Some time ago Mike Egnor got in touch with Battlestar Galactica 1978 director Alan Levi, who took over from Richard Colla on the pilot "Saga of a Star World" after he was fired. He also later directed the episode "The Gun on Ice Planet Zero". Alan Levi talks about how he got in the business, working with the cast and crew on the Battlestar Galactica episodes he directed, the problems he had with Glen Larson, other work he did in his career, and what's he up to nowadays.

At the 30th anniversary of the Battlestar Galactica series, held in September 2008 in the form of a cruise (aka GALACTICRUISE), we had writer and story editor Terrence McDonnell as one of our special guests. He amazed everyone, that after 30 years, he still remembered so well the Battlestar Galactica series and the episodes he wrote. This is the transcript of the interview panel Mike Egnor did with him plus a follow up phone interview that went into even greater detail about the series (135 minutes of audio in total).

Some time ago Mike Egnor caught up with Chris Nyby, better known to Battlestar Galactica 1978 fans for directing the episodes "Lost Planet of the Gods", "The Long Patrol", "The Magnificent Warriors" and "Fire in Space". He talks extensively about how he got in the business and how he got to work on Battlestar Galactica. He also talks about working on the episodes he directed, the cast and crew involved, and what he's up to nowadays.

This article will attempt to reconstruct the history of the design of one of the most recognisable aliens and villains in TV history: Battlestar Galactica's Cylon Centurion. The history, based upon images from my private collection and talking to people who worked on it, begins with the initial sketches and paintings from Ralph McQuarrie. It continues on the work of Joe Johnston, Andrew Probert and Ralph Massey, and concludes with the making of the costume itself and the stunt men that wore the Cylon Centurion suits.

Ralph Massey is an American fine artist, known for his paintings, small sculptures and the use of those in his jewelry designs. For Battestar Galactica he was initially just asked to make a full size sculpture of the Ovion (which wasn't used), but later also made additional sculptures for the Cylon Centurion and the Daggit. The clay model he made for the Cylon Centurion, based on Andrew Probert's design, was used to make the screen used costume.

Phil Tippett is a movie director and an award-winning Visual Effects Supervisor and Producer, who specializes in creature design and character animation. He's better known for his stop-motion of the Imperial Walkers in Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back and the development of the go-motion technique. For Battlestar Galactica's pilot episode "Saga of a Star World" Phil Tippett, together with Jon Berg and Laine Liska, worked on the Ovion costume.

Joe Johnston is an American film director, responsible for such movies as Hidalgo, Jumanji and Jurassic Park III, who started out as a storyboard and concept artist for George Lucas on Star Wars. On Battlestar Galactica he worked on a great number of concept designs like the Battlestar Galactica, the Colonial Viper, the Cylon Raider, but also on the costume designs of the Ovion, Cylon Centurion and the Daggit. He might also have assisted on making the models of the ships.

Andrew Probert is a concept artist working for both televison and motion pictures. He's best known for his design work on the USS Enterprise for Star Trek: The Motion Picture and the Enterprise-D on Star Trek: The Next Generation television series. For Battlestar Galactica he worked on the design of the Cylon Centurion costume, a matte painting of the landing bay of the Galactica, and the design of the Cylon Basestar.

Dan Goozee currently works as an award winning fine artist, but has enjoyed a successful career in creating visual art for motion picture production, film advertising, and as a long-term consultant with the Walt Disney Imagineering. For Battlestar Galactica Dan Goozee worked on the creation of the landram, the battlestar battery, several ships in the fleet (like The Rising Star) and the Ovions weapons. If you'd like to know more about his work, read the Dan Goozee GALACTICA.TV interview.

After finishing the first Star Wars movie, Ralph McQuarrie was asked to do the concept art for the Battlestar Galactica 1978 series. Ralph McQuarrie worked on the designs of the battlestar Galactica, the Viper, the Cylon Raider and Basestar and even did some preliminary artwork on the costumes of the Cylons, the Imperious Leader and the Ovions. Also his work on the Battlestar Galactica logo and poster is shown. This gallery shows a collection of these concept sketches.

Next to doing concept sketches for the designs of the ships and aliens on Battlestar Galactica 1978, Ralph McQuarrie was also asked to paint 24 color images to be used on the first script of the pilot "Saga of a Star World". This script (of which only 50 were printed) was written to convince the studios to pick up this costly project and the illustrations helped to explain and visualize the story. This gallery shows, for the first time, a complete set of those 24 color images.

An American, born in Toulon, France, Jean-Pierre Dorleac's prolific career in costume design has encompassed feature films, television, theatre, music videos and private couture. His Battlestar Galactica costume designs were nominated for several awards and in 1979 he won the Emmy for "Outstanding Costume Design for a Series" for the Battlestar Galactica episode "Furlon" ("The Man with Nine Lives"), that guest starred Fred Astaire as Chameleon.

Martin A. Kline worked for many years as a production illustrator with special effects units and principle production, and as a first unit art director on movies like Jurassic Park and Forrest Gump. He's currently working as a Senior Visual Effects Art Director for Imageworks. For Battlestar Galactica he worked on storyboards, concept art for props like the snow mask ("The Gun on Ice Planet Zero") and the Lucifer costume.

In 2009 this Battlestar Galactica concept art of the Cylon Basestar made by Steve Amos was discovered. Steve Amos was never credited for his work on Battlestar Galactica or any other concept art for movies for that matter on sites like IMDb. We have no idea who he is (or was?), what else he did on this particular series, etc. We call upon any fan who has more information about Steve Amos (or has more artwork made by him) to contact us.

Some years ago I bought this original matte painting, made for the Battlestar Galactica 1978 pilot episode "Saga of a Star World". The matte painting, made by a still unknown artist, wasn't used like this in the pilot. It was redone slightly different in the screen used version. The painting itself is on a transparant sheet which drops over a photo of a mountain landscape (both were different on the screen used version).

This document shows the original budget estimate for Battlestar Galactica's pilot movie "Saga of a Star World". The document totals on $7,062,161, a figure also mentioned by Richard Colla in the Richard Colla GALACTICA.TV interview, so this estimate might very well even made by him. The budget estimate mentions exactly how much money was to be spent on every actor, the special effect, the sets and much, much more. A unique look at the money spent on the pilot.

This is the official contract of John Dykstra and his visual effects team for Battlestar Galactica (at that time still called Starworld). The contract is co-signed by almost all the (now famous) members of the visual effects team, like Richard Edlund, Grant McCune, Donald Trumbull, Joe Johnston, Ralph Massey, Carlo Rambaldi (unsigned), etc. Also included is the addtional request for a change in the contract for John Dykstra to continue his work on the Battlestar Galactica televison series.

This document shows the original budget estimate for Battlestar Galactica's episode "The Ultimate Weapon" (aka "The Gun on Ice Planet Zero"). This is just the budget estimate for the making of the special effects which already totals at $832,681! This unique document specifically shows how much money was to be spent on making models, matte paintings and specific scenes. The end of this document shows an overview of which scenes were new and which came from stock.

Lorne Greene, better known as Commander Adama on the original Battlestar Galactica series, passed away back in 1987. This audio interview with Lorne Greene is done on set during filming Battlestar Galactica's episode "Greetings From Earth". Since so little interviews like this even exist, we're extremly happy to have found this audio that hasnever been published. We also added two unique audio commercials for US Airforce Recruitment.

Recently this fantastic Battlestar Galactica Visual Effects Crew Video by Dave Berry turned up and shows the making and filming of the original series models. It gives unique backstage insight on the crash landing of the shuttle and the gun from "The Gun on Ice Planet Zero", the landram (which was also used on "Saga of a Star World") and much, much more. It also introduces some of the people that worked and filmed these models that made television history back in 1978.

