The Sci-Fi Cast

When The Plan was announced at the end of Battlestar Galactica’s run, I feared that it would be a lame attempt to recapture the glory of the series (see “After M*A*S*H“). Now that the teaser trailer is out, I’m starting to get excited about it. There are references to several episodes in the brief clip which need a thorough examination.

One thing is clear: Cavil was behind everything. The genocide, the plot’s shocking moments, the works. In Kobol’s Last Gleaming, Boomer shoots Adama twice in the chest. Ultimately he survives. In the trailer, we see Cavil reprimanding her for botching the job and not shooting him in the head. We can only assume that took place after she was assassinated by Cally and resurrected on the base ship.

Later, we see Cavil and Six conspiring to discredit Baltar’s Cylon Detector. As you’ll remember, the test required plutonium, which Six suggested be taken from one of the Galactica’s nuclear warheads in the episode Bastille Day. Baltar estimated that it would take over 60 years to test the whole fleet (numbering almost 50,000 people at the time) in the episode Tigh Me Up, Tigh Me Down. Plus, it supposedly produced a false negative on Boomer, so it was indeed discredited.

In another scene, Cavil is telling a battered Ellen that the cylons will attack the fleet at 33-minute intervals, which was the premise of one of our favorite episodes, “33.” Speaking of Ellen, we even see Saul (with both eyes intact) debating the ethics of killing Ellen. “Some would call that murder,” he says to Cavil. Of course, Saul goes through with it in the episode Exodous, Pt. 1.

In season one, Doral stormed the Galactica with a suicide vest, posing as a reporter. In the Plan clip, we see Cavil handing him that vest.

After viewing the trailer and seeing the familiar stories from a new perspective, I’m hopeful that The Plan will avoid being gimmicky and offer a compelling look at the collection of stories we’ve come to know as the genocide of humanity. Edward James Olmos directed, and we know he has a deep affection for these characters. Here’s to November.

* “Zaprudering” is a neologism derived from the Zapruder film, the amateur 8mm film that is the only known visual record of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. It’s used here to indicate painstaking analysis of the trailer.