Category — Science Fiction

BBC America is finally premiering their sci-fi/action-adventure television series, “Primeval”, this Saturday at 9pm.

I watched an episode when I visited London and first thought I’d stumbled upon a strange episode of “Land of the Lost”. The place I stayed at had one of those Sky One tuners and a weird HDTV rear projection set ups (so many cords, I tell you!), so navigating the channels was a bit challenging. As such, I just left the channel as is and went along for the ride. Little did I know, I was watching the next sci-fi show that BBC America would be promoting here in the states!

“Primeval” tells the story of scientist, Nick Cutter (Douglass Henshall) who discovers a few dinosaurs walking around alive and well in present day. Apparently some crazy space-time rift is wreaking havoc (enter the sci-fi angle) and creatures from various periods and places start popping up.

From BBC America:
“Cutter, his research assistant Stephen Hart, zoologist Abby Maitland, and student paleontologist Connor Temple race to understand what’s happening, while government bureaucrats James Lester and Claudia Brown insist they have to keep the danger secret from the public. As the past threatens to invade the present and destroy the future, Cutter’s crew faces a life-and-death race against time.”

Sounds fun, right? I’m giving it a shot since it’s still summer and the lastest season “Doctor Who” just ended. Gotta fill the void somehow.

Shirley Manson, lead singer of the band Garbage, joins the cast of “Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles”.

From SciFi Wire:
“Manson turns up as Catherine Weaver, the chief executive of Cyberdine Systems, which all Terminator fans know develops the computers that eventually become Skynet. “She’s the CEO of a corporation that develops certain technologies,” Manson said. “And she’s very self-empowered, successful, self-assured, singular. So it’s a cool character to play.” (She added that producers will let her keep her Scottish brogue.)”

Pop culture confession: I own all four Garbage albums ( I have this strange loyalty to the band after seeing them open up for Smashing Pumpkins in ‘97). Thus, maybe that makes me a little biased and overly positive about this casting news. Nevertheless, watching Shirley Manson make her television debut has finally given me a reason to be pumped for the second season of “Terminator”.

Shirley Manson definitely has a strong stage presence, so it’s probably not that big of a leap for her to become an actress. I’m just surprised that Fox being so cool with it, especially since she has no acting training per se. It’s sorta risky to have a newbie play such a pivotal character as Catherine Weaver in the series. What are they gonna do? fire

“Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles” returns September 8th at 8/7c. Buy the first season of “Terminator” dvd on August 19th.

At Comic-Con this weekend, the producers of “Lost” revealed some exciting news and spoilers to the crowd of Hall H. They even answered a few of the fans’ burning questions. To kick things off, they showed a “video [which] consisted of Lindelof and Cuse talking about how, in these new DVDs, they will present all of the flash-forwards as an extra and in the correct time sequence.”

Say what now? All those crazy flashforwards will be edited together for my viewing pleasure? That’s definitely an extra feature that could prove useful! “Lost” is such a complicated show, I mean most viewers have to watch each episode twice to know what the heck is going on! This flash-forward compilation feature could finally resolve all of those dangling clues that are mixed up in my head.

The only catch is the 5-disc box set doesn’t come out until December 9th! I guess in the meantime, I’ll have to watch the other three seasons to pass the time.

Find more coverage of the “Lost” panel at TV Squad.

I saw a teaser last night for this new paranormal mystery show on CBS called “Eleventh Hour”. It stars the dashing Rufus Sewell as Dr. Jacob Hood.

“ELEVENTH HOUR from acclaimed producer Jerry Bruckheimer follows Dr. Jacob Hood, a brilliant biophysicist and special science advisor to the government, as he investigates scientific crises and oddities. His jurisdiction is absolute and Hood is dogged in his pursuit of those who would abuse and misuse scientific discoveries and breakthroughs for their own gain. His passion and crusade is to protect the substance of science from those with nefarious motives. He is called in at the eleventh hour and he represents the last line of defense.”

Jerry Bruckheimer?! Now, I’m scared to give it a chance. I fear it’s gonna be a supernatural tinged version of “CSI”! And doesn’t this sound strangely like “Threshold”, the David Goyer produced sci-fi drama with Carla Cugino that was swiftly cancelled. Am I the only one who dug that show? It was spooky, intriguing and had a decent cast (Charles S. Dutton from “Roc”!).

I’m not sure the senior citizen demographic of CBS will be down with a X-Files FBI procedural knockoff. Plus, isn’t “Fringe” already going there? In a television battle, JJ Abrams vs Jerry B, JJ is gonna win hands down.

