Battlestar Galactica: The Plan
Oct. 29th, 2009 10:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakShort version: if you liked No Exit and Downloaded, you'll probably like this one as well. (Which means I did, btw.) Timeframe wise, it covers the first two seasons of the show; it is, as advertised, a Cylon pov movie. It also struck me as closely modelled on Richard III, structure-wise. Oh, and of course it's a missing scenes type of story; which means no, it's not necessary for this to exist in order to understand the canon, but on the other hand most of the missing scenes are pretty nifty.
One of the most bizarre results The Plan had were various posts on how RDM hates Kara/Lee because The Plan supposedly extolls Kara/Sam. This made me both laugh and roll my eyes, because it's yet another illustration of the single-mindedness of shippers. Kara/Anyone is so not what this film is about. The three or so scenes showing her with Sam Anders are all from already existing s2 material and provide Caprica!Cavil and Caprica!Simon for additional discussion material about both Anders and Cavil's increasingly obvious failure to do something effective against the resistance. (And for Jane E. to give Simon a series of jokes at Cavil's expense. "What are they doing?" "Do you really need a doctor to tell you that?" "But why? She is beneath him!" "Not necessarily." "Stop that!")
On to what The Plan is actually about. As mentioned, it owes something to Shakespeare's version of Richard III, as it could also be subtitled "The Rise and Fall of John Cavil", following the "villain takes audience into his confidence, excells at witty one liners, has early success, then sees success increasingly fall apart as allies turn against him and he starts to lose it" structure. Cavil, both of him, manage to be both fascinating and repellent in true Shakespearean villain fashion, with the Espenson turn that one of them doesn't actually achieve redemption - wrong word in this case, and also, it's not a case of repentance as much as acknowledgment and resignation - but some growth and the ability to get over himself, even if it can only be shown towards another model (and will get this one boxed).
While I liked what The Plan contributed by ways of explanation for (some) unresolved loose ends from the show - Shelley Godfrey from Six Degrees of Separation, how Ellen survived the initial bombardment and got to the fleet, who wrote "Cylon" on Boomer's mirror, for example - what surprised me in a good way was that the Fours - the Simons - finally aquired both personalities and in the case of Fleet!Simon a genuinenly touching story. Mind you, due to BSG's track record I was very worried it would end with yet two more dead female characters; Simon instead of obeying orders or giving in to blackmail killing himself (in a way that didn't harm anyone else) was a relief, in a way, though otoh I also felt for him. Similarly, Gianna not despairing or responding with self-loathing but in the end coming to the conclusion that the love between them had been real was very moving.
(Footnote: I've watched the film twice now; between the first and the second time I found out Gianna is played by Eddie Olmos' wife. As she doesn't seem to be a bad actress, I don't quite see the problem here. Hot Dog was played by his son throughout the show, so members of the Olmos clan in supporting roles aren't anything new.)
Because in some cases I like deeply twisted, the fact the later Galactica!Cavil (who by implication is the one we'll see on New Caprica again, and then some) at the start decides he wants to experience the apocalypse together with Ellen and resurrect simultanously after she properly repented was something else I enjoyed. As I did Ellen's brief but memorable appearance as her amnesiac/human self, unabashedly hedonistic and utterly unwilling to be sorry for anything. (And just to add one more thing for Cavil to be frustrated about, she asks after Saul when waking up post-attack.) As I did her cocktail party shoes, because for some reasons Ellen's shoes - fit for the bar on Picon she's in when the attack happens, utterly impractical for post-apocalyptic life, but she keeps them anyway - sum up something quintessential about the character for me, which is why I gave her these shoes to wear in my B5 crossover this year as well.
