Mission Galactica: The Cylon Attack (1979)

You won't be disappointed!

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

The acting in this movie is really good.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

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.

Let's think people , quit bad-mouthing the original , for it's time the original Battlestar series was a masterpiece , even still with all the stars , story lines and art . Lorne Greene was great as Adama and Richard Hatch was perfect as Apollo and Dirk Benedict was funny as Starbuck , but I dare say , not as pretty as Katee as Starbuck . I loved the episode with the Pegasus and Greetings from Earth was good John Calicos was great as Baltar , War of the Gods , the best was Experiment in Terra , I thought that was a tribute in a way to Heaven Can Wait , then you had the women of Battlestar , not to compare them to let's say Tricia who is outstandingly beautiful as Number Six , but Jane Seymour's beauty could not be compared to . Let alone Loerrta Spang as Cassiopea was fantastic .She had beauty that a rainbow would be embarrassed by . I loved the original as much as the new .Can you imagine if John Calicos had a number six ? :)Thankyou for listening .

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.

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.