Exciting Things.
February 17, 2009
Jane Espenson, writer on BSG and showrunner for Caprica, answered my BSG question this weekend through a website. This made me very happy, as I love her work, ever since Buffy: The Vampire Slayer.
Oscar R: What kind of relationship will the story of “Caprica” have with the story of “Battlestar Galactica”? Without getting into spoilers, will we need to watch “Caprica” to understand “BSG’s” story, or will “Caprica” be more of a self contained story wit hin the mythology of “BSG”?
Jane Espenson: Oh! Interesting. Usually people ask that question the other way around. Of course, the answer is the same either way: you don’t need to know either show to fully enjoy and understand the other show. No vital pieces of “BSG” will be left unsatisfied so that we can tackle them on “Caprica,” unless you feel incomplete without knowing the full and exciting story of the origin of Caprica’s Centurions — WHICH YOU SHOULD, of course.
The following is present in Ron Moore’s podcast commentary for the episode ‘No Exit’, which aired last week. It was a deleted scene, that presented some fascinating observations from the cylons. I really wish it had made the final cut, as it expands the characters quest to question everything about their existence, about the rules and laws of man, humanity, creation, and religion, and it solidifies why I love this show so much. It is not afraid to raise questions about who we are, why we’re here, and what is our destiny. This was taken from this site http://community.livejournal.com/battlestar_blog/1501820.html Read on:
The scene was “labeled” 6 months ago and featured Ellen talking to Boomer. Ellen and Boomer were doing some form of Tai-chi, and Ellen says:
“Self awareness is not confined to “real world”. In theater, fictional characters are sometimes given a form of self-awareness – this is known as “breaking the 4th wall”. This device is a form of meta-fiction, allowing characters to address the audience directly and comment on the narrative in which they themselves are the participant. In doing so, the characters transcend their fictive nature and enter into a dialectic relationship with the viewer with each side trying to persuade the other of the innate truth of their reality. But does a character actually exist? Does it have form and shape beyond the page on which it is actually written? Can it everybreak the 4th wall and address the unseen, undreamt of audience that watches it’s every move from the safety behind the footlights?
The Lords of Kobol once thought that man could never break the 4th wall, could never look upon the gods with understanding and grasp the divine nature of life. They believed this until one day man stole their fire and created the first cylons, the first artificial life, and then man, in his arrogance thought cylons could not break the 4th wall, and man believed it right up to the moment that the first centurions rebelled, and the great exodus from paradise began. See Boomer, we are not finite creations, we have the capability to evolve, we have so much more potential.”
This whole bit is extremely talky, and maybe it never did work in the episode, but I still find it incredibly complex and fascinating. At its best, science fiction takes our reality and molds it into another reality, one that can be viewed as a mirror image of our own. It challenges us to think about our own reality in ways we may have not tried before. I love that Battlestar attempts this.
Finally, a great quote from one of my most respected review sites, Television Without Pity, when reviewing ‘No Exit’ [link]:
Welcome to the last act of the last season of the very best TV show of all time, and here’s your Dramamine.
