 The original Cylons of Battlestar Galactica, robotic antagonists bent on destroying all humankind, owe much to Fred Saberhagen's berserker stories, including Saberhagen's fictional race The Builders whose "sliding single red eye" became the signature design element for the Cylons.Larson had envisioned "Battlestar Galactica" as a series of made-for-TV movies (a three-hour pilot program and two two-hour episodes) for the American Broadcasting Company (ABC).A shortened version of the three-hour pilot, "Saga of a Star World", was screened in Canadian theaters (before the TV series was telecast) and in American, European and Australian theaters later on.