Sci-Fi Storm

Wow…things are not looking good for the BBC series The Deep right now. Blastr has a roundup of the various reviews from the new show – and they aren’t good. They aren’t even bad-good. From the sounds of it I’m not sure I’d be able to get through it without rewinding a dozen times, saying, “They said what?!?” But I almost have to try…

I don’t know if I’m thrilled, worried, or what…show runner Steven Moffat told people at the Media Guardian Edinburgh International Television Festival that the next series will be split into two – with a “game-changing cliffhanger” mid-season finale around Easter, with the remainder of the series picking up in the Fall. He then describes them as two separate series: “I kept referring to a mid-season finale. So we are going to make it two series – seven episodes at Easter building to an earth-shattering climax, a cliffhanger we could never normally do because it would be too long before it came back. An enormous game-changing cliffhanger that will change everything.

“The wrong expression would be to say we are splitting it in two. We are making it two separate series.

“What I love about this idea is that when kids see Doctor Who go off the air, they will be noticeably taller when it comes back. It’s an age for children. With an Easter series, an autumn series and a Christmas special, you are never going to be more than few months from the new series of Doctor Who.

“Tart that I am, we will now have two first nights and two finales, twice as many event episodes as we had before.”

If you took the surviving heads of Matt Groening and a bunch of other Comic-Con all stars, and put them on a panel in the 31st century, how would it pan out? Futurama lets us know – and gives us a peek into the future.

People from the past come back to haunt the lives of Carter and the gang.

Update: Sorry, apparently the clip has been pulled…must discuss with SyFy…

Wondering what’s up with Myka and Pete next week? Check out this preview for “Merge With Caution”, which airs Tuesday, August 24th at 9/8c on Syfy.

For the old-time Babylon 5 fans on the Internet (especially UseNet), you may remember Elana, who made the “jumpgate” pins based on the ASCII “jumpgate” symbol (<*>) prevalent in the UseNet signatures of fans at the time. They were high quality handmade pins (I still have two of the original black pins, although I managed to break the pin back off on one). I just found out via JMS that she recently found some “missing inventory” after having moved several times, and has all sorts of them for sale again on her home page…and she sure could use your help, as she fights breast cancer…as a happy past (and soon to be again) customer, I wish her strength.

Update: Alas, Elana passed beyond the veil, October 30th, 2013. She will be missed.

Eureka, SyFy’s hit “dramedy” currently airing it’s fourth season, has already been picked up for a fifth. The press release didn’t say for how many episodes – the first three seasons were 12, 13 and 18 episodes respectively, with the current season being part of a 20-episode order – but here’s hoping it’s another full order. Anyone have any comments regarding the current season? Was the addition of James Callis good or bad? I admit it took a few seconds to recognize him. How about the alternate timeline arc?

Diana from the original V, Jane Badler, has just been announced to join the new series. And her name will be – ta da – Diana. This time Diana is the mother of Anna. It looks like they are taking a page from the Battlestar Galactica redo – the last series kinda happened (the original Centurions and Vipers), but really didn’t. At least if they throw some more homages in, like the old symbol, or a uniform, or something…

Here is a new variation of the Doctor Who theme song: acoustic guitar, cello – and a didgeridoo providing the base line. Now I just need Blue Man Group to give it a try…

Well, it sounded like things were going well last year when casting supposedly had begun, but apparently it didn’t go very far. George Lucas told attendees at a special reception back in May that the show is on hold – they have the scripts, but they “don’t know how to do ’em.” According to Lucas, Star Wars series HAS to be expensive because of what it is, but a series needs to be done at “a tenth [of] the cost.” Apparently even today’s environment of virtual actors and green screen sets isn’t cheap enough…yet.