Edward James Olmos plays Commander William Adama. Jamie Bamber plays his son, Lee "Apollo" Adama. Katee Sackhoff plays Kara "Starbuck" Thrace. Starbuck was one of several characters to be changed from a male character into a female character.

Story

All of the Battlestar Galactica series have the same basic setting. In a far away part of the universe, a civilization of humans live on planets known as the "Twelve Colonies". In the past, the Colonies were at war with a cybernetic race known as the Cylons. With the help of a human named Gaius Baltar, the Cylons attacked on the Colonies. This surprise attack caused much damage to the planets where the humans lived and killed most of their populations. A few thousand of humans did not die in the attacks. They fled into space aboard any spacecraft they could. Of all the Colonial Fleet, the battlestar Galactica appears to be the only military ship that was not destroyed in the attack. Under the leadership of military leader Commander Adama, the Battlestar Galactica and its crew lead and protect the fleet of survivors into space in search of a fabled Thirteenth Colony and its home planet, Earth.