Sci-Fi Storm

There was a conference call last week with SFC president Dave Howe to discuss the new SyFy branding and all the questions people had. I have the full transcript available now.

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Speaking of Battlestar Galactica, I just received a bunch of YouTube clips for the prequel movie Caprica, which will be [sfs=922]available on DVD[/sfs] on April 21st – months ahead of its debut as a series on SyFy. Read More to see all 7 clips. Update 3/27: These clips are no longer available, but there are some new ones!

Now that most everyone has had time to process the finale, I’d like to open up the comments section to discussions about it. Anyone reading the full thread of comments can expect there to be SPOILERS, so don’t read further if you haven’t watched and don’t want to be spoiled. In the meantime, Ronald D. Moore has mentioned that the DVD release will include and extended cut of the finale, mostly dealing with longer scenes but including a scene showed several times during “The Last Frakkin’ Special” between Starbuck and Adama about hooking Anders up in the CIC that I didn’t remember in the original…

With everyone giving opinions as to the SCI FI Channel’s recently announced name change to “SyFy”, SFC founder Mitch Rubenstein spoke out about why it was SCI FI Channel in the first place – and it was the influence of Isaac Asimov to help get the name accepted by the SF community, who long felt that “Sci-Fi” was a belittling term for the genre.

Amanda Tapping, in an interview mostly regarding Sanctuary, was asked about whether the upcoming Stargate Atlantis DVD movie had been shot yet – it hadn’t. But in the process she let slip, “And apparently there’s an SG-1 movie as well that will be happening.” First I’ve heard of it, and there are no other details, but interesting news none the less.

Harlan Ellison, who wrote the script for the original Star Trek episode “City On The Edge Of Forever”, has filed suit against Paramount for use of the work without paying him for revenues, mostly on derivative works based on the situations and plot of “City”, and even a Hallmark ornament of the Guardian Of Forever. Also named in the suit is the Writers Guild of America, for failing to act on Ellison’s behalf. And in true Ellison character he says, “I’m no hypocrite. It ain’t about the ‘principle,’ friend, its about the MONEY! Pay Me! Am I doing this for other writers, for Mom (still dead), and apple pie? Hell no! I’m doing it for the 35-year-long disrespect and the money!”

In attempt to “broadens perceptions” and “embraces a wider range of current and future imagination-based entertainment” (and probably a lot to do with trademarks), the SCI FI Channel has announced a name change to “Syfy”, which apparently to someone in their marketing department “…more clearly captures the mainstream appeal of the world’s biggest entertainment category.” Actually, it means we can’t call the channel “Skiffy” any more. Update 3/20: SFC president Dave Howe answers some frank questions.

Bryan Fuller, who worked in the Trek franchise as writer and producer between Deep Space 9 and Voyager, has some ideas about bringing the show back. I loved Voyager and Deep Space Nine, but they seem to have lost the ’60s fun and I would love to take it back to its origin,” he said. He has had some contact with J.J. Abrams “team”, so it would be interesting to find out how it might be integrated with Abrams reboot…

The long awaited (does Lucas ever do anything quickly? At least, except giving the green light to the Star Wars Holiday special?) live action Star Wars series, which took a back seat to The Clone Wars, is currently casting. Script writing has supposedly been underway for over a year, so hopefully it won’t be long before we find out what we are getting – but it still may be a while before we SEE anything, as the plan is still to shoot the entire season before shopping the series.

I wonder if we’ll be hearing the bad news soon. Seems that the ratings for sophomore series Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles and relatively new Joss Whedon effort Dollhouse, filling up Fox’s Friday night SF lineup, continue to slide in the ratings. Update 3/10: Apparently once you account for the DVR ratings, Dollhouse didn’t do so bad…