Battlestar Galactica: The Plan

Original title: The Plan

Video
2009
Not Rated
1h 52m

IMDb RATING

7.0/10

22K

YOUR RATING

Action Adventure Drama Romance Sci-Fi

When the initial Cylon attack against the Twelve Colonies fails to achieve complete extermination of human life as planned, twin Number Ones (Cavils) embedded on Galactica and Caprica must i... Read allWhen the initial Cylon attack against the Twelve Colonies fails to achieve complete extermination of human life as planned, twin Number Ones (Cavils) embedded on Galactica and Caprica must improvise to destroy the human survivors.When the initial Cylon attack against the Twelve Colonies fails to achieve complete extermination of human life as planned, twin Number Ones (Cavils) embedded on Galactica and Caprica must improvise to destroy the human survivors.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

7.0/10

22K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Awards
- 1 nomination

Trivia
Director Edward James Olmos stated in the DVD commentary that he made several homages to The Boy with Green Hair (1948), which starred a then twelve year old Dean Stockwell. Stockwell portrayed Peter Fry, a war orphan whose hair inexplicably turned green when he discovered that his parents had been killed during the Second World War. One example was when Cavil asked the boy John "Are you a war orphan?". This question was asked of Peter Fry several times in The Boy with Green Hair (1948).

Olmos also used a still shot picture of Peter Fry from the movie when casting for the character of John the Boy, because he wanted the actor to bear a strong resemblance to how Stockwell looked in his adolescence. Alex Ferris resemblance to Stockwell's picture helped get him cast. At one point, Olmos wanted John the Boy's hair color to be green like Peter Fry's character, but was ultimately overruled by the producers.

Goofs
"Simon O'Neill" has a stepson, Jeremy. However, "Tough Six" refers to Simon and his daughter.

Quotes
The Hybrid: Progress reports arriving. The farms of Aerilon are burning. The beaches of Canceron are burning. The plains of Leonis are burning. The jungles of Scorpia are burning. The pastures of Tauron are burning. The harbors of Picon are burning. The cities of Caprica are burning. The oceans of Aquaria are burning. The courthouses of Libran are burning. The forests of Virgon are burning. The Temples of Gemenon are burning. The Colonies of Man lie trampled at our feet.

Crazy credits
The Universal logo replaces the Earth with the planet Caprica.

Connections
Follows Battlestar Galactica (2003)

User reviews59

Review

Featured review

7/10

The Cylon view of events

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.