News & Updates - Caprica

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Caprica 1.0 DVD Box Art

Almost as awesome as C-Bucs season tickets, Caprica is coming to DVD! If you missed one of the best new shows of last season, mark October 5th on your calender. Ron Moore’s noir, cyberpunk infused prequel to Battlestar Galactica is coming to DVD this fall, giving you plenty of time to catch up before the second half of the season rolls out in January.

The DVD set comes packed with a ton of bonus features to tide us over until Caprica returns, including 48 deleted scenes, 13 video blogs straight from the set, more of Ron Moore behind the mic for a series of podcasts, plus three features delving into Caprica’s unique retro-future feel. Plus, we’ll get a sneak peek of the rest of the season from Ron and the cast. Here’s the official word on what’s in the box and to the right, an exclusive first look at the cover art!

SEASON 1.5 SNEAK PEEK: An all-new sneak peek at upcoming episodes featuring Ronald D. Moore and the Caprica cast.

13 VIDEO BLOGS: A look behind-the-scenes and from the set of “Caprica.”

PODCASTS with co-creator/executive producer, Ronald D. Moore, executive producer David Eick, co-executive producer Jonas Pate and the “Caprica” cast and crew.

FEATURE COMMENTARIES with co-creator/executive producer Ronald D. Moore, executive producers Jane Espenson and David Eick along with director Jeffrey Reiner.

UNRATED & EXTENDED PILOT EPISODE: with commentary from director Jeffrey Reiner, executive producer/writer Ronald D. Moore and executive producer David Eick.

THE CAPRICA DYNASTY: Viewers will learn how “Caprica” came about and discover from the cast exactly what it was that appealed to them about the project and their experiences making it.

THE LOOK OF CAPRICA: With its unique take on futuristic style, “Caprica” redefines the Sci-Fi genre with a mix of film noir and classic 1940s fashion. Fans will discover the influences for this distinctive look and learn how it was achieved.

CREATING A WORLD: Visual Effects supervisor, Gary Hutzel and his team lift the lid on the virtual sets, CGI Cylons and matte backgrounds that makes up the futuristic world of “Caprica.”

Decline and Fall of Sci-Fi on Television (or why I want the Sci-Fi channel back!)

July 7th, 2009 was truly a black day in the history of the Sci-Fi genre. That was the day SyFy replaced Sci-Fi as the moniker for the channel.

Now, it was rumored that the channel had no claim any longer due to administrative errors, etc. on the name Sci-Fi Channel, but truthfully, the channel that started in September of 1992 was more than just a name. It was a hallmark repository of past and original science fiction TV and Movies up to it’s sale to NBC in 2004.

If one reviews the programming line-up of the past, one sees a trend that shows that this SF genre is in fact dying on all of TV, much less the SyFy. Horror seems to be the new substitute to the SF programs, but also is accompanied by a rash of ‘pseudo-science’ programs, being those programs that are vested in the mythological and hocus-pocus garbage.

Just before the change to SyFy, one could easily find 16-20 hours of truly original SF WEEKLY, but in Feb this year, there was only 3 hours of original SF for the MONTH (Caprica, 3 episodes).

Now, not only on SyFy, there is the plethora of Ghost Hunting/Whispering/Mansions/Estates along with the Destination myth hunting and programs of it’s nature. These ‘reality’ programs detract from Science and Science Fiction as they are truly nothing more than ‘Ooh, I felt something touch me’ and ‘I just got a chill’ statements, along with door movements or other tricks easily duplicated via mechanics and remotes. Additionally, with the state of nature losing species by the thousands annually, does anyone believe a population of one or two creatures of any sort could have survived unseen and unproven through the last century of exploration and expansion of the planet’s population?

The programs seen just 6 years ago were many of the hallmark series of TV ever. Sure, SyFy airs the heck out of the SG-1 and SGA now, because they have rights to them, having been in on their production. But when was the last time you saw Andromeda, Farscape, Babylon 5, Crusade, Roar, Earth Final Conflict, and so much of what had been staples of the Sci-Fi Channel? (Heck, why is BSG not airing, except to try and push DVD sales?)

Additionally, when compared to the present, the airwaves are being dominated by Horror and the Vampire Invasion. The schedule for June has 38% Horror, 35% SF, 12.5% Psuedo-Sci, 12.5% ad programs, and 2% Wrestling. The mix of programs 7 years ago was approximately 72% SF, 15% Horror, 10% ad programs, 2% Pseudo-Sci, and 1% Wrestling.

Certainly, the change has been slow in it’s implementation, but it has met with much resistance of late, even on the SciFiWire.com (though those comments are most often deleted) and most recently by a Twibbon campaign (http://twb.ly/9TBTVE ).

This is most likely due to the SyFy’s lack of really any amount of original SF programming, and most spotlighted by the channel’s Saturday and Sunday programming (Movies) being dominated by horror and creatures, with the last real SF original airing months ago.

The B movies have indeed been reduced to a D- class by the mass repetition of creature discovered after it has eaten someone, more people die trying to kill creature, girl gets trapped by creature, and hero saves girl killing creature in the process scripts.

The most troubling part of this push for Horror and the subsequent reduction of SF airtime is that the parent to SyFy has a dedicated Horror channel, being Chiller Channel. It makes one wonder if that channel (which has not been invaded by the SF genre) exists, why is the SyFy airing programs more appropriate to Chiller? Additionally, is the shift just a sign that all SF will be pushed off and eventually the less known Chiller will be swept into the SyFy world, and all of the SF would be finding new homes (BBC America maybe?).

In fact, many of the past months the BBC America has surpassed SyFy in not only Original SF Programming, but has come close to total SF programming by having aired all day long sets of Doctor Who, or ST:TNG. Next week alone (Week of May 24th) there are day blocks of Doctor Who, Torchwood, and Primeval, while SyFy has a plethora of horror movies, ST:TNG, and Ghosts dominating the week.
The trend is sad, as is the recent habit of the other networks to drop SF programs by the dozens.

Sadly, I do wish for the days that one could tune to the Sci-Fi channel, and see the programs that have helped to define the genre. Truthfully, they live on only in DVD format, but so many people interested in the SF greats do not have the means to buy all that they would like to view, and the online systems do not have the libraries, so the greats are destined to die off.

Worse yet, the original programming and movies have declined to the point that one has to wonder if SF needs to be listed as endangered.

Twitter user @webdivemaster

BattlestarGalactica.tv Forums Go Live !

Finally the BattlestarGalactica.tv Forums is up and running. What can i say, “It’s a frakkin BSG forum!!”

“Grab your gun and bring the cat to the BattlestarGalactica.tv Forums”