Battlestar Galactica

Give the people who made "Battlestar Galactica" credit, it took a lot to make what they did. The concept was good, a war between humans and "cyborgs" (although they seem more like simple robots) to survive, as the humans flee in a collected fleet trying to find the lost colonies of humanity, namely Earth.

That would have been a novel idea for a theatrical movie, and for a TV show it was outer limits. The special effects were (by 1978 standards) top notch, the set design was good, and they even tried to create a different system of measures, since I think even in Star Trek they refer to things by minutes, hours, and years.

What let the movie (and later series) down was the same limits that affected most of seventies television. Schlocky dialogue, storylines sticking on personal and relationship problems, and somebody had the bright idea to put in a kid and a robot dog to go with him. If the series had been made today, or had simply been let free to explore ideas rather than stick to the "conventions" expected of series television, it might have been great. Instead, it's hardly remembered today.