I was REALLY looking forward to Caprica. I had somehow talked myself into believing the series would carry over some of the depth of Battlestar Galactica, sadly from the pilot at least, I appear to have been mistaken, at least to a degree.
Whilst Caprica tries to be edgy and gutsy in its rendition of the pre cylon world, much of the story comes across as a bit of a Sarah Connor Chronicles hatchet job (the only thing missing is the Cyberdyne logo in Graystone’s lab). The technology that is used in Caprica seems far advanced of that we see in the Galactica universe – which is set 40 years in Caprica’s future – and whilst one might suggest the Galactica itself as being “a museum”, even the technology used on Pegasus seems to pale into insignificance when compared to the basement office of Daniel Graystone and the ‘second life’ setting of the virtual world.
Surely if this sort of technology were available then, the more modern ships in the fleet would have utilized such things as a way of escape for those trapped within the confines of the ragtag rusting hulls? Yes, this clearly would have entered Star Trek holodeck territory, which would have irked certain sectors of the fandom given Ron D Moore’s connection there, but at least there would have been some continuity between the past and present of the Caprican worlds.
Continuity issues aside Caprica does do well in a few key areas, most prominently in its casting of Eric Stoltz as the aforementioned Daniel Graystone and Paula Malcomson as his wife Amanda Graystone. These two were standouts in their performances, with Malcomson in particular being the quintessential grieving mother. Where the casting seemed to fail however is with the pouty teen Alessandra Toreson who plays Zoe Graystone. Now perhaps it was just me, but every time she appeared on screen I found it a little overdone and annoying, though this may have been a personal thing. That said some of the lines about monotheism spouted by the Zoe character and her teen cohorts came across as completely overdone – even unnecessary – and this removed some of the viewer connection as it seemed forced. More negativity aside however, the first time you see the cylon as it was, you can’t help but smile just a little bit… seriously cool.
Overall Caprica did some things very well, though the last 15 minutes of the episode will probably have half of the BSG fandom squealing with delight whilst the other half will want to hurl things at the television (particularly the last 30 seconds or so).
Personally I look forward to seeing where the series goes. At the very least, give it a try, just try and get past the seemingly awful continuity issues.
Hmmm…for the techonology part being too advanced, I see your point. However, you would need to have more advanced “lookin” tech in order to be able to convey the technological level needed to see the birth of Cylon projection. Also it helps to explain the first “download” of the human mind and the resulting origin of Cylon’s quest for the One God.
I don’t really have a beef with the tech that much. Even today jet fighters and tanks have older lookin tech feel to them, especially to models built a decade or two ago, which are still being used to this day. Therefore, we could say building space ship and stuff, cost and operational funcitonality is paramount over having the latest touch screen design integrated into the vehicles, or something similar like that :p.
Anyway, it’s just my view of things.
Hey Paranoyd,
firstly thanks for the response. I see what you’re saying about it needing to look a particular way in order to get that across, but then Galactica did this well even with the ‘old fashioned’ look of its instrumentation. Projection is a whole other issue though, so good point.
You are spot on about the ‘one god’ birthing within the cylon mentality. I actually liked that premise, I just thought it felt a little pretentious and forced. I’ll blame this on my BSG fangirl mentality though ;op
All one need do is watch the opening sequence to the mini-series “Battlestar Galactica” when Doral explains to the press corp that Galactica is made “old” for a reason. The first war put these people into a panic and they intentionally discarded all but the rudimentary technology necessary to fight the Cylons they just created. No networks, limiting the ability for a cybernetic sentient being to infiltrate. There was a backlash against all the technology seen in “Caprica” after the war.
Jeff’s right. The dangers of networking and high-powered computers are frequently featured on the show (Baltar vehemently mocks government restrictions on AI research in the original miniseries), and it’s emphasized that especially in the military, technological sophistication is avoided as a measure against Cylon AI infiltration.
Perhaps more importantly, between Caprica and BSG there was also the first Cylon war. While BSG never showed much of this and Caprica will likely not venture into that territory at all (it’s about a decade into Willy Adama’s future, it seems), this was a devastating interplanetary conflict which lasted many years.
It’s entirely plausible to assume that the economic impact of such a cataclysm, coupled with the technophobia fostered by a war with merciless killing machines, severely contracted the market for consumer electronics
The problem I have for the first hour since that’s all I’ve seen so far is the problem I initially had with the series. It’s so American. In fact, it’s more than a little like, sometimes, watching The Sopranos. They buy their clothes from the same stores and it’s so stupid that the Galactica terms such as “cubit” and “frak” seem wedged in there to create an illusion that this might not be our world. They might as well just have left it standard English. “Since we’re a highly rich, mixed race society we have to have some illusion of unfairness. Oooh, um, let’s make it that if you’re from one particular world you’re looked down upon as the lowest of the low. You know, like the Irish used to be.”
It’s a monoculture supposedly practicing poytheism and a bunch of brain-dead twits have decided to practice monotheism (which is quite sensible, when it’s a monoculture).
My reaction to Zoe (sp?) and her moronic cohorts was pretty much the same as my reaction to Felicity. Loathed at first sight. Her parents are playing tennis. Tennis. And the robots look like bowling pins (that’s not really a bad thing as such, more amusing).
