BSGcast: The Plan
Jane Espenson and Edward James Olmos were the people in charge on this one: Olmos was there for every episode that went into making The Plan happen in Season 2, and Jane was there for none of them and it shows. Amazing direction, performances, visuals compliment a story that fires on all cylinders for 30 minutes and then lumbers through the rest of the first two seasons with about as much grace as a Cylon Colony.
But goddam, Dean Stockwell was delicious as F-Cavil and C-Cavil on their respective journeys and those Colonies got it good!
Make sure to leave a comment and tell us what YOU thought of The Plan, and don’t forget to enter to win “Dinner with the Admiral” compliments of Edward James Olmos and UGO!
October 27th, 2009 at 4:59 pm
As I’ve stated in last section: 8.5/10 only because they got the centurion hands wrong, which after four or five years they should have remembered for the movie. Otherwise, everything fit better that I thought it would.
-N.R.
October 27th, 2009 at 6:18 pm
Matt/Nat — bring it on!
Can’t wait.
October 27th, 2009 at 10:09 pm
well, not a fan of Jane Espenson’s BSG work- i feel some of her episodes are the weakest of the series.
that said when i popped in this dvd today, very excited, i was a bit bummed out to see her name as writer.
I have nothing against her personally, just some of the BSG episodes she wrote.
I took a deep breath and pressed play.
I found the cylon flashbacks (in the tub or whatever and then their otherselfs elsewhere -jump cuts),
everytime at the begining of this movie, to be ULTRA lame- we know who they are!!-
and if someone doesn’t- then when they watch the series- they will… total waste of time and screen time- really sucked.
seeing the battle against humanity was k00l BUT the hybrid’s dialogue was terrible (i thought)- didn’t have the same pacing or style from the series- for me- and the effect shots showing us what the certain places looked liked before the battle and then jump cutting to shots visually describing what the hybrid was saying- LAME… let the viewers imagine in their minds what it looked like before, don’t get me wrong the shots were gorgeous but very un-needed in my mind- felt very NON-BSG to me.
I felt like someone made a best of clip show and added extra elements.
huge fan of Bear’s BUT nothing new or special in the flick – will not be getting this soundtrack.
there were great moment through out this movie that i really enjoyed but overall- ehh, didn’t add too much to the BSG universe for me.
I have watched BSGcast for a handful of years (huge fan) and really am interested to see the official review-
KEEP IT HONEST MATT AND NAT.
October 28th, 2009 at 6:03 am
The only thing I found disappointing were the rehashed scenes. I wish they would have been filmed again because sometimes the actors didn’t quite fit with the scenes in the added parts anymore. For example, at the very beginning, when Caprica Six says “It’s about time”, it’s the original scene, but then the added scene shows her with the wig instead, and it’s a rather obvious change. Tyrol’s gained weight during the series, so you really see a difference between the scenes with him at times.
I, for one, really loved how they introduced the Final Five at the beginning and showing the planets after their destruction. I think it was necessary because it really made you feel the impact of the tragedy. That being said, I agree with vveber when it comes to the Hybrid’s talk – it was very different from the series… too coherent. One of the cylons could have said “The cities of Caprica are burning”, etc… Because as a speech, it was awesome… for the Hybrid though, it didn’t really work.
The whole beginning felt very “Caprica”-ish… and I liked that. We never got to see much of the planets before the fall and it seemed to connect well with Caprica.
This was also a lot more graphic then I expected. The amount of nudity did not seem really that necessary. We never needed to see naked women in the Galactica’s bathrooms/changing rooms to know they washed without clothes on. It felt a bit like a gratuitous scene to me – unnecessary. I could understand the bar at the beginning but later on, it felt like it was forced on us more then anything else – a “sex sells” approach. It was also surprising to see the bodies… Very creepy lol
As a whole it was a good movie, and it had very good moments. I’m glad they gave Simon more of a role. Of all the cylons, he seemed to be the one to barely ever do anything. After The Farm, he just blended in and we kinda forgot about him. His story was interesting. I liked seeing both sides of Cavil too… But did anyone get annoyed by the dark haired Six? She was just… there. She complained about how no one did their jobs right but she didn’t really do anything herself… And what’s worst, not only do you not see her in the series, there’s no conclusion to her at all. She just… disappears. She seemed to intent on hurting humans, you’d think we could have gotten some closure about her. If she had not been in this movie, it wouldn’t have made any difference at all.
October 28th, 2009 at 8:11 am
vveber — Are you SERIOUS??? Nothing “new or special” with Bear’s soundtrack for this??? The closing credits music/attack of the colonies was AMAZING.
To each there own…
October 28th, 2009 at 9:36 am
There was a lot to like and a lot to not like.
Liked:
-The end credits- the music was amazing and made it seem like a real movie ending.
-Some great CGI shots – didn’t need to see every planet though. Sometimes your imagination is better
-Cavil was great – gave his character depth and made his action make more sense for what he does in season four.
-Loved the line about Doral “his jacket was burgundy, my jacket is teal”
-Simon with a family he didn’t want to leave
-boomer’s story of going back and forth from a sleeper agent
-Cavil killing the boy, some people thought it was not needed but it shows how cold blooded he was.
Didn’t Like:
-too many clips of the original show. I’ve heard several people label this a clip show. Keep the Caprica 6/Baltar clip but use new shots for the rest of the show. Hearing Kara and Anders in the next room talking is good enough without seeing the shot. We know what happened and don’t need to rewatch it. The story jumped around a little too much also.
-The hybrid was over used – the page with her dialog should have been burning.
-There is still lots of things I would have liked to see, what really happened to the Olympic Carrier, what happened to the farms and their plan for reproduction, the story of how Boomer and Caprica six convinced the cylons to change their plan and how that plan leads to the occupation on New Caprica, what the cylons were like before their attack and how they were convinced all the cylons to attack the colonies, the original meeting with the final five. Obviously they couldn’t touch everything but take out some of the clips and you got more room to answer questions.
October 28th, 2009 at 1:15 pm
The Hybrid does not engage in dialogue, as a couple have said. What she delivers is a monologue.
