In his article “Who Killed the Battlestar,” journalist William J. Adams stated that Battlestar Galactica “…refused to be a good little program and die” in spite of the network’s every effort to kill it. The fans devoted to this single-season program were, in fact, as devoted as any fans of Star Wars or Star Trek, perhaps even more so.

So the cancellation of Battlestar Galactica did not signal its demise. Rather, it merely signaled a dormancy where fans of all ages remembered, shared their memories of their favorite episodes, and wrote and shared stories set in that universe (a.k.a. “fanfic”); it was the fans who kept the story and the universe alive for two decades, all by themselves.

The late 1990’s, though, saw a surge of interest at other, more professional levels than Battlestar Galactica fanfic newsletters and websites. Impressed by the passion and the number of fans who approached them, Richard Hatch (Battlestar‘s “Apollo”) and series creator Glen Larson both pitched continuation ideas to Universal Studios.

In 2001, producer Tom DeSanto and director Brian Singer were given the green light to create a continuation TV-movie, a project doomed by both studio machinations and real-world tragedy.

And in June 2011, Tombs of Kobol’s Peter Noble discovered a heretofore unknown continuation pitch that had been made to Universal at about the same time Richard Hatch was producing his proof-of-concept trailer. It is a fascinating account.

It makes us wonder just how many times and how many people have tried over the years to resurrect this iconic science fiction treasure – and how many times Universal shot it down.

Select your portal: