Lower Decks

SCI FI Channel has officially greenlit Caprica, a spin-off of Battlestar Galactica that will serve as a prequel to that series. According to Variety, the show is “much-anticipated,” but just how many people are actually anticipating what sounds like a subdued drama filled with legalese and sexual tension, set amidst the backdrop of a culture that is shockingly like our own?

According to SCI FI Channel President Dave Howe, Caprica is

“an intense family drama set on an Earthlike planet, in the near future, speaking to a lot of the ethical dilemmas that we as a human race are going to have to face very shortly.”

It sounds as if Caprica will serve as a reflection of moral issues that contemporary society has yet to tackle (but soon will).  The official SCI FI press release about the show explains that

as the series begins, a startling development is about to occur – the creation of the first cybernetic life-form node or “Cylon” the ability to marry artificial intelligence with mechanical bodies.

That doesn’t sound like an issue current day lawyers will be dealing with anytime soon.  But it does set the tone for Caprica.  As James Hibberd points out, however, viewers may balk at watching a series when they know how the main conflict turns out.

Here’s the official description of the new show :

Set 50 years before Battlestar Galactica, Caprica follows two rival families the Graystones and the Adamas as they grow, compete, and thrive in the vibrant world of the 12 Colonies, a society recognizably close to our own. Enmeshed in the burgeoning technology of artificial intelligence and robotics that will eventually lead to the creation of the Cylons, the two houses go toe-to-toe blending action with corporate conspiracy and sexual politics. Caprica will deliver all of the passion, intrigue, political backbiting and family conflict in television’s first science fiction family saga.

A two-hour pilot has already been completed.  An additional eighteen episodes will be produced.  Caprica will premiere in 2010.