Lower Decks

Back in 2003, it was a radical idea to reinvent ‘Battlestar Galactica.’ In 2009, where the new version has completed its run, not so much, because it’s become known as a critical success with a small but dedicated following, soon to have a spin-off that further advances the new version of the saga. There’s talk that Bryan Singer wants to do pretty much the same thing over again, for a film. In the event that this happens, perhaps it seems more necessary than ever to provide a single statement about the ultimate worth of this second version (third, if there are still those who consider ‘Galactica 1980’ to be its own entity). Slated to be aired on TV next year but released this week to collectors is ‘Battlestar Galactica: The Plan,’ which promises to deliver just that, the story behind the opening statement to every episode of the series, which recounted the premise about Cylons, the revolt, and well, “the plan.”

Before 2003, ‘Battlestar Galactica’ was a short-lived TV show that was twenty years old and best known as basically an attempt to capitalize on the success of Star Wars, dated and all but forgotten except by a small but apparently rabid cult following. But by 2003, the sci-fi community was ready to be energized by something new, and “new” ended up being a new interpretation of the idea that rested at the heart of an old one. Some of the more peripheral fans of the resulting show were attracted for a number of reasons beyond the energy and lineage, be it Tricia Helfer (Six, red dress) or Ronald D. Moore, one of the creators, who’d left a definitive mark on the Star Trek franchise (specifically, making ‘The Next Generation’ the best it could be, then joining a terrific team on ‘Deep Space Nine’) and thus had engendered a certain amount of trust. Me, I just wanted to see if I was entertained. After a while, I wasn’t, so I quit watching, tired of waiting for anything but the desperate scheming of Gaius Baltar or the plight of Boomer to interest me. After a while, it seemed like the big thing was just to figure out who the next character to be revealed as a Cylon was going to be. (Sure enough, the final episodes were built around just that question, the final revelation.)

So when I learned about ‘The Plan,’ I figured I was finally going to get what I wanted, an undiluted version of the story, and exactly the perspective I craved. Basically, however, ‘The Plan’ is the same as what you got from the series. It begins, more or less, with the destruction of the colonies, and continues for the next 200-odd days worth of developments. It should be no surprise that those who will derive the most enjoyment from it will be the fans who followed the series. Since the story covers roughly the events I saw for myself, I could follow most of it, but it had been a long time since I’d seen the relevant episodes, the characters. You see (presumably) everyone who was revealed to be a Cylon (Lucy Lawless didn’t participate, so her character is mostly omitted except for a glimpse), even from events not depicted in the story, which goes just past Boomer trying to assassinate Adama. Dean Stockwell’s One is the main character, which means those hoping for a lot more clarity from Six will be disappointed (but I suppose the series covered that territory well enough, and only those who didn’t stick around would have this specific complaint about ‘The Plan’). We follow him as he argues, in two different versions of himself, for against “the plan,” which amounts to the destruction of the colonies (obviously) and the subsequent attempts to utilize various imbedded Cylons to scrape together a more complete victory (i.e. annihilation of humanity, which is seen as holding Cylons back from a broader experience).

So, no real revelation about a plan, or at least not one that would immediately satisfy those who were constantly hoping for a more grand version of one, it being constantly referenced and all. Still, it’s not really a loss. Focusing on the Cylons does invoke greater clarity, for at least half of the ‘Battlestar Galactica’ story (the other being the search for Earth, and oh, survival). It’s illuminating to just spend time watching the Cylon agents struggle with their decision, whether it be Boomer (Grace Park) or Rick Worthy’s character, who at one point sacrifices a human life with a family rather than continue One’s plan that would have, if it had been successful, been a real plan, sabotaging, assassinating, and exploding things toward victory.

It’s not hard, viewing ‘The Plan,’ to see the ‘Battlestar Galactica’ story to be an allegory for our modern world, Cylons as Arabs trying to figure out just where the Middle East is, consistently employing the same sort of tactics, which never seem to amount to much. One serves as a voice, and a useful central figure, and his dual death at the end, if not at the climax of the whole story, a worthy end point for this one.