Caprica

[Ysmalari]

The new prequel series to BSG begins tonight with the two part pilot on Sky1 at 9pm.

Battlestar Galactica was arguably one of TV's greatest ever dramas, so the prequel was always going to spark feverish anticipation. But can any child live in the shadow of such a tall parent? This two-part curtain-raiser depicts the tragedy that unites scientist Daniel Graystone (Eric Stoltz) and lawyer Joseph Adama (Esai Morales). It's a bonding that brings about humanity's downfall. Caprica displays the same brains and beauty as BSG, but it's slower and gets distracted by bits of virtual-reality gubbins. The real flashes of invention do entice, however...

This looks like it could be interesting, granted it will undoubtedly be much slower than BSG and won't feature the awesome space battles, but from what I've read it investigates some interesting premises surrounding our increasing relationship with technology.
I have faith in the the two creators (Eick and Moore) so I'll give this a good chance.


Please keep any discussion limited to episodes which have been already aired in the uk or the thread will disappear, thanks.

 

[Ysmalari]

I don't know what to think yet, pilots always tend to be a bit different to how the rest of the series will be.

I like some of the ideas presented, the idea that a personality can be profiled from footprints left online is intriguing and this series will obviously continue with the theme of social commentary that BSG used.

It's definitely going to be more of a drama series than BSG's action adventure which will undoubtedly put some people off (the lack of space battles alone may do that ), so I guess it remains to be seen whether it can hold my interest, but I'll happily watch next week to see how it develops. I just hope it doesn't descend into an angst show as is the tendency of any american series dealing with families at the moment.

 

[Ysmalari]

It's not really fair to comapre to BSG's space battles - like star trek BSG is much more than some 2nd rate cgi.

This may be a problem initially for the series in terms of ratings, some people may watch it thinking it's going to be a continuation of the style of BSG and be put off by the slower pace. Hopefully though it will attract a new audience as well as I think it will probably be more accessable to non-science fiction fans.

 

[Ysmalari]

I think that in future episodes we will see Joseph finally perfect in creating a 'cylon zoe' and give it a human appearance (Start of the skin jobs from BSG) which will probably back fire on him leading to the start of the end of caprica

If I remember the BSG miniseries correctly (been a long time since I watched it so I may be wrong) wasn't that the first time they'd seen a skin job? I think up until then they all looked like the cylon we saw at the end of the Caprica pilot.

 

[Ysmalari]

It does seem to be rapidly turning into a soap-opera with robots thrown in, a shame as it could have been an interesting premise...

WORST EVER intro credits though (BSG intro was awesome in contrast)

Agreed, it's incredibly naff and the music is pretty pants as well!

 

[Ysmalari]

I was expecting it to be a bit slow going and as Xenocide said it was intended to be a family drama, however, it seemed to reveal most of the main plot details in the pilot and has now got itself bogged down in angst.

I do like the visual style of the show, the combination of 30s/40s clothing mixed with modern day technology is interesting, but the scripting itself does not seem to have the zing that some of BSG (particularly the early series) did.

American shows of late seem to be trying too hard to be 'serious', SGU is another one that seems to have lost all sense of adventure and just wants to concentrate on the human drama which all too often ends with none of the characters being particularly likeable.

I'm hoping both Caprica and SGU are just suffering from slow season 1 start syndrome, but I am a little concerned that both shows will just bury themselves with trying to create drama without actually having anything interesting to say.

 

[Ysmalari]

And for something a bit lighter try Firefly, sadly only one series but a very good series it is