The Original Battlestar Galactica Spinoff Needs To Be Made Now
Now that the latest Battlestar Galactica reboot has been ejected out of the Hollywood airlock, fans have fiercely argued how to bring this franchise back. However, as the reboot loved to remind us, everything that happened before is destined to happen again. With that in mind, I have a simple proposal: we need a Battlestar Galactica spinoff that shows what was happening aboard different Colony ships during the 2003 reboot, an idea that hearkens back to that show’s very first season.
The Original Battlestar Galactica Idea
Throughout the reboot, we didn’t get too many episodes featuring civilian ships, and most of the best ones are in the show’s first season. The reason for this is that Ronald D. Moore originally wanted the show to frequently explore what was going on in the fleet, but SyFy was concerned about the cost of doing so. And after “Bastille Day” (an episode that took place mostly aboard a prison ship) ended up costing so much to produce, the network and Moore agreed to focus the action mostly aboard Galactica for future episodes.
In a nutshell, this idea would make for the perfect Battlestar Galactica spinoff show. It could function as a true anthology, with each episode focusing on different ships and crews during different points of the original show’s run. Creatively, this would be a real win/win because audiences would always have new characters to fall in love with and the network could potentially hire some big names for one-off appearances, which is far easier than locking someone down for a multi-season contract.
Setting a Battlestar Galactica spinoff during the time period of the original show will also give fans more adventures set during the franchise’s most exciting time period…namely, after the Cylons have attacked the colonies. While I thought Caprica was okay, that show’s low ratings and subsequent cancellation are proof that fans don’t necessarily want prequels or other types of spinoffs that veer too far away from what they know and love. With this anthology-style spinoff, could have a familiar setting (the Colony ships) and premise (humanity trying to survive a Cylon-induced apocalypse) along with compelling new characters.
Plus, with this Battlestar Galactica spinoff, there would be room to bring the reboot cast back through multiple methods, including simply bringing in original audio to serve as transmissions received by the Colony ships. Alternatively, the new spinoff may be able to recruit the reboot’s cast to provide new voicework. Keeping their voices limited to audio transmissions means the producers won’t have to worry about making the actors look younger, and the actors are far likelier to return if they simply have to record a few lines and receive a frakkin’ paycheck.
At the risk of sounding as egotistical as Gaius Baltar, this Battlestar Galactica spinoff idea has a little something for everyone: new stories, familiar ships, and endless narrative potential. It could work as a television show or even a series of made-for-streaming movies, and it would be relatively cheap to produce (especially because there’s no real need for space battles or other action-heavy scenes). However, at this very moment, some overpaid executive is working on rebooting Galactica from scratch, and unless producers embrace an idea that has been around for decades, this franchise will never resurrect itself into a new body.
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