"The Cylons were created by man," the opening title sequence of
Battlestar Galactica told us, "and they have a plan." In Battlestar Galactica:
The Plan, written by series producer Jane Espenson and directed by actor Edward
James Olmos, who played the kick-ass battlestar commander William Adama, the
ultimate plan of the Cylons is finally presented to us, as we look at the first
two years of the series through the eyes of the murderous robots who almost
destroyed humanity--save for several thousand survivors aboard a small fleet of
ships guarded by the Galactica. The first half hour of the film is fascinating as we
watch the attacks on the Twelve Colonies from yet another point of view (we also
saw another version of it in BSG: Razor) and with some very good special effects.
However, the film soon becomes bogged down by a script that tries to explain
every little detail in the series.
Take, for example, the opening sequence from the pilot film, where we’re first
introduced to Caprica Six (well-played by Tricia Helfer). In the pilot, she
speaks to a mysterious person, and it was ever revealed who--or what--it was. In
The Plan, that mysterious person is revealed to be Bother Cavil (the superb Dean Stockwell)
the de facto leader of the human-like Cylons who led the attack. What was once a
mystifying and somewhat creepy scene in the pilot film has been now reduced to a
mundane spy movie cliché as Six and Cavil swap information at a meeting on
Caprica shortly before the attack. And throughout The Plan, Brother Cavil serves
as something of a demented cheerleader who sets up shop aboard the Galactica as
a priest so he can constantly goad his troops into performing terrorist acts
against the human survivors--and yet they keep screwing things up. So much for
The Plan, huh?
One of my favorite aspects of BSG was the first season storyline that involved
the conflicted Boomer who strived to do the right thing by her shipmates despite
being a Cylon sleeper agent. Grace Park was extraordinary in this well-written
storyline, and she deserved an Emmy for her tortured performance. However, The
Plan cheapens this whole story by showing that Brother Cavil was right there by
Boomer’s side--cajoling, bullying and threatening her into committing the damage
she caused like a nightmarish life coach from hell. What made Boomer’s storyline
during the first season so fascinating to watch was the fact that the
battleground was within her own soul, and by having Cavil there, pestering her,
it takes away the power of the conflict that raged within Boomer.
By the third season of BSG, The Cylons had been shown to be a bunch of petty,
self-absorbed brats who were still very dangerous, thanks to their hateful,
capricious nature that was backed up by their military might. The Cylons were
like The Shadows of Babylon 5, or the Borg in their early appearances on Star
Trek: The Next Generation, in that they were truly scary and formidable villains.
But much like how the later episodes of ST:TNG--as well as Star Trek:
Voyager--watered down and defanged the Borg, The Plan does the same with the
Cylons--reducing them in stature to a sad, comical gang that couldn’t shoot
straight. Cavil’s constant fretting aboard the Galactica about how his
subordinates keep screwing up is just painful to watch. Thankfully, we’ve got
four years of brilliant episodes of Battlestar Galactica on home video to remind
us of just how great this series truly is.
--SF
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