For some reason today I got thinking about a submission from 1978. In 1977 Star Wars exploded across the nation and with a single blast from its turbo laser both reinvigorated media science-fiction and charted a new course. Part of that new course was a flood of space opera type adventures, including the 1978 television series Battlestar Galactica. At the time Galactica was the most expensive show ever produced on network television.
For several years before Star Wars, I had been writing and submitting SF short stories. I had also read, more than once, David Gerrold’s account of the production of the Star Trek episode, The Trouble With Tribbles.
Inspired by his tale, and shooting way way above my class. I wrote a treatment for an episode of Galactica and using the library’s copy of the Writer’s Market, sent it off to an agency. It came back with a kind note informing me that the series had been canceled. What has caught my attention today is how similar in themes that early story idea is to some of my most current work.
Split into an A and B plot the story opened with disaster befalling the fleets hydroponics vessels, a fungus that killed off all their oxygen generating plants. The story followed Starbuck piloting an expedition to a nearby system to acquire new plants with which to regenerate their stocks. (Apparently I hadn’t considered seed banks.) The expedition was under the command of Starbuck’s girlfriend, Cassiopeia. (Ignoring the fact that in the pilot she was a prostitute the series had turned into a ‘life tech.’) The main character conflict rose from Starbuck having trouble taking orders from a woman and having to learn a lesson on that front. The B plot followed a number of the main characters that had been evacuated from the Galatctica. (In order to save Oxygen reserves on the vital capital ship.) Forced to live among the crowded, barely tolerable conditions that the rest of the fleet endured, Apollo and others get a tastes of the depravation the rest of fleet suffered while they enjoyed comfort aboard the flag ship. The central conflict of course was between the less fortunate refuges and the Galacticians with a resolution that centered on the need for common sacrifice.
Looking back on that early story idea and on some of my most recent work I can see the common themes of sacrifice, and the need to set ego aside. It’s interesting what stays the same even after so many decades.
