Caprica Pilot Under Way

A two-hour back-door pilot for Caprica, a series set in the Battlestar Galactica universe at least fifty years before the events shown in the current series, was greenlit last week by the Sci Fi Channel and is already in preproduction after two years in development.

Sci Fi has made only a partial commitment to the series: as was the case with Knight Rider, another NBC Universal property recently given a test run with a movie-length pilot, Sci Fi is likely to pick up the series only if the ratings on the pilot are solid. The reluctance stems in part from creator Ronald D. Moore's intention to make Caprica heavily dependent on long story arcs, which networks tend to fear repel new viewers. This has already been a source of conflict with Galactica, but rabidity of Galactica's fan-base and the unpopularity of network-imposed efforts made in Galactica season 3 to create more isolated, stand-alone stories have resulted in a contingent go-ahead for the new series concept.

"I'm thrilled with the chance to expand on the Galactica world and get deeper into the origins of the story we've been telling," Moore said in a statement released by Sci Fi. "It's also great to have a chance at doing a completely different kind of science fiction series, one that's even more character-oriented and doesn't rely on pyrotechnics to carry the story."

The official summary describes Caprica as "Two families, the Graystones and the Adamas, live together on a peaceful planet known as Caprica, where a startling breakthrough in artificial intelligence brings about unforeseen consequences." The characters will include Joseph Adama, father of the present-day William Adama; the elder Adama, already established as a civil liberties lawyer in the current series, comes to oppose the artificial intelligence experiments overseen by the Graystones.

The chronology established in the Galactica miniseries and new series indicates that ten years of fighting the Cylons -- the first Cylon war -- was followed by a forty-year disappearance, during which the Cylons evolved a complex society of their own in isolation from their human creators and prepared to destroy the twelve colonies of Kobol.Caprica's setting roughly fifty years prior to their reemergence puts the series, and the development of the Cylons themselves, in the years immediately preceding the first Cylon war. It was revealed in September that a character in the show will coin the term Cylon from their description, "A cybernetic life-form node."

A year ago, Moore described the conception of the Caprica series, then in limbo due to Sci Fi's reservations, this way to Salon: "It was a different kind of show. Instead of an action-adventure sci-fi piece, it was more of a prime-time soap, a sci-fi Dallas. It was about a family, the Adamas, and a company, and it was about the creation of the Cylons 50 years ago. It was not going to be space-based, but set entirely on the planet of Caprica. But it would have sci-fi touches, and it would deal with issues like artificial intelligence and the various schemings and backbitings that you get in the traditional soap opera."

No casting has been announced for the feature-length pilot, which is being written by Galactica creator Ronald D. Moore with Remi Aubuchon. (Aubuchon, who will be the show runner responsible for day-to-day operations, is new to the franchise, having executive produced Summerland, The Lyon's Den, and 24 and written individual episodes of each.) David Eick, an executive producer of Galactica (and Bionic Woman), will executive produce with Moore and Aubuchon.