Artificial Intelligence and connections
A few days ago, I heard about Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles' fate as I was finishing Richard Powers' Galatea 2.2, and I watched Caprica pilot thanks to the Internet fairy.
When I first heard that there would be a the spin-off, I was rather skeptical. I didn't really see the point of telling the story of what happened some fifty years before the Cylons destroyed the colonies, so I wasn't sure I would watch the 82 minute movie, less alone like it, but I thought I could give it a try, and honestly I did enjoy Caprica. It is quite different from BSG even though there are connections through Bear McCreary's music, the Adama family (William isn't Bill yet but he's there as a young boy) and the "birth" of the first "cybernetic life-form node" that is a CYLON. The line "A Cylon? Interesting." was a killer.
I spotted flaws here and there, and yes there was some stuff that bothered me but I was left wanting more, wanting to know what would be going to happen next. I guess it's a good thing given that Caprica is a prequel! The Greystones are really intriguing and touching, especially Daniel. Eric Stoltz was simply amazing.
Also looks like Ron Moore and Joss Whedon keep giving nods to each other's work. I couldn't help noticing that two characters have names that connect them to Buffy: Cyrus Xander and Clarisse Willow! It can't be a coincidence! Or was it Jane Espenson's wink at her former boss?
So I recommend Caprica to anyone who likes intelligent Sci-Fi. You don't even need to have seen BSG in order to understand it. But it's better to see to pilot, unspoiled!
The opening scene in the virtual club was surprisingly crude and well done. I really liked the scenes between Zoe and Virtual Zoe too, or between Vi Zoe and Lacy or Daniel. The show raised good questions about reality vs virtuality, about identity, but also about sacrifice, family and loss and the way we deal with it, themes BSG has already played with.
There was definitely a bit of "Frankestein meets Faust" in the making of the first Cylon.
The only bit that the show didn't deliver well, was the STO stuff. It seems forced and botched up. It was nice to see Polly Walker again though.
Eric Stoltz shone in every scene he was in. I liked the actress who played his wife too. The scene, towards the end, when Daniel thought the data was lost for ever because of the error that occured after he downloaded Vi Zoe into the Cylon body, was poignant.
The first cylon shooting the domestic robots was a brilliant scene but chilling, especially the execution of the last little robot laying on the floor, ana execution that echoed the murder of the minister by the Tauron mobster and even recalled the human sacrifice we saw on the opening scene in the Vi club. Zoe waking up in her new brand non virtual body and seeing her reflection on the table was something we could see coming but it was efficient and quite terrifying.
The pilot gave new meaning to the phrase "the ghost in the machine"!.
Richard Powers' Galatea 2.2 is terrific. I loved it. I can't believe that there isn't a lot more fans of Powers out there. He is a genius and manages to move me every time (I cried reading certain pieces from The Time of Our Singing!). For anyone interested, Galatea 2.2 tells the story of a writer named Richard Powers, who's going through a life crisis and gets involved by a cognitive neurologist in a crazy project: building an intelligent machine, a machine who can read and comment on the readings in question. Here is what I wrote about the novel on my Goodreads account.
When I first heard that there would be a the spin-off, I was rather skeptical. I didn't really see the point of telling the story of what happened some fifty years before the Cylons destroyed the colonies, so I wasn't sure I would watch the 82 minute movie, less alone like it, but I thought I could give it a try, and honestly I did enjoy Caprica. It is quite different from BSG even though there are connections through Bear McCreary's music, the Adama family (William isn't Bill yet but he's there as a young boy) and the "birth" of the first "cybernetic life-form node" that is a CYLON. The line "A Cylon? Interesting." was a killer.
I spotted flaws here and there, and yes there was some stuff that bothered me but I was left wanting more, wanting to know what would be going to happen next. I guess it's a good thing given that Caprica is a prequel! The Greystones are really intriguing and touching, especially Daniel. Eric Stoltz was simply amazing.
Also looks like Ron Moore and Joss Whedon keep giving nods to each other's work. I couldn't help noticing that two characters have names that connect them to Buffy: Cyrus Xander and Clarisse Willow! It can't be a coincidence! Or was it Jane Espenson's wink at her former boss?
So I recommend Caprica to anyone who likes intelligent Sci-Fi. You don't even need to have seen BSG in order to understand it. But it's better to see to pilot, unspoiled!
The opening scene in the virtual club was surprisingly crude and well done. I really liked the scenes between Zoe and Virtual Zoe too, or between Vi Zoe and Lacy or Daniel. The show raised good questions about reality vs virtuality, about identity, but also about sacrifice, family and loss and the way we deal with it, themes BSG has already played with.
There was definitely a bit of "Frankestein meets Faust" in the making of the first Cylon.
The only bit that the show didn't deliver well, was the STO stuff. It seems forced and botched up. It was nice to see Polly Walker again though.
Eric Stoltz shone in every scene he was in. I liked the actress who played his wife too. The scene, towards the end, when Daniel thought the data was lost for ever because of the error that occured after he downloaded Vi Zoe into the Cylon body, was poignant.
The first cylon shooting the domestic robots was a brilliant scene but chilling, especially the execution of the last little robot laying on the floor, ana execution that echoed the murder of the minister by the Tauron mobster and even recalled the human sacrifice we saw on the opening scene in the Vi club. Zoe waking up in her new brand non virtual body and seeing her reflection on the table was something we could see coming but it was efficient and quite terrifying.
The pilot gave new meaning to the phrase "the ghost in the machine"!.
Richard Powers' Galatea 2.2 is terrific. I loved it. I can't believe that there isn't a lot more fans of Powers out there. He is a genius and manages to move me every time (I cried reading certain pieces from The Time of Our Singing!). For anyone interested, Galatea 2.2 tells the story of a writer named Richard Powers, who's going through a life crisis and gets involved by a cognitive neurologist in a crazy project: building an intelligent machine, a machine who can read and comment on the readings in question. Here is what I wrote about the novel on my Goodreads account.