Caprica

Introduction

It's 50 years before the events that took place in the recently ended saga/remake of Battlestar Galactica. Set on the planet of Caprica, one of the twelve colonies, this new imagined series from the pen of Ronald D. Moore and Remi Aubuchon sets the scene for events that led to the devastating Cylon attack on the home worlds.

Zoe Graystone (Alessandra Toreson) is a young school girl who's a bit of a genius at computer software. Along with friends Ben (Avan Jogia) and Lacey (Magda Apanowicz), Zoe has followed the youth into the retreat of the V Club, a virtual reality place where the internet and taboos have mixed for a place where no holds are barred. The V Club consists of sex, murder and human sacrifice, all virtual but a blight on the morality of Caprican society nonetheless. The Capricans believe in a number of Gods and this is believed to have led to the breakdown in morality, and when Ben introduces Zoe and Lacey to the idea of one true God, they think they have the answer to salvation.



All three plan to escape from Caprica and head to the world of Gemenon, presumably where the worship of one God is prevalent, at least this is the plan according to Zoe. Ben has other ideas and becomes a suicide bomber, killing himself, Zoe and a large number of other passengers on the monorail-type train they are travelling on. Lacey backed out at the last minute and therefore is extremely lucky to be alive, but feeling guilty at the same time.

Also passengers on this train are the wife and daughter of Joseph Adams (Esia Morales). Adams has a chance meeting with top scientist Daniel Graystone (Eric Stolz) at a police press conference that will change both of their lives forever. Adams is a lawyer with dubious gangster-like bosses from his Tauron home world that he reluctantly works for. Graystone is a top scientist whose company is working on the first robotic soldier project for the Caprican government, but is lacking a decent Artificial Intelligence to make it work properly.

Graystone, Adams and Zoe hold the key to the future between them...

Special Features

Web Blogs - 4 mini-featurette's lasting some 2 ½ minutes each, presumably part of the pre-production publicity to stir interest in the Pilot.Deleted Scenes - nothing spectacular to be honest, as is the way with these things...

Commentary with Director Jeffrey Reiner, Exec Producer/Writer Ronald D. Moore and Exec Producer David Eick

Overall

Anyone who is purely into the space battles of Battlestar Galactica look away now; this series may not be for you. This may have partly come from the same pen as the mighty BSG, but is not in the same mould. It appears that the original idea for this series actually came from Remi Aubuchon, who wanted to create a series set in the future with a core subject of robotic slavery. Aubuchon was advised to meet with Ronald D. Moore and David Eick, who were looking for a spin-off series, and lo, Caprica was born.



Caprica looks and feels a very different series based on the pilot episode, it's more a drama series in a sci-fi setting, which isn't a bad thing. The key to this so far are the questions being asked of society such as the choice of worship between either one or many gods, racism, the morality of youth, general ethics, and personal ambition within the corporate world.

The V Club is a new but oddly familiar place. It has distinct parallels with the internet, which it is essentially the amalgamation of the internet with virtual reality (remember that from the 90's?), in that it was the pornographic companies who quickly grasped the potential of the new holoband tool, created by Daniel Graystone who clearly didn't have this kind of thing in mind. The idea that you can just gather in one place and have sex with whoever you want or shoot them has an appeal of kind and is clearly just a descendant of the kinds of social networking sites we utilise now. There's a saying that the internet is just a tool for watching porn and so the V Club takes this to the logical conclusion with added violence from video games as well. Interesting concept and social commentary at the same time.



The main key to this series though is going to be the evolution of the Cylons and just how we got to the stage where the robots rebelled from their masters and caused the first Cylon War that is referenced but never seen in BSG. What this pilot does give you though is the surprising creation of the very first and an indirect link to a prominent character from BSG, which is a neat twist.I really liked this. It has a completely different dynamic to BSG but the writing is solid and the drama, if it keeps up the standard here, is good enough to keep interest piqued.

Good start...