Caprica


Caprica is a 2010 American science fiction drama television series, which is a prequel spin-off of the 2004–2009 series Battlestar Galactica. Caprica is set 58 years before the main series, and shows how humanity first created the Cylon androids who would later turn against their human masters. Among Caprica main characters are the father and uncle of William Adama, the man who becomes the senior surviving military leader of the fleet which represents the remnants of the Twelve Colonies in Battlestar Galactica.
An extended version of the pilot premiered exclusively on DVD and digital download on April 21, 2009. The first season debuted on television on January 22, 2010, on Syfy in the U.S., Space in Canada, and Sky1 in the UK. It ran for nine episodes, including the two-hour pilot, before going on a mid-season hiatus. The second half of the first season began airing on October 5, 2010, on Syfy and Space.
On October 27, 2010, Syfy canceled the show, citing low ratings, and pulled the remaining five episodes of the series from its broadcast schedule. The series continued to air as scheduled on Space, finishing with the series finale on November 30, 2010. The remaining episodes were released on DVD in the U.S. on December 21, 2010 and aired on Syfy in a burn-off marathon on January 4, 2011.

Plot

Caprica is set before the cataclysmic destruction of the Twelve Colonies of Kobol, focusing on the planet Caprica, the main planet of the Twelve Colonies. Caprica is the governmental seat of the Twelve Colonies, having also become the de facto seat of culture, art, science, and learning; the language of Caprica has become the standard language of the Twelve Colonies.
The Twelve Colonies are at peace, 58 years before the events of the 2004 television series, when an act of religious fanaticism brings together Joseph Adama, a lawyer with ties to the criminal underworld, and wealthy technologist Daniel Graystone, both of whom lost family members. Grief-stricken by the loss of his daughter and fueled by obsession, Daniel sets out to bring her back, using his considerable wealth and sprawling technology corporation. Offered the chance of his own daughter being restored, Joseph wrestles with the notion until he comes face to face with its reality.

Cast and characters

Eric Stoltz received the script while filming a movie, and he left it in his hotel room for several days without reading it. When it was stolen by a maid who had been paid off by a Battlestar fan, he realized how passionate the fandom was, and knew he had to read it. Paula Malcomson originally tested for the role of Sister Clarice Willow; however, Jeffrey Reiner felt she would make a great Amanda Graystone. On April 28, 2009, Sasha Roiz's role was expanded to full series regular.

Production

Concept

Caprica differs significantly from its parent series. Ronald D. Moore had strong feelings on the matter, explaining his position that "...you don't try to repeat the formula," and going on to say, "...everything about Caprica was designed specifically to not repeat what we had done in Galactica." Although a critical success, Galactica had a predominantly male audience, and both Moore and the network felt the "war in space" backdrop was a major deterrent to female viewers. With these considerations, and Caprica's storyline already focused on events taking place prior to the two Cylon Wars, the series has a different tone, content, and style. While Caprica contains references to elements of the Battlestar universe, the series was intended to be accessible to new fans.
Whereas the dark, post-apocalyptic reimagined Battlestar Galactica series revolved around a final struggle for survival, Caprica is concerned with a world intoxicated by success. Ronald D. Moore states: "It's about a society that's running out of control with a wild-eyed glint in its eye." The Twelve Colonies are at their peak: self-involved, oblivious, and mesmerized by the seemingly unlimited promise of technology. Framed by the conflict between the Adamas and the Graystones over the resurrection of loved ones lost in an act of terrorism, the series was meant to explore ethical implications of advances in artificial intelligence and robotics.
Caprica is grounded in urban locales rather than in space, and focuses on corporate, political, familial, and personal intrigue, similar in approach to a Greek tragedy. With wealth, corporate intrigue, and the troubled relationship between two families at its center, Moore himself has likened Caprica to the 1980s prime time soap opera Dallas, Like Battlestar Galactica, Caprica had a story arc format.

