There are moments of coolness in this movie for fans, especially those of us who wanted to know more about little-used cylons like the Simon model. We get genuine character development for Simon, as well as a few versions of Cavil and sleeper agent Sharon. Writer Jane Espenson isn't always in her element with Battlestar, but she knows how to write snappy dialogue that Dean Stockwell delivers with pitch-perfect evil prissiness. (There is a great moment where Cavil snarks at a Five model for being too blendy with his fellow models by wearing the same suits, and the Five snaps, "But his jacket was burgundy. This is teal.") We also meet a hooker version of Six who is hilariously awesome.

However, I have to emphasize what I said above: This movie is only going to be cool for fans. Nobody else could possibly understand it - the story jumps around in time throughout the first and second seasons, referencing plot developments that will make no sense to anybody but a die-hard follower of the show. But fans will also quickly become impatient with the story, too. Larded with lots of old footage, "The Plan" often feels like a gussied-up clip show.

A lot of the details that are added in actually make the show even more confusing. For example, a Cavil hanging out with the rebels back on Caprica has a conversation with a Simon model that makes it seem as if both of them know that Anders is one of the final five. Which makes no sense because one of the major issues in the show was that only Cavil knew who the final five were.

We also discover that the Cylons never really had a "plan" at all - basically, Cavil just bamboozled the other models into attacking the colonies for "justice." But what he really wanted was for the final five to be killed in the attacks, and then wake up in their goo buckets having "learned a lesson" that humanity is horrible. Somehow, he thinks that just having lived among humans will have convinced the final five that humans are awful. Then they'll all apologize to him and he'll get a lot of damp hugs from his naked, gooey parents.

Unfortunately, however, the Plan goes awry because none of the final five are killed in the attacks. Plus, they haven't learned anything! They still think humans are cool. Although Ellen is on the verge of death, Cavil decides to keep her alive so that she'll eventually learn her lesson that humans suck.

Could this really have been the whole Plan? Nuke the entire human race so that the final five will resurrect and give out apologetic hugs? I feel like I need another movie just to explain what happened in this one.

However, I don't want you to think that it was all bad, because there were parts of The Plan that reminded me of what made BSG such a great show. One of the Simon models in the Fleet is given a great backstory. He's gone native, married a human, and adopted her child from a previous marriage. His wife, who works with the Chief in engineering, is a strong, interesting character - a woman who once had a job doing aerospace engineering at a top company, who now has to figure out how to make the Galactica's jalopy fighter ships run without any spare parts at all. As Cavil pushes Simon to destroy the ship where he lives, we see the Cylon torn between the family he loves and the Cylons who are his people. It's a great subplot, and could easily have been an episode during the first or second season.

Developments with Cavil's character are also pretty interesting. We see that there are two versions of Cavil who emerge after the colonies are destroyed: one who is the evil Brother we all love, and one who starts to sympathize with the humans.

In fact, the theme of "The Plan," if anything, is that the Cylon's sympathies were always divided. From the beginning, they were torn between love for humanity and rage that they had been enslaved by the creatures who created them. Even Cavil, who is revealed in this movie as pretty much the only reason the Cylons attacked the colonies, is divided in his loyalties. One of the strengths of BSG as a series was that its heroes were dark, and its villains were granted an unexpected goodness. While it doesn't exactly deepen this theme, "The Plan" certainly sticks with it.

I think "The Plan" is destined to be the kind of thing that nobody but BSG completists will want to own. It won't bring new people into the series, and even those who love the series may be disappointed. Though there are standout moments, "The Plan" essentially takes the sensibilities of the final, extremely uneven season of the show and overlays them on the events of seasons 1 and 2. That's something that most of us, especially diehard fans, didn't really want to see.

"The Plan" will be available in stores on Oct. 27.

The Plan debuts on Blu-ray and DVD on October 27th.

Iron Man 2:

The central relationship in this film is still Pepper and Tony, despite all the new stars joining the cast, director Jon Favreau tells MTV. But a lot of new stuff is added to the mix:

We introduce Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow and she has a dual identity, so that ends up affecting both the superhero side of things and the personal side of things-as I think all good superhero plotlines do... Then we have Don Cheadle. We've upped Rhodey's significance in the film and now I think the cat's out of the bag about War Machine, so he's in that suit," he said. "How does he become War Machine? What's his relationship to Iron Man?

Video at the link. [MTV via ComicBookResources]

As you might already have known, Stan Lee's cameo in this film will be as Larry King, who approaches Tony Stark and asks when he'll be on the show. Stan wore the suspenders and heavy glasses for the role. [Collider]

Predators:

Derek Mears, who recently played Jason Voorhees, will be in this film, probably as a Predator. [ShockTillYouDrop]

Priest:

Karl Urban describes this film as a "post-apocalyptic scifi vampire Western." [Collider]

The Fourth Kind:

A few new TV spots for this Milla Jovovic spooky-alien-owl thriller. [SciFiScoop]

Battlestar Galactica: The Plan:

Latino Review has a ton of pics and spoilers from this direct-to-DVD movie. The special effects are better than anything in the actual series, and we see the destruction of Caprica in much greater detail than before. There's also a ton of nudity and raunchiness, which will presumably be toned down in the televised version.

