Sci-Fi Storm

At least we don’t think it’s a joke…Deadline is reporting that Fox has ordered a new version of the late Carl Sagan’s Cosmos: A Personal Voyage, and the new series will be produced by – wait for it – Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane.

Cosmos: A Space-Time Odyssey will be a 13-part series produced by MacFarlane and Sagan’s original collaborators – his widow Ann Druyan and astrophysicist Steven Soter, and will be hosted by astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson.

According to the producers, the new series will tell “the story of how human beings began to comprehend the laws of nature and find our place in space and time. It will take viewers to other worlds and travel across the universe for a vision of the cosmos on the grandest scale. The most profound scientific concepts will be presented with stunning clarity, uniting skepticism and wonder, and weaving rigorous science with the emotional and spiritual into a transcendent experience.”

Fox will air the show in primetime, with encores shown on the National Geographic channel, which will co-produce.

The new “Powerful Mondays” lineup on Syfy featuring Eureka, Warehouse 13, and Alphas certainly seems to be doing the trick for the network – overall viewers were up 8% in July, plus double digit gains in 3 key Male demographics over July of last year – 18% in Men 18-34 (126,000), 16% in Men 18-49 (341,000), and 13% in Men 25-54 (392,000).

Syfy launched Summer Premiere Week on July 11, showcasing the “Most Powerful Night of the Week” with Eureka at 8PM, Warehouse 13 at 9PM and newcomer Alphas at 10PM. That night became Syfy’s highest Monday time period audience for scripted series in more than 10 years.
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Here are this week’s sneak peeks for next Monday’s “Powerful Mondays” lineup on Syfy, featuring Eureka, Warehouse 13 and Alphas.
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Syfy just released a list of guest stars on upcoming episodes of Alphas (although no specific episodes are mentioned) and it is pretty extensive:

Garret Dillahunt (Raising Hope), Summer Glau (Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Firefly), Alaina Huffman (Stargate Universe), Rebecca Mader (Lost), Brent Spiner (Star Trek: The Next Generation), Lindsay Wagner (The Bionic Woman) and Peter Wingfield (Caprica, Highlander) will all appear during the current debut season.

Jason Priestley (Call Me Fitz) and WWE Superstar Edge (who was seen this past season on Sanctuary) will each guest in 4 episodes of Haven, both starting with this Friday’s episode (10PM ET on Syfy), with Priestley appearing in the 8/12, 8/19 and 9/9 episodes, and Edge returning on 9/9 and the following two episodes.

Priestley, who leaped to stardom in Beverly Hills, 90210, plays Chris Weekly, a handsome but anti-social marine biologist who is forced to deal with an affliction most would consider a blessing — everyone suddenly loves him and will do anything he wants. Only Audrey Parker (Emily Rose) seems unaffected by Weekly’s “charms.”
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Starz CEO Chris Albrecht, before appearing before reporters at a TV critics tour, told Entertainment Weekly that “Torchwood is not one of the show we went into thinking about a yearly return.” Does that mean they aren’t happy with it? That’s not clear…and he appears to put it squarely on producer/creator Russell T. Davies shoulders. ““It’s about Russell T Davies … he has a lot of things on his plate. If Torchwood is at the top of his list, that will effect [sic] the future of Torchwood.”

But keep in mind – this is a British show that now has an American studio behind it. The BBC is still involved, and British TV productions don’t follow as rigid a production cycle. Starz could easily keep that concept, and produce Torchwood when desired.

TVLine has an interesting interview with Steven Moffat, producer/writer/showrunner for Doctor Who, about the Doctor and it’s sibling series, Torchwood. It seems Captain Jack doesn’t really swing both ways – show audience wise at least.

John Barrowman’s Captain Jack character is welcome back on Doctor Who – if they story is right. “When we’ve got a good story, we’ll do it,” Moffat says. “You can’t just bring somebody back and say, ‘That’s a story.’ That’s just somebody walking through a door…. I won’t be thinking, ‘How do you bring Captain Jack back?’ I’ll be thinking, ‘You know what this needs? We need to bring Jack back for it.’”

Jack would have been back for the episode “A Good Man Goes To War”, which he certainly seemed appropriate for, but he was tied up on Torchwood: Miracle Day.

But why won’t the Doctor return the favor and appear on Torchwood? Quite simply the audience for Torchwood is different. “The Doctor could never go to Torchwood,” Moffat attests. “[Torchwood EP] Russell [Davies] and I both agree on that. Doctor Who has a tremendous relationship with children in Britain. They’d want to watch Torchwood then, and it’s not really a children’s show.”

I can certainly agree with that…

Found this buried in a discussion on Facebook from JMS himself:

Re: B5…the studio offered a full season of a new and rebooted B5 as part of a new distribution venue they were creating (us and several other shows from the same studio were part of the same deal). We’d have a full season, a big budget, and total creative control. The negotiations (not between us but between the participants of the venue) dragged on for over a year, we were told repeatedly this is going to happen, but finally, the participants couldn’t make the math work. So we and the other three shows that they were hoping to put out there got set aside.

At this point, I’ve told the studio that if this isn’t going to move ahead, there’s something else they need to consider and there’s a very informal negotiation going on now in that regard. We’ll see where it goes from there.

But again, B5 was never created to be a Deep Space Franchise, we wanted to do our 5 years and get out clean. That was my intent going into this, and if that’s where this ends up, I’m happy to stick with that. There are other film and TV projects I’m doing, including a deal we just concluded to write a pilot for Will Smith’s company on a show that’s been pretty much pre-sold for a full season overseas (two bidders want it badly for Europe, and now they’re just looking for a US partner).

So it sounds like we were VERY close to a “new and rebooted B5” (not sure what that meant exactly) via a new distribution venue (also not sure…web-based? iTunes?), but it isn’t happening – but something else could still happen.

Here are three more sizzle reels from Comic-Con, for Alphas, Being Human and Sanctuary.
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Jeri Ryan (Star Trek: Voyager, Body of Proof) will guest star as a would-be bride on Syfy’s hit series Warehouse 13 Monday, August 1, at 9PM (ET/PT).

In Monday’s episode “Queen for a Day,” Ryan portrays Amanda, whose planned fairy tale wedding is derailed when exposure to an artifact threatens her life and the lives of everyone around her.

And according to a tweet from star Eddie McClintock, “If any of U watched the preview 4 next weeks #WAREHOUSE13, U now know Pete was married 2 @JeriLRyan! #STUDCREDTHROUGHTHEROOF” So apparently Amanda is Pete’s ex-wife!

The preview below is for the other story in the episode: New agent Steve Jinks and Claudia are caught in a civil war as Claudia comes to his rescue with a mini-tesla. Jinks thinks the quick move to save him reminds him of his big sister growing up. Claudia wants details to his past but finds out his sister is actually dead.
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