THE (ALMOST) UNDELETED

Here is a link to the Caprica trailer that has been out for a few days. Looks like its going to have some elements that may actually draw my wife to the tube to watch with me. If so, I welcome that. Ive been trying to make SF a family thing for a long time now.

Personally, I think this is going to be good.

Here is an article about a script review for Caprica.

The only weak link I saw in the trailer (brief trailer) was Eric Stolz' character.
He seemed sort of wooden, not as emotionally intense as I've come to
expect from Galactica related characters.

This could go either way.

Stoltz rocks. I will watch anything that he is in.

Yeah, I like him too. I really haven't been keeping up with the Caprica news so seeing him in the trailer was a pleasant surprise.

They've just started showing a mini-series(?) over here with him and Sam Neil, about the Bermuda Triangle; have just caught the first episode so far.

SandChigger wrote:They've just started showing a mini-series(?) over here with him and Sam Neil, about the Bermuda Triangle; have just caught the first episode so far.

Yeah, The Triangle...saw it last year. It's well done, but the end sucks a bit...

AAAH! AAAAH! STOP!!!

Rakis wrote:

SandChigger wrote:They've just started showing a mini-series(?) over here with him and Sam Neil, about the Bermuda Triangle; have just caught the first episode so far.

Yeah, The Triangle...saw it last year. It's well done, but the end sucks a bit...

^^^ Man is a MASTER of understatement.

I saw the final episode about a week or so ago.

Damn...that was LAME.

I really wanted to see all of the returned planes and ships start to crash into one another.

SandChigger wrote:

Rakis wrote:

SandChigger wrote:They've just started showing a mini-series(?) over here with him and Sam Neil, about the Bermuda Triangle; have just caught the first episode so far.

Yeah, The Triangle...saw it last year. It's well done, but the end sucks a bit...

^^^ Man is a MASTER of understatement.

I saw the final episode about a week or so ago.

Damn...that was LAME.

I really wanted to see all of the returned planes and ships start to crash into one another.

Well, i wasn't going to tell you it was THAT bad... some things you need to find out for yourself, like a badly written Dune book, for instance...

SciFi Channel has bought 20 hours of Caprica. That's season one, folks! Yea!

A Japanese friend who belongs to the same satellite TV service and watched a lot of the recent 4-day BG marathon called tonight to ask me if I knew anything about this series.

I said I'd heard a wee bit about it on a board I posted at a while back, but nothing recently. I checked WP and found there was a page on it.

So did anyone see the pilot?


I have to be honest, based on the skimpy plot details available, I was reminded of nothing so much as the McDune Legends books. Prequel about two families and one of them happens to be responsible for the invention of the Cylons. Puhlease.

And the death of the two daughters in an act of "religious terrorism"? Sheesh...what brain trust came up with that imaginative bit?

If it's as bad as it sounds, I'll probably pass on this one. (I know, I'm fussy. )

I have been coming back to this one in the back of my mind a lot over the last few weeks, and although I have not seen anything new, I honestly do not see how this one is going to be any good. I have kind of changed my mind, and I'm no longer enthusiastic. I agree its probably going to come off as an estrogen-laded, drama-heavy soap opera with beautiful characters and set on another planet. Ill give it a try, but they had better come up with some cool SF premise or Ill fade quickly.

Uh.. hello! Esai Morales is hot!

I'm going to watch it, probably all of it. I don't mind a good drama, and right now that is all I'm hoping for with Caprica. It can't possibly suck worse than Stargate and I watch that show.

I don't. Any longer.

(Had to google. InnerGothGirl says, "Meh!")

I forgot to mention last night the time compression aspect: just 51 years to create a whole mechy race hell-bent on the destruction of humanity? Even allowing for some faster machine evolution baseline enabling the Cylons to get from centurion-style to new human-like models, is two-generations really long enough to instill the kind of rabid Cylon-hate seen in the human population?