We follow two Cavils: the Cavil in the fleet, who is trying to complete the work of destroying th e human race so the Final Five will finally love the Cylons more than the humans, and the Cavil on Caprica, who starts to have second thoughts about whether the genocide against humans was really a good idea. It turns out a lot of the fleet's dilemmas in the first season were caused by Fleet Cavil. There are also multiple Sixes, including one raven-haired "floozy" who shares Cavil's bed.

Meanwhile, there are also two Simons: the Simon in the fleet is a human sympathizer, who's married to an engineer who works with Tyrol, and he tries to forestall the death of the human race. The Simon on Caprica, meanwhile, tries to sabotage Anders' resistance group, even as the Caprica Cavil starts to sympathize with these people. Also, Leoben tries to tell the other Cylons that Starbuck has a great destiny that may affect the Cylons in huge ways.

We also get more insight into Boomer, who actually realizes she's a Cylon sleeper agent earlier than we thought — Cavill gives her a trigger (a wooden elephant, I guess) that activates her programming. But even as she's carrying out Cavill's sabotage instructions, she's also trying to help the humans. And she's only really happy when she's living her human life.

All in all, Cavil starts to wonder if the Cylons' attempts at finishing off the human race are failing because the Cylons subconsciously want them to fail — all except Fleet Cavil, who's steadfast in his vendetta. More pics at the link. Warning: One of those pics is mildly NSFW, due to a very blurry naked woman in the background. [Latino Review via ComicBookMovie]

Doctor Who:

Another set report: Matt Smith, dressed in the tattered remains of David Tennant's costume, filmed a scene where the old TARDIS prop materialized, with tons of smoke pouring out of it, and Smith ran out, shouting that he had to get away. [GallifreyBase]

Lost:

Episode 6x05 will be called "Lighthouse." [Spoilers-Lost]

According to an Egyptologist, the hieroglyphics in the new season-six poster say "Who Is The Leader?" or "Who Is The Guide?" [Popular Mechanics]

Carlton Cuse twittered that they were doing a beautiful crane shot (probably in episode five) and at one point, Matthew Fox does some fine and subtle acting under the tropical night skies. [SpoilersLost]

And a bit more about episode five, which sounds like it's a Jack-centric outing. They were filming a scene at night in front of what looks like a concert hall, and Jack had a big scene — but I can't make out who's in the scene with him. Maybe Ben? Most of the set report is about how the tipsters tried to talk to Matthew Fox and he blew them off. But a familiar vehicle is present. More pics at the link. [Spencer-Stacy via Lyly Ford]

Also, sources claim we'll see Cindy again in the opening episode, as two characters open something of Hurley's. One of them has a connection to the Yellow Submarine. [SpoilersLost]

V:

The second episode will be called "There Is No More Normal Anymore." And here are a couple more TV spots. [VisitorSite]

Fringe:

In the Nov. 5 episode, "Earthling," someone (or something) is turning people to ash. And here are some pics from the episode. [Fox]

In an upcoming episode, we'll learn a lot more about the Observer, says actor Michael Cerveris:

We're going to learn about just how many there are and a lot more about what we're supposed to do and what we're not supposed to do.

[Slice Of SciFi]

Supernatural:

Some more pics of Sam and Dean in their scrubs, from the upcoming channel-surfing episode "Changing Channels." [Ten Gossip]

Episode 11 will be called "Sam, Interrupted," and will introduce two new characters, whom the show is casting:

[MARTIN CREASER] A weathered man in his late 40s-mid 50s, this twitchy, anxious ball of nerves is a former hunter who has ended up in a psych ward, where strange happenings are afoot...ANY ETHNICITY/GUEST STAR

[DR. ERICA FLETCHER] A beautiful, smart, credible psychiatrist in her 30s with a sweetly sympathetic manner who seems to understand Dean's conflict and pains...ANY ETHNICITY - GUEST STAR

[SpoilerTV]

Stargate Universe:

Here are a ton of pics from episode five, "Light." Including some supernova nookie. [SpoilerTV]

True Blood:

Season two's theme was about religion and the things it makes you do. Season three will be about embracing your identity. Sookie will start to discover why she has these strange powers — in the books, she finds out she has fairy blood, but in the TV show, it may be different. In any case, Sookie is part of another race, and if it does turn out to be fairies, they'll be fierce and primal, not like Tinkerbell. Sookie and Eric will get together at some point, but not necessarily in season three. We'll meet some shapeshifters who may be Sam's biological family, and they may be sketchy weirdos. [TV Guide]

Additional reporting by Alexis Brown.

