One of the worst series sequels ever made
There is no comparison of GALACTICA 80 to, BATTLESTAR GALACTICA (1978). The later was a ground-breaking, thoroughly entertaining sci-fi tv series, the sequel was a dud that landed with a thud.
One person told me that when he was in college, the television room would be filled on Sunday nights when 'Battlestar Galactica' was on. When the sequel debuted, the tv room was full but over the next episodes the audience thinned out.
I can emphathize. I had seen both series and while I enjoyed Battlestar, I cringed watching Galactica. The sequel was so cheesy as to be painful to watch.
BATTLESTAR GALACTICA's charm was that each episode was a different adventure on the long search for Earth. Some adventure episodes were better than others, but overall, you looked forward to seeing a different adventure each Sunday night. I know that the Hollywood studios couldn't keep this up forever. At some point the critics would start sneering, "So when are (they) finally going to reach Earth?" But I would have like to have seen at least one more season of adventure episodes on the way to Earth. Put this way, the distance to the Sol System would have been so far away that many, many star systems would have to be traversed, with Cylon task forces trailing them all the way. They cylons had the resources to keep replacing cylon death star ships that were destroyed by Battlestar Galactica. Also, the studio could have brought back the second battlestar, Pegasus, to add to the adventure.
BATTLESTAR GALACTICA was good enough for a second season and it's a shame the studio didn't see it otherwise.