Main Battle Platform Type Heavy: Battlestar
Web site by: Phil Broad

Construction: The filming miniature under construction at the Apogee special effects house.

After Filming: The filming miniature during restoration by Mark Bradley in 1990.

Public Display:  The filming miniature when on display in Los Angeles.

Full Scale Sets: These are a series of shots of some of the interior sets.

Jim Creveling:  An exacting replica of the Galactica filming miniature as built by Jim.

Galactica

After the stunning and surprise success of "Star Wars" in the mid '70s the search was on for a television property that might cash-in on all the "space opera" fervor.  When Universal Studios executives finally saw the presentation for "Galactica" by Glen A. Larson and Donald P. Bellisario they knew they had what they were looking for.  Though written in the form of a cheap serial of the 1930s it would prove to be anything but.  For its day "Galactica" was THE biggest budget TV series ever and Universal Studios was anything but confident about it.  True, there was already an energized market "ready for more" but would it grab the kind of market share required to support such huge weekly budgets?  Only time would tell.  To ensure as large an audience as possible, a great deal of pre publicity was created in order to generate advance interest, including appearances on Johnny Carson's "Tonight Show" by Jane Seymore, female lead of the three hour pilot episode.  In the end "Galactica" would not be able to maintain the huge audience needed, even after budget cutting techniques were applied.  During its short life, Galactica would acquire a large and loyal following which might have proven enough if the overhead cost had not been prohibitively high.  This built-in audience was recognized several years after the shows cancellation when it was revived as "Galactica 1980".  Featuring even smaller budgets, the fans soon abandoned this poor attempt at a new series.  Today some people still hope to revive the series once again but who knows if the Battlestar Galactica will threaten the Cylon Empire once more?  For myself, I would like to think that it will.

The Galactica as Modeled

The studio miniature of the Galactica was approximately six feet in length and almost entirely covered with parts from commercial model kits.  Model builders will quickly recognize the half sections of Saturn V kits used on the front of the engine section or the rows of tank bodies which make up the sides.  Unfortunately, unlike the other kits from this show, the commercial model kit proved to be a very badly proportioned replica of the original miniature.  As such, it was poorly received by model builders and quickly went out of production.  For a while the original miniature was displayed at the Universal Studios attraction in Florida and for photos of it while there see the site by Robert Kerton (his photos were taken under similar circumstances to mine but he did a much better job! Drat!).

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