October 28th, 2009 at 3:45 pm
Sorry, I didn’t like her monologue not her dialogue.
Hope there will be a way to get the end title song on Amazon.
October 28th, 2009 at 5:48 pm
I concur. after watching it I felt disappointed and wondered why they even bothered. everything about The Plan felt redudant. meh
October 28th, 2009 at 6:01 pm
I have mixed reviews. Overall it was okay! Too many clips from the original episodes actually took away from the story. It was good to see the story development of how the cylons were able to join the numbers within the colonial fleet, the character development of Cavil (the Cavil with the resistance changed his position regarding the human race) and Simon (Wow! He was a family man, per se). Also, (even though I saw it coming) the scene in which the little boy—John I believe, died was a chilling moment.
Personally, I wanted to see an emphasis on the Hybrid; Resurrection technology; some mention of the story of the Final Five and the destruction of “earth” (or the perceived earth that was destroyed as mentioned in season 4); and the “plan” of Cavil, within the entire scope of the Cylon Plan or Cavil’s Plan—especially when you refer back to season 4.5 which character Ellen wakes up in her “resurrection bath” and she has a conversation with Cavil regarding his personality—jealously, anger, etc among other things.
Like others that have posted, had they dropped some of the clips and focused on additional story and character development, I think this would have been a better story. Who, knows, maybe they will develop a story that gives us information on what “really” happened before the plan.
October 28th, 2009 at 9:13 pm
BSG: The Plan. We waited with baited breath and now….. meh.
WHAT I LIKED:
I liked seeing the Colonies burn and it was haunting hearing the Hybrid give her progress report. I felt my heart breaking seeing all of the Colonies destroyed.
I liked seeing how the humans still survived on the Colonies after the bombs fell.
I also liked seeing the two Battlestars go dark from the Cylon virus.
Another thing I enjoyed is how they squarely placed the responsibility of the genocide on Cavil (#1) shoulders. He is the epitome of the spoiled child who wanted to prove his parents wrong. Too bad it failed.
I also liked how they added the throw away character named LUCIANNA. Last time (in Razor) we had KEEEEENDRAHHHH SHOOOOOOWAAAAAH. This time they went Latin on us. Funny thing is that I always hoped to see that actress later on down the road when I saw her in the mini-series. Glad they brought her back for one last hurrah and she worked fine as a foil for Chief. Would have been nice to see Cally again though.
WHAT I DIDN’T LIKE:
The last half of the show… It went SPLAT. The only saving grace of the final moments was when the Cavil’s got Air Locked. Seeing how even the #1’s were divided against John Cavil added an extra dimension of humanity to them.
The writers got lazy on this one. They took a great premise and did a half assed job in fleshing it out. They pulled a “Star Trek: Enterprise” on us with this episode. What does that mean? They built up a great story and short changed us at the finish line. Started off with a BOOM and ended with barely a burp.
Long story short: Great Acting, Great Premise, Great Directing, Poor Writing. not bad for a clip show but I expected a LOT better.
October 28th, 2009 at 10:08 pm
aside from all the great points as to why this film didn’t work my biggest problem of all was that I felt misled. I was under the impression that the movie was going to be a standalone film, like Razor, except with an emphasis on the final five before the attack. a big let down. it almost felt like this was a last ditch effort by the studio to milk more money out of BSG fans
October 29th, 2009 at 4:54 pm
I overall really enjoyed the BSG series, though, there were elements I did not like. One of the things I didn’t care for was, well, the Cylon’s seeming lack of any plan. We were told at the beginning of every episode for the first two seasons, “… and they have a plan”. But, as the show went on, the more it became clear there was no fraking plan.
So, with this episode, ironically entitled “The Plan”, essentially it cements the Cylons as bunglers not having any plan, any idea what the frak they are doing.
October 30th, 2009 at 2:17 am
Hi there people,
even with the bashing I expect to get from you guys, I’m going to ga ahead and speak my mind…
I am a real fan of the series, have been there since day one and laughed, cried, screamed out, been awestruck and what ever else you can think up. I just love it.
But geez – this “episode” was rubbish. Pure rubbish. I’m sorry, but that was supposed to be a “full length feature film”? It was a two hour re-cap of a couple of seasons – and that’s all she wrote. This just didn’t do it for me. What “Plan” was revealed here? All we got was some “behind the scenes” angles of the things WE ALREADY KNEW. So fracking what? What about the rest of the “mysteria and magic” that is (or was) Galactica? They didn’t even touch on things like:
- WHAT WAS KARA, anyway???
- How could she have blown up in that nebula, somehow reached earth after that, burned and apparantly DIED on Earth and then returned to the Galactica with a brand new Viper ??
- Why did Kara draw things as a child that were obviuosly thousands of years old?
- Why did Baltar have such a “spiritual” connection with the Cylons?
- How was Baltar’s “Head Six” able to physically manipulate him – in front of a crowd, no less???
What about all of that?
OK – a positive note:
What I found interesting was that we finally got to see how the whole thing could have come to an end sooner had it not been for Cavil. What did we learn here:
- Cylons were not all murderous machines. They had feelings. They couldn’t all understand why they were doing what they were doing
- Cylons had to endure emotional hardships as a result of the “War” as well. They had families and lovers. They wanted to be a part of the human experience
- In the end the Cylons were just as human as the humans. Even the unrelenting Cavil who couldn’t let go. While all the othe Cylons were “overtaken” by human emotions such as love and caring, he was consumed by hatred and revenge
Nuff said,
Ripley
October 30th, 2009 at 2:39 am
Oh yeah – I just re-read somed of your posts. There were really other things missing:
- What happend on the “Cylon Home World” that made them want to break the truce and commit genocide?
- What did they really do with Cara at the “Farm”?
- What was life like when Cylons and humans lived together?
- what actually led to the first cylon war?
- Maybe give us a bit more history on the whole “Lords of Cobol” thing. Who were they? Why were they revered as Gods?
You know – all that stuff. Sure they can’t do it all – that would take away some of the mystery that makes it so interesting, bu just to rehash the series and sell that as a feature-film is just plain fraud.
and vveber: loved your line “I felt like someone made a best of clip show and added extra elements.”. Can I get an amen, brother?
