A for effort, but not quite the success it wants to be. The seventh episode of the series suffers from a haphazard, meandering approach that stifles the intriguing analgoies and other developments that take place within the episode. The turning point was the end of the episode which showcased a very important turning point in the Caprican universe but it isn’t enough to turn the sloppiness into a true classic.

CLICK FOR FULL REVIEW

Ahhh The Plan. When the show began, there was reference to this mythical Plan that the Cylons had in mind. And then somewhere along the way Ronald Moore admitted that he was making things up as he went along. So he had no plan. So how did the Cylons have a plan? Well they didn’t really. BUT they decided to go back and try to fit what had happened in the beginning to what happened at the end of the series and make all the pieces kind of fit.

CLICK FOR FULL REVIEW

It was a tough week to guage. There was little in the way of immediate satisfaction in the wake of last week’s highly successful episode. But at the same time there was plenty of groundwork laid for future payoff — enough to see how multitudes of storylines could take off. So is that enough? Personally I think this is one of those episodes that was necessary but yet that doesn’t make it in and of itself satisfying. Time will certainly tell.

CLICK FOR FULL REVIEW

“Gravedancing” continues Caprica’s meandering ways. The show has yet to find any kind of central focus point or direction. It all seems to flit around to the characters and their storylines but without any rhyme or reason. There are few good moments in a series that is too young to have these kind of directionless times.

CLICK FOR FULL REVIEW

Caprica 1.05 – “There Is Another Sky”

In a series that is begging for a really good episode — that moment that sets the ball rolling. “There Is Another Sky” is for the most part that episode. It’s not completely brilliant or as good as other “moment” type episodes from other series, but this one does raise the bar. It defines the characters better in a way and opens up different worlds of storytelling.

CLICK FOR FULL REVIEW

Three episodes in and I feel the show is still trying to find itself. The mixture of science fiction and true soap opera (unlike the melodramatic fake soap opera put forth by BSG at times), is a tricky mixture.

CLICK FOR FULL REVIEW

As second episodes go, this one was unique in that it did a good job of moving the story forward without having to rehash too much. This show is going to take a little time to find it’s feet. The creators have stressed over and over again that this is not Battlestar Galactica. This is going to be a more character driven drama about family. It’s a unique approach and it might struggle to find an audience. Most of the sci-fi/fantasty crowd might find it not having enough action, while the soap opera type audience might be turned off by the tech and futuristic setting.

However the episode shows that it can work mostly. It just has to watch that it doesn’t trip all over itself. The main crux of the storyline is Zoe being trapped in a prototype Cylon body. There are all sorts of avenues to travel down with regards to Zoe being real, a machine, human, soulless. And the show does a good job traveling the paths. However with as much of a genius as Daniel Graystone is, it’s taking him an awful long time to connect the dots when the functioning of the machine only works with the one prototype his daughter was downloaded into.

Meanwhile we learn that Lacy comes from a much lower tech family which adds an interesting dynamic, as does her teacher’s “multiple partnered” family.

Unfortnuately where the story goes a bit wrong is that it spends too much time setting up the familial relationships and not enough moving the story forward. I understand the differences but the pacing drags a bit. Especially on the Adama side, which should be much more engaging given what we know about the characters.

In an interesting choice, the creators decided to intersperse the Cylon body with the actress who plays Zoe to unsubtly remind us that that is Zoe I liked it at first, but feel that it was overdone by the end. It can be effective but it just has to be more limited in the future to special moments. Now it’s less a metaphor and more of a hammer to the head. Really we’re smart enough to realize that that is Zoe.

What’s far more subtle and enjoyable, especially to the BSG fan is when Daniel Graystone plays the piano, he plays the second movement of Nomion’s 3rd Sonata (in universe) — the very same piece that Starbuck hears her father play in the last season of BSG.

