“The Cylons were created by man. They rebelled. They evolved. There are many copies. And they have a plan.” - from the opening credits of the 2004 Battlestar Galactica
In the opening credits of Battlestar Galactica’s 2004 reinvention, we were teased with the villain’s sinister plan. As the series progressed, the increasingly layered portrayal of the Cylons moved the concept of their plan to the background. We met factions of Cylons, characters whose Cylon nature was hidden from them, religious conceits, all expressed through the murderous children of the human race. The Plan, which even received its own stand-alone movie, was clearly a first draft idea, meant to be filled in later, a blank in the narrative Mad Libs. While Ronald D. Moore and company eventually did give us some explanation for The Plan, it was never as interesting as the cosmic, exhausting, spiritual wildstorm that grew out of those early episodes. The Plan, essentially, was never The Point.
The execution of The Plan, or at least a plan, is once again being debated in a different franchise. (If you’re reading this newsletter, you may have guessed which one.) Adam Driver gave an interview to promote Ferrari and noted that Kylo Ren’s arc in the sequel trilogy was not completed as it was originally imagined when he first took the role. Another example, to some, of how the sequels had ‘no plan.’ To this same some, this is evidence of creative malfeasance.