Sci-Fi Storm

In a series of tweets from Torchwood: Miracle Day scribe Jane Espenson that I somehow missed (not surprisingly – when you go to lunch and come back to 400-500 tweets, it’s hard to keep up…), she mentioned that there was going to be a web spin-off/companion series titled, Torchwood: Web Of Lies – but at the same time she dropped not-so-subtle hints about who might be on it: “We have faith in Torchwood: Web of Lies. #hint” was one, then “It’s tru; there’s an echo of my past work in #Torchwood: Web of Lies. (I know you already solved my little puzzle, but this is fun.)”

Of course, “Faith”, “Tru”, and “Echo” are all names of a favorite genre actress – Eliza Dushku, who Espenson has worked with before. No confirmations yet, but I can’t believe it is a diversion…we’ll be keeping an eye out, but we’d watch it anyways. (Thanks to Blastr for paying more attention than me 🙂 )

In the next sneak peek clip of an all-new episode of Sanctuary, Magnus is set in World War II and while trying to stay undetected she suddenly comes under fire. She feels it was a set up and the team was betrayed. Nigel shows up with a getaway car to help her flee from the scene, but will she be the only one that makes it out. Watch the clip and tune in on Monday at 10/9c only on Syfy to see if Magnus can get her whole team out alive.
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Blastr has narrowed down from a much larger list a list of the genre shows that were in various stages of development for the upcoming television season on the four major networks that didn’t get pickups. It is a longer list than I expected, but given that a lot of them were “Untitled…project”, I’m guessing they included basic pitches that were confirmed but never went much further.

NBC led with a great many shows with 16, over half of the 30 shows. But The Dark Tower might still see life after some reworking to address cost concerns over the ambitious project, and I don’t see 17th Precinct on the list, but a little research shows that NBC passed on that one as well, in an apparent “either-or” situation against Grimm, which got picked up.

Bubbles are being popped everywhere in the past 24 hours…the latest to burst is The Event according to TV|Line’s Michael Ausiello. I’m not really surprised -although I’ve been following it from the start, it seems like the show changed early on from a somewhat supernatural/alien start, to much more about political intrigue/conspiracy. The aliens could easily have been any sort of organization attempting to take over the government by internal/external means, with the only exception that they have a weapon that can collapse buildings. The extraterrestrial motivations seemed secondary. And it just seemed to take forever to tell the story.

Update: ABC just burst V‘s bubble as well, canceling the show.

This is just breaking – rumors circled earlier today that the David E. Kelley pilot of Wonder Woman – which had been shelved and then unshelved – received mixed reviews, and now it seems confirmed – NBC has decided to pass on the show. Guess that ends the controversy over the color of the boots and whether she should be wearing pants…

Syfy does like it’s dramadies – apparently enough to create a spinoff. Warehouse 13 showrunner Jack Kenny and another writer are prepping a spinoff of the series for the network, centering on the H.G. Wells (Jaime Murray) character introduced last season. From the report, it sounds like it might be a late 19th century period piece, sort of a cross between steampunk and Sherlock Holmes…

It appears the Intersect includes an amazing evasion skill, as perennial bubble show Chuck apparently avoids the axe yet again as more shows fates are being sealed. Looks like it will get another short-season order at this point. Maybe Subway upped their ante for in-show ads…

Update: And now for the bad news – the next season will also be the last.

We are still more than a month away from the debut of Falling Skies, which premieres June 19th on TNT, but it appears that they may be getting things in line for a second season already. Because the production is out of the normal cycle most if not all of the original writing staff is already tied up, but they are going to get new writers set so that work can begin as soon as TNT makes the go/no-go decision – which may come right after the premiere, if not before – TNT reportedly likes the series a lot, and having seen the first couple episodes I can see why. They definitely do not want the same gap in production time that took place for the original series, though – it will be about 17 months from pickup to debut.

To help get things moving, Remi Aubuchon (Caprica) has been hired as executive producer and show runner.

In the next sneak peek clip of an all-new episode of Sanctuary, Magnus and Tesla are investigating a tomb they believe was once a Praxian stronghold. Tesla reminisces about what it was like to explore tombs with Magnus in Egypt when they had no technological gadgets to aid their search. He then feels a certain power from behind one of the walls and reveals the secret entrance. Their alertness builds in anticipation of what they might find, but Tesla realizes through script on columns in this new hidden room that it was taken over by vampires. Watch the clip and tune in on Monday at 10/9c only on Syfy to see if this new discovery helps their search or simply places fear in their voyage.

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Since the BBC is dividing the sixth series of Doctor Who into two, rather than make everyone wait they will release the Blu-ray and DVD sets in two parts as well – with the first part being release on July 19th in the U.S. (July 11th in the U.K.). Pre-orders are now open for the [sfs=1135]Blu-ray[/sfs] and [sfs=1136]DVD[/sfs] sets. The prices appear to be less than half of the complete Fifth Series set (and if they go down further after you order before the release, you’ll get the lower price).