Sci-Fi Storm

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.

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.

Here is a sneak peek of the first season finale of Alphas, airing next Monday, September 26th at 10pm ET/9pm CT on Syfy!! The Alphas team is taking on their hardest project yet as they go up against their nemesis in Red Flag. Dr. Rosen realizes that his daughter is now caught up in the mission and is being followed by Red Flag. You’ll have to watch the clip and tune in to the season finale to see just how personal the task at hand may become as the Alphas seek to keep damage to a minimum.

Note that Warehouse 13 will return in two weeks with its own season finale, “Stand”.
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Syfy has renewed two of its previous unscripted shows, Hollywood Treasure, which features Profiles In History auction house founder Joe Maddalena for 6 episodes, and Haunted Collector (sort of Ghost Hunters meets Friday the 13th: The Series) for 12 episodes.

A new unscripted show was also announced with a six episode order. Called Dream Machines, it follows two brothers who recreate some of the fantastic vehicles seen in movies in TV (think like the TRON light cycles!) as real working machines.

There wasn’t a lot of genre stuff going on at the Emmys last night, but there were a few highlights. Although Game of Thrones was nominated 13 times, it only won one (aside from a Creative Arts award announced last week) – Peter Dinklage won Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series for his portrayal of Tyrion Lannister. Jim Parsons won Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series for his role as Sheldon Cooper on The Big Bang Theory.

On other Creative Arts Emmys (where the genre shows tend to do well), Futurama won two, for Outstanding Animated Program and Outstanding Voice-Over Performance (Maurice LaMarche as Lrrr/Orson Welles). The Walking Dead also won for Outstanding Prosthetic Makeup.

Other little tidbits – the pre-filmed open included Leonard Nimoy as “Television Network President” (apparently a late replacement for Alec Baldwin, reportedly upset they cut a joke at NewsCorp’s expense – it was aired on NewsCorp-owned FOX), and Marcel Vigneron was briefly shown during the open wearing his Marcel’s Quantum Kitchen shirt – although he and his show were not nominated or otherwise part of the Emmys (and I still haven’t heard confirmation that it is or is not coming back).

Current Doctor Who showrunner Steven Moffat was in the audience, but for Outstanding Writing for his Sherlock mini-series. Alas he didn’t win (nor did Sherlock pick any of for it’s 3 other nominations), losing to Julian Fellowes and his Downton Abbey (which is an excellent series as well).

Are you looking forward to tonight’s season finale of Eureka? Need a little hit in the meantime? Here is a video where the cast talks about the Town of Eureka, how it was “created” and why. And don’t forget to tune in to Syfy at 8pm ET for the finale. Then we just have to wait for the holiday episode…
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