Battlestarless Caprica

After the amazing high that Battlestar Galactica ended on, it might have been considered foolish to try and compete with yourself by producing a spin off series. Just look at Star Trek: The Next Generation; it had varying levels of sucess, from the worthy Deep Space Nine to the miserable Voyager.

However, coming from the genius mind of Ronald D Moore, the pilot episode of Caprica demonstrates we had nothing to worry about. It's every bit as smart, compelling, facinating and well-made as BSG. Be warned though, this is not the military action-drama that BSG was. The spaceship aspect is downplayed to present a contemporary world (save for a few sci-fi gizmos) that feels like our modern day Earth and also part of BSG's past (people say frak, spend cubits, travel to Geminon etc).

It's the writing that excells charting the intersection of two families, the Greystones (soon-to-be inventors of the Cylons)and the Adamas (a lawyer, and his son William). It explores themes of religion, terrorism, racism, psychology, philosophy and morality to a degree that most other TV shows can't. Even in this pilot, there more potential to examine the human psyche than the whole season of Dollhouse has done so far. And more compelling too.

I'm very glad this is getting made into a series. However, it's lack of action may cause its financial backers to turn on it, real quick. We'll see...