Preview – “Caprica” Pilot

Thanks to the wonderful power of the internet, everyone and their Aibo have been grabbing the leaked pilot episode for “Caprica”, the upcoming prequel series to Battlestar Galactica…and I’m no different.

The series (or at least the pilot) takes place 58 years before the fall (aka, when the Cylons go ape-shit). It’s essentially the story of the people surrounding the invention of the Cylons. I don’t want to get too much into the actual plot, because it’s actually kinda interesting, and it’s definitely the sort of thing that you want to watch with as clean a slate as possible. There’s virtual reality, robot doormen, and everyone says “Frak” a bit too often, beyond that I won’t spoil it too much.

I will say that it’s a VERY different series from what BSG was. It takes place entirely on a planet for one thing, no space travel (yet anyway), and focuses on family drama and character interaction rather than action, though I predict it might be a bit more action oriented in the future…hard to say.

The pilot episode also contained a few scenes with nudity and some fairly steamy girl on girl action that surprised me a bit, seeing as it’s meant to be aired on Syfy, though I suspect the leaked release is probably an “uncut” version for DVD, rather than the version that will be going to broadcast.

I’m not sure what I think of the show so far. From the perspective of a BSG fan there are enough little details to be mildly interesting, but it’s trying really hard to be it’s own thing, so having liked BSG is no guarantee you’ll enjoy “Caprica”, and if you didn’t like BSG, you may enjoy “Caprica”, it’s got a very different feel to it than BSG had.

I’d highly recommend checking it out, but I’m not sure if it will be able to keep my interest over the course of a series…I guess we’ll have to wait and see. As a stand-alone experience though, the “Caprica” pilot works well as an extra bit of BSG history for fans, and potentially could expand it’s fanbase to the more “dramatic” side of things…hopefully without loosing too much of it’s Sci-fi roots.

Watch a preview of “Caprica” below…