The new press release describes "The Plan" as a 90-minute feature, but we're guessing that's just the length of the shorter televised version. Amazon is listing the DVD release as 112 minutes long, meaning we'll hopefully get to see a lot more tangled Cylon sex and politics. (And given how racy the Caprica DVD was, this could be pretty strong stuff.)

Here's the official synopsis:

The Cylons began as humanity's robot servants. They rebelled and evolved and now they look like us. Their plan is simple: destroy the race that enslaved them. But when their devastating attack leaves human survivors, the Cylons have to improvise. Battlestar Galatica: The Plan tells the story of two powerful Cylon leaders, working separately, and their determination to finish the task.

The DVDs will include:

BATTLESTAR GALACTICA: THE PLAN - BONUS FEATURES

Battlestar Galactica: The Plan on Blu-rayTM Hi-Def and DVD takes viewers deeper into the acclaimed space drama with exclusive bonus features, including:

EXCLUSIVE TO Blu-rayTM Hi-Def:

* BD-LIVETM: Access the BD-LiveTM Center through your Internet-connected player to download more exclusive content, the latest trailers and more!
o MY SCENES: Bookmark your favorite scenes from the movie.
o BATTLESTAR GALACTICA TRIVIA: All-new trivia game.

BONUS FEATURES (BLU-RAY™ HI-DEF and DVD):

· DELETED SCENES

· FROM ADMIRAL TO DIRECTOR: EDWARD JAMES OLMOS AND THE PLAN – A day-in-the-life with director and actor Edward James Olmos, as he tackles the most ambitious Battlestar Galactica production to date.

· THE CYLONS OF THE PLAN – Features interviews with the actors who play the film's key Cylons, including Dean Stockwell, Tricia Helfer, Grace Park, Michael Trucco, Rick Worthy and Michael Bennett.

· THE CYLON ATTACK – This featurette takes viewers behind the scenes for the planning and execution of one of Battlestar Galactica: The Plan's major action sequences.

· BEHIND THE PLAN - An in-depth look at some stunning visual effects and the role post-production plays in bringing the world of Battlestar Galactica to life.

· FILMMAKER COMMENTARY

Battlestar Galactica: The Plan debuts on Blu-rayTM Hi-Def and DVD on October 27.

And here's a clip!

Lost:

Add another name to the pile of actors potentially returning to Lost. Heroes' Greg Grunberg got a call about returning as Oceanic flight 815 pilot Seth Norris, but has no idea what the producers have planned. [TV Guide]

Heroes:

Two promos feature Sylar and Claire (US only, unfortunately):

And the whole cast talked to E! about their roles in the coming season. Adrian Pasdar says of the relationship between Sylar-Nathan and Parkman:

The whole premise of Zachary [Quinto], myself and Greg [Grunberg] having an interesting triangle of behavior. In the process of Matt crushing Sylar and having my body become his, Sylar entered Matt, so there's a soul that's missing in me. It's my own Nathan behavior that's manifesting itself through Sylar. There's a triangle that makes itself clear by the third episode.

Greg Grunberg elaborates:

When I did the mind transfer, it didn't go clean. Some of him stayed in me and he needs me. He's looking for his body, he needs his body back and he'll do anything to do that, including kidnapping my son...He's kind of hanging around in my subconscious, making me do things that I don't want to do. I have to catch myself. I can't get rid of him, so I decide to ignore him. But you can't ignore Sylar for very long.

Pasdar also says that the other characters will learn the truth about Nathan and Sylar soon enough:

I think it's clear from the outset of season four that something is going on, least of all to Nathan. He doesn't become aware of it. I think he's a step behind the audience. There's just a split second for him in terms of understanding where he's going and what might be wrong. He catches up though.

And Hayden Panettiere delved a bit more into Claire's girl-on-girl interlude:

It's a very interesting relationship. She hasn't really had a relationship with someone that close-as a friend or anything else-since first season with her friend Zach. So it's a relationship I think that people are going to love and love to see us together. It's a very interesting dynamic between the two of them...She gets a friend, a confidant, somebody she can confide in and not be alone with her secret and just be herself, somebody to help her along and be her buddy and her pal.

And what about the Carnival? Panettiere explains:

Carnival is the opposite of what the Company was. The Company wanted to hide us and our abilities. They wanted to keep it under wraps. The Carnival is the opposite where they want people to know about it.

But Grunberg notes there will be plenty of ambiguity:

Just when you think it's safe, it's not. Just when you think it's evil, it turns out that we need them more than they need us

As for the dynamic duo of Hiro and Ando, James Kyson Lee describes their upcoming business venture:

Ando and Hiro are going to start up a new business venture. It's going to keep us busy. Sept. 21 you will see a huge billboard. I am for hire, romance for hire.

