Sci-Fi Storm

OK, this week is the beginning of SCI FI Channel’s Summer half-season, with the return of SCI FI Friday shows Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis (Battlestar Galactica won’t return until October), but also some old and new programs: James Cameron’s Dark Angel will get a rerun-run Mondays starting tonight, and new original series Eureka starts Tuesday, July 18th. Read More for a synopsis of the show.

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I can see this will be a busy Who news week. The BBC has announced the next companion for the Doctor, and it will be Freema Agyeman, who just appeared in “Army of Ghosts” as Adeola, but she won’t be playing that character. Instead, she will play Martha Jones, but that’s all we know right now. Freema will join in Series 3, and will not appear in this year’s Christmas special (there is a surprise being saved for that). It’s not the first time that an actor appeared on the show before becoming a different regular character – Nicholas Courtney and Lalla Ward appeared as different characters before their well-known personas – and even Colin Baker played the Doctor after appearing in one episode in a previous season.

On The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, actor Katey Segal, who provides the voice of Leela, confirmed the return of Futurama with 13 new episodes – alas, they are not scheduled to air until sometime in 2008. All the primary voices are said to return.

British tabloid The Sun is reporting from “insider” sources on who the next Doctor Who companion will be. Freema Agyeman, who appeared in the British series Crossroads, will reportedly be in the last two episodes of the current series, and join full-time with the third series. And lest you forget – the U.S. release of the Series 1 DVD Set is set for July 4th – pre-order now!

This time its true: The BBC has announced that Billy Piper will leave Doctor Who at the end of the current (second) series. She will have a “stunning exit”, but they are mum if this means she may be killed off. “With a series climax called Doomsday on its way, I can’t guarantee who will survive and who won’t, but I can assure you the TARDIS is going on its scariest journey yet!”

Finally, some news: SCI FI Channel is reporting that Doctor Who has boosted Friday ratings for the channel by 54% viewership over the same time last year. Note that the regular SCI FI Friday lineup would have still been in reruns last year. No mention if they will pick up the second series for the fall break. The first series just completed last Friday.

I think the SCI FI Channel has gone WAYYYY out of their core programming now. SFC announced today that it is teaming up with World Wrestling Entertainment to re-launch WWE’s Extreme Championship Wrestling brand. Beginning on June 13th at 10pm, SFC will begin airing ECW programming “suited” for the channel. Now, if they wanted a more SF-bent wrestling, they should have checked out Kaiju Big Battel. Where else can you see giant plantains take on japanese monsters and the evil Dr. Cube…

Lost, which probably beats Battlestar Galactica in the watercooler talk area, should answer a lot of questions posed in the show, but according to executive producer Bryan Burk, there will still be a lot of discussions after the 2-hour season finale, Live Together, Die Alone”, airing this Wednesday. I must say, the pseudo-SF themes are getting a lot more interesting as it goes on…the producers and writers seem to have put a lot of thought into what is going on in the backstory. If you are interested, Lostpedia is a good resource for all of the collected information and theories, but beware of spoilers if you are not up to date with the U.S. airings.

The merged CW Network, sorting through the plethora of old and new shows it inherited from its defunct parents, UPN and WB, announced its fall schedule. What is noticible is the absence of the Aquaman series (it went under several tentative names), a pilot which was made for the WB, and even had a casting change when the merger was announced, with Justin Hartley (Passions) replacing relative newcomer Will Toale. Still dead is Charmed, yet previously cancelled 7th Heaven is being resurrected. Smallville and Supernatural live on.

I’m starting to hear reports that ABC has cancelled SF series Invasion, finally following its SF contemporaries: Threshold on CBS and Surface on NBC.