Sci-Fi Storm

This past weekend we were saddened to learn that actor Ron Glass, most well known for his role as Detective Ron Harris on the 70s ABC sitcom Barney Miller, but also as Shepherd Book on Firefly, passed away at the age of 71. His last appearances were in 2014 in episodes of CSI and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

To me, in his roles he always emanated a relaxed, laid back, calming persona. His friends and colleagues remembered him on social media. Firefly creator Joss Whedon said, “He was, among so many other things, my Shepherd. Raise, appropriately, a glass. Rest, Ron.”

“He was the kind of person that remembered the details, that asked about your family’s well-being,” remembered fellow Firefly castmate Jewel Staite. “He hugged hard and often. He would laugh till he cried at a sick joke and top it with a worse one. He loved a Grey Goose crantini and spilled one on my white jeans in the heat of telling a story, and then just said, “Girl, those were ugly pants anyway.” I adored him. Everybody did. I love you, Ron.”

We raise our glasses as well to you, Ron.

…but not what you were thinking. Deadline reports that as rumored Michelle Yeoh, the martial arts action star from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Tomorrow Never Dies, has been cast as a captain in the upcoming CBS All Access series, Star Trek: Discovery, but NOT as the captain of the Discovery itself. It appears that Yeoh will play Captain Han Bo of the Shenzhou, but will still figure prominently in the first season.

This is the first casting announcement, which is puzzling since the series is set to debut in May, and was already pushed back from January.

Emmy award winning visual effects artist Ron Thornton, best known for his work on Babylon 5 passed away yesterday at home after a short illness at the age of 59, as confirmed by his colleague Emile Smith on Twitter.

Thornton co-founded Foundation Imaging and pioneered the CGI and visual effects methods started on Babylon 5 using Newtek’s Video Toaster hardware and Lightwave 3D modeling software that allowed such effects to be both realistic and within a television show budget. He won an Emmy in 1993 for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Special Visual Effects for the work on the pilot movie, Babylon 5: The Gathering, and had three more nominations. Prior to Babylon 5, he had worked on Spaceballs, Critters, and Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future.

After a falling out with the Babylon 5 producers in the third season, he worked on Star Trek: Voyager and Star Trek: Enterprise and co-created the series Hypernauts.

The Netflix remake of Lost In Space continues to move forward, although having to wait until 2018 is going to be tough. But this twist in casting is going to make us anxious to see it that much more.

Parker Posey (Party Girl, Superman Returns) has signed on to join the series as none other than Dr. Smith! This gender flip will be interesting to see. The original Dr. Smith was played by Jonathan Harris, and was initially a bad guy who tried to sabotage the mission of the Jupiter 2 but gets caught on board at launch. Early through the first season, he stayed as a conniving saboteur, but eventually softened and became a more comedic leading role thanks to Harris’ acting skills, which changed the whole nature of the show. In the 1998 big screen remake, the character was played by Gary Oldman, as a totally evil character but with touches of the mannerism of Harris’s character as a homage.

A previous attempt by ABC to reboot the show opted to omit the middle child of Penny and instead added an older brother, but it never made it past the pilot stage.

Previously announced cast are Toby Stephens (John Robinson), Taylor Russell (Judy Robinson), Max Jenkins (Will Robinson), and Molly Parker (Maureen Robinson). The characters of Major West and Penny Robinson presumably are yet to be cast. Producers have said that this version will take cues from the original, but beyond that we have little information.

BBC America has renewed Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency for a second season of 10 episodes, up from 8 episodes for the current season, which will air sometime in 2017.

According to BBC America President Sarah Barnett, “Outlandishly different, Dirk Gently has hit a sweet spot with BBCA fans/ With Elijah Wood and Samuel Barnett’s chemistry as oddball detective/sidekick duo, and our creators promising ever greater genius-weird cosmic mystery in the next case, we’re happy to announce more of this truly original and entertaining show.”

The show is based on the Dirk Gently novels from the late Douglas Adams, best known for the crazy Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy series of novels, and follows the eccentric Holistic Detective Dirk Gently (Samuel Barnett) and his reluctant bellboy-turned-assistant Todd (Elijah Wood) as they try and unravel a strange mystery.

Quick editorial note – apologies for the broken links on social media…I had to switch methods due to API changes, and unbeknownst to be a combinations of plugins produced bad social media links. That’s all fixed now. I’m also getting my head above water again after being involved in a local theater production and attending Rhode Island Comic Con last weekend…

Deadpool 2 now has a new director in David Leitch, the former stuntman who directed 2014’s John Wick. He’s currently working on The Coldest City, starring Charlize Theron, James McAvoy, John Goodman and Sofia Boutella. Original directory Tim Miller left the project after creative differences with star Ryan Reynolds.

