Ramp Me Up, Tigh Me Down

One of the locations we’ve known about for some time but just haven’t got to yet is what we call the Cordova Ramp. In Season One’s “Tigh Me Up, Tigh Me Down,” Six and Doral and walking down an empty street in Caprica City, talking about love.

Located on Cordova Street, near Thurlow, the ramp is the main access to traffic coming and going from Canada Place. I’d already learned how dangerous it is to take photos without the benefit of a film crew closing off the street, so the angle of our matching shot is a little off…but spacepug lives to keep scouting another day! More pictures from our downtown location scouting trip here.

Caprica back on Location

by spacepug

I cannot tell you how pleased I was to see this empty chair in the midst of a crowd of extras and film crew today.  Caprica is back in Vancouver and was shooting today at the Central Library in Downtown Vancouver.   Polly Walker is the main reason I’m wishing January 22, 2010 would get here faster.  Not only is she an extremely talented actress (watch Rome if you are unfamiliar with her work), but she did so much with so little screen time in the Caprica pilot.  She made the character of Clarice seem sinister yet sympathetic, and absolutely fascinating.

Here’s a link to a few pictures I took of today’s shoot.  Nothing spoilery except for some costume items that give a sense of atmosphere.  Oh yeah, and some random guy in the crowd who I didn’t even notice was there until I got home and checked the pics…leave it to spacepug to miss the handsome leading man!

Since Caprica will be shooting in Vancouver for several more months, I want to make a couple of  things clear.  I will not publish shooting locations in advance.  I will not publish any photos that I believe are spoilers.  In general, I think true fans are much more careful of not spoiling something for their fellow fans since they themselves want to enjoy the show completely when it finally airs….many months from now.   What I will do is pass along whatever snippets I think will help keep fans excited and interested in what is coming.  Clear? Maybe not.  We will see…

One Night on Caprica

by spacepug

As expected, our Caprica viewing party was a big draw.  43 of Vancouver’s 13th Colonists  came out, eager to see if they’ll have a new show to follow next year, one that will capture their imagination and loyalty the way Battlestar Galactica did.   The reaction was overwhelmingly positive, with most people saying the pilot either met or exceeded their expectations.

I didn’t give in to the urge to watch the bootleg version of Caprica when it appeared online prematurely, though I had seen a couple of scenes that were leaked months ago.  I figured I had seen just enough to help me choose decorations and a theme for the 13^th Colony’s Caprica viewing party.  I was quite proud of the glowing blue infinity symbol we suspended below the TV and the paper lanterns dangling from the ceiling to represent the 12 colonies.

Then I got the brilliant idea to turn the viewing party into a dance party….since I had seen a couple of flashes of what looked like a nightclub scene.  I told my members “we’re going to show those crazy Caprican kids that we also know how to get down.”

If you’ve seen the show, you’ll know why I have since decided we have nothing new to show “those crazy Caprican kids” and quite frankly, I would prefer not to mix my dancing with v***** s********.

So, even though there will surely be more Caprica in our plans, there won’t be any more Caprican dance parties.  But it was kinda fun to spin “Mr. Roboto” by Styx just one more time…

Caprica off to a good start

by spacepug

The creative team behind Caprica, the new prequel series, has explained one of the reasons behind the early release of the Caprica pilot onto DVD is a desire to gauge fan reaction for the forthcoming series.  They needn’t have worried.  I believe most Battlestar Galactica fans will watch the new series, and it may stand a better chance of garnering a mainstream audience.  Why?  Because it’s good drama.   Compelling characters caught up in interesting conflicts, even if there are no spaceships in sight.

Behind the cut are my thoughts on the pilot episode.  It’s a detailed review and therefore contains spoilers.

“Perfection Achieved. End of Line”

by spacepug

It was an amazing experience. 110 enthusiastic Battlestar Galactica fans jammed into LaFontana Caffe in Burnaby, chanting “So Say We All” for the benefit of a live television viewing audience across Canada.  I’m proud to say we gave our favourite show the frakkin’ good send-off it deserved.

