Sci-Fi Storm

It is, alas, official. Peter Capaldi announced via BBC Radio 2 that he is leaving Doctor Who after the upcoming 10th series (since revival) and the 2017 Christmas Special. This did not come as much of a surprise, as showrunner Steven Moffat is also departing at the end of the year since taking over from Russell T. Davies, who likewise co-departed with David Tennant. And with the exception of Christopher Eccleston, each Doctor since has held the title for three complete series – although Tennant had several “special movies” as well leading up to his departure. Capaldi said when making the announcement, “I’m always someone that did different things. I’ve never done one job for three years before and I feel it’s time for me to move on to different challenges.”

“One of the greatest privileges of being Doctor Who is to see the world at its best,” Capaldi added. “From our brilliant crew and creative team working for the best broadcaster on the planet, to the viewers and fans whose endless creativity and generosity and inclusiveness points to a brighter future ahead. I can’t thank everyone enough. It’s been cosmic.”

Chris Chibnall, who is a Doctor Who fan himself, will take over for Moffat. Chibnall was the head writer on Doctor Who spinoff Torchwood, and wrote several episodes of Doctor Who, as well as created the series Broadchurch starring David Tennant.

Let the speculation on the new Doctor begin…and keep in mind, we are never right 🙂

It’s pilot season, and Fox is stacking its superhero deck…the network has ordered with a put commitment an unnamed pilot from 20th TV and Marvel TV for an X-Men-based series that will run in the same universe as sister channel FX’s Legion, which premieres next month. Franchise leader Bryan Singer will executive produce, while Burn Notice‘s Matt Nix will write the script.

The show will follow a family of human parents with mutant children, on the run from a mutant-hostile government. Casting is expected to take place quickly with the pilot order.

Syfy’s breakout hit The Magicians returns tomorrow night at 9/8c, and the second season is already amping up the magic levels – in order to save the magic.

Season 2 begins with with the possible destruction of all magic, and Quentin (Jason Ralph), Alice (Olivia Taylor Dudley), Eliot (Hale Appleman), Margo (Summer Bishil) and Penny (Arjun Gupta) are in Fillory to save it. Fillory, which Quentin thought was just a place from a series of storybooks called “Fillory and Further”, is not only real but is the source of all magic. And to save it, it may mean fulfilling the story and becoming the kings and queens of Fillory. Meanwhile, Julia (Stella Maeve), having become a hedge witch since she was rejected as a student at Brakebills, is teaming up with the Beast (Charles Mesure) in order to get revenge on the trickster Reynard the Fox, and her friendship with Quentin won’t stop her.

I don’t think it is a surprise that the students survived the attack by the Beast, although we were left wondering at the end of Season 1 – and it is “resolved” rather quickly. However, this isn’t just a push of a reset button after a cliffhanger – their survival won’t be without issues and consequences that will last through Season 2. So while the show still keeps its whimsical side, it will continue with exploring deep issues, such as Julia’s need for revenge after the being a victim of Reynard’s sexual assaults.

It is interesting that the parallels with C.S. Lewis’ world of Narnia continues as well, with Eliot not only having to become High King, but his fellow students also becoming Kings and Queens – two of each, just like the Pevensies in Narnia. This seems to add to the intrigue of the story, however – it is like seeing someone else’s take on the story, being familiar yet different. And we’ll see a deeper side of Eliot while he is in Fillory with new responsibilities.

I can’t wait to see more of this show…

The Magicians, based on the books by Lev Grossman, follows the 20-something students at Brakebills University for Magical Pedagogy, where they discover that magic is hard and the world of fantasy is real.

Creator/producer Dean Devlin has been chomping at the bit to make an announcement over the past few days, and finally today he could – after the third season finale aired on Sunday, today Devlin announced that TNT has renewed The Librarians for a fourth season. The next season should start airing later this year.

The Librarians is based on a series of TV movies produced for TNT which followed Flynn Carsen (Noah Wyle), who was chosen to be the next Librarian for the mysterious Library which holds many artifacts (such as the Sword of Excalibur) that possess many magical qualities. The series picks up with the the Library taking on three new Librarians to help Carsen – Jacob Stone (Christian Kane), an expert in history, languages and agriculture with an IQ of 190; Cassandra Cillian (Lindy Booth), a mathematician with an innate ability to visualize and solve problems in her head; and Ezekiel Jones (John Harlan Kim), a master lockpicker and thief with extensive knowledge of technology. They are joined by Eve Baird (Rebecca Romijn), a former NATO Colonel who is the new Guardian, whose job is to protect the Librarians, and Jenkins (John Larroquette), the Library’s caretaker, who has been around for a strangely long time…

We can now say that the Battle of Axanar is over…Paramount/CBS and Axanar productions have reached a settlement in the suit against the fan-produced Axanar film. With things looking bleak earlier this month when Axanar was denied fair use status, so there wasn’t much surprise that a settlement was reached. It wasn’t much in the film’s favor, but it will see the light of day in a shortened form with major modifications, restricted to two 15-minute episodes released on YouTube sans ads (they will not be allowed to monetize the film), along with Prelude to Axanar with the same restrictions. Producer Alec Peters also admitted that the production “crossed the line” and was not approved by Paramount/CBS.

Axanar wasn’t the only loser here though, as Paramount/CBS lost a lot of the fan love they had by bringing on this suit.

The full text of the announcement is here:

Paramount Pictures Corporation, CBS Studios Inc., Axanar Productions, Inc. and Alec Peters are pleased to announce that the litigation regarding Axanar’s film Prelude to Axanar and its proposed film Axanar has been resolved. Axanar and Mr. Peters acknowledge that both films were not approved by Paramount or CBS, and that both works crossed boundaries acceptable to CBS and Paramount relating to copyright law.

