Sci-Fi Storm

Looks like Joss Whedon’s fascination with musicals will continue – no, not on Dollhouse, at least not yet – but with an episode of the Fox series Glee. Whedon previously showed his lyrical side with Doctor Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, and an episode of Buffy The Vampire Slayer called, “Once More, With Feeling”.

Emily Epstein writes “The forty-first MileHiCon, the Rocky Mountain Region’s largest literary science fiction convention, will be October 23-25 at the Hyatt Regency Tech Center-Denver. Run entirely by volunteers, MileHiCon will feature more than 80 authors and speakers, programming on every aspect of the SF and fantasy genres, the largest SF/fantasy art show in the region, round-the-clock gaming, a room full of dealers of SF-, fantasy-, and horror-related materials, and a masquerade (costume contest). The convention will also include video and anime rooms, as well as the Critter Crunch-the first robotic combat competition, from which all others came.” Read More for more info.

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Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince reaches homes on December 8th (in several forms: Blu-ray, 2-disc Limited Edition DVD, Widescreen DVD, and Fullscreen DVD), and for those with the Blu-ray version and a BD-Live compatible player, you’ll be able to take part on a worldwide Live Community Screening on December 12th at 3pm EST/12pm PST, including star Daniel Radcliffe and director David Yates watching along with you and answering your questions. Read More for more details, and pre-order your Blu-ray copy today to make sure you have it in time!

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On tonight’s Big Bang Theory, Wil Wheaton guest stars as himself, and it looks like he encounters Sheldon (Jim Parsons) at a gaming tournament and they face off against each other, and Sheldon has a bone to pick – apparently Wheaton no-showed at a signing that Sheldon attended, and Sheldon never forgets a grudge. From the images on SCI FI Wire (will they ever change that name too?), it looks like they are playing a card game like Magic: The Gathering (although the backs of the cards look different), and he’s wearing a Penny Arcade T-shirt whose name is not safe for work…

21 years after its very first series, Red Dwarf returned to TV, in the form of a three-part mini-series called Back To Earth, which came out last week on Blu-ray and DVD. Does it return to its early zaniness, or fall flat like its last series?

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Showing that DVRs are becoming more relevant, Dollhouse actually gained viewers in its premiere – a whopping 50% – after the DVR viewers were taken into account, tying Smallville for the biggest percentage gain of any show. And apparently this will allow it to air all 13 episodes. Update 10/15: It appears that Fox will keep it on the schedule for November sweeps.

ABC has given a full season order for new series Flash Forward, having done well on Thursday night and even beating Survivor in its premiere.

Bryan Singer, who directed the first two X-Men movies but skipped on the third, says he is interesting in a return to the franchise. “I love Hugh Jackman. I love the cast,” he said, and enjoys making movies in the SF&F genres because he can deal with serious issues disguised as entertainment.

Doctor Who will continue its tradition of changing its logo nearly as often as it changes actors. When the eleventh Doctor reaches the screen in 2010, so will a new logo, now available for download. It includes the initials “DW” stylized into the shape of the TARDIS.

NASA’s LCROSS mission, a “cheap” $79 million attempt to determine if there is enougt water on the moon for future use, successfully impacted a Centaur rocket into the moon’s surface at Cabeus Crater, and then followed it with the scientific platform to detect particles in the plume and then likewise impact the surface. However, it failed to produce the “spectacular” plume images everyone expected. It remains to be seen what the scientific data shows. More information is available at the LCROSS mission site. Hopefully we did not anger our lunar overlords…