Beware of SPOILERS for Caprica in this review!

The Battlestar Galactica prequel series has been given a green light, and premieres in 2010 on the SCI FI Channel. In the meantime, the studio has released the pilot movie on DVD for eager fan consumption. And it’s a damn good idea.

The pilot sat with SCI FI for quite a while before they committed to the series, and that doesn’t come as a big surprise. Caprica is dramatically different. … Dramatically, get it? No? Unlike its predecessor (or anything else on the network), the series falls squarely into the “family drama” genre. The show is about people, not space ships — love, not time travel.

Oh, and robots. Killer robots with human minds.

Caprica is not only a fascinating story and a fine set-up for an on-going series, it makes for a compelling stand-alone science fiction film. Set 58 years before the fall of the Twelve Colonies, it’s the story of two families on the planet Caprica — a world very much like our own, with kids who don’t want to go to school and lawyers in the pocket of the Mafia.

In this case, though, that lawyer is Joseph Adama — father of Battlestar hero William Adama. He’s played by the excellent Esai Morales, who fans may recognize as Major Beck in the second season of Jericho.

After a terrorist bomb leaves Joe “Adams” and his young son Willy (… yep) mourning Joe’s wife and daughter, he meets Daniel Graystone — a wealthy technocrat who also lost his daughter Zoe in the explosion. Graystone’s company is developing the first Cylon as a combat tool for the military. He soon discovers that his daughter left behind a virtual copy of herself — just the sort of cutting-edge technology he needs to make his creation work.

The burgeoning relationship between Joseph and Daniel is interesting, but Zoe and her virtual alter ego make for Caprica‘s most compelling (and most science fiction) story. Tied up with this is a religious theme (Zoe and her friends are monotheists, identified with the terrorist group behind the bombing) which should add interesting questions of loyalties in the TV series.

I didn’t care much for the character of Amanda Graystone, who doesn’t get to do much more in the pilot than be a mean mom to a rebellious teenager. But her connection to the grieving process and one of the show’s leads is obvious, so here’s hoping the writers do more interesting things with her than have her bitch-slapping teenage girls. Although that could be entertaining in its own right.

Caprica also slips in a number of supporting characters who could make the TV series as interesting as folks like Felix Gaeta, Ellen Tigh, and Sam Anders made Battlestar. Zoe’s best friend Lacy is a bit flat in the movie (she serves the story need of introducing Daddy to Zoe’s secret world), but is certainly not lacking in potential of her own. More interesting is Brian Markinson’s character, a detective who is investigating the bombing and Zoe’s connection to it; and Sister Clarice, a nun and the head of the private school where the kids attend. She has some secrets of her own, and that’s one reason I’m looking forward to an on-going series.

The DVD release of Caprica includes a small but appropriate amount of bonus features, including some interesting deleted scenes which could throw even more light on the TV series. An audio commentary track is also available, as well as a behind-the-scenes featurette.

Here’s hoping that the television series can live up to the fine standard set by the film (with less frontal nudity for broadcast, presumably). Caprica is a good concept, one that just happens to be set in the familiar universe of Battlestar Galactica. It actually doesn’t need to be — the Cylons could be any old robots who will inevitably gain sentience and turn on their creators. It doesn’t matter that one of the leads is named Adama. What matters is the people, their motivations, and their (sometimes twisted) relationships with one another. It’s a fine film and a definite buy for genre fans, and hopefully it will do what its creators are hoping for — draw a whole new audience to the show, the network, and the very human stories that science fiction can tell.

MOVIE: A-
BONUS FEATURES: B+
TOTAL PACKAGE: A-