Product Description

The Cylons began as humanity's robot servants. They rebelled and evolved and now they look like us. Their plan is simple: destroy the race that enslaved them. But when their devastating attack leaves human survivors, the Cylons have to improvise. Battlestar Galactica: The Plan tells the story of two powerful Cylon leaders, working separately, and their determination to finish the task.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #819 in DVD
• Brand: Universal
• Released on: 2009-10-27
• Rating: Unrated
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• Formats: AC-3, Color, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, Subtitled, Widescreen
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, French, Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 112 minutes

Customer Reviews

Much better than BSG Razor
Despite being a huge BSG fan, I wasn't really looking forward to "BSG: The Plan". After BSG: Razor failed to impress, I wasn't expecting much from The Plan. Fear not, The Plan, hereinafter referred to as TP, actually works. It plays like a filler episode, exploring various mysteries which the writers never fully explained to the viewers. TP follows a chronological order, beginning before the Cylon attack, going to "33", "Water", "You Can't Go Home Again", "Litmus", "Six Degrees of Separation", and ending with season 2's finale of "Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II". Kudos to director EJ Olmos and writer Jane Espenson for seamlessly threading in the new scenes and better fleshing out previously thin characters.

Mysteries such as the following are explored...

- Who did Caprica-Six meet with on Caprica, after talking with Gaius Baltar in the marketplace?
- Did Boomer really blow up the water tanks?
- How did Shelly Godfrey escape from the Galactica?
- How did Sam Anders and his Pyramid team escape and form their resistance?
- How did Ellen Tigh survive the Cylon nuclear attack on Picon?
- How did Leoben become so enamored of Starbuck?
- Why did the Cylons suddenly stop their attack when the BSG Marines linked up with Sam's resistance on Caprica?

We also get to see more of Boomer's internal conflicts between Cylon and human facets, as well as a deeper insight into the Number Four model, Simon. A Simon model is shown to be sympathetic to the human cause, even marrying a human (played by EJ Olmos' actual wife) and raising a family. We see Cavil's machinations as he attempts to orchestrate several Cylons into causing massive damage to the Fleet.

The computer graphics for TP are vastly superior to the shots used during the TV series, and the viewers are shown some scenes from the Cylon attack on the Colonies. Interestingly, TP also has a graphic sex scene, as well as graphic male and female frontal nudity not unlike the infamous scene from Starship Troopers. Some of the nudity felt rather gratuitous and excessive; was it really necessary to show Ellen Tigh and Cavil meeting in a topless bar?

Minus 1-star because President Roslin, aka Mary McDonnell, and Number Three, aka Lucy Lawless, are never shown, either in a flashback or inserted new footage! Starbuck, Lee Adama, Dr. Baltar, and Helo are shown in clips, but no new footage from them either.

All in all, a very good pickup for any BSG fan. EJ Olmos has said that if TP sells well, then we can expect to see even more BSG movies in the future. Other potential story lines might include the origins of the Final Five, what happened to the survivors after they reached Earth, or more about Starbuck's character, especially her fateful mission where she "died". TP makes you wish SciFi (aka SyFy) didn't end BSG so soon.


**A quick word about the Blu-Ray discs; the image quality is solid. The DTS soundtrack sounds great, especially in the Cylon Attack scenes. It's a treat to hear Bear McCreary's music again.

Other features; commentary by director EJ Olmos and writer Jane Espenson, 15 minutes worth of deleted scenes, behind-the-scenes look at EJ Olmos' directorial BSG debut, twenty minute visual effects feature, a cylon primer, and a short with Michael Trucco discussing a human resistance attack.

The key is to watch it in context
While definitely not a stand-alone piece like Razor, The Plan is definitely recommended for BSG fans. Many of the things going for it make it easily criticized, but if you consider what you know after watching The Plan and what you didn't know before watching it, some of those criticisms start to become significantly less extreme.

For example, many reviewers criticize this movie for its arguably excessive use of stock footage from the TV show. While there were definitely times that the footage in the movie looked familiar, I quickly found myself realizing that the scene was evolving into something new and not in a previous season. What I mean to say by this is that the new footage is almost woven in too well to the old footage; in a way you think you're still seeing an old clip when in fact Edward James Olmos has seamlessly woven that old clip into new footage. The end effect is that the viewer feels like they've sort of been taken backstage to see what has been going on from the Cylon point of view.

Another pretty consistent complaint is the lack of new major plot developments (aka the story presents no surprises and doesn't ultimately tell us anything we didn't already know). Again, I would say that it's in the subtle fleshing out of plot points that the movie achieves it's greatest success; you'll find yourself nodding your head agreeing with why characters are doing what they're doing, but at the end of a scene or at the end of the movie you'll find you have gained a deeper understanding into why certain characters did the things they did. Also, would viewers really like anything new plot-wise to occur in a movie that attempts to further explain the events of the first two seasons? I think more complaints would be seen if the movie tried to take the story and plot in a radically new direction.

With a total runtime of almost 70 hours, Battlestar Galactica spanned many different plot arcs and themes and explored many different characters to provide us with a truly excellent show. It's unreasonable, and in fact, arguably unwanted, to try to cram that much exposition into a two hour movie. What The Plan instead tries to do, and what it succeeds in doing, is providing a bit more exposition on characters and plot elements that didn't get as much focus during the show, while also providing some thematic material that allows BSG fans to continue probing the differences and similarities between humans and Cylons. Watch it with an open mind, and most of all, watch it in context; realize that the movie is not trying to tread especially new ground but instead sit comfortably within an existing storyline and take you behind the scenes so that the ground already treaded makes more sense. While the movie certainly didn't have any epiphanies of the scale present in the TV show, thinking about the movie in the hours since watching it has made me aware of the subtle things I did glean from seeing it. These realizations post-movie have really made me want to rewatch the entire series over again, and the insights gained from The Plan will make re-experiencing the show that much better. For anyone who plans on seeing Battlestar Galactica again and enjoying it even more, The Plan is highly recommended.

Fills in the gaps in the series but not cohesive as a film if you haven't seen the entire series
"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, to why one of the 5's was strapped with explosives and tries to blow up the BG. 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 as a narrative jumping through the series four years.

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).

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.

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.

Extras include "From Admiral to Director" a behind-the-scenes glimpse at Olmos' turn in the director's chair for a two hour TV movie. "The Cylons of the Plan", "The Cylon Attack" and "Visual Effects: The Magic Behind 'The Plan'" takes us behind-the-scenes into everything from the writing/planning of the episode to the post-production visual effects used to portray the destruction of Caprica. We also get deleted scenes and a commentary track with Olmos and writer/producer Espenson.There's also BD-Live material connectivity an exclusive "Battlestar Galatica" trivia challenge for the Blu-ray only.

Flawed precisely because it tells us the behind-the-scenes stories that were portrayed in the series thus making it episodic and hard to follow for newbies, "Battlestar Galatica: The Plan" doesn't hold together the way "Razor" did (where you could watch the two hour movie without having seen most of the series and make sense of things)nor does it hold togethre as well as the individual webisodes of "Face of the Enemy" but it's a nice addition for fans. It's clear after this though that Universal has milked the "Battlestar Galatica" franchise dry for this segment of the story. It's good but far from the brilliance that this outstanding series often displayed.