This past Tuesday, CinemaSpy and several media outlets were treated to a behind-the-scenes peak at several Syfy Channel properties, including Stargate Universe, Caprica, Sanctuary and Alice. (Yours truly also detoured mid-afternoon to get a little peak at the sets of Fringe, including Walter's lab and the Massive Dynamic offices...though for the time being I've been sworn to secrecy about that).

Since CinemaSpy was already on the sets of Stargate Universe last month — and covered the series extensively (read more of last month's exclusive coverage here) — we won't be focusing on that element of the press tour in detail—though we will have an exclusive video interview with exec producer Robert Cooper for you in the next few days.

Meanwhile, we'll have coverage of Sanctuary, Alice...and today, Caprica.

Caprica set tour (Click on the Photos tab at the top of this article for a more detailed look at the sets)
Our tour of the Caprica sets at Vancouver Film Studios (VFS) on Tuesday weren't necessarily what one might traditionally expect of an advanced spacefaring civilization. That said, if you've seen the pilot, you know there are no wildly futuristic environs in this franchise; this isn't the world of The Jettisons or 'Star Trek'. Instead, Caprica — which takes place five decades before the events chronicled in Battlestar Galactica — mixes a variety of familiar Earth aesthetics and combines them in interesting ways. Picture a world that happily integrates the digital alongside the analog, and you'll have some sense of the ethos employed here.

As production designer Richard Hudolin told us, the variations are also informed by the different cultural tribes of humanity and their concomitant planets, as depicted in the BSG/Caprica lore.

For example, the Graystone's residence employs a kind of retro-futurism; imagine mixing a little of the 1940s with some Frank Lloyd Wright and Mies van der Rohe — along with a little West Coast Modernism — then peppering that with touches of high tech electronics. Don't expect the world of Bauhaus or Blade Runner, either—it's much warmer and "lighter" than that, without the dystopian brushstrokes.

The house is an impressive partial recreation of an actual oceanfront home in Greater Vancouver, which was used to shoot the pilot. Outside the living room window the set designers have painted a massive dynarama backdrop that depicts the actual ocean and distant mountains that are seen outside the windows of the real house.

Moving to Daniel Graystone's office, you'll find a blend of contemporary design and technology. One is left with the impression that this is an environment perhaps just a few years ahead of our own, and yet as one stares at the early Cylon ('Cybernetic Life Form Node' in the parlance of Caprica) in the center of the room — actually a full size metal and fiberform prop — one is immediately aware that Caprican science is well ahead of our own in several key respects.

Graystone's lab is similarly a blend of contemporary and near-future, with a lot of hard, metal surfaces textured in 'engine turned aluminum', stainless steel and chrome.

Meanwhile, a few short steps away on VFS' Stage A, one finds the Adama residence, where a different ambiance is created. This set sports a warmer, more Mediterranean feel, with shades of terracotta, perhaps befitting Joseph Adama's (Esai Morales) more down-to-earth, Tauron approach to life.

We were also offered a glimpse into Clarice Willow's (Polly Walker) bedroom, a blend of Victorian sensibilities and bohemian decoration. According to Walker, audiences can expect a lot of action in this room, though not necessarily "bedroom gymnastics," as Walker described it (so fans who recall her performance as 'Atia of the Julii' in HBO's Rome shouldn't get too excited). "It's quite innocent," she told us with a wry smile.

Next up, the cast talk about Caprica...