Caprica, Episode 6

Episode 6: Know Thy Enemy

• Looks like the "One Month Later" scene was shot in a Canadian indigenous art museum or something.
• It's Spike with spikes in his arm!
• How can Cylon Zoe type on a computer keyboard with those big fingers?
• How very Clark Kent of Zoe to disguise herself by wearing glasses in the V World for her date with Philomon.

 

Caprica, Episode 5

Episode 5: There is Another Sky

• New Cap City = Bugsy Malone, minus the musical aspect
  The Cylon ripping its arm off at Daniel's request was horrifying
• The architecture of the bank that Tamara and skinny guy disguised as fat guy was pretty amazing. Was that a real location or a set built specifically for the show?
• Tamara pushing skinny guy down to protect him against the security guards shots was reminiscent of Six shielding Gaius from the blast that killed her during the attack on the Colonies
• I love seeing the visuals of Caprica City, especialy at night
• Gratuitous shirtlessness of Sam is always appreciated
• Are Taurons supposed to be analogous to the Jews?
• Another lovely instance of the Adama family theme as Joseph was getting his tattoo

This episode held my attention rather more than the previous ones, and it has given me a new enthusiasm for the show. However, it's nothing close to how I felt about BSG, and I doubt I'll ever reach that level of appreciation for Caprica, but it's positive, nonetheles.

 

Perhaps part of the reason I enjoyed this episode more than previous ones is because there was hardly any Zoe (in fact, I don't think she has any lines), and I'm finding myself completely indifferent to her character.

 

The new direction of Tamara was somewhat more interesting, though it remains to be seen what the point of introducing all these new characters in the V world is. Her walking away at the end, all badass and invincible, was cool, but seemed to do nothing more than to serve as a convenient ending, and I don't really care what happens to her. I find myself currently most interested in the Adama trifecta of Sam, Joseph and Willie, and look forward to more of that, especially if Sam is shirtless.

Caprica, Episode 4

Episode 4: Gravedancing

• Sam has a black bull on the dashboard of his car - a Tauron symbol?
• Finally, a new dress for Zoe in the V club
• "a moral dictator called 'God'"
• dancing Cylon/Zoe was very silly (though nice we got a bite of the Colonial Anthem, aka. the original series theme song)

Can you tell how much I don't care about this series yet? I will continue to watch, because I know there aren't many more episodes, and I'd like to see how it ends, but I'm really not invested, and I may not be moved to blog about it.

Caprica, Episode 3

Episode 3: Reins of a Waterfall

• Who is that guy playing Baxter Sarno? He looks very familiar.
• Joseph's assistant is Dr. Fraiser from Stargate SG-1! Yay!
• Sister Clarisse is totally coming on to Lacey
• Kat is back (as the PR lady)!
• Why do they have a black and white TV in the police office? And why doesn't it have the corners cut off?
• Huzzah for a normal, on screen gay married couple.
• Did Joseph just ask Sam to murder Amanda Graystone?

So far, I still don't really care much about these characters, though I am somewhat interested to see where the story goes. Hopefully we get answers. The best possible ending I can imagine would be that this story ties in to the Final Five's arrival at the Twelve Colonies, and we get some more of their backstory (and of course, appearance) but somehow, I doubt that.

