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BSG Prequel Series Caprica Canceled
Kethinov writes "The sci-fi TV series Caprica, a prequel spinoff from Battlestar Galactica, was just canceled by the Syfy channel. In response to the cancellation and the recent theme of many similar good sci-fi shows getting canceled over the last few years, I've written an editorial arguing that Caprica's cancellation reflects the decreasing sustainability of the cable TV business model. A better, more modern business model could have saved Caprica from cancellation. If this model is adopted in the future, it could save many other similar niche genre shows from the same fate down the road." Another perspective here might be that a boring, ponderous show got yoinked because nobody watched it. Just sayin'.
Any chance of a scifi series that isn't dystopian? Its old, its boring and it shows no imagination. Time to cheer up.
I watched BSG religiously (and bitched like fuck after the final episode) but I never watched Caprica - I didn't want to have to watch another series just to have some small parts of the back story filled in, and Caprica didn't interest me as an independent series either.
Plus the BSG writers pretty much blew it for me when they discussed in a podcast during season 2 or 3 that they had no idea that the 'final five' thing was going to become what it did, they just realised that viewers had latched on to it as a mystery and then decided to run with it - the final five were all chosen much later on as well, just before they were revealed, so again the concept that the writers 'had a plan' was blown for me early on.
"Another perspective here might be that a boring, ponderous show got yoinked because nobody watched it. Just sayin'"
I tend to agree. I gave "Caprica" a chance, but the story was not compelling enough to hold my interest. I gave up after the first part of the first season and never bothered with trying to watch any of the newer episodes. I keep thinking of the line from the 'reimagined' BSG "The Cylons Have a Plan" ... but the writers don't.
Sanctuary is interesting, it's so hit or miss with good/bad. They can do good, just not consistently.
I know what you mean about SGU. This is the Syfy channel, not the Soap Opera With Space Ships channel. I think that's 192 or something.
Self proclaimed typo king, and inventor of the bear destroying coffee table (patent not pending).
Caprica had a chance to develop as much thought-provoking depth as the new BSG, but for some reason the show's premise went in another direction. Maybe it was just so the whole show could revolve around a young, cute Zoe??? Ratings, ratings, ratings! How can such a great idea fail?!
The potential for genius in these series was the dichotomy of the Cylons as monotheists who believe in an imminent and transcendent God versus the humans who believe in a worldly pantheon. Why would the once-mechanical Cylons believe in the concept of God? How could this happen with machines? This is the dilemma that needed to drive Caprica, but the creators/writers blew it big time. "I've got it! The avatar or 'spirit' of a monotheist Caprican will be transferred into the original Cylon. That's how they come to believe in God! Plus, that Caprican can be a cute, sexy young girl!!!" Lame!
The question they should have explored is how the Cylons came to their faith. The dilemma they could have developed is, did the programming of their consciousness/AI evolve to develop transcendent spiritual dimensions, or were the Cylons touched by God and given an inextinguishable spirit by him? Mind you, this may be too religious a storyline to be popular, or for a major production company to sign off on....
sigfault (core dumped)
The problem is that Caprica didn't have just a mid-season hiatus... it went almost a full year between season 1 and 1.5. Few shows can survive that.
Also the other poster is correct: The story simply wasn't that good. Other than the cute girl(s), I could find little reason to continue watching. I suspect "Haven" is also destined for the chopping block, for the same reason.
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
It did have many dark and mature themes. There were many interesting ideas embedded in the story as well. They also had quite a few really well done scenes.
However, I think they lacked good pacing. The story seemed to plod along clumsily. It was almost like watching a television show directed by Stanley Kubrick (whom I love, but who clearly draws certain scenes on way too long).
One part of the story that I found truly absurd and overly drawn out was when Stoltz's character was repeatedly attempting to torment his dead daughter that he believed might be inside the Cylon. It was completely warped, sadistic, hard to believe, and overly drawn out. The multiple experiments to convince himself just seemed to make it feel drawn out, while making him look like a sadistic prick.
NBC will probably sell it off at a huge loss in a year or two.
We can certainly hope so. And if the new owners turn it into nothing more than a home for reruns of all of the Star Treks, Space 1999, UFO. Firefly, Lexx, Andromeda, FarScape, Bablyon 5, etc., that would be awesome, and probably pay off better than the current mess that's happening now. But if they could keep Eureka and Warehouse 13, that would be even better.
Keep waiting. The show has been dead and buried for eight years. Move on and find something new like the producers, writers and actors did after it was booted off the air. Even if some network brings Firefly back it's not going to be as good as the original because fans will change their rhetoric of "Bring back Firefly" to "This new Firefly sucks".
I dunno, Danny Graystone seems to be likeable enough, and driven into a corner over his obsession with keeping access to his daughter's avatar. He's a fundamentally good guy making really bad decisions. But the problem is that they haven't really expressed his character and motivations well. He's being acted out as cold and calculating, rather than just a guy who will do anything to talk to his dead daughter again.
They probably wanted to avoid the soap-opera-ish moment of a falling-down-drunk and angst-ridden Mr. Graystone sobbing over a picture of his daughter and doing something as mind-numbingly obvious as saying "I'd do anything to talk to you again, sweetheart", but they've tried to dance around that too much and made him an unsympathetic character.
