Friday, November 6, 2009

BATTLESTAR GALACTICA: THE SECOND COMING (1999)


Most readers of this blog have probably already seen this, but I thought it was worth posting, and since it's directly tied to the 1978 Battlestar Galactica series, it seems appropriate to this site, as well.

Ten years ago, prior to Universal Studios' revamp/reimagining of Battlestar Galactica for the Sci-Fi Channel, actor Richard Hatch wrote and personally financed this four-minute promotional trailer for a proposed, straight-forward sequel series.

Taking place a couple of decades after the conclusion of the '78 show, Hatch's version had Apollo in charge of the Colonial fleet, having succeeded the now-deceased Adama. Starbuck is missing, and when Baltar returns, warning of a new, more-deadly generation of Cylons, Apollo must train a new force of young warriors to battle the threat.

Several original cast members - Terry Carter, Jack Stauffer, George Murdock, and the late John Colicos - joined Hatch's ambitious project (along with Galactica 1980 villain Richard Lynch), but I don't believe that Universal ever seriously considered going with the actor's proposed revival.

Hatch ultimately used many of his story concepts in a series of authorized Galactica novels co-written by Christopher Golden (and others). I have three of them, and they're actually pretty good.

Video Copyright 1999 by Su-Shann Productions.

7 comments:

  1. It´s always a pleseaure to join your site. I´m online with my site now. Maybe there are some similar topics intresting for you. Thanks, Kolja

    ReplyDelete
  2. I have to say, I think I would have been much happier with Hatch's proposed series than that militaristic soap opera we ended up with. :( I tried to like that; I tried very hard, but it wasn't for me, I suppose. :(

    Hatch's trailer, however, had me very nearly giddy.


    Duke

    ReplyDelete
  3. Frankly, I wish THAT had been the new BG!! I hadn't actually seen that trailer before. Thanks for posting it--and that cool poster art!!

    ReplyDelete
  4. I have to admit, to be financed by Hatch, this trailer is pretty impressive. I missed most of the new BG and just acquired the box set. I hope it lives up to the sense of adventure this trailer just provided. It is obvious that BG was much more than just a job for Hatch.

    Keep up the great blogging Chris.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Wow! If they could have done that, I would have watched. That looked thoroughly cool. Although the original series had its bad points, it was getting back to being epic by its conclusion... Second Coming would have been a fitting epic return echoing the best the original had to offer. I shall try to find those novels, just to read what might have been.

    Oh, I also tried to watch the re-imagined version, and just could not get into it... it was too angst-ridden, and far too drawn out for my liking. (I don't mind longevity, but there's a difference between longevity and milking something out.)
    CR

    ReplyDelete
  6. Interesting to see how some of the idea used here ended up in the new series (specifially, the new ship designs for the Cylons).

    ReplyDelete
  7. Aside from re-imaging the gender of many of my favorite characters in the classic series, I just couldn't get into the idea of robots making love with humans, and I can't understand why so many people didn't feel as creeped out about it as I was...

    ReplyDelete