Issue link: https://cp.revolio.com/i/5219
Earth: An interview with caprica executive Producer Jane espenson CHRIS HuDAK heRe'S SoMeThIng I USeD To WISh aloUD FoR all The TIMe: a ScIence FIcTIon TeleVISIon SeRIeS WhIch, on The Whole, eScheWeD WeeKly, ePIc, acTIon-PacKeD SToRylIneS FUll oF STaRShIP BaTTleS oR UnIVeRSe- ThReaTenIng TeMPoRal PaRaDoXeS anD FocUSeD MoRe cloSely on Day-In-The-lIFe DeTaIlS anD InDIVIDUal, DoWn-To-eaRTh (oR WheReVeR) STRUggleS. Take your latest cgI of an improbably-hued accretion disk and shove it. I wanted to watch future or other-world parents ragging on their conflicted, rebellious teenaged offspring; to explore strange new clothing styles, personal deceptions, and forms of everyday, petty corruption; to seek out new living room layouts and furniture configurations; to boldly go... well, where we all go pretty much every day, except with new (and yet strangely-familiar) shit unfolding on cnn and nPR in the background, The much-needed reboot of Battlestar Galactica went a long, long way toward fulfilling that wish of mine (with top-shelf writing, effects and acting to boot). But in another admittedly ludicrous, completely finicky sense, it was still too... epic. Too cool and exciting, too space-shippy. What I suppose I really wanted (though I might have been reluctant to phrase it thusly) was the sci-fi equivalent of an honest- to-gods soap opera, emo-drama, or culture-poke — a sort of Starfleet Academy 90210, or an off-planet Dallas or some such. I wanted to settle in every week, dent my couch for an hour, tear into some cheez Fraks and — in a pseudo-sophisticated sci-fi kind of way — watch ma Stories. Well, hey-presto: either somebody out there is listening more intently to what I wish for, or I'm just getting better at it. either way, my near-future productivity will be dipping again, at least a little bit because the small-but-intrusive number of television shows I actually need to watch is going up by one. Premiering on SyFy in early 2010, caprica is more or less exactly what the holographic doctor ordered: a zoomed-down- to-ground-level look at planetside life and strife on the titular colonial homeworld taken from the Battlestar Galactica mythos, Caprica is a "science fiction family saga" that follows the intrigues and entanglements of at least two caprica city families. (and just incidentally for the BSg crowd, one of them is the family that will come to be known as adama. and, oh yeah, the other one is responsible for the subsequent rise of the cylons, who will summarily glass the whole planet within 60 years.) I spoke via email about Caprica with Jane espenson, executive producer for the series. She was a co-executive producer of Battlestar Galactica, where she also wrote two episodes. She was a producer of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and is the creator of Warehouse 13. other writing credits include episodes of Firefly, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and Dollhouse. She is editor of Serenity Found: More Unauthorized Essays on Joss Whedon's Firefly Universe and Finding Serenity: Anti-Heroes, Lost Shepherds and Space Hookers in Joss Whedon's Firefly.