Then you've got some other characters who are equally ambiguous, or seem to change roles to fit an uncertain storyline. The schoolmarm is powerful, we knew that, but when faced with the slightest adversity she waltzes in to the head of her Church and just takes the thing over without a fight. Her family accepts that she's abducted a young girl and assists in mistreating her without much sign of protest. There's an interesting substory there, but there's way too much Deus Ex Machina going on in that one. However, counterparting that with a weak-looking but sympathetic Ms. Graystone seems like a master stroke of a David v. Goliath subplot - but of course we won't see that one play out now that it's been shitcanned.
I'm OK with a sci-fi series that combines some soap-opera elements. Build me out some sympathetic characters, give 'em plenty of flaws, and have at it. It worked in BSG. But if you're going to do that, you have to accept that you are writing a tragedy and you have to really work on character development and expression, opening yourself to criticism of writing a soap opera.
If you want to write a pure "happy happy joy joy" series, stick to the Star Trek genre where there's little moral ambiguity and everything always eventually ends in happy fluffy bunnies, so you don't need complex characters. Cardboard cutouts in front of your storyline will usually work fine - just look at Shatner.
If you want to write a dark emotional series, accept that you are writing an emotional series and write the fucking thing, and accept that a subset of your potential audience will yell "soap opera". But Caprica and Sarah Connor and the like are already painted into a very dark corner - the eventual end of the story is a tragedy. Don't try and attract people who want a happy ending.
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Ive been enjoying SGU myself. I find the arc much more engaging than the more episodic content. Episodes like the one I watched last night I find kind of disappointing because they don't advance the arc that much (though, in the end most episodes have something relevant happen in them).
SG1 was pretty much dead. It did pretty well once the brought on the cast from Farscape but the writing was on the wall, it had a great run but it was time. I do think they canceled SGA a little early but its not like it didn't have a pretty good run itself.
"In America, first you get the sugar, then you get the power, then you get the women..." -H. Simpson
On the other hand, if you're going to test the model it might be worth testing it with a show that's dying anyway. I still don't think it would work - personally I don't like adverts, but if I like the show I'll suffer them, life's far too short to watch poor television just because there are few ads, though.
Basically, but out the middleman. You think a show is worth another season? Put $10-20 of your money where your mouth is. If enough people agree (or a smaller number, but willing to pay more), then you get the next season.
Because you're releasing the shows under a license that allows free redistribution, people can give a copy to their friends and say 'watch this, it's great!'. If their friends agree, they'll put some money towards the next season.
This model is actually very similar to how studios fund shows already, only they have an intermediary. The studios produce a pilot and show it to the networks. If the networks think that they can get enough people to watch it that they can make money from adverts, then they fund a complete season. Then they repeat this evaluation for each subsequent season, with the caveat that because their airspace is a limited resource they'll cut profitable shows if they can replace them with more-profitable shows. If you're getting fans to distribute the shows, then the airspace is not limited, and you don't have the extra layer of indirection in the funding.
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Stupid hippies ruined the Scifi channel when they renamed it something "less scary to non nerds."
You're conflating two very different ways to screw up a series.
A: If you extend it so far that you have to pad it out with boring subplots and unlikeable characters, then that's not so bad - just fast forward through the tedious stuff and enjoy the exceptions. Babylon 5 Season 5 was no worse than Season 1 in that regard; in both cases you can pretty much skip the non-Londo-and-G'Kar stuff and you're still good.
B: If you extend the story in such a way that it changes the background or themes from the first story for the worse, then that's much more awful. Starting with a Neo who says "I'm going to hang up this phone, and then I'm going to show these people a world you don't want them to see." and inexplicably transitioning to "I'm mopey." doesn't just make a bad second movie, it makes the first movie worse. Following Newt's rescue in Aliens with her pointless death in the Alien3 backstory turns Ripley from a hero into a tragic farce. And following up "They Have A Plan" with "But The Writers Can't Think Of A Good One" was just sad. Here the best way to go really is to just pretend that the sequel/prequel stories didn't exist.
This one has been happened for at least two years, by my count. It may not be high-definition, but most shows ARE put on the web the day after they air. Geographical boundaries are enforced, but that probably has more to do with broadcast rights than business models (if you've given your broadcast rights in Britain to the BBC, for example, you're not going to undercut them online).
If they made more money on a world wide online release than the reduction in broadcast right value, they'd do it. That would just be business. However, I suspect the TV networks intentionally price such a show unrealistically low to maintain their position. They absolutely don't want to teach people to go online and watch it, that would be shooting themselves in the foot. So as long as no one can do without broadcast income, they can effectively dictate the terms.
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I'm enjoying SG:U, although I deeply wish they'd skipped the communication stones. Yes, they're canon and it makes sense that they'd be packed. But SG:A suffered from the same problem - it's hard to keep the "isolation" theme going when you can call home as much as you like.
I completely disagree. If they were truly stranded, the writers would have a hell of a time coming up with reasonable, interesting plotlines week after week. With the stones, they have the opportunity to incorporate a whole additional dimension to their story arc, which gives them the kind of latitude they'll need to keep the show fresh and interesting.
Although I'm hopeful that they're going to subvert the trope.. they seem to be heading in the direction of "yes, you can tell us what to do - but you can't get here, so whatcha gonna do about it if I don't listen?"
That I agree with. Everett has already made comments to that effect, and I suspect you'll see that theme pop up more as the series continues.