7.5/10789 votes#1 - Saga of a Star World
Season 1 Episode 1 - Aired 9/17/1978
The Cylon Empire tricks the Twelve Colonies into believing they are striving for peace. Then they ambush the unprepared colonies and destroy the military's Battlestar fleet. One surviving Battlestar, the Galactica, under the command of Commander Adama, gathers the remaining humans and leads them in the search for the legendary 13th colony called Earth.
Director: Richard A. Colla
Writer: Glen A. Larson
7.3/10585 votes#2 - Lost Planet of the Gods (1)
Season 1 Episode 2 - Aired 9/24/1978
Apollo and Starbuck discover a void in space. Commander Adama is convinced that this void will lead them to the planet Kobol, and orders they go through.
Director: Christian I. Nyby II, Donald P. Bellisario
Writer: Glen A. Larson
7.4/10552 votes#3 - Lost Planet of the Gods (2)
Season 1 Episode 3 - Aired 10/1/1978
While Commander Adama leads the rag-tag fleet of ships to the planet Kobol, where he hopes to find clues of Earth's location, the Viper pilots contract a disease, making it necessary for the women to take on fighter patrol duties. But the traitor Baltar leads the Cylons in an attack on the Galactica.
Director: Christian I. Nyby II
Writer: Glen A. Larson, Donald P. Bellisario
6.7/10561 votes#4 - The Lost Warrior
Season 1 Episode 4 - Aired 10/8/1978
Apollo is marooned on a Western Frontier-like planet, where he meets a woman and her son ... and a damaged Cylon, known as Red Eye, who has become a notorious gunslinger.
Director: Rod Holcomb
Writer: Donald P. Bellisario, Herman Groves
6.8/10514 votes#5 - The Long Patrol
Season 1 Episode 5 - Aired 10/15/1978
Starbuck is assigned to test a new ultra-fast, but unarmed, Viper with a talking computer named CORA; but when he meets a bootlegger, who steals the Viper, Starbuck finds himself arrested by the Galactic Police of a prison planet.
Director: Christian I. Nyby II
Writer: Donald P. Bellisario
7.1/10539 votes#6 - The Gun on Ice Planet Zero (1)
Season 1 Episode 6 - Aired 10/22/1978
Baltar attempts to lure Galactica into range of a gigantic pulsar cannon. Adama becomes aware of the trap and sends in a team of commandos to destroy it.
Director: Alan J. Levi
Writer: Donald P. Bellisario, Leslie Stevens, Michael Sloan
7.1/10520 votes#7 - The Gun on Ice Planet Zero (2)
Season 1 Episode 7 - Aired 10/29/1978
Apollo and Starbuck lead a group of convicts on a possible suicide mission to destroy the cannon, which is located on an icy planet.
Director: Alan J. Levi
Writer: Donald P. Bellisario, Leslie Stevens, Michael Sloan
6.3/10475 votes#8 - The Magnificent Warriors
Season 1 Episode 8 - Aired 11/12/1978
When a Cylon attack destroys most of the fleet's food supply, the Galactica must trade equipment for grain on a rural planet plagued by the Borays, a group of pig-like marauders.
Director: Christian I. Nyby II
Writer: Glen A. Larson
6.3/10490 votes#9 - The Young Lords
Season 1 Episode 9 - Aired 11/19/1978
Starbuck crashes on the planet Trillion, where the Cylons have destroyed all the humans except for a band of children, who have become warriors to save their enslaved father.
Director: Donald P. Bellisario
Writer: Donald P. Bellisario, Frank Lupo, Paul Playdon
7.8/10526 votes#10 - The Living Legend (1)
Season 1 Episode 10 - Aired 11/26/1978
While on patrol, Apollo and Starbuck encounter the supposedly lost Battlestar Pegasus, commanded by the living legend, Commander Cain.
Director: Vince Edwards
Writer: Glen A. Larson
7.8/10514 votes#11 - The Living Legend (2)
Season 1 Episode 11 - Aired 12/3/1978
The brash Commander Cain insists that the Galactica join in on a frontal attack on the Cylons -- an attack that Adama believes would be a suicide mission.
Director: Vince Edwards
Writer: Glen A. Larson
6.8/10485 votes#12 - Fire in Space
Season 1 Episode 12 - Aired 12/17/1978
A Cylon kamikaze attack leaves the Galactica burning in space, with no way to extinguish the blaze that has trapped Boomer, Athena, and Boxey except a dangerous spacewalk by Apollo and Starbuck.
