CAPRICA: The Resurrection!

I think they were hoping to lure people in with a sort of "hey look, Battlestar Galactica : the early years", but it's clearly a different show.

I decided to give it a chance and i've been really entertained, I spose SyFy [godawful name] decided from the start to let it flounder.

I guess at the very least they are shoving it aside for other BSG projects.

I was utterly despondent when the news broke (I had been expecting it but the dropping the show after airing such a strong episode and withholding the last five episodes seemed unusually cruel).

Here's my personal take on the saga (I've no insider information but it's just my conclusion based on the observable facts and I've seen it mentioned elsewhere too).

Caprica was commissioned before the full scale of the financial crisis hit.

It's a very expensive show, with a large ensemble cast of established actors, filmed on location and on sets and it became obvious around the time of broadcast that they couldn't afford a second series. The decision was probably made to switch to a small cast green screen based series almost straight away.

Rather than admit this and create a negative buzz in business circles they deliberately scuppered Caprica using the bizarre promotion and broadcast methods they used and announcing Blood And Chrome around the time of broadcast of the second half of the series.

This meant the few people who realised the show had come back would stop watching as it was pretty clear that it was going to be canceled and hardly anyone watches a story based show where the story isn't concluded.

They could then point to the low ratings to justify the cancellation and hope that the new series will pick up some of the disappointed viewers who followed Caprica.

I fear however that people will not trust SyFy after all this fannying around to support even a cheap green screen space opera show.

The show was in my opinion unique and a bit too clever for it's own good.

Despite being set in the same universe as NuBSG it told a very different kind of story and kept it free of spoilers for the other series so people who enjoyed it could later move on to the earlier show set further along the timeline (something Lucas should have done with the PT).

The writing and acting were very impressive and it took chances with story telling (to the point where it alienated some BSG fans who preferred the combat lead earlier seasons of that show by being at odds with their expectations).

It just had the bad fortune of being handled in the way it was at the time it was by the increasingly ironically named SyFy.

I can't see it happening, it's possible that they may re-tool the final five (tee-hee) episodes to tie them in with Blood And Chrome (which would explain why they are holding them back and delaying the release of the DVD sets).

The whole thing reminds me of Parliamentary Trains, it goes back to the 19th Century. When a train company wanted to close a line but avoid the expense of closing the line so deliberately made the service unworkable to justify the closure.

The BBC used the same tactics to get Doctor Who off the air in the eighties despite it's continued popularity (running it against soaps, cutting the budget etc, until the viewing figures dropped low enough to justify the cancellation...but ironically not the loss in VHS and DVD sales which made more money for the BBC than foreign broadcast sales).

SyFy will probably not last out the next few years, possibly NBC have been using the same tactics with SyFy as a whole (what with the re-branding and diminishing amount of science fiction on the channel, it's brand identity is so watered down that it's ripe to be turned into a totally different channel and/or sold off).

twister111 said:

Personally I didn't like Caprica. The story felt like a whole group of emo kids in a room cutting themselves because, mommy didn't get them a car they wanted. I mean mabye some episode cleared things up that I didn't see but, I watched the majority of it. From what I saw some kid with zero motavation blew up his girlfriend on the train and, the religous organization just kills... to kill. I mean was there some kind of oppresion I missed? Sure there was a bit of hate but, from what I've seen it was justified. The only two members I saw not be gung ho about killing people were Clarice and, Zoe. Even then the other members just wanted to kill them. It was a failed allagory for opposing religous beliefs. They wanted death at the hands of the seen by majority "bad" religous group but, didn't give us much of a reason to see their side. By making the majority of those within the organization killers who plant bombs everywhere it's hard to see their side of the issue.

Further, Joe's quest to see a digital file created by Daniel through a google search was just depressing and, suffered an anti-climatic end.

Plus, the v-world was poorely handled. I mean an underground, hacked, virtual reality has the following stupid rules. 1 you die once your blocked from re-entry. 2 you apparently have to hold a job in this thing. 3 it's too damn real. They go through this trouble creating this video game that's illegal so that the majority of it you're just sitting around looking at "guns" your holding for your "boss". Sure there's the sex part but, why the fuck would you stick around after that? Most people would realistically jack in go to the sex rooms. Then go back out into another game where they can kill and, be killed and, respawn. Then if they wanted to chat they'd go to a game where they can chat without getting blocked by some troll who decided to go on a shooting spree. Sex aside it didn't seem fun to be in at all.

Super genius kid story. Yeah an emo rich girl Wesley Crusher basically. Who we barely get to know before she's killed. In her few minutes of screentime she's a brat who doesn't at all appreciate the work her parents do to keep a roof over her head. I know it's not unrealistic but, my gripe about this is this character's death was the anchor for the entire series. It's the motavation for Zoe-A, Lacey, Daniel, damn near everyone. From what little was shown she's an unlikeable brat who just wanted to run away. I mean at least Wesley used his smarts to save the ship several times. Zoe? Oh, "I don't like my life despite being a healthy born rich person with intelligence and, several options available to me being a Caprican native. My life fucking sucks 'cause I believe in one God. Run away time!!!!"

I personally won't be an active part in getting Caprica back on the the air because, I didn't like it.

