By David Criswell and Richie F. Levine

Since I first wrote this article in November 2003, I have had a chance to speak with David Criswell and check up on a couple of things. As such, I have slightly altered certain aspects of this review. it is still fairly harsh, but toned down a bit... - Francis, December, 2003. When I first heard about this book, I was excited. It was promised to be a book about the Galactica series, with stories of what was going on behind the scenes, why the series was cancelled, what was happening with the various revival projects and more. It looked to be the ultimate guide and I wanted in. I was at Galacticon 2003 earlier this year, and I had a chance to met one of the authors of the book. Despite this, I was still enthused about it and managed to get my copy then and there. In hindsight, this was probably not a great move. This book is a mixed bag. Some sections are great and some are not. Parts of it look like it has been researched, and others do not, lending themselves more to personal bias than any solid reasoning. Just glancing through the book will reveal it is biggest flaw - it desperately needs to have been proof read. Skimming through the pages will reveal why. There are some silly spelling mistakes that a spell checker would have picked up, some words are used incorrectly ("They" instead of "They're" is the classic), names change their spelling through the book (Reichon and Rycon), and even across the page in one case (Katee and Katie), and there is even a section of the book that reads like it has been cut-n-paste from the Unofficial Guide to Knight Rider and inserted. While these may sound like little things, they all detract from the reading experience and could have been corrected quite easily.

The other thing that could have been picked out and corrected is the use of the actual Battlestar Font itself. The first half of the book is awful. The font is used as if it were an ordinary font, and this leads to ugly text where the letters have links sprouting from them that lead nowhere. In my opinion, if you do not know how to use a font, then you shouldn't use it. Halfway through the book, someone who does know how to use the font comes along and from then it starts to look normal. it is a shame that they couldn't have gone back to the beginning and retyped the headings.

Once you get past the proof reading and editing, you can settle down and read the rest of the book.

The book starts with the story of how Battlestar Galactica was created, with the initial idea of "Adam's Ark", right through to the casting for the series. There are some interesting interviews with Glen Larson on this, detailing the problems they had with the networks and the like. Following this, the books lists some of the terminology used in the series, which is useful but I have a couple of problems with some of the entries.

They spell Ambrosa as Ambrosia. A common but inexcusable mistake in fandom as the correct spelling is actually shown in the episode "The Long Patrol". Maybe (as someone suggested to me) the spellchecker corrected this, but then, a proofreader should have picked it up as it is misspelt throughout the book.

They list "Kinnery Degrasis" and "Ions" as being from the episode "Lost Planet of the Gods", but I could swear that when I heard the episode, it sounded like "culinary graces" and "nigh on". I guess it is all in what you hear. [Having checked the subtitles on the Region 1 DVD's, I am right, they do spell out "culinary graces" and "nigh on"].

Finally, in the technology section, they state that there were only twelve Battlestars in the fleet, and proceed to give reasons why this is so. Unfortunately, for a book that claims to view all data outside the original television series as apocryphal, I can not see how they decided to add in this titbit. In all my research and my readings, the only source for this "twelve Battlestars for twelve Colonies" fact is that it was listed in the fan creation "The Colonial Warrior technical manual". it is not in the series, it is not in the novels, and in fact it is nowhere else. The evidence listed is the quote from President Adar to the Council of twelve when he remarks that the council are eager to get to their ships, but in my opinion, this is not actually much, besides can not more than 1 council member be on a single ship?

They also spell the weapons of the Borellian Nomen as laser bowls rather than boles, which conjures up some rather amusing images of deadly Nomen chefs!

Chapter 3 deals with the cast and crew, giving bibliographies, filmograhies, and where possible, actual definitions of what the series names actual mean in the various languages of the real world.

Chapter 4 then gives an episode guide to the series. This is detailed with cast and crew notes, plot synposis and other notes.

