Sci-fi TV geeks rejoice: Meet Caprica’s gay character

The character of Sam Adama on Caprica, the series that serves as a sort of prequel to Battlestar Galactica, is a Tauron immigrant to the planet Caprica, and serves as a mob enforcer. But he’s got a little more going on than just slitting the throats of wily politicians who dare to double-cross his bosses.

“Sam’s gay, and he’s married,” Canadian actor Sasha Roiz told SciFi Wire. “I think it’s great, because in Caprica there isn’t any prejudice or stigma attached to it.”

Canadian actor Sasha Roiz plays Sam Adama on TV’s Caprica

Pic via poptower.com

Like Battlestar, Caprica — which is filmed in Vancouver — takes on a host of heavy real-world issues like artificial intelligence, the corruption of technology, religious terrorism, and racism with plenty of moral conflict and betrayal to go around. And like its predecessor, Caprica gives rise to a whole palette of shades of grey where a character like Sam Adama can exist — neither evil nor saintly like most gay depictions tend to alternate between. But treating gay sexuality as a non-issue makes a statement in and of itself, just like Battlestar did with its portrayal a society characterized by gender equality.

No word yet on who plays Sam’s husband.

Caprica can be seen on Space, Friday nights at 10pm ET. The unrated two-hour pilot episode is also available on DVD.

Editor’s note: Dale Smith can usually be found blogging at Hill Queeries, Xtra.ca’s federal politics blog. But when he’s not giving sartorial snaps to MPs, he likes to catch up on geeky television.

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