Galactica 1980: Complete Series [DVD] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC]

While it is splendid to see Lorne Green & Herbert Jefferson JR back in action - along with Dirk Benedict at the series premature ending one does miss the other characters . It was cancelled during the production of an episode involving Cleopatra escaping & Glen A Larson planned another called Wall Of Fire which sounds excellent . So it is a shame that Larson was not given the chance to make things better - budget cuts & the desire to make it childish sealed its doom . There were never any reasons for the absence of Athena , Baltar , Apollo or Cassie and the lack of fighting between the fleeing humans and the cylons is a bore . It shows all the hallmarks of some of the episodes that came later in the original Battlestar Galactica ( i.e. camp , cheesy and divorced utterly from the whole dark premise of survivors fleeing a holacaust with the ghastly 1970's hair dos being far more scary than the villians who replaced the cylons ) . With the best will in the world Richard Lynch is just not John Collicos - but Barry Van Dyke does play his part very well . The last episode is very poignant indeed & if the broadcasters had backed Glen A Larson and more ones of this quality had followed we might have been toasting Galactica 1980 as being better as it went on . It is depressing the way they labour the theme of people being left behind & not being seen again without saying what happened . Lorne Greene is very good indeed & he makes this series at least bearable . As with Carry On Emmannuelle it is something that is the part of a series that few perhaps understandably remember . It is just a footnote in the history of TV sci-fi and that is why it has taken so long to come out on DVD . Only watch if you want to see how not to do a spin off . It was a good idea but could have been better developed .