Battlestar Galactica Was Right To Drop A Fan-Favorite Character From The 1978 Series

Published Jul 26, 2026, 11:00 AM EDT Laura Hurley has been writing about the entertainment industry for more than twelve years, after a decade as a content producer and editor at CinemaBlend after writing for WhatCulture and Examiner. Attending events like SCAD TVfest and San Diego Comic-Con over the course of her career, she has been immersed in the world of network, streaming, and cable TV. The most recent iteration of Battlestar Galactica has become a classic from the 2000s, and many viewers likely associate the show with Edward James Olmos and Katee Sackhoff. The series never would have existed at all without the cast of the original, which ran for one season, starting in 1978. Despite the short run on ABC, the reboot lasted for an impressive four seasons, and part of that is due to how the classic characters were updated for 2004. Still, the Syfy version omitted one popular character, and it was the right call. Muffit wasn't needed in the 21st century. Muffit was the pet daggit belonging to Boxey (Noah Hathaway), prior to the destruction of the colonies by the Cylons. Seeing Boxey devastated by the loss, Apollo (Richard Hatch) arranged for Dr. Wilker (John Dullaghan), a scientist who survived the destruction, to build a robotic version, named Muffit II. Boxey was thrilled to have another version of his beloved pet on board, making Muffit a bright spot in a series about a race of warrior robots attempting to exterminate humanity. The reboot was largely short on bright spots, but that doesn't mean it needed a daggit like Muffit. In fact, Muffit would have either entirely shifted the tone of the 2004 version, or stuck out as entirely unnecessary to the story. The dark and desperate tone of the Battlestar Galactica reboot is part of what made it stand out when it originally aired, and guaranteed that it remains one of the best sci-fi shows of all time more than two decades later. The tone was established in the miniseries, which aired in 2003, and continued when the first season of the full series launched in 2004. The Syfy version also focused on adult characters far more than children, with the kids generally used to highlight the tragedy of what the survivors had lost with the attack of the Cylons. There were no youngsters playing with pets on board the Galactica in 2004 on a regular basis. Additionally, there would have been challenges in making a new Muffit look even slightly believable, despite all the advances in TV technology between 1978 and 2004. The original Muffit II was portrayed by a real-life chimpanzee, named Evolution, wearing the daggit costume. In a special feature on the Battlestar Galactica DVD set (via Slashfilm), actor Herbert Jefferson Jr. described an incident when Evolution "zips across the bridge full-tilt and then goes up into the rafters," forcing production to stop until the chimpanzee could be coaxed down. Noah Hathaway recounted an incident in which he "got bit once holding Eve," when she "took a chomp out of me, and that hurt." A chimp likely couldn't have been used in the same way in the early 2000s, and any CGI on a Syfy budget wouldn't have looked great for an animal. Even if Muffit would've been a good fit for the 2004 reboot, including the daggit probably just wouldn't have been practical. Even Characters The Battlestar Galactica Reboot Did Bring Back Were Totally Rewritten Courtesy: Everett Collection One of the biggest early complaints about the Battlestar Galactica reboot concerned all the changes that were made to characters who were being adapted from the original. Notably, certain fans of the original were vocal about the 2004 version gender-swapping Starbuck, who was played by Katee Sackhoff in the reboot after being first portrayed by Dirk Benedict in the '70s. Boomer was also gender-swapped, with Grace Park playing the new version of the character, who was originated by Herbert Jefferson Jr. The '70s relationship between Apollo (Richard Hatch) and his father, Commander Adama (Lorne Greene), was also more complicated when they were adapted for the 2004 show, since Zac had been killed well before the Cylon attacks. The will-they-won't-they relationship between Apollo (Jamie Bamber) and Starbuck was certainly original to the Syfy version of Battlestar Galactica. Additionally, the Cylons adopting human guises meant that Baltar (James Callis) could believably be fooled by one in a way that he couldn't have been in the original, played by John Colicos. Notably, the character of Laura Roslin, played by Mary McDonnell starting in 2004, doesn't have a counterpart from the original series, and that alone changed several relationships within the show. Roslin's bond with Adama received nearly as much attention as Starbuck and Apollo's relationship, although it was definitely less tumultuous than the one between the two pilots. There was just no room for a character like Muffit on Syfy, and the newest Battlestar Galactica was better off for it. Even if the daggit had been as drastically rewritten as characters like Starbuck and Apollo for the reboot, a robot dog (played by a chimpanzee) wouldn't have fit with the tone of Battlestar Galactica in 2004, and the show has a strong legacy without trying to incorporate him. Release Date 1978 - 1979-00-00 Network ABC Directors Rod Holcomb, Christian I. Nyby II, Daniel Haller, Donald P. Bellisario, Alan J. Levi, Vince Edwards, Richard A. Colla Writers Leslie Stevens, Frank Lupo, Paul Playdon Creator(s) Glen A. Larson