Caprica - Grading & Discussion

[Gregsmack]

^ Happen to have any links? I'm interested in what she has to say.

[Gregsmack]

GodBen wrote:

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It was interesting, I'm certainly willing to give the show a shot once the series begins next year. I'd say it was above average.

The first half was pretty slow, and thank the gods the whole show didn't focus on those annoying teenagers, but why is every Ben on television evil these days? The V club was pretty stupid, I think that it is one of those ideas which is cool when it is in your head but visualising it just makes the whole thing tacky. Even lesbian nudity couldn't save it, and lesbian nudity can usually save anything!

The second part was much better and I enjoyed the exploration of the two fathers willing to do anything to get their daughters back. Joseph's speech about seeing flowers for the first time was nice, and the scene where he sees Tamara again was heart-breaking. I can see him and Daniel being very interesting characters.

My main problem is the Cybernetic Life-form Node. Those guys are kickass, but the idea that they contain the personality of an annoying teenage girl detracts from their kickassery. I guess I'll just have to wait and see where it goes.

GodBen:

Unless I'm mistaken, I believe only that one model shown at the end contains Zoe's personality.

[TheGodBen]

Gregsmack wrote:

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Unless I'm mistaken, I believe only that one model shown at the end contains Zoe's personality.

But she's the prototype, she is the very first Colonial Cylon. It would be like finding out that the very first ninja was Hannah Montana, it would be very difficult for ninjas to seem cool after that.

[Gregsmack]

Good point.

[Hartzilla2007]

Yoda wrote:

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I went with Above Average. Overall I think I'm more hopeful for the series than I was after reading about it, and viewing a couple of trailers.

Does Graystone live next door to Baltar's house or what?

The first part of the pilot was kind of goofy, I'm not sure how much I like the Holoband, or the group of teens. After the teens made their 'exit' things started getting better. Adams and Graystone meeting seemed kind of awkward, with the "Let's get coffee. There is a coffee place around the corner" dialogue.

That they threw some nice female nudity in there was a bit shocking. Could have used some of that in the extended Razor. I guess I can hold out some hope for seeing some of our favorite Cylons naked for some reason in "The Plan," right?

Anyway, some of the later stuff was pretty cool. So Tauron is pretty much Mexico, nice! I didn't expect Bill Adama's uncle to be a crazy ass gangster, but it all worked pretty well.

I think the prototype Cylons stole the show for me. Especially the first test where they didn't have a decent AI brain for it. Reminds me of my college days trying to program robots to do seemingly the most simple things only to have them fail miserably. Cylon Zoe was a great Frankenstein type moment.

Polly Walker plays a monotheist of all things, and keeps her clothes on. Kind of a waste of her talents shown in HBO's "Rome", oh well.

I'm pretty curious to see what direction this thing will take. How long is it until the first Cylon war starts? Since the show proper starts a good year plus after this DVD pilot, will the show jump a bit in time as well? I didn't expect to see any of the first cylon war in the show after hearing about it, but after viewing it, if the show isn't canceled I could see it showing it, or leading into another miniseries/spinoff about it.

Oh, and I thought Bear's score fit very well. Even threw in a little bit of the Adama Theme, very nice!

You know in the Razor Flashbacks it establishes that Bill Adama was a kid when the Cylon War started so it might not have to be that many years till the war.

[Gregsmack]

Hartzilla2007 wrote:

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You know in the Razor Flashbacks it establishes that Bill Adama was a kid when the Cylon War started so it might not have to be that many years till the war.

True. If Willy is 12 in 'Caprica' that makes him 70 during the holocaust. Cylon technology may only be 20 years away from their revolt.

Also, the Graystone household does look a lot like Baltar's. If it's not the same house (and I don't think it is) it's probably in a neighborhood or area where all the rich scientists live.

[MetroKid]

I enjoyed it a great deal. I agree that the first 30 minutes were a bit slow, but it progressed nicely.

I also enjoyed Bear McCreary working in some musical cues from Battlestar, it was a nice, and very subtle, touch.

[phrog]

MetroKid wrote:

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I enjoyed it a great deal. I agree that the first 30 minutes were a bit slow, but it progressed nicely.

I also enjoyed Bear McCreary working in some musical cues from Battlestar, it was a nice, and very subtle, touch.

The Adama family theme was an especially nice, subtle moment that caused both me and the fiance to get a little choked up. Overall, the show, I thought, was excellent and tossed aside any fears I might've had about it. The acting was EXCELLENT as I would've expected from the folks involved in producing it, the show looked stellar, the music was actually a bit subtle in places, but rather moving in others with little notes of BSG in there.

I bought fully all the Cylon creation stuff, thought the holoband was an interesting concept which I'm hoping doesn't get overused or overpowered, and all in all thought it a good torch bearer for the franchise and storyline. It kept the believable, realistic progression of society and technological feel and the focus on character moments that I've come to expect while adding some distinct and interesting political and racial issues that I hadn't seen coming.

I'm on board.

[TEH BABA]

Hot chicks.

[Agent Richard07]

You guys don't have to put everything in spoiler code. This is a spoiler thread afterall and besides, it's easier to not have to click on the code box to read each post.

Anyway, I just saw it. It was pretty slow. All the people who've been complaining about BSG being a soap opera probably won't like Caprica. This is definately not action-packed. I thought it was pretty good sci fi though, and I like that we're getting a look into BSG's colonial society. I'd say that the "slow stuff" was average and the sci fi elements along with the BSG touches were excellent. In the end, I voted "above average".

Here are some of the highlights...

- The pilot didn't throw artificial intelligence or the creation of robots at us on a superficial level, it touched on issues like memory, consciousness and what makes a person a person, and it did so in more depth than I expected. I thought there was some good stuff in there about the building blocks of memory, and how we leave parts of ourselves (records/impressions on others) as we move through life. This was explored through Zoe, a 16 year old girl who was killed, yet "lives" on, first in a virtual environment, then in an actual cylon body as a conglomeration of her "parts". I thought that what was presented was well done and pretty effective.

- Looks like "God" will also play a role in Caprica. Made me wonder if the development of the cylons as well as the attempt to return of Zoe to the flesh will include a metaphysical element in addition to the nuts and bolts of memory and machinery.

- It was fun to see a society that looks just like our own, but with a BSG twist. Sure there were little things like the use of "cubits" and the word "frak", but I'm mainly talking about scientists and corporate suits observing a cylon in action in a test facility. That's an interesting mix of two worlds.

Other observations...

- The pilot reminded me of an episode of The Outer Limits with higher production values.

- Zoe looked a lot like a younger Zooey Deschanel.

- I didn't think the girls would play such a prominent role in the pilot.

- It was nice to see William B. Davis. His glasses reminded me of Tyrell's from Blade Runner.

- A lot of the tech was pretty cool.

Final thoughts...

- I didn't mind that the first cylon prototype was actually a 16 year old girl placed into a cylon frame. I find it interesting that the race of robots who wiped out mankind started off that way. It's a far cry from what we would have expected.

- Does this show contradict what we know about cylons and their development? I don't think so. Virtual Zoe never struck me as more advanced than the centurions, she struck me as representing the building blocks of memory and consciousness which will be essential in the creation of sentient robots. Her existence looks like it will also lead to resurrection technology. A more advanced version of her could also serve as a "head character". Maybe that's what those head people were... Advanced cylons from another era. Now what about Zoe living in a humanoid body and looking like a human in an era where cylons aren't supposed to "look like us"? I thought we'd see that in the pilot, but we didn't and we might never see it in the series. If we do, I suppose she could be kept a secret.

- They wasted Anna Galvin on a cameo. I hope we see her again.

- I don't think that we'll ever get to see the cylon war or the intervention of the Final Five and that's a shame. That's unless the show can last and jumps ahead a bit.

- Speaking of lasting, I'm up in the air about how long this show will last. On one hand, many will see it as watered down BSG and it'll get cancelled after a season due to a lack of an audience. On the other hand, it looks like a show that can be done cheaply and it might do moderately well enough to justify a second season or more.

- Having a drama like this set on some weird planet called "Caprica" could be distracting and might make the show inaccessible to non-BSG fans. It does come off as a little too "out there".

That's all for now. I'll be watching the series next year.

[TEH BABA]

Are lacy and zoe lovers?

[Agent Richard07]

TEH BABA wrote:

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Are lacy and zoe lovers?

They're friends, but I suppose it's possible that they experimented at the virtual club at some point. I know you're joking around, but I actually wouldn't put it past them.

[Dorian Thompson]

Does this show contradict what we know about cylons and their development? I don't think so. Virtual Zoe never struck me as more advanced than the centurions, she struck me as representing the building blocks of memory and consciousness which will be essential in the creation of sentient robots. Her existence looks like it will also lead to resurrection technology. A more advanced version of her could also serve as a "head character". Maybe that's what those head people were... Advanced cylons from another era. Now what about Zoe living in a humanoid body and looking like a human in an era where cylons aren't supposed to "look like us"? I thought we'd see that in the pilot, but we didn't and we might never see it in the series. If we do, I suppose she could be kept a secret.

What happened to Zoe was handled very, very well. I was pleasantly surprised with how much it didn't contradict the BSG backstory. Oh Zoe. She certainly left more than footprints when her brief life ended, didn't she? Little did she know what destruction her short life would leave in its wake in decades to come.

[CommanderTrip]

TEH BABA wrote:

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Are lacy and zoe lovers?

We won't know anything about it until we get the word from Quiznos.

[aelius]

The intro at the beginning said
Caprica
58 years before the fall
That would place it six years before the beginning of the Cylon revolt.
I come to that number from the number of days into the Cylon war the Adama flashback from Razor was set at. The flashback in the movie didn't have the intro, but the webisodes were expanded and gave a time. I forget exactly how many days it was, but I calculated at the time that it was 12 years into the war. And that was the last day of fighting.
Since the war ended 40 years before the fall, that only leaves six years.
Doesn't seem like much to go from the invention of Cylons to their revolt does it? I guess they develope at machine speeds.
That, and the Caprican government was probably producing them quickly to do their dirty work for them.