Caprica

"Daniel Graystone: Listen to me, okay? We'll talk about this later.

Zoe Graystone's Holographic Avatar: When are you gonna realize that later is too late? When did you ever listen? Ever want to listen? You and Mom, you knew it all. Your arrogance was killing your daughter. And that's how you lost her. Not to some bomb."

"Joseph: I want you to know who you are. We come from a long, proud line of Tauron peasants who knew how to work the land and still stand proud. You're named after your grandfather. Did I ever tell you that? ...William. He was killed during the Tauron uprising. Our last name isn't Adams. I changed it after I arrived here on Caprica. Our family name is Adama. ADAMA. And it's a good, honorable Tauron name."

Caprica is a spin-off set in the same universe as the Battlestar Galactica re-imagining. It is a prequel set 58 years before the Destruction of the 12 Colonies, mainly on the titular planet Caprica. The pilot episode was released on DVD in April 2009, and the first season premiered in January 2010.

Though set in the same universe, Caprica has a much different look and feel from its predecessor. Set in an urban environment rather than in space, Caprica focuses on political, corporate, and familial intrigue, and tells the tale of a decadent society that doesn't realize that it's about to run headlong over a cliff. The story of Caprica centers around the families of Daniel Graystone, a computer engineer and entrepreneur and creator of the Cylon robots, and Joseph Adama, a lawyer and father to Galactica's William Adama. Recurring themes in the show explore artificial intelligence, robotics, religion and ethnicity. Caprica tells the backstory of the re-imagined series, and the story behind the creation of the Cylons.

The show was canceled during its first and only season, concluding in Canada in late November 2010 and in the US early January 2011.

Now has a character sheet

This series contains examples of:

