Following the success of the Battlestar Galactica prequel Caprica, Syfy have given the green light to another spin off TV series, this one dealing with the young William Adama in his time during the first Cylon War.
At the end of July this year the Chicago Tribune broke the news that Blood and Chrome was on way as an ‘online’ series with ten episodes scheduled, this has now been updated to a two hour TV pilot.
They have Caprica co-exec, and the man who wrote the teleplay for the greenlit pilot, Michael Taylor giving this explanation of the series,
Blood & Chrome is about a young man’s initiation into war: both the realities of war as fought by soldiers on the ground (and in Battlestars and Vipers), and the somewhat less real version portrayed in the media.
He mentions The Hurt Locker and Restrepo as influences for the series, so we can expect something a little different in tone to the spacebound battles of previous series. They also mention the special effects which were to be used to bring the Cylon war to life, including the fact that before the Battlestar Galactica sets were dismantled they were scanned and are stored, waiting to be used again for this series. 3D is mentioned also, and it could be that this is the first TV series which will be enhanced on those fancy 3DTVs which are making their way into people’s homes.
Deadline have the press release which I’ve cloned below,
Battlestar Galactica: Blood & Chrome takes place in the 10th year of the first Cylon war. As the battle between humans and their creation, a sentient robotic race, rages across the 12 colonial worlds, a brash rookie viper pilot enters the fray. Ensign William Adama, barely in his 20’s and a recent Academy graduate, finds himself assigned to the newest battlestar in the Colonial fleet… the Galactica. The talented but hot-headed risk-taker soon finds himself leading a dangerous top secret mission that, if successful, will turn the tide of the decade long war in favor of the desperate fleet. “The ‘Galactica’ universe as re-imagined by Ron Moore and David Eick is rich with possibilities and backstory,” said SyFy’s Mark Stern. “We jumped at the chance to revisit the William Adama character and explore this exciting chapter in the BSG narrative which falls between the events of the original series and the prequel, ‘Caprica,’ currently airing on Syfy.”
“While maintaining the themes of politics, social propaganda, and the timeless question: what does it mean to be human? – ‘Blood & Chrome’ will also return us to the authentic, relentless depiction of combat and the agony and ecstasy of human-Cylon war, which was the hallmark of ‘Battlestar Galactica’s’ early seasons,” said Eick. Michael Taylor wrote the teleplay from a story by Eick, Taylor and Bradley Thompson & David Weddle.