But all is not well in Ando and Hiro land, James continues, because Hiro's days are, for the time being, numbered:

Hiro has a bucket list because he's dying. Ando is trying to change that, but we'll see. There's a whole theme of 'Can you really mess with fate?' in our show. Sometimes you can change history, sometimes you can't.

[E! Online]

Battlestar Galactica: The Plan:

The box art for The Plan DVD has been released, along with the official synopsis:

Battlestar Galactica: The Plan: The Cylons began as humanity's robot servants. They rebelled, and evolved, and now they look like us. Their plan is simple: destroy the race that enslaved them. But when their devastating attack leaves human survivors, the Cylons have to improvise. Battlestar Galactica: The Plan tells the story of two powerful Cylon leaders, working separately, and their determination to finish the task.

[Galactica Siterep]

Cirque du Freak:

New promo stills show off the amazing vampire powers of John C. Reilly's hair:



[IGN]

The Book of Eli:

Crave online talks to the Hughes brothers about their post-apocalyptic universe, describing the consequences of a natural ecological disaster:

Allen Hughes: If it was a super volcano. They all, basically, the same thing would happen 30 years after. The atmosphere will look a certain way. There'd be a certain color to the sky. There'd be a certain kind of decomposition of the landscape so we could put that, coupled with what Albert's talking about.

Albert Hughes: Right now, what's in the teaser is not [everything]. When the normal trailer comes out, you'll see more of the world. There's no vegetation.

They talk about their survivors scavenging for supplies, and mention that Eli notes, "We kill people for what we used to throw away." But Allen Hughes notes the characters, not the post-apocalyptic setting, are central to the film:

It is about humans, whether it's Gary, Mila's character, they all are survivors. They are survivors. I think the bottom line is that's why the western comes up, because when you take advantage of more primitive times, true character starts to show through. When you put people in that element, you start to see the conflict is there a lot more. It's a hotbed for drama. Our piece is very dramatic. I mean, there's action or whatever but we start with character and that conflict. It's survival.

[Crave Online]

Fringe:

Executive producer J.H. Wyman teased the September 17 departure of Kirk Acevedo's character Charlie:

That is going to be a continuing storyline throughout the season. It should thrill. Nobody ever really disappears, and they could come back at any time. There is a parallel universe. Maybe [Charlie] will show up [there]. I think a lot of the answers you're looking for will be clear in [episodes] two and three and four. You'll really enjoy it.

When asked about the possibility of romance between Olivia and Peter, showrunner Jeff Pinker replied:

As long as the emotion is true, we're open to anything.

Which I take to mean, don't get your 'shipping hopes up any time soon. Oh, and Anna Torv just ate mushed up worms on set. [E! Online]

Pinker reiterated that there will be only one alternate universe, and said that most of the action will take place "over there." Leonard Nimoy has already filmed one episode for the second season as the alternate dimension-dwelling William Bell, and will be filming several more. Says Wyman:

He will appear on the show as much as he wants to.

[TV Guide]

Plus, new press release goodness:

Each episode of the sophomore season promises to uncover more about the larger threat and while some questions will be answered, new ones will surface. The intensity accelerates as Season Two opens with Olivia's shocking return to this reality, and a determined Peter, unknowingly in a race against time with an ominous mobile force, pursues information about Olivia's blurred and perplexing visit to the alternate reality. Meanwhile, Walter reenters the lab to cook up a bit of fringe science, and of course, some custard for someone's birthday.

[Spoiler TV]

True Blood:

Two clips have surfaced from what looks to be next week's episode. First, Eric tries to rescue Sookie from the Fellowship of the Sun lock-in:

Then the police question Sam after finding Daphne's body in his fridge:

The Lovely Bones:

New promo images for The Lovely Bones, mostly straight out of the trailer.

[IGN]

Chuck:

Yvonne Strahovski elaborated a bit on Sarah Walker's relationship with Chuck in the coming season:

At the end of season two, we saw him download that new intersect. Sarah Walker is going to be a little less than impressed by it because we all saw she was letting herself go more and falling into the relationship with Chuck and putting aside the work side of things. So it's a little disappointing for her.

And, on the season in general:

There's going to be love and romance, but a little bit of heartbreak, maybe some rejection, some guns and some action...We're going to discover how the mechanism works inside Chuck's head. We're going to see just how good it is.

[E! Online]

Here's a casting call for the season's second episode, "Chuck Versus the Three Words:"

[KURT STROMBERG] (30-45). A powerful, brick of a man. Eyes void of any feeling. He is a dangerous arms-dealer but he has a soft spot for the love of his life, Carina (Mini Anden). Whenever he gets around her, he becomes a lovable teddy bear.