 * Aborted Arc: Originally it was planned that Zoe created an avatar of Ben as well as herself. (It was in fact the double-wham of this reveal and the fact that Zoe was still inside the Cylon that won a lot of people over when only the script for the pilot was available). The scene was filmed, and is included on the DVD, but essentially nothing in it is canon: Lacy didn't tell Clarice about Zoe-A right away and there was no avatar of Ben. Furthermore the scene ends when Lacy hears her cellphone ringing in the real world and takes her holoband off; it's dramatically revealed later on that holoband users don't receive sensory input like that from the real world.
 * Acting for Two: Alessandra Torresani plays Original Zoe, Zoe-Avatar, Zoe-Robot (voice), Messenger Zoe and Zoe-Skinjob. Technically the robot and the skinjob are the same entity as the avatar.
 * Actor Allusion: "End of Line" features an unusual example, which is also a borderline Continuity Nod and Hey Its That Voice. The episode's soundtrack is an operatic piece, and its male vocal sings a lyrical lament that mirrors the despair of . The identity of this singer? Alessandro Juliani, well known to BSG fans as Lt. Felix Gaeta.
 * A God Am I:
 * All There in the Manual: Remember when Sam said that people could read his life-story from his tattoos? He wasn't kidding.
 * The Caprican and Serge's Twitter page both contain many useful insights and tidbits about the characters and life among the Twelve Colonies, including an explanation of exactly what "dirt eater" means.
 * A Nazi By Any Other Name: The Heracs and the Tauron Democratic Government.
 * Anachronism Stew: Of course, series is set on another planet, but we have clothes from the fifties, more or less modern-looking cars, futuristic flying machines, absolutely modern-looking computers and cell phones alongside with futuristic but more or less realistic computer systems, Turing test-passing robots and a virtual reality device which apparently affects the brain directly and creates incredibly realistic pictures.
 * And I Must Scream: If your body falls asleep or, for some reason, becomes paralysed, you will remain conscious and active in the V-World but be incapable of pulling yourself out unless someone forces you to de-rez. It is a minor example but one can imagine how harrowing it might be for the user. Other players thought this was the case with Tamara until it turned she could not de-rez at all.
 * There was mention of how Tamara's holoband should have timed out already, meaning there probably is a security device to prevent people from staying on too long, possibly not realizing they're starving to death while eating only virtual foods. The "Sleeper" story also seemed more of a myth than anything.
 * And Man Grew Proud: Since this show chronicles how the events of Battlestar Galactica came to happen, this trope is probably going to be the overarching theme.
 * Oddly, the writers seem to have retconnned this theme. In BSG, the backstory was that humanity foolishly created the Cylons, enslaved them and they rebelled. In Caprica
 * Angel Unaware: In "Things We Lock Away", both Original Zoe and Avatar Zoe are visited by one of these, similar to Messenger Six and Messenger Baltar from Battlestar Galactica.
 * Anti Villain: Sam Adama is a ruthless thug and professional killer but he also genuinely cares for and is fiercely protective of both his family and culture. The way Taurons are treated on Caprica only adds to this.
 * Anyone Can Die: Possibly one of the most shocking examples in television history. Battlestar Galactica fans would know
 * Badass Family: If you had any lingering doubts about this from Battlestar Galactica, Caprica pretty much cements the Adama family as a family of badasses. Grandpapa Adama (Joseph and Sam's father) pretty much invokes this by telling Joseph and Sam of the family motto, which amounts to "When we start a war, we finish it. We don't quit halfway through".
 * The Graystones aren't too bad either. Broken up and on their own, they fall and stumble. But once the family reunites, they.
 * Badass Grandma: Grandma Ruth-less
 * In "Here Be Dragons", she, and she.
 * Beard of Sorrow: Daniel Graystone
 * Big Bad:
 * Black and Grey Morality: Considering what series this is a prequel to, this shouldn't come as a surprise. And like, the predecessor work, this occasionally slides into the other thing.
 * Brand X: "New Cap City" = Grand Theft Auto.
 * Catholic School Girls Rule: The Athenian Academy uniforms
 * Chekhov's Skill: Amanda is a plastic surgeon. Doesn't sound very important... oh, wait.
 * Cloning Blues: Digital cloning rather than genetic, but the same issues -- who's real, who's a person, are you me, do I have a soul -- are in full effect.
 * Continuity Nod:
 * Musical themes: In the pilot, Joseph reveals the true name of their family to Willie. The soundtrack playing over the scene is the Adama family theme, aka "Wander My Friends" from Galactica It is heard again in There is Another Sky during the funeral rite, and will probably used any time there is a really, really important family bonding moment between the two Adamas.