Of course, Galactica!Cavil's conversation with Ellen is but the first of his attempts to get one of the Final Five to admit that humanity and human life sucks. (Oddly enough, Cavil never tries this one on Tory. Poor Tory doesn't get more than a car crash for a backstory, but on the other hand she's not vilified, either, which, given 4.5, is something to be relieved about.) The corresponding last attempt are Caprica!Cavil's last two conversations with Sam Anders. Sam has the most screentime of the Final Five, and as his going from sports star to resistance leader is not previously covered ground on the show, and he's Caprica!Cavil's catalyst. Michael Trucco gives a fine performance, holding his own against Dean Stockwell which isn't easy, and the confession scene is outstanding. It's also pretty important in regards of what the show sometimes succeeded and sometimes failed to tackle successfully; the balance between hope, darkness and nihilism. Sam starts out by confessing that after the sports team turned resistance fighter's initial failure complete with deaths, he just wanted to run away, and the only reason he didn't was Barolay being there and a sense of shame if she saw him just leave everyone to themselves. (BTW, the comradery between Sam and Jean Barolay is especially poignant with the awareness of what will happen on the show.) Cavil sees this finally as his in and pounces, first flatteringly stating that as evidently Sam didn't run later, either, he grew from the experience, and then trying the "humanity is rotten, didn't they deserve that the Cylons did?" doctrine for the last time. Which Sam completely rejects. Later, shortly before Kara & Co. will turn up, Cavil points out that Sam by now has lost the majority of the 91 people the Caprica resistance once consisted of, so wouldn't it have been better not to have loved them at all. Which is when we get the sentence that makes this particular Cavil resign: "I still love them. Death doesn't change that." (As I said earlier, the fact that Caprica!Cavil then resigns doesn't mean he actually repents having done all he could to wipe out humanity. He just concludes it was pointless.)
The Plan is unabashedly blatant about the ability to love and/or form connections as both humanity's and the Cylons' saving grace, between Sam and his people, Fleet!Simon and Gianna, even Leoben's fascination with Kara which here is shown to start when listening to her by hacking into military radio... and what happens with Boomer. Who finally gets some decent writing again. I'm not sure whether or not to call it a retcon, but whom we mostly see isn't Boomer but her original Eight personality who existed before Boomer. The idea that they at first were distinct and then started to merge during the first season time span, with the Eight having more and more doubts just as Boomer has, though for opposite reasons, until the person they both become doesn't know who she is anymore both gives her more of her own agenda in s1 and works with her fractured personality post-New Caprica. Even the relationship with Cavil - the most randomly bizarre thing on the show - works somewhat better in retrospect as he's basically her handler here.
The Hub - which I love - aside, I always thought Jane Espenson's BSG epsiodes weren't nearly as good as her Jossverse efforts. The Plan plays to her strengths, though, because it allows her to include while a lot of humor along with the drama, and it's not just Cavil's propensity for snarky lines. The Fives - the Dorals - don't get as much screen time as the Fours, but what they do get is one of the funniest scenes of the show, as Doral tries to defend himself to Cavil for walking around after another Doral was outed by Baltar in the miniseries: "This (jacket) is burgundy. His was teal." I already mentioned Caprica!Simon's amusement at Cavil's expense; Tricia Helfer also has great fun creating yet two more distinctly different versions of Six - well, repeating one in Shelley Godfrey's case - one of whom suspiciously resembles Ellen in hairstyle and attitude (and Cavil promptly has sex with her), and is relentlessly sarcastic, while Shelley is priceless in her defense of the not successful framing of a guilty Baltar: "But I was really forceful! I pushed him!"
Lastly, about the boy Galactica!Cavil is stalked by, sort of tolerates and then eventually kills: my interpretation is that this isn't actually a real boy but a projection of Cavil's inner self - what Cavil really is, emotionally. Evidence: no one but Cavil interacts with him, the first time when Cavil spots him in a crowd aside he only ever shows up when Cavil is alone, he's a sullen/sad child declaring his parents don't want him, and Cavil kills him after the boy tells him his name is John, which is of course the name Ellen gave to Cavil, which Cavil so emphatically declares he won't use anymore when she's finally her old self again in No Exit. (That, or he's one of the head people.)
