First Impressions: Caprica
Caprica is airing tomorrow (or later today if you're across the Pond). I encourage you to check it out.
Anyone who's been following me knows by I now that I'm a big fan of the new Battlestar Galactica, even if the final hour was more than a little disappointing. So it was only natural that I was looking forward to the Battlestar prequel Caprica, featuring the origin of the cylons and, oddly enough, William Adama, one of BSG's mainstay characters (in case you're completely unfamiliar with the show).
That being said, I approached the show with a little bit of skepticism. And no, it wasn't because, unlike BSG it was set in a quasi-semi-kind-of modern setting without spaceships; shows like The X-Files and Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex have shown that it's perfectly possible to do a rich and captivating science fiction show that is set on plain old Earth (or its equivalent in any case). Rather, my primary worry was that Caprica would become the soap opera that so many accused BSG of being, giving in too much to personal drama over ideas (not that I mind personal drama - I relish it - but it can get over the top) and that it would accentuate the problems with BSG in its last season.
You may notice I'm using the past tense quite a bit. That's because those worries have now abated. Caprica has yet to prove itself BSG's equal, but it's well on its way to being an entertaining series in of itself.
Basic plot summary. Roughly forty odd years before Number Six walked down that corridor on Armistice Station the Twelve Colonies are an united clutter of independent powers with their own agendas. Caprica, where the show is appropriately set, is the most powerful. Tauron, where the Adamas and Admiral Cain from the series hail, is one of the poorer worlds and tensions between native Capricans and Tauron immigrants to the world seems to be an ongoing issue - as is the growing number of monotheists, who reject the polytheistic moral relativism of the majority of the population for a dogmatic belief in one god (with a capital G).
Oh, and against all of this, one rebellious girl, who happens to be aligned with a fringe monotheistic terrorist group known as Soldiers of the One, and another not-rebellious girl, whose father is one of the aforementioned Taurons, get killed in an exploding train. And then, as so many fictional characters have done before, their father's try to resurrect them through the power of science(!).
The story of Caprica, while a tad generic (creating life from death is at least as old as Osiris and in science fiction has been a mainstay since Frankenstein). Is a well-crafted one. In spite of the fact that I knew much of the story going into it (thanks to ads and pre-release interviews) and of course knew what the end result would be (i.e., BSG), I found myself surprised and engaged, caring about what happens to the characters and caught unprepared by a few twists and turns.
Part of this Caprica is its own story. Although Caprica is a prequel it is largely self-contained, perhaps because Caprica was born from a union of producer Remi Aubuchon's independent script about the emergence of AI with the BSG prequel RDM was already working on. Whatever the case, Caprica was really written without BSG in mind, the little references and continuity odds being added in after the fact rather than as part of the overall framework.
This already puts Caprica ahead of many other prequels, whose primary fault is often their needless slavery to the original story (consider that much of the Star Wars prequel trilogy is basically exposition). RDM and company do not fall into this trap in Caprica; while Caprica is certainly tied to BSG's mythos it is most emphatically not just about showing people the secret history of BSG. Rather, it's more like a cyberpunk film in the style of Metropolis (the later, animated one) that ties into BSG, rather than revolving around it. The prequel bit is secondary to the story's own concepts, which is as it should be.
Character-wise, Caprica's a bit more iffy. The entire Adama family is, as always wonderful and full of character depth (including the 10-year old Bill, surprisingly enough), but the Graystones not quite so much. Posthumous Zoe Graystone certainly looks like she could be an interesting lead (particularly given the pilot's ending) but her parents are another matter, ranging from seemingly useless (her mother, Amanda) to her father, Daniel, who looks to have some depth but who might also get stuck falling into the cliché mad scientist role (I'm hoping for something more like a cross between Rush from SGU and Noah from Heroes before he got flanderized). Likewise, while the series gets points for not just shoving Zoe into an easily defined category like “cheerleader, nerdette, Goth, etc, etc” her friends are, frankly, kind of cliched and unimaginative. Hopefully we'll see them develop so scenes with them don't feel like they slipped in out of bad copy of Glee. The ending gives me hope for that.
As for the cylons... well, the trailers give away part of this but not all. Let me just say that where they went was more interesting than I expected. My belief, based on the trailers, was that they were going to show us that “OMG, they lied to us!” and that the Final Five did not create the humanoid cylons, but rather that mourning father Daniel did. This is not the case and if it were the case the show would be a lot more predictable and a lot less interesting. Instead, the origin of the cylons shown here is everything I could have hoped for - intelligent and original while remaining consistent with what we know.
Production-wise, Caprica holds up pretty well. The soundtrack, while more subdued than BSG's operatic tracks, is pretty good. On the other hand, the special effects, while still ahead of most of the industry, are a bit disappointing after BSG. Honestly, I shouldn't be surprised. Part of the goal of SyFy going into Caprica was, from the start, to increase their profitability. This meant two things: first of all, increasing viewership and second of all, cutting the budget. Fortunately, because Caprica is set groundside it doesn't need as high of a budget. All the same, the special effects in Caprica, even with the reduced number of CGI shots, look like they're out of the third season, rather than the spectacular fourth season of BSG. Oh, well. The story and characters are much more important.
Overall, Caprica's pilot was solid. It didn't enthrall me and capture my attention as much as the pilot of BSG did and there are certainly flaws that I'd like to see corrected as the show moves on. But it's a much better start than most shows get and if it's at all representative of the episodes to come, you can count me in.