This is a unique, never published audio interview with Dirk Benedict, better known as Lt. Starbuck of the original Battlestar Galactica series. It's a two-part set on set interview that was taped shortly before the airing of Battlesstar Galactica's pilot episode "Saga of a Star World". We hear a young, nervous Dirk Benedict, stuttering and stammering about the Battlestar Galactica series in general and his role in it, his young budding career as an actor and his future plans back in 1978.

This gallery shows the first part of the (early) storyboards (by Martin Kline?) of the Battlestar Galactica pilot "Saga of a Star World". They're based on an early version of the pilot script. We're introduced to Skyler (with beard!), later to be named Apollo and his brother Zac. They stumble upon the Cylons (early Ralph McQuarrie design), Zac gets hit and they try to warn the fleet of the upcoming attack. Adama returns to the Galactica from the Atlantia where he met the Council and the President.

This gallery shows the second part of the (early) storyboards (by Martin Kline?) of the Battlestar Galactica pilot "Saga of a Star World". They're based on an early version of the pilot script. In this part we continue on Skyler's (Apollo's) and Zac's run from the Cylon Raiders to warn the fleet. The space battle that follows is victorious, but damages Zac's ship (all the maneuvers of the battle are drawn out in great detail) and he's killed off by the Cylon fleet with the battlestar Galactica in sight.

This gallery shows the third part of the (early) storyboards (by Martin Kline?) of the Battlestar Galactica pilot "Saga of a Star World". They're based on an early version of the pilot script. We continue in the storyline of the Cylons attacking the homeworld. On Caprica Lyra, later to be named Serina, reports the attack. After the destruction of the planets, we see the exodus starting up to form the ragtag fleet which will journey on a quest to find that shining planet called Earth.

These are some of the original sketched storyboards of Battlestar Galactica's pilot "Saga of a Star World". They're made by Dan Goozee and show the first 9 pages of the "Attack on Caprica" scene at the beginning of the pilot. The storyboards were made for an early version of the pilot script where Serina was still named Lyra. These storyboard sketches were later translated into real storyboards as can be seen here in Storyboards of "Saga of a Star World".

These are three of the original sketched color storyboards of the Battlestar Galactica episode "The Gun on Ice Planet Zero". They're made by concept artist Dan Goozee and show three different scenes. The first shows the viper cockpit when its being fired upon by the Ravashol laser, the second shows the Ravashol laser gun itself and the third one shows the mountain range the Ravashol laser is hidden in (pointing out the live action vs. the matte painting).

Frank Frazetta is a fantasy and science fiction artist, noted for work in comic books, paperback book covers, paintings, posters, record-album covers, and other media. Frank Frazetta made several paintings for Battlestar Galactica which were later used on the covers of the Battlestar Galactica fiction novels. It's unknown if he was hired to just do poster art or if his paintings were really used as concept art for both the pilot as the series.

Robert Tanenbaum has executed numerous portraits for the movie industry and over 200 paintings of famous sports figures in Nascar, baseball, basketball, football, hockey and horse racing. Next to that his painting include, Native Americans , working cowboys, portraits and contemporary subjects. For Battlestar Galactica Robert Tanenboum painted the art used on the "Saga of a Star World" and "Mission Galactica: The Cylon Attack" movie posters.

The body of work that John Solie has created in a career spanning over 40 years is beyond impressive. His legendary skill for depicting "dead-on likenesses" of famous people has kept John in demand by major Hollywood movie studios, television networks, book publishers and magazine editors. The art he did for Battlestar Galactica was used on posters, books, the LP cover of the music score and much more.

Don Lawrence was a British comic book artist and author and is best known for his comic strips "The Rise and Fall of the Trigan Empire" and ;"Storm". Famous for his realistic and detailed style, he was an inspiration for later highly influentual UK comic-book artists like Brian Bolland, Dave Gibbons and Chris Weston. This Battlestar Galactica poster art was made to promote the series on Dutch television.