Will Caprica Fill the BSG Void?
There’s been a void in my soul since Battlestar Galactica (BSG) went off the air and so I’ve been long awaiting Caprica, the prequel to the BSG series. The series is set to come out either late 2009 or early 2010, but a DVD of the first, 93-minute episode has already been released.
The prequel starts out 50 years before the events of BSG. The show first centers on a teenager named “Zoe” who has created an unprecedented virtual copy of herself online. She is a believer in the one true God, and plans to run away from her father Daniel Graystone, one of the head technicians at a company attempting to make combat robots called “Cylons.” Before she can run away, she is blown up in a terrorist attack, along with another girl named Tamara. The respective fathers of the now-deceased girls become friends after the incident and when Daniel discovers his daughter’s copy he offers Tamara’s father the chance to bring Tamara back in virtual form.
It sounds promising as a plot, but I think BSG fans will be disappointed in Caprica. BSG was epic, encompassing large-scale political, social and military battles, but also personal, showing individual lives, individual decisions and their repercussions on a galactic level. Caprica by comparison starts out with a very narrow focus, concentrating mostly on the two father figures, and only tangentially touching upon larger issues. Though a disappointment in comparison to the wide-angle lens of BSG, certainly a narrower focus could still make for a strong show. So far, however, none of the characters have grabbed me and with a narrower focus that is even more important.
There are glimmers of hope that the show’s focus will expand: terrorist religious groups, company espionage, mafia connections surrounding one of the fathers, and even a little political assassination. However, because of the slow pacing of the show, a lot of groundwork was laid, but it didn’t feel like much happened. Where BSG had fast-paced action and intensity, Caprica so far only has promise and intrigue.
Like its predecessor, Caprica’s emphasis certainly seems to be on well-plotted serial episodes. In that way, I expect this show to be quite satisfying to watch over time. The creators seem to have an idea of where Caprica is headed and how it might get there, so only need to make the journey interesting to keep me watching.
