Troy (Kent McCord) and Dillon (Barry Van Dyke) pawn off the spacekids on Jamie (Robyn Douglass) when a new cylon fighter gets drawn into Earth orbit and is going to come down near New York, just in time for Halloween.

The Night the Cylons Landed was a two-parter. The first episode aired on 13 April, 1980 and was written by series creator Glen A. Larson. Not only did it show a quick view of a new Cylon fighter model, but also a new Cylon type, a humanoid, Andromus (Roger Davis) who stumbles out of a the wreckage of the fighter accompanied by a centurion.

Troy and Dillon race to New York to stop the Cylons, but their plane is hijacked on the way, something the colonial warriors are ready for.

Safely in New York, the hunt for the Cylons begins. They need to find and stop them before the Cylon basestar can be contacted and the lost colony of Earth’s location is revealed to humanity’s enemies.

It takes Troy and Dillon most of the episode to get to the fighter’s crash site, but that’s ok, it takes most of the episode for the fighter to actually come down. The episode ends with the fighter blowing up to keep the tech out of human hands, Troy and Dillon are caught in the blast leading them to run afoul of the police again, and Andromus and the centurion are picked up by a couple of partygoers who mistake their appearance for Halloween costumes.

The partygoers are portrayed by Lara Parker and William Daniels (who would later work on another Larson series, providing the voice of KITT for Knight Rider) and we also get some radio work from the iconic Wolfman Jack, who will actually appear in the follow-up episode.

Throughout the episode, there are callbacks to events in previous episodes, so there is definitely a bit of continuity happening here, more than in the original series, that’s for sure.

The Night the Cylons Landed: Part 2 aired on 20 April, 1980 and was also written by Larson.

Andromus and the Cylon head to the party, where some wackiness ensues, but their real intention is to reach the radio station run by Daniels’ character, Norman Blore, and signal the Cylon fleet about Earth’s location, and that it will fall to their conquest.

And who shows up at the party and also works at the station? Wolfman Jack.

Troy and Dillon have an interesting time, most of it spent on the run from the police and the government (again), which leads them to be involved, temporarily, in a stage revue. Oh dear. This show seems to be getting worse and worse.

Will Troy and Dillon be able to stop the Cylons before they send their transmission? There are silly action beats, and goofy kid-friendly moments which don’t do the series, or characters any good. It’s just a poorly realized episode in a run of poorly realized episodes. Larson may have some good ideas, but the stories are just a little too goofy to be taken seriously. Oh well.

We finish up with the series with the next installment, and at least the series ended (kind of) on a good note, with the return of a beloved character from the first series.