Battlestar Galactica The Plan   Starring: Edward James Olmos, Dean Stockwell, Michael Trucco, Grace Park and Michael Hogan Universal Playback RRP: £15.99 8273765 Certificate: 15 Available 10 May 2010

The Cylons were created by man. They rebelled, they evolved, they look and feel human. Some are programmed to think they are human, There are many copies... and they have a plan...

The Plan (2009 - 1 hr, 46 min, 48 sec) is the final instalment of Battlestar Galactica. The show was written by Jane Espenson and directed by Edward James Olmos.

This show had a lot to live up to, not least the expectations of the fans who had been teased for many years about the ‘plan’, without any answers forthcoming from the makers of the show. As it turns out the plan was very simple: kill all the humans, but as we know it didn’t quite work out that way. For some this is going to be a massive disappointment, especially fans who had concocted their own labyrinthine back stories.

What we do get is a look at the first couple of seasons from the perspective of the Cylons as well as our first real experience of the onslaught against the twelve colonies. Having decided that the plan was both simple and a failure, the show concentrates on two of the Cavil’s, one on Galactica and one on Caprica. It is through the experiences of, essentially the same character, we see how the Cylons started to question the validity of annihilating all the humans.

Because of the use of clips from the original series this could easily have disintegrated into a clip show. True, in places, the story does not flow as well as it could, but then the fact that they had to integrate old and new footage it’s a surprise that it worked out as well as it did. The quality of the various pieces of film means that sometimes it is obvious which is the spanking new footage is and which is a few years old.

All the old cast return for one more crack at their roles and fans will enjoy spending their last time with familiar company. Cavil-C (Caprica) joins the rebels left behind and through his experiences realises that the destruction of the humans was a mistake, Cavil-G (Galactica) is attempting to spin a web of destruction which will finish off the few remaining survivors, the only problem is that his fellow Cylons are also having a change of mind having spent time amongst them. Chief amongst this group is Simon who has integrated himself so far into human society that he has a wife and child. Their inability to carry out Cavil-G’s plans is at times comic and tragic.

The disc does come with a few extras, the first of which is a full-length commentary by Jane Espenson and Edward James Olmos. She is fairly informative about the making of the show, whereas Olmos, restricts his comments to how great everyone was. The show has a 5.1 audio track, with optional English subtitles and looks good even on DVD.

Next up are a bunch of deleted scenes (14 min, 18 sec), some of which add to the film - I feel a director's cut coming our way soon. From Admiral to Director: Edward James Olmos and The Plan (6 min, 47 sec) with Olmos talking about his love of the show and why he agreed to direct The Plan. The Cylons of The Plan (6 min, 51 sec) has the actors playing the Cylons explaining the characters motivations. The Cylon Attack (4 min, 02 sec) deconstructs the first human attack against the Cylons. Lastly we have Visual Effects, The Magic Behind the Plan (19 min, 02 sec) takes a look at how the new effects came about, explaining the process in some detail.

For all its faults, and most of these involve trying to maintain the flow through footage which was never meant to be seen together, this is not a bad last outing for Galactica. At least we finally see the destruction of the Twelve Colonies in some impressive CGI sequences.

8

Charles Packer