Recycled Movie Costume Mysteries: Roger Corman & Battlestar Galactica

Roger Corman was not a director known for spending; he considered Battle Beyond the Stars, a film made for roughly two million dollars, to be one of his most expensive, and regularly reused its visual effects sequences in later films to keep their budgets down. It wasn't just visual effects he recycled; costumes from Battle were reused in 1982's Forbidden World aka Mutant, and 1983's Space Raiders.

To be fair, reusing costumes is not something only Corman was guilty of - just take a gander at Recycled Movie Costumes, which is a fantastic resource - but Corman had a history of utilizing visual effects sequences from other movies, provided he could get it for cheap. Of course no American studio would be willing to part with such footage, so instead he turned to the Soviet Union who didn't see much economic value in science-fiction films, despite the high level of craft put in them. Thus, dignified Soviet science-fiction films such as 1959's The Sky Beckons (Nebo Zovyot), 1962's Planet of Storms (Planeta Bur), and 1963's A Dream Come True (Mechte Navstrechu) were transformed into dull, kitschy crapfests such as Battle Beyond the Sun, Planet of the Prehistoric Women and Queen of Blood.

This tendency of Corman to not just lift from his earlier films but even from other productions brings us to the main focus of this little article; the costumes of Corman's 1981 scifi shocker Galaxy of Terror, and the rumour that they were reused from Battlestar Galactica, a 'fact' that many sites have ran with, despite it being blatantly false should anyone even compare the costumes - or is it?

Galaxy of Terror is actually one of the more polished films Corman produced in the 1980s, thanks in part to the talents of one James Cameron, who acted as production designer for the film. Cameron's faults as a human being and, in recent decades, as a director, are considerable, but he is regardless a talented and skilled artist with a good eye for atmosphere and this shows perfectly in Galaxy. Cameron designed almost everything for the picture, from the alien labyrinth the unlucky space troopers get murdered in, to their battleship and its interiors, to even the giant worm that rapes some unlucky GI Jane in Galaxy's most infamous sequence.

Cameron's designing duties extended to the costumes, but only partly; in his concept art he envisaged the galactic squaddies as wearing a rather greebly undergarment fitted with electronics and cooling systems - a futuristic spin on the likes of the RAF's 'fairy' ventilation suit - but in the final film this only extended to some fabric being stuck on off-the-rack vests. Notice that the stuck on fabric does not match the colour of the trousers or jackets, or even the vests in the promotional image.

The film's uniforms are beige cotton trousers and jackets; the trousers have black stripes along the sides, and the jackets have raised collars, ribbed panelling and angular button snaps. They do not look like anything Cameron would have designed; complicating matters further is that the film's credited costume designer, Timaree McCormick, never worked as a costume designer before or since. One costume was reused a year later in the aforementioned Mutant.

For their turn in Galaxy, the uniforms have a 'CSF' patch, referencing an organization never referenced or named in the final film. The patch was removed on the one jacket reused for Mutant, showing a black velcro panel. The single officers variant was made of the same material, as well as the pockets being similarly designed to the grunts' jackets.

In the final film, it's apparent that a lot of the costumes do not actually fit their respective cast members, coming across as two baggy or loose, with only one jacket ever being closed - the one reused in Mutant. All of this indicates that the costumes were not made for the production, but were borrowed from another studio; a suspicion bolstered by how at least one of the film's monster suits was borrowed; namely one that FX artist Steve Neill had originally built for the Leslie Nielsen vehicle The Creature Wasn't Nice.

So, if the Galaxy uniforms were reused, then from what? Some people online, not least whoever updated the 'trivia' page on IMDB, think they were reused Colonial Warrior uniforms from the original Battlestar Galactica designed by Jean-Pierre Dorleac. Let's be real here; even a cursory glance shows this is absolutely false; the cut, fabrics, colours, etc just do not match at all. Yet there is a similarity in their design; the general shape of the jackets, the snap buckles, and the beige colour.

It is already known that the Battlestar jackets were lifts of Philippe Druillet's design for Lone Sloane published in Heavy Metal (unless you believe Dorleac's story that it was a design of his that he 'sold to a comic book'; if so you have likely been sold a lot of bridges in your time). I doubt this was the case for Galaxy simply because its unlikely that Corman would even want to spend the money making costumes. The original Alien, a big-budget studio picture, just had its cast wearing minimally altered flight jackets and work shirts; would Corman of all people go the extra length and have several costumes bespoke-made? And designed so similarly to a recent, and popular, scifi show?

