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The Plan

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The Plan
"The Plan"
An episode of the Re-imagined Series
Special Episode
Writer(s) Jane Espenson
Story by
Director Edward James Olmos
Assistant Director
Special guest(s)
Production No. 101 - 01001
Nielsen Rating
US airdate USA January 10, 2010
CAN airdate CAN
UK airdate UK
DVD release October 27, 2009
Population survivors
Additional Info
Episode Chronology
Previous
Daybreak, Part II The Plan
Related Information
[[IMDB:tt{{{imdb}}}|IMDb entry]]
Listing of props for this episode
Related Media
@ BW Media
Promotional Materials
Online Purchasing
Amazon: Standard Definition | High Definition
iTunes: USA


Overview

This special episode, based on the episode title, involves characters and events based around the series' premise stated in the opening credits of the Cylons and their plan for humanity. This story is set during the events of the Miniseries through Season 2's "Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II," told from the Cylons' perspective. The disappearance of Shelly Godfrey is explained, as is Ellen Tigh's mysterious appearance. Samuel Anders and John Cavil are the main viewpoint characters.

Summary

Teaser

  • The show opens with the statement "The Cylons were created by man. They rebelled. They evolved. They look and feel human. Some are programmed to think they are human. There are many copies and they have a Plan." Each sentence is spoken by a different model of Cylon. While this is being said, the Cylon Fleet is shown.

One A - "I was doing fine here, thanks for exposing me."

One B - "You weren't doing fine. Thank goodness. If you'd wiped out this fleet you would have made us ever more irredeemable in the eyes of our parents."

One A - "No, I would have proved us to be superior."

One B - "No, no see, I figured out what went wrong."

One A - "Well that's a very useful revelation to have, if you're standing in front of an airlock."

One B - "None the less"

One A - "Our failure is obvious. We had our foot on the throat of humanity and we failed to step down hard enough."

One B - "That was our error. Have you learned nothing in all this time in the fleet? Because I learned a great deal among the rebels on Caprica. Every killing of a human being was a grievous error. You want to know why?"

One A - "I really don't."

One B - "Are you certain?" Because it's fascinating."

One A - "Listen, brother. If you are right, that means this whole project was doomed from the beginning."

One B - "Yes, from the very top."

Act 1

2 weeks before the attack on the colonies:

14 hours before the attack on the colonies:

  • In Caprica City, Dr. Gaius Baltar is having a conversation with a Six who has been posing as an agent of a company seeking defense contracts. In exchange for giving her access to government mainframes, she helped him design the navigation program used by the Colonial warships. However, she has been covertly creating backdoors in the program. Shortly after their goodbyes, the Six meets up with a One and passes off the access codes to Colonial defenses.

Just prior to the attack on the Colonies:

  • Inside Club Pink Moon on Picon, a One is talking with Ellen Tigh about why she likes olives. They introduce themselves to each other. The One orders her another drink. He asks why she is there. She answers that she is meant for greater things. They continue their conversation.
  • At the Caprica Bucaneers pyramid training camp, Sam Anders is practicing with his teammates. The team coach toasts a goal scored against Anders with the team doctor, a Number Four humanoid Cylon.
  • In the Caprican city of Delphi, Tory Foster is driving to an airport and is talking on her phone.
  • Cylon basestars jump to positions over the Twelve Colonies. The hybrids access the backdoors in the Colonial defense system. Colonial vipers see the approaching Cylon basestars and raiders, but the Battlestars cannot confirm they are there, since the defense system is starting to crash. The Cylons scan the Colonial vessels, which all go dead in space.
  • Nuclear weapons are launched toward the Colonies.
A Cylon MIRV.
  • Sam says, "This has happened before." The Pyramid team watches as the bombs go off near them. The team doctor smiles. Destruction is occurring across the Colonies. (See: Noteworthy Dialogue).
  • Aboard Galactica, word is received of the attack on the Twelve Colonies. Colonel Tigh thinks it is just a joke being played on Commander Adama since he is about to retire. Adama disagrees, and makes a shipwide announcement about the attack. Galen Tyrol is giving a motivating speech to his crew in preparation for battle.
  • Badly injured, Ellen also says, "This has happened before." When she looks up at the One, she asks if she is going to die. He replies, "No, not when you have so much to learn."
  • On Caprica, the Pyramid team spots Centurions and debates what they should do.
  • Tory crawls out of the wreckage of her car and stares around in shock at the devestation. A search and rescue Raptor lands nearby and presumably picks her up.
  • Back on Galactica, Commander Adama finds a cryptic message left for him by Baltar: "There are only 12 Cylon models." Baltar sits pensively in CIC, implying he left the note.

