Battlestar Galactica: The Night the Cylons Landed - Halloween, Yet!

"The Night the Cylons Landed"
NBC Video Rewind
video (two episodes: 47:25, 47:24)

Decades ago, I saw several minutes of a Battlestar Galactica episode, involving Cylons, Halloween, and a crashed spaceship. And, despite my tepid efforts to monitor re-runs, I didn't see it again. Until tonight.



Although I'm a fan of the seventies series (Lorne Greene, brilliantly inexpensive models, and all), I'll admit that for most episodes, the willing suspension of disbelief gets stretched pretty thin.

In this one it's almost transparent.

But, it was worth the hour-and-a-half-plus I spent watching. For me, half the fun is in those 'Batttlestar Galactica' moments. Including definitely-not-Shakespeare lines like these:

• In something like the Strategic Air Command, tracking an incoming Cylon ship
  "...it could be Israeli: or French...."
• Two pilots from Battlestar Galactica, getting airline tickets
  "Would you prefer smoking or non-smoking?"
  "Which way does the plane run best?"
  "Heh. That's cute."
• After (finally) getting on the airliner, a hijacking
  "We're taking this airplane to Cuba!"
  ...
  "We don't have time to go there."
• Still on the airliner, facing another delay
  "Hallow-what?"
  "Forget that. Look up "FBI."
  "Uh-oh. Law enforcement...."
• Still being delayed on their mission
  "How do we get into these messes?"
  "How do we get out of them?"
• Two police officers, questioning the Battlestar Galactica pilots
  "What in the world is this?"
  "Some kind of cigarette lighter?"
  Happily, the 'cigarette lighter' was pointed at a tree when the officer pushed the trigger
• Hoodlum, having encountered two Battlestar Galactica pilots, nearly runs into a Cylon - eight feet of metal and attitude
  "This is a bad night for muggers."

There are still Battlestar Galactical episodes that I want to see again: including one which if memory serves, has an 'advanced' Cylon bragging about dodging a Battlestar Galactica fighter. A standard-issue Cylon replies, "brilliant - maneuver - unfortunately - we are about - to crash."

And, what I believe is the ultimate Starbuck moment: Dirk Benedict's character has been:

• Captured by Cylons
• Imprisoned in a Cylon base ship
• Brought before the throne of the Cylon leader
  • On its four-yard-high dais
• Face to tentacles with the Cylon leader (think Cthulhu on a bad day)
• Flanked by eight-foot-tall chrome-plated Cylons

The Cylon leader informs Starbuck that refusal to cooperate may be unpleasant.

Starbuck strikes a match on the front of a Cylon, lights his cigar, cocks his head, and asks, "you mean, it could get worse?"

More: " 'Galactica 1980' The Night the Cylons Landed: Part 1 (1980)"