[Eric Paddon]

The other night I watched this for the first time in a couple years. In fact, it was the first time in a couple years I had watched *any* episode of Galactica, and even though I have watched it many, many times over the years, this would be like a new experience in light of the fact that since I last watched "Saga" or any other episode of "Galactica" I've had a chance to see a LOT of vintage TV on DVD in the intervening period. It almost had me concerned that maybe after seeing so many other shows in all that time, would I suddenly be more aware of perceived faults in how Saga was done? Granted, I've noted inconsistencies and other assorted things in the past, but would they stick out more this time?

Thankfully, the opposite proved true. If anything, I found myself struck by how incredibly well Saga holds up as a pilot show, AND how it succeeds magnificently in communicating that sense of distance and awe that's necessary to sell the believability of the whole storyline to the viewers. There is no attempt to be cutesy and cheesy like "Lost In Space" or "Buck Rogers" a year later. We're expected to take this grand space adventure across the farthest reaches of the unknown from our own world as a serious piece of storytelling with just some occasional humorous undertones, and I still believe Saga does that brilliantly.

Most importantly, Saga gives us a premise of what these people are seeking....Earth, and it soon becomes clear with subsequent episodes that this motivation that guides them is going to remain an integral part of the series and isn't just going to be set aside in the name of doing totally self-contained adventures we can watch at random. Indeed, you can look at other shows that all but ignored forward momentum past their first one or two shows like the 1974 TV version of "Planet Of The Apes", but with "Galactica" we got some necessary forward momentum at key points and thus after just one season, "Galactica" it was possible to look back and see a season where things were no longer the same as they'd been when the template was first established. Not many other series of the day, even the most popular ones, could ever claim that.

I will admit that perhaps those of us who first experienced Galactica in 1978 did have one advantage over the adults of the day watching in that we could more easily embrace that seriousness of storyline because we came in with no familiarity with the actors from the roles they played before. Were there many of us before Galactica who had been regular viewers of "Bonanza?" We could more easily look at Lorne Greene and accept him as Commander Adama because we never knew he'd spent a veritable lifetime in TV as Ben Cartwright. I guess for the adults who came of age from their childhood to adulthood watching Lorne on another show, they were just never capable of suspending their disbelief, and maybe that underlying prejudice accounted in some small part for the unfair notices Galactica got at the time.

It's sometimes easy to become so fascinated with the minutiae of Galactica as we do in forums like this that we can end up going a long time without watching the show. It's nice to find out that when we do return to it and give it another look, the enjoyment level that's made us join forums like this, is still there.