Caprica, Episode 2

Episode 2: Rebirth

• When I started watching the episode, I thought "I don't really care", but I soldiered through, and started to be taken back in to the BSG world a bit more as I watched.
• Lacey looks kind of like Kaylee from Firefly.
• Sister Clarice is so clearly trying to seduce Lacey.
• Lacey mentioned Saturday. This made me wonder, do all Colonial planets have seven day weeks, or is it just Caprica? It would surely not be possible for them all to use the same system because they would surely have different orbits and rotations.
• The title sequence is weird. I don't know if I like it yet.
• Is Zoe going to wear the same purple dress the whole series?
• Daniel plays the piano. More proof that he should be the basis for the Cylon model Seven, who should have been Kara Thrace's father, not some random Head Character.
• Polygamy on Caprica! Cool!
• Sam (Willy's uncle) is gay! Hopefully he doesn't suffer the same fate as the other two openly gay BSG characters (Admiral Cain and Felix Gaeta) and become evil then die.
• We saw Greek and Chinese writing in Little Tauron. I believe this is the first time we've seen other written languages than English in this universe. I guess English is meant to stand for Caprican, and perhaps these others stand for other Colonial languages.
• Willy making his father guilty about there being no family, after his uncle's advice was very sneaky.
• Cylon Zoe sitting on her bed and breaking it was obvious.
• I felt slightly patronised by the writers with how they beat it over our heads that Amanda realised what the infinity symbol meant and that Zoe was part of the STO.
• But then ending with Amanda's declaration of her belief that Zoe caused the explosion at the memorial was a good dramatic ending, despite its slight cringe-worthiness.

Caprica, Episode 1

Hello, and happy new year!

Welcome back to Galactica Watch, where now that I've finished watching and reviewing all the episodes of Battlestar Galactica, I will now move on to its prequel series, Caprica. Unlike with Battlestar, for which I reviewed two episodes every week, I will only do one a week for this series.

Episode 1: Pilot

• I thought the copy of Zoe that she saw down by the stage was going to be a Head Character.
• The Graystone's home looks very much like Gaius Baltar's house. Is it the same place?
• It was pretty cool to see Caprican public transport.
• The fashion looks kind of 1950s. It's probably the hats. I guess they did this to make it feel like this was in the 'past' relative to BSG, which mostly felt very much like the present.
• From Sam, we hear a language other than English being spoken in this universe. Also, is there supposed to be some meaning in the fact that Joseph's brother (therefore William Adama's uncle) is called Sam, like the Final Five, Sam Anders?
• Similarly, is there any relevance to the fact that Daniel Graystone shares the same first name with the eventual Number Seven?
• Willy Adams = William Adama, right?
• There are no flowers on Tauron! Wow!
• When Sam came in to kill the Minister, seeing his blood splatter on his glasses was a really nice (though gross) shot.
• The sister of Athena Academy is clearly evil. Unfortunately, if I'm right, this just propagates the science-fiction convention that evil characters always have British accents.
• Zoe in a Cylon body saying "daddy" was weird!
• It was lovely to notice that the Adama family theme was used when Joseph was telling his son his real family's name.

Quotes

Daniel: "A difference that makes no difference is no difference."

The first Cylon: "Programme completed. By your command."

***

Overall, I liked this pilot. It did a nice job of building up this world that exists within the world we knew from BSG, while it didn't step on its toes too much. I'm looking forward to seeing where it goes, but I'm not overly invested in it. This probably has a lot to do with the fact that I know there are only 18 episodes, and that it got cancelled after those 18, so there won't be any more.

So far, I just don't really care about or for these characters. After having built such an affection for and connection with several of the great characters from BSG, I don't think this show can compare, and characters are really the reason I watch shows like this. So, hopefully it will either show us something amazing about the build up to the First Cylon War, or will make these characters really interesting/relateable/odious/flawed really quickly!

The Plan

As promised, in time for Christmas, here are my thoughts about "The Plan".

