Caprica's Fate

[Spencerian]

From last I've heard, Caprica's fate remains in a state that's worse than development hell, remembering the many comments Mrs. Ron has made on Sciffy after the series ending announcement.

I've always had a lingering doubt about the ability for the show to fully take off, since Battlestar's appeal was due to its spacefaring nature. The same problem occurred to me with Deep Space Nine, which went contrary to the nature of other Star Trek shows and, for a time, its crew boldly went nowhere.

I know that RDM would make the characters and events interesting, but it would go a new direction without the Cylons quite developed, although there's still the intracolony fights that could make life a bit interesting if explored.

To me, the Sci Fi Channel was looking for "more cowbells and explosions", which the show wouldn't directly deliver.

A Battlestar series without a battlestar? There could always be a tease on the development of the prototype battlestar (maybe Galactica) that Caprica built to fight other colonies (introducing the notion of a super doomsday vessel to lesser colonies) that becomes the unifying force for the eventual Cylon War. I'm just toying with ideas and not trying to let the BS Wiki rules fall away in this place...

[Serenity]

I don't really see the problem in the premise. It's more the execution that's problematic.

For example that complaint about DS9 in nonsense. It was the best Trek show, just because it didn't have the luxury of running away all the time. By being stationary the characters needed to deal with their actions, not just on a personal level. Ultimately it did more exploring of cultures and people than the other shows, where so-called "space exploration" was just an excuse to have a new planet and topic every week. Of course there is no reason you can't have that on with starship setting too; for example having a ship return to a planet it visited already.

But back to BSG. The appeal of nBSG for me is its characters and the way it's written. The Cylons and the man vs. machine fight are essential too, but everything else is windowdressing.

As you say you could have inter-colony rivalry in "Caprica". And I'd be really interested to learn more about how the Colonies were. The question here is more one of budget. I don't think they have the money to really show that on a grand scale. After all you need mostly standing sets. On the other hand you can also show politics largely from offices and still be effective.
Corporate conflict, as has been hinted at, would also be potentially interesting. All in all, there are a wide variety of styles and topics possible. We are talking about a cultural, economical and political system of 12 planets. There is also room for some traditional space sci-fi now and then. But that might also be a problem, because it's too much to deal with in one show. So the producers would need to focus on something and leave out or only hint at some other things.

However, "Caprica" was billed as more of a family show, focusing on two families, one of them being the Adamas. While I don't quiet know how that was meant, I don't think it's the right way to approach the setting either.

[alpha5099]

One way to potentially address the issue of sets would be to go the digital backlot route. I'd definitely want things on a fairly grand scale, and green screens instead of sets might be the way to go. Though, I'm not really sure if that technology is cheap enough yet for making an affordable TV show.

I've always been a little wary of Caprica, but anything to expand what I think is a pretty interesting universe. Unlike Serenity, I'm not even sure I need the man vs. machine elements to enjoy the show. Well written with interesting characters is enough for me. You'd probably want those Cylons around to make the show interesting for people who aren't obsessed with the minutia of colonial life, but if done right, the show could definitely address some pertinent issues in technology today.

[JDS]

I really hope they do make it...I mean seriously, considering all of the cheap lame-ass movies SciFi makes (Anaconda vs Python? Come ON, WTF kind of pathetic movie premise is that?) the idea that they would shelve an RDM BSG movie, even one with a weaker premise, just seems outlandish.

Seriously, I think BSG deserves to have Caprica created, and a lot more than that. I honestly believe that the re-imagined BSG is the best science fiction on TV, ever. It's definitely among the best science fiction ever created in any medium. Star Wars, Star Trek, Stargate...all of those ones got multiple movies and/or TV shows. The Dark Tower (which is really a combination of fantasy and science fiction) got seven books dedicated to it PLUS another two dozen or so books that are linked to it..I think RDM's BSG deserves more screen time than just four seasons of one series to really illustrate the universe he created.

[Mercifull]

They should have words with Sky One again to see if they want to help fund it. Sky One coproduced Hex and more recently the 4400. Perhaps if Sciffy wasnt investing alone it might get out of development hell.

[JDS]

That's a good idea. Send a letter to Ron! :D