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Caprica

Started by PPI Karl, February 01, 2010, 12:41:00 PM

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PPI Karl

[No, not Paprika.  That's an anime movie with an eerily similar premise.]

Curious to know if anyone is watching the series?  Thoughts? 

So far, I'm thinking it's better than I expected, but I'm confused by its time-line.  Is this thousands of years before Battlestar Galactica?  What's the "58 years before the fall" all about?
If you want to end your misery, start enjoying it, because there's nothing the universe begrudges more than our enjoyment.

Damian

I have also started watching Caprica.  On a whim I decided to watch the entire remade Battlestar Gallactica series on SciFi, and after the pilot mini-series episodes, I was hooked.  I rented the season dvd's from Netflix and watched them sequentially.

Then I found the pilot episode of Caprica on Netflix, rented and watched that, and was very intrigued.  I'm enjoying the ethical issues that naturally arise when looking at the possibility of artificial intelligence.

Regarding the timeline... "58 years before the fall" means that Caprica is set 58 years prior to the Cylons' brutal and unforeseen attack of Caprica.  Their intent was to wipe out the human race, and reclaim Caprica (Caprica is the name of the planet, and Caprica city is large city where the series takes place) for their own.  That attack and attempted decimation of humanity was the catalyst for the Battlestar Gallactica story (at least in the remake...I don't really remember much about the story from the original TV series) where surviving humans form a hodge-podge fleet of space vessels and try to survive being hunted and infiltrated by Cylons, and eventually decide to find a new home on a mythical planet called Earth.  Also, for a bit more perspective on the timeline, the Joseph Adama character is the father of William Adama (seen as a child in Caprica) who later is the commander of the Battlestar Gallactica ship.

If you haven't seen the SciFi remake of Battlestar, you might want to watch the Battlestar Gallactica mini-series, which is what spawned the remade TV series.  If you're liking Caprica, you might enjoy Battlestar too.
"A mind all logic is like a knife all blade. It cuts the hand that wields it." --Rabindranath Tagore

"Me fail English? That's unpossible." --Ralph Wiggum

PPI Karl

Quote from: PPI Damian on February 01, 2010, 06:43:20 PM
Regarding the timeline... "58 years before the fall" means that Caprica is set 58 years prior to the Cylons' brutal and unforeseen attack of Caprica.  Their intent was to wipe out the human race, and reclaim Caprica (Caprica is the name of the planet, and Caprica city is large city where the series takes place) for their own.  That attack and attempted decimation of humanity was the catalyst for the Battlestar Gallactica story (at least in the remake...I don't really remember much about the story from the original TV series) where surviving humans form a hodge-podge fleet of space vessels and try to survive being hunted and infiltrated by Cylons, and eventually decide to find a new home on a mythical planet called Earth.  Also, for a bit more perspective on the timeline, the Joseph Adama character is the father of William Adama (seen as a child in Caprica) who later is the commander of the Battlestar Gallactica ship.

Sorry, Damian.  I should have prefaced my post with an admission that I've followed the entire, mostly brilliant remake of series, so I know about most of the premise.  It's that darned time-line, though, that's confusing me because, in the series, the Fleet stumbles upon an ancient Cylon homeworld that has suffered extinction for tens of thousands of years, and there are other references to the original Cylon models have struck out on their own in the galaxy some centuries prior.  It just doesn't seem conceivable that the Cylons could have evolved to the extent they did in 58 years.  Perhaps they'll address some of these paradoxes at some point.
If you want to end your misery, start enjoying it, because there's nothing the universe begrudges more than our enjoyment.

ljiljanac

I haven't gotten a chance to see Caprica, and I skipped the remake series of Battlestar Galactica.  I'm a die-hard fan of the original Battlestar Galactica T.V. series.  I swore I was going to date Starbuck and marry Apollo, I was jealous of Serena when she married Apollo, I cried when she died, and the Cylon's were the most evil thing I knew (besides Darth Vader).   I used to draw a Colonial Viper on every book cover I had, and I had a Battlestar Galactica lunch pail.  I guess I didn't want my memories of the original series to be ruined by remakes, which for some reason always seem to morph into whatever themes are popular on T.V. today.  Take the movie "Titanic" for example.  I saw the original movie in black and white.  THAT was classic, and it was about an unsinkable boat that sunk.  The new "Titanic" ended up being about Kate Winslett (the calmest suicidal drama queen I'd ever seen) hooking up with Leonardo DiCaprio (who reminded me the whole time of a 12 year old trying to figure out how to grow hair on his chest and is littler than her) on an awesomely computer-generated Titanic (seriously awesome special effects!) and then running around being chased by Billy Zane (HE was convincing in this movie yet still out of place...I like him  ;)  ) and his butler Giles (or whatever his name was) while FINALLY!!  FINALLY!! the boat hits an iceberg and sinks (a minor detail in the movie and merely thrown in for effect).  Then I have to hear how wonderful the movie is and how much money it made!!!  WTF people!!!??????!!!!!!!!!!!  IT SUCKED!!!!!...I feel better now.   0:< 

Damian

Nice to see I've got some fellow Battlestar fans here.  My wife makes fun of the show and calls it Battlestar Dramatica.  I've tried to get her to see the light, but no dice.

Karl, I misunderstood... Now I see the timeline you're talking about.  What I kept thinking about while watching the series is the phrase "All this has happened before, and all of it will happen again."  Which, to me, superficially, is a reference to humanity making the same mistakes over and over again.  But when considering the BSG timeline, I think the phrase has another meaning...  When considering the phrase and also the "resurrection" of Kara Thrace, my thoughts move in the direction of either time manipulation.

Or, taking the phrase literally, perhaps the BSG series is just one of many times, over the course of thousands of years, where humanity created artifical life/intelligence, mistreated it, were nearly destroyed by it, sought refuge on a primative world determined not to make the same mistakes again, and over the course of human evolution those lessons are forgotten or treated as ancient mythology.  And so that loop of events plays over and over again...kinda like a residual haunting.

Lillie, that was a SERIOUS rant!  Nice work!   ;D  Titanic was NOT what I expected, and the only enjoyment I got from it was the groundbreaking special effects.  I always bothered me that Rose hung on to that stupid jewel only to throw it into the ocean at the end, all while millions of dollars and countless man-hours were spent in the hunt for it.  Stupid, irrational decision.
"A mind all logic is like a knife all blade. It cuts the hand that wields it." --Rabindranath Tagore

"Me fail English? That's unpossible." --Ralph Wiggum

PPI Karl

Quote from: PPI Lillie on February 01, 2010, 10:11:28 PM
I haven't gotten a chance to see Caprica, and I skipped the remake series of Battlestar Galactica.  I'm a die-hard fan of the original Battlestar Galactica T.V. series.  I swore I was going to date Starbuck and marry Apollo, I was jealous of Serena when she married Apollo, I cried when she died, and the Cylon's were the most evil thing I knew (besides Darth Vader).   I used to draw a Colonial Viper on every book cover I had, and I had a Battlestar Galactica lunch pail.  I guess I didn't want my memories of the original series to be ruined by remakes, which for some reason always seem to morph into whatever themes are popular on T.V. today.  Take the movie "Titanic" for example.  I saw the original movie in black and white.  THAT was classic, and it was about an unsinkable boat that sunk.  The new "Titanic" ended up being about Kate Winslett (the calmest suicidal drama queen I'd ever seen) hooking up with Leonardo DiCaprio (who reminded me the whole time of a 12 year old trying to figure out how to grow hair on his chest and is littler than her) on an awesomely computer-generated Titanic (seriously awesome special effects!) and then running around being chased by Billy Zane (HE was convincing in this movie yet still out of place...I like him  ;)  ) and his butler Giles (or whatever his name was) while FINALLY!!  FINALLY!! the boat hits an iceberg and sinks (a minor detail in the movie and merely thrown in for effect).  Then I have to hear how wonderful the movie is and how much money it made!!!  WTF people!!!??????!!!!!!!!!!!  IT SUCKED!!!!!...I feel better now.   0:< 

Don't forget the endless and endlessly irritating hours of Celine Dion it launched--millions of innocent people waking up each morning with that damned song stuck in their head for days on end, trying to counteract its cloying intensity with music by Tom Waites or Leonard Cohen or <shudder!> Willy DeVille, but never to any avail!  Even now, it bores its way into your head like an earwig.  Near or far, wherever you are, that song will
  . . . go onn-nnnn! :o . . .
                                       . . .
                                              . . .
If you want to end your misery, start enjoying it, because there's nothing the universe begrudges more than our enjoyment.

ljiljanac

Uh-yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!  That necklace could've saved Haiti!!!!!  Or the deficit!!!!  Or, or, or......bought all sorts of cool toys and gizmos!!!!!!  lol

You know, Karl......Sarah Brightman (opera/used to be married to Andrew Lloyd Weber/starred in broadway Phantom of the Opera opposite Michael Crawford) remade that song in Italian.  Just sayin......    lol

Damian

I had a friend who looked just like Celine Dion, and she got teased SO much because of that damn song!  I admit it, I too was guilty of teasing her.   ;D
"A mind all logic is like a knife all blade. It cuts the hand that wields it." --Rabindranath Tagore

"Me fail English? That's unpossible." --Ralph Wiggum

ljiljanac

Bad, Damian.....bad BAD Damian.   lol

Damian

"A mind all logic is like a knife all blade. It cuts the hand that wields it." --Rabindranath Tagore

"Me fail English? That's unpossible." --Ralph Wiggum

PPI Debra

Caprica (SyFy) has been canceled, thought the remaining 5 unaired episodes will air:
http://ausiellofiles.ew.com/2010/10/27/breaking-syfy-cancels-caprica/ .

Impermanence. *sigh*

Speaking of Zecharia Sitchin has died. His book Series, starting with The 12th Planet was very popular among UFO researchers. He was a Sumerian scholar who claimed that Sumerian tablet translations indicated that civilization and culture were given to humans by ancient astronauts. He also claimed that we have a 12th planet in our solar system with an artificial orbit of 3600 years. I did get to meet him in the late  90's. He signed my 1st edition copy of the 12th planet.
http://www.sitchin.com/index.htm


"If you're after gettin' the honey, don't go killin' all the bees." -Joe Strummer

PPI Tracy

I have zero to add to this conversation...except to tell you that I have zero to add to this conversation.   8)

Damian

I tried dutifully to like Caprica, but I lost interest about 6 episodes into the first season.  It just wasn't holding my attention the Battlestar Gallactica did.  Really cool story idea though.
"A mind all logic is like a knife all blade. It cuts the hand that wields it." --Rabindranath Tagore

"Me fail English? That's unpossible." --Ralph Wiggum

PPI Karl

Actually, the second season is more interesting . . . ironically.  I'm saddened to see it canceled.  However, it leaves open the possibility of some movies later, to fill in the gaps of the story.

What I liked about the series--and this may be the reason it just wasn't taking off--is that they've tried to present the story as though it were an ancient mythology, whose central players become the gods and goddesses of folklore later on, and whose parts in the story are therefore larger than life and operatic.  I credit the writers for being able to accomplish that effect by building the characters into archetypes, but without making the them completely two-dimensional.

<Heavy sigh.>  Now what am I gonna watch on SyFy?  Pro-wrestling?  (Can anyone explain to me wtf pro-wrestling is doing on the SyFy Channel?)
If you want to end your misery, start enjoying it, because there's nothing the universe begrudges more than our enjoyment.

Damian

I was wondering about that too.  Wrestling on Syfy is an odd partnership...unlike chocolate and peanut butter.  Mmmmm, Halloween Reese's Peanut Butter Cups!
"A mind all logic is like a knife all blade. It cuts the hand that wields it." --Rabindranath Tagore

"Me fail English? That's unpossible." --Ralph Wiggum

PPI Debra

I've never gotten the wrestling thing either.
Or why scfi went syfy.
"If you're after gettin' the honey, don't go killin' all the bees." -Joe Strummer

PPI Tracy

Quote from: Debra, PPI Consultant on October 29, 2010, 02:05:44 PM
I've never gotten the wrestling thing either.
Or why scfi went syfy.

I think both changes are for the same reason:  Trying to "expand" their audience.  God knows we need more sweaty testosterone bearded ego maniacs glued to this channel.  The reason they changed the name is so those people can actually SPELL it.  Hey, ya gotta spell it to find it, right?    :-\

PPI Debra

Quote from: PPI Tracy on October 29, 2010, 03:43:20 PM
Quote from: Debra, PPI Consultant on October 29, 2010, 02:05:44 PM
I've never gotten the wrestling thing either.
Or why scfi went syfy.

I think both changes are for the same reason:  Trying to "expand" their audience.  God knows we need more sweaty testosterone bearded ego maniacs glued to this channel.  The reason they changed the name is so those people can actually SPELL it.  Hey, ya gotta spell it to find it, right?    :-\

strange logic.... They forgot to ask US!!! LOL!
"If you're after gettin' the honey, don't go killin' all the bees." -Joe Strummer