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Battlestar Galatica: The Plan" has an ambitious agenda;
it's designed to show us all of the things that the Cylons
did to destroy and track the fleet from how Boomer was "activated",
why Leoben developed an obsession with Starbuck to how one
of the ships was boarded by the Cylons, armed with a nuke
and sent in to destroy the fleet. It fills in the various
cracks that the series never had an opportunity to fill
us in on--the "plan" that Cylon Brother Cavil (Dean Stockwell)
launched once he was aboard the Galatica. The good news
is that it answers many of the questions fans had as to
how the Galatica was found so easily, why Number 6 tried
to discredit Baltar at one point, etc. but because it focuses
on these tiny back stories, the film doesn't quite hold
together; it's like looking at the support structure for
building the metal beams, floors but it's missing everything
from the walls to the dry wall in the building. If it's
unfinished it's due primiarily to Espenson's premise when,
in fact, she could have told a story that focused on everything
leading up to the destruction of the Colonies and Caprica.
Sure, it's both stunning and devastating to see the destruction
of Caprica but it's destruction without context because
we really don't know the people that planned it any better
than the people that suffered as a result. In reality, "The
Plan" could be called Cavil's Plan because it focuses on
Cavil's character at the exclusion of many other equally
important characters. We get a glimpse about how the various
models feel about the destruction of humanity and their
role in it but it's nothing more than that. ***
Director and actor Edward James Olmos (Commander Adama)does
solid job of integrating pre-existing footage from various
episodes and seamlessly blending them in with the new footage
that gives us the operrational plan that the Cylons used
to try and destroy humanity before realizing that they might
be misguided. Unfortunately, he's trapped by the structure
and plots of the various episodes that these vinettes are
designed to enlighten us about. In many respects, this movie
would have played better as webisodes similar to "Face of
the Enemy" (and why that isn't on here since it does let
us see the stories that fall between the cracks of various
episodes were resolved is beyond me. I suspect that Universal
will put out yet another disc for fans to buy). The script
by Jane Espenson (she wrote "Face of the Enemy" webisodes
which makes sense when you see "The Plan" as well as being
a regular writer on "Dollhouse" and "Tru Calling")is certainly
flawed as it is dependent on knowing the episodes in the
series and the outcomes to make sense of them (my wife watched
the show and I had to explain what was going on and why
because she doesn't seen all of the episodes of the series).
As a result, it doesn't hold up as a TV movie much less
a direct-to-DVD (or Blu-ray in this case)movie either. It
probably should have been released as a bonus disc on "The
Complete Series" but wasn't ready by the street date of
the set). The first twenty minutes of the movie work best
because they are tied into what occurred just before, during
and after the first couple of episodes of the series allowing
a more cohesive story to take center stage. ***
Still, it is worth watching for fans of the series
and for newbies I'd suggest starting from the first episode
and working your way through the last and THEN watching
this becuae it doesn't hold together as well as "Razor"
or even some of the webisodes. "Razor" although it wasn't
a perfect movie did tell us a complete story. "Razor" remains
the dark, parallel story to "Battlestar Galatica". "The
Plan" provides the flipside to "Face of the Enemy" letting
us see the doubts and machinery (pardon the pun) that pushed
the Galatica and her crew further and further in their search
for Earth as they were hunted by the Cylons. It lacks the
depth of "Face of the Enemy" because the sprawling structure
prevents any sort of dramatic build up and tension in the
movie. "The Plan" would have worked better split into its
various parts and put on the discs with the episodes for
"Battlestar Galatica". ---
Image & Sound:
Image quality is spectacular with some truly stunning
visual effects sequences that shows us the destruction of
Caprica. This is probably one of the best looking discs
for the show simply because it's a two hour movie and some
change (in the form of extras)on a BD 50 disc whereas the
series usually had anywhere from three to four episodes
per disc. Clarity is remarkably sharp and colors pop. The
show deliberately looks grainy and it's not going to be
as brilliant looking as, say, "Braveheart" because of the
gritty look of the show but it looks exceptionally good.
***
The show sounds terrific with a strong, bold 5.1 DTS-HD
lossless soundtrack. The soundtrack especially comes alive
during the opening destruction of Caprica. ---
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