However, there is a possible explanation provided by, ironically, Dorleac himself; multiple times on social media he has railed against the work of Al Lehman, the costume designer who replaced him on Buck Rogers in the 25th Century; Lehman's designs are made of cheaper materials and rely more on camp cliches, but to be fair suit the general tone of the kitschy Buck Rogers series. However, Lehman was also slated to be costume designer for Battlestar Galactica's much-loathed sequel series, Galactica 1980.

According to Dorleac - so take it with a grain of salt - Lehman was fired from Galactica 1980 for designing a new set of uniforms for the Colonial Warriors, this new uniform 'looked like porridge' from being made of 'grey wool gabardine' and were so disliked by Glen A. Larson that they were rejected, put in stock and thus never used in the series, causing Lehman to lose the gig and Larson aksing Dorleac to return as costume designer (and have the dubious honour of having Galactica 1980 on his resume). This story is fishy if only because it implies Glen A. Larson, the man behind such quality television as Automan, Knight Rider, Manimal and B.J. and the Bear, actually had a semblance of taste. More likely is Lehman left the series for other reasons, and Dorleac upon returning to it opted to reject Lehman's new Colonial Warrior uniforms.

However, the description of Lehman's unused uniforms does match the Galaxy uniforms doesn't it? The drab colour, the coarser material, the obvious replicating of the original design. The maximum number of Galaxy's 'standard' uniforms totals a number of six; matching the amount of characters in the original Battlestar Galactica series who regularly wore the uniforms; four outfits for the men, originally for Captain Apollo, Lieutenant Starbuck, Lieutenant Boomer and Flight Sergeant Jolly, and two for the women, originally for Lieutenant Athena and Lieutenant Sheba.

Yes, it's a shot from behind, but you get the gist.

Presumably, the officers variant would have been for Lorne Green to wear as Commander Adama, replacing his earlier blue uniform.The general construction of the Galaxy uniforms matches many costumes Lehman designed for Buck Rogers. I'll just show this outfit he designed for Gil Gerard in one episode, and let you decide.

Galactica 1980 was aired in, well guess, and Galaxy of Terror was filmed 1981. The 'CSF' on the uniform patches could easily stand for 'Colonial Star Fleet', or whatever they were going for. It's not too unrealistic that Timaree McCormick could have found these forlorn looking uniforms in whatever costume warehouse they were rummaging in, with the bonus that they had never been used on-screen anyway. After all, many screen-used costumes from Battlestar Galactica, Galactica 1980 and Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, ones designed by Dorleac and Lehman both, turned up in Metalstorm, Trancers and The Dungeonmaster, all produced by Corman's 1980s b-movie rival Charles Band.

A funny note to end this article on; when searching online to see if any of Galaxy's costumes had been auctioned off, I came across these very obviously phoney 'concept sketches' by an artist who, looking at their IMDB, had a career only in animation storyboarding. But what really gives away that its a forgery is the sketch that is very obviously a copy of the same Lone Sloane panel that was lifted for the Colonial Warrior uniforms in the first place!

Battlestar Galactica (1978) & Galactica 1980 (1980)

Costume Design by Jean-Pierre Dorléac with costume illustrator Haleen Holt

The saga of a fleet of humans escaping the destruction of their home planets to return back to Earth, and now overshadowed by its pretentious maudlin remake, Battlestar Galactica was an idea producer Glen A. Larson had had since the 1960s, but didn't manage to successfully produce until the success of Star Wars, which was definitely an influence on certain aspects of the series, such as masked mechnical villains and space dogfights.

It should be worth noting that the Cylons are not included in this entry due to being in the realm of special effects, as specialty prop makers were hired to realize them, and the Cylons were based on sketches by the various production artists, in particular Andrew Probert; Dorleac claims that only he designed the Cylons but this is disproven by the (as of now, offline) Galactica.TV interview with his costume assistant/illustrator Haleen Holt, who helped design the various costumes.

