Caprica takes away from the Cylons
12:00 PM 3/5/10 · Before I really get into this I wanna say that I'm loving Caprica so far. It's fun, it's interesting, and it gives me a lot to think about. Unfortunately one of the things that it's making me think about the most is the Cylons...
...and how they are becoming so much less than what they were with continuation of the series.
Technically Caprica is another reboot of the Battlestar Galactica franchise. I mean the newest Battlestar Galactica was definitely a reboot of the original 1978 series, which I'm sure no one will deny. Very well done and while I thought I'd have issues with it before it came out they were all put aside after the pilot...and let's face facts, reboots are all the rage these days.
Most often in movies, like how Spider·Man has been rebooted before the next movie comes out. They're rebooting the original Predator movie, making it over completely (haven't seen the script but I hear awful things) and pretty much every movie that isn't an original concept (are there any original concepts anymore?) is pretty much a reboot of something done ages ago...
...but I digress.
I'm a child of the 1970's and while a number of fashion trends have thankfully mostly fallen out of my memory...I do remember Battlestar Galactica. Every week another 2 hour episode: Heaven! Back then the Cylons were the shit, although the phrase 'the shit' didn't mean the same thing it does today.
Sorry. Preamble is kind of my family's genetic curse.
The original Cylons were a reptilian race who were suffering a massive population drop. They built these robots, who eventually became to be known as the Cylons, to maintain their empire and fight their wars for them. After the last of the reptilain species died off, not killed off by the robots, the mechanical Cylons pretty much took off where their predecessors left off.
The strife between those Cylons and the Humans of the 12 Colonies was due to conflict with other alien races and the Humans intervening on their behalf.
The thing about most reboots, especially of really old shows and films, is a tendency to bring tighter ties, oftimes familial, between all the characters. So it's wasn't too surprising that in the newer Battlestar Galactica the Cylons were created by Humanity. Here it was given that they were a primitive form of artificial intelligence that evolved to a point they threw off the yoke of Human rule (ie: slavery) and ignited a war. A lengthy war, an armistice and then a truce of sorts, only to come back later and try to annihilate the human race.
Not too surprising. Science fiction is replete with examples of humans making machines that have or develop artificial intelligence and then try to kill off the humans that created them for a host of reasons. Most often due to seeing the humans as inferior or a belief that machine kind were being used as slaves...
...and a surprisingly large majority of those fandoms this happens in has the machines with red eyes. What is up with that?!?
Sorry. Preamble...kinda sorta.
Admittedly the newer versions of the Cylons were a lot more advanced in a lot of ways than the 1970's version, though I thought it cool there were a couple models that were identical to the ones I grew up with. The more humanform ones (term borrowed from The Robots of Dawn, Asimov is the shit!) were really cool. They even had their own religion now, a monotheistic one as compared to the humans polytheism. Just the tip of the iceberg but it's a really fucking cool iceberg!
Then we come to Caprica...and I just don't know what happened. Like I said, the story's great but it all comes back to the Cylons and that's where my problem lies. Well, Cylon currently but even with the point the series is at now I really feel there are 2.
I'll get back to that.
The current model of Cylon is the prototype for what will eventually be a bucketload of them. Realistically I suspect production of others is probably ongoing but they're not going to be able to do much of anything with them until they work out the snafu in the operating system. That snafu being that the only reason the one Cylon that's functioning has an avatar inside of it...
...even if the creator/father of the Cylon/Avatar isn't aware it's in there.
That was quick. I'm back to it already...and already at out how the Cylons are somehow less.
Caprica's Cylons can't function without an avatar inside them. The way the series is progressing, especially after the last two episodes, just further convinces me of this. The avatars in question (so far) are recreations of dead girls, drawn from every single available database with even the tiniest bit of data about them. Other than the fact they're pure programming they are in essence virtually identical to the humans they mirror. We've got one inside a virtual world acting very Cylon·ish in her views of humanity and slaughtering every single one she can find, minus one notable exception, and the other trapped inside the aforementioned functioning Cylon...
...which only works because she's inside it.
Adding insult to injury, the monotheistic faith the Cylons developed in the reboot of Battlestar Galactica was actually developed by the humans in Caprica. Since this is supposed to be the prequel of the newer version, with a clear timeline as the commander of the Battlestar Galactica (probably not built yet) is a little kid in this! The humans following this faith are aware of the avatar in the Cylon, though they don't know it's in there, want to access it and create multiple identical avatars like it, of themselves, as they see it as an actual form of a sort of immortality in keeping with aspects of their faith.
So, long rant trying to bring to a bit of a close, here's the host of issues. The Caprica Cylons are not going to evolve an intelligence of their own, it will be provided to them by avatars of dead humans. The religion they follow, hearing that girl avatar ranting about the decadence and corruption of humanity (pilot episode) echoed practically word for word one of the humanform Cylons, is taken from the one developed by humanity. The desire to kill off the rest of humanity is already a part of the avatars that will be recreated from the members of this monotheistic faith, as they're already happily killing people in life...
...and there might be more but I'm drawing a blank right now.
Other than becoming humanform later, having sex with humans, and that really cool glowing spinal column deal when they're orgasming (which obviously is off in the future somewheres) this reboot of the Cylon history is really getting me down.