I hope the crew of “LOST” does better with their final season…
AND FINALLY TO MATT + NAT:
Love you guys. Honestly – when I started out on this series I was alone with all of my thoughts and feelings. You guys gave us an incredible forum here. You BSGCasts were always top-notch and great fun to watch. You have done an incredible job here and I am sure every one here feels this. KEEP ON DOING WHAT YOU’RE DOING, and we will hopefully see each other again when we get down to some serious CAPRICA.
All the best,
Ripley
October 30th, 2009 at 5:21 am
In contrast to a couple of the comments here already I really liked the opening scenes of the holocaust. I thought the inter-cutting of peaceful and mundane Colonial life with a really disarmingly *nice* Hybrid monologue as she/they/it get ready to obliterate everything below them was quite effective. Not sure how I feel about baseships being able to fly over a planet though, that entire section of the baseships spinning seemed a little unnecessary.
Unfortunately after the destruction it all got a little…tame. Don’t get me wrong; there were some brilliant scenes with Cavil, but I couldn’t help but feel they were just trying to give as many of the Significant Seven roles as possible. Cavil had some wonderfully sadistic lines, too.
The scene with Cavil killing the child was very relevant to his character, I thought. In the Miniseries Caprica Six kills that baby, and over the course of the series she ‘learns the value of children’ or something very similar, to the point she fights and kills to protect one. Quite a progression. Cavil kills a child and then, over time, becomes even more against humanity-goes some way to address just why the Cylons split as fast as they did; just two very differing approaches to situations.
Also, topless bar staff, naked male and female crew, a close up on the aforementioned naked man…why, exactly?
October 30th, 2009 at 12:39 pm
i’ve watched The Plan 4 times now since i got it the day it was released and i have to admit i fully enjoyed it, and i noticed only 2 things were changed from the series into this, first was Ellen said she was at the airport buying a ticket back home, but in the plan it shows her in a topless bar, my theory of this was either her memory got really messed up by the attack she really couldnt remember clearly, or if you take into account her character back then, why would she admit to her husband that she was at a topless bar to begin with. now the main thing that was changed was the final scene with the 2 Cavils in the cells was completely re-edited to match this movie, because in the series version that i watched directly after in order to be sure, the fleet Cavil actually agreed that the attack was a mistake and had felt that way from the beginning, therefore wouldn’t match the Cavil it showed through the complete film, now ofcoarse they had to change it in order for it to work, one explaination could be that when they had originally written they had no idea who they were going to have be the F5, and that at the time Cavil wasnt the know it all bad guy he was at the end therefore it required a sorta rewrite due to this as well, but regardless to these changes to the story from the series i still fully enjoyed The Plan.
October 30th, 2009 at 5:04 pm
While I like Jane Espenson, her work on season four, the plan and the webisodes is less than spectacular. The episode was originally to be written by Bradley Thompson and David Weddle until they moved over to CSI. I wonder if their version would have made for a better movie than what we got. The fact that she is the show runner for Caprica does not bode well for that series. I’ll still watch every episode but I don’t see it going past one season. If Galactica, as great as it was, always had the threat of being cancelled, I don’t see a lesser spin off lasting. BSG didn’t get great until 33 – with the mini being set up for all the characters. I hope Caprica can have the same trajectory, I want more galactica type shows but I also want them to be quality.
Also there were originally supposed to be three galactica movies, but they got downgraded to one. Wonder what the other two were supposed to be about. Or were they The Plan in three parts?
October 30th, 2009 at 9:53 pm
Jane oh Jane…why hast thou forsaken us? I’ve watched The Plan several times now to fully take in every nook and cranny this film offers. After doing so I contend that I’m still “on the fence.”
What I liked:
The film had some killer CGI scenery. Seeing the attacks in the opening scenes was breath taking. They gave us a different feel for each colony and the destruction was thorough. It was heart wrenching to see the actual explosions and then the aftermath. It was uber cool to see the Base Stars pulling the “spin alignment” maneuver as well as the types of carpet nukes they used to achieve that devastation.
While there wasn’t much character development inherent, it was fantastic to see the evolution of several models having the same identity crisis the 8’s were having throughout the series. The Simons in particular were outstanding in this movie. I genuinely felt for them as they wrestled with their Cylon nature and the true nature the Final Five had programmed them with. One Simon wanted to be human in every sense of the word…another was the epitomy of the Cylon Dr. Yet another was a Pyramid player reaching for fame (another Human trait…the EGO).
Additionally, Cavil’s character benefited the most from this movie. Seeing the same conflicts in the various models of Cavils was brilliant. It was very emotional to see the Brother Cavils flushed out into space holding hands. In contrast was John Cavil. Cold and calculating as ever, it was masterful watching his manipulation of the other models. Knowing now that he was the catalyst behind “33″ as well as Doral’s suicide bombing and the countless other attacks of noteriety just adds to the depth of that character’s hatred. In reality I think Cavil’s disdain is more for his creator’s than for humanity itself. He hated what they made him and his only mode of revenge on them was to destroy what the Final Five cared for most…humanity. Some friends and I also believe that the boy (named John oddly enough) was Cavil’s “head” character, and it was a manifestation of himself. I believe he kileed his head character to help his mind finally commit to the utter disdain he needed to have for humans to carry out his revenge. Perhaps if he hadn’t “killed” the boy he felt he would be compelled to succumb to the FF’s plan and not the Cylon Plan.
Would I disliked:
Ok, as a human male I can certainly appreciate the female nude form. I am fine with my sexuality so I can deal with a naked male form as well. But seriously? Did we need breasts and a penis to get us to understand the Cylon plan? I feel those scenes were, a gratuitous sell out to start some post release buzz. “Did you hear about the new BSG movie? It had nekkid people in it!” Not a great moment in the series’ history in my opinion.
Like everyone else, I disliked the lack of new content. Or should I say I disliked how much of the movie was cut in from Seasons 1 and 2? I understand the limitations in casting. I also understand the need to make the new and old become as seamless as possible but this felt too much like a recap episode than a feature film.