In conclusion: much like Babylon 5's In the Beginning, this doesn't really work as a standalone movie if you haven't watched the show, but I'm pretty fond of the result anyway.
One of the most bizarre results The Plan had were various posts on how RDM hates Kara/Lee because The Plan supposedly extolls Kara/Sam. This made me both laugh and roll my eyes, because it's yet another illustration of the single-mindedness of shippers. Kara/Anyone is so not what this film is about. The three or so scenes showing her with Sam Anders are all from already existing s2 material and provide Caprica!Cavil and Caprica!Simon for additional discussion material about both Anders and Cavil's increasingly obvious failure to do something effective against the resistance. (And for Jane E. to give Simon a series of jokes at Cavil's expense. "What are they doing?" "Do you really need a doctor to tell you that?" "But why? She is beneath him!" "Not necessarily." "Stop that!")
On to what The Plan is actually about. As mentioned, it owes something to Shakespeare's version of Richard III, as it could also be subtitled "The Rise and Fall of John Cavil", following the "villain takes audience into his confidence, excells at witty one liners, has early success, then sees success increasingly fall apart as allies turn against him and he starts to lose it" structure. Cavil, both of him, manage to be both fascinating and repellent in true Shakespearean villain fashion, with the Espenson turn that one of them doesn't actually achieve redemption - wrong word in this case, and also, it's not a case of repentance as much as acknowledgment and resignation - but some growth and the ability to get over himself, even if it can only be shown towards another model (and will get this one boxed).
While I liked what The Plan contributed by ways of explanation for (some) unresolved loose ends from the show - Shelley Godfrey from Six Degrees of Separation, how Ellen survived the initial bombardment and got to the fleet, who wrote "Cylon" on Boomer's mirror, for example - what surprised me in a good way was that the Fours - the Simons - finally aquired both personalities and in the case of Fleet!Simon a genuinenly touching story. Mind you, due to BSG's track record I was very worried it would end with yet two more dead female characters; Simon instead of obeying orders or giving in to blackmail killing himself (in a way that didn't harm anyone else) was a relief, in a way, though otoh I also felt for him. Similarly, Gianna not despairing or responding with self-loathing but in the end coming to the conclusion that the love between them had been real was very moving.
(Footnote: I've watched the film twice now; between the first and the second time I found out Gianna is played by Eddie Olmos' wife. As she doesn't seem to be a bad actress, I don't quite see the problem here. Hot Dog was played by his son throughout the show, so members of the Olmos clan in supporting roles aren't anything new.)
Because in some cases I like deeply twisted, the fact the later Galactica!Cavil (who by implication is the one we'll see on New Caprica again, and then some) at the start decides he wants to experience the apocalypse together with Ellen and resurrect simultanously after she properly repented was something else I enjoyed. As I did Ellen's brief but memorable appearance as her amnesiac/human self, unabashedly hedonistic and utterly unwilling to be sorry for anything. (And just to add one more thing for Cavil to be frustrated about, she asks after Saul when waking up post-attack.) As I did her cocktail party shoes, because for some reasons Ellen's shoes - fit for the bar on Picon she's in when the attack happens, utterly impractical for post-apocalyptic life, but she keeps them anyway - sum up something quintessential about the character for me, which is why I gave her these shoes to wear in my B5 crossover this year as well.
