Editor's Blog
Rebirth – the second episode of the Syfy Battlestar Galactica (BSG) spin-off series Caprica – should captivate transhumanists and singularitarians (as well as plain ‘ol SF fans) while not disappointing hardcore BSG fans. It’s simply good TV drama. Zoe (Alessandra Torresani), now trapped in the body of a Cylon, is both sexy and hypnotic as the "soul" of the only one of her father’s robotic prototypes that works. No one except her friend Lacy (Magda Apanowicz) knows she’s in there, so she’s poked, prodded, and violated like a broken down Ford Escort. When she’s being treated like a junkyard car on a mechanic’s hydraulic jack, we see a Cylon body – when she reacts to her treatment, we see Zoe’s human image, the core of "her" robotic being.
At the end of the first episode (Pilot), we’re introduced to Zoe-as-robot (Zoe-R) after the human Zoe dies in a terrorist attack and her avatar (Zoe-A) disappears. In Rebirth, we discover that Zoe-A is no more (somehow deleted). We also learn that "Zoe" is in fact a "trinity" of human, avatar, and robot. In her first encounter with Lacy since the terrorist explosion that claimed her human form, Zoe confronts the existential dilemma of being "trapped" in a Cylon body, "Lacy, it’s me. It’s okay, you can take a good look. Do I look male to you? I’m trapped!"
Zoe reflects on her human self and the confusing nature of being 3-in-1, "Zoe’s original program was destroyed when he [her father] put me in here. So, at least he won’t be putting any more of me into more robots. God, it’s confusing. I mean, I’m Zoe and the avatar and the robot. I’m like some kind of wachacallit… three parts…" Lacy responds, "Trinity, that’s what you are, three faces of one thing."
Photo: Albert Ortega, Courtesy of Syfy
Her computer scientist father Daniel Greystone (Eric Stoltz) scratches his head suspecting – but not knowing – that his daughter is inside the prototype. "Why can’t we copy you?" he comments to the robot at one point. Can you clone a soul? Can there be multiple versions of the self? Heady stuff for a TV series.
Meanwhile, in a parallel plot development, Joseph Adama (Esai Morales) continues his efforts to reconnect with his son Willy (Sina Najafi) while Willy’s Sopranos-like Uncle Sam (Sasha Roiz) teaches him gangster’s tricks in the Tauren section of town. We also learn more about Athena Headmistress Clarice Willow (Polly Walker) – a secret member of the shadowy Soldiers of the One terrorist group – who invites Lacy to her home to meet the husbands and wives of her "group marriage." One of her husbands, Nestor, seems to have an eye for Lacy. He mysteriously comments on how computer software can often outlast its maker, "You write a great program and it can outlive you. It’s like a work of art. And maybe Zoe was an artist." Do Nestor and Clarice know more about Zoe than they let on?
The plot zinger comes at the end of the episode when Amanda Greystone (Paula Malcomson) receives pictures, a book ("The Physics of Religion and Spirituality"), and the infinity symbol of the Soldiers of the One from the mother of Zoe’s terrorist-now-dead boyfriend, Ben. She makes the connection between Zoe and the terrorists and publically confesses on TV, setting up a cliffhanger. Religion – the origins of the strange Cylon monotheism in BSG and the "trinity" that is Zoe – is clearly going to play a major role in future Caprica episodes.
5 Comments
LOL caprica is lost, so to say. The links to now are a misperception and partially already wrong. They missed sentient A.I. and downloading a human consciousness. they came close to how new keyboards will be with interactive surfaces, but missed the main 3 way’s that humanity plays those strings out. All in all scifi is lost to the present, and they don’t seem to even be able to perceive the near future as it is coming to be. And as they drifted so far away from what is already real, they lost me as a scifi fan. If for nothing else than they couldn’t envision a good story for scifi evolution and they are helping demonize technology, just like the religious do. Also they made a main plot line a argument for monotheism vs. polytheism and avoided the rise in atheistic trends, missing some very important things. The lack of foresight or even good story telling has turned me away already, as I see they are that lost. Just like the scifi channel lost me a while back from lack of. Oh well just my 2 cents P. Hollywood is lost just like the military industrial and geopolitical types. Let them waist their money and time as I find the next sets of paradigm shifts before most will perceive them. Cosmic Irony for the lot of them, as they run toward the cliff edge entangled in the storm that surrounds them.
The effects of each technology and how they would affect other technologies and the history of the world and the people aren’t well thought out. It’s as if it’s exactly our present world (USB sticks? – and in places minus a few decades, even – video tapes?) with some ultratech slapped on it. The effect is laughably incongruous. Definitely not hard scifi.
The first 2 lessons, er, episodes were enough. Neext…!
The effects of each technology and how they would affect other technologies and the history of the world and the people aren’t well thought out. It’s as if it’s exactly our present world (USB sticks? – and, in places, minus a few decades even – video tapes?) with some ultratech slapped on it. It’s a hodgepodge. The effect is laughably incongruous. Definitely not hard scifi.
The first 2 lessons, er, episodes were enough. Neext…!
Some days we’re out of sync.
caprica is off to a great start!