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Despite only having aired a total of nine episodes, at this point, Battlestar Galactica spin-off Caprica has had one of the strangest journeys of any sci-fi TV show in recent memory. After spending years in the conceptual stages – the show was first mooted in early 2006, then fell victim to the writer’s strike – it was finally debuted via a flawed launch strategy, which saw the pilot released on DVD well before the show arrived on screens. Caprica then aired the first half of its opening season to pretty poor ratings, far below Syfy stablemates Warehouse 13 and Eureka, as well as Battlestar.
Now, it’s MIA until January. According to a news story on Fancast, the actors’ contracts have been extended until November while talks of a second season go on. Seriously, what happened to this show? Shouldn’t the spin-off to one of the most acclaimed and successful sci-fi series of recent years have an easier road than this?
It seems that Caprica has been cursed with bad luck – whether it was the writer’s strike, Syfy’s decision to split the series by almost a year or the ratings (which don’t reflect the show’s quality), I can’t help but think the show deserves a break. It’s not a conventional drama. At the moment, it’s still finding its feet. I believe a second season is necessary before the decision of cancellation even comes into it. Right now, it hasn’t had the platform to prove itself.
If a second season of the show doesn’t happen, it’ll be a huge – and extremely unfair – loss for genre TV. Personally, I believe Syfy should take a leap of faith with the second season. Practically, for the network, it might not be the right approach, but to replicate the unexpected success of BSG, it’s a step that absolutely must be taken.
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From the trailer of Caprica 1.5 it certainly looks to be a step up from the first half of the season (which wasn’t bad at all) so I hope we do get more than one season! Bring it on! :)
I love this show, and hope that it does not end being one of those great SciFi shows that don’t get a chance.
The truth is they should just let it die. It treads on a mythology built by fans that don’t associate BSG with this new incarnation. BSG was classic space opera and Caprica is something else. The producers may want to use it as a vehicle for some kind of adult urban drama with a built-in fan base…but it simply won’t work. For most BSG fans, if you aren’t killing people and breaking things…they just aren’t as interested.
Let Caprica die so the extreemly talented people working on this project can move on to something that will bear fruit. Caprica never will.
As for SyFy. We can only hope it finds its way back from the misguided direction it is currently on. It is sad really.
A new season in necessary. I hope they will dare it.
It’s unbelievable how badly Syfy and NBC Universal have treated this show. BSG prequel or not, it was the only interesting genre show they had, the only one that was even trying to be about something. And they do what? Pull the rug on it just as it was getting real good.
I don’t think they have any plans to order a second season, or else they would have made the decision before releasing the DVD. And it sucks. I guess continuing to be a fan (and I absolutely will stick with it until the end) now means just waiting and being treated like an idiot by Syfy whenever they give an actual update on the show. Which happens once in a blue moon these days.
I enjoy this show very much. It ticks boxes for me that a genre show should, that many others fail to do. While its true that Syfy were probaby trying to chase the built in fan base that existed for BSG, it still generates enough independent ideas that make it a truly post modern show. So what if BSG inspired this show, it works for different reasons!! Its world building has so much potential and the dynamics between characters are very mature. I definitely want a second season, there is still so much to find out.
There was far more to BSG than ‘killing people and breaking things’! And I certainly hope that most Scifi fans have horizons that extent a little farther than that.
Caprica has had problems, but it appears from what I’ve heard of the second half of the season that many of them are being addressed. I would have thought that waiting to see how the audience respond to those episodes before deciding whether to swing the axe would be a sensible move.
Caprica was just marketed so strangely, Syfy says it’s a prequel to BSG, but it’s nothing like BSG. So to market this show by association to BSG just doesn’t work, because people will be disappointed when they see lots of talk and no action.
Love the show, the only thing that needs to go is the shaky cam.
I love Caprica. I’ve never watched BSG, though its high on my list. But from what I’ve heard its more of a “boys town,” perhaps because of the “killing people and breaking things” mentioned above? Who knows. But Caprica is well made and it has substance that runs deeper than shows like Haven, Eureka, Warehouse 13. Don’t get me wrong, I like those shows, especially Haven, but Caprica is definitely something more, and I really hope they renew it for another season.
Caprica is much better than BSG. And yes it is different enough that it need not be marketed primarily as a pre-quel. It can stand alone and it should.
The problem here is a deteriorating SyFy that no longer knows what it is about… other than grubbing around in the cheapest nonsensical shows like Ghost Hunters and pro-wrestling of all things. Come on! Mark Stern needs to be fired. And Caprica needs to be reinstated with humble apologies.