The series was ostensibly a military science-fiction tale and as such involved uniforms, these of the 'Colonial Warriors' that formerly protected the Twelve Colonies. The standard uniform of the Colonial's military is a beige tunic and pants, with checkered black and gold lining around circular collar piece, with some officers sporting a golden piece on the front of the collar itself. The jacket was copied from a design by legendary comics artist Philippe Druillet for Lone Sloane, a comic series published in Metal Hurlant, though Dorleac claims he originally 'sold the design to a magazine' (something that never happens with comics, by the way) that he suspiciously never names in any interviews, and regularly has slandered the Galactica.TV fansite writer in these interviews as well. Why refuse to name the 'magazine' - because yeah, highly doubtful that Druillet of all people would need help with designing for his own comics!

The tunic under the jacket has no visible buttons, and the front flap is a horizontally ridged fabric - the uniform, is completed with black boots and a belt. Being a space opera produced in the wake of Star Wars, there are of course various space dogfights against the marauding Cylons, with these dogfights often involving the characters of Captain Apollo (Richard Hatch), Lt. Starbuck (Dirk Benedict) and Lt. Boomer (Herb Jefferson Jr.). These characters, and others in the series, for pilot duty wear the same uniform as the other Colonial Warriors, but with a brown jacket, helmet and different boots. The helmets are especially striking, being inspired by ancient Egyptian headdresses, with the helmets lined with lighting around the front. The jackets are fastened with buckles, and have asymetrical lining around the sides.

In some episodes the various pilots partake in celebrations, and for these they wear a gold-lined (the same sort of lining as around the collars of the tunic) brown cape over their tunics, as well as dangling golden plates on the front of the collar piece.

The Colonial Warriors' officers are in uniforms of identical cut to the standard uniforms, except that they are made of a dark blue fabric instead of beige, with silver checkered lining instead of gold. The uniforms are pretty much identical otherwise (with even parade uniforms being the same sort of cape and dangling chest ornaments), with the exception of Commander Adama (Lorne Greene), who are various points wears a silver-lined blue robe over his tunic, and for special occassions wears a blue cape over that in turn - but sadly, the parade dresses of all the officers are not seen in full, with only promotional images showing them better.

The Colonial Warrior's medics wear smocks of a similar cut to the main uniforms, with the same strip of material around the collars; the women of course have their smocks go down to the ankles.

'Saga of a Star World'

This was the pilot movie that started off the series, with the Cylons attacking the Twelve Colonies and causing the surviving humans to flee in the ragtag fleet led by the 'Galactica'. The fleet ends up encountering the planet Carillon, which is home to a casino (itself actually a front for the Ovions, an insect-like species allied with the Cylons), the various patrons of which are clad in some of the most stunning outfits of the film - special mention to the croupier whose pink and black glittery outfit is sadly never seen in full.

The casino also has a performance from alien singers clad in shiny raindbow striped dresses, which also end in streaming pieces at the skirt section, and worn with glittery necklaces - the outfits are really nice, but ain't the facial prosthetics uncanny!

The Cylons were aided in their attack by the traitorous Count Baltar (John Colicos), who would become the series main antagonist, and appear in multiple episodes to menace the main cast. While 'Saga of a Star World' introduced him wearing just a white gown, all episodes afterwards would have him in a much more striking outfit consisting of an almost medieval looking black-lined green tunic, worn with gloves and brown boots - in some episodes, Baltar wears a gold-lined green cape over it, and during his attack in 'The Living Legend' he wears a shiny golden helmet, designed to resemble the Cylons' own helmets, which themselves resembled the helmets worn by the warriors of ancient Greece. Whilst the Cylon helmets had the sliding light 'eye', Baltar's helmet has a light in the middle of the forehead.

Assisting Baltar in various episodes is the Cylon commander Lucifer (subtle name!) who in his first few appearances wears a shiny golden robe. Technically, Lucifer's very head is part of the costume as well, being a model one fitted on top of the actors actual head, instead of being a mask.

Lucifer's next outfit, worn for the remainder of the series, is the same in design to his previous robe but red in colour, with an open collar fitted on it later on.

'Lost Planet of the Gods'

This episode involves the Galactica drafting up new pilots, all women, who are seen wearing tight pressure suits, these being beige coloured with bold black lines printed on the front.

Serina (Jane Seymour) is one of these pilots, and later in the episode marries Apollo, during which she sports a shiny silvery wedding dress, with glittery pieces worn behind her hair with her headress.

