Caprica DVD Review
IT’S GOOD
My first piece of advice when approaching Caprica is to let go of your expectations for another Battlestar Galactica. There will never be another BSG, even from the same creators working in the same universe. But this is not a bad thing. Caprica offers a whole new way to explore some of BSG’s favorite themes. We’ve come to expect sci-fi drama that tackles serious and complicated issues. Caprica delivers that in spades.
There’s plenty of great stuff for the writers to sink their teeth into. Caprica is a world similar to our own — technology-driven, yet still warped by religious fervor, politics, and racial prejudice. It’s also on the verge of a major breakthrough thanks to genius Daniel Graystone (Eric Stoltz), who is developing the first incarnation of our beloved Toasters.
Several plot threads are covered in 90 minutes: a terrorist attack, its subsequent investigation, Zoe and her school friends’ involvement in a religious-nutjob-cult, Daniel’s rivalry with a competing robotics company, and Joseph Adama’s dealings with the Tauran mafia.
Coming out of the pilot, there are two main issues that I am most looking forward to seeing explored in Caprica: what is “right” and “wrong” when it comes to the development of Artificial Intelligence and other technologies; and the clash of monotheism and polytheism amongst the colonists.
NOT YOUR FATHER’S HOLODECK
Let’s put it this way, you won’t be seeing Data and Geordi La Forge roleplaying Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson in this virtual construct.
Zoe Graystone and her pals hang out in a virtual reality night club they call “V Club” using a device called a Holoband. There’s some straight up crazy stuff happening there, too. Like, human-sacrifice-kind-of-crazy. And lots of sex… the DVD is delightfully uncut and unrated.
It’s in this hyper-advanced “Second Life” that Zoe has constructed a virtual doppleganger of herself — a consciousness that allows her to live on after her death. Daniel downloads Zoe’s virtual mind into one of his robot bodies and voila… we’re given one of the creepier sounding “Daddy?” lines ever emitted on screen.
TEENAGE ANGST
My chief beef with Caprica is the fact that I hate Zoe Graystone. Umm… I get that she’s all teenage angsty and stuff, but I couldn’t find any redeeming qualities to make me want her to come back to life after she got blown up. And oh yeah, she’s a terrorist.
OH BOY… IT’S AN ADAMA
I understand why Moore and Eick put the Adamas in Caprica — presumably to appease BSG fans and make them feel a stronger connection to the world, but it just seems superfluous. I thought my days of Adama bashing were behind me. Esai Morales plays Joseph Adama, father of William, and it looks like Bill is a chip off the old block: self righteousness + hypocrisy + workaholic + fear of AI = Adama.
I gotta say, I was a little surprised not to see young Bill Adama hitting the bottle… it can’t be too far off, though. I’m sure we’ll see him throwing back shots at some point in the series. Perhaps at the V Club?
I’M IN
Judging from the pilot, Caprica is going to be a very unique show — something that can totally stand on its own, but has the power of an already established (and beloved) mythology behind it. Bring it.
Nar Williams is the host of Science of the Movies on the Science Channel, which premieres in May. He’s the Geek-in-Chief of the Achieve Nerdvana blog, where he writes about sci-fi, sci-tech, and geek culture. He also co-hosts the weekly video podcast Nerdbunker. Follow Nar on Twitter.
