Caprica (series)

For information on the colony in the Re-imagined Series, see Caprica (RDM). For other uses, see Caprica.

Caprica is a proposed television spin-off of the Re-imagined Series to be produced by Ronald D. Moore and David Eick for the Sci Fi Channel.

Writer Remi Aubuchon (of the TV series 24) is the third executive producer, in addition to being the actual showrunner. Caprica is a prequel to the Re-imagined Series that deals with the Adama and Graystone families on the planet Caprica and the invention of the Cylons.

Summary

The Sci Fi Channel will delve into the backstory of Battlestar Galactica with a new series that looks at the creation of the race of robots known as Cylons by the humans of the Twelve Colonies of Kobol and the eventual revolt of the Cylons against their human masters, which will lead the two races to become locked to the death in a bitter war for their respective survivals.

The prequel, called Caprica, heads a list of development projects the cable network unveiled April 26, 2006. Caprica begins over 50 years before the Ronald D. Moore-created Battlestar Galactica series.

As Battlestar Galactica is about a lot more than space battles, Caprica will be as much family drama as sci-fi tale. Remi Aubuchon (The Lyon's Den, 24) is writing the pilot script with co-writer (and executive producer) Ronald D. Moore; "Galactica" veterans Ronald D. Moore and David Eick will executive produce it. The two-hour pilot will be directed by Jeff Reiner (Friday Night Lights).

The Scifi.com news release on April 27th, 2006 stated:

"SCI FI Channel announced the development of Caprica, a spinoff prequel of its hit Battlestar Galactica, in presentations to advertisers in New York on April 26. Caprica would come from Galactica executive producers Ronald D. Moore and David Eick, writer Remi Aubuchon (24) and NBC Universal Television Studio.

Caprica would take place more than half a century before the events that play out in Battlestar Galactica. The people of the Twelve Colonies are at peace and living in a society not unlike our own, but where high-technology has changed the lives of virtually everyone for the better.

But a startling breakthrough in robotics is about to occur, one that will bring to life the age-old dream of marrying artificial intelligence with a mechanical body to create the first living robot: a Cylon. Following the lives of two families, the Graystones and the Adamas (the family of William Adama, who will one day become the commander of the Battlestar Galactica), Caprica will weave together corporate intrigue, techno-action and sexual politics into television's first science fiction family saga, the channel announced. "

Since April 26, 2006, Caprica was in "development hell" (major rewrites and resubmissions to network executives), until it was seriously considered during the WGA strike of 2007-08. After the strike ended, SCI FI Channel announced on March 18, 2008 that the two-hour backdoor pilot was greenlit with production to begin spring of 2008 in Vancouver.

They Graystone family includes the father Daniel and mother Amanda, a computer scientist and surgeon respectively. When their daughter Zoe dies due to the religious fanaticism of her boyfriend, her father manages to resurrect her - after a fashion. Fusing basic elements of her personality and DNA to a machine, he creates Zoe-R, a robotic version of his child.

The same terrorist attack claimed the live of Joseph Adama's wife and daughter, Tamara. Together with Daniel Graystone he works on brining back their children, but is appalled at his partner's methods and ethics. However, as a result of this tragedy, he grows closer to his 9-year old son, William Adama.

Development Hell

According to an interview with IFmagazine, David Eick said that they had been contemplating a spinoff prequel series since Season 2 began and were tossing around ideas. About the same time, 24 writer Remi Aubuchon pitched a series that had a lot of similarities to the Cylon storyline. Realizing that they could not devote their full time to both Battlestar Galactica and a spinoff, Moore and Eick decided to merge with Auchubon, seeing it as an opportunity: "We took some of what we had and some of what he had ".

According to a post on the official Scifi.com messageboard by Ron Moore's wife Terry Dresbach, executive producer Remi Aubochon will be the showrunner for "Caprica", in charge of the writing staff. Ron Moore will oversee and approve the story arcs, casting, sets, and read the scripts, though Moore will probably rarely write an individual episode for Caprica.

In an interview in Dreamwatch Magazine in May 2006, Remi Aubuchon said that he originally pitched a series which was an "allegorical story about slavery with robots", when approached by Moore and Eick. Aubuchon stated that William Adama will be 11 years old when the series begins. Aubuchon described the new show by saying, "This is a very human story about how our own hubris can lead us to disaster". He goes on to say that Caprica is meant to stand on its own from BSG: while still addressing backstory issues from Battlestar, it will not be required to have watched it to enjoy Caprica. However, "certain elements have been embedded into the first few episodes of season 3" of Battlestar Galactica, which might refer to things which will be further fleshed-out in the prequel series.

