Quintessential Glen A Larson: lots of great ideas, a really exciting central concept gleefully ripped off a film or rather films (Guns of Navarone, Dirty Dozen), good ideas to involve our people (Boxey stowing away) too much stuff, too many characters.
There's this random viper pilot who we've never met who gets shot down over the ice planet who Starbuck seems to have a crush on - why not make it one of our people? I know that would be the third ep in a row where someone crashed on a planet but making it a random guesty doesn't change that... it could've been Cassiopea or Anthena for variety.
There's the Dirty Dozen who enlist to fight which is interesting (the novelisation of this is great)... but it's almost too interesting, it pulls focus from our people. Why not have them enjoy a connection with our people, like Boomer's old gang members (in a later ep it's stated he was in a gang), or people who knew Starbuck back in the day or Cassiopea back in the day, or someone Apollo arrested. The conflict between Apollo and the main convict was very good in the novelisation but here is underdeveloped. There's too many convicts - Roy Thinnes, Christine Belford, James Olsen and Richard Lynch... and the characters wear parkas so it's hard to tell them apart.
And they throw in some clones... Britt Ekland and Denny Miller and a Dr Moreau like person, Dan O'Herlihy, who created the clones... which is actually full of potential just feels skipped over. They could've gotten a whole episode out of just that - O'Herlihy's moral dilemma is dealt with in one scene.
James Olsen gets a terrific death scene (a suicide bombing) but it would mean more if he'd developed more of a relationship with our people. Roy Thinnes has a great dilemma - help the colonials or escape with his wife - which again would have played better if he'd spent more time with our people, and not done big dramatic scenes with his face covered in masks.
So plenty of strong ideas, very good cast, impressive production values. I liked things like the Clones not wanting to help at the end, the climax is very exciting.
It's a classic TV script that needed an edit but didn't get it because it was written by the show creator. You can see some fixes easily - Boxey should be in more peril, the pilot who is downed in the opening sequence should have been Athena (who'd been established as a pilot in Lost Planet of the Gods), the convicts should've known Apollo who put them in prison and maybe the girl could've known Boomer or something.
Still, plenty of things to admire.
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