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

[kaffy_r]

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

Are you referring back to the episode in the S4.5 (can't think of the epi name), where Cavil and Ellen have the long and brilliant conversation after he awakens her on the Cylon ship? Because that's when, it seemed to me, he was established as actually having been the one who betrayed the final five after they first came to this cycle's metal cylons, taught them how to improve their previously bad humanlike-cylon research, and created the modern human models, including Cavil. The history established in that episode never felt like retcon to me, more like revelation.

I really adored The Plan, partly because I felt it showed us a picture of someone who not only didn't grow but actively refused to grow, because he misunderstood the idea of life. His killing of that loveless boy was, for me, the second of the dual hearts of the story: he did that deliberately because he could feel himself growing attached, and he wanted to turn from it. The other heart of the story was Ship Simon making the decision he did.

The rest of it kept me completely involved because it explained so many things, but didn't do it in an expository-heavy way. It was organically interwoven with Cavil's story, and also with the overarching and background story of how the Cylon models translated the dream (let's kill the humans and everything will be all better) into reality (Oh my god, it was awful, and I know some of these people, and it's complicated, and it's scary, but I can't look away, and I want to walk towards the wreck, and maybe save someone ... but didn't I just kill them? AAAAAaaaahhh!!!!)

Leoben's fixation on Kara was beautifully illustrated, if not explained - and in a way I'm glad it wasn't explained - he's my favorite Cylon, and I like to think Kara rejoined head!Leoben when she disappeared from the veldt - but, like you, I also enjoyed watching Doral. He really was the most traditionally "cylon" of them all, and I found myself feeling far more sorry for him than for Cavil. He was struggling to understand at least, while Cavil understood and rejected what he understood.

Hmmmm. Talk much, kaffyr?

[free_laddicals]

I loved "No Exit" (4.5) so much - maybe that's why 4.6 (the Espenson episode I mention above) is such a let down. It's a bad episode, but worse it's a bad episode following such a high point.

I've had a hard time explaining why I liked "The Plan" with other friends because it seems to me a lot of people are still not over their disappointment with the finale and thus all discussion of "The Plan" devolves into whether it did or did not "rescue" the finale (it didn't, but in my opinion, the finale didn't need rescuing). You've articulated my feelings on the movie pretty clearly.

[free_laddicals]

That should be 4.15 and 4.16, I think....

[kaffy_r]

Yeah, the farther I get from the finale, and the more I have time to think of it, the better I like it, the more correct I think the plot, writing and characterization decisions were on the part of the creative team.

[belsum]

Like I just wrote to laddical, I loved the finale. I thought everything was absolutely correct for all elements. The things most screamed about in the fandom didn’t bother me at all. And yeah, I’m definitely not articulating myself well of late since I got misinterpreted about my Hitchhiker’s Guide reread as well.
http://belsum.blogspot.com/2010/01/h2g2.html

I just keep coming back to the idea that my misgivings might be due to the fact that I really didn’t like that Caprica pilot. I feel pretty strongly that they are going to ruin the Cylons by giving them the teenage terrorist origins and I suspect that’s coloring my impressions of the Cylons here.

[kaffy_r]

I'm not too worried about that, since any humanish Cylons developed in the time of Bill Adama's grandfather will not turn out to be the humanish Cylons of the BSG era. Since the Cylon researchers who the Final Five ended up helping couldn't get their human Cylons to work without the Five's help, it stands to reason that anything developed by the creators of Caprica's cylons would simply be a historical dead end. An interesting one, and perhaps one which explains why humans decided to keep only to metal Cylons eventually, but still a dead end of sorts.

[belsum]

I guess I’m not expecting there to be any humanish Cylons developed since the time of Pere Adama. And I thought it was explained that the skinjobs we know as the numbered models didn’t have metal of their own. Am I getting that in error from somewhere? My impression was that the Centurians joined up with the they-look-like-us-now Cylons and that it was the Centurians’ monotheism that infected/caused the religious fervor leading to the attack on the Colonies. And said monotheism is a result of the whiny teenage terrorist brats. Obviously I am likely way off here but that was how I interpreted events.

[free_laddicals]

I believe the timeline goes:

1) Kobol abandoned; humans form Colonies, Cylons found Earth.
2) Cylons on Earth create Cylons 2.0.
3) Cylons 2.0 rebel, destroy Earth, Final Five leave to warn the humans not to make the same mistake. They travel at near light speed, which has the relativistic effect of keeping time relatively slight for them while 1000 years pass in the Colonies.
4) While the Five are in transit, Graystone invents Cylons 3.0.
5) Cylons 3.0 rebel
6) The Final Five arrive and convince Cylons 3.0 to declare armistice in trade for the technology to create biological Cylons.
7) The 8 models (Cavil, Leoben, D'anna, Simon, Doral, Six, Daniel and Sharon) are created.
8) The Cavils destroy the Daniel model and then mindrape the Five and the remaining 2s through 8s, leaving the Five believing they're human and the 2s through 8s with no memory of the Five and a religious taboo against even *thinking* about them.
9) The Five are seeded amongst the Colonies and allowed to live their lives.
10) Cavil, using "God" as an excuse, convinces the other models to attack the Colonies, hoping that the Five will be killed, and when they resurrect they'll be thankful for his "opening their eyes" to the crapitude of humanity and love him the way he felt they never ahd

So monotheism may be why the initial Graystone Cylons will end up rebelling, but I think it will just be part of the larger problem of humans treating the Cylons as slaves even after they gain demonstrable sentience, and not the sole reason.

[free_laddicals]

As to Caprica, the pilot was definitely not of the same caliber as BSG, but I am still very much excited for science fiction that's not simply "contemporary setting with one SF twist" like FlashForward or military-based like BSG and Trek. I think the more the show focuses on Daniel Graystone and Joe Adama, the better it will be, so I'm going to give it a fair shake to see if they lean that way or more towards the dead daughters.

Strangely though, it was the absolute batshit freak-out on the part of Adama's daughter when she "came online" and couldn't feel her heartbeat sold me on it.

[belsum]

I actually really loved the finale so there’s no remaining disappointment to cloud my impression of “The Plan”! I seem to be having a difficult time explaining my negative reactions to Things I Love lately. It happened on my recent Hitchhiker’s Guide reread as well.
http://belsum.blogspot.com/2010/01/h2g2.html

[free_laddicals]

Oh, I wasn't talking about you and your reaction - just other fans around the 'net who seemed to think that "The Plan" was actually going to be about a grandmaster-level chess gambit that would put a great big bow on the whole series and "ease the pain" or outright retcon the "a wizard/God did it" part of the ending.

I think you wrote very clearly.

[belsum]

Hee! I love it when I can get you to respond to my posts! Talk on sister!

Thanks for reminding me of the in-show proof that it wasn’t retroactive continuity at all. I had completely forgotten about the fact that Cavil is the one that met the recycling Ellen. That episode absolutely was revelation, not retcon, and it the main reason I was so displeased with the Caprica explanation that the Centurians are nothing more than petulant teenagers.

I definitely am finding lots to think about but it didn’t hold my attention while watching. I’m not sure I understand my own disparity there.

I did love that Leoben’s fixation went unexplained. We didn’t get an explanation in the finale about just What Starbuck Is so why would we need one here?