Battlestar Galactica: The Plan

Moviecut—Battlestar Galactica: The Plan

The Plan

I joined Battlestar Galactica the series after it was all finished with, and watched it through DVD's, which I find is the best way to watch series where possible. I enjoyed it all the way through but was never a raving fan of the show to the point where I could not accept any faults or criticism. Anyway, I was not really looking forward to this TVM simply because I only half-heard about it and never saw the adverts or hype that professed it to be something important or worth seeing. Although I was not told this I still did hope that the film would be worth watching but the truth is that it cannot get over the problem that it hasn't got anything new to say. It is a shame because had this been built into the show then perhaps it would have worked better, but by coming after the series has concluded one does have to take this film as a standalone. As such it has the themes of the show, the events of the show and the narratives and the only difference is that we have some new material which acts as framing to allow a new angle to be put on the events. I say angle rather than perspective because "perspective" suggests that there is some insight or opinion to be gained from the different telling whereas angle just suggests the same thing from a different view point and that is what the film is. Watching it is a bit irritating because the new material is sporadically interesting but it never lasts long and it is not strong enough to "be" the film and as a result the film remains about the threads that we have already seen – and these are not different enough due to the new angle to be particularly worth seeing. The cast do what they did originally (in some cases exactly the same since many are only in old footage) but I did think that Stockwell did well in his additional scenes. Other than that though there is not much else to say – the film doesn't add much and for those who have seen the series (and if you haven't why are you watching this?) the vast majority of it will be just the same material from a slightly different angle, with the new material being the same themes from a different angle. Built into the series (like Razor) then maybe this could have washed (big maybe) but as a standalone film after the fact it just feels like an accountant has done the maths and tried to work out how to keep getting the revenues that BSG brought in before it finished.

While I agree with some of the other commenters that The Plan in some ways does not hold up two well in terms of plot. While it does, as it claims to do, answer quite a number of open ended questions form the show, the majority of those questions are relatively unimportant or are things that the audience could deduce on its own(for example, it isn't a big revelation that in the Miniseries when Baltar's Six turns around and says "its about time, I wondered when you'd get here" she is talking to a Cavil, it could easily be assumed, even without watching the rest of the show, that she is talking to one of the other Cylons.) However, as a psychological study of the Cylons, their personalities, motivations, and why they are trying to destroy humanity The Plan is utterly fantastic. While the movie centers around two of the Cavils and gives quite a bit of insight into their determination to destroy humanity the psychologies of two Simons, the Leoben who torments Starbuck, Boomer while she is a sleeper agent, Several Six's, Anders, and to some degree Tyrol as well, is dealt with extremely well. While the 'plan' of the Cylons really is quite simple you get quite a bit more incite into the Cylons themselves as a result, and why they continually fail to destroy humanity. The acting here is superb, all around, although special mention must be given to Dean Stockwell for his brilliant portrayal of the two Cavil's on which the plot hinges. The visuals, as always with this series, are also fantastic as is Edward James Olmos's direction. While this piece is not necessary to the understanding of Battlestar Galactica the psychological aspects that this movie introduces gives the show, especially some of the events in the first two seasons(although it is relevant to later events as well) a lot more depth to them and it serves as a good companion to the series and I would heartily recommend it to anyone who is a fan of the series.

It's been already said by others here but this film is terrible. I'm a big fan of the series, everything up until the last 7 or so episodes following the mutiny storyline. This film is a waste of fans' time and would be completely incomprehensible to new audiences. It's basically providing unnecessary exposition covering moments we already inferred must have taken place in some form but in the clumsiest of fashions in order to fit it into this cobbled together mess of a film. It's also trying to provide post hoc spackle to the plot holes created by the fact that the writers promised a plan but because of procrastination, never actually thought one up. So it's trying desperately to reconcile the first two seasons with the revelations of the final season. Basically, it's a lot of recycled footage from the first two seasons separated by moments we never saw around them that are all the same thing, Cavil telling other Cylons to do the things we already know they do from having watched the show. Why did Doral blow himself up in season 1? Because Cavil told him to? Why did that 6 emerge to try and discredit Baltar in season 1? Because Cavil told her to because, as we already knew, Baltar's Cylon detector was a threat? The only answers here are to the questions we already knew the answers to. What a waste! As someone already said here, the plan is simply kill the humans. Then when some survived, the new plan was kill the surviving humans. Genius. Hard to believe such a complex plan could fail. It's sad because during the first two seasons, the Cylons were incredibly menacing. Eventually, the writers knew they had to demystify them and they did, only their choices for the Cylons were never as interesting as the audience could imagine. And in this film, it gets worse because the once menacing Cylons are exposed to be nothing but failures who couldn't do anything right. At least Razor was a self-contained film that expanded upon the world of the series and offered new and interesting insights into characters like Admiral Cain. This film on the other hand is pure crap.

