by Troy Rogers
After months, if not years of anticipation surrounding
the Syfy premiere of Caprica, a new chapter in the
Battlestar Galactica franchise begins on January
22, as Eric Stolz and Esai Morales head up the
Graystone and Adama families in the Galactica
prequel that takes viewers back to the days when
Cylons were first created. With a heavy focus
on "man versus machine" and the impact humans
have had on the survival of humanity, Caprica
is rich with similar smart, sophisticated layers
as Battlestar Galactica.
Set fifty eight years prior to the world of Battlestar Galactica, Caprica also stars Alessandra Toressani in the role of Zoe Graystone, a young girl whose life is completely transformed by man's hunger for progress and the result of technology we can't control.
Leading up to the premiere of Caprica, we went back in time with Caprica co-creator, David Eick, and Caprica co-star, Paula Malcomson who plays Amanda Graystone, the wife of corporate visionary Daniel Graystone (Stolz), a character struggling to cope with man and machine.
THE DEADBOLT: David, how much impact did female viewership play in not setting the series in space or relying heavily on space scenes?
DAVID
EICK: You know what? Most of the people
I spoke to about Battlestar in terms of the
fan base were women so the empirical demographic
breakdown of the audience is something that
I just choose to keep at bay and not pay a lot
of attention to. So I never really think in
terms of gearing a show towards a particular
audience.
In general terms, do I recognize that fact that perhaps a female audience might be more inclined to watch something that deals in story from a sort of soap operatic kind of melodramatic term, and without the accompanying visual sort of ghetto and spaceships and outer space? Sure.
It might have more accessibility to a female audience just because of that generalization, but I don't know. Certainly that was never a motivation for not setting the show in space. The motivation to not set the show in space was to make it as different and unique from Battlestar as possible.
THE DEADBOLT: Although people will look at Caprica as science fiction, with the quick advances in technology, how soon do you think I'll have to start worrying about the machines around me?
PAULA
MALCOMSON: Start worrying now. You should
have been worried months, weeks and years ago.
We're pretty close. We're pretty close, you
know.
EICK: Yeah. I think there's certainly a quality to this show that, unlike Battlestar, gives you a sense that what you're seeing is one and a half, maybe two generations away from where we are right now. So I think an audience is going to have to connect their own reality to this sort of advanced reality they're seeing in the show. The speculative reality is going to be part of what makes it really compelling.
MALCOMSON: I don't think it's even that far away, you know?
EICK: Probably not.
MALCOMSON: I think it's so much more even immediate than that in terms of artificial intelligence being as close as it is. I think this is really fantastic. I've had a little time off to read about some of this stuff and it's pretty interesting what scientists are talking about now and our themes on the show. I had no idea how prevalent they would be.
THE
DEADBOLT: It's cool and scary at the same
time.
MALCOMSON: Very cool and very scary. But I liked how this guy, Frank Kipler, who talks about heaven actually being this sort of virtual-ville if you will, and that sort of made me optimistic. And the guy's really proving this mathematically, that we might end up at this place. It's kind of a nice thought.
THE DEADBOLT: We're going to be obsolete soon.
MALCOMSON: [laughs] I know, the dogs and us. And you don't have to be good or bad as well, because no one would show up, right?