I admit I don’t contribute to the rating as that for financial reasons I no longer have cable, but I wait patiently, until Syfy has the episode available online to watch. Not only was cable too expensive for me to afford, but there wasn’t all that much to watch and since a majority of my favorite shows are viewable online by there respective networks it made sense to save the cost of cable TV. Besides TV is just filled with too many stupid reality shows. Syfy has become one of these networks to prefer reality shows over a good quality science fiction show. I miss the days of Farscape, Babylon 5, Stargate SG-1, Battlestar Galactica, and the number of old Science Fiction shows long gone shown again on SciFi Channel. The only shows I watch are Warehouse 13, Eureka, Stargate Universe, and Caprica as far as the Syfy Channel is concerned. And what is up with having Wrestling on the Syfy schannel, it’s just as bad G4TV having Japanese game shows (reality TV). I miss the simple video game and techie oriented programming they had. Nowadays, networks are too quick to cancel shows. How can a show attrcact on audience with just one episode or two. I strongly believe if given a chance Caprica will attract more ratings as the word gets out. Also, do they track how many times the show is viewed online? If it wasn’t for the other shows I watch on Syfy, then I would choose not to watch the Syfy channel anymore, just like I did with G4TV and other channels. And what’s up with Syfy remaking current BBC shows? I don’t mind remaking or reimagining an old show, but not something currently on the air else where. They might as well just air them like they did with Merlin and Dr. Who. I strongly felt BSG should of and could of had a few more seasons before they concluded their journey, but when the announced Caprica and BSG ended poetically and justly, I embraced the prequel (Caprica). I see that Caprica is building into a really good show and I love learning more about the universe R. Moore and Glen Larson has created. Any fan of BSG definitely would love Caprica. Learning about the colonies and the cultures is pretty wild, since they were just a back drop in BSG. It’s like Enterprise, another prequel canceled before it’s time.
This sci-fi show was truly entertaning and had developed into a complex and intriguing storyline for both BSG fans or newbies alike I’m sure. The characters come in various shades of grey in terms of their moralities, with their own worthwhile sub-plots and wheels within those wheels. This show had so many possibities and for it to be pulled from our screens to be replaced by wrestling (on a sci-fi channel…really?) is outrageous.
I imagine that shows like Star Trek, Far Scape, Babylon 5 and Andromeda would have stood no chance if they had been created in today’s entertainment market. This is, in my opinion, another poor and short-sighted decision by a greedy network management team, desperate for a quick buck, rather than being prepared to look at the big picture.
This sci-fi show was truly entertaning and had developed into a complex and intriguing storyline for both BSG fans or newbies alike I’m sure. The characters come in various shades of grey in terms of their moralities, with their own worthwhile sub-plots and wheels within those wheels. This show had so many possibities and for it to be pulled from our screens to be replaced by wrestling (on a sci-fi channel…really?) is outrageous.
I imagine that shows like Star Trek, Far Scape, Babylon 5 and Andromeda would have stood no chance if they had been created in today’s entertainment market. This is, in my opinion, another poor and short-sighted decision by a greedy network management team, desperate for a quick buck, rather than being prepared to look at the big picture.
Shame on you Syfy!!!!
Reinstate Caprica. The show was one of the most intelligent on television.
It is brilliantly atmospheric and perfectly paced. With a fantastic cast who actually had a decent script to work with.
One of the few programs out there that you thought about long after you turned off the goggle box.
I believe that this show deserves a second chance, its was slow to get started but then it just took off with twists and turns that made my head spin, and hurt at times. I appreciate that its a prequel to BSG and will never amount to anything like that great show, but consider this BSG was just a remake of an earlier show, and all the die hard (Original BSG fans) said that it would never work and just look at what happened, it was a great success.
So in this show seeing as its an Original and NOT a remake, I cant see why it cant work or even why Syfy would drop this fantastic adventure.
There are very few shows around these days that meet the requirements of the producers, but I have to ask, what makes a show work and if you have the formula for a great spin off then why judge it on its first performance.
Ok I have to admit I hate the way these T.V. programs are split in two, i.e episodes 1-9 then a break of 3-6 months before re-starting, thats just ludicrous, after all that time, most viewers have decided to move on to another slot, only the really true great master pieces ever survive this (Stargate SG1 for example) if you really want a good steady ratings then you have to provide what the people want and when they want it, yes there is time to add a little suspence but 3-6 months is a joke.
This is the syfy channel so give us some real science fiction and stop with all the B movies, well to honest B is being overly generous, why not drop the nonsense and employ the better designed shows, there is an art to making good T.V. I agree but if you continue to pollute the slots with B movies/shows more and more people will stop tuning in, and your ratings will drop to near zero.
This show has all the trimmings and kept me intrested the whole time and I can tell you that doesnt happen very often, so yes bring the show back, if only to give it the chance to come to a conclusion, shows that have a begining should also have a middle and an ending, there are far too mang great shows out there being dropped because you dont get the ratings in, but you have to ask the question, is that the shows fault or the network’s
Regards and thanks for reading.
Just watched the final episode of Caprica, its really getting quite good and I hope to see the story unfold further, shame if it does not.