Of course, Galactica!Cavil's conversation with Ellen is but the first of his attempts to get one of the Final Five to admit that humanity and human life sucks. (Oddly enough, Cavil never tries this one on Tory. Poor Tory doesn't get more than a car crash for a backstory, but on the other hand she's not vilified, either, which, given 4.5, is something to be relieved about.) The corresponding last attempt are Caprica!Cavil's last two conversations with Sam Anders. Sam has the most screentime of the Final Five, and as his going from sports star to resistance leader is not previously covered ground on the show, and he's Caprica!Cavil's catalyst. Michael Trucco gives a fine performance, holding his own against Dean Stockwell which isn't easy, and the confession scene is outstanding. It's also pretty important in regards of what the show sometimes succeeded and sometimes failed to tackle successfully; the balance between hope, darkness and nihilism. Sam starts out by confessing that after the sports team turned resistance fighter's initial failure complete with deaths, he just wanted to run away, and the only reason he didn't was Barolay being there and a sense of shame if she saw him just leave everyone to themselves. (BTW, the comradery between Sam and Jean Barolay is especially poignant with the awareness of what will happen on the show.) Cavil sees this finally as his in and pounces, first flatteringly stating that as evidently Sam didn't run later, either, he grew from the experience, and then trying the "humanity is rotten, didn't they deserve that the Cylons did?" doctrine for the last time. Which Sam completely rejects. Later, shortly before Kara & Co. will turn up, Cavil points out that Sam by now has lost the majority of the 91 people the Caprica resistance once consisted of, so wouldn't it have been better not to have loved them at all. Which is when we get the sentence that makes this particular Cavil resign: "I still love them. Death doesn't change that." (As I said earlier, the fact that Caprica!Cavil then resigns doesn't mean he actually repents having done all he could to wipe out humanity. He just concludes it was pointless.)
The Plan is unabashedly blatant about the ability to love and/or form connections as both humanity's and the Cylons' saving grace, between Sam and his people, Fleet!Simon and Gianna, even Leoben's fascination with Kara which here is shown to start when listening to her by hacking into military radio... and what happens with Boomer. Who finally gets some decent writing again. I'm not sure whether or not to call it a retcon, but whom we mostly see isn't Boomer but her original Eight personality who existed before Boomer. The idea that they at first were distinct and then started to merge during the first season time span, with the Eight having more and more doubts just as Boomer has, though for opposite reasons, until the person they both become doesn't know who she is anymore both gives her more of her own agenda in s1 and works with her fractured personality post-New Caprica. Even the relationship with Cavil - the most randomly bizarre thing on the show - works somewhat better in retrospect as he's basically her handler here.
The Hub - which I love - aside, I always thought Jane Espenson's BSG epsiodes weren't nearly as good as her Jossverse efforts. The Plan plays to her strengths, though, because it allows her to include while a lot of humor along with the drama, and it's not just Cavil's propensity for snarky lines. The Fives - the Dorals - don't get as much screen time as the Fours, but what they do get is one of the funniest scenes of the show, as Doral tries to defend himself to Cavil for walking around after another Doral was outed by Baltar in the miniseries: "This (jacket) is burgundy. His was teal." I already mentioned Caprica!Simon's amusement at Cavil's expense; Tricia Helfer also has great fun creating yet two more distinctly different versions of Six - well, repeating one in Shelley Godfrey's case - one of whom suspiciously resembles Ellen in hairstyle and attitude (and Cavil promptly has sex with her), and is relentlessly sarcastic, while Shelley is priceless in her defense of the not successful framing of a guilty Baltar: "But I was really forceful! I pushed him!"
Lastly, about the boy Galactica!Cavil is stalked by, sort of tolerates and then eventually kills: my interpretation is that this isn't actually a real boy but a projection of Cavil's inner self - what Cavil really is, emotionally. Evidence: no one but Cavil interacts with him, the first time when Cavil spots him in a crowd aside he only ever shows up when Cavil is alone, he's a sullen/sad child declaring his parents don't want him, and Cavil kills him after the boy tells him his name is John, which is of course the name Ellen gave to Cavil, which Cavil so emphatically declares he won't use anymore when she's finally her old self again in No Exit. (That, or he's one of the head people.)
In conclusion: much like Babylon 5's In the Beginning, this doesn't really work as a standalone movie if you haven't watched the show, but I'm pretty fond of the result anyway.