As a quick response to some of the other comments, I have to wonder if a select few of those authors actually paid attention to the series and/or this movie. While there are definite open ends when the series ended, at least one of the authors above asked questions that were most certainly answered. (e.g. "Why did the Final Five create the humanoid Cylons?" We have that answer, give during the series. *SERIES SPOILER* It was a bargain to try and end the cycle - the Final Five reached the colonies right in the midst of the Cylon revolt. They traveled to the twelve colonies to warn them about the cycle of destruction, but it had already begun. In an attempt to salvage what was left, the Final Five convinced the centurions to leave the colonies and in return, they would provide the humanoid Cylons along with advancement to their technology, i.e. resurrection.) Any way, back on point: another reviewer put it well to say that this movie contains very little *new* plot devices. For the most part, it reuses all of the plot devices from the series, but tells them from the Cylon perspective. While I would have appreciated some more detail into the model 7 (a.k.a. Daniel) along with Kara Trace's mysterious character and the Baltar/Caprica-Six Angels, I think this movie does a fantastic job of adding to the re-imagined BSG canon. We all knew that Cavil played a significant role from his discussions with Ellen in the final episodes of the series, but this movie definitely gives him the spot light, allowing the audience to see his personalities. The Plan does a good job at filling in some minor plot holes like "what was happening with Boomer in season 1 when she kept blacking out" and it was interesting to see the orchestrating that the different Cylons performed to achieve the result of the series. The Plan starts after the Final Five had been placed on Earth, and details a bit about how they lived before the fall, and how they got onto Galactica, which was largely a missing link prior to this movie. In my opinion, I always jump on the skeptic wagon when I begin to watch a movie or TV show that is reusing material from earlier production. I'm careful to assess the movie and how much of it is simply recycled. I was pleased with The Plan, because while it does reuse material from the series and deleted scenes, I feel they do so in a significant way and not too much. Many scenes that they did pull from the series, they included the removed portions and shot new extended versions of those scenes to fill in any continuation holes. There are shots of the Final Five saying "this has happened before" (an eerie recall to their true identities before they awoke) which are new, considering Ronald D. Moore admitted to not having selected them until later in the series. Overall, I give this a 7 / 10 because it could have done more. There are still other questions The Plan doesn't address, but I guess that is partially why Edward James Olmos said "this probably isn't the last BSG."

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.

For three seasons, the new Battlestar Galactica show was amazing. Something new and fairly original, well-produced, great characters, cool sci-fi. Just as we think there's an actual story going on here, however, the fourth season starts sinking itself into ridiculous artsy silliness. Plan? What plan? Where's the motivation? Who the frak are the final five (who should more properly be called the First Five), really? I mean, their origin? They created the other seven? How? When? Why? No explanations. And then Number Six and Baltar turn out to be some kind of immortal ANGELS. And then the surviving people of the colonies continue the cycle by attempting to break it. What's the point? Continuous repetition? How's that interesting in any way? The end of the fourth season was the ultimate sci-fi let-down. It could have ended in so many different and better ways. The whole prophecy dimension ("all this has happened before") could have been somehow connected to the old BG show. But they totally botched it. Descended the whole thing into religious hodgepodge. Frakked it. And now BG: The Plan. Their final chance of supplying some explanations. And what do we get? The Big Mysterious Plan was simply to kill all the humans. Until they changed their minds and wanted a truce. We hear nothing about why they wanted to kill the humans in the first place, nothing substantial about the First Five, nothing about what they wanted to do after the humans were dead, nothing about why they let a lot of human-looking Cylons infiltrate the humans, nothing about frakkin' nothing. Another incredible disappointment. With another murder of a child. What the frak?! It's all totally ruined. The producers should be ashamed.

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.