I’m sorry, I’ve never been able to grasp that there was much of anything original about the new BSG, and Caprica’s not helping.
I think the ‘old’ technology in BSG was because after the first Cylon war humanity feared technology and regressed. In fact many advancements in technology were probably only geared towards the military in the fear the Cylons would return. And look how that helped them!
Basically old/archaic technology was a defense mechanism and the reason Galactica and the fleet looks so dated is due to the human fear of technology.
I could not get past the bad acting in the first half hour. I suppose if you want to increase your ratings you have to put some younger people in there, and maybe the talent simply doesn’t exist anymore (not surprising), but it didn’t even reach the level of mediocrity IMO.
Frankly the technology “continuity issue”, like most “continuity issues” brought up by fans and pundits, doesn’t stand scrutiny if thought through.
The “holoband” is evidenty the technology responsible for the very creation of the Cylon menace. Does anyone honestly believe that, on that basis alone, that as of the start of the first Cylon war (if not even earlier), that “holoband” tech would have become VERY illegal?
After a devisating war with the Cylon, who would buy a ticket aboard ANY ship still outfitted with the very tech that created the Cylon in the first place?
Lastly, we were literally spoon fed the answer to that q in the BSG mini when Doral noted that huamity had literally “looked to the past” due to fears of tech the war had instilled in people.
What WOULD have been a “contiuity issue” is showing anyone at all embracing such obviously dangerous tech just four decades after a war against it’s offspring.
I really enjoyed BSG for the most part. However, this new series seems to have distilled all the aspects I didn’t like while leaving out the excitement and sci-fi elements. Sure it’s Caprica the occasional shot of a rendered city, but they’re driving our cars and wearing our clothes for goodness sake. I mean I like understated, but this just seems conveniently lazy. Perhaps there is too little budget. I am not so interested in a slightly futuristic and very slow moving soap opera. I consider myself very much a fan of good sci-fi, but this show is a little too earthbound. It’s a shame because the theme of artificial intelligence is a very interesting one which added a lot of depth to BSG, but I can see that Caprica is going to be too much filler and not enough substance.
I actually think the show looks magnificent, but so far that’s all its really got going for me. That, plus Eric Stoltz is consistently strong. I have a real problem with ANY show that gives so much weight to the decisions of teenagers. Unless, Zoe and her ilk are truly fulfilling some BG-like prophecy, then I will be one season and out. So far, each time Zoe and her mates are on the screen, I cringe a bit. It seems a bit lame that the first cylon was a disgruntled 10th grader. I think they could have done better than that, but if you want teenagers to watch your show, then you better make them feel important.
That being said, its still better than no BG at all, which IMHO was the best show EVER.
I see the kernals of where certain plot points are going in Caprica which are interesting, but the show is overall too slow moving for my tastes. Hopefully they will jump ahead in time every season by 2-3 yrs to keep my interested. The Brits have it right in their shows that a good deal of them are often only on for 3 seasons, so they don’t mess around with dragging stories out unnecessarily. The essense of Caprica simply won’t make it on tv too long if the network in charge thinks they can bleed plots into 5-6 seasons, ’cause if they do that this show will be cancelled by the end of the 2nd.
Roslin visited BSG ship early in the first season, perhaps even in the mini-series premiere. She asked Adama about a form of robot help that could guide people, provide directions and answer questions, sounds alot like Surge.
Otherwise, it could be that the holovisers are banned due to the events of the upcoming war,or perhaps as a result of events in caprica, are banned altogether.
On top of the fact that this human society clearly digressed if they most definitely conciously looked to the past for ways of life and defense, holobands were probably, in addition to being outlawed (if they ever were…), extremely out of style. This society, beyond coincidence, is pretty much our society, so its is safe to assume that all people think with the mindset consumers on our planet think with; if the majority of people see someting as unpopular or if it is over (at most) two years old, it is outdated crap that can be discarded and forgotten. Considering the fact that holobands were popular before Bill Adama was even born, by the time the BSG plot rolls around and he is about in his 60s, holobands are BEYOND old. Possibly in a group of people who don’t have the fear of technology that most have (and there are bound to be some, considering that there were GENERATIONS that saw cylons as more of an old legend than an old threat that has returned throughout the majority of their lives), any attempted resurgence of holobands is just unpopular overkill.
I have to agree with Steve. The fact that a teenager can lead to the nuking of 12 planets and the extinction of humans in a part of the universe is kinda stupid.
Caprica moved incredibly slowly, and compared to BSG, it was the boring soap, while BSG was drama-filled and had action that kept my attention. With BSG, there was one thing right after another. The first episode, 33, is a perfect example of the whole series; there is a small amount of time (33 minutes) before the next big burst of action happens and no time for sleep.
Just for the sake of being a BSG fan wanting to piece together the full BSG universe story, I hung in there for all of Caprica. I only began to enjoy it in the last few minutes of the last episode when the series was wrapped up and the action-packed BSG future I already know was imminent. Still, it was better than no BSG at all. Now that the makers of the new BSG and Caprica have seen both a major success and a canceled fail, I am looking forward to Battlestar Galactica: Blood and Chrome.