I truly love the BSG ‘Verse. I will continue to support it any way I can in the hopes that the other two fabled movies might get made and we may get more answers. I will watch Caprica each week and eagerly watch the early BSG world unfold…Like I said earlier, I am on the fence about the movie. As of now,I just don’t know if we still have… “a plan.”
October 31st, 2009 at 10:36 am
‘The Plan’ isn’t what I expected, but I really enjoyed it.
Adam, that is so true about “the countless other attacks of noteriety just adds to the depth of Cavil’s hatred. In reality I think Cavil’s disdain is more for his creator’s than for humanity itself. He hated what they made him and his only mode of revenge on them was to destroy what the Final Five cared for most…humanity.”
“Some friends and I also believe that the boy (named John oddly enough) (Tootie: not oddly) was Cavil’s “head” character, and it was a manifestation of himself. I believe he kileed his head character to help his mind finally commit to the utter disdain he needed to have for humans to carry out his revenge.
Adam, that is brillant – the boy was a head character for sure. Bang on.
Nudity was just silly.
I love the ending. Despite of himself, Cavil takes his brother’s hand. Showing he is just still a little boy who needs comfort, love, belonging.
Themes:
There is no perfection. Humans are imperfect, whatever they create will be imperfect.
You can’t hate or destroy something once you get to know it and see its value. That was true for Helo and Adama (getting to know Sharon, etc.) in the series and for Boomer and Simon in this movie. Familiarity destroys fear, hatred, racism. Very interesting to see how much the line was blurred on both sides.
I disliked the flashes at the start to the tanks too. Just silly. This movie was clearly fan-only.
Felt sad about the whole BSG story. What a waste. I guess that’s how I’m supposed to feel.
November 1st, 2009 at 11:51 am
I have to say the thing I enjoyed most about The Plan was just getting to spend time with characters I have known and loved for so long, learning more about their backstories and motivations was great, it was however this films massive flaw as it did not present itself as a standalone story in any real sense.
I felt like what we got was a series of deleted and extended scenes, and that Galactica Cavill was purely improvising, and that the line “and they have a plan” that came up in text at the beginning of EVERY episode was a lie! Apparently this movie should have been called “They were making it up as they went along!”
What I liked: Hooker-Six was fun and Dopey Doral made me laugh, it showed that a lot of the Cylons were not that sophisticated, and they were individuals, whereas the Suicidal Simon showed they had depth, and clearly did crave humanity, even though they were not human. It was good to see the flip-side to Boomer and the Shelly Godfrey stories as well, to flesh out the other sides of those parts. Parts of the destruction of the colonies were awesome, mostly the space based stuff.
What I was disappointed by: Um there was no plan, at all. The Cylons managed to orchestrate an attack that killed billions but hadn’t anticipated any survivors, or what to do with them so started wildly improvising? The ones on earth were playing with the humans, but didn’t seem to have a reason or rationale? Where the hell was Lucy Lawless? I really missed her a lot. Some of the earth based destruction shots were appalling, mostly the harbour based stuff, terrible CGI that was sub-standard for BSG and should have been canned. Where was the monotheism that the Cylons were so famed for, I realise Cavill was an atheist but surely the others should exhibit some examples of their religion. The child John seemed a strange addition, I don’t think he was a head character, all the other ‘heads’ have always challenged and questioned their subjects, seemingly sent by God to lead people forward, John didn’t lead Galatica Cavill anywhere.
I’ve never disliked a plot direction so much in all the years I have watched BSG, but ‘The Plan’ felt like an underbudgeted, ill thought through, strange addition to the canon to be honest, it was not the story I was hoping to see and in many ways it stomped across large parts of the exisiting story in a way that doesn’t fit well with whats already gone before. What would have been better to me, is learning about the final fives arrival and ending the war, the development of the significant seven, the death of Daniel, learning what the names of the other models were, how many do we know? John & Daniel we heard Ellen use but are Simon, Sharon and D’Anna just covers names? Since ‘The Plan’ has always ostensibly been the Cylons attempt to destroy humanity it would have been nicer to see how they brought that about, see more of John sidelining the final five and placing them on earth, and then learn that they had more a more concise idea about destabilising the fleet than just making it up as they went along. A bit of a wasted opportunity really.
November 2nd, 2009 at 2:02 am
I have essentially liked or loved everything BSG (including the finale) but the only thing I enjoyed about this movie was the scenes on Caprica involving Sam. Nothing else. Everything else felt forced at best and ridiculously terrible at worst. Hell, I disliked “The Plan” so much that I won’t even waste another second talking about it.
November 2nd, 2009 at 5:35 am
Evildan? The boy did challenge Cavil! He kept coming back and coming back after being shooed away. So much in fact that Cavil let his guard down and began letting the boy stay. He fed him and gave him, a HUMAN, shelter and asylum. When he began to understand that he was becoming sympathetic to the boy…he “killed” him. How could Cavil continue to plan the destruction of humanity if he was feeling for a human boy and nurturing him?
By the way, I thought the mode used to bring the sleeper agents in and out of their true consciousness was cool. I just wish we could have seen some of that process explained. Why an elephant? How were they programmed? The entire run of BSG never dealt with showing us how Cavil manipulated people to forget who they were or what they were to do.
November 2nd, 2009 at 9:13 am
the deleted scene from daybreak with Cavil putting Tory on the transpor,t or whatever kind of ship it was, was not after the attack, it was when Cavil first put her in the colonies, you can tell this by when he say ” enjoy human life my dear, in the end i think you’ll see i was right after all” or something close to that, i just felt you should know what you’re actually talking about instead of thinking it was some contradiction, but i too was dissappointed by the only 2 scenes with Tory.
November 2nd, 2009 at 10:07 am
The reason Lymari Nadal got brought back from her small part in the mini was because she is married to EJO. In the mini’s commentary they mention where Eddie’s wife got a cameo. Since he directs the plan that probably helped her be in The Plan.