'The Lost Warrior'

This episode was a total pastiche of the classic Western Shane , with most of the cast wearing reused Western wardrobe; the exception are the guards under the employ of Lacerta (Claude Earl Jones). Lacerta himself is just in a white suit, but the guards wear shiny vinyl cavalry shirts and glittery silver vests, trousers and cowboy hats!

'The Long Patrol'

This episode starts off with Starbuck doing a deal with a waiter in order to get into the Galactica's dining room, which is staffed by a waiter in a very crisp pinstriped tunic, which also has a rounded collar piece similar to the Colonial Warrior uniforms.

Part of this deal involves Starbuck becoming a test pilot for an experimental starfighter, for which he dons a new uniform - this is a very crisp one, consisting of a plum tunic (again, with rounded collar) and pants, with matching gloves and boots, and worn with a rounded golden helmet which sadly doesn't get seen too well thanks to the darkened pilot cockpit scenes.

Starbuck ends up being apprehended by the 'Enforcer' police force of a forgotten prison colony, whose officers are all clad in crisp white and black uniforms. The tunics have a fairly rounded cut with a diagonal black pattern on the chest, as well as a curved cut to the tunic. These uniforms aren't seen to well in the dim lighting but one of the costumes still exists, and in auction photos (as uploaded on the ByYourCommand fansite) can be seen much more clearly. A similar jacket is worn by 'Robber' (James Whitmore Jr.) but his has solid black sleeves and a stiff cut, and in all his scenes he's wearing a drab brown jacket covering it up.

'The Gun on Ice Planet Zero'

This episode involved the misguided Dr. Ravashol (Dan O'Herlihy), who wears a quilted blue nehru jacket with dark blue lining down the middle.

'The Magnificent Warriors'

This episode was another Western pastiche with a similar plot to The Magnificent Seven, set on the rural planet Sectar whose settlements are being raided by the pig-like Borays. The Borays wear brown and grey shirts and trousers with fringed edges to the sides and sleeves, with angular collars as well.

The Borays are raiding the settlement of 'Serenity', run by Bogan (Barry Nelson) who wears a vaguely 18th century feeling coat and waistcoat (right down to the cravat), worn with a brimmed hat.

His assistant Dipper (Eric Server) wears a tan jacket with split sleeves connected by straps, with hoops over the chest as well, worn with a round hat. The unlucky sheriff Farnes (Rance Howard) is dressed similarly.

The Galactica crew end up on Sectar and have to dress themselves as the locals, with Adama wearing a large shouldered grey coat.

In this episode Adam is trying to court Siress Belloby (Brett Somers), who wears a veiled lilac dress with ribbed panelling on the shoulders.

The rest of the crew wear a variety of jackets and vests, with Starbuck wearing a grey jacket with short curved lapels, Boomer wearing a mottled fabric vest, and Apollo wearing a brown-lined quilted white vest.

'The Young Lords'

This episode involved Starbuck crashing on a more primitive planet, where a Cylon patrol is being hassled by the young warrior Kyle (Charles Bloom), who is dressed in rather 'barbarian' gear, consisting of a feathered cape and a carved helmet fixed with two large feathers on each side.

Commanding the Cylon operation on the planet is the commander Specter, who sports a similar robe to Lucifers, the exception being his is in a wonderful striped red and gold colourscheme, with even the collar having stripes!

'The Living Legend'

This two part episode involved a daring attack on the Cylons base on the planet Gamoray, with Apollo and company all dressed up for the mission in rather slinky leather catsuits, with buckled collars and boots.

Staffing the Cylons are some more commanders, these being in glittery silver and black versions of the collared robes worn by Lucifer and Specter.

There are also several Cylon workers who are in shiny blue-lined golden hooded cloaks, made of a synthetic material - the robotic 'head' is evidently a mask as well.

'Fire in Space'

This particular episode involved, well, a fire breaking out aboard the Galactica, with several of the cast trapped inside. To stop the fire, the Galactica's contingent of firefighters is called in, clad in very striking futuristic uniforms, consisting of glittery orange and silver lined jackets, with the sleeves cut in a serrated fashion, and worn with silver helmets. These are perhaps some of my favorite designs of the series costumes, personally!

