Battlestar Galactica: The Plan

[belsum]

I’ve had the disc for The Plan out from Netflix since it was first released back in November. I’m not sure why I’ve been dragging my feet on watching it. But then I started seeing Skiffy’s ads for it airing this weekend and decided I couldn’t wait anymore

Comments

[free_laddicals]

I also think it was a bit of a retcon to have him know who the Final Five were all along.

Perhaps it was, since the Final Five weren't locked in until late season three, but with regards to "The Plan" it's not really, since they pretty well established in Season 4 that the placement of the Five in the colonies and the subsequent erasure/taboo regarding knowledge of them among the remaining models was the One's responsibility all along.

I enjoyed it. It wasn't Earth shattering (heh), but it was solid, and better work than Jane Espenson had brought to BSG so far (still think she wrote the single worst episode ever in her final Season 4 outing).

[belsum]

Oh I definitely enjoyed it. But I was also at times bored and/or perplexed so I certainly can't call it solid. (Which Espenson ep are you thinking of?) I'm finding it to be very thought provoking material - partly because I'm reading Jacob's recap while eating lunch. I really am glad to have some of the underlying personalities of the other models fleshed out a bit. I hadn't gotten that Doral was so weak-willed. And I loved the image of already-crazy Leoben hiding out in the Galactica corridors, obsessing on Kara's fight transmissions.

[free_laddicals]

I believe she was the one that wrote the first episode after Boomer had brought Ellen back to Galactica - the one where Ellen inexplicably decided that the best thing would be to have the Five withdraw from the Fleet because she was punishing Saul for having a relationship with Caprica, and then Caprica lost the baby because... well, writer fiat, I guess, I wasn't too clear on the in-universe explanation.

[belsum]

I don’t know that Ellen’s actions were inexplicable. It seems to me that “punishing Saul for having a relationship with Caprica” is exactly the explanation! The baby, though, yeah. They were clear that Cylons had been unable to mate. Did they explicitly say they’d never had a single pregnancy before? It doesn’t seem so far off to me that it wouldn’t be a successful pregnancy the very first time if it’s been such a difficult thing to achieve. I keep thinking of pandas…

[free_laddicals]

I guess I just don't understand the justification for punishing Saul. He didn't know that Ellen was resurrected (he didn't even know she was a Cylon), and he didn't know Caprica was his "daughter". If it had been played more like, "You bastard, you killed me!" I think it would have made more sense than simple jealousy. I guess I was hoping that Ellen had grown a bit a result of her resurrection and long philosophical debates with Cavill, and yet the first thing she does when she's back with Saul is act as petty and small as the two of them ever did. Which has a ring of truth, but I think by that point in the series I was hoping someone would have started to evolve emotionally to the point of bringing the two races genuinely together instead of just sharing space, and I was hoping that lightning rod would be Ellen, since she was the only one with the whole story from both sides any more.

[belsum]

My feeling is that the lack of justification is exactly the point. The idea that Ellen hadn’t grown or changed is the point. I actually really liked the Ellen and Cavil conversation in “The Plan” because I think it reinforced the slaves-to-fate idea of the series. She and Saul will fall back into petty and small behavior because they always did fall into petty and small behavior and they always will fall into petty and small behavior. And yet they can’t live without each other. Yes, I agree the big picture of uniting the races was a more important topic for her focus, but she’s not made that way.