TV show - "Battlestar Galactica - Saga of a Star World" (1978) ***

I had been waiting for the DVD of this series to go on special and finally found a copy for $30! Saw the first three episodes last night - the ones that were later cut into a feature film. I know this is partly influenced by nostalgia, but I thought it holds up really well. At his best Glenn A Larson was a very good writer, and this three part pilot has a very strong structure - I mean Act I begins with the near annihiliation of the human race! Act II with the crew and humans fleeing is a bit choppier, but Act III on the creepy weird planet is strong. Yes there are cringy and laughable moments - the expression on that guy's face as Caprica is being destroyed, Boxey (Noah Hathaway) telling his mum "I wish he were my daddy", the scene between a near naked Athena and Starbuck (this is cut in a lot of the movie versions), the unexciting mine field scene, the repetive nature of a lot of the action. But a lot of it is very good - Apollo's brother getting wasted ("that, Mr President, was my son"), Lew Ayres as the weak president, Ray Milland as a villainous politician, the beauty of Jane Seymour, solid performances from the regulars (Richard Hatch, Dirk Benedict and Lorne Greene), the scene where Terry Carter as uptight Col Tigh is busted robbing uniforms and says the Commander is "gonna go crazy" - watch Carter suddenly go blaxploitation for that line, the humour of much of the film (a lot of it involving Benedict). Not all the subsequent episodes were of this quality but for me it still holds up today.