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Much to the dismay of science fiction fans around the world, the critically acclaimed
Battlestar Galactica will be coming to an end in just a few months. The series returns with the first of its final 10 episodes on Friday, January 16, and will then wrap up on March 20. The series finished filming months ago, and as audiences wait to see what happens to their favorite characters, the actors are moving on to other projects. Some will be appearing in the upcoming
Battlestar Galactica TV movie entitled
The Plan, while others are plotting more earthbound career trajectories.
The show itself may be leaving the airwaves sooner than we'd like, but the
BSG universe will live on. The Sci Fi Channel has announced plans to turn the
Battlestar Galactica spin-off
Caprica into a series. The network will launch the new show in early 2010, starting with the two-hour pilot episode that was filmed earlier this year.
The Sci Fi Channel's official description of
Caprica reads: "Set 50 years before
Battlestar Galactica,
Caprica follows two rival families – the Graystones and the Adamas – as they grow, compete, and thrive in the vibrant world of the 12 Colonies, a society recognizably close to our own. Enmeshed in the burgeoning technology of artificial intelligence and robotics that will eventually lead to the creation of the Cylons, the two houses go toe-to-toe blending action with corporate conspiracy and sexual politics.
Caprica will deliver all of the passion, intrigue, political backbiting and family conflict in television's first science fiction family saga."
Battlestar Galactica has never been known for its stellar ratings, but Sci Fi Channel president Dave Howe thinks
Caprica will find a wider audience. "We want people to come to this who have never heard of
Battlestar Galactica," he told
Variety. "I think, because [
Galactica's] backdrop was space and spaceships, there was a barrier to entry for some viewers.
Caprica has none of that. It's an intense family drama set on an Earthlike planet, in the near future, speaking to a lot of the ethical dilemmas that we as a human race are going to have to face very shortly."
Mark Stern, executive vice president of programming for Sci Fi, added that
Caprica is "definitely not as dark as
Battlestar, but like that show, this series has smart, dimensional characters who grapple with issues of love, sex and politics from a world in transition."
Fans may balk at the thought of waiting until 2010 to see
Caprica, but Stern says the long wait will allow the network time to regroup important members of the
BSG writing staff, many of whom have gone on to other projects. While it may be a while before the spin-off launches,
Galactica addicts can look forward to the final 10 episodes of the original series, as well as
The Plan, which should air in the summer of 2009.
What are you most excited for?
- Don Williams, BuddyTV Staff Writer
Source: Variety
(Image courtesy of the Sci Fi Channel)