Sci-Fi Storm

A new character, yet to be cast, will appear in the upcoming 10th season of Stargate SG-1, to begin airing in July. The new character, Adria, will be the leader of the Ori in our galaxy, and may appear at different ages, which has something to do with the storyline.

Looks like we are starting to see some details about one of the proposed Star Wars series – according to producer Rick McCallum they are expecting a 100+-episode run (that’s about 5 seasons in the US, which are typically 22 one-hour episodes). It will also follow the 20 years between Episodes III and IV in the life of Luke Skywalker.

[Unbelievable – another unrelated death in the family, so please don’t expect too much]

Doctor Who finally makes its official U.S. debut this Friday at 9pm with the first two episodes, “Rose”, and “The End of the World”. As part of the run-up to the series, exec producer Russell T. Davies gave an interview to SCI FI Wire where he briefly discusses how he finally got his wish to revive the Doctor – and how remarkably easy it was. Series two is wrapping up production and should hit the U.K. soon. Updated 3/16: More of the interview talks about making a serious drama.

[Sorry…a death in the family as well as the job hunt is taking all my time].

SCI FI Channel has announced Season 3 of the hit Battlestar Galactica will be a full 20 episodes, but will not begin airing until October, Instead of the usual summer half-season start time. The 90-minute season finale airs tonight at 10pm ET, preceded by the season finales of Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis.

Wow, is it over already? The ad blitz that signifies the end of SCI FI’s Winter half-season is coming to a close. The two part season closer for Battlestar Galactica, “Lay Down Your Arms”, starts this Friday (3/3), plus both Stargate shows wrap up over the next two Fridays as well. The good thing? Doctor Who starts on the 17th…

We first reported on the show in August, but ABC has has placed an order for 4 episodes of Masters of Sci-Fi, an anthology series that hopes to bring the stories of some of the best SF authors to the small screen. Producers IDT Entertainment and Industry Entertainment, who did the Masters of Horror series, actually plan to put at least 6 episodes into production and hope to do a full 13. Anthology series haven’t done well on network TV recently – lets hope this bucks the trend.

She’s back! Lucy Lawless (Xena: Warrior Princess), who appeared in a Battlestar Galactica episode last year as D’Anna Biers, and investigative journalist, will reprise her role in a 10 episode arc in the third season, which begins production in April. She also has an upcoming appearance in the Feb. 27th episode, “Downloaded”.

Heather Graham may have lost her show after one airing, but Matthew Bomer lost his two weeks after he was cast. Farscape creator Rockne S. O’Bannon’s new project called Cult, which was given the green light by The WB two weeks ago and announced Bomer (Tru Calling) as being cast, has been cancelled by the new CW network, as it no longer fits “the programming needs of The CW.” However, WB Television (the studio, not the network) is going to shop the show at the next “selling season”.

In an unprecedented move, CBS, which owns the UPN network, and Time Warner, which owns The WB network, will will merge the two networks into one this Fall, with the new network called “The CW”. The new network will pick what shows it wishes to keep from the existing networks. For markets with both The WB and UPN represented, it appears the 16 Tribune-owned WB stations will have precedence (Tribune is an investor in Time Warner), with 12 CBS-owned UPN stations next and the rest remains to be seen. Boston has both a Tribune (WLVI 56) and a CBS-owned UPN station (WSBK 38 – and they already own the CBS station) – WLVI will become part of the new network, and WSBK will be searching for programming – no word on if it will be sold.

The BBC is announcing with flourish that a deal has been struck with the SCI FI Channel to finally bring the new Doctor Who to the U.S. SFC will begin airing the first series in March in the Friday 9pm time slot (presumably the Winter half of Stargate Atlantis will be done by then). SFC also has an option on the upcoming second series. As part of the deal, the release of the DVD set will be delayed until July 4th, 2006 (explaining the earlier article). So, make sure all you U.S. Whovians tune in so we can continue to get the new series in a timely manner.