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Galactica Discovers Earth originated as the three-part opener for the TV series Galactica 1980, which in turn was an outgrowth of 1979's Battlestar Galactica. When the earlier sci-fi series was cancelled by ABC, a letter-writing campaign encouraged the network to revive the property, albeit on a less-expensive scale. Set some three decades after the first series, Galactica 1980 stars Kent McCord as Captain Troy, skipper of the titular battlestar. En route to planet Earth, Troy is unable to fend off an attack from the hated Cylons; therefore, he tries to keep his Earthward journey a secret, so that the Cylons will not mount an invasion of the planet. In the opening adventure, Commander Adama (Lorne Greene) wants to offer the advanced technology of Galactica to the scientists of earth, but the villainous Xavier (Richard Lynch) intends to hand over this technology to a group of Nazis. Troy, Lt. Dillon (Barry Van Dyke), and Earth reporter Jaime Hamilton (Robyn Douglas) try to stop Xavier before he can accomplish his nefarious mission. Galactica Discovers Earth first aired on January 27, February 3 and February 10, 1980.