After months of dithering, the Sci Fi Channel has finally determined that Caprica will be added to their schedule in 2010. The announcement, made today, is that the series has a twenty episode order – including the two-hour pilot. The series, which a prequel to Sci Fi’s signature series, Battlestar Galactica, stars Eric Stoltz [Milk, Pulp Fiction], Esai Morales [Jericho, NYPD Blue], Paula Malcomson [Deadwood, ER] and Polly walker [Rome].

The series is set fifty years prior to Galactica and is centered around two rival families, the Adamas and the Greystones. In a society seemingly close to our own [except with space travel between the Twelve Colonies], these families will play significant roles as artificial intelligence is first created, then combined with metal bodies. Caprica will have a broader scope than Galactica, as all the best subjects of classic soap opera [passion, intrigue, political backbiting and family conflict] will be mixed with the show’s science fictional elements [Dallas with Cylons instead of oil?]. Jeffrey Reiner directed the pilot and the series goes into production in summer ’09, in Vancouver, B.C., Canada, for its 2010 debut.

As the series begins, a startling development is about to occur – the creation of the first cybernetic life-form node or “Cylon” – the ability to marry artificial intelligence with mechanical bodies. Joseph Adama (Esai Morales, pictured above]), father of future Battlestar commander William Adama (Sina Najafi) and a renowned civil liberties lawyer, becomes an opponent of the experiments undertaken by the Graystones, led by Daniel Greystone (Eric Stoltz, pictured above]), owners of a large computer corporation that is spearheading the development of these living robots: the Cylons.

Caprica is produced by Universal Cable Productions and executive produced by Ronald D. Moore and David Eick (Battlestar Galactica) and Remi Aubuchon (24). It is co-written by Aubuchon and Moore and directed by Jeffrey Reiner (Friday Night Lights).