Space Channel did their first ever fully live, coast to coast event called the “Fandom Forum” after the airing of the final episode of Battlestar Galactica.  The discussion was based in their studio in Toronto, but Vancouver provided a number of live interludes, and most of the entertainment value.   The 13^th Colonists in Vancouver really stepped up.  With a little less than two weeks to prepare, we had many people in costume, lots of BSG decorations, and our very own hybrid.  Seth had them in stitches in Toronto when he delivered his opinion of the last episode, “Perfection achieved.  End of line.”   Of course, that may have had something to do with fans wondering just where Natasha Eloi had put her hand when it went into the tub of “goo.”

Natasha impressed all of the 13^th Colonists with her wit and enthusiasm.  Many of the people who got to meet her seemed as “wowed” as they might have been had one of the actors from the show been present.  The night was all about the fans, and none of us will ever forget the experience.  Space was thrilled with the Vancouver contribution to their show, and I wouldn’t be surprised if we see further collaborations between Space and the 13^th Colony in the future.

And yes, the topper had to be when Ron Moore came on and thanked the Canadian fans, including the 13^th Colony, for their support of Battlestar Galactica.  You are very welcome, Mr. Moore.  You and the rest of the cast & crew have given us so many hours of amazing quality television in return.  We’ll be talking about this show for a long time, and we’ll keep the friends we’ve made through BSG fandom for even longer than that.

We can rightfully say that the 13^th Colony is the biggest BSG fan club in Canada.  The last episode may have aired, but we’re not going anywhere.  Caprica, The Plan…we’ve got plenty to do.

“So Say We All!”

We slayed 'em in TO

Halloween on Caprica

Three Gaius Baltars, two viper mechanics, one daggitt….and a whole lot of BSG fans who used Halloween as an excuse to dress up like characters from our favourite show. Kudos to the Dr. Baltar whose nuclear bomb was filled with enough chocolate to go around! And to Pruis, the hybrid, who noticed a lull in the conversation, yelled “Jump!” and fell backwards in his chair. That one would only have worked with this crowd.

For more pictures from the event, check our photo album here.

Another Bridge to Find

A trio of hardy 13th Colonists made a long trek (6.5km each way) on foot into the Lower Seymour Conservation Reserve (known to locals as the Seymour Demonstration Forest) to find yet another Battlestar Galactica shooting location from Season One.

This is a picture from the episode “Six Degrees of Separation” where Helo and Sharon hide on one of the pylons of a bridge while Centurions pass by above them.

This is a picture we took of the Spur 4 bridge, which we were directed to by one of the park rangers. (Note: showing regular people screen shots using a cool gadget like an iPod Touch makes it seem much less geeky and illicits a better response than just asking.) The railing on the bridge is different, but is obviously a recent addition.

The kicker is, the way the bridge was integrated into the scene in the show, we thought it should have a bunch of red pillars beneath it. Clearly it does not. So, we still have one more bridge to find, likely close by.

I sense more long hikes in my future.

BSG Goodness for Long Weekend

Here in British Columbia, and many other parts of Canada, we are gearing up to celebrate one of the best parts of summer, the long weekend. Three days without work! And thanks to Space Channel, we can get in plenty of hours of Battlestar Galactica to ease us through the holiday.

Four hours of BSG goodness on Saturday night, two hours Sunday night, and at least three hours the following weekend! Check your local listings. It appears there will be plenty of late-night BSG for insomniacs across the country, all summer long!

Another note for Canadian fans– Space Channel has secured the rights to Caprica, whenever the decision is made to air it. Apparently in September, TV execs at NBC Universal (which owns Sci-Fi Channel) will decide if Caprica will air as a two-hour movie in the Fall, or hold it back until the new year and launch it as a series. The initial trailer for Caprica has appeared online, and you can find it here.

More Caprica Location Pics

I don’t want to give anyone the impression that the 13^th Colony is made up of a bunch of stalkerazzi, but once again, the Caprica production team has chosen to shoot in a public location REALLY CLOSE to where one of us works. Either we’re building quite a network up here, or we’re just getting lucky.

We have more exclusive Caprica set pics today. They could be considered spoilery, so they’re under a cut.

Just Any Old Caprican Diner

Wonder what Caprican food is like? Or Gemenese? For more pictures from more angles, check out the 13th Colony photo gallery over here at Meetup.

Gotta love the zeroes and ones in the logo. Probably not the final version of the logo, just one for their letterhead during production. For instance, when X-Files was in town under the name “Done One” their letterhead logo had a windmill (blades in shape of X) and a knight on a horse holding a lance. Likely not the one they’ll use for the theatrical release.