Act 2

Act 3

Act 4

Notes

The Universal Studios Intro for 'The Plan'
  • The planet behind the Universal Studios logo at the beginning of the movie is Caprica instead of Earth.
  • Unknown to the Colonials there apparently was a second Resurrection Ship nearby by the time the Cavils were executed, allowing them to download into new bodies when killed, although the Caprica copy was presumably boxed.
  • Galactica Cavil was Ellen's mysterious hero that saved her from the attack on Picon. It was known to be a Number One, but it wasn't clear before this exactly which one it was.
  • Whereas Scorpion Fleet Shipyards was designated as such in "Razor," the setting is identified in "The Plan" simply as Scorpia because it is meant to denote the planet as well.
  • During the attack on the Colonies, after the Raiders scan the Vipers and Battestars, one of the pilots can be heard saying "I have no RADIO contact". This should be "WIRELESS" as there are no "radios" in the BSG universe.
    • He could be saying he has "no raider contact," as in his scope has gone dead due to the Cylon virus.
  • An outfit is listed on propworx[1] as being worn in the extended version of "Daybreak" by Gina Inviere, in a scene where she speaks to Sharon Valerii on a plane just before the latter becomes a sleeper agent. This is a flashback to before Valerii entered the Colonial fleet academy. This scene does not appear in the extended "Daybreak", but, as stated in Ronald Moore's commentary on that episode, it was moved to "The Plan". Thus, the Six seen speaking to Boomer in this flashback is Gina Inviere.
  • The named locations on Leonis, Scorpia, Tauron, Picon, Aquaria and Libran evoke the zodiac symbols each is named for. Aerilon's association with agriculture and Caprica's association with sophisticated, urban life were established in "Dirty Hands" and "The Woman King".
  • The jungles of Scorpia were also mentioned in the fourth issue of Battlestar Galactica: The Final Five.
  • Cavil puts Shelly Godfrey through an airlock weeks before Roslin "invents" airlocking as the preferred method of disposing of Cylons.
    • Cavil also seems to be able to activate the airlock very quickly and without anyone noticing, whereas later in the film it took Simon a long time to rewire the airlock in order to activate it.
  • Several scenes from the first two seasons of the series are shown again in this movie, but in most cases are conveniently edited to fit the story.
    • Baltar's role in Boomer's suicide attempt is omitted.
    • When Tyrol visits Cavil in "The Plan," Cavil asks "What's on your mind chief?" which was never asked in "Lay Down Your Burdens, Part I," and Tyrol's response in "The Plan" about how to know he is human comes much later in the actual conversation.
    • Scenes on Caprica create extra moments for new dialogue to be inserted where it wasn't before. In "The Plan," a voiceover during Starbuck's rescue from The Farm has Anders ordering a resistance fighter to return to their basecamp and kill their doctor, whom they learn is a Cylon upon seeing the Simons at the farm.
    • When Starbuck/Helo re-encounter the resistance on Caprica, the scene from "Lay Down Your Burdens, Part I" has the question "Is Kara Thrace there" with Anders shouting "If she is she took her sweet time." In "The Plan," the dialogue is interrupted by Helo asking "Who wants to know?" after the question about Thrace. This scene also contains a continuity error during the switch from new footage to archive footage. As Anders and the resistance fighters are crouched behind a log, there is no one behind them in the new footage, but when it cuts to the old footage there is suddently a soldier behind them.
    • When the Cylon attack on Caprica stops, Anders asks why. In "The Plan," he is answered by Cavil with "That's a good question," a line that obviously is not in the original sequence.
    • The scene of the two Cavils in the brig from "Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II" cuts most of the dialogue and rearranges it, leaving out most of Galactica Cavil's supportive statements of the new peace, and the implication he knew about the truce. Also, in the original episode, Roslin suggested throwing the pair out the airlock. Roslin does not appear at all in "The Plan" (other than a few strands of hair in archive footage of the Cavil interrogation scene), and re-dubbed dialogue has Tigh suggesting the airlock solution, with Adama agreeing.
  • "The Plan" shows the end of the Cavil/Tyrol conversation from "Lay Down Your Burdens, Part I." Picking up after Cavil tells Tyrol that his deck hands are his family and taps his hands on the table, "The Plan" shows Cavil asking Tyrol if he finds it difficult to trust others. Tyrol says yes, and Cavil sympathizes with him, saying that he trusted people and they all let him down (referring to his Cylon cohorts). Cavil says it will be tough, wishes the Chief luck, and leaves.
  • The iconic Cylon catchphrase "By your command" is never used in this film.

