Battlestar Galactica: The Plan

Impressions before seeing it
What I had heard was basically that it was a pointless collection of flashbacks looking at some major events in the series from the Cylon point of view. Sounded worth watching, anyway.

How was it?
The above description pretty much sums it up. Some footage from the series is re-used, but we also get new stuff because, of course, we didn't see a lot of the Cylon side in earlier episodes. Though I don't know if I would necessarily say it's about the Cylons so much as it is about model #1, the arrogant and ruthless model known as Cavil. Apparently, most of what the Cylons did was all his idea, and while this final movie doesn't really give us new answers to anything, it gives us his motivations and everyone else's reactions to them, making it a good character piece. I think that, in his pride, Cavil wants to be loved without having to feel love in return, without understanding what it is, because he thinks it's a human weakness to feel it. He just wants to be God's favourite, and he wants to do it by exterminating those sinful humans because, you know, God hates all sinners and everything is a sin. I think some of this was already touched on in the series anyway, but here we get the expanded version. Again, there's no shocking revelations. Like the Lost webisodes (yes, I'm comparing this show to Lost again), or even the Ben Linus epilogue scene to some extent, it fills in blanks that weren't necessarily begging to be filled but are still interesting to see for the sake of completion.

However, and I alluded to this in the season four post, one thing has been bothering me since season one that was still not answered here. I may have to watch that episode again in case I missed something, but the circumstances under which Ellen Tigh first arrives on the Galactica were strange to me. Adama suddenly takes off in a Raptor without telling anyone where he went, comes back with Tigh's wife, then resumes his usual duties without a peep and has no interactions with her for the rest of the episode (that I can remember)? Just felt like something was missing...

Recommendation
Much better than Razor, because at least the Cylons are characters we've known the whole time, but like Razor it doesn't really add much to the series. I'd still recommend it for fans of the show, though, if only for the chance to spend a little more time with these cool characters we've come to love. The absence of President Roslin does sadden me a little, though, being one of my favourites.