It’s always challenging to follow up on a cult hit, and within the world of television, there is more pressure than ever. This can result in many great shows expanding their world, but audiences are not always connecting. While there are recent examples of this, like Dexter: Original Sin, there was a hit sci-fi series that struggled in a similar way. Battlestar Galactica’s reboot series became a titan of television, and when it had the chance to grow with a prequel series, Caprica, things didn’t go as planned.
Caprica clearly struggled with pressure to live up to an all-time great, and audiences simply weren’t along for the ride. Perhaps with the benefit of hindsight, there is much to love and appreciate about the science fiction prequel series, and critics at the time were keen to heap praise upon its potential. However, considering how expansive the franchise it is linked to truly is, it’s surprising that Caprica wasn’t given more of a chance by audiences.
Caprica Was Set Up as an Ambitious Prequel
Cylong # Six, known generally as the Caprica model in Battlestar Galactica
Image via Universal
Back in January of 2010, the Syfy network introduced Caprica to their line-up. It was an ambitious new series, focused on the titular planet, before the destruction of the Twelve Colonies of Kobol. The show was an introspective character piece largely focused on the struggles of two families: the Graystones and the Adamas. The series leaned into conflicts centered on artificial intelligence, with deep personal ties to the technological breakthroughs happening in the field. With deceased family members haunting the living and a determination to restore some essence of life, the show goes down some dark paths.
While Battlestar Galactica might go through extensive tonal shifts throughout its course, Caprica is a much more murky and intense affair. The show asks big questions from the get-go, but doesn’t shy away from its grittier aspects. It’s still high sci-fi in the same sense as its predecessor, but there is a grounded quality to the universe’s portrayal during this time period that sets the show on quite a different course. It seems that Caprica is determined to be different and, in that sense, it excels, tackling topics that are fundamental to Battlestar Galactica but in a way that the show never could.
Perhaps it would be unfair to say Caprica is less ambitious, because emotionally, it doesn’t pull its punches. But it doesn’t have the large-scale feel of Battlestar Galactica, nor does it have the sizable fan base backing it up. The show only ran for a single season, across a total of 19 episodes. During that time, the ratings never truly recovered from its underwhelming debut, and it’s fair to say executives were disappointed by its performance. Caprica didn’t quite find its audience, but that’s perhaps because it was living in the shadow of a franchise too big for this smaller spinoff.
Battlestar Galactica Was Simply Too Big to Follow-Up
Cast photo for the Battlestar Galactica TV show
Image via Universal
If Battlestar Galactica was the Star Wars of its time, then Caprica was its Andor. It was a niche affair, with strong casting, gorgeous scripts, and a talented crew ensuring that the budget and timeline worked as best as it could for the production. But it also didn’t have that same mainstream appeal as the much more famous show did. Battlestar Galactica, as a name, carries some weight. Caprica, on the other hand, which was promoted as somewhat of a fresh start, couldn’t quite match that energy and nor did it get a boost via association. The title alone doesn’t make use of the famous brand in the same way as Battlestar Galactica: Blood & Chrome, for instance.
The show raises further questions about the power of sci-fi prequels in general. Famously, the science fiction genre doesn’t always thrive in the prequel format. Perhaps that’s because the genre is so reliant on the unknown, that by setting a series prior to known events, it perhaps takes away an element of that vast mystery. On the big screen, this has been seen in the likes of the Alien franchise, and again here, Caprica represents an attempt to offer an alternative look at a universe fans are familiar with; one so different that some may not quite recognize the connections.
Caprica is one of those odd examples of a show that could have achieved more. It picked up some nominations at award ceremonies like the Emmys and maintains its respectable rating on Rotten Tomatoes. But it’s certainly not a show that is even mentioned in the same breath as Battlestar Galactica when talking about the show’s pop-cultural impact. Simply put, it doesn’t really have any. The weight of Battlestar Galactica was too much for Caprica to thrive, but it’s certainly worth a revisit for those who missed it the first time around or who want an intriguing introduction into the Battlestar Galactica universe, before embarking on the bigger arcs.
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Release Date
2010 – 2009
Network
SyFy