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Welcome to How to Spend $20, BOP's look at the latest Blu-ray discs and DVDs to hit stores nationwide. This week: Cylons expose their Plan, Ice Age goes Jurassic and one movie proves why adoptions are sometimes a bad idea.

Pick of the Week

For people who wouldn't consider themselves completely sold on the BSG spinoff, Caprica: Battlestar Galactica: The Plan

The Cylons were created by man. They rebelled. They evolved. They look and feel human. Some are programmed to think they are human. There are many copies. And they have a plan.

From the beginning of Battlestar Galactica's return to television in 2004, this was the crawl that aired prior to each episode. It was the creative team's way of promising the audience that if they invested in the show, there would be a payoff in the end, an explanation of everything that came to pass. Over the course of the series' 75 episode run, there were any number of revelations that explained much of the back story. By the time No Exit, the 70th episode, had finished, few questions remained for the viewer. At least, that was the outward perception. Members of the cast were already promising that a tele-movie had been planned that would force reconsideration of that evaluation. This week, that title is released on DVD.





What is The Plan? It is intended to be the corollary to the television series. Most of what we saw was shown from the point of view of humans or at least Cylons who thought they were human. On only a few occasions were self-aware Cylons driving the action. The movie rearranges that formula, focusing on the chain of events we have already experienced but from the perspective of a pair of Cylons. The One and Six models drive the story here, with Dean Stockwell and Tricia Helfer's characters demonstrating once and for all whether they were evil or unfairly maligned. In the case of Stockwell's Ones, the answer is probably the former. Helfer's Sixes are a tougher read with their behavior oftentimes inscrutable. One of the big selling points of The Plan is that the actions of a Six named Shelly Godfrey will finally be explained. Since the seventh episode of the series, the one where she (semi) falsely accused Baltar of betraying his race, viewers awaited her reappearance. It is one of the few unresolved storylines from the entirety of Battlestar Galactica and a key aspect of the movie.

So pleased is Edward James Olmos with The Plan that he has promised fans of the series that they will want to watch the entire 75 episode run again after watching the movie. That news alone is reason enough to justify this purchase. Then again, any self-respecting BSG fan should have locked in on this already. It's the last new footage we will get from arguably the greatest television triumph of our era. Sure, Caprica is coming but it's Frasier following on the heels of Cheers, earlier timeframe notwithstanding. The Plan is it for Battlestar Galactica fans. Savor it, folks.

Disc includes: From Admiral to Director: Edward James Olmos and The Plan featurette, The Cyclons of The Plan featurette, The Cylon Attack featurette, Visual Effects: The Magic Behind The Plan featurette, audio commentary, deleted scenes

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