Sci-Fi Storm

The SCI FI Channel is no more – today is the day when the name changes to SyFy, to “broaden its audience” (and I’m sure has nothing to do with better trademark-ability…). But also tonight is the debut of Warehouse 13, so we’ll see if they can find a niche in the genre they were born from…

Seems that Sky has had some success with adaptations of the Terry Pratchett Discworld novels Hogfather and The Colour of Magic, that they are ready to also adapt Going Postal, for Sky1 HD and Sky1. Now if only we could get them here in the U.S. (aside from the obvious Internet methods…)

Apparently the soon to be SyFy has big eyes for the reboots of other franchises…next up is the Fox series Alien Nation, about alien slaves being integrated into the general population after their crippled spaceship lands on Earth. The show dealt a lot with the political and social issues in a procedural drama more than the science fiction aspects, although when the scifi did come in, it often was dealt with in a fun way, making the series interesting. Apparently the focus on this will be less oriented on arc-based stories, instead taking a more mainstream self-contained approach, but there will be a developing mythology

Just learned this yesterday…Torchwood: Children Of Earth – the third series of the Doctor Who spinoff, except it is airing as a 5 part miniseries – will debut in the U.S. on BBC America on July 20th at 9pm ET, with the remaining parts airing on consecutive nights. It will debut in the U.K. on July 6th on BBC One.

PumpHunter writes “Wil Wheaton, once dislike by school kids everywhere for portraying Wesley Crusher on the star ship Enterprise – a young man who actually wanted to do his homework, is going to be in an episode of TNT’s “Leverage”. Wil Wheaton told the world this via his twitter account, and posted a picture on set of himself and Leverage regular Aldis Hodge. Hodge plays Alec Hardison an all around smooth talker and computer nerd. Wheatons description of the picture suggests his role is along the same lines. Leverage returns July 15th.” Wil has definitely moved from Hated Geek to Cool Geek…he even appeared on an episode of This Week In Tech back on February.

Writer/Producer Brian Fuller, who returned to Heroes in December, has apparently left again, despite hopes he would bring some more focus to the storylines. According to Fuller it is not due to creative differences, but “to focus on developing new projects for NBC.”

OK, we have a new contender for worst science in a scifi movie, giving Earthstorm a run for its money. In fact, some plot and scenes look similar. Impact, and ABC miniseries which airs this Sunday (6/21) at 9pm with the second part a week later, stars David James Elliott. But to appreciate the science behind the movie, check out his description of the problem, and then follow it up with the preview on YouTube. And then start chewing on how reversing the polarity of the neutron flow-er, I mean the Moon, causes gravity to fail and people to float off the Earth…

Fox, which usually gets a jump on the fall TV season a week or two ahead of the other networks, will fall closer in line with the others this season, with some shows debuting mere days before the “official premiere week” (September 21st). Returning series Fringe will bow on September 17th at 9pm, with Dollhouse the next night, September 18th at 9pm.

Budget and policy are taking their toll at ITV, and Primeval is one of the victims. “Basically ITV have changed their policy about drama before 9pm in that they’ve decided they really don’t want any, at least not of the quality and cost of Primeval,” according to a source close to the production. “Obviously we’re devastated that things should end this way with ITV. But we’re absolutely certain that although this stage of its evolution seems to be over, Primeval isn’t dead. We’re very proud of what we’ve achieved over the past three years and we have every intention of keeping Primeval alive in other ways.”

Another animated Fox castoff will return: Comedy Central is resurrecting Futurama for 26 episodes, with an “eye” towards a mid-2010 debut. Comedy Central acquired the rights to the original 72 episodes in January 2008, and aired 4 feature-length episodes for high ratings.