SyFy's Mark Stern: Caprica isn't going anywhere

SyFy exec Mark Stern has addressed the rumours about the show's future being uncertain in an interview with Airlock Alpha yesterday. He talked about the ratings, the show's pace, James Marsters' character, and SyFy's plans to use Caprica as a launch point for a new series after the mid-season break among other things. For the complete article, head over to Airlock Alpha.

Snippets: 

"We're definitely with 'Caprica' for the long haul," Syfy's EVP of original programming Mark Stern told Airlock Alpha Thursday. "There's no question about it. We knew exactly what it was not going to be, that is an easily adopted show. It's not 'Battlestar Galactica,' it's its own animal. And we definitely recognize that it's going to find its audience and it's going to grow its audience." (...)

Syfy just received the first batch of numbers this week for "Caprica" tracking viewers who recorded the second episode of the series and watched it within a week, known as Live+7. Those numbers were better than the network anticipated, Stern said, and actually propelled "Caprica" into the top 10 for cable that night.

"We're certainly not sharpening the axe by any stretch of the imagination," Stern said. "We all really believe in the show, and it has a lot of potential." (...)

The audience does have to grow, but Syfy doesn't have immediate plans to boost its marketing of "Caprica." The network does believe, however, that the series will start to sell itself beginning March 5 when "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Torchwood" alum James Marsters joins the cast as Barnabus Greeley.

"That suddenly throws that whole dynamic with Clarice in a whole new light and gives her a foil to play against," Stern said of the character played by Polly Walker that is the head of a monotheistic terror cell while at the same time running a private school. (...)

"The pace picks up," Stern said. "It was something we were talking with [executive producer Jane Espenson] and those guys about. It's not really mid-season switch, but more something we decided to do as we were getting on with the show and realizing that we need to amp this up a little more and tighten up the plotting."

That won't necessarily mean gun fights, but it could feature at least one Viper battle. Well, we're not sure if it's a "battle," but there will be Vipers. And very soon.

"There is actually a Viper sequence in the show that is coming up in the next couple of episodes," Stern said. "This isn't the kind of show where everyone is going to jump into Vipers and fight the Cylon base ship, but we are going to get out more. We're going to go to Gemenon. We're going to go to Tauron. But I think these guys [the writing staff] are basically taking their time and making sure what they do is organic."