NEW YORK – Where will Battlestar Galactica fans get their heavy dose of sci-fi after the show ends?

In Caprica, if Mark Stern has his way. The BSG prequel (the pilot's in the works) will follow Galactica's successful template, tackling weighty issues through science fiction's speculative lens, according to Stern, executive vice president of original programming for Sci Fi Channel.

Stern (pictured, right) was the odd man out Saturday at the* Galactica* panel at New York Comic Con – as if anyone could compete with the other panelists: actors Michael Hogan (who plays Col. Saul Tigh), Rekha Sharma (Tory Foster) and Michael Trucco (Sam Anders).

After the panel discussion, Wired.com spoke to Stern about the science of Battlestar Galactica and the freedom science fiction offers creative types. Stern also dropped some compelling hints about the future of the Galactica franchise and the pilot for another upcoming Sci Fi show, Revolution.

Wired: Battlestar Galactica has been called "science fiction without the science." Do you agree?

Stern: Really? I think the show is science. It's more science than fiction, actually. It's not about transporters and laser beams. The emphasis is so much on being in our world; not having aliens, shooting real bullets, things like that. The science of Battlestar Galactica is our science. Probably the only thing we take liberties with is jumping.

Wired: The FTL?

Stern: Exactly, and that's just because you have to! [Laughs] If you don't, you'll be sitting there a very long time until you get somewhere. But that's the only license I can think of that they really take. Everything else you can see actually being in our world.

Wired: So it's fiction, with science.

Stern: Science fiction is a mass genre. It's not just geeks. The challenge is how do you get past that barrier to entry. "Battlestar Galactica on the Sci Fi Channel" – you can't get worse than that at shunning people away. [Laughs] But if you can get them past that threshold, you've got 'em. And overcoming that's been a big push for us.

Wired: What are you allowed to do on a science-fiction platform that you couldn't get away with if the story were set here on Earth?

__Stern: __Well, we have Cylons! But the great thing about the genre is that it allows you to talk about issues that would be too polarizing if you really were talking about, say, the occupation of Iraq and the torture of prisoners at Guantanamo. First of all, I don't want to watch *that *show, cause I'm watching it on the news every day, and it's too close to us. It doesn't allow you to speak allegorically and explore things that resonate with you the way *Galactica *does. So the fact that you're dealing with a speculative fantastical premise about robots that look like us that attack and destroy, that allows you into other great themes because in the back of your mind you can say, "Yes, but that's not us. That's them."

Wired: What about the future of Galactica?

Stern: The show is its own entity. That's why I respect [BSG executive producers] Ron [Moore] and David [Eick]'s decision to end it, because there's nothing worse than to suck it dry and have it limp along after you've done the best of the best.

But it has given us the courage to say, "OK, but let's find another show that does take on the more serious issues of science fiction" and does do all the things we just talked about, but in its own way. And what's interesting about *Caprica *is that it does that. We have high hopes for Caprica.

We're doing the a pilot right now called Revolution,? which is an allegory for the American Revolution, that has its own opportunities for character and depth and discussion. It's about finding things that are worthy successors, not just rip-offs.

? Correction: Revolution is a separate allegorical show about the American Revolution that is currently in the works at Sci Fi. Caprica is about the creation and revolt of the Cylons. Wired.com regrets the error.

Photos: Patrick Di Justo/Wired.com

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