Galactica 1980 is little loved and it is flawed but this pilot has some good things. Stay with me: faced with the challenge of a smaller budget I don't think it was a bad idea to have them find earth and decide to bring our technology up to speed, discovering who they can trust... that's not a bad concept. It's a different show, it's not a space show, it's got a lighter tone.
There are flaws: Lorne Greene's fake beard (though that does imply the passing of time), the stilted Barry Van Dyke and especially Kent McCord aren't as good as Richard Hatch and Dirk Benedict. They didn't need the time travel element - they could've just had Xavier dealing with ruthless people on Earth. I mean, I guess you could've a whole show out of that concept... but here it's like a fish of water concept on top of a fish of water concept. And it feels vaguely insulting they're rescuing Jews from concentration camps in such a child like cartoony way and Tom Atkins is annoying as a secret service agent.
Then there's these act three shenanigans with Xavier running around in the present day and the kids being bullied and Troy and Dillon telling the kids not to talk to adults which hasn't aged well. It's like Larson was making it up as he went along.
It has a nice line of humour. Robyn Douglass is warm and lovely. Robert Reed's afro is entertaining. Richard Lynch is a strong, well motivated villain with an arguable case. When I was eight I related to the kid. And this was how I learned about D Day and the Holocaust.
But it's a first draft on film.
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