Caprica Reboot

As you longtime TransGriot readers are aware of  I'm a serious sci-fi fan.   I own the Star Wars saga on DVD, loved all of the Star Trek shows except Enterprise, and was a huge fan of Battlestar Galactica old and new series.

I'm eagerly watching the prequel Caprica, which takes place 58 years before the events depicted in BSG.   As we BSG fans now know these events are 150,000 years from our current time on Planet Earth and light years on the other side of our Milky Way galaxy.

It's centered on two powerful families, the Greystones and the Adamas.

SyFy just started running the Season 1.5 shows October 5, and I spent a few hours one evening catching up on the three episodes I missed so I'll be ready for tonight's broadcast..

We BSG fans know how it will end, with the nuclear devastation of the Colonies in a Cylon sneak attack 58 years from now.   But the interesting part will be hopefully getting to see the events that lead to the First Cylon War, colonial political unification and that 40 year gap between the departure of the Cylons from colonial space and their deadly return.

It's already been interesting to see some of the various colonial worlds such as Caprica, Tauron and Gemenon, the polytheistic religious life, differences and different cultures on them and some of the tensions and cultural beefs between them

I also love watching my Tauron peeps.   There's a sizable Tauron cultural presence on Caprica due to the immigration resulting from the Tauron Civil War and prejudice directed at them by Capricans is widespread..   And as I discovered in a recent episode, some of the denizens of other world aren't too enamored with Capricans either.

The Adamas, one of the two families profiled on the show it are from that world.   

And yes it's those Adamas.   11 year old Willie Adama is the same one who will grow up to be the future commander of the battlestar Galactica 

His father Joseph is a civil rights attorney who does side work for the Tauron mob and his uncle Sam is a highly ranked same gender married member of the Halatha,

Nope, that was not a typo.  Sam is gay and nobody inside or outside his family is tripping..  


It's been a fascinating exploration into more of the events feeding into the BSG universe backstory while once again mixing issues into the shows ripped straight from our world's headlines.   Religious fanaticism, terror in the name of religion, development of AI and what it means for humans, and technology development and its impact on society. 

I hope SyFy is wise enough to pick it up for a few more seasons and allow it a chance to find the audience it deserves.

Fictional Gender Transformation

A staple of fiction is the theme of gender transformations, body morphing and gender swaps. It crosses all forms of media from books to films to television, and the examples are numerous.

I thought it would be interesting to post them on the blog from time to time so here's the first installment of fictional gender transformations.

A 'Fantasy Island' episode



A 'Gilligan's Island' episode



A 'Death Stalker' episode



An episode of a French TV show



A 'Homeboys From Outer Space' Episode

Hey, Where All My Taurons At?

As many of you long time readers know, I'm a huge Battlestar Galactica fan. I own all four seasons on DVD and eagerly awaited the start of Caprica when it kicked off back in January.

If I'm at home on Friday nights I'm parked in front of the television checking out the action in the BSG prequel series set 58 years before The Fall of the Twelve Colonies.

One of the interesting things about the Twelve Colonies as us BSG junkies know is that all of the planets are named after the signs of the zodiac.

Of course, being the proud Taurus I am, I immediately identified with my peeps on Tauron. The residents of that colony seem to have played major roles not only in BSG but the stories and backstories of the BSG/Caprica universe.

Admiral Helena Cain was from there, and as we're discovering, Admiral Adama has Tauron roots. His father Joseph and uncle Sam emigrated to Caprica as a result of the Tauron Civil War and the deaths of their parents.

Since Caprica is more terrestrial driven, you're actually getting more of a feel for Colonial life as seen through two families, the Graystones and the Adamas.

It's been fascinating to watch the Taurons as the story arc develops in the show. They are a proud, determined people who face racism and discrimination on Caprica.

It's interesting to watch the interplay between proud Tauron Sam and his brother, who is trying to be more Caprican than the natives, even going so far as to change his name so he'd fit in. It's also fun to see the future commander of the Battlestar Galactica as a teenage boy.

It also explains why the adult Adama liked to box so much.

I'll definitely be staying tuned in to see more of my Tauron peeps as the show progresses.

'Caprica' Begins

The night me and other Battlestar fans have been waiting for ever since the reimagined BSG ended and we got a taste of it in a miniseries is finally taking place.

We finally get to see the season premiere on SyFy of the Battlestar Galactica prequel series Caprica next week, but this weekend they reran the episode kicking off the show. The new episodes start next week.

There's even a website on SyFy that has a mock Caprican newspaper that you can leave comments on.

Every now and then you'll see one on the various posts from TauronMoni on it. ;)

While this one is set in the BSG universe, it's taking place 58 years before the events depicted in Battlestar Galactica.

I'm anxious to see how it will play out and looking forward to killing an hour in front of the TV watching it.

Caprica-The Series

The day we Battlestar fans have been waiting for since our fave series found our Earth 150,000 years ago and went out on top in the ratings after four seasons is fast approaching.

Caprica, the prequel series for Battlestar Galactica will finally start Friday, January 22.

While waiting for Caprica to start we BSG junkies have been teased with trailers and given a taste of Caprica thanks to last year's miniseries.

While there are some elements that are familiar to BSG viewers, this prequel takes place 58 years before the events of Battlestar Galactica in a technologically advanced world similar to our own planet.

