I am – Hercules!!


The “Battlestar Galactica” prequel series is a go!

The "Caprica" pilot, set 50 years before the events of "Battlestar Galactica," was shot a few months ago -- and word had it that SciFi was waiting to see how the first January episodes of "Galactica" did in the ratings before the channel would consider taking "Caprica" to series.

The series, which deals with the "invention" of the Cylons, is set to shoot next summer and air in 2010.

For those unfamiliar, a rundown the series' main characters (BEWARE SPOILERS):

* DANIEL GRAYSTONE (Eric Stoltz) is literally the father of the Cylons, a fortysomething “spectacularly wealthy” computer designer.

* ZOE GRAYSTONE (Alessandra Toreson), Daniel’s hot 16-year-old daughter, dies in a suicide bombing. Daniel learns that Zoe – like iconic “Twin Peaks” dead teenager Laura Palmer – had many secrets. For one thing she was a closeted monotheist! For another, she was even more of a technological genius than daddy Daniel, and succeeded in secretly uploading her personality and DNA into a holographic avatar. Daniel comes to combine the Zoe avatar with stolen technology to create the first Cylon, “a robotic version of his dead daughter.” Oo!

* JOSEPH ADAMS (Esai Morales), Bill Adama’s pop and Romo Lampkin’s future mentor, is a fortysomething Tauron native who long ago emigrated to Caprica and overcame anti-Tauron prejudice to become an influential defense attorney on the capital planet. Joseph’s wife and daughter (Bill’s mother and sister) die in the same blast that killed Zoe Graystone. Joseph Adams and Daniel Graystone, despite their very different backgrounds, are bonded by the tragedy. Adams, who still has “powerful ties to the Tauron crime underworld” helps Greystone create the first Cylon by stealing cutting-edge robotic technology from a Tauron computer developer.

* TAMARA ADAMS (Genevieve Buechner), Joseph’s dead daughter, may also be resurrected as a robot, but Joseph – much like the dad in Stephen King’s “Pet Sematary” – comes to regret his role in the Cylonic creations.

* AMANDA GRAYSTONE (Paula Malcomson), Daniel’s thirtysomething wife, is a successful surgeon devastated by the loss of her beloved daughter Zoe.

* TOMAS VERGIS (Roger R. Cross) is Amanda Graystone’s Tauron ex-lover and one of her husband’s chief competitors. Following Zoe’s death, Amanda covertly returns to Vergis’ bed to learn more of the tech that might be used to resurrect her daughter.

* SISTER CLARICE WILLOW (Polly Walker) is another closeted monotheist and the headmistress of the Athena Academy, the polytheistic religious school Zoe attended. A product of colonial slums, the sister is presumably responsible for converting young Zoe into a monotheist.

* BEN STARK (Avan Jogiais) is Zoe’s unbalanced monotheist-fanatic boyfriend, the suicide bomber who kills, among many others, Zoe, Tamara, Bill Adama’s mom and himself in a horrific train bombing. He, too, secretly uploaded himself into a holographic avatar. But his can only be contacted by headmistress Willow.

* WILLIAM ADAMS, a dour 9-year-old introvert unaware of his Tauron heritage, is Joseph Adams’ sole surviving child. Like John Connor, he will prove humanity’s savior in a universe ruled by murderous robots.

A promo for the pilot movie is online here.

New "Galactica" webisodes, co-scripted by Jane Espenson, launch a week from Friday.

"Galactica" Actual begins its last 10 episodes on the SciFi Channel Jan. 16.

The new Cylon-centric prequel TV-movie "Battlestar Galactica: The Plan," directed by Edward James Olmos from a teleplay by Espenson, is expected to air sometime after the mother series airs its series finale March 20.

Read all of Variety’s’s story on the matter here!

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