 * Rebirth - There is a brief scene of Daniel Graystone playing the piano in his lab. The piece he is playing is "Nomion?s Third Sonata, Second Movement," which was originally heard and named in the BSG episode "Someone to Watch Over Me." This in itself is also a Mythology Gag - the piece is based off of "Exploration," a theme from the soundtrack of the Original Series.
 * Gravedancing - The music that will eventually become the Colonial Anthem is briefly heard when Philomon is flipping through the radio channels. Like "Nomion's Third," this is also a Mythology Gag.
 * The walkout music used on Baxter Sarno's show was originally heard in the party scene at the end of the BSG episode "Colonial Day."
 * Delphi Convalescent Institute mentioned in The Imperfections of Memory is (very) vaguely implied to be the same Farm Kara Thrace was held in Battlestar Galactica, more than five decades later. Indeed, Simon in The Farm did make a passing comment that the place used to be a mental institute.
 * In the same episode, Amanda drops the Arc Words of BSG, "All of this has happened before and all of this will happen again", calling them "an old saying."
 * "So say we all," both in the pilot and "End of Line."
 * Joseph Adama's iconic lighter makes its (chronologically) first appearance in The Dirteaters.
 * In "The Heavens Will Rise," Amanda makes a reference to a medical practitioner named Cottle when discussing the fate of . No doubt, this is a forebear or older relative of Galactica's Doc Cottle.
 * In "Here Be Dragons," we see that Bill Adama inherited his model shipmaking from Evelyn, whose brother was the fox-hunting uncle.
 * Cool Car: Joseph Adama's Citroen DS, and the Greystones' Jaguar Mark Two.
 * Corrupt Corporate Executive: Averted. None of the corporate execs are corrupt; Daniel Greystone in particular is well-rounded, sympathetic, and deeply human . Even Tomas Vergis is portrayed as hewing to his own particular form of honor.
 * On the other hand:.
 * Cute Virtual Girl: Zoe and Tamara.
 * Cyberpunk Is Techno: The clothing is given a 1950s look, but the music is techno.
 * Except for the Ha'la'tha, who (as noted above) are aficionados of Tauron rap. Bear in mind that Tauron is based on Ancient Greek.
 * Damn It Feels Good to Be A Gangster: Sam--and the Ha'la'tha in general--is frakking cool.
 * Dawson Casting: High school-aged Zoe Graystone and Lacy Rand are played by Alessandra Torresani and Magda Apanowicz, who are both in their twenties. Genevieve Beuchner is a borderline case, being 18 while playing 16 year old Tamara.
 * Dead Little Sister: Amanda Graystone's brother.
 * Deadpan Snarker: Daniel's assistant, Cyrus Xander, has been getting more points on this trope in recent episodes. His reaction when he learned that Daniel hired a Tauron mobster to rob a prominent Tauron businessman who had connections to the same criminal organization was just epic.
 * Defictionalization: you can buy the Avenging Angels t-shirt that Sam yells at Willie for wearing.
 * Depraved Bisexual: Clarice is in a group marriage with both men and women. Their family also doubles as a terrorist cell. Clarice herself seems willing to seduce both Amanda (a married woman) and Lacy (a teenage girl).
 * Depraved Homosexual: Averted with Sam Adama. He is a mob enforcer who regularly kills people. But he is absolutely devoted to his husband Larry and shows no signs of interest in any other men.
 * Diesel Punk: The V-World game "New Cap City"
 * Digital Avatar: Zoe-Avatar of course, before she became a Virtual Ghost.
 * Does This Remind You of Anything: During "Reins of a Waterfall", Zoe-Avatar is shown speaking with a circular light behind her. (This is also a Continuity Nod; the halo and the stained-glass window that casts it are similar to Starbuck's mandala from BSG.)
 * Also
 * The Don: The Guatrau of the Ha'la'tha, from what little we see of him.
 * Eternal Sexual Freedom: Played with, possibly to the point of being a Deconstructed Trope. The Colonial society is based on an ancient Greek one, thus alternative sexuality is A-Ok.
 * The episode Rebirth adds to this by revealing that Sister Clarice has a group marriage which, while unusual, is quite legal.
 * For that matter, Serge and Jane Espenson have both made it clear that it's not a case of them having overcome discrimination based on sexual orientation, it's that discrimination based on sexual orientation has never existed. The Colonials would find the idea quite alien.
 * Although it isn't elaborated on in the series, the Ancient Greeks had some interesting views on sexuality. For example, anal penetration was considered shameful, while pederasty was considered educational.
 * Even Evil Has Standards: They probably had various other complaints against him, but is enough to turn a lot of the Ha'la'tha against the Guatrau and threaten a "civil war" within their organization.
