Galactica PREQUEL announced

Seen on the SCI-FI WIRE, the newsfeed of the SF Channel:

SCI FI Announces Caprica

NEW YORK—SCI FI Channel announced the development of Caprica, a spinoff prequel of its hit Battlestar Galactica, in presentations to advertisers in New York on April 26. Caprica would come from Galactica executive producers Ronald D. Moore and David Eick, writer Remi Aubuchon (24) and NBC Universal Television Studio.

Caprica would take place more than half a century before the events that play out in Battlestar Galactica. The people of the Twelve Colonies are at peace and living in a society not unlike our own, but where high technology has changed the lives of virtually everyone for the better.

But a startling breakthrough in robotics is about to occur, one that will bring to life the age-old dream of marrying artificial intelligence with a mechanical body to create the first living robot: a Cylon. Following the lives of two families, the Graystones and the Adamas (the family of William Adama, who will one day become the commander of the Battlestar Galactica), Caprica will weave together corporate intrigue, techno-action and sexual politics into television's first science fiction family saga, the channel announced.

As longterm readers of this blog know (and I know there are a couple of you out there), I consider the re-imagined BATTLESTAR GALACTICA to be one of the better shows on television. The writing and direction is just that danged good... so I should be greeting this news with some eagerness. After all, it's a reasonably safe bet that with Ronald Moore and David Eick on board, it will be not just a good show but a great show-- and the writing talent is nothing to sneeze at either. However, I have to wonder about focus and resources. From what I've heard, the reason that Galactica seasons are so short is because Moore is constantly having trouble staying within the realm of the budget. Just making Galactica seems to be a huge drain on energy and resources (I'm inferring this from his video blog and podcasts). How will he bear up with two shows? Galactica is a very young show that should have no problems finding more viewers outside the SF geek niche (yes, it's good enough). Caprica sounds like a winner, but I have to wonder if the child will devour the parent, as it were.

With all that said, I would like to see Caprica...