[Spoiler TV]

Eureka:

It's goo and electrodes in images from the fifteenth episode "Shower the People:"



[Spoiler TV]

Day One:

Ain't It Cool News has gotten a hold of the pilot script for NBC's alien invasion drama, and shared a few details:

Massive meteorite-like projectiles come crashing into the Earth from all around the planet. The projectiles then melt, reform and shoot out of the ground, beanstalk-like, to form bizarre towers twice the length of the tallest man-made skyscraper. A circuit-frying electro-magnetic pulse knocks out all electronics and communications, "War of the Worlds"-style.

The key to combating the aliens, strangely, may lie with the series' main characters, all of them unknowing residents of a small Van Nuys, Calif., apartment complex. One's a doctor (latter-day "Veronica Mars" vet Julie Gonzalo). Another's a war vet just back from Iraq (latter-day "ER" vet David Lyons). Two more are the world's best-looking computer geeks ("24" vet Carly Pope and "Harper's Island" vet Adam Campbell). A reclusive resident of the complex named Lynne (she's the bespectacled young woman seen at the end of the trailer below) appears to have been secretly manipulating her fellow tenants without their knowledge in anticipation of the threat. Some key dialogue:

TENANT: So you knew this was coming?

LYNNE: It's all happened before.

Later we see Lynne talking to a non-tenant named Hugh, another fellow who seems to know too much. He tells Lynne she needs to cut and run.

HUGH: Your people haven't been trained, Lynne. You won't get them working together in time. (beat) We'll try again. Somewhere else. But not here. It's too late.

Some time ago we asked Alexander if Lynne would be revealed to be a time-traveler in episode two; he replied emphatically in the negative. (We also asked if, while Alexander was working on "Lost's" first season, he knew that Hurley would be spending a good chunk of season five in 1977. His response: "Fuck no!" So somebody should someday ask Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse the same question!)

[AICN]

Defying Gravity:

Our astronauts boldly venture into a strip club in Sunday's episode "Threshold:"

And Spoiler TV has three more non-embeddable clips from the same episode.

Sanctuary:

The season two trailer is out, revealing a few details about the second season. It looks like the Sanctuary is getting a new beautiful badass (perhaps to replace the AWOL Ashley?), Will's struck up a relationship with invisible woman Clara Griffin, and vampiric Nikola Tesla is still hanging around.

So the BSG TV movie, "The Plan," is airing some time this fall, and it retraces the first two seasons of the show from the point of view of the Cylons. And, we've been hearing, the Machiavellian Brother Cavil will take center stage. So we asked Park if we'll come away from "The Plan" with a greater understanding of her character's sudden love affair with Cavil in BSG season four. She says yes:

Are we going to understand more about Cavil and Boomer's relationship? Yes, we are... It's kind of fun because it would get scripted one way, and then Eddie (James Olmos) would have us do something in the middle of it, and it would kind of change it, so it would either make it more intimate or creepier... It's not a normal relationship at all. And I don't think she understands it fully herself. What's really cool about is that because you have the seeds planted way back then, you realize... it makes way more sense later on why she's with him. She kind of inexplicably is drawn to him again, and they're a couple again.

And she says the TV movie explains a lot of stuff that we never really saw about Boomer, including how she got into the position she was in. Boomer never really knew that stuff, so we, the viewer, never knew either. At the time, she had come up with her own explanations, in her own head, for that stuff. But now she's learning that the official explanation is something different, and she's having to revise her own internal version of events.

She also says that it was really "quick and dirty" when Athena shot Boomer. She knew it was coming, and yet it was still shocking when she filmed it from both sides. "To me, that's really good storytelling."

We also talked to writer Jane Espenson about how this TV movie makes us see Cavil in a new way:

It's not until fairly late in the series that we start seeing Cavil as a pivotal villain among the Cylons. He turns out to be the one who erased the Final Fives' memories and left them on Caprica to live through the genocide, and he's the one who wants to enslave the Centurions and exterminate the humans. The sudden Cavil-centric villainy at the show's end feels a bit surprising. So will we discover in the TV movie just how important Cavil was all along?

Says Espenson:

This is going back and saying, "Okay, if Cavil is such a big villain, what was he doing during seasons one and two of Battlestar Galactica?"... He was up to something. He had found himself in this situation where they didn't think they needed a plan, because the plan was "Everybody dies." And now he's got to make it up as he goes along.

And we talked to director Edward James Olmos, who said William Adama isn't really in the TV movie that much. And he says it was "fantastic" to go back and relive the moments from the early years of the show, because he could paint with a fantastic pallette. "It took me eight months to edit it." And he says we'll realize how bad things really were, in those dark early years. And Olmos really believes that more BSG TV movies are inevitable — if we can sell half a million units of "The Plan." You'll do your part, right?