Axanar and Mr. Peters have agreed to make substantial changes to Axanar to resolve this litigation, and have also assured the copyright holders that any future Star Trek fan films produced by Axanar or Mr. Peters will be in accordance with the “Guidelines for Fan Films” distributed by CBS and Paramount in June 2016.

Paramount and CBS continue to be big believers in fan fiction and fan creativity. They encourage amateur filmmakers to showcase their passion for Star Trek. Paramount and CBS will not object to, or take legal action against, Star Trek fan productions that are non-professional, amateur, and otherwise meet the Guidelines, which can be found at http://www.startrek.com/fan-films. Paramount and CBS would like Star Trek fans, with their boundless creativity and passion, to “Live Long and Prosper.”

Well, we thought a May air date seemed very ambitious for a show that hadn’t begun production, and it turns out to be true – we hear from several sources now that Star Trek: Discovery will not make the planned May debut date, which had already been pushed back from the original plan of this month. Production does start next week in Toronto at least.

While CBS has been tight-lipped as to specific reasons, Entertainment Weekly gives two reasons – one, star Sonequa Martin-Green would be appearing on her current hit show, The Walking Dead (at least if they don’t kill her off earlier) and there could be “marketplace confusion”, and also that they are still working on various decisions to be made on directors, visual effects, etc.

No new target date has been set. CBS Television Studios did respond to EW’s inquiry, stating “This is an ambitious project; we will be flexible on a launch date if it’s best for the show.” So they are still behind the show, and determined to do it right and not rushed.

In the meantime a little good news: they signed another actor in a key role – James Frain, who currently appears in Fox’s Gotham. Frain will play Sarek – yes, the Sarek that is Spock’s father. The character was also the Vulcan ambassador to the United Federation of Planets (in the time of the original series) and an astrophysicist. He was played by the late Mark Lenard, who appeared in several of the series and movies (and even once as the Romulan Commander in “Balance of Terror”, which introduced the Romulans to the universe.) How the character fits in to the show has not been released.

AMC announced during their TCA presentation this week that they have ordered six one-hour episodes of a documentary series on the history of science fiction from James Cameron, to air sometimes in 2018.

James Cameron’s Story of Science Fiction will have each episode asking one of the “Big Questions” that humanity faced all through history, and looks at how science fiction has attempted to answer those questions and steer humanity into the future.

“When I was a kid, I basically read any book with a spaceship on the cover and I saw 2001: A Space Odyssey many, many times,” Cameron said. “The movie inspired me to become a filmmaker. I liked the special effects, but I really loved the ideas and the questions behind them: How will the world end? Will technology destroy us? What does it mean to be human?”

The Museum of Pop Culture in Seattle will consult on the series.

James Cameron’s Story of Science Fiction will be produced by Left/Right, and executive produced by Cameron, Maria Wilhelm, Ken Druckerman and Banks Tarver.

“I can take care of myself. I’m from Texas.”

But why does Jack The Ripper seem at home in the present day?

The ABC series remake of Time After Time, starring Freddie Stroma as H G Wells and Josh Bowman as John Stevenson, premieres Sunday, March 5 at 9/8c on ABC.

It’s been a while since we last reported on it, but the crowdfunded production called Axanar received a setback this week in its defense against the lawsuit from CBS/Paramount, which is still going on.

Axanar, being produced by Axanar Productions, is essentially a fan-made prequel film to the original Star Trek series, telling the story of Garth of Izar, who appears as a character in the original series episode “Whom Gods Destroy”, a former starship fleet captain now held in an insane asylum after he ordered the genocide of an entire species who had helped heal his maimed body, when they refused his offer to help rule the galaxy. Axanar tells the story of the Battle of Axanar, where Garth was pivotal in the victory over the Klingons and his tactics became required reading at Starfleet Academy. Additional backstory for the character appears in licensed novels.

U.S. District Court Judge R. Gary Klausner denied Axanar Productions request for dismissal, on the grounds that the suit was premature because the film is unfinished and falls under fair use, saying that Axanar would need to prove in court to a jury that their production is substantively different from the copyrighted material. Given that they are using a character and situation that is established in Star Trek canon and within the licensed universe, Judge Klausner ruled that Axanar were using copyrighted works, but a jury would need to decide whether they would be confusion to a “lay person” over whether it was a production of the copyright holders.

Last time we reported on the situation, Star Trek movie producer J.J. Abrams claimed he and Star Trek: Beyond director Justin Lin asked for the suit to be stopped, and stated on stage “it will be announced this is going away, and that fans would be able to continue working on their project”. But as it turns out he apparently ad-libbed the segment at a Star Trek fan event, fell on deaf ears at CBS/Paramount.

Just a quick roundup on end-of-2016 events…most notably that it’s been the biggest U.S. box office year for movies ever, taking in $11.13 billion with a few days of strong tracking to go. Leading the pack was Disney/Pixar’s Finding Dory at $486 million, followed Rogue One: A Star Wars Story which had $424M, and Captain America: Civil War at $408M, giving Disney’s divisions the box office trifecta for 2016. Rogue One also looks to keep running into 2017, as it reached it’s mark in only 16 days!

While slower at gaining a box office following, Arrival, which cost much less to make than Rogue One and faced a lot of competition after its release, passed $150 million in the global box office, which is not bad for a “thinker” science fiction movie.

What happens when you mash up a superhero story with Doctor Who on Christmas Day? You get the most watched program in 2016 for BBC America. “The Return of Doctor Mysterio” had 1.7 million viewers in the Live+3 ratings and topped all the key demographics, as well as being the channels most active program on social media. Still not sure when the upcoming season will begin, but we are thinking around April.