So long and thanks for all the genocidal robots

Okay, so I just finished watching the final episodes of "Caprica." I seem to be in the minority, but I really liked them. I thought the second half of the season was much more interesting and better-paced than the first. Admittedly, the final episode had to telescope quite a bit, as is probably inevitable for a canceled prequel. And the physical portrayal of the Cylons (communicating through hand gestures? kneeling in church?) was a bit silly at times.

But in general, I like the way the show continued to deal with issues related to technology. In particular, the final episodes dealt with the ways that new technology can distort and destabilize power relationships. The Adamas used the robots to aid the uprising on Tauron, probably increasing their own power within the Tauron community on Caprica. The Quatral used the robots to make extra money and cement his power base, which resulted in pushback against him and his ultimate downfall. Lacey used the robots to take over control of the STO. And, perhaps most significantly, Daniel used the robots to play the role the state could not play in preventing a terrorist attack. (This was huge -- imagine 9/11 being prevented by Bill Gates while an Al Qaeda operative was running the FBI.) I can only imagine how powerful Graystone Industries was, and how diminished the Caprican government was, after that day.

Like the "Star Wars" prequels, "Caprica"'s moral message was inevitably confused. It's difficult to know for whom to root when you're watching characters whom you know will later become genocidal maniacs acting like good guys. But I found the moral confusion useful. It remains particularly interesting that Daniel's motivations in creating the robots, and later the skinjobs, were so sympathetic. If you had the power to recreate your dead daughter, wouldn't you try? And then once robot servants were available to fight your wars or even walk your dogs, wouldn't you use them? His hubris was humanity's.

I'm curious about a few things going forward, some of which will hopefully be addressed in "Blood and Chrome":

• What happens with Zoe over time? She is something like the God of V-World, with tremendous ability to manipulate virtual space and to appear pretty much anywhere within it. Do she and Tamara eventually evolve into ChipSix and ChipBaltar?
• What happens with the STO? Are the humans in the movement completely wiped out in the Cylon uprising? "Galactica" doesn't show us any monotheists at first, suggesting that the faith is created among the humans around the time of Baltar's trial. Did it exist underground before then?
• Isn't it immoral, if not illegal, to have a TV show's poster feature a topless 15-year old girl? Or does the Blind Faith precedent make it okay?

War of the Gods

I've been going through all of the original "Battlestar Galactica" series with the kids.  It's been a long time since I've viewed most of these episodes.  A lot of them are quite forgettable, to be honest.  But the two-parter "War of the Gods" was interesting, as it apparently provided a lot of major plot lines for the re-imagined series from recent years.

Now, the episode is really quite silly.  Count Iblis (Patrick MacNee) mostly walks around issuing bizarre, transparently evil statements like "My knowledge of the universe is infinite!" and "Do not be beguiled!", usually in response to innocuous questions like, "Would you like extra ketchup packets?"  He's clearly trying to chew up some scenery, but it's hard to do that with the stupid dialogue he's given.  But fans of the recent series will note some important developments:

1. The episode takes on a pretty transparently Christian good/evil view -- Iblis actually looks like the Devil when you shoot him, and the good guys fly around in a ship shaped like a friggin' cross.  But the story gets a bit muddied when both good guys and bad guys suggest that they are just somewhat more highly evolved versions of humans.  ("As you are, we once were.")  Adama adds to this when he suggests that modern humans would look like angels to a more primitive people.  This is reminiscent of the Baltar and Caprica apparitions (ChipSix and ChipBaltar) in the new series -- the show left it deliberately vague as to whether they represented some advanced technology or whether they were actual emissaries of God or whether there was necessarily a distinction between the two.
2. Apollo at one point is convinced that Iblis is an android.  He goes to see the creepy Carl Sagan/Steve Martin love child Dr. Wilker to ask him if it's possible to design an android so advanced that we couldn't tell whether it was human or not, and Wilker thinks it's possible.  Moreover, Wilker actually has some prototypes in his lab!  Skin jobs, anyone?
3. Among the many events that Iblis brings to pass is the deliverance of Baltar to the Colonial fleet.  We don't see much of a trial, but we do get to see the Quorum of Twelve sentencing Baltar to life in prison -- a justice the modern Colonial fleet was denied.
4. Iblis reveals that his voice is the same as that of the Cylon Imperious Leader, a robot who was programmed 1,000 years earlier back when there were still organic Cylons around.  They don't really spell it out, but one can infer that Iblis had something to do with the machine Cylons' revolt against their biological masters. 

There's more, and it's really worth watching just to see how the recent show's writers mined this episode for material.  Also, there's some cool rope-dancing on the Rising Star that's not to be believed.