Also the ending left a lot to be desired. As Zoe’s mom is hit with the news that Zoe had a boyfriend and may have been a terrorist, she snaps and at the memorial decides to declare to the world that her daughter was responsible for the crash and was a terrorist. Um. Wow. A bit over the top.

But regardless, the show does have a lot of potential and Eric Stoltz is a fine actor to head up the cast so I am, for now interested in watching more.

C+

Previous – 1.01

Next – 1.03

Caprica hits you right in the gut with the first sequence depicting all the horrors and self destructive (although some would say fun) tendencies of a depraved humanity. One reason it went directly to video and was rated R. We were told this would be a departure from BSG. It would be less action and have a more personal and socially charged dynamic.

On that end it certainly succeeds although it is hard to say it is for the better. It is certainly more comfortable in this role than it was forcing it’s way into BSG towards the end of that run. There are certainly connections to BSG, how could there not be, but the connections are done vaguely enough (besides the obvious Adama family) that it is not necessary at all to have seen BSG.

But it doesn’t hurt, especially for the reveals of the first robotic Cylon and of course the “By your command” line.

The tale focuses on Zoe, a rebellious teen who happens to be a computer genius with a chip on her shoulder about the state of the world and her rich parents. She has created a virtual version of herself that it is so complete that it actually a separate personality capable of living and growing. After getting involved with a religious cult, she decides to leave their homeworld of Caprica and travel to Geminon to start anew, when she falls victim to a terrorist act perpetrated by her best friend. The train she is on is destroyed, killing Zoe and also Bill Adama’s mother and older sister.

What’s left are the survivors and how they cope. There are three sets of survivors that eventually interact.

The Adamas – Bill and Joseph Adams (later Adama – note a recurring theme of racism between Capricans and Tauron’s specifically – almost overdone by public officials to be honest but I can live with it)

Lacy Rand – Zoe’s best friend who backed out of the Geminon move and now lives guiltily trying to reconnect with avatar Zoe. It is her continual visits that lead Daniel Greystone to discovering his daughter’s avatar.

The Greystones – Zoe’s parents and new catalyst for the creation of the Cylon as it would be Daniel Greystone who would take Zoe’s notes and work to eventually create what we know as the Cylons. At first though he is just interested in finding this virtual Zoe, but then he realizes he can actually download the avatar into a physical body.

There’s a lot to ponder. Although nothing is highly original, contemplating on what exactly life is…what a soul is…is always a worthy journey to make. Racism also interesting to see take hold in a science fiction setting.

It’s a little difficult to see where the show will go from the ending we see. It seems it will first be a chase sequence as robot Zoe will escape. But beyond that, the development of the technology will only take the show so far, so something further will have to be established.

Overall the show looked good, the acting was well done, especailly Eric Stoltz as Daniel and Paula Malcomson as Amanda Greystone. The show has potential to be great and potential to be trash. It just depends on how consistent it can be.

B-

Next – 1.02

Well here it was. The end. With millions of questions to answer and a lot to answer for. Does it deliver?

It delivers enough.

Given the daunting task this episode had given the preceding leading up chapters, this fact that this episode was able to get out if it’s own way enough to weave a tale that not only answered most of the questions, leave the viewer with definite closure and be mostly satisfying is quite an achievement.

It doesn’t start out that way though. We begin with more flashbacks and by the end of the episode, I felt that the flashbacks did nothing but take up time that the show didn’t really have.

The general gist of the story is simple. Adama leads the rebel Cylons and humans who volunteered to attack the Colony and save Hera.

Upon getting there there is a ferocious battle as Helo, Athena, Starbuck and Apollo lead raids on the Colony itself, while the Final Five through Anders slows the Colony’s response times.

Of course, Boomer gets to flip flop one last time, taking Hera from Cavil’s crew and delivering her to Helo and Athena before Athena gets her revenge by opening fire on her.

