Re: Battlestar Galactica I just watched the pilot for Caprica and think I'm going to keep checking it out. There is some serious potential here. There are some crazy moral questions being asked with this show. It was pretty dark and the technology is pretty interesting. It's amazing how much stuff is coming out dealing with online Avatars. There are aspects that very much remind me of parts of Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash. I never watched the Battlestar Galactica mini series or the show that followed although I was told many times by a few friends that I should. I never seemed to be around a tv when it was on and after I got a DVR, it was too late to start. For people who've seen this pilot, is it worth checking out the original series or does this stand alone? I've never been huge sci-fi fan, per se. I really love cyberpunk and very near future sci-fi, but galactic space warfare has never appealed too much to me. Caprica seems to be a little bit more up my alley, but I'm willing to go back to the beginning and check out Battlestar.
Just watched it. I thought it was VERY cool, and will most definitely be watching it. Colour me impressed.
I've rented BSG: The Plan and will be watching it this week. I'll post some thoughts after I've seen it. Essentially, it's some of the major points of BSG as seen from the Cylon perspective. I watched the Caprica movie and didn't think that it was nearly as good as BSG, particularly the BSG Miniseries that sparked the show. Then again, I don't know that anything will ever approach that level of perfection, so I might be judging it too harshly. I thought the BSG ending was great - it answered the question of whether or not it was God or chance nicely. You just have to accept that, within the context of the show, God's hand was at work.* *NOT my own personal belief about reality, mind you, but only within the show.
Saw that Part 2 was available on Hulu this weekend so I'll check it out sometime this week. I really liked the pilot and the whole premise surrounding the how the Cylons came to be. I'll give it a chance since I liked both the old and new BSG.
I thought the pilot was well done too but I'm skeptical about whether or not the revelation that these Cylons would actually be the second iteration of Colonially-created artificial life will suck some of the narrative air out of the story. If you'll remember, the humans on Kobol created a Thirteenth Tribe of artificial humanoids that eventually settled on Earth 1.0, before five of them returned to the Colonies to help the Centurions create the skinjobs that eventually reduced the human race down to a number that would fill about half a football stadium. Knowing that these "Cylons" aren't really the evolutionary step the show's characters may come to think they are is naturally clouding my view of the whole plot, and I'm sure there are other fans out there who feel similarly. That said, though, RDM and the BSG crew did an amazing job with the curve balls they seemed to pick out of thin air (Tigh is a Cylon?!?!?) so they've got a lot of rope to play with here. (In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if the Thirteenth Tribe's story gets completely fleshed out in this series).
The storytelling is picking up, for sure. I thought the best scene of the series so far was Daniel Graystone getting excited about the notion of creating a race of robotic slaves to do man's bidding right in front of the emotionally fragile echo of his daughter that is expected to serve as the template for this race of mechanical servants. Having Zoeylon rip her own arm off didn't help, either. I must say, though, that I watch every episode imagining a big flashing scoreboard hanging over Caprica City counting down the days until the Cylon War starts. By my fuzzy recollection, Bill Adama is going to be in his early 20's when the "Razor" flashbacks happen. Since the war lasts somewhere between 10-12 years that means 'Lil Billy is already near the age when this whole shitstorm is due to kick off (Battlestar Wiki says he's 11, I don't know if that's been confirmed on air.) That doesn't leave a whole lot of time for Graystone to start mass-producing Cylons to the extent that they'd get all pissed off and want to kill all humanity...although I suspect Zoeylon and Tamaraider are going to provide enough tween angst to poison the entire race even under a rushed production schedule.
I think now that Graystone is staying on as chairman and the other board members are fully behind the Cylon project they'll start mass producing these things and the war will get kicked off rather quickly. I really like the Grand Theft Auto version of Caprica. Interesting to see how it plays out, especially since Tamra is essentially invincible in the game. So does the Zoeylon become the leader of the Cylons? I'm curious as to what will push her over the edge.
So far the show is keeping my attention. I wonder if cylons will be able to access the virtual world as well as they seem to be like Tamira(sp?) only with a mechanical body. Kind of the opposite of humans. Humans aren't real in the virtual world and Cylons aren't real in the human world. My only problem with the premise of the show is the same problem I had with the Star Wars prequels. You know, in a way, what's coming and what's going to happen. We all knew Anakin was going to go bad and as awesome as some of the elements in the third film were (not a fan of the first two), I just don't really like knowing the future of characters. With that being said, even though I haven't watched Battlestar at all, I know the premise enough to know that robots get pissed and don't want to be slaves and rise up and try to eliminate all humans. For some people, and assuming hard core Battlestar fans, this is probably awesome as it answers a lot of questions and gives a whole new level to the story. For me though, it's just giving me a foreboding feeling. Maybe I really need to go back and watch Battlestar from beginning to end and it'll eliminate some of my trepidation.
Once you start watching BSG, you'll probably won't be surprised to discover that Cylons in the future use Projection.
I'm enjoying Caprica, but I really wish they'd cast someone else for the part of Daniel Graystone -- Eric Stoltz gives me the heebie jeebies, presumably because of his portrayal of psychopaths and child molesters in the past.
I'm kinda drunk, and 1/3 into the third episode. I was doubtful about this show. As a fan of BSG, I didn't think this show could offer me anything. I was wrong. It's very good... Print it. Show it to BSG fans. It's good...
Since this show last aired, I finished the entire run of BSG, movies and shorts and all. It's making me enjoy this show that much more. This show is DARK!!!! Knowing what the future holds I just don't ever see it lightening up at all. It's my only gripe. BSG was a fairly dark show as well, but there was always a level of hope. This show has almost none. Every moment is just that little bit closer to some bad shit. It's very strange knowing what this will all lead to. Since the new episodes started airing, especially this weeks episode, the only storyline that truly has me hooked is what digital Zoey is going to do in her world. That's the only place I can see any level of brightness.
Not sure how many people are still watching this show, but it looks like we just saw the genesis of how the Cylons will become used as foot soldiers in the Colonial wars.
And it's over. <a class="postlink" href="http://ausiellofiles.ew.com/2010/10/27/breaking-syfy-cancels-caprica/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+entertainmentweekly/ausiellofiles+(Entertainment+Weekly/EW.com's:+The+Ausiello+Files" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://ausiellofiles.ew.com/2010/10/27/ ... ello+Files</a>) I was really enjoying this show, but it was defiantly slow compared to BSG. Hopefully they next prequel will be better received.
Just when it was starting to pick up and get interesting, of course. The digital world especially with Zoey was the best part. Oh well we all know SyFy blows now.
What makes this news worse is they just announced another BSG spin off that takes place during the original war. They should have focused more on this, given it at least another season and set things up. Then jump ahead to the actual war. Would have tied it all together so much better. Have William Adama be a young man in the next series. Tie together some elements of Caprica and BSG. Just scrapping this and jumping ahead just seems wrong.