Battlestar Galactica: The Plan

Warning: Don't watch "The Plan" unless you've seen the complete BSG series and don't read this musing unless you've seen "The Plan".

I had this DVD sitting on top of my XBOX 360 since it came in the mail from Netflix over a week ago.  I kept finding reasons not to watch.  It's too long (almost two hour run time), the Yankee's are on (baseball bores me), or I'd rather be playing Uncharted 2 (ok that one was legitimate) all these excuses kept cycling through my brain whenever I thought about putting it on.  It turned out that I had a hard time bringing myself around to the idea of "The Plan" because Battlestar Galactica the series ended on such a strong note. I was worried this new movie might spoil the sense of pure television joy I had whenever my mind drifted to this groundbreaking show.

The good news is that "The Plan" did not sour the taste of Battlestar.  The bad news is that it did not do much to improve upon the splendor of this series either.  The most intriguing aspect of this movie was that Boomer the Cylon was able to come to the surface whenever Cavil presenter her with a hand carved elephant.  It was ironic to learn that when Boomer thought she was most out of control of her own destiny she really held the keys to her own and the entire fleets fate.  

It was fun to see scenes from season one cut into the new material shot for this movie.  I must admit that some of the early footage was simply unnerving.  Revisiting the scene where Felix saved Baltar from certain doom with newly colored with the embittered future path they would soon be on.   

A major frustration with this movie was that we still did not learn anything about the creation and subsequent decimation of the eighth (non-final five) Cylon model Daniel.  "The Plan" would have been infinitely more interesting it focused on the creation of the human Cylons rather than the story of human destruction at the hands of the Cylons.  

I was also disappointed that we did not learn the fate of the Olympic Carrier.  The Carrier as you may remember was a ship in the fleet that Apollo destroyed because the humans thought the Cylons took it over and killed all the humans on board.  It seemed like the perfect fodder for this movie to explore and yet this is an aspect of Battlestar lore that will forever remain a mystery. 

Speaking of mysteries, why did Ron Moore and company put in all the gratuitous skin?  When  I heard that there was nudity in this movie I assumed it would be the Cylon's during resurrection.  Instead we got naked bartenders, humans in the shower (ripped right off of "Starship Troopers" in a series lowlight), and Simon and his wife, in the weirdest trifecta of nudity on a TV movie I have ever seen.

Simon's wife was the one new character I was impressed with on the whole.  I thought it was poignat that humans were able to change the opinions of single Cylons since before the genocide of humanity.  Simon airlocking himself rather than destroy his home ship may have been the best moment for any Simon in the history of the series (admittedly that is a low bar).  It seemed the scene when Chief kissed her was an act of desperation to find a kindred spirit.  It's funny that that kiss and the moments around it led to the Tyrol's recurring suicide dream.

It was fun to visit these characters again, even with a subpar (for BSG) movie.  The lack of Battlestar has really left a tremendous television void.