 * Everybody Smokes: And it fits the retro-future setting even better than Battlestar Galactica.
 * Just to be clear: every single adult character of significance has been seen smoking something (although in Clarice's case it wasn't tobacco).
 * Fantastic Slur: "Dirt-eater" for Taurons.
 * First Episode Spoiler:.
 * Foregone Conclusion: Caprica is the story about how intelligent machines were created by the twelve colonies. Guess how that ended up.
 * Also Sam Adama seems to be training his young nephew Willie into being part of the Ha'la'tha. But we know that he'll become a Viper pilot and eventually The Captain.
 * The story here seems to be just how little Willie Adama breaks away from his lawless roots to become the man he is rather than whether he will break away.
 * False. As of the finale, we have discovered that
 * Joseph Adama pretty much has Contractual Immortality - Considering the interactions he is described as having had with Lee Adama and Romo Lampkin later in his life, he will probably never be in any serious mortal danger (from the audience's point of view) during the time setting of Caprica.
 * Gangsta Rap: "Voices of the Dead." In Ancient Greek.
 * Gayngster: Sam Adama. A hitman in the Tauron Mafia, and talks to his nephew William about the days in the old neighborhood when he'd keep striking out with guys while his brother Joseph got all the girls. In the Twelve Colonies there's no discrimination or stereotyping against homosexuals and bisexuals, so he is pretty much just a gangster who happens to be married to a guy.
 * Generic Ethnic Crime Gang The Tauron Ha'la'tha is definitely one of these: it's a very organized outfit with a patriarch (the Guatrau) and a complex code of honor and loyalty linked to the traditions of its native culture and engages in all kinds of criminal activity. It also regards itself as necessary for the protection of the Tauron community on Caprica. And it even has a Capricanized Consigliere in the form of Joseph Adama.
 * Genre Blindness: Daniel Graystone  Not exactly what he said when he   but you get the idea.
 * And nearing the finale of the first half-season he once again shows himself to be completely blind to the genre when he  So what does he do?   That totally is not going to come back and bite you in the ass Dan.
 * Genre Shift: In terms of its settings and types of conflicts, Caprica is a very different animal from Battlestar Galactica.
 * Happily Married: Sam and Larry Adama. You heard me. And no, Sam isn't short for Samantha. Amanda and Daniel Greystone count, too, but if Amanda knew what Dan was up to...
 * As of Gravedancing she does, and they're still (and maybe even more) Happily Married.
 * This stands out in contrast to the troubled relationships of Battlestar Galactica. It's a good thing the plotline that had Amanda cheating on Daniel with Vergis in the Pilot was aborted.
 * Possibly subverted pretty damn hard with the midseason finale.
 * Holding Back the Phlebotinum: Series finale has awesome scene where cylons detect explosives and eliminate STO suicide bombers one by one. Fridge Logic suggest that installing the same technology in public places like sport arenas would make terrorist attack impossible. Didn't they learn anything from maglev bombing?
 * To be fair, such technology might have been in place. We saw they at least had security agents checking bags, it's just that those security agents then made the STO recognition sign and sent the bombers on their way. The people in charge of any bomb-detection technology might also have been STO agents. Of course, that's pure speculation.
 * Hollywood Nerd: Philo, also Avatar Zoe as "Rachel".
 * Holographic Terminal: Most of the computers use these.
 * However, the Holobands used for virtual reality are more of an Unusual User Interface.
 * Hot for Student: Discussed. When Clarice has Lacy over for dinner one of her husbands asks her if this is what she's up to but she isn't. It's implied however that she's had problems with this before.
 * Note that one of her husbands is young enough to be her son.
 * Hot Mom: Amanda Greystone.
 * Humans Are Bastards: The STO, Ha'la'tha, Heracs and Tauron Democratic Government are the most extreme examples. Other examples include the widespread use of the racist epithet "dirt eater" and anti-monotheist bigotry.
 * Idiot Ball:
 * Amanda Graystone apparently brought one to the memorial for the victims of the lev bombing, because she stands up in front of the crowd and announces that she thinks her daughter was partly responsible for the bombing that killed their loved ones. Then she acts surprised when the victims' families start rioting.
 * Amanda Graystone apparently brought one to the memorial for the victims of the lev bombing, because she stands up in front of the crowd and announces that she thinks her daughter was partly responsible for the bombing that killed their loved ones. Then she acts surprised when the victims' families start rioting.