And, like, what's the Cylon motivation? At least with the more cliché "rebellion of the downtrodden robots" you know why the Cylons hate the humans.

OK, I'm done.

lalalalala.. I can't hear InnerGothGirl. Esai was so pretty in Jericho.

There isn't much info about Caprica online, and all of it's old!

Jericho...the post-atomic-war(??) SciFi drama?

You know, I watched one or two episodes and just didn't get it, it didn't do anything for me, so I didn't watch any more of it. They've been showing it on SciFI Japan I guess, but I don't bother.

I kinda got the blahs with Galactica there for a while, too, which is why I made sure to watch most of the recent New Years marathon, so I could catch the ones I'd missed.

It was the same with Enterprise once they got bogged down in the Zindi(?) arc, and SG Atlantis pretty much after it got started.


Anyway, it'll be years before they start showing this thing over here, so I'm not going to worry about it. (Would've been nice to see Eric Stoltz redeem himself for that sad Bermuda Triangle thingy by being in something interesting. Oh well. )

The first few episodes of Jericho sucked, I can't remember exactly when the show finally kicked in, but it was good up until the end.

SandChigger wrote:It was the same with Enterprise once they got bogged down in the Zindi(?) arc [...]

Bogged down? To me, that whole Zindi story arc was the only part of the series that was worth anything. I thought it was great to have a whole season built around a single theme, rather than just a collection of random episodes.

It was just another, larger part of the whole ridiculous Temporal Cold War arc.

(In case you haven't noticed, I'm not overly fond of time travel stories. Another reason why I lost all interest in The 4400 after it turned out that's what it was.)

I think this might be a real Caprica script. Part of the scene in the dance club may have happened in one of the trailers.

http://www.docstoc.com/docs/3244940/Scr ... esaddictfr

So it's to the point of trailers now, is it? Oh well.

I don't think they want us to read the script

Eeew, gord. I think I know why. ... Stinky. Like someone done a poo in their britches.

Remi Aubuchon and Ronald D. Moore?

Are these code names for Kevin J. Anderson and Brian Herbert?!


(OK, I just looked at a few spots here and there, but ... seriously: bad dialogue. Naff naff naff! )

Sandchigger wrote:Like someone done a poo

You rang?

EDIT by Omph, fixed tag.

Oooh! Stinky!

And [when I first read it] with an unsightly tag malfunction!

Eeew!

If that's a real script, then Caprica is gonna have a lot of teen angst poo. Like the O.C. but on a different planet.

Mandy wrote:If that's a real script, then Caprica is gonna have a lot of teen angst poo. Like the O.C. but on a different planet.

That's pretty much what I feared it would be.

Mandy wrote:Like the O.C. but on a different planet.

CALI-FORN-YA! Doo-dee-doo-dee-doo!

One of my Japanese friends/colleagues here at uni is a major obsessive-compulsive. I always know when he's headed home for the day because I can hear him lock his door, rattle the knob to check it's locked four or five times, hit the elevator button, go back and rattle the knob a few more times (repeat!), and finally leave.

Whenever we're talking and he says, "After all, you know I am O.C.", I break into the theme song.

It seems to amuse him. (He knows the show, too.)

I totally forgot about this. I think it aired last weekend. Anyone watch it?

It was released on DVD, it won't air until next year.

Ahhhh. So that is what the 21st date was all about. That's strange.

Saw it, liked it. Should prove interesting to see it fleshed out more. It's fairly predictable, but in a good way, not a KJA way. Definitely some interesting characters. Bill Adama is 11, His dad works for the mafia.

I've been seeing the DVD advertised on Amazon for several weeks now....

Finished watching it last night.

Liked it a lot.... not sure about a full series though

Himachil wrote:Finished watching it last night.

