(S01E03) Now begins the reign of mistrust. With the characters generally established, as well as their relationships to one another, it's time for the show to start sowing the seeds of conflict, and they get right down to it. The first thing they do is establish the Adams Adamas as even more brutish than I anticipated. The hats, coats and the whole 1950s gangster look should have been a tip-off, it appears.

Add to that the difficulties the Graystone's are dealing with now that Amanda has blurted out to all the twelve colonies that their daughter Zoe was a terrorist, and responsible for the train bombing that killed her, her boyfriend Ben and Joseph Adama's wife and daughter, among many other people. The unfair thing to Zoe is that while we know better, how can anything different be proven?

It's becoming clearer why old 'Battlestar Galactica's' Bill Adama is such a hard-ass. Hell, as hard as he was on that show, I'm not sure he holds a candle to the diamond-hardness of Joseph's heart. First, he vents his frustration about Graystone's involvement in his daughter Tamara's death by having his brother kick his ass in an alley, and then he demands to be reunited with her in the dark room Daniel created before he lost Zoe in the beta-Cylon.

Because Zoe is lost to him -- or so he thinks -- he tells Adama he can't recreate his wife. But Tamara was there, at least until Zoe and Lacy found her and, thinking she was completely fictitious, set her free into the V-Club. It should be incredibly interesting to see what becomes of poor, confused Tammy in this virtual world of hedonism and sin. She seems like such a good girl.

Daniel, on the other hand, is headed down a desperate path that appears to be leading to the near-annihilation of the human race, with Zoe as the first Cylon. But first, he's facing the near-annihilation of his company, which is why he reluctantly and ultimately agrees to go on Patton Oswalt's show, which the dialogue implies is the Caprican equivalent to 'The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.'

As for Zoe, she managed to find a way back into that virtual world, away from her Cylon body, just a bit too late. Her deadpan comment about seeing "things" while in that robot body was simply brilliant. As was the body fidgeting to try and not watch its parents getting freaky on the basement floor.

Tensions were pretty high between Lacy and Sister Clarice Willow as well. It's hard to tell at this point at what level Clarice was involved in the terrorist bombing aspect of the monotheistic movement, but she's still creepy as hell. It was weird how Lacy kept asking for one more item for her tea, and then didn't drink it at all; it must have been the writer's way of showing us how incredibly uncomfortable she was to be so near the Sister.

I'm a little disappointed that Joseph Adama has so quickly gone from a sympathetic victim, albeit with a hard side, to an outright villain. I know he was a tough man, based on the back story we got in the earlier/later 'BSG' series, but I didn't expect him to be such a cold bastard. That said, it's also pretty unlikely he'll go through with the hit on Mrs. Graystone, just to even things up.

It may just be that we're seeing what a hard man he's been, and a lot of that has to do with the rampant racism in the Colonies, and the way Taurons are treated in the elitist Caprican society. That way we can appreciate his growth into a more decent human being. As for his brother, Sam, that guy's just a dick.

I do appreciate how casually alternate marriages and lifestyles have been depicted so far. For all their racism and religious fanaticism, these people are incredibly tolerant of various forms of sexuality. Those little details help to not only establish this as a world different from our own, but they are the building blocks that make this reality look, feel and smell as real as our own; in some ways better, and in some ways far worse.

The pacing, the drama, and that attention to detail make 'Caprica' unlike almost any sci-fi show on television, even 'BSG.' More than any of those action-romps, 'Caprica' looks and feels like a prize-winning science fiction novel, and that's a tremendous achievement indeed. I'm not sure if it will help it find a wide enough audience to succeed, but as a fan of quality science fiction writing, I am very quickly falling for this world... 58 years before it falls.

[Catch up on your "reading" with clips and full episodes of 'Caprica' on SlashControl.]