Sci-Fi Storm

It looks like ABC is yanking Defying Gravity off the air after only 8 episodes. It is not listed next week at all, and Brothers & Sisters gets the time slot on the 27th anyways. Apparently it was also announced during the September 13th episode that it was the “season finale”…Update 5/16: No official word yet, but there are rumblings that ABC has not actually canceled it, but hasn’t decided what to do at least with the remaining episodes – and that isn’t a good sign no matter what. SCI FI Wire has some possibilities of a future.

Upcoming freshman series V and Flash Forward look like they will start with a decent audience – they scored 4th and 5th respectively on the intent to view list, ahead of heavily advertised shows Mercy, Trauma and The Jay Leno Show.

If for some reason you didn’t get the Season One DVD Set of Dollhouse and missed the unaired bonus episode “Epitaph One”, which takes place in the future, Season 2 will directly pick up where the aired Season 1 left off, but will make references to “Epitaph One” as well.

As expected, Summer Glau will work with Joss Whedon again in a recurring role on Fox’s Dollhouse in a recurring role, along with other guests which include Jamie Bamber and Michael Hogan from Battlestar Galactica. Read More for the full press release. The series returns on September 25th.

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My daughter has been bugging me about this one, but finally the Cartoon Network has given Friday, October 2nd at 8pm as the second season premiere of Star Wars: The Clone Wars. On a separate note, the following was posted on the Disney D23 club site, about why Stormtroopers are apparently going to appear at the upcoming D23 Expo: “In response to inquiries from Star Wars fan sites about Storm Troopers at the D23 Expo, D23 issues the following statement: “We were contacted by the Galactic Empire and have been advised that Imperial dignitaries will be attending Disney’s D23 Expo,” said Steven Clark, head of D23. “As a result, a legion of Storm Troopers from the 501st Battalion will be patrolling the Anaheim Convention Center on Saturday, September 12.” We don’t know for certain why, but it is expected that an announcement of sorts will be made, and the leading contender among the possibilities is the long-awaited Star Tours 2.0 update to the attractions in California and Florida.

No, not that kind of comic. Comedian Patton Oswalt is joining the cast of Caprica as a popular talk show host named Baxter Sarno. Eventually the Greystones (Eric Stoltz and Paula Malcomson) appear on the show. It is not mentioned how often he will appear.

Executive Producer/Writer Robert C. Cooper spoke with Sci-Fi Wire about the Stargate franchise, and mentioned that scripts have been completed for a third Stargate SG-1 feature along with one for Stargate Atlantis, but production is on hold pending the economy. “We want to be successful with it,” he said. “The studio wants to be successful, and we really don’t want to proceed with something in the wrong climate, which I think financially it is right now.” Fortunately, they have no tie in to Stargate Universe, which debuts October 2nd.

Actor Ernie Hudson, perhaps best know for his role of Winston Zeddemore in the Ghostbusters movies, will join the cast of Heroes this coming season as Baltimore detective Lubbock.

Section 8, about a team of ordinary citizens who possess hyperdeveloped neurological abilities and had been shopped around for a while until landing at ABC when the writer’s strike killed pre-production and then ABC got skittish, now has a green light from Syfy with the new name Alphas. The reworked show comes from Zak Penn (X2, X-Men – The Last Stand, Fantastic Four) and Michael Karnow (various TV episodes), and produced by BermanBraun Television.

Could Supes live beyond the ninth and reportedly last season of Smallville? The president of entertainment of The CW, Dawn Ostroff, thinks it is a possibility. The record for CW/WB/UPN programming is 11 years with 7th Heaven – perhaps only Superman can leap that tall building…