
There are still a lot of "Battlestar Galactica" fans out there, especially in critics circles, but not everyone was a fan of the latest DVD that was released Tuesday: "The Plan."
The telemovie was written by "Caprica" showrunner Jane Espenson and directed by "Battlestar Galactica" star Edward James Olmos, and provides backstory of the Cylon attack that started the critically acclaimed Syfy series through the eyes of the Cylons themselves. It starred Dean Stockwell from "Quantum Leap" fame as well as Tricia Helfer, Grace Park, Aaron Douglas and Michael Trucco.
Here is a sampling of just some of the reviews for the DVD, which is available now through Universal Home Entertainment.
"This 'Plan' seems built from all mortar and no bricks, despite a rich premise: revisiting the 'Galactica' saga from the Cylons' point of view," said Lewis Wallace of Wired magazine. "What fan of the show doesn't want to know more about the human-looking 'skinjob' Cylons' gabled plan, teased relentlessly during BSG's opening credits? Sadly, 'The Plan' offers little real insight into that plan, choosing instead to paint an in-depth portrait of Cylon model Number One, aka John Cavil. So heavily does the movie focus on the Cylons' most devious and brutal model, it would more aptly be titled 'A Tale of Two Cavils.'"
"That structure, at times, also vies the movie the feel of a glorified clip show, like one of those 'Survivor' midseason episodes that purport to show you what was going in material that got cut from the original episodes, but never reveal as much as promised," said Alan Sepinwall of the Star-Ledger in New Jersey. "The movie is too episodic in nature to feel like a coherent story, but it also doesn't work entirely at filling in the blanks. Some long-standing fan questions will be answered definitively, but other answers will be clumsily alluded to at best, given the actors Espenson and Olmos had to work with, and others will be ignored altogether."
"I don't know why 'Battlestar Galactica: The Plan' exists," said David Faraci of CHUD. "I don't know what purpose this movie is supposed to serve. It flirts with telling an original story but, in the end, decides that it just wants to fill in gaps that didn't need to be filled in, and spends too much time answering questions no one ever had. I didn't ever care to ask where the Cylon got that suicide bomber belt way back in Season 1 of the show, but 'The Plan' assumes it was a burning concern for me all these years."
"'Battlestar Galactica: The Plan' is an interesting project even if it's not an entirely cohesive one," said Todd Douglass Jr. of DVD Talk. "The story revolving around the Cavils and the failed plan is fairly solid, but there are too few revelations to make it entirely relevant within the context of the show. You'll know, or have at least speculated, on several of the things brought up here. Much of the new content feels like an easy answer to a relatively loose question."
And, of course, there was the Airlock Alpha perspective presented in its preview of "The Plan" that can be found by clicking here.
"The entire movie felt like a clip show of deleted scenes, running all over the place in time, and really providing little to tie the story together. And two highly gratuitous scenes -- a full-frontal nudity scene and a senseless death -- felt like cheap ways to try and make this movie gritty and shocking. The sad part is that storylines and good writing make 'Battlestar Galactica' gritty and shocking, and while I have nothing against nudity or character deaths, it has to make sense in the story, and not stand out like a broken-down Cylon."
About the Author:
Michael Hinman is the founder and site coordinator for Airlock Alpha and the entire BlipNetwork. He owns Quantum Global Media Inc., the parent corporation of the BlipNetwork. He's a print journalist by day, and lives in Tampa, Fla.