The CW has elected not to pick up back-end orders for its two freshman shows Frequency and No Tomorrow. This is unusual as the CW has generally given back end orders to nearly all of its new series. While they aren’t necessarily dead yet, hopes are very minimal as the ratings were extremely low. However, under the deal with Netflix, the shows will be on the streaming provider 8 days after the finale ends, so if it does well there, there could be enough impetus to pick them up.

Syfy, with Paramount Television and Universal Cable Productions, is developing a series based on Robert Heinlein’s Stranger In A Strange Land, about a man born and raised on Mars who comes to Earth.

Here is the complete sneak peek from BBC’s Children In Need special for the upcoming Doctor Who Christmas Special, “The Return Of Doctor Mysterio”…can’t wait!

And give if you can…

So that Inhumans movie that was announced for 2018? Not happening – at least, not exactly.

Marvel.com announced that The Inhumans will in fact be a TV series in ABC, starting in September 2017, which at least brings it a whole year sooner. But it WILL get a big screen treatment, in the form of the first two episodes debuting on IMAX screens late in the summer prior to the network run. The first two episodes will be filmed entirely with IMAX cameras to facilitate this.

The new project comes from Marvel Television and ABC Studios, and follows a race of superhumans with diverse and singularly unique powers, were first introduced in Marvel Comics by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in 1965. The Inhumans were already introduced in the cinematic universe in Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D..

ABC, IMAX and Marvel Television also intend to work together to create a joint marketing and promotion plan for the series across their proprietary media platforms–which would be the first such cross-platform marketing launch of a television series. Today’s agreement also marks IMAX’s first time as a financing participant in a TV pilot and series.

“This first-of-its-kind multi-platform production, distribution and marketing agreement brings together Marvel Television’s unique brand of entertainment, ABC’s unparalleled audience and IMAX’s brand and global fanboy demographic,” said IMAX CEO, Rich Gelfond. “It also takes our decades-long relationship with The Walt Disney Company to a whole new level, jointly breaking new ground in the industry. We are confident our exhibition partners will be excited to work with us on this innovative launch of a series across the IMAX network.”

“We’re happy to see this unique deal come together, working with our partners,” said Dan Buckley, President, Marvel Television, Publishing & Brand. “In an ever-changing world of distribution and consumption, it’s very exciting to be part of a groundbreaking initiative that takes us to the forefront of this evolution.”

Syfy has announced the Season 2 premiere dates for both The Magicians and The Expanse, two of the most intriguing series from the channel in a while.

Season two of The Magicians will premiere on Wednesday, January 25 at 9/8c. Based on the bestselling novels from Lev Grossman, Syfy’s hit drama The Magicians centers on Quentin Coldwater (Jason Ralph) and his 20-something friends as they discover their magical abilities at Brakebills University, a secret grad school specializing in magic. While there, they come to the realization that the fantasies they read about as children are all too real, and unwittingly invite a malevolent entity from the other side into their lives. Heading into Season 2, this group of unlikely heroes have been thrust into even more dangerous and unfamiliar territory, and must draw upon their novice skills to defeat a threat that could destroy the magical world itself. Driven by power, revenge and survival, they learn that those who entered the hauntingly beautiful world of Fillory will never be the same as those who leave.

Season two of The Expanse will begin with a double episode on Wednesday, February 1st at 10/9c. The story of The Expanse unfolds across a colonized galaxy 200 years in the future, when two strangers – a hardened detective, Joe Miller (Thomas Jane), and a rogue ship’s captain, James Holden (Steven Strait) – become unwittingly swept up in a vast conspiracy to cover up a horrific human experiment. As Season 2 kicks off with interplanetary tensions at an all-time high, the cold war between Earth and Mars is on the brink of an all-out battle. The series is based on the New York Times bestselling book series collectively known as “The Expanse,” written by Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck (under the pen name James S. A. Corey).

[An earlier version of this article had The Expanse premiere on February 8th, but Syfy amended the premiere date after publishing]

Monty Python member, writer and director Terry Gilliam did a webchat for The Guardian on Monday, and as part of it, Gilliam mentioned an old favorite, Time Bandits, as well as another possible project:

“Yes I am! We are involved in two possibilities – one, a TV series based on Time Bandits, another based on a script by Richard LaGravanese and I wrote after Fisher King, called The Defective Detective. We’re currently adapting a two hour film into a six hour series. It’s about a middle aged New York cop who was once a hero who has grown fat and cynical and is in the middle of a breakdown, ending up in a child’s fantasy world where the rules of the mean streets of New York no longer apply. The best way to kill a dragon is no longer a gun, but a tree branch you think is a sword.”

Time Bandits was one of the films that played frequently on cable TV when we first got it, and I watched it frequently. It’s still one of my favorite films. It follows 11 year old Kevin (Craig Warnock), who suddenly finds himself on a journey through history with six dwarves who have stolen a map to all the time portals so they can travel through time and steal valuable items. Sean Connery, John Cleese, Shelley Duvall, Ian Holm, David Warner and more all appeared in the film.