The new ‘Battlestar Galactica’ prequel series, ‘Caprica’ is turning out to be a gold mine of religious parallels and allusions. Among the most interesting topics and themes thus far, from its newest episode:
The First Cylon: it’s a she. A woman. A young girl, really. As a machine, she’s an innocent of sorts. She doesn’t know her own strengths yet, and she doesn’t know her capacity for destruction. She’s pre-fall if you will. All Cylon life will flow from her. Which means that, regardless of her intentions, she’s the key to all later destruction and downfall of humanity. Still sounds very Eve-like, doesn’t it?
The father-daughter co-creation of Cylon life: So the first Cylon–and therefore all future Cylons–is the brain child (so to speak) of a technologically ambitious, wealthy father, and his rebellious but brilliant daughter. The fact that neither will have power over their creation in the future is interesting, of course–they will have to sit back and allow Cylons their free will. Then again, the daughter becomes the first Cylon (not willingly, but still) so there’s a nice twist.
Group marriages: It’s not a man with a bunch of wives, but a matriarch with a bunch of wives and a bunch of husbands. This is the other, overtly religious storyline playing out so far in Caprica. The head of the girl’s school where Zoe (the first Cylon) went when she was alive is also the leader of a religious/terrorist cell, and the matriarch of this impossibly large family.
I can’t wait to see what turns up next. For those craving more ‘Caprica’ before the new show airs, keep watching for Religion Dispatches “Capricology: Television, Tech, and the Sacred” series, which is a running commentary on the series. Their latest post was “Caprica’s Advertising and Teen Religion.”