The U.S.-based Sci Fi Channel has announced it will create a prequel to Battlestar Galactica, the science fiction series about to enter its fourth and final season.

The two-hour pilot for the production, called Caprica, is expected to be shot in Vancouver this spring with shooting for the series to follow.

Nico Cortez plays Young Adama in a scene in a Battlestar Galactica: Razor minisode, created as a teaser for the final season of the TV series.
(Sci Fi/Associated Press)

The Caprica story is set 50 years before the Cylons annihilated the 12 Colonies of Kobol and will follow the stories of two rival families.

"It's an amazing script and, though clearly inspired by the Battlestar mythology, it is not just a pale spinoff," Mark Stern, vice-president of programming for Sci Fi network, said Tuesday after announcing the green light for the series.

"This is a smart, thought-provoking, emotional and compelling character drama in its own right," he said.

The idea for Caprica came from Ronald D. Moore and David Eick, who also created Battlestar Galactica.

The current Canadian-made series is a reimagining of the original 1978 series.

The critically acclaimed Battlestar Galactica, begun in 2004, tackled such contemporary issues as genocide, biological warfare and food-supply shortages.

It won the 2006 George Foster Peabody Award and the American Film Institute's award for outstanding program in 2005 and 2006.

For the past three years, viewers have watched the last survivors of the human race confront themselves and their robot pursuers.

The series was planned with a story arc that lasted just four seasons, so the season beginning in April is the end of the story. The final season was set to begin February but postponed because of the screenwriters' strike until April.