When I was a young man, I was a fan of the short lived TV show, Battlestar Galatica. I was going through flight school, there had been only one Star Wars movie and the Galatica seemed like an aircraft carrier. Besides-the chicks on the show were pretty hot.
When its reimagined version came out a few years ago- I did not follow it much-I was living in Japan and had other things to do, like go to Tokyo for my Japanese classes and find new and better bars on the way home. I did watch the final episodes of the series when it closed-but I found the ending, and the changes from the original series-to be dissapointing. For the record, Starbuck is supposed to be a man. And second, when you come upon a young planet earth wth nothing but natives for the conquering, you don’t just toss your technology aside and live like the natives.
So I was curious what was going to happen when Sy Fy developed the prequel series Caprica. Caprica is set 58 years before the Cylons destroyed the 12 colonies and launched the “rag tag, fugitive fleet” on its lonely quest for Earth.
The first time through- I did not warm to the series so much. I could not get it. Here was a world that had developed spaceflight, yet still had people dressing like they lived in the 1950’s-complete with fedora hats for the men. And while there was lots of new technology-it seemed odd to me that so much of the world looked and seemed like the current world we live in now. After all we don’t have interplanetary travel yet-much to my chagrin.
Then, quite by accident, I stumbled upon the first 12 episodes available for down load on I-Tunes. I down loaded and loaded all of them up to my I-Phone. While I was on this recent series of international travel I watched the series again. The light bulb finally came on -and now I can truly say I am hooked. I can’t wait till the series resumes again in October.
Science Fiction has always been a clever way to provide interesting commentary on current events and I realized that Caprica was following this old SciFi tradition very well. The plot line of Caprica tells the story of how Colonial humanity first created the robotic cylons, who would later plot to destroy humans in retaliation for their enslavement. I always hate it when they use that term-they are machines, they are meant to be used and abused. That is not enslavement. People are enslaved. Machines are used.
Nonetheless, it is the interesting story of how the first Cylon robot becomes self aware. I also find the technology of the show fascinating-especially the Virtual world that creates the vehicle to make the first Cylon self aware. ( Plot spoiler follows). The virtual world is the ultimate of electronic gaming-enabled by “holobands” that allow you to assume the form of an avatar and navigate through a world where any thing is possible. ( Pioneered by the porn industry of course).
The central characters, the Graystone family includes the father Daniel and mother Amanda, a computer scientist and surgeon respectively. When their daughter Zoe dies due to the religious fanaticism of her boyfriend, Ben Stark, her father manages to resurrect her — after a fashion. Already having acquired a digital clone of her personality developed by Zoe herself, he uses stolen technology to create a robotic version of his daughter, the first step towards creating the Cylon race.
In the worlds of the colonies, polytheism is the religion. Try to imagine Greece-with 21st century technology. Monotheism-the belief in the one true god-is the Caprican version of Islam in this series. Ben Stark is the modern day Islamic terrprist. Or is he a Christianist? It is never really clear. In one of the early shows, this line is spoken: ” Don’t you realize how dangerous this is? A belief in one all knowing, infallible god, with which there is no disagreement-and in whose name unspeakable acts of violence can be committed.” I found that particularly interesting and it provokes interesting parallels with our own age and history.
And that is what Science fiction is supposed to do. Provide a vehicle through which clever commentary on our own society can be expressed. In Caprica, its about a a world intoxicated by success. And technology. It opens a lot of ideas for discussion-since the virtual world featured in the series can be likened to some of the video games of today.
The second half of the series airs in October-I can’t wait. If you have not watched the first episodes-buy it or down load it.