There is also another misquote on pg. 153, when Lucifer and Baltar are discussing the calamity that has occurred. The book quotes that they need to speak "to Barcol", but I could have sworn that he was talking about the "debacle"? [Again, checking with the subtitles on the Region 1 DVD's they confirm the "debacle"]

They also say that Commander Cain was modelled after General MacArthur - I thought it was Patton?

A final example is given in the write up of the episode "Batlar's Escape" the authors are confused about the award being given to Adama, and wonder which is more prestigious - the Golden Cluster or the Star of Kobol. Well, seeing as the Golden Cluster has already been quoted as being the Highest Military Honour, and the Star of Kobol is described as the highest honour that has not been awarded in a thousand yahrens, I do not actually understand the fuss.

I will not go into all the little points here because I could be accused of just being picky, but the above are examples of the slightly strange research that seemed to have been carried out. Some sections are great, and some read as if the author is just filling space.

The next two chapters of the book cover behind the scenes comments and observations about the Politics, Sex and Religion of the series. These are quite interesting and worth a read, but again, nothing really new has been added here is you've read Kenneth Muir's book, which comparisons are bound to be made with, although I will not go into any just here.

Chapter 7 describes the case of Star Wars vs. Battlestar Galactica. A mixed chapter, it starts off well by going into the details of the court case that George Lucas brought again Galactica, but then tries to compare Star Wars and Galactica itself in terms of acting, direction, plot, excitement and so on. Of course Battlestar Galactica wins out - this is a book about that series after all, and this is where the section is flawed. If this were a book about Star Wars, then you would expect Star Wars to win out under the same headings if a Star Wars fan wrote the topics. If this were to be a real comparison you'd need to take some people who hadn't seen (or preferably heard about) either films and get them to write the article.

After that, the next chapter is about who really killed of Battlestar Galactica on the networks, giving ratings for the various episodes, and quotes by the cast on their busy shooting schedules.

The next two chapters deal with the ill-fated Galactica: 1980 and then follows by listing a few of the unshot scripts which either evolved into other episodes aired, or were dropped. These come with personal views, and the end of the chapter lists all the repackaged telemovies that were made from cobbling various episodes together.

The next three chapters deal with the various revival efforts by Richard Hatch, Tom DeSanto and Ron Moore. These, to me, are the most interesting chapters of the book and it is fascinating to see how the three different people have approached either the continuation of the series or the re-imaging of the series in three different ways. While only Ron Moore's approach is actually happening, it is nice to see what could have been done had someone else been at the helm.

Finally, an appendix of Galactica: 1980 episodes and some trivia notes fill out the rest of the book, but you will find most of the trivia notes are just collected from the rest of the book and not a lot of new material is actually added here. Included here is a introduction to the Battlestar FanClub by the Co-President Chris Feehan, with a detailed history of the club.

I must confess that I was disappointed with this book. I am aware that I know a fair amount about Battlestar Galactica and thus I probably would not get as much out of this book as perhaps someone else, but my disappointment does not really stem from what I know, but rather how this book was put together. I have said it before and I'll say it again, where was the proofreader or the editor? If you just get rid of the minor mistakes, this book would be a lot better. The research is at times very good, and at times very sloppy. What is going on here?

But there are some good sections, it is not all doom and gloom, but at the same time, there is not actually a lot of new stuff here. If you have access to the Internet, then most of what is in here can be found with a few minutes search. And if you were lucky enough to be able to get to Galacticon 2003 early this year, you would be able to fill in the blanks that were left.

So, would I recommend this book?

that is a very difficult question. If you are already a well-versed Battlestar Galactica fan, or if you have access to the Internet and do not mind do a bit of searching, then no, I can not really recommend this book. If you are well versed then you probably know everything that is in this book, and if you have the Internet, then you can find pretty much everything in here.

If, on the other hand, you do not have access to the Internet or want a single source of collected information, or do not actually know much about the subject matter then this book is for you. it is not perfect by a long shot, but you will have a good reference book that will go a long way to answering questions and providing the information you need.