Much has been made of the "Age of IP," where a good majority of film and television projects are either adaptations of or reboots of existing material. And while there are legit concerns — not everything will successfully translate to the modern day, and the market needs genuinely original content to thrive — not every reboot is a bad thing. Case in point: Ronald D. Moore's 2003 reboot of Battlestar Galactica.
The show received critical praise for its blend of politics and science fiction and was a major building block in the SYFY channel (back when it was called the Sci-Fi channel.) Even the polarizing finale didn't dull Galactica's impact as it inspired a number of television movies and even a prequel set in the same universe. But said prequel series, Caprica, wasn't as fortunate as its predecessor.
The Origin of 'Caprica' and Its Connections to 'BSG'
Caprica takes place nearly 60 years before the events of Battlestar Galactica, and is set on the titular planet, which is one of the Twelve Colonies of Kobol. Mankind has achieved peace at last, but that peace is threatened by the cult known as the Soldiers of the One. The Soldiers reject Kobol's polytheism, instead choosing to embrace one singular god, and to that end, they carry out a series of terrorist attacks including the bombing of a mag-lev train. Engineer Daniel Greystone (Eric Stoltz) loses his daughter Zoe (Alessandra Torresani) in the bombing, and in an attempt to resurrect her uploads a digital version of her memories into a prototype machine dubbed the "Cylon."
As many Galactica fans know, the Cylons are the race of machines that ultimately rose up against mankind and forced them to flee when they attacked the Twelve Colonies. But that wasn't the only connection to Galactica, as Caprica also follows the Adama family — particularly Joseph Adama (Esai Morales), who is the father of Galactica protagonist William "Bill" Adama (Edward James Olmos). In the same way that Adama is forced to make morally gray choices to keep humanity alive in Galactica, his extended family has its own shades of gray: Joseph's brother Sam (Sasha Roiz) is a member of the Tauron Ha'la'tha crime syndicate, which Daniel uses to leverage the creation of the first Cylon.
Scheduling and Rating Woes Eventually Led to 'Caprica's Cancellation
While most prequels to longstanding film/TV franchises are often received with scorn, Caprica had nothing but solid reviews throughout its run. Where the problems began was with the scheduling. SYFY chose to air Caprica on Fridays — which is often referred to as a "death slot" in television. Friday and Saturday are usually considered to be the worst time to schedule a television show, as many viewers often choose to hit the town rather than turn on the TV. Despite this, Caprica managed to have solid ratings for the first half of its run.
When the series returned from its midseason hiatus, however, viewership numbers started to drop and SYFY eventually ended up canceling the series as a result. In perhaps the most baffling decision, the final five episodes weren't even aired on television — at least, not American television. Space, the Canadian equivalent of SYFY, would air the final Caprica episodes before they finally aired on SYFY... one whole year after the series was cancelled.
'Caprica' Was Never Sure What It Wanted to Be
There's another factor that may have contributed to the declining ratings: the show was never quite sure if it wanted to be a sci-fi drama or a gritty crime epic. Most of the series features backstabbing after backstabbing, as Daniel and Joseph do terrible things in order to maintain their status. Even though this type of dramatic storytelling would become commonplace with shows like Breaking Bad and Game of Thrones, the betrayals came fast and furious and never really gave the audience a chance to figure out who they should be following. It didn't help that the Adamas' struggles were far more interesting than the Greystones, and the latter family was supposed to be the protagonists!
The religious overtones didn't help, either. This is a problem that Caprica shared with its predecessor, as Galactica's mythology grew too convoluted and ridiculous for what was supposed to be a gritty sci-fi political series. And given that Galactica's polarizing finale was still fresh in some fans' minds, the decision of Caprica's showrunners to double down on those elements may have turned them away from the series. Case in point: Zoe literally declares herself to be God after taking control of the virtual realm where she spent most of her time. That might have been the straw that broke the Cylon's back.
The Future of the 'Battlestar Galactica' Franchise
Despite its hiccups, Caprica had legitimate potential. The cast — particularly Morales and Roiz — gave their all in every performance. The look at society before its imminent collapse was an interesting thought experiment, and unlike most prequels, the answer to the questions that ran throughout Galactica was mostly satisfactory. Perhaps Caprica would have fared better in today's TV landscape; the advent of "peak television" would have made it feel right at home alongside Star Trek: Discovery and The Mandalorian.
In the years following Caprica's cancellation, the cast has popped up in other genre fare. Morales, in particular, has starred as the malevolent mercenary Deathstroke in Titans and will menace Tom Cruise in both parts of Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning. Battlestar Galactica is also set to live once again as both a feature film and television reboot are being developed by Simon Kinberg and Sam Esmail, respectively. Should either of those projects take off, it could potentially lead to a reappraisal — or even a reboot of Caprica at some point. As the famous saying from Battlestar Galactica goes: "All of this has happened before. All of this will happen again."