When asked whether he thought The Plan would be the last we've seen of BSG, Olmos was adamant that there will be another film:

As a matter of fact, I've got to tell you right now. Because of you all, what you're doing, because of the love for that world...I can guarantee that this will not be the last movie.

Olmos told the press roundtables he believes the "Plan" DVD will sell so well, the economics will guarantee more movies. Plural. And he notes that they photographed the Galactica sets in insane detail, so they can recreate them digitally any time they want.

So what could the next Battlestar Galactica hold? When one fan noted that Bill Adama is still alive at the end of the series, Olmos half joked that he'd considered Adama's further adventures on Earth:

In fact, I've got the entire script around them. I know exactly what happened to him. Let me put it to you this way: when we next see Adama, it will be in a very rustic log cabin and there will be a knock at the door and it will be his old friend Colonial Tigh saying, "We have a problem."

And then there's Olmos' idea for BSG/Bladerunner mash-up:

If you watch the series from the beginning, the miniseries to the end. The last thing that David wrote, Trisha, Number Six, says, "This has all happened before and it will happen again." And Baltar says, "Maybe it won't. Maybe we'll learn." At that very moment, I want to put Blade Runner in, and you'll see a direct descendant of Adama take on the Replicants.

While it's unlikely that either idea will make it to the screen, it's clear that the gears are turning in Olmos' head for a new BSG project. and at the press roundtables for "The Plan," Olmos elaborated on his idea that BSG is really a prequel to Blade Runner — making Caprica a prequel to a prequel. The ending of BSG "led right into Blade Runner like a glove." When you've watched the full run of both Caprica and BSG, "you're going to be able to lay it down and it runs into Blade Runner."

So what's going on in "The Plan?" Olmos says it started out feeling like a clip show, but then they pounded on the script until it became a coherent story that will take your breath away and make you want to watch the whole show from the beginning, all over again. He made sure your pressing questions were answered — including one question that nobody had thought to answer originally: Who put that note on Adama's desk? We'll discover the truth at last.

We also got a chance to talk to Ronald D. Moore in the press roundtables, and we asked him about Cavil — it felt like Cavil suddenly became the main villain of BSG in its final episodes. Will "The Plan" finally show us how Cavil was the main villain of the piece all along? That was part of the reason, says Moore:

We were looking for a point of view of to do in "The Plan," with the concept of doing the Cylon point of view on the first couple of years. He was a natural fit to do that with, [and it] helped solidify his mposition in the mythology of the show.

Battlestar Galactica: The Plan airs this Fall on Syfy. [L.A. Times]

When Colonel Tigh [Michael Hogan] joined President Roslin [Mary McDonnell] on stage, the crowd went wild, naturally. It had been too long since we'd seen them both. Hogan filled in the non-BSG fans with his version of the series "It's about an Executive Officer who faces the end of the human race and how he deals with it." But meanwhile, it was so good to hear Mary make airlock jokes again — and it turns out she's being credited with making airlock a verb, and rightly so.

The two BSG stars joined Nick Bostrom, one of the co-founders of the World Transhumanist Association and Director of the Future of Humanity Institute at Oxford and Hod Lipson, evolutionary robotics scientist. As well as Kevin Warwick a Professor of Cybernetics at the University of Reading, England.

Together after talking a little BSG with the cast, the conversation turned robot-heavy. And as you might have guessed, we're all doomed. First off, they hit up the stem-cell debate, discussing how Hera's stem cells saved the President from the brink of death and how that episode, "Epiphanies," was crafted to get people talking about stem cell research.

Each scientist showed off the latest robotic wares. Hod Lipson screened a video of a robot that leaned how to become self-aware of its own legs and creepily, over time, learned how to flail itself into a walk. And then, when they ripped off one of it's legs, it limped. A chill swept throughout the audience, and that was just the beginning. Hod went on to talk about how they no longer program robots to think or do tasks, the robots learn how to think basically for themselves, and are slowly becoming self-aware. Here's some of the video footage from the night, which Hod had shown in a previous lecture as well:

Kevin Warwick, meanwhile, is a real cyborg: he's implanted a chip into his brain, so he could put his nervous system on the Internet. The chip also allows him to communicate to his wife via neurosignals, becuase she's also implanted. Besides trying to persuade the audience to upgraide their "simple 5 senses," he's a cyborg pretty intent on letting us all know that we're doomed, Skynet style. "You won't be able to switch it off if it [the robot in question] gets too scary. Think of the internet, it's everywhere. You cannot simply switch that off." Then he remarked that it would be pretty naive if we thought we could switch off a superior intelligence, if it ever goes that far.

Here's Warwick, showing off his many cyborg parts:

There were quite a few entertaining fights over government regulated science in the AI industry — Nick Bostrom and Warwick were decidedly against it while Warwick thought it should be regulated, but in an open sense. Then the really scary shit hit the fan. During the talk about military robotics one specialist remarked, "By 2020, the goal is to have no body bags." And then Bostrom explained that while he is one of two scientists working on a "friendly AI" — let's hear it for the three laws — he only spends a fraction of his time on it, and perhaps he should spend more.