November 2nd, 2009 at 7:14 pm
Well I have not seen the Plan yet so I am going to hold out my opinions until I do. I’ve found so often I end up liking the episodes a lot of other people don’t necessarily like. I think I’m just a BSG junkie, I can’t seem to get enough. I’m really excited to hear that there will be a BSG movie. But I’ve got to say I’m a little confused to hear that it wasn’t Ronald D Moore who wrote The Plan. His writing is so beautiful and eloquent that it’s confusing to me that he wouldn’t have written what could be such a powerful BSG mini movie. This was his baby… why didn’t he write it? Anyways, BSG hasn’t let me down yet… except for that Saggitaron episode… and Razor left me a little disheartened yet still liking it as a regular episode. But other than that this show has been ground breakingly exceptional for me, so I will hold out my judgment until I see it on tv when it fiiiiinally comes out.
PS I hope Caprica doesn’t end up becoming like Smallville…. and overly drawn out pointless, going no where, milking it for all it’s worth kind of series. I will definitely give Ron the benefit of the doubt since he hasn’t let me down yet.
November 2nd, 2009 at 7:55 pm
I hate being british. I can’t apply for the UGO competition
November 2nd, 2009 at 8:00 pm
From what I read, “The Plan” is not the last BSG TV movie of the RIS. From what I read, there’s a possible story that could take place on Earth sometime after the end of “Daybreak.” But then again, there’s still plenty of story in the RIS that hasn’t been covered. Seriously, there’s still civilians left behind on the 12 Colonies who are facing the Cylon Apocalypse and the civilians on board the ships in the Fleet whom we never seen, unless they’ve interacted with the military or government characters. So, “The Plan” may be the last one we see in relation to seeing the Galactica and the RTF, but there’s room for more stories.
I haven’t yet watched “The Plan”, so I can’t comment on how Tory’s surviving the apocalypse being different from the deleted scene. But I can tell you what I always assumed. From what I saw the clips of from the commercial and from the deleted scene I saw, I always assumed that the clip of Tory driving and witnessing the blast was either from the events of Earth (like how we saw it from Tyrol’s POV in his flashback) or maybe she was driving on another planet, got killed, resurrected on another planet where she was placed on board the ship.
November 2nd, 2009 at 9:07 pm
Much that I like to see any second dealing with anything related to BSG, this one could have been composed from the YouTube clips and probably give a better feel to it.
))
Like you guys said in a review, they explained what needn`t be explained. Last time I felt like this I watched Matrix Reloaded and I`m still trying to forget there ever were any sequels to the greatness of the first one.
Not big fan of Jane, since she came to the show, there` s been lots of that preposterous “deep” speech and dwelling on “deeper” meanings with soap opera style “important” glances instead of leaving us with our jaws down at how much was NOT said or shown, but is there. I mean, really, Buffy?! So, she did it again… Glad I actually can watch all of them if they just read the phone book
Haven`t seen any plan, didn`t care about most of the things, still don`t know why they needed Tori to begin with, and oh so many other issues… and so many of great story lines that just were dropped during the show, to be replaced by incredulously naive and disappointing explanations…
Honestly, didn`t like the end of the show either, but will not comment in detail, might spend next month doing that. Just, it felt like a completely different show than the one I was watching.
But, great music
And can we get the story of Tom Zarek before the prison and after? What can I say, the old Apollo still rules, and Richard Hatch is just great.
November 4th, 2009 at 5:27 am
I Know this trailer has nothing to do with the Plan. But has anyone even heard of this movie before. It’ tripped me out. Like BSG in the bizarro land. Still cool But not the BSG as I know and love it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybIyzTO4zhU&feature=related
November 4th, 2009 at 7:41 pm
I liked it. Perhaps my expectations for it weren’t as high as that of other fans. The film explained some things and didn’t cover some others…I’m OK with that. I’ll probably always have questions about certain aspects of the story, especially about Starbuck. And I’ll always want *more*. But being back in the realm of BSG with (most of) the characters was a delight for me. My only complaint is seeing too much of Ellen Tigh’s tongue when she says, “Please…find Saul.”
November 5th, 2009 at 9:37 am
Kirsty,
First off…good to see you again!
Battlestar Galactica: The Second Coming was the original trailer Richard Hatch and his production company had made to pitch a revival of TOS to Universal. Universal basically gave “The Hatch” the finger. Then Bryan Singer and Tom DeSanto were later pegged to remake the series. It actually made a lot of buzz and favorable consideration at the cons until 9/11 hit. Later RDM and the gang where given the green light by Universal to reboot the series we came to love. Now Singer is apparently back in the mix to remake a big screen version of BSG that no one is sure where it will go. There you have it….
November 5th, 2009 at 8:35 pm
Hey Adam, Thanks for the warm welcomes
That’s really interesting to know, and I’m not surprised that it didn’t get made if it was right after the 911 attacks. It would have been a touchy topic for everyone. But in a way I’m glad they didn’t because I love the way bsg is now it’s sooo much further ahead that it would have been had it been made back then.
I finally had a chance to see The Plan! I really want to give my opinons but I don’t want to spoil it for anyone. What is the code to put in so your words only show up if you highlight them? That way I can give my opinons on details without ruining it for everyone. Either that or I’ll just put in giant letter SPOILER ALERT!!!! hahaha
November 6th, 2009 at 3:05 am
Ok I will do my best not to give away any spoilers.
I really really liked the plan. I think when the expectations are really high, it’s probably not going to live up to all that. I think if people just look at The Plan as an addendum episode instead of a movie it won’t be so dissapointing. However with all the commercials they said that the plan was supposed to be the war from the cylons perspective. (POSSIBLE SPOILER) [But they only did it up to the end of season 1. Why not the whole season. It felt incomplete. But in a way it's good that some questions were left unanswered. Because when they do the BSG movie which I hope with be in an actual movie theatre. They can answer more questions and make the movie amazing! This was really more like an addendum episode. And I felt that the whole scene with the cavil on Galactica and the little kid was way too creepy an unnessicary but in theme with his bastard character.](POSSIBLE SPOILER END LOL) But I did like the whole Simon dynamic with his wife and kids and even the Simon with the resistance fighters. It definitly showed another side to the Simon’s. He always came across as so cold and calculating. It gave him a lot more depth of character and made him more sympathetic to show him having a relationship with a human family. We got to see that with all the other characters (except Doral) As for doral, I totally agree hahaha he was frakking hilarious. He’s like Cavel’s bitch! What I don’t get is why he would do the dirty work for cavel in the first place. What could possibly happen other than boxing…. It’s not like they can get fired. I don’t think cavel would box them for not wanting to bury dead bodies. haha and I love his explanation for his teal suit. It just makes me think that the only real power cavel had over any of them was his domination over the ressurection ships. He was obviously the only one with the ability to box the others. At least thats how it seems.
