If you are a long-time fantasy fan, and I say the word “prequel” to you, I feel like there’s a good chance you’re going to throw something at my head — and I wouldn’t blame you for doing it.

Prequels — from Star Wars to X-Men Origins: Wolverine to Star Trek: Enterprise to Terminator Salvation — deserve all the derision you want to heap upon them.

I lost my faith in the prequel the moment I saw Jar Jar Binks, and I didn’t think there was any chance I’d become a believer again.

Batman Begins and JJ Abrams’ Star Trek helped. And lately I’ve been wondering if Caprica is doing for TV what those films did for the big screen. Is the show that redefined the toaster also redefining the post-dated prologue?

There are lots of inherent problems with the concept of the prequel.

First, they almost always lack dramatic tension. Oh no, is that helicopter going to chop Wolverine to bits? No, it is not, which you know; you’ve already seen him making out with Jean Grey in the future.

Equally annoying is the fact that prequel narratives usually can’t stand alone. The stories themselves aren’t as important as manipulating all the pieces so they arrive in tact at a starting line we’re already familiar with.

And then there’s the failure to answer the important questions. Prequels should be the “why” to the “what” you already know — not just a whole bunch more CGIed “what.”

Caprica, though, has so far managed to side-step all of those pitfalls.

Unlike the first three episodes of Star Wars, which are only interesting because Anakin Skywalker sure was a cute and precocious little thing, Caprica delivers a palpable sense of doom. Never once during Attack of the Clones did I feel the need to say to Obi-Wan, “Maybe don’t train him quite so thoroughly.”

But every week of Caprica has found me shouting at Daniel Graystone that he’s blowing up the tracks at the end of the roller coaster: “You’re all going to die!”

While knowing what’s coming certainly makes the Caprica experience more haunting, it’s equally watchable if you don’t know anything about the post-apocalyptic crew of Battlestar. It is interesting to see the motivation behind the construction of the first Cylon. And it is interesting to watch how little Willie Adama grew up. Those things are all BSG.

But it’s equally intriguing to watch two families, from entirely different ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds, cope with the tragedy of terrorism; and to watch characters explore the connections between monotheism and terror; and to examine the effects of a virtual world without morality or consequences. That’s brand new.

And questions about the why of BSG get answered every week. Why build a Cylon in the first place? Why would they turn against humans?

Because the first Cylon’s dad made her rip off her arm! Because the first Cylon’s mom kept calling her a terrorist! Because the first Cylon had to watch her parents having sex right in front of her single, red eye! (And the probable second Cylon spent too much time trapped in a game of Dick Tracy’s Call of Duty.)

The fantasy genre breeds a rare form completist fan who will follow her fandom anywhere for the slimmest chance that she’ll find a morsel to supplement her understanding and enjoyment of a fictional world. SyFy banked on the Super Fan breed with Caprica — and so far they’re handing out genuinely tasty treats.

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