And They Have a Plan. That was written in the opening sequence of Battlestar Galactica for a long time, and over the course of four seasons we found out more or less what the plan was. Well, moreso in season 4 really, the the episode where Ellen makes her reappearance. The purpose of The Plan was to show us what it actually was and how it was carried out up until the point where the Cylons withdrew from the Colonies and the Cavill's got spaced.
I'll start by saying that this is most definitely not for people who haven't seen the series. Razor could possibly (just possibly, wouldn't recommend) be enjoyed as a stand-alone TV movie. The Plan requires detailed knowledge of everything that has happened so far. I wouldn't even recommend it to a casual viewer, and if you don't remember the events of season 1 very well because you haven't seen it for a long time, I'd recommend refreshing your memory first. If you do remember it well, then The Plan does a good job of tying everything together. We get to see the attack on the Colonies from the Cylon point of view, and in a lot more detail than we did from the human point of view in the miniseries. We get to see how Ellen Tigh survives, how Anders survives, the Cylons on Galactica and their plans, how Boomer was controlled. All definitely interesting to see.
This film expands on what we saw in late season 4 about Cavil where he's coming from. He wants to be a machine, but he also craves approval from his creators. He wants to be loved for being a perfect machine. Everything he did was because of his revulsion of humanity and his belief that they should be punished. The Plan showed that there truly was no humanity in him at all, no conscience. I thought he'd probably kill the boy at some point, but it was still pretty chilling to see how casual he was about killing a young child and then pushing the body to the floor.
The film in itself was a little strange, I thought. I know the whole idea was to put the extra bits in with the original footage, but sometimes it was a little too obvious that that was what was happening. It didn't help that there was no footage included of some of the major players. I'm guessing that maybe Mary McDonnell refused to appear even in archive footage, because I can't think of any other sane reason to not show such a major character. Sure, she wasn't a major part of the Cylon's plans in the way that some others were, but she was still present at some major events. Leoben's airlocking for example? Cavil got it into his head that Adama had to die, so he had to be in it. Starbuck was always important, both to Leoben and to Anders on Caprica, so she had to be in it. Apollo wasn't really so important, but he got to be there, just because it makes sense to show the main players. Why no Roslin, or even Billy?
Another person conspicuous by their absence was obviously Number 3. Mentioned once, and early on some archive footage was spliced in with some new stuff, but it really wasn't much. Okay so maybe Lucy Lawless wasn't interested, and nothing can be done about that, but I'm sure that someone who was so vocal and at some points even seemed to lead the Cylons would have been more involved in the plan. To barely even be mentioned was strange. D'Anna Biers was in the fleet, and yet no explanation was given as to why she wasn't at the Cylon meetings.
I think I have just one more complain about it, and it's not really a very big one. I found the Simon who was with the previously unmentioned and never heard from again knuckle-dragger a little bit strange. I don't know whether they were trying to make a point that John Cavil was so different from the others and so much more of a machine, by giving Simon a more human story where he actually fell in love. If that's the case, then why just Simon and not Aaron Doral? The Doral's and the Simon's were always the most emotionless, and they all seemed pretty much the same. It was just strange to change one now. I guess it shows that they can't all be the same though, which was more obvious in the sixes and eights. I did actually like the new Simon, even if it was a slightly unecessary story. Again, puzzled by the new woman, who was probably in it because she's Edward James Olmos' wife.
All in all, I did enjoy The Plan. I'm a Battlestar addict who will always want more. I do agree with some things I've read about it being unnecessary, and do see how some might consider it to be dragging BSG on for too long. Not saying I agree though. For me, this is like The Silmarillian. Of course it's not needed to enjoy the rest of the series, and once you've seen the series you don't need to see this. It's something extra for people who want to know everything about the world. People who watch Daybreak and are left desperate to know more, even if it's just going back to see a season and a half from the Cylon point of view. For the Battlestar addicts, The Plan is worth adding to your collection.
Now I've spoken about the actual film, I have to mention the music. Bear McCreary truly is amazing, and it either shows my love of his soundtracks or my absolute geekiness that I spent a lot of the film picking out which themes I knew and being able to name them. The Final Five theme makes any moment in Battlestar Galactica exciting for me, so I was pleased to hear that so early on. Nice to hear the Earth theme too, used as it originally was as a Caprica flashback theme. Something Dark Is Coming was included too, and I've not heard that for a while. That one reminds me a lot of season 2. The final credits song, apparently called Apocalypse, was great. I like all the tracks with Raya Yarborough's vocals. I'm definitely looking forward to adding another soundtrack to the collection.
