What the Frak, Frankenstein!: Teenagers, Gods, and Postcolonial Monsters on Caprica. Issue 2 (2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Thrall, James H.
• Is Part Of: Extrapolation. Volume 56:Issue 2(2015)
• Page Start: 169
• Page End: 194
• Publication Date: 2015
• Subjects: Science fiction -- History and criticism -- Periodicals; Science fiction -- Bibliography -- Periodicals; Science fiction; Bibliography; Criticism, interpretation, etc; Periodicals; 809.38762
• DOI: 10.3828/extr.2015.10
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0014-5483

Abstract

Abstract : The SyFy television series Caprica (US, 2009-2010), prequel to the series Battlestar Galactica (US, 2004-2009), makes direct and oblique references to Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein and its film adaptations, including especially James Whale's 1931 Frankenstein . These associations complicate the series' exploration of questions about the nature of life, death, and humanness; help position the created race of Cybernetic Life Form Nodes (Cylons) as simultaneously dangerous and sympathetic; rationalize religious experience in a manner resonant with Shelley's vision of a modern world without God; and support the postcolonial frame the series develops as it considers issues of power, gender, age, ethnicity, and class.