Uriah43 After the destruction of their home planets by a race of machine creatures known as "Cylons", a desperate group of human survivors manage to flee in a motley collection of space ships which are protected by their last major warship—the "Battlestar Galactica". Unfortunately, having already traveled a great distance, the Commander of the Battlestar Galactica, "Adama" (Lorne Greene) is informed that the flotilla is perilously close to running out of fuel. On top of that, two of his two best Viper pilots, "Captain Apollo" (Richard Hatch) and "Lieutenant Starbuck" (Dirk Benedict) are overdue from their latest patrol. It's at this time that long range scanners aboard the Galactica begin to pick up a strange mirror image of their own warship. But the image is too perfect to be just an ordinary mirror image. Now rather than reveal any more of this movie and risk spoiling it for those who haven't seen it I will just say that this movie is essentially two and a half episodes of the television series, "Battlestar Galactica" (comprised of "The Living Legend, Part I", "The Living Legend, Part II" and "Fire in Space") all rolled into one. That being the case, those who are somewhat familiar with the television series should have few problems understanding the overall plot. Those unfamiliar with the show might miss a few nuances here and there but otherwise there really isn't anything too advanced or unusual for first-time viewers to be unable to understand. As far as the overall merits of the movie is concerned let me just say that this film is clearly dated as the CGI, while state-of-the-art at the time (1978), is clearly not in the same class as that seen today. Likewise, the acting was pretty standard and some of the dialogue seemed a bit too corny at times. But all things considered this isn't a bad movie and I rate it as about average—no more and no less.

GURNEYRAMPART This film was edited from the episodes LIVING LEGEND parts 1 and 2 and FIRE IN SPACE. MISSION GALACTICA is ok as a film, but is nothing more than edited tv footage. The story revolves around the Galactica finding another Battlestar called the Pegasus and a fierce battle the two warships must fight over two planets in a system of planets controlled by the cylons. The film features LLOYD BRIDES as Cain the commander of the second battlestar who is essentially a celestial Patton. The film also focuses on the clash between the comand styles of Adama and cain. MISSION GALACTICA makes for fine family viewing. If the film were to get a MPAA rating it would be G.

edmiller2001@hotmail.com Skip Mission: Galactica and watch the original Living Legend episodes instead. The network took parts 1 & 2 of Living Legend and jammed them into one plot with the awful Fire In Space episode. Although Galactica suffered from network-controlled writing and a lack of time to prepare for a proper production, Living Legend is the best of the 1978 TV series. Fire in Space, on its own, is one of the worst episodes. As a historical note, watch Galactica, the original Star Trek, and then the revival Trek series, and you'll see the difference in quality between network-produced sci-fi and syndicated sci-fi.

Starbuck-13 As I said in my comment about the first part: These two movies are better than most Science Fiction Fans confess.The scenario in the second movie is not that moving as we don't see the destruction of human civilization, but the aftermath, thousands of refugees fleeing in tiny space cans, protected by only one powerful spaceship.But when Battlestar Pegasus appears, the story heats up, carrying the battle back to the Cylon Planets. Okay, it has a little bit of Mad Max because all they fight for is fuel for their spaceships to travel on to find the distant Earth, but it works for me. It is thrilling Science Fiction entertainment featuring fine actors and decent special effects (even though those tend to repeat themselves, to say the least :-) ).I would have loved a continuation with Starbuck and Apollo on board. Instead, we got a second sequel with no name characters who proved that the story had worked before especially because the feature characters were so well-chosen...So thumbs down for the productions of 1980, but thumbs up for the two movies from 1978.