Battlestar Galactica - The Plan

After a very disappointing final episode of the series that answered and revealed naught, the plan finally digs deeper into the motivations and questions that a created construct has about it's creator and what it means to develop into an evolved human prototype. From my estimation the plan is both the beginning and the definitive ending of this exotic and brutally honest space opera. It brings full circle the entire series. The fact that it is pieced together like an elaborate jigsaw puzzle is apropos in my mind.

The eternal recurrence, that this has all happened before, this is a complex morality tale that both satisfies and justifies many unanswered questions that I had, it places its brand upon the entire series and I can now breath a sigh of relief that this was truly one of the best dramas in television. No longer a hurried, convenient open exit, the end is now the beginning and so we must continue to wonder and to speculate on what the idea of humanity really means.

Whilst 'The Plan' well made and not terrible, we find out a couple of new things but the idea and story isn't nearly as good as it should be. The script fails to ignite and there is understandably a lot of reused footage. The acting is good, especially from Dean Stockwell who really holds the story together. The special effects are good but there are no big battles, the score is subtle most of the time, occasionally the camera is a bit to unsteady but that is just a personal thing. Editing is OK, not really exciting. I didn't hate any part of it but it didn't excite me at all either. A bit disappointing really.

Really I would say that this film is for Battlestar Gallactica completists. Hopefully Battlestar will do a film explaining all the stuff they didn't bother to explain about Star Buck but somehow I doubt that will happen.

I hate to say it, but the Galactica stable are really losing their touch.

The story is half stock footage from the series and half filler. OK, we learn some details like HOW Ellen Tigh got out alive - but we knew she did. We see some trivia, like who Caprica Six met just before the raid, but who cares? We see some familiar Cylons in unfamiliar and unexpected places, generally risking throwing off continuity.

We don't see the things I really wanted to know. I wanted to see the Cylon worlds. I wanted to see WHY the Cylons chose to attack, and why now. I want to see WHY they chose to infiltrate Earth, and why that way. I want to learn the Cylon choices and motivations and psychology.

Oddly, the costume designer was shown in the credits before the writer. I guess the writing is less important than the consulting producer and other illusory titles. Jane Epperson wrote this one, as well as being the executive producer. Ron Moore wasn't in the critical credits. Where was he? Perhaps if he'd spent more time on this than Virtuality he'd have gotten one good product.

While the visuals were good, what I feel is the now increasingly tired end of a series. How long will they keep scraping the bottom? I guess as long as they think they can make money at it.

This film retells the events of the first two seasons of Battlestar Galactica but with one crucial difference; it is told from the Cylon perspective. As such it contains crucial plot points that anybody watching the original series wouldn't discover till a few seasons in... that is the main reason not to watch this before finishing the series. The other is that it will seem very rushed; events that took place over an episode or more may be covered in a few minutes and much of the plot advancement is skipped altogether. Similarly no time is spent explaining who characters are.

The story starts as two Cylon 'Number One' models are about to be executed; each of them has very different views about what should have been done to humanity. We then jump back to just before the attack on the colonies. The events that follow are shown from the perspectives of various key Cylon characters, some of whom believe themselves to be human. It becomes clear that it was expected that the attack would completely exterminate humanity; the Cylons certainly didn't expect to have to exist within human society as they do and it is clear that some of them are developing unexpected feelings.

I rather enjoyed this; probably because it is quite a while since I've watched the series so it provided many reminders of great episodes... perhaps because a fair amount of the material was reused. Seeing the events from the Cylon point of view was interesting as was seeing how living amongst people for an extended period showed that they weren't as different from their creators as they would like o believe. The acting was solid; most notable from Dean Stockwell who was great as Number One, AKA Brother Cavell; he dominated every scene he was in. I didn't expect any surprises but the story managed to provide some. These including a genuinely shocking moment where a child is killed. Not all surprises were good; there was some gratuitous nudity which appeared to be there just because the makers were free from restrictions which applied in the broadcast series... I have nothing against nudity in film/TV but it shouldn't be quite as gratuitous! Overall this isn't a must see but BSG fans wanting to see the characters again should enjoy it.

I had mixed feelings about the concept of The Plan before I saw it: Olmos spoke a lot about The Plan at a panel at '09 Wizard World Convention in Philadelphia. He was very excited about the project and led us to believe that we would be presented an intimate look at an extended Cylon plot that ran concurrently with the series as a whole.

He did not deliver.

First, the movie is at least 40% Archive Footage (taken from Season 1 and Season 2). The scenes are woven in as helpful "reminders". These "reminders" help connect events from the show to their extended explanations in "The Plan". Truthfully, the archive footage is abrupt and unnecessary. Fans would easily be able to connect "The Plan"'s events.

The story of this movie lacks the provocative and thought-inspiring nature that BSG is so respected for. The writing is poor and the events play out in rather unspectacular way.

The only thing that saves this movie is the strong performances by Dean Cain, Tricia Helfer, and Callum Keith Rennie. Though the writing is not up to normal standards, these actors' mastery over their characters is readily apparent in this flimsy companion piece.

Overall, watch "The Plan", it's not very long and has a few interesting moments (spread far out in the film). More importantly, if you're interested in Brother Cavil, this is a great way to get some perspective on the bitter Cylon "leader." You need to disconnect your brain a little bit at some points (like seeing 7 Cylons hiding in plain sight on Galactica), and if you can, you can enjoy the bits of BSG-goodness hidden in the film.