Somewhat justified: The last time she spoke to Zoe was on very bad terms which clearly becomes an immense source of Survivor Guilt for her. Add this to the fact that she had recently learned many things about Zoe that she previously did not know: that she had a boyfriend, that she had plans to leave, that she was a monotheist etc... Her  was most likely caused by a Heroic BSOD and not a planned or even rationally-thought act.
 * Perhaps a better example is Ben. He's a religious extremist, and he detonates a suicide bomb on a train as part of some vague attack on people of other religions. For now, let's ignore the fact that it probably would've been very simple for him to rig the bomb with a timer, or detonate it remotely, and his sacrifice was therefore meaningless. More importantly, he decided to do this when his girlfriend Zoe was with him. Although less extreme, she belonged to the same religion as him, and apparently would have been very valuable to their movement had she lived. So far, we've been offered absolutely no explanation, even implicitly, for his decision to involve her in his random suicide bombing. Apparently, the only reason he did it was so that Zoe's digital clone could wax existential and try to find her own purpose in life.

However, Ben is implied to be closer to Barnabas, who favored more aggressive tactics as opposed to Clarice's quest for apotheosis. For all we know, Barnabus pegged Ben to blow the train with Zoe to disrupt Clarice's position in the STO.
 * Yeah, Daniel.
 * Daniel was holding it in "Here Be Dragons", when he . Fortunately, Amanda . This is followed by Amanda essentially lampshading her husband's possession of the Idiot Ball.
 * Informed Profession: In the first two episodes Amanda is shown to be a doctor, complete with a cushy office at the hospital. In "Reins of a Waterfall", she is stated to have resigned. In "Gravedancing", she states that she is a plastic surgeon - a doctor, but not the first aid kit kind usually (although you do have some plastic surgeons for burn care).
 * Interplay of Sex and Violence: a scene in the pilot cuts back and forth between the Graystones having sex and (a shirtless) Sam Adama stabbing someone.
 * The Kid With the Remote Control: When it turns out that.
 * Kiss Me I'm Virtual: Zoe Graystone to Philomon.
 * Leitmotif: Several. This is Bear McCreary, after all. The Tauron leitmotif turns out to be the tune of the Tauron mourning chant used in "There Is Another Sky", in a kind of Shout Out to the audience.
 * Leno Device: Or, should we say, Sarno Device. In many of the TV-montages that involve the latest shit to hit Graystone Industries fan, you can be relatively sure that a clip from Sarno will show up. Even when he doesn't, clips from the obvious Caprican Expy of CNBC are always there.
 * Limited Wardrobe: Zoe-Avatar wears the same dress all the time, for obvious reasons. She figures out how to get a new one by the start of "Gravedancing".
 * Little Miss Badass / Badass Adorable: As of "There Is Another Sky",  is well on her way to becoming one.
 * Logic Bomb: Daniel inadvertently Logic Bombs his simulation of  by demanding that it attack him emotionally when it's programmed to please him.
 * Matrix Raining Code: Caprica emulates the Cylon example from Battlestar Galactica, and explains it as being a human (well, colonial human) programming language, specifically the one Zoe used to create her AI. Here, it's orange/red, rains upwards, and when it hits the top row it gets pinballed to the right where it's presumably "executed".
 * Meaningful Name: Zoe is Greek for "life".
 * Meganekko: Avatar Zoe as "Rachel".
 * Mole in Charge:.
 * Ms. Fanservice: Zoe is a borderline case, made a little bit creepy by her character's apparent age, only to be made a little bit more comfortable by her actress'. In many episodes, particularly early on, she has a tendency to wear very Stripperific outfits and she even appears naked at one point, though this was clearly intended to represent her vulnerability (though this can still be sexy). Particularly exemplified in promotional posters for the show (combined with How Do You Like Them Apples, Over the Shoulder Pose, and Hand or Object Underwear--a veritable buffet of Fan Service).
 * Mythology Gag: From the pilot - Obviously, the Centurion prototype saying "By your command."