Development

During the second season of Battlestar Galactica, series developer Ronald D. Moore and production partner David Eick started speculating about the Battlestar Galactica universe prior to the Cylons. Unable to dedicate serious time to the notion, it remained in the concept stage of development until in early 2006, screenwriter Remi Aubuchon, unaware of the ideas about a Battlestar Galactica prequel, proposed a film about artificial intelligence to Universal Pictures. Though Universal Pictures turned down the project as a movie, Universal Television executives felt Moore and Eick might be interested in Aubuchon's take on the subject and arranged a meeting. Merging the existing thoughts for a Battlestar Galactica prequel with those Aubuchon brought to the table, a general outline for a series emerged.
While the Sci-Fi Channel management was enthusiastic about the idea, they had been engaged in a struggle with Moore about Battlestar Galactica's long storylines, which the network felt kept new viewers from joining. Although Moore's subsequent retooling garnered negative criticism from fans and press alike, and the Sci-Fi Channel eventually admitted that standalone episodes did not work for the show, the network balked at the prospect of another series with a story-arc-heavy format and Caprica got stuck in "development hell".
With Eick and Moore's announcement that Battlestar Galactica was going to end with its fourth season, and after a drawn out pre-development cycle, on March 18, 2008, the Sci-Fi Channel announced that Caprica had been picked up as a two-hour backdoor pilot event, indicating a possible commitment to a series, contingent on ratings. On July 20 of the same year, Sci-Fi announced it was considering picking up Caprica directly as a weekly series, and would make the pilot an extended season premiere. Finally, on December 2, Sci-Fi gave the go-ahead to expand the project into a full series. Production was resumed in July 2009 for an anticipated series premiere in early 2010. The series premiered on January 22, 2010.

Filming

developed the show, in conjunction with Remi Aubuchon and the executive producers of Battlestar Galactica, Ronald D. Moore and David Eick. Aubuchon co-created the show and worked on the pilot, then left to become executive producer of Persons Unknown. The pilot was directed by Friday Night Lights veteran Jeffrey Reiner. Battlestar Galactica's Jane Espenson, Michael Taylor, and Ryan Mottesheard, Pushing Daisies' Kath Lingenfelter, and Friday Night Lights Patrick Massett and John Zinman joined the writing staff. Moore ran the writers room initially, but handed off to Espenson, who was promoted to executive producer and was Caprica's showrunner until November 15, 2009, when it was announced that Kevin Murphy, who had joined as executive producer in October, would assume the role.
The show was shot in and around Vancouver, British Columbia. In the pilot, exterior shots feature many regional landmarks, often augmented using CG imagery. Many of the external scenes were filmed in the Yaletown area of the city, including one distinctive shot of the old railway turntable next to the Roundhouse at Davie and Pacific. The city's library is also featured in one shot, just as it was in scenes set in Caprica City in various episodes of Battlestar Galactica.
Vancouver's SkyTrain and one of its stations feature in the sequence prior to the terrorist explosion. The production chose to keep the same font and sign style used by the real SkyTrain, but with rebadged signs featuring the name "Caprica City". Several structures found in the financial district of Dubai, United Arab Emirates, have been digitally added to the images of Caprica City to enhance its futuristic look, including one of the Emirates Towers, the Khalifa Tower, and the Dubai Metro.
The exterior shots of the school attended by Zoe Graystone, Lacy Rand and several other characters were filmed outside the Vancouver School of Theology, on the campus of the University of British Columbia.
When Daniel takes Joseph and William to the Pyramid sports match, the colors of Caprica's team are identical to those of Vancouver's real life hockey team, the Canucks. Navy and green stripes adorn the walls outside the team dressing room, suggesting that the scenes were filmed at Rogers Arena.
One of the encounters between Daniel Graystone and Tomas Vergis was filmed in the University of British Columbia's Museum of Anthropology. The sculpture "The Raven and the First Men" was in the background.
There was also significant filming at Central City Shopping Centre in Surrey, B.C., and much of the Simon Fraser University Surrey Campus was transformed to represent various locations in Caprica. For instance, the mezzanine and registrar's office at SFU were used to represent the Caprica Inter-colonial Space Port.
The interior shots of Graystone Industries were almost exclusively filmed at BCIT's Aerospace Technology Campus in Richmond, B.C.
The filming of "Little Tauron" was done in and around Vancouver's Chinatown district with a small number of stores in the area having Greek language signs while the rest of the shops retained their Chinese language signs for the duration of the filming.