Battlestar Galactica was a surprise critical hit for the Sci Fi Network. The original Battlestar Galactica was cheesy and predictable. The updated version from Sci Fi was surprisingly smart and interesting. Sci Fi turned a show about good guys vs. evil robots in space, into a show that was a mixture of Star Wars, Lost and even West Wing. And now they are taking that formula to a new level with Caprica.
Caprica, the home world of the characters from Battlestar Galactica for you non-geeks, is a show based 50 years before the tragic events that lead to the Battlestar pilot. The story will center around two prosperous families living in the 12 Colonies, a societal structure we learned to be similar to ours.
The timing of the show is set around the creation of the Cylons as the first successful coupling of artificial intelligence and robotics. We of course know how this ends up going, but it will be interesting to watch.
I can’t help but think of the surprise failure of The Sarah Connor Chronicle (the Terminator show). This should have been a slam dunk with the legacy story line and special effects. But it has failed to keep the attention of viewers and is likely to be droped from the Fox network soon.
But I don’t see the same fate for Caprica. First, the audience is much more loyal than the Terminator audience. Battalestar Galactica lived up to the hype and became a brand again. A brand that holds some weight with the Sci-Fi crowd, so people will give this show a chance to develop. And development has been the weak point for Terminator.
Then of course there are the actors. How the cast of The Sarah Connor Chronicles is good, the cast lined up for Caprica is absolutly amazing. Eric Stoltz is set to lead the cast, along with Esai Morales, who was great is Jerhico. Paula Malcomson (Trixie from Deadwood) and Polly Walker (Atia of the Julii from Rome) are also starring. When you start grabbing HBO actors from shows like Deadwood and Rome, you’re not taking any risk in casting. This is an amazingly talented cast with a lot of great experience.
The series production won’t start until summer 2010, but the pilot is already in the can, so hopefully we’ll see that soon. If you remember, the Battlestar Galactica pilot movie came well ahead of the series. I can’t wait to check this out.
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