 * Neighbourhood Friendly Gangsters: The Ha'la'tha take it seriously.
 * No Bisexuals: Averted with the whole Willow clan, being at least four women and four men all married to one another.
 * In The Imperfections of Memory, the mob boss Tamara is supposed to kill in New Cap City is seen fondling a nubile young girl on one side and a young, pretty guy on the other.
 * No Celebrities Were Harmed: Baxter Sarno's show seems to be like Jay Leno's in form (at least in that he's standing up), but references to college students getting most of their news from him and "tearing a new one" into the Caprican Commerce Minister leads to the conclusion that he's more of a Jon Stewart analogue. Incidentally, he's played by Patton Oswalt.
 * In "Ghosts in the Machine", the comedienne host of the club Joseph visits may remind some viewers of action executive transvestite Eddie Izzard.
 * Obfuscating Stupidity: Bizarrely, Serge Graystone - the Robot Butler about the size of a trash can - might actually be this. Although at first glance he would simply appear to be very good at simulating sapience, his twitter feed suggests he knows things the characters do not - such as the fact that.
 * He spells that out in said twitter,
 * Also, Tamara Adama pulls this off briefly at the end of There Is Another Sky,.
 * One Scene Wonder: William B Davis (The Cigarette Smoking Man) as the Minister of Defense in the pilot.
 * Opium Den: Clarice's "dive" seems to be one of these.
 * Peoples Republic of Tyranny: The Tauron Democratic Government.
 * Permission to Speak Freely: An STO officer grants Lacy Rand this during a questioning.
 * Planet of Hats: Tauron, literally, given the attire of the Taurons on Caprica. (The hats, being fedoras, are very nice).
 * Otherwise, this trope is largely averted. In Caprica, Tauron and Gemenon (the three planets we saw extensively), the culture and traditions and culture are shown to be diverse, even when there is one overriding theme (Tauron's militarism, Gemenon's religious nature). The Colonies not seen sometimes suffer from this though.
 * Polyamory: Sister Clarice has multiple wives and husbands. The participants are all each other's spouses. And it's legal.
 * Posthumous Character: Zoe-A and Tamara-A are Digital Avatars / Virtual Ghosts of Zoe Graystone and Tamara Adama, both of whom were killed in a terrorist attack at the beginning of the story.
 * The Power of Friendship: In the pilot, Zoe-A is covered with blood after Zoe dies. Lacy hugs her and it disappears.
 * Prequel in The Lost Age: To Battlestar Galactica.
 * Previously On: This being a highly arc-based show, it shows up a fair amount.
 * Proud Warrior Race Guy: Taurons.
 * Putting On the Reich: The Herac uniforms look like World War II German military uniforms with Tauron insignia.
 * Psycho Serum: Amp, a kind of reaction-boosting hack that manifests as a drug in New Cap City and is addictive.
 * Recycled in Space: A comment made by Ron Moore essentially sums up this series as Dallas meets The Sopranos meets Rome IN SPACE. Basically, you know, a Family Drama, AS CYBERPUNK!
 * Religion of Evil: STO is seen as this by colonials. Wonder why...
 * Replacement Goldfish: By the series finale Daniel and Amanda Graystone have fully accepted the Zoe avatar as a substitute for their dead daughter (it helps that she possesses almost every memory that the original Zoe did), even providing her with a physical body so she can interact with the real world.
 * Retcon: And how.
 * This is the Revision version of Retcon, however, not the Rewrite. See the Retcon page for the distinction.
 * It'd be rather odd for Zoe to still be peeking up 50 years later, especially when her final disposition is unknown, given the events of the finale and subsequent cancellation-and the notion that buried in the Cylon mind is a seething pot of youthful indignation makes some sense. Some elements are averted in the finale, when  A lot of personal change can happen in 50 years.
 * A lot of the first example given here is actually a subversion of this trope, since.
 * Robosexual: Philo and Robot Zoe. Complicated by Zoe having the mind of a formerly living girl and double complicated by Philo not knowing this.
 * Robot Butler: Serge Graystone, who has his own twitter page.
 * Romance On the Set: Genevieve Buechner (Tamara) and Richard Harmon (Heracles)
 * Rousing Speech:
 * Rousing Speech:

"Lacy: Oh, please. The porn sites were the first to license the technology.
 * The Rule of First Adopters: Lacy and Daniel discuss the Holoband, essentially an easy on, easy off, voluntary Matrix. Guess who first adopted the technology.

Daniel: Those are for adults!"

""I love the idea that everything Admiral Adama learned about saving humanity, he learned from at his gay uncle Sam's Crime School for Incurably Bored Boys.""
 * Screwed By the Network: Syfy just revealed that the second half of season 1 will air a full year after the season began, just Galactica's season 4. Thats right folks, we aren't getting the 10th episode till January 2011.
 * It's been moved up to October 5th, 2010.
 * And has just (10/27/10) been completely canned, up to and including removing all future episodes from the lineup until sometime in 2011, which will end the series at that point. Ouch.
 * Amazon is still "confirming" that the Season 1.5 DVD set will be released on December 21. If this is true, then the last five episodes will premiere on DVD. Can't you just imagine Syfy execs pointing to the low ratings for the aired episodes in 2011, because people have already seen them on DVD, and saying it justifies the cancellaton?
 * Sensei for Scoundrels: Sam Adama tries to be this to his nephew William.
 * Although we all know that some of the tips are going to be used for a greater good in the future.


 * William Adama learned you get more from one's enemies than your friends from his Grandma Ruth-less. Which he applies with the Cylons.
 * Oops..
 * Shoot the Dog: Literally in "Ghosts in the Machine."
 * Short Run in Peru: An interesting case. While the remaining episodes were pulled from airing in the USA following its cancellation until 2011, it was still running as scheduled in Canada, concluding on November 30, 2010 with Apotheosis.
 * Shout Out: Per Word of God, the V-world game "New Cap City" is a Shout Out to the movie New Jack City.
 * It's hard to believe that it isn't an Actor Allusion for Barnabas to address Clarice as "Willow".
 * There was a schoolboy character named "Keon". Is Lacy not interested in ordinary humans?.
 * Dying in New Cap City is called de-rezzed and there's mention of a MCP.
 * In the Adamas house a poster features a spiky-haired sword-wielding Storm.
 * Space Mexicans: The Taurons.
 * Closer to Space Sicilians, though in closer inspection their culture is closer to Greek.
 * Stargate City
 * Straight Gay: Sam Adama, Joseph's tough as nails gangster brother. And Sam's husband. And all the other gay characters in the franchise. Since the Battlestar universe has a firm Eternal Sexual Freedom-thing going, there is no such thing as a gay stereotype.
 * Supreme Chef: Daniel is implied to be one, although he doesn't get much time for it.
 * Survivor Guilt: Lacy has a textbook case of this, saying that "it should've been [her]" on the 'lev, since it nearly was. Which is part of why she's so loyal to Zoe-A.
 * Take That: The last episode begins with Vergis's quote about choosing how we return to the soil, and ends with clips of future episodes that will never be made.
 * Teen Genius: Zoe..
 * Theme Tune Cameo: In "End of Line"(1x09), Daniel plays part of the theme song on the piano
 * This Is Gonna Suck: This pretty much sums up the look on face when she meets the new Blessed Mother in "The Shape of Things to Come".
 * Three Laws Compliant: Averted. Graystone "develops" the AI for a heartless Killer Robot. How could he not expect the obvious, when they Turned Against Their Masters.
 * Probably not a good idea to download the Virtual Ghost of an angsty teenager into it either.
 * ThreeLinesSomeWaiting: Yep.
 * Tomboy and Girly Girl: Lacy and Zoe.
 * Too Dumb to Live: In the series finale epilogue,
 * Took a Level In Badass: Tamara Adama in the V-World.
 * Lacy in the final five episodes, and in The Shape of Things to Come.
 * Trailers Always Spoil: Even though the pilot has been available since April 2009, it was only released on DVD and did not actually air on television until January 2010. Anyone who watches commercials leading up to the series premiere on TV will find out that both Zoe Graystone and Tamara Adama die very early on. This is only natural, because said incident occurs near the beginning of the pilot and drives all the subsequent plot. It's the premise of the story.
 * That said, the notorious tradition in BSG of showing the best bits of the episode is continued in Caprica.