Liked it a lot.... not sure about a full series though

So it's about the beginning of the Cylons? Any explanation as to why they made them?

because robots + guns = cool?

the teen scene junk in the trailer is misleading.. it isnt about that at all, those are shots from teen virtual undeground clubs where they have "experience rooms" any kinda debauchery you can think of.

The teen thing goes away pretty quickly, within first hour. I was fairly suprised and genuinely entertained, as much as the original show.

Show is predictable in the sense of it being the prequeal, but has some great storyline and characters are pretty solid. I think if you watch it you will like it.

Ampoliros wrote:because robots + guns = cool?

Hell, i know that...

Just wanted to know if there was any other reason than "Let's create robots that will destroy us in the future"...

Bought the DVD, will watch this week. Saw the first 5 minutes or so...was surprised by the nekkid boobage.

Ampoliros wrote:because robots + guns = cool?

"The very words I live by"

Just stuck in in my Netflix queue, I'll check it out shortly.

Star Dust wrote:Bought the DVD, will watch this week. Saw the first 5 minutes or so...was surprised by the nekkid boobage.

Really? Well, it was made for DVD after all...maybe we will see a tamed version on TV next year...

MINI SPOILERS AHEAD ! ! ! !

Finally watched it last night. I liked it a lot, and I think it could definitely work as a series, but that will be challenging. My first impression was that once again, we are treated to a high-end quality of production. I thought the acting, the lighting, the music, the camera angles - all of that stuff - was top notch. I was very impressed with Zoey. Very passionate and non-wooden, and also handled the dual role admirably.

Now as to the story...that is where the challenge will come from. I think Moore did a good job setting up the backstory for the Colonial Cylons, but I can't say it meshes for certain with what we learned in BSG. And while I like the element of interplanetary racism and the notion of Tauron's as a mafia-esque people, I'm NOT so sure people will like it applied to the Adama family tree. Bill's dad taking a payoff? Hmm. There's also the "one true God" faction, which I think is loosely tied to the Tauron-mafia. Whatever that relationship might or might not be it is still interesting, to me, that it is given some serious face time as a cultish entity in Caprican society, especially since the characters of BSG seemed like they'd never heard that before. Doesn't take a giant mental leap to see how that all played out 58 years later.

This can become a series, but I don't know for how long. They will really have to keep up the intensity and keep the main story arcs moving with as much momentum as possible, or this whole thing falls into just another prime time soap opera. I can see them doing an HBO-like two season run, maybe 12 eps per season.

Star Dust wrote:This can become a series, but I don't know for how long. They will really have to keep up the intensity and keep the main story arcs moving with as much momentum as possible, or this whole thing falls into just another prime time soap opera. I can see them doing an HBO-like two season run, maybe 12 eps per season.

Agreed - A really tight short series or two - with no saggy bits, would work pretty well. Wiki says scifi has ordered 18 eps... ah...

Forgot to mention a couple cameo sightings in the pilot. I KNEW Sister Clarice looked familiar. Turns out she's none other than Atia of Juli from HBO's Rome. I think this character could turn into something fantastic (deleted scenes on the DVD definitely indicate a larger role for her). Anyway, great actress.

Also, the Defense Minister who gets his throat sliced open - pretty sure it's the Smoking Man from X-Files.

Just FYI.

I just got done watching this. I both liked and disliked it.

What I didn't like: the fact that the Adama family appeared in it at all. There was simply no reason for it, other than as a concession to fans who love to see more of their favorite characters. Bill Adama fighting the cylons, and his dad knowing the guy who created them in the first place? There's no necessary, essential connection there, it's just a huge, incredible coincidence. That being said, I think Esai Morales did a great job and the story of the Adama family was interesting. I just question connecting it at all with the cylons.

What I DID like: everything else. I think the backstory of how the cylons got started was fairly ingenious. In these two hours we get a neat explanation for three things: (1) where the cylons' "one God" belief came from, (2) why they see humans as decadent, spoiled children who need to be punished, and (3) the reason for their evolution toward the skinjobs. All of these motivations come from one particular, special aberration: the Zoe Cylon. I think that works very well.

