The worlds of the twelve colonies appear on the surface to be thriving, yet underneath its decadence is tolling the first death knells of this civilisation. Unbeknownst to most of the adult population their young spend their lives living in virtual reality where every vice is not only available but also practiced. Not all of Caprica’s youth feel comfortable with this development and have found a new purpose in the worship of a single god, but in a world of polytheism their belief will bring them into violent conflict with their elders...

Caprica: Part Two (2010) holds the concluding half of the show's first and only season. The show was produced by Ronald D, Moore and David Eick the creators of the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica.

The first half of the season had ended with a bang, literally as Zoe in her Cylon form attempted to escape from captivity, Greystoke’s with Amanda appears to commit suicide.

The second half of the season opens with Greystoke losing control of his company, Daniel Greystoke (Eric Stoltz), the inventor of the Cylons, has crossed too many people and his life is in free fall. Zoe (Alessandra Torresani) continues her search for both her friend and meaning, having discovered that she is not the real person but a complex avatar, although she has Zoe’s memories and the original complex relationship with her parents. Meanwhile the monotheists plan to create a virtual heaven and blow up a stadium full of people.

Joseph Adama (Esai Morales), father of the now deceased William, has himself gone through a virtual reality hell in search of his lost daughter, spurred on by Greystoke. In the real world he finds himself becoming even more embroiled with the criminal elements of his cultural.

The whole thing is played against a backdrop of a conflict between the monotheists and the polytheists as a religious war seems inevitable.

The second part of the series is presented over three DVDs, containing the remaining nine episodes, three to a disc. And, regardless of the other extras on the disc, the big coup is the last three episodes that were not originally show on television, so many of you may not even have seen the end of the story.

I think that part of Caprica’s failure was that the direction and tone of the show was so divergent from what the fans of Galactica had come to love that they failed to either take them forward to the new show or gain enough of a new audience to sustain the project, which is a shame, because if Caprica had been made without the legacy of Galactica it would probably have been better thought of and more successful.

The set has a number of extras. On disc one, we have a number of deleted scenes, one per episode (10 min, 50 sec), and it’s nice but nothing which really adds to the final show. There are two commentaries for the episode Unvanquished, the first with Kevin Murphy, the second with David Eick and Eric Stoltz. Retribution has a podcast from David Eick, Tom Lieber and Magda Apanowicz. Re-Caprica (4 min, 46 sec) is a recap of the first half of the season, narrated by Alessandra Torresani .

Disc two offers up three more episodes and a plethora of extras, we start with deleted scenes from Blowback (1 min, 48 sec). Global Defence (3 min, 22 sec) is a look at the secret service of Caprica. The Next Generation (3 min, 54 sec) looks at the role of the young actors in the show. One True God? (3 min, 34 sec) looks at the religious aspects of the show. Carprican Evolution (4 min, 01 sec) looks at the writing of the show. Visual Effects (4 min, 49 sec) does what it says on the tin, with some nice unfinished sequences. The Sound Of Caprica (5 min, 03 sec) discusses the sound mix of the show and The Music of Caprica (4 min, 58 sec) is a piece with the show's composer. If that were not enough there are full length commentaries on Blowback and The Dirt Eaters.

The last disc has the three remaining episodes as well as deleted scenes for Here be Dragon’s (1 min, 19 sec) and an audio commentary for Apotheosis with Kevin Murphy. The picture is nice and clear, the CGI is as impressive as anything Galactica achieved with a 2.0 audio track.

It was an intelligent show which carried the legacy of Galactica’s great writing, it’s a shame it didn’t carry the fan base as well.

9

Charles Packer