How To Gay It Up In Class, Sci-Fi Style

Or SyFy style… however the kids are spelling it these days.

A few weeks ago, the fiancé and I sat down to start watching the new SyFy show Caprica, which is a spin off of Battlestar Galactica. Battlestar is quite possibly one of the best science fiction shows to have graced cable TV, a show which explored the depths of human nature, what it means to be human, and what it means to fight for survival. Caprica is a prequel to Battlestar and explores the society that created the Cylons to begin with, and looks to be the story of how the Cylons came to be and what leads to their eventual rebellion. (If that didn't make sense to you, you need to go get the complete series of Battlestar on Amazon and start watching today!)

Caprica has been getting a luke warm reception from the Battlestar fans and mainly because so far we're seeing much less "action" than we did in Battlestar. In Battlestar, we saw explosions and drama and fights, but so far in Caprica we've only seen character exploration, some drama, a tiddley bit of fighting and one explosion. But what can you expect from the first few episodes of a series? This is the exposition, the start of the tale, the part of the story that needs to be drawn out so that later pieces make sense. Regardless of the reception though, SyFy is remaining publicly committed to the show, noting that they never expected huge ratings right off the bat and that they knew going in that the series would take some time to grow. This is great news, not just for fans of great science fiction, but also for fans of well-rounded characters and gay-inclusive shows.

One of the main characters in the show, Sam Adama (pictured right), is tough, strong and a bit of a strong arm. Oh, he's also in the mafia. Well, Caprica's version of the mafia: a group of Taurons, or people from the colony of Tauron (in the Battlestar lore, there are 13 colonies one different planets each named after a Greek God/Constellation). He's the go-to guy it seems, the guy that actually does things like roughing people up or potentially killing mob targets. In short, he's a force to be reckoned with. And he's gay.

I was supremely impressed with how they "revealed" this character to be gay. With the way we are programmed in our society, we often just assume a character is straight until told otherwise, so there had to be some sort of "reveal," but the way they handled this on Caprica just blew me away. Basically, there was no reveal. There was no big moment or conversation or argument, it was simply presented in a way that helped characterize the character and society as a world where sexuality is completely a non-issue.

What was the reveal? Sam was walking through Little Tauron with young William Adama (who is the commanding General throughout Battlestar Gallactica), introducing him to the Tauron culture that Will's father (the smoking hot Esai Morales of NYPD Blue fame pictured right) had been depriving him of, and Sam told Will that he and Joseph (Will's father) use to come to a market there when they were younger and Sam would try to pick up guys while Joseph would walk away with girl's phone numbers. That was it. Just a casual reference to their lives as kids with not a single moment of shock or having "the talk." It was brilliant.

Since that episode, we've seen Sam with his husband a couple of times and Sam has made mention of his husband in a few conversations and not a single issue has arisen in the show as a result of it. And it's not because people are afraid to say something to the gangster, it's because it's simply not a characteristic that would cause problems.

TV producers should be taking notes at this point as this is how you handle gay characters, particularly in Sci-Fi. The occasional "gay as victim of our cruel society" is appropriate because that still happens these days, but portraying every gay character as someone that has to face insurmountable societal pressures is getting a bit old. Not to mention that when I watch fantasy television about a future society (or previous society, depending on your take of Battlestar lore), I like to think that society will have progressed beyond many of the issues we still face today and that sexuality will have become a non-issue. Sex, on the other hand, will likely always cause issues, but sexual identity should not.

Bravo, SyFy! Your rebranded name still sucks, but this show is a great success in my eyes, both for presenting gay characters in a fantastic manner and for being a overall captivating story.