There is Another Sky (2010-02-26)

There is another sky by Emily Dickinson
There is another sky,
Ever serene and fair,
And there is another sunshine,
Though it be darkness there;
Never mind faded forests, Austin,
Never mind silent fields –
Here is a little forest,
Whose leaf is ever green;
Here is a brighter garden,
Where not a frost has been;
In its unfading flowers
I hear the bright bee hum:
Prithee, my brother,
Into my garden come!

Joseph is having ongoing troubles with Willie, who continues to be absent from school, and is angry to find him working at the Tauron club with Sam. Tamara now wanders around the V-world nightclub and discovers, after being shot by Vesta, that she cannot be killed.

This feels like a filler episode. Graystone moves another small step towards his Cylons. Adama moves forward then promptly backwards when he finds that his daughter is still in virtual space.

Gravedancing (2010-09-19)

As public outrage keeps mounting, Daniel is finally persuaded to appear on the late-night television show Backtalk with Baxter Sarno and tell his side of the story. Daniel then promises his company will not profit from the lucrative but much maligned Holoband licensing anymore, and that they will also set up a charitable fund.

Now Mr Graystone does something stupid. In admitting he made an avatar of his daughter, he opens the gates to everyone wanting one.

And for a rich woman, Mrs Graystone is not that good at security practices, getting in a car with an unknown man.

Reins of a Waterfall (2010-02-05)

After Amanda’s revelation, the Graystones face the wrath of angered Capricans, culminating in Amanda’s resignation from the hospital, and a violent altercation between Daniel and Samuel. Lacy begins to be pressured by other students at school re. STO, and the Academy director, Clarice Willow, tries to learn more of the virtual Zoe as well.

Now things are getting intriguing. The Adama brothers are beginning to look like cheap hoods from a 1950’s noir film. And it looks like the cops are just as corrupt. The story ups the stakes for Graystone, and he may have to get inventive to give Adama what he wants.

Rebirth (2010-01-29)

It is now one month since the bombing, and Zoe is having problems distinguishing her real self from her virtual self. Lacy is approached by Sister Clarice Willow, the head of Zoe and Lacy’s school, the Athena Academy, and also a member of the STO cult, who takes a special interest in her. Joseph struggles to connect to his son William, who begins spending time more with his uncle Samuel.

The first problem here is the the decision to cut between depictions of the robot as mechanical and human (using the actor). One switch is all it needs to remind the audience that the robot contains the virtual girl, then the rest can be done with the mechanical prop. But they repeatedly cut between the two. It becomes annoying and at times creepy, especially as the robot is over 2m tall, where the girl is probably 1.6-1.7m.

The second issue is the actions of the mother at the end . This makes no sense (unless she has a death wish). She is portrayed as reserved and introverted, then at the end behaves completely the opposite way.

Pilot (2010-01-22)

Caprica is an American science fiction television series. It is a prequel spin-off to the Syfy channel’s series Battlestar Galactica which ran from 2003 to 2009. Set 58 years before the events seen in Battlestar Galactica, Caprica depicts life in Colonial society and shows how humanity first created the robotic Cylons who would later plot to destroy the human race.

It starts with a common trope, the scientist who looses a loved one and will do anything to replace her. Half way into this 2 hour start things were looking like a re-telling of the Frankenstein story.

However the different ending, where the daughter is “reborn’ in a military robot gave it a new twist and hopefully prospects for an engaging story to come.

The other thing that made no sense, They have a house robot that moved, interprets speech and interacts with people. It can carry out commands, so what if the IQ that drives this device not good enough for the military application the scientist is working on ?