Every time I express enthusiasm for a book or movie in the science fiction genre, I get a conscientious objection from one or other of my friends. These challenges to my sci-fi credibility usually come in the form of one of three arguments.
1. “That’s actually speculative fiction.”
2. “That’s just politics playing dress-up.”
The one I’ve heard most often, however, has to be:
3. “That’s mythology. It doesn’t contain any science at all!”
Maybe some people are just fond of mythology set on spaceships, okay? But of course science fiction is going to be built from Jungian materials: it concerns the unknown, the final frontier, both within and without. Going where no one has gone before is a terrifying venture.
Battlestar Galactica is no different – the upside being that it doesn’t have any corny Star Trek aliens. The bad guys are robots that look like humans, created by humans. It was a show about 9/11 and terrorism and the destruction of the human race; about the military and religion and how right and wrong are difficult to distinguish from each other. “All of this has happened before, and all of it will happen again”: it was mythology and politics and speculation. Now it’s over. Now there’s Caprica.
Caprica is the pre-Battlestar story of how the robots rose beyond their programming. Don’t go away! I know it sounds terribly geeky, but listen. Yes, the show exposed me to some depressing geek concepts I had no idea about. Did you know, for example, that there are video games available on networks 24/7? Even when you aren’t playing, other people are, and the game is going on without you. You can never win; you just keep playing. Did you know, too, that crazy people think we will eventually be able to download ourselves onto computers and live forever? These are real ideas. They distress me, but they’re fun to watch on TV.
The show stars the hot (but pasty) Eric Stoltz, of Little Women fame, as a sort of Bill Gates and the hot Esai Morales, of Dora the Explorer fame, I guess, as a lawyer. Both lose their teenage daughters in the same terrorist attack. Here’s the creepy factor: Eric’s daughter ends up in a robot, and Esai’s daughter ends up in a networked virtual reality game that is always happening, just like our networked video games. There’s a political rivalry between monotheists and polytheists. The beautiful Polly Walker, who played Jane Fairfax in the Gwyneth Paltrow Emma, is a monotheistic, polygamous terrorist posing as a polytheistic nun (not bad for Jane Fairfax!). The hot Sasha Roiz plays a hitman, and the brother of Esai’s character.
If you have high blood pressure, please skip Caprica. Watching it, I am anxious all the time. I keep watching it, however, because it’s politically and theoretically fascinating. Also – just so you know – it isn’t set in outer space. I know some people have deep moral problems (or something) watching shows set in outer space. Such people need not worry. It’s about addiction and religion and artificial intelligence and terrorism, but it keeps its feet on the ground.
Caprica comes back to SyFy in January. Meanwhile, you have nine episodes to catch up on. It’s just going to get better.
Image credit: thetvaddict.com
One could get the impression that you find geekiness not an unalloyed good. What’s wrong with it?
If you are watching TV miniseries, you might try out Rome. Polly Walker is fantastic in it.
Everything in moderation!
I will definitely try Rome. It’s been recommended to me more than once.
[...] acts of fandom are acts of creation, from camping out on the couch for a Caprica-watching spree to gossiping about the shenanigans of the residents of Bon Temps. Dressing up at Dragon*Con is an [...]
*high-five*