To help stop the fire, Apollo and Starbuck do repairs on the outfits of the ship, meaning they have to wear spacesuits - these spacesuits are form-fitting jumpsuits of the same colour scheme as the typical uniforms, with tan tubing around the shoulders and collar, and worn with a bulky plastic helmet, with a flashing piece worn around the knee, sadly never seen in full. These spacesuits would be tweaked and reused for the Galactica 1980 episode 'Space Croppers'.

In this episode Boxey (Noah Hathaway) wears this dark blue jumpsuit with a lighter triangular panel over the chest, with stripes down the trousers.

'War of the Gods'

This episode introduced one of the most infamous outfits of the series - the skimpy 'Triad' sport outfits, consisting of a top with straps over it, briefs (fixed with tubed piping), thigh high boots and bike helmets. These outfits were especially infamous for being a source of mild embarrassment to the actors who had to wear them, which was a source of great amusement for the women members of the cast and crew! Out of the four auction images used, two have black lycra underneath the skimpy suits, and the second image has the top back to front it seems.

This episode introduces the mysterious Count Iblis (Patrick Macnee), who sports an outfit consisting of a golden lined white tunic and cape, the tunic fitted with a circular collar like the Colonial Warrior uniforms, but with golden lining around it, as well as the cape having a pointed collar. The tunic also has a belt around which is also golden lining, and a badge in the middle, with a similar one worn on the collar.

When Iblis' evil nature is revealed during the final confrontation with Apollo and pals, he reverts to a demonic form which in the episode is overload with a negative effect - editing the images, plus behind the scenes photos, reveal that a recoloured version of Iblis' outfit was used for this scene, with the white now black, though still adorned with golden lining.

Opposing Iblis are the angelic Beings of Light, who are seen wearing glittery white veiled robes; as if the religious allegories weren't subtle enough!

At the end of the episode, Sheba (Anne Lockhart) wears this lovely shiny dress that sadly is only seen in shoulder view in its brief appearance.

'The Man with Nine Lives'

This episode featured Starbuck's father, the conman Chameleon (Fred Astaire), who is a rather striking outfit made up of a white jacket with a golden chain in the middle and  striped blue top section, worn with a blue cravat and golden necklac, and worn completed with grey trousers and black boots.

Chameleon is first seen courting the wealthy Blassie (Anne Jeffreys), who is wearing a glittery golden dress with a large pointed collar and long cuff sleeves. The vicious 'No Men' hounding Chamoleon however, are just in trampy rags and therefore not really worth covering at all.

There are several gambling dens inside the fleets various ships, these beign staffed by croupiers in glittery golden outfits, with piping around the collar, as well as arranged in a 'V' shape down the front - the outfit also has an emblem on the front, and has strips down the side. One of these golden croupier outfits was worn again in the Quantum Leap episode 'Future Boy' by a background character in the titular serial.

Less flashily dressed are the 'Nomen' warrior tribe hunting after Chameleon, who wear simple vests (made of a faint lattice pattern) and robes, the conical helmets being the most striking part of their attire.

'Murder on the Rising Star'

This episode involves Starbuck being framed for a murder in the aftermath of a heated sports match, and his prosecution is headed by Solon (Brock Peters), who wears a blue-lined grey tunic that is fixed with a circiular piece around the collar (similar designed to the uniforms of the Colonal Warriors), and wears a short cape over the tunic that is cut in a similar way to Adama's cape.

The actual murderer however is Karibdis (Lyman Ward), a former accomplice of Baltar's disguised as a civilian, and clad in a relatively not eye-catching outfit consisting of a white-lined brown tunic and trousers, the tunic's collar fastened with a buckle-like piece - various otherbackground extras in the series wear similar tunics of different colours, but most are just in more simple ones such as the other two fellows next to Karibdis.

A silver outfit is worn in the episode 'Murder on the Rising Star', by a sports referee present at another futuristic 'Triad' match; sadly there is no other shots of this costume in the episode, nor can I find any other photos of it online from auctions.

There are also commentators present at the Triad match, with the first refereer wearing a brown jacket with white checkered lining around the collar and chest. Sadly, there are barely any good shots of the costume in the episode itself.

Another commentator is seen, with her outfit being the same colour scheme as the previous one but with the lining on the lapels; again, barely seen in the episode itself.

