Sci-Fi Storm

Syfy’s upcoming original movie Neverland is a prequel to the classic J.M. Barrie story Peter Pan, where you get to see a Neverland before Captain Hook took over, and before Peter meets Wendy! Check out the trailer below…Neverland airs on December 4th and 5th at 9/8c.

The two hour season finale of Warehouse 13 is this Monday, October 3rd, starting at 9/8c! There is something transmitting from within the Warehouse, and Pete and Myka are racing through the multitude of sections trying to find out who or what it is while Artie and Claudia try to track it from back in the office. It turns out that it’s Sykes using his own cache of artifacts to try and destroy them and the Warehouse. They realize the transmission is coming from near the art gallery and the entire team heads to meet up there to bring a stop to the chaos. Be sure to watch the clip and tune in Monday at 9/8c only on Syfy!

BBC, needing to cut costs, has reportedly canceled Doctor Who Confidential, the behind the scenes features that aired on their BBC3 channel right after each episode aired on BBC1, as it as done since the series revived in 2005. The specials also appeared in modified form on the US DVDs, and bits of them can be seen between some commercial breaks on BBC America.

Facing the need to cut 20% of the budget, BBC decided to cut the show and focus on more original content as part of a “Delivering Quality First” initiative.

However, I suspect that behind-the-scenes features will still be featured on future DVD releases, but perhaps not as much and less produced.

I think I like this “micro review” format for things that just recently aired. It’s not a full-fledged review that would require another viewing and even more typing, but it gets my thoughts out there – feel free to add your own. Warning: Here there may be dragons-er, spoilers…
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Can’t wait for Syfy’s Being Human to return in January? Here is a little teaser to help you…

“Giving Into Your Inner Monster tease”:

Here is a quicky “micro” review of Syfy’s Morlocks, which debuted this past weekend and starred Stargate: Atlantis‘s David Hewlett and Robert Picardo.

Aside from the two actors, the plot itself was very Stargate-ish. It involves a time rift at a military base created through an experiment created by a scientist (Hewlett) that was continued without his knowledge for the secret “Project Eloi”, but expeditions into the near future find a devastated landscape and the deadly monstrous Morlocks (see what they did there? No? Go watch The Time Machine – at least the original – or better yet read the novel.) When the Latch – the device that controls the rift – is left behind in the future, a team must retrieve it before the rift expands and the entire world is in danger of being swallowed. It also had a touch of Outer Limits to it.

Despite Hewlett’s presence, the technobabble that he handles so well seemed reduced. Acting was average, which is to say pretty decent for the Syfy Saturday night movie. Some of the character’s motivations were just unconvincing. And I had several problems with the climax that I can’t really talk about without spoiling it.

The movie is quite graphic and bloody. NOT KID FRIENDLY. The special effects as as expected on the low budget side, but again were decent for the Saturday night movie.

Still, it wasn’t a bad movie – far more to my tastes than the schlock monster movies, and it was good to see David Hewlett again.

Although hardcore fans called for a boycott of the release, it seems that it didn’t stem the tide of fans purchasing [sfs=1098]Star Wars: The Complete Saga[/sfs] on Blu-ray. In the first week, 1 million copies were sold worldwide, setting a new record for a Blu-ray release. And that doesn’t include the individual trilogy releases (which didn’t include the extras).

Not bad for a nearly 35 year old franchise, but when you start marketing 13 months ahead of time, you get results.

Fox, having previously produced I, Robot based on the stories by legendary SF writer Isaac Asimov, will draw from the author again with his novel The Caves of Steel. Relative newcomers Henry Hobson and John Scott 3 (Maggie) will direct and write, respectively, and Simon Kinberg (X-Men: The Last Stand, Elysium) will produce under his Genre Films banner.

The Caves of Steel takes place three millenia in the future, where humans on the overpopulated Earth live in massive enclosed structures (giving the name to the book), and distrust robots to the point of them being completely banned from the planet. Robots aren’t banned on the colonized planets, however, and a “Spacer” ambassador trying to loosen the restrictions on Earth is found murdered. Homicide detective Elijah Bailey is charged to investigate the murder – but he is forced to team up with an investigator provided by the Spacers – R. Daneel Olivaw, who looks human but is in fact a robot.

The 7th series of Doctor Who apparently is being delayed as rumored, according to Doctor Who Magazine. Reportedly shooting won’t begin until February 2012, too late for the usual start in the Spring, so the start of the series will be delayed until the Fall. How it will be broken out, or if the series will be split again and some of the episodes being held until 2013.

Thor just came out on [sfs=1165]Blu-ray[/sfs] and [sfs=1166]DVD[/sfs] last week, and now his Avengers partner Captain America gets his time next month with the release of CAPTAIN AMERICA: The First Avenger in three formats: [sfs=1161]3-Disc Blu-ray 3D/2D, DVD and Digital Copy combo[/sfs], [sfs=1162]2-Disc Blu-ray 2D, DVD and Digital Copy combo[/sfs], and [sfs=1163]DVD[/sfs]. Read on to hear all about it.
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