Samantha Tapping (”Stargate SG-1″) has a new gig on “Sanctuary”, a sci-fi web series that SciFi Channel has picked up for this fall tv season.

The show is about Dr. Helen Magnus (Samantha Tapping), a brilliant scientist who discovers a group of unusual beings have been living among humans for ages. Thus, she tries to track them down with her team and offer them sanctuary. Get it? Oh, and by some miracle of science she’s 157 years old!

Her daughter, Ashley (Emilie Ullerup), is also part of the team. She’s in it for the action of the chase. In the pilot episode, they recruit a forensic psychiatrist named Dr. Will Zimmerman (Robin Dunne) who isn’t as good as Ashley in the field. He seems to have a few problems adjusting to the idea of a world where monsters and supernatural beings exist. Ryan Robbins plays the requisite tech guy, Henry, and Christopher Heyerdahl plays Helen’s arch enemy, John Druitt.

“Sanctuary” was created by Damian Kindler and is produced by Tapping herself (along with a few of the “Stargate” producers like Martin Wood and N. John Smith). The show depends almost exclusively on green screen technology, which I feel can be great for science fiction, but I’m not sure if every building needs to be a cgi creation. I’ll guess I’ll just have to wait for the October 3rd (9/8c) premiere before making up my mind.

Watch the video preview on SciFi.com

The word on the street is TNT’s “The Closer” is getting a spinoff.

And that’s not the only show to catch the spinoff madness from “CSI” and “Law & Order”. Showtime’s “The L Word” is developing a spin-off for the Alice character, which is played by Leisha Hailey.

SciFi Channel’s 2009 schedule is chock full of spin-offs as well. First you got the Battlestar Galactica prequel, “Caprica”. And just last week I read that the creators of “Stargate: SG1″ are ending “Atlantis” next season to free up space for a new series called “Stargate: Universe”. The new show will follow a brand new crew that traverses multiple universes.

As a true television lover, I understand that sometimes you can’t get enough of your favorite show. I guess these producers are simply giving the viewers what they want: more airtime for the characters we already know and love.

Source: Pop Candy via The Hollywood Reporter

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.

I awoke this morning to a “Kingdom Hospital” marathon on SciFi channel.

It took me quite a few minutes to realize what I was watching. At first, I assumed it was just some whacked out episode of “The Outer Limits” that took place in a hospital. It was a really eerie scene of homeless men cackling at a doctor parking his car. But then in the next scene, I saw Andrew McCarthy’s doctor character appear and I knew exactly what it was. No TiVo information button necessary. =)

“Kingdom Hospital” is Stephen King’s take on the danish television mini-series, “Riget” and “Riget II” , which was created by Lars Von Trier. Trier later went on to garner international exposure from his next project, Breaking the Waves, which probably led to King discovering the series. King’s adaptation was criticized by viewers of the original. Apparently he trimmed all the humor bits and emphasized the mystery/horror elements. But would you expect anything less? I suppose not.

I tried to watch a few episodes when it premiered on NBC in 2004, but I ended up distracted and bored. Now, thanks to SciFi channel, viewers can give “Kingdom Hospital” another go. I swear if it’s got anything to do with sci-fi or horror, that channel will add it to their programming, even if it didn’t make the cut on network television. Sometimes I love their choices, while others I’m just kind meh about like this show.

You can rent or buy “Riget” and “Kingdom Hospital” on dvd today, if you’re curious to find out more.

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.

The newest season of “Doctor Who” premieres tomorrow on the SciFi Channel (along with BSG and The Sarah Jane Chronicles). I believe it’s just the Christmas special, which already aired in the UK. The UK airs episode three on saturday, so the US airings will be three eps behind. But hey that’s alot better than an entire year behind! That’s almost record breaking. BBC is finally catching on that us Yanks might actually like some their shows. Fancy that?

Regardless, I’m very excited about the premiere. I got into the show late in the game (very late for those who’ve been watching since the PBS days). Since I liked the “Torchwood” spin-off so much, I decided to figure out for myself whether I like its parent show. I was a bit confused about how they could switch Doctors so easily, but David Tennant is funny (and cute!), so I got over it relatively quickly.

I’ve watched all of season one and two in the last month, which is a pretty big feat. I just started season three, so I can’t actually watch tomorrow’s episode. But rest assured, my TiVo is already primed and ready. =)

Thanks for the spreading the Farscape love, Pajiba. I’m just sad they beat me to the punch. In the future, I’ll have to cover season one or two.

“Farscape” is the best sci-fi show I’ve seen in the last 20 years hands down. “FireFly”, “BSG”, and “Babylon 5″ can’t even come close to the amount of creativity, humor, action, and wonderful acting on this Jim Henson show.

Still, it was mere luck that it was on those four seasons. Nevertheless, I was devastated when it was cancelled. I even boycotted Battlestar Galactica (kinda still am) because it had a hand in Farscape’s cancellation. At least, SciFi softened the cancellation blow with the mini-series wrap up: “The Peacekeeper Wars“. I can’t wait for them to release the series on Blu-Ray, so I can watch it on my roommate’s Sony plasma TV.

Through the wonders of netflix, I was reminded of “Forever Knight“. I didn’t actually watch it when it was on network television. The Sci Fi Channel was where I saw most of the episodes, and typically out of order. Thus, it was news to me that Rick Springfield starred in the original tv movie from which the series was based upon. And only until I saw the dvd boxes did I learn that there were three seasons, thus it being dubbed “The Forever Knight Trilogy”.

“Forever Knight” tells the tale of the vampire detective, Nicholas Knight (Geraint Wyn Davies). He’s an 800 year old vampire, hailing from France, who wants to make amends for his violent ways by solving murders. He even seems to think at some point he can become mortal again. This mortality dream is strung along for the lifetime of the series.

Nick’s arch enemy is Lacroix (Nigel Bennett), the vampire who sired him. Lacroix finds it completely unacceptable that Nick does not embrace his vampiric instincts. And thus, they play an endless game of cat and mouse.

It’s not the best vampire genre show, “Angel” is much much better since that show tried to expand on the myth. Forever Knight plays up all the vampire stereotypes and simply interweaves them into the standard murder procedural outline. Nevertheless, it is entertaining to watch, even if the effects seem a bit cheesy now. Davies excels in the role and really gets the viewer to empathize with his plight.