Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Depth

via Sci Fi Wire:

Caprica As Deep As Battlestar

Ronald D. Moore, co-creator of SCI FI Channel's upcoming backdoor pilot film Caprica, told SCI FI Wire that the Battlestar Galactica prequel will foreshadow events in that series while dealing with some of the same weighty issues.

"It's something that Adama [Edward James Olmos] said in the [Battlestar] miniseries, you know: 'You don't play god and then get to walk away from what you created,'" Moore said in an interview at the Television Critics Association summer press tour in Beverly Hills, Calif., on July 20. "And that's really the story of Caprica. We're going to watch them create this [Cylon race], and then wrestle with the ramifications of it. They're not even going to realize what they've created at first."

Though the show will be relatively planet-bound and take place in an urban reality not unlike our own, Moore said the SF-tinged story will nevertheless enable him to tackle serious issues in the same way as Battlestar.

"Well, we're still going to be dealing with things that are similar, in that there are still going to be issues of terrorism and security and how society should protect itself or not protect itself," Moore said. "You know, what is the line between civil liberties and protection of the homeland? We're still going to be dealing with a lot of those things, because they're going to be spiraling out of certain events that happen in the pilot. And, you know, but you're also dealing with ethical responsibilities. You're also dealing with things like, you know, what is a person? What does it mean to be a sentient being? Does that being have rights? What are you allowed to do to something that you've created out in a laboratory? ... Does it have a soul?"

A decision on when and how the TV movie will air is due later this year.