I think the scene with Leoben, and finding out why he developed an obsession with her made some sense in that he was having visions about her and had a deeper understanding of who she really is. But they didn’t go into as much detail as I would have liked. I think it was a bit rushed. This is something they honestly could have made a whole season out of. So putting tiny clips into an almost 2 hour movie was probably the most they could have squeezed into it. But I think Ron may have done it differently if he had written this one. But I dooooo totally love the opening scenes of the destruction of the colonies. The hybrid is frakin awesome!
As an episode I thought it was amazing! As a movie I thought it was incomplete. So I guess it’s all in how you view it.
November 6th, 2009 at 1:31 pm
OK Simon (in case I missed something) had a child with a human?
has that been overlooked?
or is there more to that story since she obviously knew he was a Cylon…
November 6th, 2009 at 3:02 pm
Bishomti – he did not have a child with a human. He married a woman who already had a child and help raise it as if it was his own. But it was not his biologically.
November 7th, 2009 at 4:42 pm
There was not only one 3 that caused all the 3s to be boxed. We know at least 2 were in cahoots to let D’Anna go to the surface in Rapture. The one on the ship and the one in the raptor actually going down.
This one Cavil is clearly an abberation to their line, the rest are cold blooded killers.
I disagree with alot of your negative comments. I LOVED the fleshing out of Simon… and I found that storyline really good, and using that minor character from the mini was clever and good. She’s a good actor. And the Tyrol involvement there was good as well.
I will agree it would have been nice to see more of Tory, but there’s only so much you can do in 2 ours, and this movie wasn’t really about the final 5, it was about Cavil and the others.
There was a lot of great stuff. Sure, in a vacuum it’s lacking as a movie, but as a companion piece to the series, it’s fantastic.
November 9th, 2009 at 7:42 am
Darth Mojo’s (a vfx designer on bsg) blog has info about an easter egg on the plan. It’s short but great for fans of the original
http://darthmojo.wordpress.com/
November 9th, 2009 at 7:53 am
Great review!
November 10th, 2009 at 12:33 pm
Good review.
Personally, I didn’t expect much from this movie, and not much is exactly what I got. Sure, the first half hour or so was good…but it could have been better. Then we get trivial scenes that answered all the questions we DID NOT want the answers to rather than the ones that we DID want answers to. It focused on some characters that we didn’t even care about. Even Bear’s soundtrack, which is usually the best thing about any BSG endeavor, was kinda sub par.
There were, as the cast said, good little things. Some of the dialogue was funny. I also very much like the development of the two Cavil characters, and their last scene together. It provided some much-needed adhesive for the otherwise scattered and schizophrenic story.
I guess what really bugs me is that I can no longer make a BSG: Resistance video game the way I imagined it now.
I’ll just take comfort in my re-write of Daybreak and call that the last piece of BSG.
November 17th, 2009 at 6:10 am
(has the email addy always been required, cos damn I just lost a massive comment.)
Anyhoo…restart typing…
Hey y’all,
I’m a huge Kara/Leoben fan, and I have gotta say that the miniscule amount of screentime that Leo got totally threw me off guard. Leo draws the Mandala!! A 5000 year old symbol that only the final five know the meaning of, and he and Kara just ‘happen’ to instinctively draw it. Coincidence, I think not.
Kara and Leoben have a very weird, very freaky link. Leo says very briefly to an uninterested Cavil that Kara ‘plucked that knowledge from the stream’ in regards to flying the raider. Very interesting idea. Is that where Leo got the Mandala from? The Cylon data stream? And why Kara can also see the mandala. For what may have been a complete throwaway line, it certainly intrigued my imagination, wondering if a lot of Kara’s intuition, the mandala, her flight of death, her return to life, the F5 song is all linked to the data stream within the cylon ship. Is Kara somehow able to access that data without ever consciously being aware of it?
Leo touches Kara and has a ‘vision’ of the future. Heh, a Flash Forward if you will. He sees them on New Caprica with Kacey, and then he sees the visions that Kara has during Malstrom. If touching Kara has that effect for Leoben, that he can see the future through her, it opens up a massive amount of questions about Kara Thrace that will sadly never be answered.
He may have started his obsession over a radio, but he and Kara are linked in a very interesting way. He knew about her abusive mother, he knows about the mandala and he sees the future when he touches her. But half the future he sees is interesting becuase he sees the vision that Kara has of the whitewashing the mandala, and screwing Leoben up against the wall. He sees her final acceptance of her mother’s death, he sees child-Kara’s face, he sees her plane explode and then, NOTHING else. What’s also interesting about him seeing her vision is the fact that vision Leoben claims that he ISN’T Leoben…so how did scruffy Leo get a glimpse if its not his future self…confusing, definitely.
He doesn’t see their walkabout together on Earth 1.0, or painting the explosion of the Hub together on the Daedalus. He sees up to the moment of her death, which may mean a heck of a lot, or it may mean bugger all.
But seeing another side to Leoben’s obsession is definitely of the good. He kind of comes across as creepy stalker boy throughout the series, and having him see the future lends him some semblance of dignity rather than just being completely insane.
Anyhoo, enough about them.
Cavil’s plan was completely mental.
Inserting the Final Five into the Colonies for forty years to teach them to hate humanity as much as he did was not really all that great an idea to begin with.
Decimating the Colonies because he didn’t like that fact that the F5 loved humanity so much was also not so great an idea.
Turning around and saving Ellen Tigh and getting her onto a med ship and then onto the Fleet smacks of insanity.
