YEE-HAW!!!
A big, TEXAS-SIZED CHT to the readers who e-mailed the following story:
SCI FI Channel announced the development of Caprica, a spinoff prequel of its hit Battlestar Galactica, in presentations to advertisers in New York on April 26. Caprica would come from Galactica executive producers Ronald D. Moore and David Eick, writer Remi Aubuchon (24) and NBC Universal Television Studio.
Caprica would take place more than half a century before the events that play out in Battlestar Galactica. The people of the Twelve Colonies are at peace and living in a society not unlike our own, but where high technology has changed the lives of virtually everyone for the better.
But a startling breakthrough in robotics is about to occur, one that will bring to life the age-old dream of marrying artificial intelligence with a mechanical body to create the first living robot: a Cylon. Following the lives of two families, the Graystones and the Adamas (the family of William Adama, who will one day become the commander of the Battlestar Galactica), Caprica will weave together corporate intrigue, techno-action and sexual politics into television’s first science fiction family saga, the channel announced [SOURCE].
SWEET!
(Except for that sexual politics thing. Let’s hope that gets minimized quickly, the way it did in BSG.)
Incidentally, this may explain why the third season of BSG is being delayed by a few months–so they can get the new series up and running.
Happy dance!
It’s so good to have some sci-fi worth watching again. Star Trek had its moments, but the philosophy of it was just terrible. Such a godless worldview seems to have become almost the norm for science fiction these days, with only a few bucking the trend, often with mixed results. Firefly, for example, was pretty cynical, but at least Shepherd Book was the most badass character on the show. With Battlestar, the Lords of Kobol are no God the Father, and the “idea” of Him seems to have some pretty ominous overtones vis-a-vis the Cylons, but what the heck… I’ll take it.
Thanks for putting this up, Jimmy. It was a quite pleasant rush (or something) to open your page and see the Caprica skyline glimmering away happily.
I think Sci-fi has breathed its last.
It is time for something new. It is time for Whatever Comes Next.
Have any of you seen the Korean android unveiled Thursday? The photo of her is unnerving. The first step to Cylons seems to have appeared!
http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/200605/kt2006050417203910160.htm
Science Fiction always reflects the time it was made in. Aspects of our society we are proud of get glorified. Just look at the city above, a gleaming exaggeration of our own new modern cities.
Those developments that frighten us, though, are made sinister. We are still afraid of robots, and I think most afraid of robots that look like humans. Similarly we are afraid of the potential of genetically engineering humans or creating some sort of part-human, part machine person. There is something abominable about all three very related thoughts. I wonder if it is a subconcious rebellion against how human society has become so automated and infused with modern technology, even though we think we like that technology, and now almost the last thing besides ourselves that was “natural,” plants and animals (especially ones we eat) are being genetically modified by scientists.
Does anyone else think that, while both elements were in both, the Lord of the Rings book expresses a horror more at “engines” and the movies more at artificial engineered people? Maybe this reflects the differences in what the creators considered an abomination.
I think the engines drive the will to create and modify humans.
I look forward to being a living sign of contradiction in this new century.