"LET'S GET this genocide started."

As rallying cries go, it's no "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!"

But then "Battlestar Galactica's" Cylon model "No. 1," John Cavil (Dean Stockwell), isn't exactly Ronald Reagan.

For die-hard "BSG" fans, though, the line from "Battlestar Galactica: The Plan" is bound to come across with its full measure of dark comedy.

And die-hard fans are the only logical targets for "The Plan," which goes on sale tomorrow on Blu-ray, DVD and through digital downloads.

Written by "BSG" executive producer Jane Espenson and directed by Edward James Olmos, who reprises his starring role as "Galactica's" Adm. William Adama, the 90-minute feature revisits the futuristic series about humanity's struggle against its own creations, the Cylons, from the Cylons' point of view.

Which means that Stockwell's Machiavellian Cavil gets more face time than he probably ever has before, a development that may not sit so well with fans of the more sympathetic - and gorgeous - Cylon No. 6 (Tricia Helfer), who's featured far more prominently on the DVD jacket.

When Olmos told fans at San Diego Comic-Con this summer that "The Plan" would make them want to watch the whole series over again, I'd honestly thought he was just plugging the series DVD.

He's right, though. Because in slicing off the Cylons' version of events, the movie necessarily telescopes large portions of the series, which ran for four seasons on what used to be called the Sci Fi Channel. If you lost track of that action at any point, you're bound to be wandering in the wilderness for long stretches of "The Plan."

Even the thoroughly initiated may want to go back and check out scenes from the original. Either way, it's the equivalent of placing free peanuts on a bar: You're bound to get thirstier.

Yet the movie's very existence testifies to the difference a passionate fan base can make in keeping an imaginary world alive.

Like "Caprica," the series pilot that came out on home video six months ago - and isn't scheduled to premiere on the rebranded Syfy channel until the series launches Jan. 22 - "The Plan" is asking fans to pay for greater access to that world (and at up to $39.98 on Blu-ray, it's not asking for peanuts).

"Caprica," though, is a prequel that's being pitched as a series that can stand alone from "Galactica," whose ratings waxed and waned over the years. Set 58 years before the destruction of the colonies that launched "BSG," it stars Esai Morales as Adama's father and Eric Stoltz as the wealthy inventor whose work first unleashed the Cylon threat.

From the pilot, at least, it appears to be a story deeply rooted in humanity, just as "Galactica" was, while "The Plan" asks us to try to see things more from the Cylons' point of view.

My problem? I tend to be all about the humans.

Call it speciesism, but the most interesting thing about the Cylons, to me, was how close to human they seemed, and "The Plan" seemed most intriguing when we see them displaying emotions we think of as "human."

At one point, "No. 8," Sharon (Grace Park), one of the Cylons who's been functioning as a sleeper agent, tells her handler, "I'm happier when I'm under. I'm happier when I'm human."

If there are more "Battlestar" movies to come, I hope the humans writing them will keep that in mind. *

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