Set half a century before the events depicted in the critically acclaimed Battlestar Galactica (second series), Caprica launched in January on Syfy, the unfortunately named specialty channel formerly known as SciFi. In the pilot episode, pre-released in April 2009 on DVD and digital download, a scientist resurrects his dead daughter by downloading her recorded consciousness into a Cylon robot.
If the premise reminds you of movie Frankensteins swapping brains into artificially created bodies, I urge you to read reviewer Sarah Stegall’s analysis of the episode, Everything is Connected, posted on SFScope. It’s a sharp, compelling exploration of Frankensteinian references encompassing James Whale’s film and tracking all the way back to Mary Shelley and the real-life reanimation experiments, circa 1803, of Giovanni Aldini.
Segall’s piece is beautifully written and it places Caprica squarely in the Frankenstein lineage.
Caprica episodes are online, but only viewable if you live in the US.
1 comment:
This series is such a delicious play on Frankenstein that I can scarcely believe it has been left unexamined in a mainstream environment. The strawberry-scented twist of an echo-of-a-pampered-girl inhabiting the gruesome tin hulk instead of an "abby normal" brain guiding it to capricious mass murder may prove intriguing beyond its initial concept.
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