So say we all! Retrozapper shazbazzar takes a look at the unusually strong ties between the Galaxy Far, Far Away and the Colonial Battlestars.
By September of 1978, Star Wars had been on movie screens across the country for the better part of the past year. As the fervor for this new blend of science fiction and fantasy continued to spread feverishly in the United States and abroad, filmmakers and TV producers raced to produce more stories in this genre. On the third Sunday of the month, a made-for-television movie (earlier titled Star Worlds, but changed to Battlestar Galactica after a plagiarism lawsuit was filed because of its similarity to Star Wars) aired on ABC. The combination of lovable characters, improved special effects, and humanitarian stories captured the hearts and minds of a public yearning for more tales of starships and space battles to quench their thirst for more Star Wars. The special was entitled “Saga of a Star World” and kicked-off a season-long series that has lived for nearly forty years in our collective consciousness, ushering in a brief reprise of the show in 1980 and a reimagined mini-series on the Sci-Fi Channel (later renamed SyFy) in 2008 which later developed into an ongoing series for several seasons on the channel.
The three-hour televised introduction of Battlestar Galactica opened with the familiarity of the remarkably successful Star Wars from young Zac’s quip, “I have a funny feeling about this,” to the dogfights with Cylon Raiders and the targeting computer screens of the Colonial Vipers. Without a doubt, Glen A. Larson was capitalizing on the cultural phenomenon that exploded around the George Lucas zeitgeist. Different enough to convince Lucas to drop his lawsuit, Battlestar Galactica nevertheless made masterful use of some of the recognizable concepts of Star Wars to allure audiences and captivate viewers. The “used” feel of Lucasfilm’s masterpiece was translated by Larson and Director Richard A. Colla into a “rag tag fugitive fleet” set on “a lonely quest for a shining planet known as Earth.” Bolstering their effort to attract fans of the blockbuster space opera, Universal and ABC hired Ralph McQuarrie (famous for his design of the Star Wars universe) to conceptualize the look of Battlestar Galactica. Together with Joe Johnston and other ILM team members, such as Phil Tippet and Jon Berg, Galactica‘s look was similar enough to that galaxy far, far away to demand immediate attention from viewers. When the Galactica‘s Colonial Warriors discover a “resort” on Carillon (somewhat similar to Corellia, smuggler/gambler Han Solo’s homeworld), they enter a casino bar complete with odd-looking musical entertainers, albeit with a more disco vibe than the Mos Eisley cantina from Star Wars.
This relationship between Star Wars and Battlestar Galactica continued from movie to television series and back to the movies, as early designs for the Cylon Basestar was reused by McQuarrie in his design of Cloud City in The Empire Strikes Back. Not only was concept design used somewhat interchangeably, but elements of the plot of “Saga of a Star World” are evident in the plot of the Star Wars sequel. The Imperious Leader informs the traitorous Baltar that his Colony was destroyed, telling him, “I have now altered the bargain.” In May of 1980, moviegoers would hear Darth Vader tell Lando Calrissian much the same thing, with an ominous twist, saying, “I am altering the deal; pray I don’t alter it any further.” In the second Star Wars prequel, Attack of the Clones, insectoid Geonosians are constructing a droid army for the Separatists. The Ovions from “Saga of a Star World” were reportedly originally designed as the builders of the robotic Cylons in an early imagining of Star Worlds. The similarities between these galaxies may simply be coincidental, yet the connection seems more than incidental.
With one of the most recent episodes of Star Wars Rebels on Disney XD, the connection between Star Wars and Battlestar Galactica seems to have come full circle. In the Zeb-centric episode, “Legend of the Lasat”, two other members of Zeb’s species are convinced that a prophecy about Lirasan is more truth than myth, and enlist the Captain of the Honor Guard to help them find their ancient homeworld. The overarching plot of Battlestar Galactica followed Adama’s quest to find Earth, the world the legendary Thirteenth Colony had made their new home. Likewise, Zeb’s fellow Lasats, Gron and Chava, are seeking Lirasan as a new home for the remaining members of their nearly extinct species. Throughout the half-hour episode, elements from “Saga of a Star World” and the first two full-length episodes of the series, “Lost Planet of the Gods” (Parts I & II), are borrowed for the journey into the imploded star cluster. In “Saga of a Star World”, Apollo, Starbuck, and Boomer blindly lead the fleet through the Magadon Nova, blasting Cylon mines along the way. The journey through the void in “Lost Planet of the Gods” climaxes in the discovery of a singular planet orbiting a bright star. Adama concludes this planet is Kobol, the birthplace and original home of humans before they set off for the stars. By then end of Rebels‘ “Legend of the Lasat”, Zeb reveals that Lirasan is not only a suitable new home for his people, but the birthplace and homeworld of their species. The connection between Star Wars and Battlestar Galactica is complete.
The saga responsible for launching a classic television series in the late seventies found a way to emulate the series it had spawned in its own television series nearly forty years later. As Darth Vader so eloquently put it: “The circle is now complete.”
Watch for more TechnoRetro Connections between some of our favorite memories of the past as they return to the forefront of today’s popular culture here on RetroZap.com. In the meantime, explore more of the latest Star Wars/Battlestar Galactica connection on this episode of Rebel Force Radio’s Rebels: Declassified with JediShua and shazbazzar as well as shazbazzar’s post on StarWarsReport.com as well as a Dan Lizotte’s review of “Legend of the Lasat” here on RetroZap.com!
Christian. Husband. Father. TechnoRetro Dad. A child of the ’70s and ’80s, shazbazzar grew up in a galaxy far, far away even while residing in the land of iron and coal in a small town in northeastern Kentucky. Enthralled with many aspects of science fiction and fantasy, he embraced 3 3/4″ action figures and playsets, a wide variety of games, and all kinds of cartoons, TV shows, and movies in his childhood. Now living in the South, he shares the fun and fandom of his youth with his own kids who, in turn, are introducing him to their own interests.