χαῖρε, ὦ θεράπων

[sovay]

It does not feel like December. It does not feel like two weeks to Christmas and Hanukkah next week. I started making fudge tonight and it didn't help. I feel as though I have come unmoored completely in time.

I was shown the pilot of Caprica (2010) tonight. And on the one hand, it's terrible science fiction. People named things like Daniel and Clarice are walking around the futuristic distant past with fedoras and robot butlers, the gods are the Twelve Olympians via interpretatio Romana and the planets are all named after the Hellenistic zodiac, and apparently the rave scene hasn't changed in light-years. I accept the convention of characters all speaking English so we can understand them, but I'm not sure why the one other language we do hear is essentially classical Greek—I didn't need subtitles—oddly mixed with invented terms.

(Seriously, when you're already calling someone a bastard in Iliad Greek—νόθος is not attested in the Odyssey—I'm not sure why you need to make up vocabulary. At least throw in some other ancient language for consistency. At first I thought Halatha might be an acronym as in Hebrew, but I bet that only works if the Tauron language uses an abjad. Maybe they're sort of Phoenician.)

On the other, all its characters are morally ambiguous from the start, there are some very nice casual details already (I am waiting to see whether the tattoos are a criminal marker or normative on Tauron: Sam's are extensive and I haven't seen any on Yosef, but maybe he's just been careful not to get any visible, considering he's the one with the originally Capricanized name), and it took me about a picosecond to become firmly attached to the Adama brothers, so now I'm hoping my usual correlation of character liking to life expectancy will for once not apply. It's entirely possible that the show will fumble it, but I haven't seen a lot of mainstream science fiction where assimilation and cultural identity are as central to the plot as virtual reality or the emergence of AI. (Plus I appreciate that if handful_ofdust has to back off the Lackadaisy for a little while, the universe has seen fit to supply me with a mob lawyer and a triggerman. Even without the fedoras, the Halatha so far resembles early twentieth-century gangs more than it does contemporary organized crime—recent immigrants, ethnic tensions, solidarity in a world that treats you as second-class.) And it is very interesting to see that while the show's poster suggested a seductive Eve, the first episode is much more about the appropriation of female agency: as if Pandora invented fire and Prometheus stole it from her. Well, if Pandora were involved with a terrorist group.

Either way, I'm sure I'll be unhappy—if the show detonates, it will be a waste of promising character work, and if it's excellent, it will join the ranks of television I like that never got a chance. I'm still going to watch the next episode. It's nice to find, however briefly, onscreen science fiction that doesn't suck. Even if I don't understand why the far interplanetary past looks like Vancouver plus Times Square.

Comments

[handful-ofdust.livejournal.com]

as if Pandora invented fire and Prometheus stole it from her.

Yeah, a lot like that, as I recall. If Prometheus were her Dad.;)

I agree with you completely about the Halatha. Part of what I liked about the show when I was tangentially watching it was the fact that Sam, trigger/daggerman that he is, turns out to be one of its most well-adjusted characters (and has a nice, cute husband, too). His tattoos are indeed relevant--I think there's a breakdown somewhere on-line of what all of them mean, since getting them is about acknowledging various triumphs and mistakes, plus making your criminality and subservience to the "don" physically visible. I'm also pretty sure that if Yusef ever got any, it'd get plot point status.

The other thing I liked best about it is that for a while there, it had one of the largest and most diverse casts of agencied women on TV. That alone should've signalled it wouldn't last.

[gaudior.livejournal.com]

You're starting with Caprica without having seen BSG. That's fascinating. I may start watching Caprica just so I can talk to you about it, because you're going to have a totally different experience of watching it than most viewers, I bet. Cool.

[timesygn.livejournal.com]

... I don't understand why the far interplanetary past looks like Vancouver ...

Future earth, too (selons the forthcoming Logan's Run remake). That an increasing number of advanced civilizations resemble Vancouver is no surprise to Canadians. The future is ours, comrade.

[schreibergasse.livejournal.com]

It does not feel like December.

Darn right. Not cold enough, and no snow.* We aren't QUITE in the territory of 2001-2, but I am Not Amused.

*Well, and I'm not in a choir, so haven't been rehearsing madly for a carol service.

Hive-inducing

[helivoy.livejournal.com]

I was prepared to like the Battlestar Galactica reboot based on its pilot, but it went off the rails badly after the second season: increasing denial of female agency, demonizing of science and scientists (à la "Close your eyes and trust the Force"; the "science" itself is stupid-ridiculous), increasingly reactionary stances (the military knows best), arbitrary character drama to fit plot twists. I broke in such hives of annoyance and dismay during the last two seasons that I didn't watch either the series finale or any part of Caprica.

We discussed both Galoomphica and Caprica about two years ago at my place, if you want to compare impressions: Sins of the Children

[ap-aelfwine.livejournal.com]

It does not feel like December. It does not feel like two weeks to Christmas and Hanukkah next week.

Agreed. I'm sorry you're feeling unmoored in time. I wish I had some handy temporal mooring to offer you, perhaps a quiet quay with a nice Indian restaurant or a good pub beside it. Then again, given how long it's been since I had aught to do with boats, maybe it's just as well.

I've never seen Caprica. I hope the next episode continues the non-suckingness for you.

Even if I don't understand why the far interplanetary past looks like Vancouver plus Times Square.

It's funny how that seems to work, isn't it?

[strange-selkie.livejournal.com]

Hello... minister? I assume there is larger context? Or I've fucked it up?

People all over space and time need to put the Greek away.

You may, as a customer of long standing, of course apply for an exemption with the management.

[gwynnega]

It does not feel like two weeks to Christmas and Hanukkah next week.

The holiday season does seem to have arrived a month or two too early, somehow...