Sci-Fi Storm

Disney/Lucasfilm sure appears to be exercising their force powers on the moviegoing audience…the latest installment in the franchise crossed $500 million worldwide. The domestic tally beat $250 million as of today, adding $21.8 million Monday, $20.4 million Tuesday and looking at at least $17 million today as fans get second and in some cases third viewings in.

Syfy has given an early third season pickup to its vampire world series Van Helsing, ahead of the second season finale which airs January 4th.

The series stars Kelly Overton (True Blood) as Vanessa Helsing, a distant relative of famous vampire hunter Abraham Van Helsing, who comes “back to life” after a three year coma to find out that vampires have taken over during the Rising, while she is protected by a marine and the doctor who saved her so that she might lead a resistance against the vampires.

Alas, BBC America has decided to cancel Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency. It was a wonderfully bizarre and quirky show adapted from a Douglas Adams novel, starring Samuel Barnett as the eponymous character who solves supernatural mysteries by simply giving in to fate, helped by Todd (Elijah Wood), a bellhop who helps his sister who suffers from a disease that causes her to have vivid hallucinations. They are chased not only by government agents, who want Dirk back for a secret project, but by the strange Bart Curlish (Fiona Dourif), who believes the universe is directing her to kill people and doesn’t allow her to die.

Admittedly, the show could be hard to follow at times, but it seemed to showcase actors playing more unusual characters – especially in the female characters who were often very odd in a variety of ways, such as The Beast (Emily Tennant) and Mona Wilder (Alexia Fast), along with the aforementioned Curlish.

I will be sad that the show will not be continuing, but it got two good seasons and didn’t leave us hanging.

Stargate: Origins premieres on February 15th, 2018 at Stargate Command