#21: The Night the Cylons Landed

[Croft2014]

A new type of Cylon fighter is rammed by a Colonial Viper whilst on patrol which forces it to crash on Earth.

The fighter contains five Cylons, two of which are a new model and look just like humans. One of the Centurions and one of the new Human-Cylons survive and make their way towards a radio station in New York City to allert the Cylon war machine who are completely unaware of Earth.

It's October 31st and the Cylons end up at a Halloween costume party with Troy and Dillon are on their trail!

This 2-parter is a major improvement over the last two daffy stories invloving the Galactican children stranded on Earth but is still a long way from "Saga of a Star World" or "War of the Gods". Easily on a par with the loopy opening 3-parter and surprisingly witty at times but this is still no classic.

Some OK new SPFX showing the sleeker, bigger Cylon raider are very welcome; it's a shame we never see it again. The educational aspects of this series are really rammed home, culminating in the unintentionally hilarious caption at the end regarding the US Air Force and their Project Bluebook programme investigating UFOs that ended in 1969.

It's interesting to find the concept of the human-looking Cylons that were such an integral part of the critically lauded remake series started here. Either it was a very obvious development for greater storytelling; or, Ron Moore and company remembered it from "The Night the Cylons Landed" and thought such a great idea they ran with it.

It's also obvious to see why the theatrically released feature film Conquest of the Earth (1980) used footage from this and the opener.

[Cylon-Knight]

The voice of K.I.T.T. - in a car - with a Cylon Centurion!
#Glentastic


Hands down the best of G80 on Earth. Except... a microwave... really?

Also, I myself am not really impressed by the AB Raider. It is different and therefore cool, I get that. However, it just seems cobbled together IMHO. The overall shape and markings completely fail to communicate "Cylon" at a glance, to me (other than a swollen Radier).
If anything the red stripes make it look Colonial.
https://www.byyourcommand.net/cylongall ... play_media
They look like they came out of the same factory. Not different worlds, different civilizations.

The humanoid Cylon was a neat deal too, but again, seemed rushed. They are just "there." Quick line or two about them vs Centurions. Really not explored or fully explained. An out-of-left-field, quick twist to the Cylon mythos so they can interact on Earth more seamlessly to drive the story. Cool, but another case of G80 just doing whatever it takes.

[johnnybear]

I first saw this two parter cobbled together as the main part of Conquest of The Earth and quite enjoyed it! The microwave scene was not in the movie so I guess they didn't like it? The humanoid Cylons were great and even wore Cylon helmets and also seemed concerned by their crew's low chances of survival! 'I will protect you, I will protect you!' One channel I was watching at the time had this as the final two episodes and it seemed right especially with the Airforce message at the end! Great show that sadly never continued!
JB