HOW TO RUIN A PERFECTLY GOOD JUNK TV SHOW IN JUST THREE EPISODES

Longtime readers of Doc40 will doubtless remember that, after some initial misgivings, I became quite a fan of the remake of Battlestar Galactica, and was particularly taken by Dr. Gaius Baltar and the blonde humanoid Cylons whose spines glowed neon red at the moment of robot orgasm. Although the final season rather fell apart at the end, the show had been a regular feature of Friday nights when I had nothing better to do and before the DVR came to stay. On the strength of this previous connection, I set the controls for the new show Caprica, the supposed prequel to Galactica, hoping to derive a similar space opera enjoyment. Unfortunately not. Instead of intergalactic intrigue, space warfare, hot cyborgs, and a bit of religious ambiguity (with Bob Dylan), I found to my dismay that Caprica is all about some cute teenager who is killed in a terrorist attack so her grieving dad builds her avatar (that’s right) into what will be the first Cylon. Not a Viper, hyper-space jump, or glowing spine in sight. The only conclusion I can draw is that some executive idiot decided it would a cool move to screw the fans of the previous show and go after the Twilight market. Not cool. Asinine. If teenage girls weren’t lured by the kick-ass, hard-drinking, female fighter pilots on Galactica, they aren’t going to go for this saccharine Caprica crap. The toilet level ratings confirm this. Caprica jumped the shark in the pilot. What we have here is yet another example of abandoning the base that put you where you are for some nebulous grass-is-greener demographic. It seems a primary delusion in this modern world, adopted by both presidents and bad TV shows.

The secret word is Epsilon

Click here for the Pink Floyd playing Interstellar Overdrive