After getting Hera back to the battlestar we finally get to see the opera house scene play out in real life as Hera gets loose and Athena runs after her and from other parts of the ship, Roslin as well as the reunited Baltar and Caprica Six who eventually saves Hera and they all cometogether in the CIC where the Final five were.

There rages a standoff with Cavil himself and Adama. A peace is negotiated when Tigh offers to trade Hera for resurrection technology. In order to give them the information the final five have to unite and send the information down to the Colony computer. Unfortunately the five becoming one is quite literally mentally so no secret is safe and Tyrol discovers that Tory killed Cally. Tyrol breaks the uni-mind and kills Tory. Thinking it was a trick, all hell breaks loose and ultimately the humans win when they nuke the colony and Kara is forced to jump away immediately.

Of course she puts in the numbers she worked out from the song and it leads them to Earth.

What? Didn’t we see Earth? Well I guess this new Earth is OUR Earth. The Earth we previously visited wasn’t Earth. This is Earth because Adama names it Earth as their final destination.

And it’s 150,000 years in the past.

And Hera is mitochondrial Eve, the one humanity as we know it was birthed from.

We learn a ton throughout though.

Personal Six and Personal Baltar are in fact agents of God as they claimed. And furthermore it seems although it is not implicitly said that Kara Thrace was dead and that Kara had become an angel. It is not certain if she was always an angel in human form or if she became an angel after her death…or further why she didn’t know either way but she has a goodbye with Lee before fading away.

Roslin passes away on New Earth as she rides off with Adama to build a cabin far away from everyone.

Baltar redeems himself by selflessly staying behind, reuniting with Caprica Six (which seemed a bit forced to be honest, considering just a few episodes back she and Tigh were having a baby together and she loved him.) Baltar though was the highlight and the only one whose flashbacks really meant something in terms of the actual story.

Now one big question that I just didn’t get. During the standoff, after the final five break the uni-mind, Cavill kills himself.

What? I didn’t understand that at all. It seemed very out of character. Someone whose sole goal was resurrection technology just decides, ok things look grim. Bye!

Overall, while there are some sloppy moments and some stumbles, the series goes out well and on a high note, especially given the obstacles of some of the groundwork episodes.

B

Previous – 4.19

Next – The Fall

“Daybreak” is an episode I’m of two minds about.  On one hand, it does a good job of building excitement leading into the second part and two hour series finale.  On the other.  It does so in spite of itself.  Then again, I can’t blame this episode for the failure of previous episodes to lay the groundwork needed for a series finale.  Not a season finale but a series frakkin’ finale.

And that’s why it’s hard to get excited about the end game.  It seems the final battle will be Cowboy Bill Adama leading a group of volunteers to attack the colony of Cylons, gleamed from the on again off again Sam Anders’ mind, all in an effort to save Hera.  Now the series did do a decent job of making Hera seem important, but she drifted off to the background for too long. 

It just doesnt seem like it can end after this.  If they get Hera…so what?  The journey isn’t over.  They’re still not home.  Unless they do a quick cheap cop out of Hera being able to find a new home.  It just doesn’t seem like it can end.  But maybe I’m wrong.

And I’m definitely getting  ahead of myself.

We open by bringing us back to Caprica pre-war and seeing Baltar, Roslin, and Apollo and Starbuck lead their lives.   Roslin deals with the death of her father and sisters to a drunk driver right after giving one of her sisters’ a baby shower.  Like a religious figure she wanders in her robe to a fountain and feels the water splash over her face renewing her.  We see a dinner between Apollo, Starbuck, and Zach Adama which is cool to see as very little was ever truly given to Zach’s relationship with his brother.  Finally we see Caprica 6 and Baltar frolic and meet Baltar’s dad, crotchety old man that he is.    Caprica 6 later helps his father move into a senior home where he is happier.

All this is fine backstory and is actually interesting, but I can’t shake the feeling of “Come on…move on with it.”  There’s just not enough real estate to work with here to waste this kind of time.

