Caprica - The Pilot - Review

[shadowkat]

I am going to try to keep this review free of spoilers. Just finished watching what may well be the best science-fiction series pilot that I have seen. (And considering how much sci-fi tv shows I've watched in my lifetime - including ones released in the 1970s, that no one remembers such as Space 1999, and a sci-fi show that starred Ike Eiseman and Roddy McDowell, this is saying something. Sure Lost had a good pilot, but I saw flaws. BSG's mini-series pilot drug in places. If you count 33 as the pilot - yes that ranks up there with this baby.)

Caprica - written by Ron Moore and Remi Aubuchon, directed by Friday Night Lights veteran Jeffrey Reiner, and starring Esai Morales as Joseph Addams (Adama) and Eric Stolz as Daniel Graystone...is the prequel series to BattleStar Galatica. It takes place 58 years prior to the fall of Caprica and the events of BSG.

The themes covered in the pilot reminded me in some respects of similar themes that Joss Whedon has attempted to cover in Dollhouse and the creators of V are trying to address - in fact Caprica is covering a combination of those themes, but in an innovative and far less didatic, clumsy and confusing manner. This movie had me riveted. And the twist, blew me away, even though I saw it coming - actually because I saw it coming. It is a frightening film. And it addresses the themes of ethnicity, racism, identity, religion, souls, worship, and arrogance or "god-syndrom" in a way that is rarely done, and hardly this well. The last show that came close was possibly Torchwood: Children of the Earth.

Much like BattleStar Galatica before it, the themes were addressed in a manner that left more questions than answers. The moral lines here are blurred.

After their daughters are killed in a terrorist act, a scientist, asks a defense attorney - what would you do to have the ability to hold, to see, to be with your daughter again?

Mary Shelley was asked a similar question ages ago and came up with the novel Frankenstein. What the scientist comes up with is far less black and white then what we often see in film versions of Shelley's novel, and far scarier than anything most film and television versions Mary Shelley of Frankenstein could have imagined.[ETC: I have not read Shelley's Frankenstein. Just seen the film versions.]

And that's just one layer. The other questions asked are about religion, to what degree are our actions justified by our beliefs? Is belief in an absolute philosophy, a right and a wrong, possible? And if so, are our means to ensure that type of order justified? Where are the lines drawn?

Unlike other sci-fi tv shows, Caprica has an interracial cast or a multi-ethnic one. It is not like V - where the vast majority of the extras and leads are "white", ethnicity is an issue here. Also gender inequality is to a degree addressed but again in a subtle non-dogmatic way.

Ron Moore has also built an intricate world. Transportation, politics, ethnicity, technology - like our own world, commenting on our world but different. Doing what sci-fi does best - commenting on difficult themes through the safety of another world, a makebelieve world not our own.

The filming is flawless, as are the performances - if you go by tv standards. The pacing - well there's never a dull moment, and yes, you get enough of the characters to know who they are and more importantly to care - not an easy trick to pull off.

I can't say much more without giving too much away and this is a story that you really should not be spoiled on. It would remove some of the delight of discovery.

The pilot is due to air in January on SyFy, but it may be cut, so if you can rent the DVD via netflix or you may be able to find it online. The series will be run by Jane Espenson, but according to ImBd - Ron Moore and Aubonouch wrote the first 3-4 episodes. I pretty much know from the pilot who Marsters is likely to play now - and it will be interesting. Caprica like BSG plays with the moralities of science, and the conflict between science and religion. Where do we draw the line? It also plays with the moralities of warfare, violence and defense. Racial conflict. Ethnicity. How we identify ourselves and much like Star Trek DS9, Babylon 5, Farscape, and Torchwood Children of Earth - does it in a manner that does not always provide clear answers so much as more questions.

If you love science-fiction, you owe it to yourself to give this one a shot.

Comments

[selenak.livejournal.com]

I liked Caprica, too, but I have to ask: have you read Frankenstein? Because while it may have been fueled by Mary Shelley's grief for her lost child (and awareness of having cost her own mother her life), the story itself has nothing to do with that. As opposed to many a film version, Victor Frankenstein does not resurrect anyone specifically. He simply creates out of scientific curiosity, and then immediately is repulsed by what he created. Also, the Creature is about as far from black-and-white as you can get. He narrates one third of the novel (being, as opposed to various film versions, highly verbal and intelligent) and shows 19-years-old Mary the Milton reader in that he clearly owes something to both Milton's Lucifer and Milton's Adam, getting to voice the "what the hell were you thinking of creating me like this and then washing your hands of any responsibility?" protest that drives 20th century android-confronts-maker scenes like the one from Blade Runner - and the Cylons from the reimagined BSGverse.

(Just to clear that up, the attempted female Creature the male demands so he's not alone in the world isn't, as opposed to film versions, anyone resurrected, either. Victor never even gives her life, he destroys her when she's still in the getting-put-together stage.)

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

No, I regret to admit that I have yet to read Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein. I have only seen the various film verisons - which you are quite correct do not tackle the themes you expressed above.

Currently plodding my way through Bram Stoker's novel Dracula - which I've discovered is far more black and white and asbolutist in print than in the many film versions. It was unfair of me to assume that Shelley was like Stoker in this regard.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

It's a safe bet to assume any film version of any of the classic horror novels is different from the books.

As for Dracula and Frankenstein the novels, there is a fundamentally different perspective in the time of origin alone. Bram Stoker was a late Victorian, and you can see a lot of foreigners=others=threats going on. Mary Shelley, writing nearly 80 years earlier was a Romantic (in the literary sense of the word) who spent most of her life living abroad; the Romantics tended to project themselves into the Others/Lonely Outcast/Rejected-by-Society person, that's pretty much the default setting safe to assume with any Romantic writer. Accordingly, the monster doesn't die in Frankenstein; the creator does.

