“Caprica” star Eric Stoltz says that the recent demise of “Caprica” could be chalked up to the fact that “BSG” fans were never interested in the prequel series and didn’t want it.
“I don’t think [the show] was what the majority of ‘Battlestar’ fans wanted,” he says. “It probably would’ve served us all better to have not even been connected to it.”
Stoltz admitted that he had been anticipating the show’s cancellation prior to Syfy’s October announcement.
“The fear of cancellation was always hanging over us like the sword of Damacles,” he said. “We’d gotten used to it. In a way it sort of fuelled us on. I’m blisfully unaware of any [fan] reaction at all, but I’m always a little afraid for the future of anything out of the ordinary.”
Stoltz also revealed that there are elements from the series that he would have liked to have changed.
“It’s rare for a show to find itself in the first season,” he suggested. “I’m sure we were off balance at times, and I’m sure I would change a few things if I had that power, but I’ve moved on.”
Not so Eric!
Many of us *loved* Caprica, and I’m sorry the story couldn’t continue, but also happy with the way the writers wrapped up storylines in preparation for a possible cancellation. I don’t think anyone involved should regret having been involved in it’s production. The finger of blame for it’s failure to achieve ratings should be pointed squarely at Syfy for it’s horrible managing of marketing/scheduling/DVD releasing.
I think he’s wrong. I wanted it. I loved seeing the back story. How did the Cylons come to be? How did they end up hating humans so much? This was a story worth telling.
I think the problem is that people have just gotten dumber. There is too much on TV that requires no thinking of any kind. I love mindless shows and popcorn movies but I also want stuff that makes me think and makes me wonder. Stuff that examines the darker side of humanity. Stuff that shows that humans aren’t all good and fluffy. Because for the most part people are not good and fluffy. We are selfish. We are scared. And sometimes we are hateful.
Did Caprica have issues? Sure it did. But the story was a good one. I’m fairly happy with how it was wrapped up in the final episodes though I felt it was rushed.
As for the SyFylis channel, I am done. I will continue to watch Sanctuary, Eureka and WH13 until they get canceled but I will NOT watch any new shows on this channel. I’ve had it and am tired of investing time into a show only to have it yanked because the ratings aren’t as high as wrassling and that dumb-ass Ghost hunting show.
Just wanted to say that I completely agree with AndyMac. Great reply. 🙂
One word…..BORING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Two more….AS HELL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I too would have loved for ‘Caprica’ to be the show that answers those questions about the Cylons and such…but ‘Caprica’ was not that show. I will admit it was improving, but not fast enough (that being said I haven’t viewed the last eppies from this week, still laying in the DVR). I suffered through the first ‘season’ starts and stops, hoping it would get on its way….but it never got out of its own way. I bid it a fond farewell.
My eyes rolled also when it was canceled. Too many shows have been canceled when they were coming into their own. (SG:U anyone?) But, television is a business and if wresslin brings in the dollars than wresslin it is! (It pains me to say it…really)
The anti-religion spin was too much to take. I put up with it during BSG because the rest of the show was so good. But with Caprica, I just didn’t want to get hooked on another show that was so ignorant.
It had its good episodes and it had its slow episodes. The same could be said for the last two seasons of BSG. I would have stuck with it the same as I did with BSG if it had continued. As for fans not wanting Caprica…as one fan…I was much more interested in Caprica than I am in Blood and Chrome. Kind of tired of the focus on William Adama and his background. There were other characters in BSG that I was much more interested in.
If they have to backtrack I’d like to see more in detail histories on Laura Roslin, Starbuck, and Baltar. Would love to see how the Angels (still BSG’s biggest mystery) interacted in Caprica before its destruction. They had contact on the Cylon home world before it was destroyed…why not Caprica.
Could always go forward too…will the new earth…our earth follow the same pattern or did Hera’s birth and the following generations truly break the pattern. And make them min-series instead of series…less chance of getting canceled.
Is it that BSG fans didn’t want it, or that it was a deeper and more complex story derived from human suffering? Mr. Graystone suffered the loss of his daughter and eventually his company, Mrs. Graystone the loss of her daughter and husband, the Virtual Zoe lost her corporeal counterpart… And then I could move on to the Adamas. The show is all about loss and betrayal. Not happy subjects, but if you add the twist that there was a glimmer of false redemption in the possible regeneration of personalities… well… it was complex and dark. Not everyone gets that. It’s certainly not something you can pitch to a public busy watching American Idol…
It’s not that no one wanted Caprica. We wanted a different show than the one we got. I was interested in a show about the origins of the Cylons. Strangely enough, though, the show finally started to get interesting in the last 5 episodes. Maybe if the show hadn’t been so slow to get to things it would’ve lasted.
This show did nothing for me. Tried it and let it go.
Quote: “The fear of cancellation was always hanging over us like the sword of Damacles,”
…the sword of Damacles…??? Really..??
I mean I’ve come up with some crazy analogies before but… Really? That just comes off as pretentious.
Eric Stoltz??? …more like Eric Doltz!! Now i know why briget fonda left him. I so prefer Niels Patrick Howard over him. Hell i even prefer the actor that played Dawson on Dawsons Creek.