Analysis

  • Given the Galactica copy of Cavil's comments in the airlock, his resurrected self is the copy that led the anti-human Cylon faction during the Cylon Civil War and later killed himself permanently in CIC during the Battle of The Colony.
  • It is likely that the device Leoben constructs to intercept Colonial military transmissions is a forerunner of the device he gave Laura Roslin to overcome the mutineers' communications jamming in "Blood on the Scales."
  • Number One's plan to make his creators repentant is inherently flawed due to basic differences in his thinking as compared to theirs. He believes that human life is terrible and just living among humans will make them see that - a belief they simply do not share - and he does not realize the fact that inflicting suffering on the humans will make the sympathy of the five original Cylons towards humanity grow, not diminish. This holocaust mirrors that which occurred on their own homeworld and is exactly what they were trying to prevent when they made a deal with the Colonial Centurions. Number One is therefore just as naive in his expectations at the outset of the movie as are his sibling models. At the end of the movie, the One that was on Caprica with Anders has realized these errors, and the One that was on Galactica has not.
  • The main focus of this movie, which is the triumph of love, shows perhaps why the Cylons eventually split into two factions. Being that it is far easier to kill people you don't know, once they start getting to know humans they are obviously having a harder time killing them. This is evident in the split during the Cylon Civil War, the three models that take the most interest in, and have the most interaction with humans are the ones advocating peace and from their interaction with humans become curious about discovering their own natures while the three models that have the least to do with humans are far more machine like and less interested in self-discovery as a result.
  • The characteristics of several of the Cylon models are further fleshed out.
    • Number One/Cavil is clearly the leader as shown by his taking charge of the Cylons within the fleet and just like in the series this is often shown to be because his superior knowledge
    • The Number Two/Leoben model is shown(as he is later in Blood on the Scales) as being very good at signal/communications cracking, this fits in well with his own obsession, and skills, with information and revelations. Two also seems to be fairly knowledgeable and Cavil seems to be slightly less derogatory towards this model, possibly because as the second model created he has known Leoben the longest.
    • All the Number Four/Simon models seem to have very detailed medical expertise(enough to successfully be hired as doctors for both a pro-sports team and the military)
    • Number Five/Doral is portrayed as being, as they are in other instances, very bureaucratic and obsessed with minute and unimportant details(like most bureaucrats) as well as being extremely zealous, although not particularly bright, and they seemed to be looked down upon by the other models.
    • Number Six is once more portrayed as being the most varied, adaptable, and strong willed(regardless of which personality) of the Cylon models.
    • Number Eight is shown being very skilled in military thinking and engineering as shown by her plan to blow the water tank but at the same time she is the most susceptible to emotions and outside influence.
  • The Plan shows how Leoben knew Starbuck's name and that his belief that she had a destiny was based solely on his discovering that she learned how to fly a raider without being taught how, showing to him that she had some kind of special connection to the universe. The flashes he sees the first time he touches her, of their history together, also shows why he is so sure she will tell him she loves him and kiss him(although the flashes don't show him getting stabbed by her, hence his surprise) which also show her meeting her destiny(falling into the Maelstrom and encountering a version of him(possibly an angel) but it doesn't show anything after that, hence his surprise on seeing her dead body.
  • A major plot point of "Six Degrees of Separation" was the baffling disappearance of Shelly Godfrey, seemingly into thin air. It is unclear whether or not the Colonials eventually deduced that she airlocked herself (the scene in which she is airlocked comes after the scene in which Adama is questioning her evasion of the guards).
  • Tyrol's intense dreams of suicide by diving off the deck as related in "Lay Down Your Burdens, Part I," are inspired by his conversation with Giana, as depicted in "The Plan." She said that's what she would do if she suspected she were a Cylon. The chief clearly had such suspicions, and his subconscious must have latched onto her suggestion.
  • The Plan does not show whether or not Boomer left the hatch combing open for Doral as Tyrol suspected in "Litmus".

Questions

  • Did Giana take her husband's surname? In other words, is the full alias of Number Four actually "Simon O'Neill"?
  • Is Galactica Cavil really the same Cavil that leads one side of the Cylon Civil War?
  • Is the Club Pink Moon on Picon a Hat Tip to the late Nick Drake?
  • Why isn't the arrival of the Pegasus mentioned? Surely that would have an effect on Cavil's plans.
  • Did Galactica Cavil have anything to do with the Olympic Carrier?
  • What happened to the rest of the Cylon fleet, there look to be at least two dozen Basestars attacking Caprica alone, possibly more, but that many are never seen in the series and it looks like there are no more than 5 chasing the fleet after they flee from New Caprica? Are most of them still occupying the colonies? If so, then why? Are they spread out and searching other places? Where they abandoned due to lack of resources? Was the Cylon Civil war more widespread than believed?
  • Did Shelly Godfrey give Galactica's coordinates to the Cylon fleet?
  • Was Cavil ever linked to the murder of young John?
    • Was young John a physical being or another one of the "angels" like Six, Baltar, and Leoben? Could this younger John be the ghost of Cavil's namesake?
  • If figuring out how to fly a Raider is sufficient to think a human can tap into the Cylon stream, is Daniel Novacek as similarly gifted as Starbuck?
  • Was Cavil aware Gina Inviere had joined the fleet and formed a resistance group? If so, did he order the destruction of Cloud Nine?