But hey, by some strange fate, “Ghost Whisperer” still gets ratings, maybe it could work. However, GW’s success may be due to JLove Hewitt and not really the subject matter. I think I’m gonna give it a look, but no way I’m giving it an automatic TiVo season pass.

“Eleventh Hour” airs Thursdays at 10pm this fall.

It premiered last week, but it’s still not too late to catch up! Col. Carter is leaving/getting fired and Woollsey is running the show (crazy, I know!) over at the Atlantis site. Babies, wraiths, exploration, what’s not to love about the new season.

Since the viral marketing get up worked for Cloverfield, the J.J. Abrams gang have concocted a few radio spots to promote “Fringe”.

They even have a “Fringe” blog to keep track of all this viral nonsense before the September premiere. Boy, I really hope this show airs long enough to reveal this mysterious “pattern” they’re going on about.

Pacey muses on the “pattern”.

Source: Pop Candy

In the summer, many channels schedule marathons and reruns to fill up those empty blocks. Holidays and warmer weather create significant drops in viewership, which leads to less advertising dollars. Thus, networks can be more creative with the schedule.

There is the new trend of showing smaller budgeted shows during the summer as mid-season or summer only programs. I’ve discovered quite a few gems during this so-called down period like “Burn Notice”, “Mad Men”, “Eureka”, “Weeds” and “In Plain Sight”. As you may have noticed, mostly cable network or premium channels can so freely funnel money into summer shows, since you have to pay to see those channels anyway.

Here’s a list of reruns, premieres and marathons for July:
“Burn Notice” - Season 2 premiere on July 10th, 10pm (mini marathon on July 3rd)
“Weeds” - Season 4 already up and running, Mondays on Showtime at 10pm
“Mad Men” - Season 1 marathon on July 20th at noon, Season 2 premiere on July 27th (Thanks Whitney for the heads up!)

“Eureka” - Season Premiere on July 29th, 9pm (watch reruns online here)
“Supernatural” - Season 3 encore, Thursdays at 9pm
“Rescue Me” minisodes started on Tuesdays on F/X, but you can catch them online as well at Crackle.com

Don’t waste the day away in your sofa hammock, stay cool and catch up on all that great tv you missed earlier in the year.

After that horrid Grey’s finale, I decided to watch a mindless sci-fi finale to wash the palette. Enter “Torchwood” (a Doctor Who spin-off) series 2 finale.

For the record, the finale aired in the beginning of April, though I just got around to watching it. It was definitely worth the wait. Two characters died (for reals this time) and someone from Captain Jack’s past wreaked havoc upon the city of Cardiff. Plus, James Marsters returned in this episode, which was a good bookend to series 2 seeing how he appeared in the first episode of the season.

The series went to a very dark place this time with the near destruction of Cardiff. I’m not sure they could blow up a major city on any sci-fi series in the US. I feel like American tv is sometime too cautious with viewers. They don’t want people freaking out and saying the drama was too real or close to home.

I hope Series 3 will be able to define the characters again as they come together in this new climate of death. The last scene hinted on the idea of healing with Jack embracing the team, but I’m not sure if Jack will be enough to hold everyone together.

With all the shake-ups on “Doctor Who” and “Torchwood”, it’s hard for a girl to keep up sometimes. Here’s hoping everyone still breathing at the end of the finale returns in Series 3.

Joss Whedon’s much hyped tv show, “Dollhouse”, isn’t set to premiere until mid-season 2009. Nevertheless, the internets are still abuzz with news and interviews every week.

The latest interesting tid bit I read was about Eliza Dushku (”Buffy the Vampire Slayer”), who plays the lead in “Dollhouse”.

It turns out that she has a producer’s credit according to TV Squad. Several actors and actresses have been known to produce their own shows, so it’s not that crazy for Dushku to put this into her contract. Still, it seems that Joss Whedon may actually want to hold her to it and expect input into the show.

Here’s hoping the fervor for the show can stay afloat until next Jan/Feb.

JJ Abrams new show, “Fringe”, officially got picked up by Fox this week.

It stars Joshua Jackson (”Dawson’s Creek”), Anna Torv, and Lance Reddick (”The Wire” and “Lost”) as they investigate an unusual Boston plane crash. It’s supposed to “thrill, terrify and explore the blurring line between science fiction and reality”.

I dunno, that sounds supspiciously too good to be true since I’ll watch just about anything with a “Wire” cast member or involves science fiction. Still, I wholeheartedly agree with /Film who says it totally looks like an “X-Files” rip-off.

I wonder if Chris Carter agrees? I bet he doesn’t really care and he’d probably just tell Abrams to watch his back since Fox cancels everything (i.e. “Harsh Realm”).

Find more photos at /Film