Anyone who's been following me knows by I now that I'm a big fan of the new Battlestar Galactica, even if the final hour was more than a little disappointing. So it was only natural that I was looking forward to the Battlestar prequel Caprica, featuring the origin of the cylons and, oddly enough, William Adama, one of BSG's mainstay characters (in case you're completely unfamiliar with the show).
That being said, I approached the show with a little bit of skepticism. And no, it wasn't because, unlike BSG it was set in a quasi-semi-kind-of modern setting without spaceships; shows like The X-Files and Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex have shown that it's perfectly possible to do a rich and captivating science fiction show that is set on plain old Earth (or its equivalent in any case). Rather, my primary worry was that Caprica would become the soap opera that so many accused BSG of being, giving in too much to personal drama over ideas (not that I mind personal drama - I relish it - but it can get over the top) and that it would accentuate the problems with BSG in its last season.
You may notice I'm using the past tense quite a bit. That's because those worries have now abated. Caprica has yet to prove itself BSG's equal, but it's well on its way to being an entertaining series in of itself.
Basic plot summary. Roughly forty odd years before Number Six walked down that corridor on Armistice Station the Twelve Colonies are an united clutter of independent powers with their own agendas. Caprica, where the show is appropriately set, is the most powerful. Tauron, where the Adamas and Admiral Cain from the series hail, is one of the poorer worlds and tensions between native Capricans and Tauron immigrants to the world seems to be an ongoing issue - as is the growing number of monotheists, who reject the polytheistic moral relativism of the majority of the population for a dogmatic belief in one god (with a capital G).
Oh, and against all of this, one rebellious girl, who happens to be aligned with a fringe monotheistic terrorist group known as Soldiers of the One, and another not-rebellious girl, whose father is one of the aforementioned Taurons, get killed in an exploding train. And then, as so many fictional characters have done before, their father's try to resurrect them through the power of science(!).
The story of Caprica, while a tad generic (creating life from death is at least as old as Osiris and in science fiction has been a mainstay since Frankenstein). Is a well-crafted one. In spite of the fact that I knew much of the story going into it (thanks to ads and pre-release interviews) and of course knew what the end result would be (i.e., BSG), I found myself surprised and engaged, caring about what happens to the characters and caught unprepared by a few twists and turns.
Part of this Caprica is its own story. Although Caprica is a prequel it is largely self-contained, perhaps because Caprica was born from a union of producer Remi Aubuchon's independent script about the emergence of AI with the BSG prequel RDM was already working on. Whatever the case, Caprica was really written without BSG in mind, the little references and continuity odds being added in after the fact rather than as part of the overall framework.
This already puts Caprica ahead of many other prequels, whose primary fault is often their needless slavery to the original story (consider that much of the Star Wars prequel trilogy is basically exposition). RDM and company do not fall into this trap in Caprica; while Caprica is certainly tied to BSG's mythos it is most emphatically not just about showing people the secret history of BSG. Rather, it's more like a cyberpunk film in the style of Metropolis (the later, animated one) that ties into BSG, rather than revolving around it. The prequel bit is secondary to the story's own concepts, which is as it should be.
Character-wise, Caprica's a bit more iffy. The entire Adama family is, as always wonderful and full of character depth (including the 10-year old Bill, surprisingly enough), but the Graystones not quite so much. Posthumous Zoe Graystone certainly looks like she could be an interesting lead (particularly given the pilot's ending) but her parents are another matter, ranging from seemingly useless (her mother, Amanda) to her father, Daniel, who looks to have some depth but who might also get stuck falling into the cliché mad scientist role (I'm hoping for something more like a cross between Rush from SGU and Noah from Heroes before he got flanderized). Likewise, while the series gets points for not just shoving Zoe into an easily defined category like “cheerleader, nerdette, Goth, etc, etc” her friends are, frankly, kind of cliched and unimaginative. Hopefully we'll see them develop so scenes with them don't feel like they slipped in out of bad copy of Glee. The ending gives me hope for that.
As for the cylons... well, the trailers give away part of this but not all. Let me just say that where they went was more interesting than I expected. My belief, based on the trailers, was that they were going to show us that “OMG, they lied to us!” and that the Final Five did not create the humanoid cylons, but rather that mourning father Daniel did. This is not the case and if it were the case the show would be a lot more predictable and a lot less interesting. Instead, the origin of the cylons shown here is everything I could have hoped for - intelligent and original while remaining consistent with what we know.
Production-wise, Caprica holds up pretty well. The soundtrack, while more subdued than BSG's operatic tracks, is pretty good. On the other hand, the special effects, while still ahead of most of the industry, are a bit disappointing after BSG. Honestly, I shouldn't be surprised. Part of the goal of SyFy going into Caprica was, from the start, to increase their profitability. This meant two things: first of all, increasing viewership and second of all, cutting the budget. Fortunately, because Caprica is set groundside it doesn't need as high of a budget. All the same, the special effects in Caprica, even with the reduced number of CGI shots, look like they're out of the third season, rather than the spectacular fourth season of BSG. Oh, well. The story and characters are much more important.
Overall, Caprica's pilot was solid. It didn't enthrall me and capture my attention as much as the pilot of BSG did and there are certainly flaws that I'd like to see corrected as the show moves on. But it's a much better start than most shows get and if it's at all representative of the episodes to come, you can count me in.