The Battlestar Galactica prequel television show Caprica premieres on Syfy under unusual circumstances. On top of carrying the burden of one of sci-fi’s greatest crossover shows ever on its youthful shoulders, the two-hour pilot was quietly released to DVD and electronic formats last April and has already been seen by approximately 1.5 million set of eyeballs. And that version was uncut and unrated while the TV pilot will have female topless nudity and some violence edited out.
Those who do tune in for the Caprica series premiere as a refresher or for the first time will enter a world rife with political bribes, religious intolerance, racism, terrorism, machismo, and teenage rebellion. It is a grounded domesticated landscape more familiar to our own and far removed from the call signs and dogfights of Battlestar Galactica. Yet it is intentionally linked through dramatic shaky-cam direction and familiar lingo like “frak” and “so say we all” as a reminder of the show’s roots when its stories and characters stray far from where the franchise has previously treaded.
Caprica’s timeline begins 60 years prior to the attack on the 12 colonies as seen in the pilot of Battlestar Galactica. Those pesky metallic Cylons have yet to be mass produced and distributed to assist the colonials in everyday life, but the first working prototype is being built by billionaire genius computer engineer Daniel Graystone (Eric Stoltz as Eric Stoltz) while his daughter Zoe (Alessandra Torresani in a challenging “unique” role), a chip off the old man’s block whom he shuns under the pressure of meeting work deadlines to complete a functioning prototype, spends her free time toiling around in an “anything goes” virtual world for teenagers that has become the drug of choice for the thriving Caprican colony.
On the seedier fringe of society is Joseph Adama (wonderfully gruff Esai Morales), a criminally linked minority lawyer from Tauron whose son William will one day become Admiral Adama and brother Sam (Sasha Roiz in a Sopranos-inspired role) is a morals-challenged hit man for hire. Through a shared tragedy the lives of these two families will intersect and begin an unlikely and unpredictable journey together down a treacherous and ethically unstable path.
Battlestar co-creator Ron Moore and his writing team on Caprica have designed the spin-off series to function independent of its inspiration and appeal to a new audience while simultaneously servicing the desires of die-hard franchise fans. You do not need to know the names Starbuck, Apollo and Gaius Baltar to follow Caprica’s intertwining plot threads or enter the mind of its key players and associate with their motivations. Though themes that do carry forward into the future like two opposing religious views; the belief in one true god versus a more established and accepted groups of gods, should help neatly tie the two series together when all is said and done.
The Caprica pilot paints an ominous future for the Graystones, Adamas and the colonies, setting up the season to come with a cliffhanger that foreshadows the inevitable fate lying in wait. Through the first two post-pilot episodes that follow, friction between the two families increase and the aftermath of the pilot’s tragedy takes a toll on those indirectly involved through association, especially vulnerable young William Adama and Daniel’s emotionally battered wife, Amanda (Deadwood’s Paula Malcomson). Like the first season of NBC’s Heroes, each of these episodes ends with a consequence-filled cliffhanger that tops the previous and is guaranteed to have you coming back for more.
For my money, Caprica is one of the most promising new shows to hit the small screen in the past couple years. Ron Moore proved he could paint a complex, intellectually stimulating and sociologically relevant sci-fi world with Battlestar Galactica and has successfully double-downed with a new twist on familiar old themes.
– Dan Bradley
Caprica premieres on Syfy January 22 at 9/8c. All-new episodes begin the following Friday at the same time.
