Battlestar Galactica 1978 Saga of a Star World S1 E1 - E3

Saga of a Star World is the pilot of the 1978 TV series, Battlestar Galactica 1978. The series pilot, it was split into three parts for syndication, and also released theatrically as a single film titled Battlestar Galactica.

Twelve colonies of humans, living on different worlds, have been fighting a 1,000 year war against the robotic race of Cylons, who seek to exterminate all of humanity. The Cylons have unexpectedly sued for peace, through the diplomatic agency of a human, Count Baltar. The human leaders, called the Council of the Twelve (with one representative from each colony), and the commanders of their military fleet are all too pleased by the Cylon offer of peace, which ends so many years of warfare. The powerful "Battlestars" are assembled for armistice talks with Humanity's age-old robotic enemy. But it is all a deception – Baltar has betrayed humanity for personal gain, and the Cylons have no intention of making peace.

Only Commander Adama, of the battlestar Galactica, suspects that the Cylons are planning a trap, and orders a recon patrol, consisting of his two best pilots: his eldest son, Apollo, and Lieutenant Starbuck. Adama's younger son, Zac, convinces Starbuck to let him go in his place. The patrol discovers a vast Cylon armada waiting in ambush behind a moon named Cimtar, but the Cylons jam their communications. Cylon fighters pursue the two Vipers, and Zac's fighter is hit. This forces Apollo to leave him behind, so that the fleet can be warned. Zac's Viper is destroyed by the Cylons just before he reaches the fleet.

Baltar manipulates President Adar into prohibiting the launch of fighters as the Cylons close in on the fleet. Frustrated, Adama orders the Galactica's Viper squadrons be placed on full alert with their fighters ready to launch, disguising it as a Battlestations drill. As the Cylons attack, the Galactica is able to launch its fighters first, while the other battlestars are caught off-guard. The Atlantia, with President Adar aboard, is destroyed, as are apparently the other battlestars; Galactica alone survives the Cylon assault. Apollo informs Adama that the Cylons were accompanied by refuelling tankers, and Adama realizes that this would allow the fighters to operate far from their mother Basestars, which must be operating somewhere else. He orders the Galactica to withdraw and protect the planet Caprica, Adama's homeworld, but they are too late, as the Cylon fleet has launched simultaneous massive assaults on all the Colonies at the very same time the attack on the battlestars has commenced. With the Colonies in ruins, Adama collects as many survivors as possible, and orders every intact civilian ship to take survivors and follow the Galactica.

"And the word went forth to every outpost of humanity, and they came – the Aries, the Gemons, the Virgos, the Scorpios, the Pisceans and the Sagitarrans. In all, two hundred and twenty ships, representing every colony, color and creed in the star system. The human race might have one more chance, but first it would have to survive the alliance, the elements and the unknown dark and sinister threats that would lie ahead."
—Adama
The survivors hope that the Galactica can protect this ragtag fleet long enough to find the legendary thirteenth human colony. It is called Earth, but the location of this lost colony is known only to the last lord of Kobol, the planet which was the original home of Man, but which was abandoned thousands of years earlier, when the Thirteen Tribes migrated to the stars. Helping Adama in the quest for Earth are his son, Captain Apollo, commander of the Galactica's strike wing; Lieutenant Starbuck, the Galactica's best fighter pilot and Apollo's best friend; Lieutenant Boomer; and Colonel Tigh, Adama's second-in-command.

The Cylon Imperious Leader, determined that no human at all shall survive, orders Baltar's execution after his usefulness is over, but (as retro-actively revealed in the television series version of the film) he is spared at the last moment in order to help the Cylons hunt down the human fleet.

Meanwhile, the assembled refugee fleet is having serious problems of its own. The worse of which is that much of its foodstuffs are found contaminated by pluton bombs during the Cylon attack. As Captain Apollo attempts to manage the problem of imminent starvation, he learns that Sire Uri, a member of the governing Council of the Twelve, has hoarded considerable food supplies himself and his compatriots and are gorging on it in private. Outraged, Captain Apollo and Boomer raid Uri's quarters and, as tempting as it is to arrest him or throw him to the wrath of the neglected people below, confiscate his supplies for distribution to the needy as far as they will go.

