Mission Galactica: The Cylon Attack

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.