If Cavil’s brilliant plan really was to just completely destroy every single human on the Colonies, he could have achieved it within about a day or two of the holocaust if he’d really put his mind to it. Cavil was in a position on the Galactica that provided him with a certain amount of trust. Who would expect a priest, a ‘man of the gods’ to turn around and assassinate Adama? People saw the clothes he wore, and gave him a certain respect and freedom that they wouldn’t normally give to anyone else.
Having Boomer sabotage the ships was like throwing a pebble at the Galactica and then stomping his foot in frustration when it wouldn’t even break a window. He’d have been better off not having Boomer ‘asleep’, and having the Cylon Sharon be the one in control. It really made no sense to have her be a sleeper when he wanted her to be the one causing so much damage.
Or, really, if he’d ordered the Cylons to never break cover, to NEVER reveal the fact that they were human form. Damn but that would have made the show very very different. If Adama had never tangled with Leoben on Ragnar Anchorage, he’d never have known the looked human, and thus they could have done a heck of a lot more damage. Cavil really needed to put a bit of thought into Plan B because he was just making it up as he went along.
Cavil may have managed to pull off a nuclear hollocaust, but in terms of sweeping up the last 50,000 people, he really kind of sucked. A suicidal Gina Invieree cause more damage than Cavil ever managed.
I did enjoy the idea that the Cylons ultimately failed because they had the ability to love as humans loved. It seems particularly interesting that very few of the models managed to stay ‘evil’ throughout once they began assosciating with humans. Only Galactica-Cavil and Caprica-Simon really seemed to stick to the kill-em-all plan.
Overall, disappointing in that there are still so many unanswered questions, but not as terrible as it might have been. Heh, harldy a rousing endorsement, but what can you do.
Kattie
December 13th, 2009 at 2:02 am
Well like everyone else / you two mentioned, this movie was really disappointing. Especially after seeing the finale, i was expecting so much. I dont even know how excited i was when i bought it on the day it came out, and then i was really disappointed with the lack of answers.
First of all, the naked people seriously bothered me. It was seriously not necessary & it was very awkward when my mom walked in to see what i was watching and it was a shot of a guy’s package. It was really strange too because i dont recall any other nude characters in previous episodes or movies.
I find the cylons were very..disorganized in this movie? You mostly see them one step ahead of humans, but here they seemed like they were loosing a battle.
Also, i didnt really get why he killed the kid. To me, i already understood how malicious he was and i didnt need a reminder. I find there are way too many pointless sub-plot points such as these that just wasted time for other more important information that we are never going to know.
I guess ill just stick all the questions i have for the show in the back of my mind and wait 50 years for the next remake
Meanwhile, ill go watch stargate universe and other syfy shows & hope for something better then bsg.
oh and thanks for the review guys!
-Michel
December 14th, 2009 at 8:49 am
hello all
i know this is a little late but better late than never.
1st of all i agree that the movie was slow. but there were some very good parts though. the cities burning were epic. they tied our earth to the colonies. we see how our ancient cities could have been based on theirs.
all the cylons seemed to have their role but they had a choice to do it or not. the movie was not from the human view but the cylon’s. the 8s put it in a nutshell. it was all about choice.
as for the cylon plan; cavil’s was different from the rest but had the same basic flaw. the final 5 didn’t even know this. if you saw the movie Caprica
the cylon’s root programming is based on the mind of a 16 y.o. girl. in Caprica we will all see how all cylob life experiences are processed through the mind of this 16 y.o.spoiled brat from a wealthy jacked up disfunctional family. that is why their plan is no plan. they want what they want now and if they don’t get it they will make your life a living hell until they get what they want. even though they don’t know what they want. this whole process started over 80 years earlier and if the 5 had known this they would have never given them resurrection. Cavil/John is a 50 y,o, version of Zoe Greytstone. which is kind of ironic.
as far as starbuck head baltat/6 and earth cylons those are stories for a different day.
January 3rd, 2010 at 12:58 am
Okay, I’ve finally watched “The Plan” and have figured out how the deleted scene from “Daybreak” with Tory fits in the timeline of the show. Much like how we see Boomer talking to a Six on board a passenger craft before going into Sleeper Agent mode (to which we see a deleted scene in “Daybreak” with her sitting the same seat and being awaken by a stewardess and the Captain informing her of the tragedy of Troy that appears to come sometime after the meeting), it could be possible that the scene with Cavil placing Tory on board the passenger craft may have been at least two years before the attacks (remember, Anders pointed out that Tigh and Ellen were both placed in the Colonies first, then Anders, Tyrol and Tory afterwards. The deleted scene of Tory being placed on the ship may have been her being inserted into the Colonial life for the first time. And two years later, we see the scenes of her driving just prior to the destruction of the Colonies). And you’re probably thinking, “But he tells her to enjoy the apocalypse.” prior to leaving her there. You have to remember: the whole point behind Cavil’s action was to make the Final Five realize what it was like to be human. And since he placed four out of the five into the Colonies prior to the destruction, it makes no sense for Tory to be inserted on the day of the attacks, as she wouldn’t have had a clear sense of what humanity was like before the attacks (as Cavil wanted them to see). Hope that helps out.
January 18th, 2010 at 2:21 am
Well, I was very disappointed in The Plan; it was well written, but I was expecting to see the evolution of the cylons from the first cylon war into seeking revenge, and becoming “human” (from that attack on that base, which I can’t remember now, by a six), to the final blow led in meglaomaniac glee by Cavil. You definitely had to be a fan to understand it, as the timeline was implied by specific events that happened in BSG.
We saw a lot of pieces from what we all saw throughout the series, although I am still devastated by the last hour of BSG. But I have chosen to ignore it, and remember how well written and well acted the show really had been. In seeing the recent farewell of Dr.Who, Ten, and how well it was done, it made me see how disappointing an ending we had in the end. Continuing on: it was kind of cool to see how that “Six” disappeared and that they all wondered about early on in S2. I don’t remember any Baltar setup, but it was a nice addition; especially how poor poor Gaeta was there to get him out of dodge.