After initially escaping the Cylons across a massive starfield called the Nova of Madagon (referred to as such due to its extremely dangerous, hot environment, and Cylon mines), the Galactica and the fugitive fleet find brief respite on the resort planet of Carillon, where they hope to find food and fuel for their journey. As much of the fleet's food supplies were contaminated by pluton bombs during the Cylon attack, the fleet is in desperate straits, and must find a food source soon or face starvation.

"We've come so far, so quickly. There's been little time for reason. What is the secret behind the existence of this outpost on the outer rim of our star system? There are many such oases for intergalactic travelers, but none so far off the arteries of trade, and none so curiously close a tylium mine. Fuel has begun to arrive from the Ovion mines, but in curiously small quantities. Now I feel the growing need for extraordinary measures of precaution. The ships continue to hover over the planet, supported by maintenance crews whose spirits are depleted as their numbers. Everyone seems to have forgotten our flight from the Cylons. The beauty and wiles of Carillon hold our people spellbound."
—Adama
It quickly becomes apparent that there is more to Carillon than meets the eye. The fact that Carillon has more than enough food and fuel for the fleet's needs makes Adama wary. It is also apparently the largest tylium (fighter fuel) mining facility in that part of the galaxy, as well as a popular gamblers' den, but nobody has ever heard of the place. Adama discovers that Baltar was responsible for performing the initial Carillon survey, and reported that tylium was too minimal for mining, and he immediately smells a Cylon trap.

But in the meantime, Sire Uri, Adama's self-serving nemesis on the new Council of the Twelve, uses the opportunity the planet presents for the morale of the fugitives to make his move against Adama, whose strict but selflessly benign intentions hinder his own ambitions. The Council of the Twelve, led by Uri to believe the Cylons have been left far behind, propose that the humans pause to celebrate their escape and dismantle their military and weapons to prove to the Cylons that humans are no longer a threat to them. The Council arranges a banquet on Carillon, and orders all fighter pilots to attend. Adama suspects that this might be a golden opportunity for the Cylons to launch an attack on their fleet, and orders Colonel Tigh to surreptitiously hold back their fighter pilots from attending the party while he is to outfit noncombat personnel with fighter uniforms.

Down on Carillon, Apollo and Starbuck gradually discover that something is amiss when they see strangers walking around clad in the uniforms of their squadron, and after some investigation they discover the truth behind the planet's prosperity. The natives of Carillon, the insectoid Ovions, have set up the gambling resort to lure humans to them to serve as living food for their hatching larvae in their underground chambers. They are also secretly in league with the Cylons and mine the tylium solely for their purposes in exchange for their freedom, and they are cooperating in the Cylons' efforts to eradicate the human fugitives. During a subsequent fight with Cylon Centurions, the laser fire from both parties sets the tylium mines on fire, threatening to destroy the planet once the fire rages fully out of control.

Adama's ruse works, and the Cylons, believing that all of the pilots are at the banquet, launch a fighter attack against the Galactica in orbit, but Adama is ready to spring his trap. Once the Cylon fighter contingent is fully engaged with the Galactica, Adama recalls all his Vipers from the surface of Carillon, taking the enemy by surprise. During the fight, Apollo realizes the Cylon fighters couldn't have come so far without a basestar, and he and Starbuck disengage from the battle and find a Cylon basestar hidden on the far side of Carillon. In defiance of Commander Adama's recall order, they decide to attempt to destroy it, in order to enable the refugee fleet to elude pursuit, and use fake radio chatter to fool the basestar into thinking it is under attack by multiple Viper squadrons. The basestar descends into Carillon's atmosphere to avoid detection, and is destroyed when the planet finally erupts in a massive tylium explosion. However, despite their victory, the humans realize their enemies will still be pursuing them, and they set out to Earth, their last hope for survival.