Battlestar Galactica

When a sudden and devastating assault by the robotic Cylons annihilates the Twelve Colonies, Commander Adama and the crew of the battlestar Galactica shepherd a ragged collection of survivors into space. With whole worlds gone, the fleet is a mix of military vessels, civilian transports, politicians and refugees all trying to keep order while resources run low and Cylon attacks continue. Key military figures like Capt. Apollo and Lt. Starbuck operate as both pilots and symbols of morale, while civil leaders and Adama wrestle with how to keep hope alive. Their stated destination is a legendary planet called Earth, a distant promise that drives each mission, skirmish and tense negotiation without ever revealing every secret of the journey.

Created by Glen A. Larson, Battlestar Galactica premiered in 1978, launching with the feature-length TV movie "Saga of a Star World." The series combined television production constraints with large-scale miniatures, practical effects and a space opera tone, aiming to capture the spectacle audiences wanted after the late 1970s surge in big-screen science fiction.

The show left a clear mark on genre television, helping popularize serialized space opera on TV and inspiring a devoted fan community. Its spaceship and Cylon designs showed up in toys, books and conventions, and the original concept later led to a much-discussed reimagined series in the 2000s, keeping the property in public conversation for decades.

Critics at the time were split, often praising the visual ambition and action set pieces while calling out uneven writing and melodramatic elements. Viewers embraced the characters and the survival premise, reflected in steady fan interest and a current average rating around 7.09/10. Recurring themes include leadership under strain, the costs of survival, human identity in the face of machine enemies, and the role of myth and faith in keeping a community together.

The original run didn’t accumulate major industry awards, but its production scale and imaginative creatures and ships have been reassessed positively in retrospectives, and the series is frequently mentioned in histories of television science fiction.