Jane Espenson

’Battlestar Galactica’ veterans move on to ’Caprica’

The "Battlestar Galactica" prequel "Caprica" will have some familiar names among the credits when it debuts next year on Sci Fi.

Jane Espenson, co-executive producer of “Battlestar Galactica,” will have that title on “Caprica” and will eventually become “Caprica’s” showrunner.

Fans of the Joss Whedon universe will likely know Espenson’s name. She’s written for Whedon shows such as “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” “Angel,” “Firefly” and she just completed a stint on the staff of his new show, “Dollhouse,” which debuts Feb. 13 on Fox. Espenson has also written for a wide variety of other comedies and dramas.

Caprica “Caprica” was created by Remi Aubuchon, a former writer for “24,” and Ronald D. Moore, “Battlestar’s” executive producer. The drama stars Eric Stoltz (“Milk”), Polly Walker ("Rome"), Paula Malcolmson ("Deadwood") and Esai Morales ("Jericho") in a complex tale of intrigue between the Adama and Greystone families. The show delves into the creation of the mechanized Cylon race that viewers got to know over "Battlestar’s" four seasons.

When asked to compare the two shows, Espenson said, "I think it will certainly be different, but it’s like a different garment made from the same fabric. The beating heart of it will be the same — complex moral situations, high stakes, compelling characters. Robots."

Moore said he’d be running the writers’ room when it first convenes in early February, but he added that at some point, he’d be handing over those day-to-day showrunner duties to Espenson, who will take on the title executive producer midway through the season.

A writer on the show for two seasons, Espenson also penned the “Battlestar Galactica” TV movie “The Plan,” which will air some time after the “Battlestar” series finale in March. And with Seamus Kevin Fahey, she wrote the well-recieved “Face of the Enemy” Webisodes, which debuted in December.

“She’s a great writer, and in the last season of ‘Galactica,’ I started handing over more and more responsibility to Jane on the production side and in post[-production],” Moore said. “‘The Plan’ was something that she wrote and executive-produced and saw all the way through. She was the showrunner on ‘The Plan,’ in essence. She did a great job and she stepped up and I have a tremendous amount of faith in her.”

"I’m so pleased to be given that [’Caprica’] responsibility. I ran the writers’ room for Tim Minear a little bit on [the 2005 Fox show] ’The Inside,’ and I really enjoyed it," Espenson said. (She talked about the Buffyverse vs. the ’Galactica’ universe in this recent Showtracker interview, by the way.)

Sci Fi ordered a total of 20 hours of “Caprica”: The two-hour pilot, which was directed last year by “Friday Night Lights” executive producer Jeffrey Reiner, and 18 episodic hours (two of those episodes have already been written).

“We start shooting in July,” Moore said. “We want to get a bunch of scripts written ahead of the game and really be in good shape by the time we start shooting.”

Espenson said that "Battlestar" writers Michael Taylor and Ryan Mottesheard would also be joining the "Caprica" staff. On Jan. 16, the day "Battlestar" returned with the first of its final 10 episodes, Galactica Sitrep reported that "Battlestar’s" composer, Bear McCreary, as well as its production designer, Richard Hudolin, and special effects supervisor, Gary Hutzel, would also be working on "Caprica."

“Caprica” is set 50 years before the events depicted in “Battlestar Galactica,” and it follows “two rival families – the Graystones and the Adamas – as they grow, compete, and thrive in the vibrant world of the 12 Colonies, a society recognizably close to our own,” a December Sci Fi press release said. “Enmeshed in the burgeoning technology of artificial intelligence and robotics that will eventually lead to the creation of the Cylons, the two houses go toe-to-toe blending action with corporate conspiracy and sexual politics."