• I liked the voiceover at the beginning being spoken in several different voices relevant to what was being said, and enjoyed working out who all the voices were.
• It was so great to finally see copies of the Final Five in resurrection tanks, arranged in a circle, like the sunken beds in Joss Whedon's Dollhouse.
• Was that the same opening shot of Caprica City as was used in "Daybreak, Part 1"?
• Are we to infer that Tori, after surviving the nuclear blast in her car, was rescued by humans and taken to the fleet, then eventually became Laura's aid without any intervention from Cavil?
• I liked the sexy Natalie-looking Six wearing leather, and chewing gum, and how One hung a lantern on how the Sixes are doing a great job of differentiating themselves.
• The actor playing Tyrol has clearly put on weight since they started filming the series, and so it's quite clear which scenes are new and which are from the miniseries and season 1.
• So Boomer knew what she was, but only in the presence of the wooden elephant. We got one little flashback with her and a Natalie-looking Six before she was made in to a sleeper agent, but it would've been nice to see exactly how that worked, and what happened to her and when to place her in the Colonies as Sharon Valerii.
• The mass grave that the Fives were digging on Caprica was all kinds of disgusting. I wonder how they actually filmed that.
• Leoben as a yoga instructor for the Defence Minister?! Brilliant!
• I felt so sorry for Boomer, saying that she feels better when she's human, and that she loves herself, and it just broke my heart to hear her talk about losing what was left of her humanity after shooting Adama. After seeing the end of the series, this was just so poignant.
• Now we finally know how Shelly Godfrey apparently disappeared! Cavil had her switch with the Natalie-lookign Six (who he ends up sleeping with, eugh!), who is super fast and looks sufficiently different so as not to be recognised as the same model. Oh, and then sending original Shelly out of an airlock so she could reveal the fleet's location to the Cylons - excellent!
• Did Leoben see his future with Kara when strangling her during the interrogation scene from the season 1 episode "Flesh and Bone"?
• It would've been cool to see Simon's spine glow during the sex scene with his human wife!
• The twist that he airlocked himself in stead of blew up his ship was a good one.
• The dynamic between Tyrol and Simon's wife was great, and it really made sense to have her character there at that time. I also really liked how when he kissed her and said it didn't mean anything, she seemed to know exactly what he meant.
• The little boy John giving Cavil a red apple nicely mirrored Ellen offering Boomer a similarly red apple. And the twist of Cavil killing little John really took my breath away, as the way the scene was edited with the other One on Caprica aiming to shoot Kara made us expect that he would do that, and not the other way round (though obviously, we know that he didn't shoot Kara then).
• The two Ones holding hands as they wait to be airlocked was rather moving. And the voiceover from Cavil's monologue to Ellen during season 4's "No Exit" was a lovely touch.

Quotes

Cavil: "Let's get this genocide started!"

Five (of Doral): "His jacket was burgendy. This is teal."
Cavil: "Well, I have something else for you to wear. Yes. They call this a suicide vest, but I think that undersells all the homicide that goes along with it, don't you?"

Leoben: "I'm telling you, she flew a raider, learned how to control it from the inside. No one taught her how. Kara Thrace plucked that knowledge from..."
Cavil: "I don't care if she plucked puppies from God's ass!"

(while listening to Sam and Kara have sex)
Cavil: "He loves her?"
Four: "Vigorously."
Cavil: "She's beneath him."
Four: "Not necessarily."

Overall, I really enjoyed "The Plan." I really like they way they very neatly inserted all this backstory in to seasons 1 and 2 in such a way that really worked, though I'm sure once I go back and watch those seasons again, I'll find things that don't quite work, but I'm willing to suspend my disbelief. I especially liked the insertion of Cavil's talks with Boomer explaining why she found herself in places she didn't remember going to, and how they explained Shelly Godfrey's disappearance.

I was disappointed at the lack of D'Anna and Kara, as I felt Three could have benefited from more fleshing out of their backstory, and there are still a lot of unknowns about Kara which the series did not resolve. I was also going to say that I was disappointed at Lee not being featured really at all, but I realise that his character arch was pretty well wrapped up, so adding him would not really have brought anything new, but would have been nice. The same goes for Gaius, who we only saw in clips from episodes (there were no new scenes with him, as far as I could tell) and Laura, who I was surprised not to see at all, not even in clips from episodes.

More information about how the Final Five were integrated in to the fleet would have been nice. In fact, that is more of what I was expecting of "The Plan"; something more overarching and going back before the attack on the Colonies, to explain how exactly Cavil put all the pieces in to place in order to carry out his plan to punish the Final Five for their sins. Starting from the attack, however, really worked.

So that's it for Battlestar Galactica. This is quite emotional for me, as I found myself really connecting to this show and the characters. It's a sad thing to me that there is nothing new in this particular story.

However, in 2012, I will begin watching and reviewing Caprica, and will use this blog to post those reviews, so stick around if you're interested in that!