Sci-Fi Storm

Both Enterprise on UPN (8pm ET) and Battlestar Galactica on SCI FI (9pm, first two episodes) debut with new episodes tonight, so schedule accordingly. For those og you with TiVos, watch out for next Friday – Stargate SG-1 and Atlantis also return with new episodes, so season pass conflicts with Enterprise may result (unless you have a DirecTiVo like me). Depending how the ratings are looked at, could UPN have finally killed Enterprise by diluting the audience?

Are you short? Don’t mind being painted blue? Give the BBC a call. Due to the simultaneous filming of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire in England, the producers of the new Doctor Who series have run in to a shortage of diminutive actors needed to play aliens.

Genndy Tartakovsky, who created the animated Star Wars: Clone Wars shorts for the Cartoon Network, says a third season will debut March 26th which will bring the story right to the beginning of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith.

Seems Enterprise is going to tap into one of the great unaswered questions of Treklore – why Klingons had smooth foreheads in the original Star Trek, but in all other shows and movies they are bumpy. In a two-parter starting with the 15th episode of this season, the issue will be dealt with.

The SCI FI Channel has announced that Ben Browder (John Crichton from Farscape) will be joining the cast of Stargate SG-1 next season, but no details on the role. Negotiations are still in progress on bringing Richard Dean Anderson in some capacity. The eighth season of both Stargate series picks up again on January 21st, followed by the new Battlestar Galactica. Update 12/20: SCI FI Wire reports that Ben will play a “Lieutenant Colonel” (name hasn’t cleared legal yet). It’s not a character seen before, but “played a key role in some major events that went on.”

The SCI FI Channel will debut its next miniseries with the four hour Legend of Earthsea, adapted from Ursula K. Le Guin’s series of Earthsea novels about a headstrong youth with wizardly powers possibly greater than any wizard. It stars Shawn Ashmore (X-Men 2) as Ged the mage-in-training, Kristin Kreuk (Smallville) as Princess Tena, Isabella Rossellini (Merlin) as High Priestess Thar, and Danny Glover (Lethal Weapon) as the master wizard Ogion. IT airs Monday (12/13) at 9PM ET with several repeats, and the conclusion the following night at 9PM. Update 12/15: Seems Le Guin wasn’t involved much, and does NOT like the result…

The BBC has put up a teaser trailer for the upcoming Doctor Who series – and boy is it a “teaser”.

The SCI FI Channel announced today that is has signed up both Stargate SG-1 and Stargate: Atlantis for an additional season each. All the man cast of Atlantis is expected to return; negotiations are in progress for SG-1 cast members. This would make nine seasons for SG-1, tying The X-Files for the longest running American SF drama series. Both series return with new episodes in January.

I finally got to watch both parts of the Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars (pre-order from Amazon) miniseries – I got delayed due to getting a new DirecTV TiVo and moving the existing one which had it recorded to replace the old standalone original TiVo, blah, blah, blah…). So, finally, here is a review…some unavoidable spoilers ahead.

(continue reading…)

Both The Sun (with its quirks – he’s been “P. Diddy” for a while) and Dark Horizons have images of the new Daleks – notibly gold in color and some minor cosmetic differences. Apparently the new Daleks can fly – they now have jets in the bottom.