Official Statements

Future Movies

Speaking at the 2009 San Diego Comic Con, director and star of The Plan, Edward James Olmos stated that he believes there will be several more Battlestar Galactica movies in the future and is confident that the DVD release of The Plan will sell well enough to facilitate these films:

"As a matter of fact, I've got to tell you right now. Because of you all, what you're doing, because of the love for that world...I can guarantee that this will not be the last movie." [2]

This statement, however, is by no means official, as both Ron Moore, David Eick, and SyFy have made no mention of any additional Battlestar films.

Olmos later went on to clarify that if The Plan sold ¾ of a million copies (750,000) then Universal Studios would assuredly be willing to produce future Battlestar-related productions. [3]

Noteworthy Dialogue

  • Sam and his team our practicing at the Pyramid Training camp on Caprica, you see Sam lying on the ground just after the coach had showed him up by making a goal. He is looking up into the sky just as the bombs are coming in and he says, "This has happened before." It was as if part of Sam's memory was breaking through trying to warn him that the cycle was starting again.
  • Ellen Tigh makes a similar statement when she first comes to after the attacks.
Progress reports arriving.
The farms of Aerilon are burning.
The beaches of Canceron are burning.
The plains of Leonis are burning.
The jungles of Scorpia are burning.
The pastures of Tauron are burning.
The harbours of Picon are burning.
The cities of Caprica are burning.
The oceans of Aquaria are burning.
The courthouses of Libran are burning.
The forests of Virgon are burning.
The colonies of man lie trampled at our feet.
  • The Hybrid on the Basestar states various phrases (to interpret):
"Seized by God they cry for supper in the dark of the light. Mists of dreams drip along the nascent echo, and love no more. Jump.
Counting down. All functions nominal. All functions optimal. Counting down. The Center holds. The falcon hears the falconer. Infrastructure: check. Wetware: check. Everyone hang on to the lap bar please.
Apotheosis was the beginning before the beginning. Devices on alert. Observe the procedures of a general alert. The base and the pinnacle, the flower inside the fruit that is both its’ parent and its’ child. Decadent as ancestors, the portal in that which passes.
Nuclear devices activated and the machine keeps pushing time through the cogs like paste into strings into paste again and only the machine keeps using time to make time to make time. And when the machine stops, time is an illusion we created: free will. Twelve battles, three stars and yet we are countless as the bodies in which we dwell, are both parent and infinite children in perfect copies. No degradation.
The makers of the makers fall before the child.
Accessing defense system: handshake – handshake – second level clear.
Accepting scan: love outlasts death.
Their ships fail, skittering like skipped stones, and movement is meaningless in the absence of time. What never was is never again."


  • A dialogue between a pilot (Yashuman) and the military Caprica-Control shows confusion when the Cylons hack the defense system:

"Caprica Control, Yashuman. Heavy bogeys, six plus, lower orbit, over grid 15-2. - No joy, Yashuman. - Then go to your window and look out. They’re big as frakking asteroids. - Copy, Yashuman. Still blind. That´s some kind of system-wide crash in the defense grid. - Try to unfrak yourself right godsdamned now, ‘cause we got multiple inbound, and they’re not carrying flowers. - Wait one, Yashuman. - We don’t have one left.” (Battlestars a being scanned and go dead)

Cast

Starring

Co-Starring

Also Starring

Uncredited major cast appearing via archive footage

References

  1. ↑ http://archive.battlestarprops.com/1003/192 Gina's Outfit in Scene with Boomer
  2. ↑ Olmos: The Plan Won't Be the Last BSG Movie (backup available on Archive.org) (in ). (Fri Jul 24 2009).
  3. ↑ Edward James Olmos holds court (backup available on Archive.org) (in ). (Sat 08 Aug 2009).
Battlestar Galactica (Re-imagined) Season 4 (2008-09) Episode List


DVD Movies and Features: Razor | The Plan

Webisodes: Razor Flashbacks | The Face of the Enemy

< Previous Season Episode | He That Believeth In Me | Six of One | The Ties That Bind | Escape Velocity | The Road Less Traveled | Faith | Guess What's Coming to Dinner? | Sine Qua Non | The Hub | Revelations | Sometimes a Great Notion | A Disquiet Follows My Soul | The Oath | Blood on the Scales | No Exit | Deadlock | Someone to Watch Over Me | Islanded in a Stream of Stars | Daybreak, Part I | Daybreak, Part II

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