As with several other sci-fi franchises before, it would seem that “The End” was not the end for Battlestar Galactica. The new direct-to-DVD movie (to be aired on Sy-Fy and Space sometime next year) continues the legend as in it goes back to recount the events of the first two years of the series from the point of view of the Cylons. If you choose The Plan to be the springboard to which you finally get into Galactica, let me just say that I’ve heard better ideas. This is a mythology heavy story that’s kind of a prequel, but really just shows events either staged or discussed from the point of view of other characters. As with all things BSG, I have a feeling this will be controversial.

Unlike Razor, the last Battlestar Galactica movie, The Plan is not a standalone story that happened at a previously unknown point of Galactica lore. Ultimately, I always end up comparing these kinds of projects to the first Babylon 5 TV movie that was made after the series was bought by cable station TNT, In the Beginning. In the Beginning showed events from the Earth-Mimbari War which took place 10 years before the start of the series. The story was made up of mostly reused clips from elements of the history shown in the previous four years of the series, plus some new scenes written just for the movie. In the end, I’d say it was half and half, but that didn’t necessarily mean you got a whole movie out of putting the two together.

The Plan suffers the same problem, but on a much more limited scale. However, there’s a lot of back-up and do-over in the film. Like how Boomer (Grace Park) received instructions while she was a sleeper agent during the first season. How Anders’ (Michael Trucco) pyramid team ended up become resistance fighters in the Caprican woods. How the Six (Tricia Helfer) that tried to rightfully frame Baltar (James Callis) for allowing the Cylons access to the colonies’ defenses was able to sneak off Galactica in “Six Degrees of Separation.” Almost all the Cylon characters, with the exception of Tigh (Michael Hogan) and D’anna (Lucy Lawless) get some kind of new dimension added to them.

But really, The Plan is a showcase for Dean Stockwell’s Brother Cavil. Not only do you get one Cavil for your money, you get two. There’s the Cavil that found himself part of Anders’ resistance on Caprica (and quite wily of him the way he got into it mind you) and the Cavil that posed as a priest on Galactica, and secretly marshalled the other rogue Cylon agents in the fleet. There’s just something so deliciously evil about Cavil. The way he squints, the hunched over fashion in which he walks, his cutting and often painfully personal remarks at the expense of anyone that doesn’t agree with him. In every scene Stockwell is brilliant. Helfer’s pretty good too playing more Six’s per capita than any other two hours in Galactica’s history.

I recall that The Plan’s director, and series star, Edward James Olmos said that after watching this film that fans will be compelled to go back and re-watch the first and second season of the series with new eyes. I’ve got to tell you that there is actually some truth in that watching The Plan, but mostly, it’s the things that are not in it that get to you the most. And it’s kind of a let down that the highly vaunted ‘Plan’ often referred to in the series, the one that the Cylons had, is basically tantamount to an improvised response to The Plan’s failure. It does take some of the looming idea that the Cylons knew what they’re doing all along out of the equation. Of course one must keep in mind that this whole series wasn’t plotted beginning to end from the start, so playing like it was is almost silly. At the very least, this was a bittersweet way to leave the end of the series, and say what you want about “Daybreak,” but it at least had a creative punch that this was lacking.