Granted, the avatar running around killing off folks online isn't a monotheist. Still I'm pretty sure it's only a matter of time before she is in a Cylon body and taking out people for real.
I'll bet you .25¢
...and how they are becoming so much less than what they were with continuation of the series.
Technically Caprica is another reboot of the Battlestar Galactica franchise. I mean the newest Battlestar Galactica was definitely a reboot of the original 1978 series, which I'm sure no one will deny. Very well done and while I thought I'd have issues with it before it came out they were all put aside after the pilot...and let's face facts, reboots are all the rage these days.
Most often in movies, like how Spider·Man has been rebooted before the next movie comes out. They're rebooting the original Predator movie, making it over completely (haven't seen the script but I hear awful things) and pretty much every movie that isn't an original concept (are there any original concepts anymore?) is pretty much a reboot of something done ages ago...
...but I digress.
I'm a child of the 1970's and while a number of fashion trends have thankfully mostly fallen out of my memory...I do remember Battlestar Galactica. Every week another 2 hour episode: Heaven! Back then the Cylons were the shit, although the phrase 'the shit' didn't mean the same thing it does today.
Sorry. Preamble is kind of my family's genetic curse.
The original Cylons were a reptilian race who were suffering a massive population drop. They built these robots, who eventually became to be known as the Cylons, to maintain their empire and fight their wars for them. After the last of the reptilain species died off, not killed off by the robots, the mechanical Cylons pretty much took off where their predecessors left off.
The strife between those Cylons and the Humans of the 12 Colonies was due to conflict with other alien races and the Humans intervening on their behalf.
The thing about most reboots, especially of really old shows and films, is a tendency to bring tighter ties, oftimes familial, between all the characters. So it's wasn't too surprising that in the newer Battlestar Galactica the Cylons were created by Humanity. Here it was given that they were a primitive form of artificial intelligence that evolved to a point they threw off the yoke of Human rule (ie: slavery) and ignited a war. A lengthy war, an armistice and then a truce of sorts, only to come back later and try to annihilate the human race.
Not too surprising. Science fiction is replete with examples of humans making machines that have or develop artificial intelligence and then try to kill off the humans that created them for a host of reasons. Most often due to seeing the humans as inferior or a belief that machine kind were being used as slaves...
...and a surprisingly large majority of those fandoms this happens in has the machines with red eyes. What is up with that?!?
Sorry. Preamble...kinda sorta.
Admittedly the newer versions of the Cylons were a lot more advanced in a lot of ways than the 1970's version, though I thought it cool there were a couple models that were identical to the ones I grew up with. The more humanform ones (term borrowed from The Robots of Dawn, Asimov is the shit!) were really cool. They even had their own religion now, a monotheistic one as compared to the humans polytheism. Just the tip of the iceberg but it's a really fucking cool iceberg!
Then we come to Caprica...and I just don't know what happened. Like I said, the story's great but it all comes back to the Cylons and that's where my problem lies. Well, Cylon currently but even with the point the series is at now I really feel there are 2.
I'll get back to that.
The current model of Cylon is the prototype for what will eventually be a bucketload of them. Realistically I suspect production of others is probably ongoing but they're not going to be able to do much of anything with them until they work out the snafu in the operating system. That snafu being that the only reason the one Cylon that's functioning has an avatar inside of it...
...even if the creator/father of the Cylon/Avatar isn't aware it's in there.
That was quick. I'm back to it already...and already at out how the Cylons are somehow less.
Caprica's Cylons can't function without an avatar inside them. The way the series is progressing, especially after the last two episodes, just further convinces me of this. The avatars in question (so far) are recreations of dead girls, drawn from every single available database with even the tiniest bit of data about them. Other than the fact they're pure programming they are in essence virtually identical to the humans they mirror. We've got one inside a virtual world acting very Cylon·ish in her views of humanity and slaughtering every single one she can find, minus one notable exception, and the other trapped inside the aforementioned functioning Cylon...
...which only works because she's inside it.
Adding insult to injury, the monotheistic faith the Cylons developed in the reboot of Battlestar Galactica was actually developed by the humans in Caprica. Since this is supposed to be the prequel of the newer version, with a clear timeline as the commander of the Battlestar Galactica (probably not built yet) is a little kid in this! The humans following this faith are aware of the avatar in the Cylon, though they don't know it's in there, want to access it and create multiple identical avatars like it, of themselves, as they see it as an actual form of a sort of immortality in keeping with aspects of their faith.
So, long rant trying to bring to a bit of a close, here's the host of issues. The Caprica Cylons are not going to evolve an intelligence of their own, it will be provided to them by avatars of dead humans. The religion they follow, hearing that girl avatar ranting about the decadence and corruption of humanity (pilot episode) echoed practically word for word one of the humanform Cylons, is taken from the one developed by humanity. The desire to kill off the rest of humanity is already a part of the avatars that will be recreated from the members of this monotheistic faith, as they're already happily killing people in life...
...and there might be more but I'm drawing a blank right now.
Other than becoming humanform later, having sex with humans, and that really cool glowing spinal column deal when they're orgasming (which obviously is off in the future somewheres) this reboot of the Cylon history is really getting me down.
Granted, the avatar running around killing off folks online isn't a monotheist. Still I'm pretty sure it's only a matter of time before she is in a Cylon body and taking out people for real.
I'll bet you .25¢