Product Details

• Actors: Lorne Greene, Richard Hatch, Dirk Benedict, Noah Hathaway
• Format: Color, Full Screen, HiFi Sound, NTSC
• Language: English
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Universal Studios
• VHS Release Date: July 1, 1991
• Run Time: 47 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6300184463
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #49,993 in Video (See Bestsellers in Video)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Starbuck Runs The Gamut In Long Patrol, December 15, 1999

By	Michael Daly "Monkeesfan" (Wakefield, MA USA) - See all my reviews

The Long Patrol is the second-best of Battlestar Galactica's one part episodes (second only to The Hand Of God, curiously unreleased on tape or DVD), combining humor with action and some clever twists.

Dirk Benedict commands the role of Starbuck. His love triangle with Athena (Maren Jensen) and Cassiopeia (Laurette Spang) is captured in great fashion in an impromptu double date on the Rising Star during Act One. He is then summoned to the Galactica for a probe into the galaxy in a new recon viper, equipped with what Apollo (Richard Hatch) accurately described as "a voice-activated computer that can outfly anything the Cylons throw at you." This Computer, Oral Response Acitvated is also capable of driving pilots to madness, as Starbuck finds out in his banter with the machine.

In his probe, Starbuck finds a prison colony, forgotten for centuries, inhabited by the descendents of both the original prisoners and their guards - and in which he finds a wall painting of the homeworld of one prisoner, a homeworld that seems to be Earth. But when one prisoner (James Whitmore Jr.) steals his viper, it brings both Apollo and Boomer, but also a Cylon patrol, which attacks the prison colony.

Though humor permeates the episode (not only intentional in Starbuck's interplay with his girlfriends as well as CORA, but unintentional in the laughable Irish accents the prisoners and guards speak with), there is genuine tension, reaching its apex in one of the show's finest scenes - Starbuck finds that the cells are not locked, but the prisoners haven't the ability to free themselves because they feel it is their destiny to be prisoners.

CORA was partly inspired by Star Wars, and also by real life US Air Force experiments with similar voice-acivated computers. This angle raises some questions - are other vipers equipped with CORA systems? (Presumably) But more important, if a computer can outfly anything (though Starbuck helps talk CORA into outmaneuvering the Cylons), why can't the computerized Cylons outfight the humans? (As it is, this may have been a point Glen Larson hoped would rub off on Standards & Practices at ABC, with whom he was clashing.)

In any event, the episode stands as one of the show's best.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The reviewer below me in right on, August 6, 1999

By A Customer

Everything the reviewer below said is true. This is indeed on of Galactica's best. It has a speculative element: what if people were imprisoned for crimes perpetrated by their ancestors? It has an interesting shoot-out on land, a good one in space. It has humor, most importantly, which BG did not do often, but when it did, as in this episode or in The Magnificent Warriors, it was a great show. If only there were about a dozen more like The Long Patrol. Fans of BG say that a lot, I think....If only....

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One Of Battlestar Galactica's Best!, February 22, 1999

By A Customer

Many of Battlestar Galactica's episodes did not live up to their potential, but this is definitely one of the exceptions. Starbuck's romantic outings with Cassieopia and Athena are fun and hilarious. His interactions with the flirtatious female computer named C.O.R.A. are also very entertaining. A very good episode.