[frenchani.livejournal.com]

Hee!

You make me want to re-watch it again which I can't for the streaming I had found is no longer online, there's no DVD for region 2 (it's really annoying btw) and I can't watch video files on my PC anymore. I really need to get a laptop.

To be honest I thought that the pilot had some flaws and I was underwhelmed by the STO storyline(partly because of the young actors playing Zoe and Ben, partly because of the writing) but the Daniel/Joseph stuff won me over, Eric Stoltz is simply terrific, I loved the themes of identity and family, and I loved many little details that say a lot about the BSG/Caprica high quality(the fact that Joseph and Sam speak ancient Greek for instance, or recurring the winks at Blade Runner).

I hope the series will live up to the pilot.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

Sorry to hear that. Oh well, at least you saw it once.
And it will be re-shown in January, although not the full 90 minutes.

See, I rather liked the actress playing Zoe. She worked for me.
Do you mean William? Don't remember a Ben. But there was a young boy named William Adama - who will become Bill Adama.

From the comments, apparently I liked this better than most people seem to, which surprised me because I remember reading rave reviews about it. What happened? Distance make the heart grow less fond?

[frenchani.livejournal.com]

No I didn't mean William. Ben was Zoe's boyfriend or bomb-boy, if you prefer. I wasn't convinced by the monotheism storyline. What bothered me was the way it was written and especially the way the three young actors(Zoe, Ben and Lacey) delivered in the scenes prior to Zoe's death...

Actually the pilot grew on me every time I re-watched it(I've seen it three times). I had mixed feelings in my first review back in April even though I was already hooked:

http://frenchani.livejournal.com/349437.html

[shapinglight]

I can't say I loved it when I watched it because it was so unrelievedly grim, but I did find it utterly fascinating and very, very well done. I can't wait to see more.

[moscow-watcher.livejournal.com]

I loved Caprica and I'm looking forward to the show. It seems like Moore intends to tackle many issues within the same show - issues of terrorism, artificial intellect, conflict between old and young generations, etc. The show has a great potential. Hopefully they will live up to the pilot.

[embers-log.livejournal.com]

I had rented it some time ago, but I'll rewatch on Syfy... I'm very excited about the new series!

Obscure vintage sci-fi shows

[revdorothyl.livejournal.com]

including ones released in the 1970s, that no one remembers such as Space 1999, and a sci-fi show that starred Ike Eiseman and Roddy McDowell

Hey, I watched Space 1999 (came closer to actually enjoying it now and then in the second season, when they tried to 'sex it up' a bit, but mainly watched it because there were no real alternatives, aside from reruns of the original Trek) and I watched all 3 or 4 episodes of Fantastic Journey that actually aired in my city, because I was a huge Roddy McDowell fan at first, but then because 'Varian' (the man from the future with the 'tuning fork' thingee, played by Jared Martin) was so very pretty to look at!

I even remember the brief proliferation of short-lived sci-fi shows in the 1977-78 season, with Man from Atlantis and Logan's Run, in addition to longer running but occasionally even cheesier shows like Wonder Woman and The Bionic Woman which had been picked up by new networks after ABC cancelled them the season before. Between those shows and the "Star Wars" phenomenon, Starlog actually had something other than old Twilight Zone and Outer Limits episode guides to talk about in their 1977 issues, I recall!

Re: Obscure vintage sci-fi shows

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

Hee. Nice to know I'm not alone in that. Sigh, I've either seen too much tv or I've seen the same amount as everyone else - just different shows and a better memory for them. My parents were in love with Space 1999 - which scared the bejeezus out of me at the time (I was about 7). It seemed to have nothing but monsters - I remember a huge spider thing, and these plant monsters quite vividly. It wasn't until Star Wars - that I stopped associating science-fiction with monsters and horror.

I rather liked Fantastic Journey - but didn't it have more than 4 episodes? It did have a four hour pilot, I seem to recall. I was watching because of Ike (because I had a crush on him back then due to the Escape from Witch Mountain films). Lost reminds me a great deal of Fantastic Journey.

I've seen so many cheesy sci-fi shows...I'm beginning to think I've seen all of them. Although there are a few, mostly from the UK that never really made it over here and I never saw. Europe and Japan have a better appreciation for Sci-Fi and comics than the US for some reason. Never really understood why sci-fi did better over there than here.

Re: Obscure vintage sci-fi shows

[revdorothyl.livejournal.com]

Oh Fantastic Journey had at least a full half-season of episodes, I think -- it's just that it was always being pre-empted or rescheduled in my area, so I only got to see about 4 episodes (it felt like) before it was gone for good (though I think the Sci-Fi channel showed some of the episodes one week in the 1990's, back when they used to air episodes of different vintage shows at 6 or 7 AM each weekday for as long as those episodes lasted, and then switch to a different show). I think I've seen the pilot shown as a late-night TV movie.

How about this one: did you ever catch an episode of The Phoenix in 1982? As I vaguely recall, Judson Scott was this pyramid-power, sun-worshiping, new-agey type dude named Bennu who'd been brought out of suspended animation or something and had to find his female counterpart Mira, who'd been awakened earlier, so that they could fulfill their 'save-the-earth' mission. Very Questor Tapes-meets-Starman. Wikipedia says that show WAS only on for about a month, but I remember drooling over Judson Scott.