BSG: The Plan

[beccatoria]

So. The Plan. I has seen it.

Basically my thoughts can be summed up like this:

What a lovely collection of deleted scenes. What a truly weird movie.

My only hope for this thing was that it not wreck anything. And basically it didn't.

THE GOOD.

Comments

[asta77]

there is some evidence based on a propworx auction that the Six talking to Boomer about the wonderful new life she's about to embark on is Gina and that, actually, is an idea so perfect I don't have words for it. Probably the most broken and brilliant retcon in the entire thing; shame it wasn't clearer

I agree, it's a cool idea, but the hair is throwing me. Didn't she have Tricia's naturally long hair? That makes me think it's a random Six, but why have a random Six? I'm so confused!

Love dooming the Cylon plan and the lack of love dooming poor Liam are both products of Jane Espenson. She seems hung up on the whole love thing. And while the importance of love has always been a part of the BSG mythology, for both the humans and the Cylons, she's much more heavy handed with it and making it, imho, too much of a focal point of the story. Ron should share the blame though since, as the show's creator, it's his job to tell her she's perhaps diverging to far from, well, the plan.

I'm torn on Gianna being such a prominent character. I appreciate that, because of her, Simon got an interesting backstory. On the other hand, I kept thinking she had such a prominent role because the actress is married to EJO. And this is on top of Hot Dog making it to the end of the series. Gee, maybe if a certain actor had been more demanding Nurse Ishay could have been one of the Five. ;p

First off it's a shame the actor was too old or they TOTALLY should have used this to explain what happened to Boxey

I THOUGHT THE EXACT SAME THING! And it not only could have explained what happened to Boxey, I might have cared about the his death. I was strangely unmoved by the murder of John. It was partly because the role was so underdeveloped and we never really got to know him, but also because his death was used to reinforce how evil Cavil was and, after trying to annihilate humanity and succeeding in killing 30 billion people, did we need any more proof?

Plus, as you said, it was odd that we were supposed to accept John's parents didn't want him. It would have worked better if they established only one of his parents survived and was too traumatized to care for him. I could believe that would happen.

I didn't think about how Kara being half Cylon helped her connect with the raider. ;) WHY DID YOU BLOW SUCH AN AWESOME OPPORTUNITY, RON! :(

Much like Leoben's ending, his beginning is confusing. It did seem like they were establishing he had visions, which would help to explain how he knew so much about Kara in 'Flesh and Bone'. But why Leoben? What made him so special? And was it the entire line or just the one copy? And if just one copy, why just the one copy? Was he chosen by God? Was Athena, too, chosen by God since she was the only Cylon to give birth? Again, I AM SO CONFUSED!

I think the problem is, it does not work in any way as a movie. There's too much recycled footage. It feels too disjointed. It feels like we're slowing plugging away through a season of television marking off little checkboxes and spending too long on events we already KNOW about at the expense of new stuff.

WORD. 'The Plan' was simply a bunch of deleted scenes strung together, mostly telling us stuff we already knew or had assumed. I was waiting for one big shocking/stunning moment and it never came. 'Razor' worked as film because it had a self contained story and a focus.

I found the sex and nudity off putting. Eddie directing his wife in such a graphic sex seen was extremely creepy. And while the pilots had communal bathrooms and living quarters and would obviously not have a problem seeing each other naked, would they prance around that way? It's a pain to rewind an AVI file, but I swear a male and female pilot were standing inches from each other and close to having parts bumping. I don't find it realistic at all. Not that I dwell on the shower situation, but I've assumed that as soon as they were done they wrapped themselves in a towel. Why would anyone walk around naked like that?

[beccatoria]

Yeah, I think she had the longer hair too, but it's too cool an idea to throw away on hair, dammit! So I'm going to assume that maybe Gina actually cut her hair before her mission or something? I mean this looked like it was on the same plane as the Boomer flashbacks from Daybreak which would be several years before the attacks (and also tallies with the slim prop evidence; a Gina costume sold and described as being used in a scene with Boomer in Daybreak). We know that Athena's hair grew while she was in the brig, for instance, and then she cut it shorter again later. Could it simply be that since Gina's hair was basically Tricia's natural hair, if Tricia's hair was longer at the time of filming they just went with it? After all it was tied back and we've never seen any other Six tie back their hair either. /Obsessive Hair Detectivery!

Love dooming the Cylon plan and the lack of love dooming poor Liam are both products of Jane Espenson.

WHUT LIAM IS STILL ALIVE! *sticks fingers in ears and starts singing*

Ahem. :p

But yeah, I see your point. Then again, I also feel kind of sorry for her since she essentially had to write a script with no plot, and while perhaps she took it to extremes in Deadlock, "magic love" was kind of entrenched in the cylon mythology since Hera showed up all magically conceived and stuff. *waves hands aroung vaguely* I have no idea what I'm even saying at this point...

As to Gianna, I understand your ambivalence because I share it, though I also kind of resent it. I like the character and the storyline and think the actress did an okay job, and yet because I have some issues with the way EJO has presented himself in interviews, etc., it becomes this fourth-wall-breaking distraction where I'm constantly thinking...is this just cus she's his wife?

I THOUGHT THE EXACT SAME THING!

YAY! I'm not crazy! Boxey could also have been a way in which we find out about how Boomer is cracking up. Hell, Cavil could start having BOXEY smuggling the elephant or something. And Boxey starting to feel more and more resented and unloved as Boomer and Chief both lose it and break up an stuff. Or something.

But yeah, John's murder...I actually like the way it was shot - it was understated. But I don't feel I cared as much as I should. It was shocking in one way but not another. I think selenak</i offers an interesting interpretation, but I also like nicole_anell's below because it doesn't require me to be quite so "shocked" by it since the ultimate emotional message of that interpretation is futility. Or something. But still. I would have liked to care more.

I didn't think about how Kara being half Cylon helped her connect with the raider. ;) WHY DID YOU BLOW SUCH AN AWESOME OPPORTUNITY, RON! :(

SUCH A PERFECT RETCON, PEOPLE! Though to be honest, I mostly only noticed it as a cylony-type thing when I was making that vidlet about Scar/Kara/Sam so I had vidding!help.

Again, I AM SO CONFUSED!

I would try to help, but I might only make it worse... ;) Though I'm pretty sure it must have been all of Leoben's line since some deleted scenes end up proving that not every copy of Leoben Kara spoke to about destiny and stuff was the same one. Another deleted scenes that references memory sharing suggested to me that the Leoben's might share all their memories with each other by default. But that's another thing I guess we'll never get more on. :( Poor lost Leoben.

but I swear a male and female pilot were standing inches from each other and close to having parts bumping.

I swear I saw a male and female pilot standing close together and the woman was plucking the man's eyebrows. Now, I'm not saying maybe he didn't wanna get those things under control, but they have MIRRORS RIGHT THERE. Do it your damn self, sir!

As to EJO directing his wife in graphic sex scenes, I'm sorry, whut? I APPEAR TO HAVE BLEACHED THAT FROM MY BRAIN.