Battlestar Galactica: The Plan

Not Your Typical BSG
I started watching The Plan really skeptical; I read all the reviews here, and thought it was going to be mediocre at best, as all the negative reviews seem to be saying that in unison.

However, I was really pleasantly surprised. I can understand how some people might be disappointed with The Plan, it doesn't, after all, answer some of the questions left hanging in the air after the series finale. It doesn't have the space battles or insane intensity of some of BSG's better episodes. It doesn't include some of the most important characters (Laura Roslin, Apollo, Starbuck).

But The Plan was never planned or written, I think, as a nostalgia film that is supposed to exploit our feelings for these characters to milk us for some cash. Instead, it has decided to do something bold: to tell an entirely new story that connects with what we already know, happening at the same time as what we've seen during the first two seasons of BSG.

It's the story of how the...

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...

You might be missing the point...
I am not going to preface this with any grand statements about being a BSG fan from day one. If I am taking the time to write this, you should suspect that already.

This movie really works in that it is a quiet story in a very noisy room. It is about how life finds ways to disrupt our plans but not always in a bad way. It is about reconciling what you think you want with what actually want. It is about learning "the truth" isn't always in the safe black and white places we create. It is about love in all its forms.

First, about the nudity. It exists. Get over it. BSG was never a "family friendly" show given its themes, so if you were expecting something different here, then you are about to be sadly mistaken. There are no basic cable broadcast guidelines to satisfy, so a story can be told in whatever way the storytellers wish. The nudity is not gratuitous or in your face, so deal with the fact it is just another adult theme that BSG can use without...

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