Then as if we all weren't spooked enough, they screened a never before seen clip from the new BSG TV movie, The Plan.

We've all seen the Ellen and Cavil scene, but at this event they screened a Boomer and Cavil Plan clip. In it Cavil is with Boomer after she's been locked up for defecting and shooting Adama two times in the chest. He's actually scolding her for not shooting him "two times in the head." In the cell, Boomer reveals to Cavil that she's not in control and that in order to shoot the old man she sort of had to download a centurion inside of her. She remarked that she could feel her skin getting hard and that she couldn't feel her heart beat. To which Cavil responds, "that sounds wonderful." Oh Cavil, you self-hating minx.

I gotta say, it looked good. Maybe it's the crappy summer TV, but I was intrigued especially now that we know that Boomer can become a Centurion, which makes total sense in hindsight. They've got me.

Talking to Moviehole, Hatch suggests that whoever ends up making the BSG movie reboot should take a page from JJ Abrams' playbook:

[They s]hould go further back like Star Trek [where it] was still the characters we love, but they went back twenty...thirty... years to when they were just kids. But with Battlestar, they're just going to go back to the same timeframe we saw in the series' and recast those roles. I don't think Star Trek would've been successful if they had recast the Star Trek characters at the same age as they were in the previous films. By going back, it gave that film a window so fans could expect a change of cast... I recently saw the original Battlestar movie on the IMAX screen, as part of the 25th anniversary convention, and let me tell you, it was born for the IMAX! Even with the bad matte paintings on the original, it still looked amazing on the big screen! If they did it today, a full-blown movie of Battlestar, I think it would be amazing... so long as whoever does it understands the characters, the heart & soul, and mythology of it. I just hope they really get it.

But that's not all that Hatch was talking about; as well as suggesting that Ron Moore's version of the franchise may continue past The Plan TV movie ("It's never the end if fans want more. It's a money game. If they realize people want more, believe me, they'll make more of them - they did it with Babylon 5, and a number of other sci-fi shows"), he also offered up his takes on a couple of this summer's sci-fi movies. For example, he didn't really dig Terminator Salvation:

If I was an actor of Christian Bale's calibre, would you not look at that script and say ‘there's something wrong here'? ...I don't understand why Bale wanted to play Connor. What they should've done is make the focus the John Connor character Or make the focus the John Connor character and the Marcus character. Why did Christian Bale do this movie!?
He had similar misgivings about X-Men Origins: Wolverine:

The trailer looked great, but the movie just didn't work. When you get someone that gets the story, and the characters, of something it's rare. What's happening with these big franchises is that some very talented actors and writers are being hired but they mightn't be right for this particular story. Films are made for all the wrong reasons sometimes.

If you somehow don't end up with a cameo on the next version of Battlestar Galactica, Richard, you should look into movie criticism... The world could always do with some more bitter, disillusioned critics.

Hatch On Galactica Movie [Moviehole]

Popularizing The Word "Frak"
Yes, yes. It's like "fuck" but in space. We get it already. "Frak" has become nerd cliche by this point, overused to the point of becoming annoying, especially on non-nerdy TV shows when they want to drop a little geekage for one of their characters. Like all good TV show catchphrases - and that's really what this one was - it's had it's day, and it's time to slowly let it slink into the shadows at least until Caprica.

Being Treated As Art With The Self-Conscious Capital A
The one sour note in the finale? That would've been the epilogue, where AngelSix and AngelBaltar practically looked into the camera and said "It's not just science fiction, do you see? It's actually about the real world!" before we get Jimi and the robot clip show. Galactica has always had a tendency to get its pretension on, and that's one of the things that made it so wonderfully ambitious... but along the way, everyone else started getting very indulgent of that pretension. Yes, it transcended its SF roots to become a human drama that anyone could enjoy, but the self-congratulatory SciFi Channel specials? A little bit too much, even for self-promotion. And don't get me started on the UN thing.

That Music
Yes, people may have had a problem with the use of "All Along The Watchtower," but that's not the music I'm talking about here. Bear McCreary is a fine composer whose work on the first couple of seasons of the show (and, for that matter, on Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles and Eureka) was amazing. But as his work got more ambitious on BSG, it also started to overpower some of the scenes, or just take the viewer out of them altogether with unexpected touches (All I'm saying is this: Bagpipes are never a good idea. Especially digital bagpipes). Although he managed to keep things under control in the finale, I dread to think where he would've gone if the show had continued for a fifth or sixth season.