On November 6, 2006, the Sci Fi Pulse website reported that Ron D. Moore updated Dreamwatch magazine regarding the new series:

“It’s actually a prequel, and this would be a one hour pilot not a mini – series. It takes place 50 years before the events of Battlestar Galactica and it’s essentially about the creation of the Cylons.

“It’s a very different show; it’s not action – adventure and it’s not even in space. It takes place on the Planet (sic) Caprica and it’s more of a family drama, with political and corporate intrigue. We’re well into the writing of it actually; we’re doing re-writes on the script right now and Sci Fi has been very happy so far. At the moment, we’re just waiting to see if they greenlight it or not. Generally, there’s always a two step process: there’s ordering the pilot and then there’s ordering the series, but because we’re not designing it as a mini – series, I don’t know that anybody would even see the pilot if they chose not to go to series with it.

“Tonally, it will be very different,” promises Moore. “This is Caprica before the fall. It’s a decadent world, but also a world that’s going at a very fast pace. It’s a prosperous society that hasn’t experienced the devastation of the first Cylon war yet, so this culture has really not been taken down a peg, and their hubris is getting the better of them. It’s a go – go society that’s teetering on the brink, so it’s not that apocalyptic survival scenario of Galactica. The whole thing is tonally very different.”

On March 24, 2007, Moore discussed the status of Caprica with Salon.com's Laura Miller:

"It's possible [that the series will still happen]. It's been in development at SciFi for a while and they haven't picked it up. And I don't know if they're going to pick it up at this point. There's talk of doing it as a TV movie and seeing how that works, as a back-door pilot, much as we did with the "Galactica" Miniseries. Right now there's nothing telling me that they're going to move on it anytime soon, so I'm starting to feel that it's going to remain on the development shelf.

"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 (sic) 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."

New Life

On September 18, 2007, it was reported that with the end of Battlestar Galactica around the corner and Moore poised to leave Sci Fi for NBC, Sci Fi executives were considering green-lighting the 2-hour pilot for production as a means of keeping Moore with the channel. Contingent on the performance of "Razor", it was reported that Caprica might also see a release in the form of a direct-to-DVD movie that is simultaneously premiered on television . Furthermore, with the writer's strike (the first since 1988), networks scrambled to stockpile finished scripts for various productions, and thus Caprica became a front runner for production because its script had already been completed before said strike.

In March of 2008, it was announced by the SciFi Channel during a news conference that Caprica will get a two-hour pilot episode that will begin production soon.

Details about the pilot began leaking out in April 2008, including more detailed information about the characters:

The Graystones include father Daniel, a computer genius; mother Amanda, a brilliant surgeon and unfaithful wife; and their daughter, Zoe, who is martyred to her boyfriend's religious fanaticism—but not before she installs the rudimentary elements of her personality and DNA into a machine, creating a digital twin of herself, Zoe-A. After the human Zoe's death, Daniel uses these raw materials, some stolen technology and his own grief to cobble together "a robotic version of his dead daughter." This robot version, known as Zoe-R, is a Cylonic Eve, the first of her kind. (Dun-dun-dun!) And in this corner, ladies and gentlemen, meet Grandpapadama! As Adm. Bill Adama once told us, his father, Joseph, was a great attorney of his day, fighting for the civil rights of the Twelve Colonies' downtrodden and marginalized. But that's not his whole story: Joseph Adama's wife and daughter were also killed in that same suicide bombing that took Zoe Graystone's life. The two fathers, Daniel Graystone and Joseph Adama, work together on replicating their children in cyborg form, but "Joseph is ethically appalled by the robot version of his dead [daughter], Tamara, and repents his actions." Those Adamas are all hardass conscience, aren't they?

Revelations

• According to Mark Stern, Sci Fi Channel's executive vice president of original programming, the two-hour pilot episode concludes with an explanation for how the name "Cylon" was coined. He couldn't remember everything, but said "Cybernetic, something, organism". According to Bradley Thompson, a character coins the term, explaining that it is, "A cybernetic life-form node, a Cylon." However, as "Caprica" has yet to go into production, there is as yet no "official" definition.