I think he is right. That’s not to say that i didn’t like the show but it was very uneven from episode to episode. Also, I think many BSG fans expected something other than what they got. The numbers bear out that not as many people watched Caprica as BSG. I watched both but I am clearly in the minority. To your point Michael Mennenga about the sword of Damacles, I have used that analogy many times… but someone may also be calling me pretentious.
I think the Caprica actors did a fine job. I did treat the show as its own thing and not really connected to BSG but I tend to do that with all spin-offs. I liked the exploration of A.I. and virtual existence. I too fear for the future of anything out of the ordinary. People are rejecting sci-fi that tries to be less campy and have something for adults as well. But the last 30 minutes of the BSG final episode did more to kill my interest than any episode of Caprica ever did.
I was always curious about Caprica because I wanted to see if the scenario surrounding Cylon origins came anywhere near what I’d speculated in the essay I wrote for So Say We All (which you can check out over at SmartPop Books).
In a way, yes, the source of the reason why they were created was something I’d pegged in that essay. I like Caprica, but yes, some of the tangential storylines slowed the story down too much. Given what happened in the final five episodes (pacing), I have to wonder what they were going for with how slowly things went in the first half of the season. Whether they were trying to be too complex or too broad in showing how society on Caprica contributed to the situation that led to the creation and rise of the Cylons, there was room to bring that story into a tigher focus.
Can’t fault the performers in any way… damn fine acting, giving me characters I enjoyed, despised, and was still trying to figure out. Proof that the writing and acting was there, but perhaps too unfocused to draw in the audience or attention required to continue into subsequent seasons. There was some semblance of an ending, much like a chapter in the middle of a book where you have some threads end and know more are starting up, but enough was left to wonder where they might have gone with it.
And fer cryin’ out loud, it’s spelled D-A-M-O-C-L-E-S. Seeing it spelled wrong so many times makes me itch 🙂
Hey, give Eric a break. None of us were on the set each day sensing the show’s coming doom, but he and the rest of the cast were. I’ve read comments from several of the other series regulars and they pretty much echo Eric’s feelings as it pertained to the show’s future.
It is a shame too because this show had great potential, and while not BSG, it was worthy of at least a second full season.
Sorry, Eric. The problem was the story had no heart, and no passion. The mistake was relying on whining teenagers to drive the story. Yes, I know they eventually got around to the adults, but by then I didn’t care.
(Sending a little back scratching to Summer…I share your itch!)
Lisa, the teenagers turned me off too. Maybe if those characters had been a little older it would’ve worked better for me.
I did like Caprica. Much more than the last season of BSG, in fact. But then, I tend to enjoy shows that aren’t just fights and explosions, but social commentaries and musings on the nature of human existence. (Not that I don’t cheer at a good battle scene — I do — but there needs to be more than that to hold my interest.) It really breaks my heart that Hollywood has grown so impatient over the last decade or so. Shows used to be given time to find their feet and attract an audience. Now you have to be a hit (however the network sets its criteria for that) within a few weeks or you’re gone. If these practices had been in place 25 years ago, shows like Cheers wouldn’t have lasted half a season either.
@birdseed — I never felt that Caprica was anti-religion. It portrayed both mono- and polytheists in equal terms, both positive and negative. What it was cautioning against was zealotry at the expense of one’s own humanity and morality, no matter what your religion.
ed note: updated 🙂
I felt the show was trying to show how complex arguments about religion, faith and spirituality can be, and how far some people can and will go to prove to others that their way is the right way that everyone should follow. That argument echoes into the primary reason the Cylons attacked the Colonies so many years later in BSG, which was the thread of continuity I thought they were trying to create. Those conflicts also echoes our own struggles here on Earth, which was sort of the point BSG was showing us (at least in the beginning).
I, too, appreciate the more esoteric character studies that go beyond the superficial good-evil rationales, and I also love a good shoot-em-up, and it’s really a shame that market-driven profits inform and determine our popular entertainment. It’s relatively easy to seek out alternative sources for books and comics to feed the various niches of our particular entertainment cravings, but nearly impossible to do so when it comes to movies and television.
Really wish I’d won that $355 Mega Millions jackpot… think of the channel I could have created with that capital 🙂
@Robin-Well said on both statements.
Caprica was the best syfi on TV. The story lines were great, Any of them could have been a show of their own. I invested in all the characters and they never disappointed. It is sad that most of the public was to stupid to buy in and keep the show on for the rest of us who actually enjoy being a nerd.
Stolz, stop being so political, it was the most work you had in a long time. I liked your character but after this article I think Caprica might have been better without you.
Was this just a long miniseries leading to Blood and Chrome?
RIP Caprica–
I agree with Summer Brooks and Not Alone, sorry I’m to despondent about the cancellation of Caprica to expound in any further discourse right now. I’ll probably check back with another Caprica blog tomorrow.
BSG lost me the season they went into the backstory of the Cylons. C’mon, cylons that look at act totally human? Where’s the Sci-Fi in that? Give me more cold hard science in my science fiction please.
So I wasn’t suprised at Caprica’s cancellation. I did somewhat enjoy the story but still not enough sci-fi for me. I want the ships, the outer space and let robots be robots.