 * Subverted by the trailer for Season 1.5, which gave the impression that Amanda died by showing Daniel angrily rejecting a holographic avatar of her. She didn't.
 * Villain Ball: Diego carries it in the penultimate episode
 * Virtual Ghost: Zoe-A and Tamara-A
 * Voices Are Mental: Zoe-R has Zoe's voice
 * Possibly justified in that Daniel deliberately programmed the robot to be a copy of Zoe and may well have given it her voice, although this same unit did not use her voice when it eliminated the Serge-like targets while her personality was dormant.
 * Another possible explanation is that the programming that makes Zoe-A sound like Zoe in V-world has adapted itself to the voice synthesizer in the robot body, just as she has adapted to moving in her new robot body.
 * We ARE Struggling Together: Gemenon is home to several monotheist and polytheist terrorist organisations that all fight against each other just as much as they fight against the more tolerant Gemenese government.
 * Well Intentioned Extremist: The Soldiers of the One. Ben was an extremist even by the Soldiers standards.
 * Wham Episode: "End of Line" certainly lives up to its name.
 * But that's nothing compared to "The Shape of Things to Come".
 * Wham Line: "The Imperfections of Memory"
 * What Could Have Been: "The Shape of Things to Come", a sequence showing exactly what could have been, at the end of "Apotheosis".
 * Others are mentioned in DVD commentary. The in "Things We Lock Away" would have been  if  had been available. And Zoe might have  in Season 2.
 * What Happened to The Mouse: Tamara in the last couple episodes.
 * Wrench Wench: Lacy. Amusingly, she kinda looks like the Patron Saint of Wrench Wenches, Kaylee Frye. Comparison:
 * Wretched Hive: New Cap City.
 * You Look Familiar: The show loves to take actors and actresses who played minor and supporting roles in BSG and cast them in minor and supporting roles in Caprica:
 * PR consultant Pryah Magnus is played by Luciana Carro, who previously appeared as viper pilot Louanne "Kat" Katraine.
 * Ha'la'tha thug Frank is played by Christian Tessier, who previously appeared as viper pilot Tucker "Duck" Clellan.
 * Tomas Vergis is played by John Pyper-Ferguson, who previously appeared as Cole "Stinger" Taylor, the original CAG of Pegasus.
 * In "End of Line," the Caprican military procurement officer is played by Jill Teed, who previously appeared as Master-of-Arms Hadrian in Season 1.
 * STO soldier Diego is a twofer - he is played by Ryan Robbins, who was the officer at Armistice station in the Miniseries and Charlie Connor in Seasons 3 and 4.
 * In "Apotheosis," the Atlas Arena cameraman that Daniel knocks out is played by Mike Dopud, who previously appeared as Gage, a member of the Battlestar Pegasus rape gang.
 * You Mean Xmas: "Eros Day." One wonders what that might be...
 * Your Mind Makes It Real: Averted. People in V-World who are killed or seriously injured just wake up, due to a failsafe built into the holobands that automatically activates if people reach a certain pain threshold. One of the games, New Cap City, does disallow "killed" players from returning to play, however.
 * Zeerust: Deliberately invoked in order to make the series feel as if it is set 50 years before BSG, which, other than the spaceships and killer robots, feels and looks much like the Aughts it was produced in. Conversely, Caprica invokes 1950s clothing and aesthetics alongside Cyberpunk mainstays to produce a very unique look that is definitely different than BSG. It works.
 * Also - all the cars are 1950's cars!
 * Word of God (through a video blog on Hulu) describe it as Gattaca meets Dark City.
 * Zettai Ryouiki: The Athenian Academy uniforms feature a Grade C. Likewise Lacy wears a booted Grade C in virtual space in one episode.
 * Zeppelins From Another World: Double case. Caprica City itself has pretty realistic blimps, similar to what you'd see floating over a stadium in our world. New Cap City has a full-blown version of the trope, with a monstrous gunship Zeppelin blasting players at random for no adequately-stated reason.
 * Zeppelins From Another World: Double case. Caprica City itself has pretty realistic blimps, similar to what you'd see floating over a stadium in our world. New Cap City has a full-blown version of the trope, with a monstrous gunship Zeppelin blasting players at random for no adequately-stated reason.