However, I just don't see where a series is going to go from here. This 2-hour premiere seemed to me to end perfectly, as a simple yet powerful tie-in to the BSG we already know, and it should end right there. Anything else is going to be an unnecessary complication. I mean, are they going to go through the whole history of the cylon rebellion? Seems like a lot of unnecessary detail to me. Some things should be left to the imagination.

Of course, it goes without saying that I'll tune in next year to see what happens and satisfy my curiosity.

People today don't have any imagination or are too fucking lazy to use what they've got.

Or so the creative writer "artists" and directors/producers seem to think.

Probably be years before this one works its way over here, if ever. Pass.

That's unfortunate to hear. I'm also rather sick of this interconnected bullshit which seems an obsession for every modern writer. Or perhaps the blame lies elsewhere, with the production companies who figure this trope is a must in any modern production because it's what is popular. All these coincidental connections do is make the writing cheesy. Especially when implemented in a large universe, it artificially deflates the size of the fictional world. Not only that, it undermines the value of everyone else in the story; if they aren't an Adama, obviously they are helpless and useless.

Regardless, I'll probably give it a try since I like the BSG series so much.

I'll acknowledge that its pretty annoying to be subjected to endless remake after remake. But the BSG people seem to have something going on. And besides, as hard as it was to get a show to stick in the era before cable TV, its even harder now. You need to go in with a real hit/original idea or build on something with a built in audience. In the grand scheme of things they will ether make the Adama presence work for the show, they will fade it out or it will make the show shit. Whatever happnes, Ill watch and see what I think. I just put this into my Netflix queue.

GamePlayer wrote:All this coincidental connections do is make the writing cheesy. Especially when implemented in a large universe, it artificially deflates the size of the fictional world.

That's a good way to put it, that's exactly how I feel. There are millions of other people living on Caprica. Why did it have to be Joseph Adama who got tangled up with the Stoltz robotocist guy? The only reason is the writers wanted to cash in on the Adama name. And oh, isn't it so cute seeing little 11-year-old Billy Adama?

It is a bit of a dramatic leap - but if it gets two interesting characters to interact it can;t be all bad. And if anyone can wring something interesting out of Billy Adams becoming William Adama I reckon BSG people.

What's the betting they'll flash forward to Husker's basic training when ratings begin to fall... ?

Himachil wrote:It is a bit of a dramatic leap - but if it gets two interesting characters to interact it can;t be all bad. And if anyone can wring something interesting out of Billy Adams becoming William Adama I reckon BSG people.

What's the betting they'll flash forward to Husker's basic training when ratings begin to fall... ?

Yeah, like they did in BSG, flashforward one year...

maybe we'll get in the middle of the Cylon war...

I never thought about the tie-in with the Adama family being lame, but now that it's been mentioned and now that I think about it, yeah I can see that. However, having watched the pilot, I can assure you that they aren't capitalizing on that tie-in. Bill Adama had maybe 5 minutes of screen time, and certainly wasn't central to any plot line. I mean, put up against Star Trek's Cave of Coincidence, this is a small row matchboxes to stumble over.

I wasn't complaining that it was a deal breaker. I'll still watch Caprica. I'm just bothered by it. I also hold BSG to a much higher standard than Trek.

GamePlayer wrote:I also hold BSG to a much higher standard than Trek.

As you should!

Pilot/DTDvD movie... great.
1st episode....Blah
2nd Episode..Better

Story elements keep getting longer and longer.. lets see:

Mafia, Politics (just a bevy of sub elements here) Evil Corporations, Polytheism, Monotheism, Group Marriages, Gay Marriages, Terroism, Media Manipulation, Interweb Anarchy, Big Brother, Consciousness.... and on and on.

Hope they keep it going and not fall back. Hope they wack greystones wife!!