'Greetings from Earth'

This episode involved the Galactic coming across a human sleeper ship, whose occupants are all in identical silver jumpsuits, with white bands on the arms and belts.

They also have a pair of robotic servants, Vector and Hector, who wear brown pinstriped wraparound overalls, as well as helmets to make them look 'robotic'.

'Baltar's Escape'

A communications officer is briefly seen, wearing a grey tunic with a curved collar like other Colonial outfits in the series.

There is also Siress Tinia (Ina Balin), who wears a lilac ruffled dress with a small bit of jewellery under the collar.

'Experiment in Terra'

This episode involved the Galactica gang ending up on the Eastern Alliance's home, the Earth-like planet Terra, whose denizens are almost identical to 20th-century humans other than their more futuristic technology - even the fashions on Terra are not that different, with most of Terra's denizens being in fashions that wouldn't be too amiss at the time, such as Brenda (Melody Anderson) and her rough beige shirt and skirt, worn with a short tie too.

Terra is ruled by its president, Arends (Peter D. MacLean), who is clad in a rather fancy orange and beige suit, designed in a way that feels both contemporary yet also futuristic.

His deputy wears a dark brown suit that is otherwise identical in design, worn over a green jumper with beige lines on the collar.

'Take the Celestra'

In this episode, mutiny erupts as several crewmen attempt to steal one of the fleet's ships - most of these crewmen sport silvery jumpsuits with rounded padded vests over the shoulders. These all-silver jumpsuits were bespoke made for the series, as opposed to the black and silver jumpsuits of the other crewmen which were reused from the original Outer Limit series!

The mutineers don stolen security uniforms consisting of grey trousters and buttonless vests worn over black lycra tops, more futuristic in design than the typical Colonial security uniforms in the series.

Galactica 1980

This would not be the end of the journey of the Galatica's crew, as there would be the very infamous follow-up series, partly reviled due to its increased emphasis on comedy and family-friendly hijinks, as well as being almost entirely set on then-present day Earth (hence the name!). Galactica 1980 didn't have much more in the way of futuristic costume designs, again thanks to the mundane contemporary setting (so there wasn't really much in the way of notable contemporary fashions either) Once again Jean-Pierre Dorléac was costume designer, just like in the first series. IMDB credits Al Lehman (who designed the costumes for most of the Buck Rogers in the 25th Century series) as having also worked on the series, this is actually an error (you can't really trust IMDB all the time can you) - whilst Lehman did indeed design for the show, none of his designs were ever actually used - supposedly Lehman had designed a new uniform for the Colonial Warriors, but producer Glen A Larson hated the uniforms so much, he didn't just have them never filmed, but never let them leave stock! As such, all the costumes in Galactica 1980 were the work of Dorleac.

Almost all of the futuristic costumes of this series would be reused from the original series with the only addition being new helmets for the pilots in some episodes; these new helmets are much more streamlined compared to the originals.

There was also some new helmets made for the spacesuits in the episode 'Space Croppers'.

One of the few new costumes was the white tunic worn by the child prodigy Dr. Zee (played both by James Patrick Stuart and Robbie Rist), the tunic having the same curved collar as most of the other costumes of the series.

The very last episode of the series, 'The Return of Starbuck', features Dr. Zee's mother, the mysterious Angela (Judith Chapman), who sports a flowing white dress with glittery threads around the chest, worn with a beaded necklace and headpiece - this lovely costume almost got Dorleac nominated for an Emmy award for costume design! This costume would also be reused in the Empire Pictures movie The Dungeonmaster (aka Ragewar) a few years later.

The most notable original outfit designed for the series however is in the two-parter episode 'The Night the Cylons Landed', where we see a pair of humanoid-model Cylons (a plot point that the 2004 reboot would use liberally), including the pilot Andromus (Roger Davis), who is clad in a slick uniform consisting of grey lined tights, worn with a silvery tunic fixed with a meshy fabric underneath (which shows in two holes on the arms), and two metallic pieces on the shoulders - this is completed by an almost medieval-like conical helmet which is worn when piloting their fighter ship.

Almost all non-screenshot images on this page are originally from the By Your Command Battlestar Galactica fansite's gallery page on Galactica 1980, as well as their gallery page on the original Battlestar Galactica, hopefully they will not mind.