Battlestar Galactica: The Plan

BSG: The Plan is a two-hour movie that tells the saga of Battlestar Galactica from the point of view of the Cylons. We were told for years that they had a plan, but there has been massive speculation as to what that plan was. BSG:TP lays it all out for us as we follow two Cylons (two Cavils) during the months after the Cylon attack.

F. Cavil, who we first saw during the series counciling a grieving Tyrol, lived amongst the colonial fleet and C. Cavil lived on Cylon-occupied Caprica with the resistance fighters.

Going into BSG: TP we know this: The final five Cylons were technically among the first. They were descendants of the Cylons (skinjobs) that left for Earth when they split from the 12 colonies of humans that left Kobol. The Cylons on Earth made Centurions that evolved and turned on them. The Five perfected resurrection and used that technology to escape once the Centurions waged war against the Earth Cylons. They traveled 2,000 to stop the 12 colonies from making the same mistake, but they were too late. The colonists had already made their own Centurions who’d also evolved and rebelled. The Five convinced the Centurions Cylons to stop the war in exchange for their knowledge of resurrection.

They created 13 models of Cylons that looked human – just as they did. The Cavil model grew jealous of one model and killed the whole line. He then killed The Five and programmed their resurrected selves to believe they were human. He placed them amongst the humans where they lived for years. They then continued to crank out hundreds of copies of the other models, none of which knew their true origin or the identities of the Five. They plotted revenge on the humans and launched a sneak nuclear attack against the colonies.

Their plan was simple: kill all of the humans. They didn’t count on a band of resourceful resistance fighters on Caprica and they damn sure didn’t count on close to 50,000 survivors led by the lone battlestar to survive the attacks: Galactica.

As BSG: TP opens we learn that Cavil thought the final five would die in the attacks and resurrect aboard a Cylon baseship filled with gratitude. He thought their time as humans would make them see the light: humans are greedy, selfish, and undeserving of their love. They should be annihilated. Of course, it didn’t work out that way. Each of the five survived the attack. That, and the fact that some Cylons are starting to doubt that they’re doing the right thing, leads to all kinds of changes in “the plan.”

What makes BSG: TP so damn awesome, and it is truly awesome, is the little nods to history and the answers to questions big and small. Like:

• In the miniseries, after Caprica Six parts with Gaius in the courtyard, she hands off a case to someone we never see. “It’s about time you got here.” That person was Cavil.
• When Ellen Tigh is found she says that “a mysterious stranger” rescued her. We see in BSG: TP that during the attack she was in a bar with Cavil who introduced himself as “a mysterious stranger.”
• The Cylon base stars are shaped as they are because they were designed to turn so that their points line up.
• Baltar is the one who slips the note to Adama revealing that there were 12 Cylon models.
• F. Cavil orchestrated the attempt to discredit Baltar’s Cylon Detector by instructioning the Shelly Six to show up with the doctored video.

Plans are made to discredit Baltar.

• The Leoben fascination with Starbuck – we see where it begins and how he came to believe that she had a destiny.
• Boomer had conscious conversations with F. Cavil where they plotted the sabatoge of Galactica like ruining the water supply.

In the original episode, we have no idea there was a Cavil in the scene moments before.

There are some new tidbits as well:

• There was a Simon model living on Gemenon. He was married with a child. There was also a Simon model living with the resistance fighters on Cylon-occupied Caprica.
• Tori survived the attack because she was headed to the airport and some surviving flights acted as rescue flights and helped nearby people off the planet.
• F. Cavil used religious phamplets to reach out to the still-undiscovered Cylons living amongst the fleet.
• There was a copy of every Cylon model living in the fleet.

What really works is the contrast between the two Cavils and two new Simons not seen during the series. The Cavil living with the fleet remains hell-bent on the destruction of man and the one with the resistance fighters begins to have doubts. There’s a Simon living with the fleet too. He’s married with a stepdaughter and wants to continue living as human, but F. Cavil wont hear of it. Meanwhile, the Simon on Cylon-occupied revels in destorying man (and performing experiments on the female-survivors) and doesn’t get the change of heart of the C. Cavil. We get to see how the plan had to be changed and improvised as Cylon agents screwed up sabotage attempts or Galactica just proved to be too formidable.

The movie also does a good job of providing insight into the Cylon psychology. For instance, I found it interesting that though they knew they would download and ressurect, most Cylons were still apprehensive about experiencing “death.” And Cavil’s obsession with gaining the approval of his “parents” (The Final Five) is fascinating. You see it the whole time he’s living with the unsuspecting Anders on Cylon-occupied Caprica.

Cavil wills Ellen to get better so she can witness his destruction of man.

Fans of the show, diehard fans anyway, will recognize how old scenes have been reimagined with new footage and perspectives.

We get to see the Shelly/Baltar confrontation from her side of the door.

I honestly could have seen this go on for hours, but The Plan stops just as the two Cavils are reunited (and outed/airlocked) aboard Galactica. Of course, we know the story from there.

If you’ve been trying to ease the dull ache left by BSG’s ending this movie may help… somewhat. The opening scene with that haunting score by the awesome Bear McCreary made me both happy and sad. During the commentary Jane Espenson (writer) mentioned that there was originally going to be three post-finale movies, but they decided on one. Such a shame. But this one gets the job done. It answers questions you didn’t even know you had and it gives us one last glimpse into that wonderful BSG mythology we miss so much.