Wednesday, March 17, 2010

An Evening With Caprica

Those of us who made it to the CAPRICA panel event at the New York Paley Center tonight got an unexpected treat: advance screenings of both this week's new episode and next week's mid-season finale! Unfortunately for me, I was late and only got to see the latter (written by BSG alum Michael Taylor btw). It was... astoundingly action-packed, with cliffhangers galore! Also, you get the unique joy of seeing James Marsters say the words: SO SAY WE ALL. Frak yeah.

The Q&A panel after the screening with Ron Moore, David Eick, Syfy's Mark Stern, and castmembers Esai Morales, Sasha Roiz, Alessandra Torressani and Magda Apanowicz was a lot of fun and quite informative. Those Adama brothers are a hoot...

A couple of highlights gleaned at the panel:
- No one would say exactly when the second half of CAPRICA season one will air (although SyFy has apparently told the press October 2010). And despite the rumors from earlier this month, no one mentioned CAPRICA getting renewed, or any other new BSG spinoff ideas. Keep your fingers crossed.
- Ron Moore confirmed that we will visit two other colonies in the next set of episodes after the hiatus: Gemenon and Tauron.
- When asked if an ending has already been worked out for this series, Moore and Eick say they have not done that yet, it is too soon. They see around six organic endpoints, each is a landmark event within the timeline between the current present on the show through to the events of the BSG miniseries.
- Esai Morales says that big changes are afoot for Joseph Adama in the back half of the season, following some crucial developments we saw tonight in the mid-season finale.
- Sasha Roiz got his role as Sam Adama after auditioning for the role of Tomas Vergis (Graystone's business rival). James Marsters was being considered originally for the role of Vergis as well... but his unique talents seemed much more suited to Barnabus.
- To answer a question I got this evening: NO, Michelle Forbes does not have a cameo in CAPRICA 109. That's just someone who looks like her a bit.

OK I'm tired. Goodnight for now -- meanwhile, for the rest of you who attended tonight, please leave your (NON SPOILERY) thoughts in the comments. Did you enjoy this week's new episode? Did anyone post panel video on youtube yet? Etc.

ETA Thursday AM:

The Paley Center did a great livetweet of the event last night.

At the Syfy upfronts this week, Esai Morales elaborated further to io9 about "the wringer" Joe Adama will go through in 1.5, and says that CAPRICA's renewal is still up in the air:

We don't know when we're going to get picked up, so my choices are limited – I can't go out for pilots, but I don't want to because I really enjoy [Caprica]. I enjoy doing television for people with brains. ...I like that the show makes you think, and it sells ideas. It sells questions. It sells perspectives. Do you believe in one god or many or none? There's no good or bad – there's good or bad deeds. As they say in the Bible, God loves the sinner, not the sin. ...This show makes you think. If you want to scratch the surface, you'll get something more than backdrop.

9 comments:

Unknown said...

The two episodes we saw tonight (technically last night now...) cemented my love of this show. I have to admit, the pilot didn't really grab me. I kept watching because I loved BSG, love sci fi, love good character-driven drama, and had a feeling that this show was going to take me somewhere interesting.

Interesting is an understatement! This week's episode was amazing, and next week's? OMG. Fasten your seat belts...

The panel discussion afterward was great. I enjoyed hearing the creators and actors talk about their characters and the world of Caprica in such detail.

Unknown said...

Both episodes were great but episode 109 cliffhanger solidified my growing love for the series. The visual lushness of New Cap City, along with Bear McCreary's music--loved it all. Come on SyFy, don't leave us hanging about a return date! The panel discussion was very interesting. I was particularly moved by Esai Morales--his love for Caprica and for us turning out last night. But then I'd turn out to watch Ron Moore talk about what he had for lunch!

Anonymous said...

Thanks for your report! Sounds like a fantastic evening.

Say, are you allowed to reveal who wrote and directed those episodes?

Anonymous said...

I was in attendance at the SyFy’s Caprica Screening and Discussion last night. This was my first Paley event but it will not be my last. It was excellent. And if I was not already hooked on Caprica the two episodes that we screened surely would have done it.

Slam

ProgGrrl said...

@Pedda I know that Michael Taylor wrote 109 (I believe that the director was Roxann Dawson)... I wasn't there for 108 so if anyone caught the writer/director of that let us know... IMDB says 108 is directed by Wayne Rose.

Unknown said...

I loved everything about the screening except, weirdly, the screening itself. But only because I make watching Caprica an EVENT (there's a weekly party and everything) and with the last two eps banged out like that in one night...now what am I gonna do for the next two weeks?! :P (Well considering how 1x09 had unfinished VFX and sound, the party's on!)

My invalid issues aside, the episodes shown were FANTASTIC! (And yes, 1x09 was indeed directed by Star Trek: Voyager alumn, Roxann Dawson.) Caprica picked up so much speed after 1x05 that this mid-season finale will blow peoples minds in terms of the cliffhangers thrown our way.

And in the panel afterward I was really floored by how cool, calm, and poised RDM and David Eick were. They really know their stuff and Eick even said he was rewatching some Season 3 BSG as "homework for Caprica." I like the sound of that! :)

A few more interesting factoids that I remember:

- Amazing audience reaction to a particular part of ep 1x08 involving Caesar the dog.
- Rumer Willis auditioned for the role of Zoe Graystone.
- Esai Morales mentioned how he'll surely play Adama differently in Season 2 (based on the challenges the character goes through in the second half of the first season) and I found this interesting since he was going on about the uncertainty of a pickup at the upfronts just a day before.

Random side note. @ProgGrrl, I ran into a classmate of mine from NYU who's now a producer for the Sundance Channel. She mentioned how she was meeting the editor of Galactica Sitrep and I was like, "ProgGrrl?! I've known her on the interweb for years!" Small world. :) This is @hollywoodgrrl btw. OpenID wouldn't work for some reason.

Unknown said...

Both episodes were written by Michael Taylor. Episode 108 is directed by Wayne Rose. episode 109 directed by Roxann Dawson (Way to go B'Elanna-excelent job).

Anonymous said...

1-The pacing and editing of these two episodes, powered by some of Bear's BEST and most moving music yet (including some familiar vocals?)left a palpable feeling in the auditorium.
2-I haven't heard an audible gasp like the one I heard during a New Cap City/reality reveal since that Vader/Luke's dad thing.
3-All of the elements of the cast, crew, writers, FX masters et al has begun to gel at this point just like its predecessor.
4-Buckle your seatbelts.

Unknown said...

I was there and loved it. I'm so happy when the NY Paley Center has TV panels. All the shows that I want to see are usually in LA. I finally wrote about the panel myself at http://tinyurl.com/y93dl7l I would have liked to have met you there. Maybe next time.