Galactica 1980 is an American science fiction television series and a spin-off from the original Battlestar Galactica television series. It was first broadcast on ABC in the United States from January 27 to May 4, 1980, lasting for 10 episodes. Development A massive write-in campaign began upon the cancellation of the original Battlestar Galactica. Because letter writing campaigns in favor of restoring cancelled television programs were uncommon in 1979, it prompted ABC to re-think their reasons for canceling the show. After some deliberation, they contacted Glen A. Larson to see about reviving the series, albeit in some modified and less expensive format. Both Larson and the network felt the show needed some major change of focus to relaunch it as a spin-off, and Larson and Donald P. Bellisario decided to set the new series five years after "The Hand of God", the final episode of the original series. This would allow them to weed out many supporting characters who were now considered superfluous, including Colonel Tigh and Cassiopeia, which would bring down production costs. The only major characters to return from the original series would be Commander Adama, Colonel Boomer (replacing Tigh), Apollo, Starbuck and Count Baltar. Baltar was to have made atonement for betraying the Colonies to the Cylons, and was now the President of the Council of Twelve. Upon discovering a "present-day" Earth completely unable to defend itself from the Cylons, Adama decided to just head off into deep space to lead the Cylons away from the planet, but Baltar suggested using time travel technology to alter Earth's history so its technology would develop more rapidly up to a Colonial level. The Council votes this suggestion down, so Baltar steals a ship capable of time-travel and heads into Earth's past to carry out his plan anyway. After some deliberation, Starbuck and Apollo are sent after him to bring him back or at least undo his changes to history. Episodes would feature a new "Time Mission" every week, generally with Apollo at some different time in the past, and Starbuck flying back and forth between "Now" and "Then" to give information and support to Apollo. ABC approved this pitch, and gave the approval to develop a pilot for the series. However, Dirk Benedict (Starbuck in the original series) was unavailable at the time of filming. Richard Hatch (Apollo in the original series) was sent a script for Galactica 1980,