One of the notable classic sci-fi series that sprang up in the wake of the popularity of Star Wars. The original Battlestar Galactica was quite an achievement for sci-fi TV. It created a popular franchise that remained popular within fandom, and it eventually got reimagined in 2003 as an equally popular series that spawned a number of TV movies and a prequel series of it's own.
The original series still holds fond memories for a lot of the people who grew up watching it. The spaceship battles were exciting, the Cylons menacing, and Starbuck was the slickest space cowboy around.
The Battlestar Galactica Universe
The series follows the struggles of the last survivors of the twelve colonies as they travel across the galaxy looking for Earth, the fabled 13th colony. The Colonials logtime enemy, the Cylons, staged a massive attack on the Colony worlds. They engaged in wholesale destruction of the people, leaving only a handful of survivors aboard a scattering of small ships. The Colonies only surviving battleship, the Galactica, under the leadership of Commander Adama, gathers the survivors together and leads them on a quest to find Earth, hoping it will be a sanctuary against the Cylons, who continue to pursue the survivors.Leading the Cylon pursuit is Baltar. A former member of the Colonial Council who betrayed his people. He though his world would be spared in exchange for their service to the Cylons, but he was murdered along with the rest. Despite this, Baltar continued to serve the Cylons and their hunt for the last Colonials.
Along their journey, the Galactica fleet found other groups of humans living on other worlds. Most of them long lost settlers from the Twelve Colonies. Most of them were small pockets of people, little more than a few towns on a whole planet. Many of them were under the thumb of Cylon rule which made them no safe haven for the fleet.
Many Years Later: Galactica 1980
Finally, they reached Earth, only to discover the planet was not as advanced as they had hoped. The fleet remained in close proximity to Earth, and tried to use their advanced technology to help uplift the people of Earth so they could help them stand against the Cylons. The first attempt at this was orchestrated by Commander Xaviar without the approval of the Colonial leadership. He used an experimental time machine to go back into Earth's history to try and push forward it's technological development. He arrived during World War II and decided Nazi Germany, with it's advanced rocketry program, was the logical candidate. His effort at altering time were thwarted by Colonial warriors that followed him to the past, and all of them ended up back in the unaltered present.The Colonials instead focused on changing the Earth in more subtle ways. They tried to introduce technology and ideas through trusted intermediaries, assisting people in need on Earth, and generally small things to make life better for people, as part of a plan leading up to their eventual reveal to the general populace.
Galactica as RPG Setting
Battlestar Galactica can work as a setting for a crossover adventure with the Doctor Who Roleplaying game, or it can be used as a setting for a full campaign. In fact The Battlestar Galactica revival series got converted into an RPG in 2007.As a crossover with Doctor Who, the obvious choice would be for a TARDIS crew or other time travel team to wind up on a ship in the Colonial fleet during their journey to Earth. If you are playing a UNIT or other Earth bound group, it might be the fleet has arrived, and is doing their part towards preparing the Earth for the Cylons. Considering the willingness of some Colonials to interfere in human history, it might be the role of the players to stop them.
As a setting for a standalone campaign, it might serve better to use the Rocket Age rules with it's more action oriented nature. It would be very easy to focus on life within the Fleet and the possible adventures as the Colonials explore unknown regions.
