The SCI FI Channel announced yesterday its plans to develop a spinoff prequel to their current hit show Battlestar Galactica. The spinoff, titled Caprica, will be set over 50 years previous to Galactica’s events and will center around two families, the Graystones and the Adamas (the family of future “Galactica” commander William Adama).

In Caprica, high-technology has bettered the lives of the peaceful society of the Twelve Colonies, which is on the verge of a major breakthrough in robotics that would mate artificial intelligence with a mechanical body to create the first living robot — a Cylon.

Writer Remi Aubuchon (24) is attached to pen the pilot for the spinoff, which the network is hailing as television’s first science fiction family saga. Galactica executive producers Ronald D. Moore and David Eick are also on board for the prequel. No word yet on when production is scheduled to begin.