Monday, October 19, 2009

The Plan


The long-awaited tele-movie from Battlestar Galactica - The Plan has finally been released. Ever since the TV series ended in March 2009, I've been getting withdrawal symptoms. The finale was not overly bad, it was actually rather emotional and sad. However, still too many unanswered questions lingered. With The Plan, some of the unanswered questions have finally been answered.

The Plan actually started from 2 weeks before the Fall of Caprica to just around Season 2 of the TV series and not till the finale. I won't spoil it too much, but you do see more of the Cylons, their plottings and plannings that went completely unnoticed throughout the fleet. It was more like they formed a tiny little cult amongst themselves, held meetings within a makeshift chapel, possibly on Galactica and then plotted. Only the No.1, 4, 5, 6 and 8 (Sharon Valerii) were plotting.

The entire Plan tele-movie was John or No.1 driven. He's the leader, leading the rest of his race to destroy the humans. However, his brother model No.1, Brother Cavil, sees things from a different point of view, which he doesn't accept. His vendetta against humanity must be absolute and unquestionably followed, even if resistance among his own model seems forthcoming, he will squash it all the same and proceed with his master plan. The disappearance of Shelly Godfrey was explained, it was rather sad what happened actually, but interesting to watch the banter.

I won't spoil anymore, but let's just say that through humanity's drive to survive and live on, Brother Cavil saw a possibility for peace between humans and Cylons and acted on it with the rest of the Cylons on Caprica. However, John refused to acknowledge peace, he insisted to teach the Final Five a lesson and hope they would come crawling back to him to tell him that he was correct. And so their plan was destroyed, leading to the rest of the season.

I was rather disappointed that Lucy Lawless didn't make an appearance in this series, because she was the driving force behind Season 3, and she had screen presence and could stand up to the No.1s. They did show her in a short snippet here and there, probably taken from Season 3, but otherwise, she had no air time. Dean Stockwell was excellent as No.1, conveying menace and vengeance throughout the entire movie. I will never again see him as Scott Bakula's personal computer from Quantum Leap!

It was also interesting to note that when the Basestars attacked the Twelve Colonies, they turn their top and bottom Y-shaped sections to fit a symmetrical configuration before launching their nukes. Something that was never shown again in the course of the TV series!

Highly recommended to all who followed the entire re-imagined series, and are still suffering from BSG withdrawal symptoms, like me! :P

4 out of 5 stars

No comments: