On a ranch in Nevada.
I tortured myself and watched all of Caprica on the weekend.
- Thread starter Gingerbread Demon
- Start date
As delightful as that sounds it wouldn't be much fun
My memory of the nuts and bolts of the show it pretty vague at this point since I only watched it when it came out and never since felt the impulse to attempt a rewatch.
Mostly I remember the first half of the season being the worst kind of serialised storytelling. The kind where each episode basically drip feeds one or two scenes per character per episode, complete with seemingly pointless, meandering plot threads. It was like someone just copied down the random pitch ideas on the the writers room whiteboard, without bothering to find a coherent way for them to fit together, let alone anything resembling a clear trajectory or logical endpoint to any of it. Just a succession of "wouldn't it be cool if" ideas stapled together and shoved into a script. So basically all of the worst aspects of the later seasons of BSG, without the strong engaging premise of the early seasons to at least give the dross some momentum.
I recall the second half of the show managed to snap somewhat more into focus, but by that point it was too little, too late, and didn't fix the problem that none of the characters were even slightly likeable.
If this all sounds like I hate the show; I really don't. I actually respect some of the swings it took, but it just wasn't a very well put together show, and it was clearly a top-down problem. Given the heights of popularity and critical praise they achieved with BSG, it's kind of impressive how quickly they pissed it all away with a weak conclusion and multiple failed spin-off and one gods awful TV movie. The only franchise to top that kind of rapid fall from grace that I can recall in GoT, and in all fairness they REALLY topped it.
Mostly I remember the first half of the season being the worst kind of serialised storytelling. The kind where each episode basically drip feeds one or two scenes per character per episode, complete with seemingly pointless, meandering plot threads. It was like someone just copied down the random pitch ideas on the the writers room whiteboard, without bothering to find a coherent way for them to fit together, let alone anything resembling a clear trajectory or logical endpoint to any of it. Just a succession of "wouldn't it be cool if" ideas stapled together and shoved into a script. So basically all of the worst aspects of the later seasons of BSG, without the strong engaging premise of the early seasons to at least give the dross some momentum.
I recall the second half of the show managed to snap somewhat more into focus, but by that point it was too little, too late, and didn't fix the problem that none of the characters were even slightly likeable.
If this all sounds like I hate the show; I really don't. I actually respect some of the swings it took, but it just wasn't a very well put together show, and it was clearly a top-down problem. Given the heights of popularity and critical praise they achieved with BSG, it's kind of impressive how quickly they pissed it all away with a weak conclusion and multiple failed spin-off and one gods awful TV movie. The only franchise to top that kind of rapid fall from grace that I can recall in GoT, and in all fairness they REALLY topped it.
I do wonder if they knew they were being cancelled with that last episode. It kind of felt like they did and they didn't so hedged their bets either way with the clips at the end.
IIRC, in the Canadian airing, the caption before the final montage was "Next Season on Caprica." Always a daring choice to shoot a bunch of scenes in advance for the trailer and then have to figure out how to get them to fit into actual episodes later on. Babylon 5 did it twice, Dollhouse did it (and ended up having practically every scene they showed end up being an unreliable memory that was inaccurate in some way), I feel like there was another example that just evaporated out of my brain as I was typing the sentence.
Plus, I always like to think of how it could've been worse. Before they thought better of it, the plan was to reveal Daniel's industrial rival hired an actor who looked like Amanda's dead brother to follow her around and then keep ducking out of sight to make her think she was having a breakdown. There was also a far more elaborate version of the "intervention" that got Joseph to stop stalking the copy of Tamara in V-World that's actually in the deleted scenes on the DVD, and doesn't work half as well as the simple, single scene they went with.
That's next level Soap Opera plotting,
Perhaps sometime I can give it a go and see if it changes my opinion.
I try not to judge too harshly on a pilot, since that can often be weak in ways, but the writing in the BSG one really irritated me. But it was also years ago, so I'd at least be willing to risk it at some point. 
It's been interesting to read the new Designing Starships book for BSG, which covers all of the series. I wasn't aware that the reptilian Cylons were the original concept, who would have just worn the metallic armor and been mostly blind (hence the red scanner in the visor to augment their senses). This was changed because there was concern the series would seem too violent, and making the Cylons fully robotic also let them seem more expendable.
Ron Moore said he changed some elements because he didn't understand them in the original, like why Baltar betrayed the colonies and why the Cylons would expend a lot of resources chasing the fleet across the galaxy. For my part, I felt like the original series answered both of those fine - Baltar was ambitious and basically a classic villain, and the Cylons knew if the fleet escaped they could rebuild human civilization. The ambush that took out much of the Colonial military had finally given them a huge advantage, so why not exploit it?
Is there any good explanation given for how humans created the skinjob tech in Caprica but we also know it was actually given to Cylons by the final 5 ?
Last edited:
Zoe's new body was only superficially human, like a Terminator. Under the skin she was all plastic and metal. The Final Five and the other human Cylons were more like clones, and appeared and worked like humans all the way down to the bone.
The second season would have dealt with that. One of the final five (who were still traveling towards the colonies) would be in contact with Zoe. Damn shame we didn't get a second season.
I just looked her up. Hmmm the acting
BABYLON 5 was able to do it because JMS wrote like 93 of the 110 episodes... it's easier to get the details right when it's just one writer doing it.
With DOLLHOUSE, I'm not sure if I am going with what you are thinking, but the first season had a 'bonus' episode (dvd only, if I remember right) that was supposed to be a possible finale, since Whedon wasn't sure it was going to get a pickup. Then it got it at the last minute, and the future episode had to alter some things from the season 1 one.
With CAPRICA, I think they knew they were done, and wanted to at least give a taste of what the end of the journey was going to look like for the lead characters. I liked that they did that, because I really did enjoy the show and it could have been great given a bit more time.
Who wasn't? She rocks
Daniel Graystone is the First Hybrid.
I totally called it.
I totally called it.
You know, CAPRICA did one thing right thst virtually NO other show or movie does.
Not sure which episode it was, probably in the back half, but there was a scene that had rain and lightning outside the house. The lightning occured before the sound of thunder. Virtually every movie or show that has this scenario has the lightning and thunder happen at the same time, which is just not the case because light travels faster than sound.
I always admired that attention to detail.
Not sure which episode it was, probably in the back half, but there was a scene that had rain and lightning outside the house. The lightning occured before the sound of thunder. Virtually every movie or show that has this scenario has the lightning and thunder happen at the same time, which is just not the case because light travels faster than sound.
I always admired that attention to detail.
I'm amused by the fact we had 21st Century humans on a world over 150,000 years ago ....
I remember liking the show when it aired, being pissed that the two halves of the season were like a year apart, and being sad when it was cancelled.
They didn't.