Battlestar Galactica: The Plan

A film set in the universe of a television series. The narrative takes the known events from the start. The attack on the colonies and the flight that followed. The difference is this: it is told from the other side. The Cylons are machines. Those in human form live among people and they planned the attack. There are two Number Ones. The same model, the same face, the same name. One is in the fleet. Hiding aboard a ship, living among people, and required to run the plan from inside. The other stays on the planet. In the middle of the destruction, among the survivors. From there the film follows the two in parallel. The plan is simple: the sleeper agents in the fleet will activate in turn and the ship will fall from within. The plan does not work. Why is the narrative's real subject. Some of the agents, living as humans, begin genuinely to feel like humans. One attaches to a woman. Another to a child. Number One is enraged by this and intervenes one by one. What the narrative is interested in is not war but attachment: its idea is that a machine imitating a human becomes what it imitates, and that this is not a malfunction but an inevitable result. The structure is a side narrative. Scenes from the series' first two seasons are interwoven with new material and the gaps are filled. Knowing the series is therefore required. The narrative introduces no character. Edward James Olmos both directs and acts. It was made for digital release and disc; a shortened version was shown on television. Edward James Olmos, Dean Stockwell, Michael Trucco, Grace Park and Rick Worthy are in the cast. Who it is for: anyone who watched the series and is curious about the Cylon side. Who it is not for: anyone who does not know it; the film is an appendix rather than an entry and does not stand alone.