The New Adventures on Old Caprica

Battlestar Galactica has barely been off the air for a month, but the time has come already to sample the next chapter, spin-off series Caprica. Though it isn't set to debut on television until 2010, the 90-minute pilot episode was released on DVD today. And I wasted no time picking it up and giving it a look.

I'll say right off, this premiere did not leave me thrilled in the way the Battlestar Galactica mini-series did. That original mini-series immediately struck me as one of the best things I'd seen on television in a long time, and it was a long one-year wait for a full season to begin. Caprica can't manage to clear a bar set so high.

That said, it is quite good. Set 58 years "before the fall," Caprica is a very different show in terms of subject matter. It's not about the military, nor about space travel. It's the story of a brilliant computer scientist who, in the wake of a horrible personal tragedy, is driven to a major breakthrough in his field. But to realize his new vision, he must enlist the help of another man who suffered a similar loss, a lawyer with ties to corrupt and criminal elements.

The story and setting has a lot to say about morality, terrorism, and racism. All dark subject matter, as you'd expect from a show in any way associated with the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica. While this premiere didn't pack quite the emotional punch of its predecessor, it did have many strongly dramatic elements, and all the pieces for something great seemed to be there. And it certainly promises to raise a lot of intellectual questions even if when it falls short of Galactica's emotional heights.

The acting is strong, particularly Eric Stoltz's obsessed cyberneticist, and Paula Malcomson as his wife. Visual effects are used perhaps more sparingly than in Battlestar Galactica, but when they appear they are equally impressive. Bear McCreary is back with another outstanding score that actually manages to very briefly reference one of his major Galactica motifs in an appropriate moment. And sets, camera work, and so forth... all fantastic.

I've read that a full season of 20 episodes (two of them being this movie, minus some nudity and particularly graphic violence reserved just for the DVD version) has been committed to, so we will get to chance to see if Caprica can expand on the promise of this beginning. I certainly plan to be there.