Have no fear for spring is here...of course the post really doesn't follow that theme...but it is here!
Movie-Moron takes a look at "The movies that Influenced Battlestar Galactica. Natually, Star Wars gets a mention: (Thanks Sheridan!)
"Oddly enough, despite basically owing it?s entire existence to it, this is the film that the new Galactica bears the least resemblance too. It was 1978 when some NBC bigwig ordered the original Galactica, presumably having seen Star Wars the previous year and deciding ?I need me one of those?. The result? Luke and Han became Apollo and Starbuck, X-Wings became Vipers and Stormtroopers became?Silver! And robotic. And called Cylons. All things which the new Galactica retained, albeit with a change in gender and a skinjob or two (which sounds weird when you put it that way?) Lest we forget, ships that are a hunk of junk like the Galactica didn?t really exist in Sci-Fi prior to the Millennium Falcon and the other ships in Star Wars, which popularised the ?used future? aesthetic. Beforehand it was shiny shiny shiny C57D and the like.
Star Wars is way more fantasy than the military SF that Galactica is, but there is still a similar attachment to hokey old religions."