The BEST episodes of Battlestar Galactica

Every episode of Battlestar Galactica ever, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of Battlestar Galactica!

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 lead a ragtag fleet of human survivors in search of a "mythical planet" called Earth.

Last Updated: 11/15/2024Network: ABC (US)Status: Ended
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The Hand of God
star
7.89
234 votes

#1 - The Hand of God

Season 1 - Episode 24 - 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.

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Greetings from Earth (1)
star
7.69
281 votes

#2 - Greetings from Earth (1)

Season 1 - Episode 19 - 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.

Directors: Rod Holcomb
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Saga of a Star World (1)
star
7.55
1069 votes

#3 - Saga of a Star World (1)

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.

Directors: Richard Colla
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The Gun on Ice Planet Zero (1)
star
7.55
554 votes

#4 - The Gun on Ice Planet Zero (1)

Season 1 - Episode 8 - 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.

Directors: Alan J. Levi
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Saga of a Star World (3)
star
7.53
534 votes

#5 - Saga of a Star World (3)

Season 1 - Episode 3 - Aired 9/17/1978

While most of the crew members from Galactica enjoy themselves in the casino, Apollo and Starbuck discover a dark secret in the mines below.

Directors: Richard Colla
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The Living Legend (1)
star
7.52
384 votes

#6 - The Living Legend (1)

Season 1 - Episode 12 - Aired 11/26/1978

While on patrol, Apollo and Starbuck encounter the supposedly lost Battlestar Pegasus, commanded by the living legend, Commander Cain.

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War of the Gods (2)
star
7.50
321 votes

#7 - War of the Gods (2)

Season 1 - Episode 16 - Aired 1/21/1979

Count Iblis has delivered the Colonials' enemy, Baltar before the Council of Twelve. As the Colonials celebrate, Adama and Apollo come to the conclusion that the secret to Iblis' identity can only be found within the wreckage of the ship where he was first encountered.

Directors: Daniel Haller
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Experiment in Terra
star
7.47
320 votes

#8 - Experiment in Terra

Season 1 - Episode 22 - 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.

Directors: Rod Holcomb
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Baltar's Escape
star
7.47
286 votes

#9 - Baltar's Escape

Season 1 - Episode 21 - 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.

Directors: Winrich Kolbe
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Murder on the Rising Star
star
7.42
233 votes

#10 - Murder on the Rising Star

Season 1 - Episode 18 - Aired 2/18/1979

Starbuck's rival from a popular sporting event is found murdered, and the evidence points to Starbuck. Apollo volunteers to be his Protector,. Apollo must now prove Starbuck's innocence.

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War of the Gods (1)
star
7.39
322 votes

#11 - War of the Gods (1)

Season 1 - Episode 15 - 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.

Directors: Daniel Haller
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The Lost Planet of the Gods (2)
star
7.38
557 votes

#12 - The Lost Planet of the Gods (2)

Season 1 - Episode 5 - 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.

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Saga of a Star World (2)
star
7.37
464 votes

#13 - Saga of a Star World (2)

Season 1 - Episode 2 - Aired 9/17/1978

When the fleet stops at the planet Carillon to refuel and pick up supplies, a newly-elected member of the Council seizes power from Commander Adama. Boomer and Starbuck check out a shady casino resort on the planet.

Directors: Richard Colla
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The Living Legend (2)
star
7.32
441 votes

#14 - The Living Legend (2)

Season 1 - Episode 13 - 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.

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The Man with Nine Lives
star
7.29
291 votes

#15 - The Man with Nine Lives

Season 1 - Episode 17 - 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.

Directors: Rod Holcomb
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The Gun on Ice Planet Zero (2)
star
7.27
458 votes

#16 - The Gun on Ice Planet Zero (2)

Season 1 - Episode 9 - 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.

Directors: Alan J. Levi
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The Long Patrol
star
7.25
447 votes

#17 - The Long Patrol

Season 1 - Episode 7 - 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.

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Greetings from Earth (2)
star
7.18
195 votes

#18 - Greetings from Earth (2)

Season 1 - Episode 20 - Aired 2/25/1979

When Apollo and Starbuck find a primitive sleeper ship carrying a man, a woman, and four children, the inhabitants reveal that they are from Terra, an Earth-like planet at war with the evil Eastern Alliance.

Directors: Ahmet Lateef
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The Lost Planet of the Gods (1)
star
7.12
613 votes

#19 - The Lost Planet of the Gods (1)

Season 1 - Episode 4 - 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.

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The Magnificent Warriors
star
7.08
430 votes

#20 - The Magnificent Warriors

Season 1 - Episode 10 - 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.

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Take the Celestra
star
7.07
234 votes

#21 - Take the Celestra

Season 1 - Episode 23 - 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.

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The Young Lords
star
6.99
433 votes

#22 - The Young Lords

Season 1 - Episode 11 - 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.

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The Lost Warrior
star
6.98
601 votes

#23 - The Lost Warrior

Season 1 - Episode 6 - 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.

Directors: Rod Holcomb
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Fire in Space
star
6.87
295 votes

#24 - Fire in Space

Season 1 - Episode 14 - 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.

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