'Battlestar' fans get to begin again

Esai Morales and Eric Stolz star in Caprica.

More than two year before the final season of the fabulous drama Battlestar Galactica was winding down, its fans began getting excited after hearing about plans for a new prequel show that would explain many previously murky details about Galactica, including the origins of the Cylons and who created them.

By last year, word got out that the prequel was in production, and recently audiences were treated to the excellent two-hour film Battlestar Galactica: The Plan, which featured events from earlier in the show's chronology and generated even more anticipation for the prequel, Caprica.

And so it is that Caprica finally debuts at 8 p.m. Friday on Syfy and its producers are promising a striking mix of political intrigue and human drama. As with Battlestar, the show's sci-fi roots are being downplayed, even though we're talking about a program occurring in a futuristic universe and depicting as many fictional beings as real humans.

In addition, Caprica will resemble Battlestar in being first and foremost about personal problems and relationships — using that foundation to explore difficult social and cultural problems.

Caprica begins 58 years before Battlestar Galactica. Zoe Graystone (Alessandra Torresani), a renegade teenage genius inventor, discovers a way to clone herself through virtual-reality technology. This breakthrough will eventually lead to the creation of the Cylons and the subsequent horrors and destruction shown in Battlestar Galactica. But a more immediate tragedy in Caprica that gets the show going concerns an explosion aboard a train done by Graystone's insane suicide-bomber boyfriend.

This results in the deaths in of Joseph Adama's (Esai Morales) wife and daughter, plus the real Zoe. The event temporarily bonds Adama with Zoe's father Daniel (Eric Stolz) and these two families fates remain linked as Caprica evolves.

While cloning and the insanity of political extremism are the pilot's main themes, many other issues will emerge on Caprica. There are both romantic and political entanglements that promise the show will pack the same thematic punch as its predecessor. Battlestar Galatica earned numerous awards including a Television Critics Association best program and a Peabody, though amazingly it never won (or was even nominated for) an Emmy.

Besides Torresani, Morales and Stolz, other regulars include Paula Malcolmson and Polly Walker. Besides presenting the first version of the Cylons, the show sports a 1940s and '50s fashion look, something that provides quite a contrast in the pilot episode (which was released several months ago on DVD and is still available).

Syfy's been looking for a signature series ever since they made the name change from the Sci-Fi Channel. Caprica may become that program.