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5 major spoilers about Battlestar Galactica: The Plan
Battlestar Galactica: The Plan promises to show us how the Cylons planned to eradicate humanity and ultimately failed to stomp out the last bits of resistance. The film looks at all the major events from the TV show that involved Cylons, but this time we get to see things from the toaster point of view.
Edward James Olmos, who plays William Adama in the series, directed The Plan. We talked to him the other day and he explained The Plan with some spoilers, but the big stuff is still to come for viewers. Battlestar Galactica: The Plan is available Oct. 27 on DVD and Blu-ray. Syfy will air an edited version in 2010.
See "33" and "Water" in a whole new light
The Plan takes cornerstone moments in the series and shows the Cylons operating behind the scenes. You'll see Boomer before and after her treacherous assignments in the episode "Water." The new footage blends in seamlessly with footage from season one.
"Most of that footage is new, but it feels like it was shot and that you've seen it before," Olmos said. "That's because we duplicated a lot of the situation and re-shot a lot of it. That had to feel as fresh as the stuff that was shot five years before. So it became a real issue and was brilliantly orchestrated by all the departments and all the actors."
Meet new characters who didn't take the spotlight in the series
The Plan also has the opportunity to weave new characters into the existing narrative. You'll see Cavil bond with a little boy named John, culminating in a shocking demonstration of Cavil's lack of humanity. The mechanic named Giana (Lymari Nadal, Olmos' real life wife), who only appeared briefly in the miniseries, gets her chance to work with series regulars in a storyline from The Plan.
"In the scene with the chief in the storeroom when he comes in and meets the new knuckle-dragger, Giana, in walks Boomer and they have a little relationship, a triangle right there that happens," Olmos revealed.
See other cities destroyed
You got to see Caprica City wiped out in the Cylon attack the first time around. Now that they're going back, they've also thrown in some more destruction of cities like Picon in all-new visual effects spectacles.
"Oh man, the destruction of those places," Olmos marveled. "To me, that first half hour is worth its weight in gold. It really puts the onus on exactly what went down, something that we imagined but we never thought we'd see. I wanted to go deeper, but we just couldn't. We didn't have the financial ability to do so."
Cylons in love?
Well, you wondered what could possibly stand in the way of the Cylons' perfect plan to destroy humanity. It's the same thing that makes all of us screw up.
"What stopped that is one single human emotion that prevailed itself inside of the Giana/Simon story," Olmos said. "Love came in, and really no one, no machine, no human was ready for what happened. Love actually changed the course of what would have been the annihilation of both the human species and the termination of the Cylons also."
See more on the DVD than on TV
The DVD and Blu-ray release of The Plan runs one hour and 52 minutes. The TV broadcast will be cut to fill a two-hour time slot with commercials. Also, they can't show topless bartenders and communal showers on basic cable.
"I'm very grateful that they're releasing it in its entirety uncut, the director's cut with all of the reality that we shot, because in the television movie, they're going to show only 88 minutes. That's a big difference."
By Danyael at 3:17 PM ON 10/27/09
Topless bartenders?!?!? WOO-HOO!!!!
By adayl8&a$short at 3:30 PM ON 10/27/09
Topless Bartender, ha! You have to see the shower scene.
And yes, it almost looks like the swept up the cutting room floor and made a movie using the contents of the trash can.
By Joe ASAP at 4:56 PM ON 10/27/09
I'm still ticked off & confused that Lucy Lawless wasn't in the series finale nor in this thing. What gives? She played a vitale role in the storyline. Did those producers think anything out?
By thehomegaman at 4:58 PM ON 10/27/09
It really is too bad... the first 30 minutes or so set the bar really high. From there it just... falls flat.
By NATE91111 at 5:10 PM ON 10/27/09
THIS WAS AN AWFUL WASTE OF MONEY GLAD i DIDNT BUY IT LOL
By Jack at 5:26 PM ON 10/27/09
Joe ASAP,
The only surviving D'Anna was left on Earth, that's where her story ends. As for why she wasn't in The Plan, I couldn't say.
By Sam at 7:26 PM ON 10/27/09
Sadly, this was really crappy.
Stock footage was way over used, to the point where this felt like one of those "remember that time when" clip-show episodes used by sitcoms simply to make $$.
Lastly, I actually preferred the mystery behind how the Cylons co-ordinated things.
By veritas at 8:26 PM ON 10/27/09
The new CG, what there was of it, was great. The story itself was very, very weak. There should have been a wrap around scene where Al from Quantum Leap gets locked in a freezer.
By tati at 9:52 PM ON 10/27/09
Several friends watched this today--not one of them had anything positive to say about it. Glad I saved my money--I'll borrow it from one of them :P
By daget at 11:04 PM ON 10/27/09
i will see it tomorrow, i will prob enjoy it dont think it can be as bad as most are saying. i will at least enjoy seeing fav moments again and adding it to my bsg collection of dvds and at least enjoy how hot #6 and boomer are.
By bsg at 1:35 AM ON 10/28/09
I enjoyed it. It was great seeing the cast again and the first 30 minutes was super. Just FYI, costco is selling them for only $19. Well worth the price.
By OMAC at 1:46 AM ON 10/28/09
I liked it. It didn't have the same flow as the regular series, but it wasn't a complete mess. The story focused on characters that weren't developed when the first episodes were shot, and this was meant to fill gaps more than anything else.
I think they could have gone a step further and maybe integrated the new scenes with the old episodes, remastered I guess, and presented them along with The Plan.
By lastmass at 12:42 PM ON 10/28/09
I watched it last night and it was OUTSTANDING!!!!! Every fan should pick it up and see it. The Spoilers here don't even give the events half the credit they diserve!!!
By daget at 4:02 PM ON 10/28/09
i just saw it and its pretty good.
By Bikewer at 5:52 PM ON 10/28/09
The Plan would be incomprehensible to someone who was not a fan of the series.
However, since most anyone reading this is...
I liked it. The combination of from-the-series footage and new material showing the Cylons activities and intents was pretty interesting.
The Cylons, made by humans, proved to be susceptible to the same flaws....
By PiZdEtZ at 8:51 PM ON 10/28/09
I am a big fan of BSG in every aspect except the last 20 min of the finale. This was a fun piece to watch, it wasnt terrible, but it wasnt epic. Like some of the episodes in season 4 that were good but not epic, this was pretty much it. Razor was epic, the whole mutiny, story line and ending was epic. The first 30 min was epic especially the beginning but as soon as they started falling back on old footage, it did flatline to an OK episode.
HOWEVER
BUY THE DVD if only for the hope that if the dvd sales will get high enough they will make another one, and hopefully Ron D. Moore will direct.
By me at 10:45 PM ON 10/28/09
I thought it was good. It is the story we've already seen except from a different perspective. $16.99 at Best Buy. You can also get Ron D. Moore's Virtuality for an extra $5 with purchase of BSG: The Plan.
By McTex at 11:45 AM ON 10/29/09
I watched it last night and thoroughly enjoyed it. My only complaint is that I wanted more. (Spoiler) I especially loved the conflict between the two Johns. Olmos et al did an amazing job of making it all flow together perfectly.
The Plan is a supplement that all real fans must own.
To those who must trash it - we all expect such crap from you because you are just another typical sci-fi nerd do^chebag who has nothing better to do.
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McTex:
I watched it last night and thoroughly enjoyed it. My only complaint is that I wanted more. (Spoiler) I especially ...More »