Lee Adama In General
Where to start? With the way that his character never really gelled in any particular direction (even when that direction was "directionless")? Or how about the weird lack of purpose that he served in the show all along (Was there ever really an Apollo-centric story arc that didn't feel tacked on to some other plot?), or Jamie Bamber's performance that regularly mistook frowning for emotion? But, no; I'd rather talk about the lasting impression that I'll have of Lee Adama from the finale: His giant, giant hair. You can tell the true impact of a character when the thing that he'll really be remembered for is that he was fat for a bit during the show's third season, and it was this spirit of style-over-substance that must have led Bamber and the show's creators to send Apollo off with a hairstyle that can only have been a tribute to the late '70s era that spawned the original show in the first place. Not for nothing was he one of the few characters who didn't really have any kind of dramatic moment in the series finale; anything else might have made you suspect that he was there for some reason other than to look good. Dualla could've done so much better.

Battlestar Galactica
Okay, this is slightly unfair; I thought BSG was a wonderful show, despite all of the above, one that engaged my heart and my mind and poked and prodded in all the right ways, questioning and exciting and entertaining (if you can use that word for such a constantly depressing, pessimistic show) at all times. But if there's one thing that the finale accomplished, it was finishing the story. By the time it was done, I felt as if everything that needed to be said had been said, and said beautifully... and then there was the trailer for Battlestar Galactica: The Plan (and, for that matter, the trailer for Caprica). Maybe it's just me, but I don't think that the show needs an epilogue or a prequel spin-off, and the fact that it's getting both just feels more than a little like SciFi can't say goodbye to such a successful show, and have no problem with a little bit of graverobbing to try and keep the good thing going a little longer than it should. I'd love to miss Battlestar Galactica; I just don't feel as if I'm going to get the chance, sadly.

Talking to SciFi Wire about the second spin-off movie from the hit show - following last year's Razor - Espenson said,

The events of The Plan are the events that you've seen ... in the show, from the miniseries to almost the end of season two, [so] it's that chunk of time, but sort of seen with the Cylon perspective. So you're going to see a lot of stuff that was going on that you weren't aware of at the time: on Caprica, in the fleet... A lot of loose ends are tied up, a lot of questions are asked that you don't even know you have.

Questions are asked that we don't even know we have? Not answered? She continues to be coy about the movie's perspective with this weird tease:

If you had a copy now, you might feel that you could go ahead and watch it, because it's about stuff that already happened... But don't do it. Of course, you don't have a copy now, because there isn't even a cut yet. ... But it's very much designed to be watched after the run of the series, because it definitely relies on stuff you don't learn until much later.

So it doesn't spoil any of the upcoming final episodes to the series proper, but it's meant to be watched afterwards because it relies on things that we don't know...? I'm confused. Maybe you could come up with something that isn't so ambiguous to sell us on the movie, Jane?

[We] made a ton of [script] changes in the preproduction phase and ended up with a really tight script that we filmed sort of as they were demolishing the sets out from under us. And [we] ended up with something that I think is so much better than our highest hopes had been for what this movie could be. It really sort of caps off the show.

That's exactly what I was looking for! The Plan is expected to be broadcast in the second half of 2009.

Battlestar: The Plan Secrets Teased! [SciFi Wire]

Scene one: Simon (the Cylon doctor) is sharing a cabin on Galactica with someone named Diana, who's a deckhand. (My money here is on Diana Seelix, who was a deckhand before she became a pilot.) Diana is complaining about how Chief Tyrol made her check Starbuck's Raptor. And Simon tells her there's more to life than duty, and she should live a little, since she's seen how everything comes to an end. Simon tries to get Diana to dance with him, and she asks if he's drunk. And then Simon accidentally wakes up their baby. (Simon and Seelix have a baby? OMG!)

Scene two: Anders meets up with Brother Cavil, shortly after becoming the leader of the resistance on Caprica. Anders confesses that he hates being a fighter and doesn't know what he's doing — he's borrowed battle tactics from a movie he saw once. His resistance fighters saved this Cavil model, not realizing Cavil's a Cylon. Cavil tries to soothe Anders, but also tries to convince him that he should forgive the Cylons.

Scene three: Cavil meets a drunk Ellen Tigh in a strip club, shortly before the Cylon attacks. She hits on him, and he reciprocates. She complains about Saul, whom she's decided to divorce. At first she thinks Cavil is nothing like Saul, but then she decides Cavil is just like Saul after all. Cavil is just trying to get closer to Ellen, when the bombs start going off. Cavil says, "This was a bit premature." (And there's a hint that Cavil had something to do with getting Ellen on a ship to safety.)

So... the TV movie is supposedly about the Cylons' point of view on the events of BSG, and how they adapted to the fact that humans survived the attacks. I can't help wondering if this means either Seelix or Ellen is a Cylon. Also, what happened to Simon and Diana's baby, which is either half-Cylon or full Cylon? [Thanks to MelancholyGeek]