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Why you should be watching Caprica if you love BSG

by Kate Blake, editor and contributor Multipleverses

When it was announced that the creators of Battlestar Galactica would be creating a pre-quel to the iconic BSG story I was sceptical. How much suspense could there be in watching something which would result in an end-game that ultimately we all know? The answer to this question is that there is tons of suspense. The creators of the show along with the writing team and the actors have managed to achieve something I have never seen successfully done before- they have managed to develop a science fiction series with a virtual world enmeshed in the core storyline. Many series have tried this before. Chris Carter tried with the 1999 series Harsh Realm. He had several episodes of the X-Files which tackled the theme along with artificial intelligence without a lot of success. Virtual reality of course was the basis for several films- Lawnmower Man and the Matrix series come to mind. Star Trek used their holodeck for amusement but virtual reality is tricky. Caprica pulls it off with aplomb and it is key to the BSG mythos. During the last seasons of BSG we learned some interesting things about Cylons. They all have an ability to project. Projection is the building of a virtual environment around themselves for their enjoyment. This explains why their big empty ships are void of decoration but the inhabitants don’t mind. They use their internal programming to build a world they want to be in. Other Cylon characteristics related to programming- resurrection. In the first episode of Caprica Zoe Graystone- the head strong and brilliant daughter of Daniel Graystone a brilliant engineer and scientist- dies. Zoe is killed when her boyfriend pulls the trigger on a suicide bomb on a train carrying thousands of passengers. But this is not the end of Zoe. The brilliant teenager has taken her father’s virtual reality holoband technology and built a sophisticated program where she has built an avatar- a virtual representation of herself that is not only her image, but her memories and in essence her consciousness all downloaded into a sophisticated bit of code. When she dies- the essence of her lives in this avatar. When Daniel Graystone finds the avatar and the code is accidentally transfered to the prototype combat robot he is working on- she is resurrected as a machine and the first cylon as we will know them is born.

The Graystones are at the center of Caprica. A real success story. Graystone has climbed the steps of society going from struggling young middle class engineer to a titan of industry. He owns the Caprica Bucaneers- the big Pyramid team. He has a beautiful brilliant wife who he loves. He had a beautiful headstrong daughter he did not know and he has a company that is struggling to keep ahead and deliver on its promises of an ideal combat soldier. Daniel is ruthless, charismatic and pragmatic all at once.

The other family at the heart of Caprica is a family we know well. They are the Adamas. In the first episode we meet Joseph Adams. Joe is an attorney working for the Tauran mob. He makes sure his people’s dirty deeds are covered up. He oils the wheels of justice and is both hated and respected for it. Joseph and Daniel’s paths cross in shared tragedy. Joseph’s wife and daughter are both on the train – the same train that Zoe was on. The two fathers meet and are drawn to each other. Daniel takes advantage of his new friendship and has Joseph use his connections to steal a key piece of tech from a rival who happens to be a Tauron. In return, Daniel uses Zoe’s program to make a virtual representation of Joseph’s daughter Tamara. The heist goes well- only a few scientists die in the process and the prize is delivered. Joseph’s brother Sam is the key enforcer for the Tauron mob and takes care of things for him. The families are now tied. By embracing his wife’s death and that of his daughter, Joseph drops his Caprican name and goes back to being Joseph Adama. Things do not go well with this budding relationship though. Tamara’s avatar escapes the virtual room Daniel has kept her in and he thinks she is gone. Grieving father Joseph doesn’t believe it.

Joseph’s home life deterioriates after the tragedy of their loss. His young son Bill spends more and more time with his uncle Sam learning the ropes of making it as a Tauron. He skips school and generally starts apprenticing as a young mobster. The best line in the series comes from Sam “If someone is trying to use guilt against you- turn it on them. When you know what they have that they feel guilty about- you own them.” This reversing your enemies tactics back on them both in battle and emotionally is a hallmark of Adama’s character and why he is such a good leader on BSG. And why he is so hard to deal with as a father himself. As a boy though he is looking for a father figure and like most teens is not too keen on his father’s ideas of father son bonding. The Taurons are seen as second class citizens by the Capricans. They taunt young Bill and he starts to fight back. Watching father and son work through their grief and differences is captivating.

Society and what is the norm for the time is a big part of the landscape of Caprica as well. The virtual world is filled with darkness and horrible doings. Games of human sacrifice, extreme violence and sexual perversion permeate the hacked space that teens and young people escape to. In the real world, the prevailing religious beliefs are those of a people who believe in multiple gods. The twelve colonies and the assorted gods that go with them are the norm. There are people who believe in one god- Zoe Graystone and her friends did. These outsiders- the monotheists are the extremists in this society. The STO is a monotheist extremist organization responsible for Zoe’s friend blowing up the train. They had trained him in bomb making and the teen took action to make a statement.
Drugs, sex and other vices are a big part of both the real and virtual worlds. Sister Clarice – one of the teachers at Zoe’s school and an STO member is part of a group marriage. Other marriages seen on Caprica include the gay marriage of ultra macho mob guy Sam Adama and his husband.

One of the big arguments against the one god theory is that there is no one all powerful deity judging everyone. People who follow a single god are seen as simple and needing a set of defined rules and incapable of making decisions for themselves. In the final season of BSG when Ellen Tigh’s character is revealed to be one of the final five. Ellen reveals that the reason she built a monotheistic religious belief system into her creations was that she wanted them to follow a single loving god. She wanted them to embrace life and love the universe and others in it. Instead- the cylons twisted this and followed the path that the Capricans fear that those who follow a single judgmental god will decide they know what is best for everyone. In the case of the cylons this meant wiping out humanity. Eventually the rebel cylons did look toward a more loving god and repented and embraced the humans as brothers and sisters but the cost of peace was high for both sides.

The take home message of Caprica is that violence begets violence, religious differences are at the root of all kinds of evils and extremism depends on your point of view. Daniel Graystone is pushing forward to build his new race of intelligent killing machines and we know he will succeed. Joseph Adama is struggling to find his missing daughter and regain his strength of character and figure out what path he will go down as a father and a man. We know from BSG that Bill and his father were never close. He described his father as complicated. Others talked about Joseph the scholar – we know he ends up writing all kinds of books used to teach law. How he goes from mob lawyer to respected scholar is going to be interesting to see. The assorted teenagers on the show are being pulled in so many directions without a lot of parental guidance leaving them vulnerable to outside influences. The show is intense, dramatic, filled with twists and turns and surprises along with some big reveals on a regular basis that make thos of us who are fans cringe as we see the bad decisions that will eventually lead to tragedy. Most of the time I forget this is a science fiction series. It feels more like the Sopranos in some strange city than anything else. If you like watching compelling drama with intelligent dialog and good storytelling- Caprica is a must see.