The other thing that's an integral part of this series is the dawn of the Cylons weaved into the stories of two families, the Graystones and the Adamas.

And while we do have a teenage William Adama, the future commander of the Battlestar Galactica appearing in this series, the other characters are specific to this series and this time period in the BSG storyline.

It's being produced by Ronald Moore and David Eick, the same team that brought us BSG as well.

In any case, looking forward to finally getting the chance to watch intelligently written TV again and being back in the BSG universe even though we know how this story is going to play out.

Or do we?

How Close Are We To Building Cylons?

TransGriot Note: My latest piece for Global Comment


I am an unabashed sci-fi fan.

I loved Star Trek and even tried to get into Enterprise. I have watched all six Star Wars movies and Blade Runner in the theaters during their first weekend of release. I loved Battlestar Galactica, old and reimagined series.

As a science fiction aficionado I am well aware of the axiom that today's science fiction is tomorrow's science fact.

We have seen that happen numerous times in terms of Jules Verne's classic vision of a moon landing becoming our reality 40 years ago on July 20. Scientists are even reporting that warp drive is theoretically possible as well.

One of the interesting backstories that emerged from the reimagined Battlestar Galactica series is that the Cylons, the cybernetic tormentors of humans in the series, were originally created by humans.

They fought humanity wars, and did humanity's work in the Twelve Colonies before they rebelled and nearly wiped their creators out. Unfortunately Dr. Daniel Greystone, the creator of the Cylons, hadn't heard of Isaac Asimov's Three Laws Of Robotics.

1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.

2. A robot must obey any orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.

3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

Now I've recently begun to wonder how close are we to actually producing our own Cylons?

If we eventually create Cylon-like robots, they'll probably speak Japanese and have a 'made in Japan' label. While robotic technology development is ongoing in several nations, Japan has really pushed the robot development envelope.

One-fifth of the Japanese population is 65 or older, so the country is investing heavily in research and development efforts designed to produce robots that will replenish the work force and care for the elderly.

Over the last ten years they have been creating advanced humanoid looking robots that can talk, mimic a limited range of human emotions, move effortlessly and interact with humans as well.

Robots have long been part of Japanese factories and culture. They can serve as receptionists, vacuum office corridors, spoon feed the elderly and plant rice.

It's also interesting to note that thanks to the 2003 completion of the Human Genome Project, discoveries are being made almost every day in terms of what section of the DNA strand controls what aspect of human development.

We are also learning that deficiencies in certain parts of the DNA strand trigger certain diseases and are creating gene based medicines to target those diseases. This knowledge should also aid us in creating robots that more closely resemble us.

Read the rest of the post at Global Comment.

New Star Trek-Wow!

Just arrived back home from my local multiplex from watching the rebooted JJ Abrams directed Star Trek movie, and all I have to say is-wow!

I'm a Trekkie that watched the original series, Next Generation, DS9, Voyager and even Enterprise. I loved how this movie reintroduced us to all the characters we know and love and how the new actors stayed true to the original portrayals but put their own spin on them in some cases.

It even managed to surprise me with a well known producer-director playing a Starfleet admiral, but I won't spoil the surprise if you haven't seen the movie yet.

Here's the trailer for it, enjoy.



The best news is that the entire cast of the rebooted movie have been signed up to do two more pictures, and after watching this one can't wait to see what they come up with next.

Zoe Saldana's Playing Uhura!

I'm an unabashed Trekkie and fan of anything Star Trek related.

Since the word got out that Star Trek was about to get a reimagined makeover by director JJ Abrams, one of the questions crossing the minds of Black Trekkies was who was going to play Nichelle Nichols' classic role of Lt. Nyota Uhura?

It's not an insignificant question. Nichelle Nichols' role in the original series had historic significance to the point that when she considered quitting after the first season, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. himself urged her not to.

The appearance of this smart, sexy sistah on our nation's 60's era TV screens inspired a Chicago girl named Dr. Mae Jemison to become an astronaut and later make history as the first African-American woman launched into space. It also inspired a New York girl named Caryn Johnson AKA Whoopi Goldberg to become an actress and eventually play a character on Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Even Nichols herself worked for NASA not only recruiting African-Americans for the space program, but inspiring kids in my era to consider math and science careers as an ambassador for NASA's space program.

The person with the pressure of stepping into Nichelle's boots for this reimagined movie is Zoe Saldana. I'm a fan of hers from several movies over the years from Drumline to Pirates of the Caribbean.

When Zoe talked about her meeting with Nichelle Nichols, she is well aware of the fact that for African descended people, Lt. Uhura is more than just a movie role.

"I was able to sit down with her, and she told me the whole story of how Uhura came to be and where they were going with her character. It all fell into place the moment she walked into the door and auditioned for the part. She named the character herself ... and she felt as an artist, she was going to make the part big."

It's going to be interesting to wrap my mind around seeing her in this role but I'm curious to see how she's going to pull it off.

Nichelle Nichols agrees with me as well. She stated in a recent interview, "I'd love to wait and see what she brings to it so that I can understand, get to see who and what Uhura was like. "I would like to see what Nyota Uhura had that qualified her to go on that first five-year mission where no man or woman had gone before."

Hopefully they gave Nichelle a cameo role in the new Star Trek film, which hits your local multiplex on May 8.