Back in present time we are greeted with more of the same.  Subplots that just don’t have a lot of time to playout.  It’s nice to see Bill reflecting as he packs up his quarters for the big move.  It’s interesting to see Helo and jailed Tyrol’s chat about what Hera means and whether you can trust Cylons or not.  And finally it’s also great to see Baltar finally start integrating himself back into being a major player.  But again…too little too late? 

We get a quick peek of Hera and learn of her impending doom at the prodding of Cavil and his men.  Just enough so we don’t forget about her.

Finally Adama finds out the location of Hera and makes an announcement regarding the volunteer attack.  It is here only that the episode really makes any headway.  There is great effect when the chatter spreads throughout the ship like a buzz on what Adama’s planning.  It seems real and it is a quick surefire way to get hits of what all the major characters are feeling about it. 

Finally the line is drawn…physically.  Those who volunteer go to one side, those who don’t stay behind.  I think a moment is missed when they don’t finish what they start.  Earlier in the episode Baltar had an intriguing one on one with Lee Adama where Adama charges that Baltar has never had one single solitary action in self sacrifice.  Everything always comes back to how it can benefit Gaius Baltar.  Baltar realizes it and silently agrees.

Well Baltar is show having his moment.  He almost volunteers but something stops him, but then we don’t get another shot of him, either way when he makes his full decision.  He still could volunteer and it could be something of a redemption for Baltar.   It’s a missed opportunity in my opinion. 

Overall it was definitely enjoyable and there does seem to be some semblance of epicness as we go to the finale, but I still shake my head at the way it keeps getting in the way of itself.

C+

Previous – 4.18

Next – 4.20

Two episodes left after this one..and still we’re crawling to the finish. So much should be happening and yet we are crawling along at a glacial pace. And then to top it all off we have melodrama galore!

With Galactica dying, Admiral Adama has to slowly come to the realization that they will have to abandon her. The ship, the thing he loves most, even more than Roslin as she states. What’s worse is the plan to make the Cylon Basestar the new flagship of the fleet. Of course this goes over like the proverbial ton of bricks.

This could have been a good throughline except there are two problems. One, this invention of the Galactica suddenly being THIS delapitated make it hard to believe. Two. Edward James Olmos’ peformance. Normally I think he is a fine actor, but over the top doesn’t begin to describe it. Especailly during a breakdown in his command quarters as he throws paint everywhere and breaks down like a child. It just was ridiculous. If done subtly it could have been a very powerful moment, but it is robbed of it’s dignity. BSG just doesn’t do subtle anymore and that is to the series’ detriment.

The other brief storyline is Helo trying to save his child and repair his now broken marriage by trying to convince Adama to let him fly off in a Raptor to find her. It’s glossed over and quietly moved on with.

There is a lot of other mishmash throughout that doesn’t really amount to much. Lee fronting the Council who is ready to vulture the Galactica and in what should be a huge deal, but is somewhat lacking is Boomer getting Hera to Cavil. The only matter of importance is that Boomer connects with Hera who can join with Cylon projecting. It might be important, but the way the series is going it might just be a one off.

Finally, there is Starbuck and to a lesser extent Sam. Sam is plugged in like a hybrid and talks like one as he is rebooting. He spouts out many childlike cliches and eventually some repeated notions such as the famous ‘this has all happened before, it will all happen again’ and ‘kara thrace is the harbinger of death, she will lead them to their end’.

But that’s not the problem. The problem is her confession of what she found on Earth to Baltar. Baltar? Baltar sees angels and that’s enough for Starbuck to divulge. When Baltar does some tests, he uses the result that it is Starbuck’s dead body, as an announcement that there is life after death.

Beyond that Starbuck’s little pathetic scene with Lee who accepts her anyways and her putting her picture up on the death wall. It just had no effect.

The show better have a helluva finale because this wasn’t an abomination, it was almost worse in that it was boring.

D+

Previous – 4.17

Next – 4.19