Caprica – The BSG Prequel

After the series finale of Battlestar Galactica, I have to admit that I was a little nervous about what direction Ronald Moore and David Eick would take Caprica, the long-rumored prequel series. Would it be a mess of convoluted theology and existential destructionism? Would it lack the action that hooked me in the first place? Would it feel contrived and desperate, as it rushed headlong toward a meeting with destiny?

(Are you getting the idea that I didn’t care for the series finale of BSG?)

Caprica makes no pretense of being of an action-oriented series. This is drama as good as anything critically acclaimed on network television. With this show, science fiction as a visual medium has taken a large step forward in its quest to become legitimate main-stream entertainment. 

Most people will read the previous statement and assume that I mean Caprica is a procedural crime drama or an adult soap opera. I’d have to disagree. The fantastic certainly has a place (the setting not the least), but the questions it raises about our own origins find a better framework here (with characters that are deeper, earlier in the series) than in BSG. 

The pilot follows the story of the Greystone family–hyper-intelligent, rich, and utterly without morality whether in the business sector or at home. Daniel Greystone (cue sinister music) is endeavoring to create a super-soldier, but is having trouble with the intelligence that would drive it. He’s a brilliant roboticist, but the sophisticated programming required to make an autonomous soldier is beyond his current capabilities. His daughter, on the other hand, excels in the esoteric branches of artificial intelligence. She’s also loosely tied with a group of men and women who are violently monothesistic (the prevailing religion of the human BSG universe is polytheism). This tie drives her to create a mimic of her own consciousness, which inhabits a seedy virtual night club for underage teenagers. The plot drives forward from there, ending with a revelation that did more for me than the entire two and half hours of the series finale.

In a subordinate, but still important role, is Joseph Adama, the father of William Adama. His poker-faced defense attorney (with some intriguing mob ties) smolders with quiet emotion throughout the film, lending an important air of gravitas to the events that you know are coming. Esai Morales plays this role brilliantly. He is the perfect blend of William Adama’s quiet refusal to bend in the face adversity and Lee Adama’s passion for causes.

Moore and Eick have their work cut out for them. Critics accused BSG of losing its way during the third season; their ability to keep delivering the same amount of tension and drama that they are capable of will make or break this series in the first season. Color me cautiously optimistic.