That said there were positives to the series. Good performances, well written dialogue overuse of "frack" aside, and gave Eric Stolz a paycheck. Apart from that I didn't like it. The pacing was poor and, too many story points were just dropped.

If anyone does want to save the series an apple send campaign is unlikely to work. You'd have to do something big. Get a few hundred fans and, a star of the series to go to a store with you and, buy the DVDs. Record it and, post it to Youtube to get it viral. The Subway campaign worked for Chuck. Want to save Caprica? Do something akin to that.

The teen characters were only in it for about a ninth of the screen time...you seem to be describing the pilot episode, where they feature more prominently because the MAGLEV bombing is a major plot point in the pilot and first few episodes.

It's clearly explained that the whole of Caprican society is so hideously jaded and apathetic (using technology to play out human sacrifice, crime, rape, robbery fantasies etc) that this horrifies a minority drawn from a broad cross section of their culture (the teens are teens because Sister Willow is using her position as a teacher to spot potential converts and get them primed to blow up stuff there are STO members of every age and class and they are only it when the plot demands it).

I can see the appeal of New Cap City in V-World (and Caprican society as a whole).

In V-World anything is possible and so it's boring as hell, in New Cap City there is virtual danger and the rules are not defined (you could get locked out of a game you are really enjoying) it has some of the freedom of V-World with some of the consequences of the real world. The mysterious designer of the game seems to have a bit of a God complex (though I'm sure it doesn't like being called that). It made me wonder if the God thing saw our reality in the same way that Capricans saw New Cap City.

The bulk of the plot concentrates around the adult characters as you say we hardly get to see Zoe-A because the character is redundant, Zoe-B is much more important as she has to break away from being just a faded photocopy of the dead girl and become herself.

When a series is split up like this one was first impressions probably count more than they normally would.

It never fails.  I love a show, it dies.  Frakkin' sad.  I don't have the strength or means to participate in the campaign, so best of luck to anyone that does.  I knew when the name was changed to SyFy, bad things were going to happen.

^ Looks like Jeditray has been canceled too.

SPACE in Canada is apparently showing the missing episodes.

I've got to wait for the delayed DVD release which I might get second hand just to smite SyFy.

Bingowings said:

^ Looks like Jeditray has been canceled too.

Poor ratings.

You guys'll be pleased to hear that the Season 1.5 DVD will NOT be delayed - it will be released on December 21st, and WILL include the episodes not yet shown on SyFy.

Do you have a source for that Ash as I've not seen that mentioned anywhere as yet?

It probably won't effect me now, I might have been lucky to receive the collected series for Christmas or purchased it in the new year but after the mess up SyFy made of this (which doesn't effect myself but is a slap in the face to fans following the show on that channel) I will make a point of purchasing any of their shows second hand (recycling is good for the environment and my method of purchase will put a little sand grain sized ding in their profits as a protest).

Bingowings said:

Do you have a source for that Ash as I've not seen that mentioned anywhere as yet?

http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/news/Caprica-Season-1-point-5/14643

Really?  Maybe I should watch then.  I sure enjoyed that plot point in Futurama.

The first two and a half seasons of Battlestar are brilliant.  The latter half of season 3 falters a bit, then season 4 is a mixed bag, with the exception of the mutiny arc (which is brilliant) and the finale (which I loved, fuck everyone who says different*).

*not really, I understand the criticisms, I just disagree with most of them

^ heh, I sorta feel the same way about season 4 episode 17. I loved it, I think i'm the only one.

I appreciate season one now but it didn't really grab me at the time.

As much as i love various bits here and there Season 2 is pretty solid.

That's funny, I thought 4x15-4x18, all-inclusive, was the weakest run of the entire series.  And the miniseries through 1x13 (i.e. season 1) was the absolute strongest run of the series, with the possible exception of the New Caprica arc (that is, 2x19-3x05, including the "Resistance" webisodes).

That just goes to show, I only watched nuBSG on DVD I didn't have to wait for ages for the story to develop and didn't have to suffer mid season hiatuses.

I imagine this created a different perception of the show from people who had to go through all that.

I thought the whole thing from beginning to end was pretty much consistently good.

Sure some key episodes were better than others and characters like Bulldog and Boxey just vanished without any in series explanation but not having to suffer broadcast lag I could pretty much munch my way through all the story without feeling let down by any of the courses.

I felt the same way about Caprica (the pilot and the first half).

Now, when I revisited B5, a show I loved to bits at the time of broadcast, I was really finding myself noticing the pace dragging in key moments, bizarrely it was the so called fast-forward to insure a conclusion season four that was worst hit (Sheridan stayed down that hole in the ground for a hell of of an age and how long did Garibaldy have to wait before he could even meet his Martian employer let alone for what happened to happen).

The telepath war happened off screen (despite being a major plot point) and some of series five is almost unwatchably bad.

I was miffed when Crusade was canceled but that had been interfered with by sex and wrestling loving TNT so much that it hardly made sense sometimes.

In terms of story some people will not have liked Caprica in the same way that some people didn't like the direction that nuBSG went after season...(fill in blank) but the way SyFy showed it and promoted it there wasn't a chance for it to take off with the sort of people who would have liked it.

I keep reading reports of people who didn't even know the show existed until it was announced that it was being canceled or only found out about it when it came back for a couple of episodes last month.

Thanks for the link Ash.