Director: Christian I. Nyby II
Writer: Jim Carlson, Terrence McDonnell
7.6/10500 votes#13 - War of the Gods (1)
Season 1 Episode 13 - Aired 1/14/1979
While the fleet is plagued by glowing lights that constantly fly past them too fast to be followed, Apollo, Starbuck, and Sheba find the remains of a shipwreck, with a mysterious and seemingly all-powerful being named Count Iblis, who helps them capture Baltar.
Director: Daniel Haller
Writer: Glen A. Larson
7.5/10487 votes#14 - War of the Gods (2)
Season 1 Episode 14 - Aired 1/21/1979
While the fleet is plagued by glowing lights that constantly fly past them too fast to be followed, Apollo, Starbuck, and Sheba find the remains of a shipwreck, with a mysterious and seemingly all-powerful being named Count Iblis, who helps them capture Baltar.
Director: Daniel Haller
Writer: Glen A. Larson
7.1/10470 votes#15 - The Man with Nine Lives
Season 1 Episode 15 - Aired 1/28/1979
An old con man known as Chameleon meets Starbuck and convinces him that he may be Starbuck's father, to gain Starbuck's help in evading a trio of bloodthirsty Borellians who are after him in revenge for another con.
Director: Rod Holcomb
Writer: Donald P. Bellisario
7.0/10459 votes#16 - Murder on the Rising Star
Season 1 Episode 16 - Aired 2/18/1979
When Starbuck's rival in the popular sporting event is found murders, all the evidence points to Starbuck; and Apollo is about the only person who believes in Starbuck's innocence.
Director: Rod Holcomb
Writer: Donald P. Bellisario, Jim Carlson, Terrence McDonnell
6.8/10511 votes#17 - Greetings from Earth
Season 1 Episode 17 - Aired 2/25/1979
When Apollo and Starbuck find a primitive sleeper ship carrying a man, a woman, and four children, speculation spreads in the fleet that the people are from Earth.
Director: Rod Holcomb
Writer: Glen A. Larson
7.4/10470 votes#18 - Baltar's Escape
Season 1 Episode 18 - Aired 3/11/1979
When Baltar plans his escape with the help of the three Borellians and the Eastern Alliance Enforcers, members of the Council of Twelve are taken hostage, and Adama must give in to the escapees' demands.
Director: Winrich Kolbe
Writer: Donald P. Bellisario
6.8/10477 votes#19 - Experiment in Terra
Season 1 Episode 19 - Aired 3/18/1979
Apollo and Starbuck follow the escaped Eastern Alliance ship back to Terra, where they help the Terrans overcome a nuclear holocaust, with the help of the race of white lights that had earlier helped them defeat Count Iblis.
Director: Rod Holcomb
Writer: Glen A. Larson, Mark A. Payne
6.6/10443 votes#20 - Take the Celestra
Season 1 Episode 20 - Aired 4/1/1979
Starbuck runs in to his long-lost love, Aurora, who is involved with a group trying to free the passenger ship Celestra from its supposedly dictatorial captain.
Director: Daniel Haller
Writer: Jim Carlson, Terrence McDonnell
7.7/10486 votes#21 - The Hand of God
Season 1 Episode 21 - Aired 4/29/1979
Rather than continue fleeing from their enemies, the crew of the Galactica commences an all-out attack on a Cylon base.
Director: Donald P. Bellisario
Writer: Donald P. Bellisario
The Best Episodes of Battlestar Galactica Season 1
Every episode of Battlestar Galactica Season 1 ranked from best to worst. Discover the Best Episodes of Battlestar Galactica Season 1!
When the 12 Colonies of Man are wiped out by a cybernetic race called the Cylons, Commander Adama and the crew of the battlestar Galactica...
Genres:Sci-Fi & FantasyDrama
Network:ABC
Season 1 Ratings Summary
"Saga of a Star World" is the best rated episode of "Battlestar Galactica" season 1. It scored 7.5/10 based on 789 votes. Directed by Richard A. Colla and written by Glen A. Larson, it aired on 9/17/1978. This episode is rated 0.2 points higher than the second-best, "Lost Planet of the Gods (1)".