Last comment, based on something I saw on Bear McCreary's blog. I think my geek level just hit maximum, because I recognised that the planet in the universal logo was Caprica and not Earth before I even read and confirmed it in that blog. I think I go above maximum by actually being proud of that I did.
I'll start by saying that this is most definitely not for people who haven't seen the series. Razor could possibly (just possibly, wouldn't recommend) be enjoyed as a stand-alone TV movie. The Plan requires detailed knowledge of everything that has happened so far. I wouldn't even recommend it to a casual viewer, and if you don't remember the events of season 1 very well because you haven't seen it for a long time, I'd recommend refreshing your memory first. If you do remember it well, then The Plan does a good job of tying everything together. We get to see the attack on the Colonies from the Cylon point of view, and in a lot more detail than we did from the human point of view in the miniseries. We get to see how Ellen Tigh survives, how Anders survives, the Cylons on Galactica and their plans, how Boomer was controlled. All definitely interesting to see.
This film expands on what we saw in late season 4 about Cavil where he's coming from. He wants to be a machine, but he also craves approval from his creators. He wants to be loved for being a perfect machine. Everything he did was because of his revulsion of humanity and his belief that they should be punished. The Plan showed that there truly was no humanity in him at all, no conscience. I thought he'd probably kill the boy at some point, but it was still pretty chilling to see how casual he was about killing a young child and then pushing the body to the floor.
The film in itself was a little strange, I thought. I know the whole idea was to put the extra bits in with the original footage, but sometimes it was a little too obvious that that was what was happening. It didn't help that there was no footage included of some of the major players. I'm guessing that maybe Mary McDonnell refused to appear even in archive footage, because I can't think of any other sane reason to not show such a major character. Sure, she wasn't a major part of the Cylon's plans in the way that some others were, but she was still present at some major events. Leoben's airlocking for example? Cavil got it into his head that Adama had to die, so he had to be in it. Starbuck was always important, both to Leoben and to Anders on Caprica, so she had to be in it. Apollo wasn't really so important, but he got to be there, just because it makes sense to show the main players. Why no Roslin, or even Billy?
Another person conspicuous by their absence was obviously Number 3. Mentioned once, and early on some archive footage was spliced in with some new stuff, but it really wasn't much. Okay so maybe Lucy Lawless wasn't interested, and nothing can be done about that, but I'm sure that someone who was so vocal and at some points even seemed to lead the Cylons would have been more involved in the plan. To barely even be mentioned was strange. D'Anna Biers was in the fleet, and yet no explanation was given as to why she wasn't at the Cylon meetings.
I think I have just one more complain about it, and it's not really a very big one. I found the Simon who was with the previously unmentioned and never heard from again knuckle-dragger a little bit strange. I don't know whether they were trying to make a point that John Cavil was so different from the others and so much more of a machine, by giving Simon a more human story where he actually fell in love. If that's the case, then why just Simon and not Aaron Doral? The Doral's and the Simon's were always the most emotionless, and they all seemed pretty much the same. It was just strange to change one now. I guess it shows that they can't all be the same though, which was more obvious in the sixes and eights. I did actually like the new Simon, even if it was a slightly unecessary story. Again, puzzled by the new woman, who was probably in it because she's Edward James Olmos' wife.
All in all, I did enjoy The Plan. I'm a Battlestar addict who will always want more. I do agree with some things I've read about it being unnecessary, and do see how some might consider it to be dragging BSG on for too long. Not saying I agree though. For me, this is like The Silmarillian. Of course it's not needed to enjoy the rest of the series, and once you've seen the series you don't need to see this. It's something extra for people who want to know everything about the world. People who watch Daybreak and are left desperate to know more, even if it's just going back to see a season and a half from the Cylon point of view. For the Battlestar addicts, The Plan is worth adding to your collection.
Now I've spoken about the actual film, I have to mention the music. Bear McCreary truly is amazing, and it either shows my love of his soundtracks or my absolute geekiness that I spent a lot of the film picking out which themes I knew and being able to name them. The Final Five theme makes any moment in Battlestar Galactica exciting for me, so I was pleased to hear that so early on. Nice to hear the Earth theme too, used as it originally was as a Caprica flashback theme. Something Dark Is Coming was included too, and I've not heard that for a while. That one reminds me a lot of season 2. The final credits song, apparently called Apocalypse, was great. I like all the tracks with Raya Yarborough's vocals. I'm definitely looking forward to adding another soundtrack to the collection.
Last comment, based on something I saw on Bear McCreary's blog. I think my geek level just hit maximum, because I recognised that the planet in the universal logo was Caprica and not Earth before I even read and confirmed it in that blog. I think I go above maximum by actually being proud of that I did.
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