I did like to see how Boomer had contact w/Cavil on the show, and would go from sleeper, to agent and back again. I liked how she preferred being human, and said that was when she was happiest. I liked how she thought she had written cylon on her mirror as if she were trying to tell herself something. But the one thing that bothered me was that her mission was always to kill Adama, whom she loved as a father, even when not in agent mode. One of the most horrible and poignant and important moments of BSG is when she shoots him, and than it’s like she wakes up screaming what have I done, what happened, and OMG–it was well done, and horrific at the same time. It is the moment that the 5 and any other characters who discuss the possibility of being a cylon remember, because she turned on them and did not even know it was in her or who she really was.
I liked how Kara was seen as a wildcard by the cylons; something they could not put a finger on, and just thought Leoben had some crazy obsession w/her. The biggest mistake the show made was killing her, as this idea of her being a “wildcard” should have been the story arc.
Finally, it did stay true to the fact that when the cylon models fell in love, had human relationships, they changed, and wanted to remain human, while being pressured by Cavil to complete their mission. I liked seeing it in a character besides the Sixes and the Eights, ie. Simon. He kills himself instead of blowing up the ship w/his family. The love thing was what Cavil never bargained for , or humanity’s will to fight. He thought that the genocide would have killed everyone, and thus he was frustrated by how he could not kill all of humanity, and how some of the other models, had different pov’s after having lived w/the humans. Ironic, as Cavil thought they would be disgusted and psyched to “to get this genocide going” as he says. It also creeped me out how he acted like a skeevy Dad to Boomer when he kisses her, and is sleeping w/one of the 6′es, which I actually liked a lot. TH never got enough credit for her work, as many of the actors on this show. When I saw who was nominated for some of the Golden Globes tonight, there were several people who did not deserve to be up there as much as some of the BSG actors.
I also did not see when Tory got placed onto the Galactica; we just see her seeing the end of the world. Only Tory, Ellen and Anders say “this has all happened before” in a mini trance for a split second. We never saw Tigh having a moment like that—
Finally, I would have liked to know what the Plan really was, just the genocide? I had thought it was to merge the two races and create some kind of new species under the one true god. I just had wanted to learn something new–
k
January 19th, 2010 at 4:35 am
I love that Singer is going to do the new X-men movie but I don’t get why he’s doing a BSG movie either and I love your Smallville reference! Tom Welling rules!!!
February 1st, 2010 at 10:33 pm
For those who are confused about how come Boomer acted like she had no memories of what her Sleeper personality. I hope this helps out.
Basically, here’s the whole situation in continuity with the character, so that everyone is on the same page. At least two years prior to the attacks on the Colonies, Sharon “Boomer” Valerii is inserted into Colonial life via a passenger ship. We see a scene where she talks with a Six, apparently aware of who and what she is. In a deleted scene from Season 4’s “Daybreak, Part 2″, we see her in the same seat that we see her in this flashback, where she is awaken by the stewardess and informed by the Captain about the accident at Troy. At this point, she began her life as a Sleeper agent. She may have been just a backup in case Doral failed (as Cavil points out that he was suppose to take care of Galactica, but had been outed by Baltar), and not intended to be the sole agent on board. Or, she may have been intended for another purpose. Remember, Galactica was being retired and she, along with the Viper Squadron, were heading to Picon to receive their new assignments, as pointed out in the novel adaptation of the mini-series. It’s possible she was suppose to lead the Vipers of Galactica to their demise (this would have included her Raptor with Helo inside it) or be somewhere else. But due to the damage to the Raptor and her programmed personality, she ended up on Caprica, receiving the civies and then trying to go back to the last place she thought she could go: the Galactica).
Now, some people have expressed how it seems odd that, even for a Sleeper agent, she has no memories of her being a Cylon (i.e. the times she was with Cavil) in “Downloaded”. If you pay attention to what she says during a couple of scenes, you realize that there was something that was going wrong. In the scene where she talks to Cavil after placing the bombs into Galactica’s water tank, she talks about how she lost control of herself, forgot who she was and where she was. In the scene after her discovery of the word “Cylon” scrolled on her mirror, she told Cavil that she believes she was losing herself because she found the word on the mirror, which may have been her writing to either help or no longer help Cavil. These scenes suggest that something was going wrong with her programming, possibly due to Cavil’s constant pulling her in and out of Sleeper agent mode. And due to this error, the Sleeper personality of Sharon “Boomer” Valerii ended up downloading and the memories of her true identity may have had become corrupted, thus not making the download and would account for the way she acted in Season 2’s “Downloaded” and afterward.
I hope that these details at least clear up some confusion.
February 11th, 2010 at 5:25 am
ha-ha, thats great post! gooooood!!!
February 11th, 2010 at 5:28 am
I don’t know why, but I don’t see that yet!
February 11th, 2010 at 6:54 pm
Totally agree with Dork Brain. The Plan was like a ‘bait and switch’ sale tactic in that we were sold it would be one thing and we got no thing.
I think the Final 5 idea was a complete failure in the same vein. It was a half assed idea that never made sense and in the end was just patronising bordering on ridicule of the fans of the show.
The whole saga in my view is totally incoherent and insulting. I’ll be donating my dvd’s to charity so at least some good will come of it.
Save the mini-series. So I eat my words – not the whole saga was poor. Will always love the mini series (ok and of course ‘33′_ b u t that is b l o o d y IT!
February 27th, 2010 at 7:31 pm
toujours de tres bonne info merci pour ce post !
March 17th, 2010 at 11:23 pm
i think i’ve figured out The Plan, it’s not based on the cylon’s plan to attack the colonies like everyone thinks it is, what it actually is is explaining Cavil’s plan on getting revenge on The Final 5, and with keeping in mind the content’s of the episode “No Exit” from season 4, this movie definitly works better if looked at in that light, whilst it also shows a few details on how that plan failed, and what led him to his crazy “i want to be a machine” monologue in “No Exit”. people just need to realize that this was not what they expected, but that it is still a worthy addition to the BSG ‘verse. Now shut the Frak up.
June 5th, 2010 at 2:05 am
Wow,thank you for sharing such useful information.
July 12th, 2010 at 2:36 pm
This page wasnt working yesterday. i tried viewing it but it timed out 4-5 times now but i can access it now. Why did this occur? Am i the only one having this issue?