Caprica: Difference between revisions

{{quote| '''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. }}

 

 

Though set in the same universe, ''Caprica'' has a [[Genre Shift|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.

* [[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.

* [[A God Am I]]: {{spoiler|Zoe in the series finale.}}

* [[All There in the Manual]]: Remember when Sam said that people could read his life-story from his tattoos? He wasn't kidding.

** 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'' {{spoiler|it is shown that Daniel Graystone was unable to build a sentient Cylon, even using the [[Applied Phlebotinum|meta-cognitive-processor]] stolen from his rival Vergis. Nor is it clear that it was ever Daniel's goal for the Cylons to possess a true human-level degree of sentience, as opposed to being just very effective robots. It turns out that Daniel's daughter [[Teen Genius|Zoe]] creates the necessary software to produce true artificial intelligences at the prompting of one of the [[Our Angels Are Different|"head beings"]] that in BSG supposedly represent "God". This raises the question of whether humanity was truly responsible for their own downfall, or if it was engineered by a [[God Is Evil|higher power]].}}

* [[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 Reimagined (TV)|Battlestar Galactica]]''.

* [[Anyone Can Die]]: Possibly one of the most shocking examples in television history. ''[[Battlestar Galactica Reimagined (TV)|Battlestar Galactica]]'' fans would know {{spoiler|that the commander of the fleet was named Bill Adama, so when we were introduced to a young William Adama, [[Contractual Immortality|certain assumptions were made]]. Then he dies in the penultimate episode. It turns out that the Bill Adama of ''Battlestar'' is his younger half-brother, due to the Tauron tradition of naming new children after their deceased siblings.}}

* [[Badass Family]]: If you had any lingering doubts about this from ''[[Battlestar Galactica Reimagined (TV)|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 [[Badass Creed|family motto]], which amounts to "When we start a war, we finish it. We don't quit halfway through".

* [[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.

* [[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).

* [[Diesel Punk]]: The V-World game "New Cap City"

* [[Digital Avatar]]: Zoe-Avatar of course, before she became a [[Virtual Ghost]].

** Also {{spoiler|Evelyn taking the name Emmanuelle while posing as Joseph's guide.}}

* [[The Don]]: The Guatrau of the Ha'la'tha, from what little we see of him.

* [[Interplay of Sex and Violence]]: a scene in the pilot cuts back and forth between the Graystones having sex and (a [[Shirtless Scene|shirtless]]) Sam Adama stabbing someone.

* [[The Kid With the Remote Control]]: When it turns out that {{spoiler|the U-87s respond to Lacy over their designated controllers}}.

* [[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, [[No Celebrities Were Harmed|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.

** He ''spells that out'' in said twitter, {{spoiler|namely that he guessed and Zoe saw no need to keep it from him - although she did tell him not to tell her parents.}}

** Also, Tamara Adama pulls this off briefly at the end of ''There Is Another Sky'', {{spoiler|[[Crowning Moment of Awesome|allowed her to "de-res" the avatars of the player gang that was attempting to manipulate her]]}}.

* [[Opium Den]]: Clarice's "dive" seems to be one of these.

* [[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 [[Nice Hat|very nice]]).

** Probably not a good idea to download the [[Virtual Ghost]] of an angsty teenager into it either.

*** {{spoiler|An angsty, born-again, teenager with daddy issues}}

* [[Tomboy and Girly Girl]]: Lacy and Zoe.

* [[Too Dumb to Live]]: In the series finale epilogue, {{spoiler|Clarice Willow. She may have genuinely believed that it was God's will to convert the "differently sentient" (Cylon robots) to monotheism, but when she outright encourages a robot rebellion and declares that there will be "a day of reckoning" for humanity during her prophecy can be described as misguided at best and suicidal at worst. Or she just forgot what species she belonged to.}}

** 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.

* [[Wham Episode]]: "End of Line" certainly lives up to its name. {{spoiler|Zoe kills Philomon, escapes, is chased by defense forces, and ends up in a car wreck. Tamara shoots Joseph out of New Cap City and Emmanuelle is Evelyn. Amanda prepares to jump off a bridge. Barnabas forces Lacy to detonate a bomb in Clarice's car, but Clarice isn't in it because she's watching Amanda. Daniel receives a phone call and we don't see what the news is.}}

** But that's nothing compared to "The Shape of Things to Come".

* [[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 {{spoiler|Head-Zoe}} in "Things We Lock Away" would have been {{spoiler|Head-Six or Head-Baltar}} if {{spoiler|Tricia Helfer or James Callis}} had been available. And Zoe might have {{spoiler|met one of the Final Five in V-world}} in Season 2.

* [[Wrench Wench]]: Lacy. Amusingly, she kinda looks like the Patron Saint of Wrench Wenches, [[Firefly|Kaylee Frye]]. Comparison: [http://www.fireflywiki.org/img/Kaylee23.jpg\] [http://media.battlestarwiki.org/images/f/f0/Caprica_Lacy.jpg\]

* [[Wretched Hive]]: New Cap City.