Sci-Fi Storm

Actor Anton Yelchin, who has been playing the role of PAvel Checkov in the three recent Star Trek movies, as well as roles in Terminator: Salvation and Alphas Dogs among others, passed away early this morning in a freak automobile accident at the age of 27.

It appears that Yelchin had exited his car while it was running, and it rolled, pinning him against a brick post next to a security gate, suffering traumatic injuries.

Yelchin was born in St. Petersburg, Russia (back then it was still called Leningrad as part of the Soviet Union), but emigrated with his parents (professional figure skaters ho qualified for the 1972 Olympics but because they were Jewish were not permitted to represent the USSR) to the United States when he was only 6 months old. His parents went on to become skating instructors, but at a young age he showed more interest in acting than skating. He made his acting debut at the age of 10 in a guest spot on ER in 2000. and just a year later earned acclaim opposite Anthony Hopkins in Heart of Atlantis, earning a Young Artist Award.

We knew that although CBS picked up MacGyver to series, there was a major retooling in the works. We figured it would be the not-rare practice of simply replacing characters, but it turns out they are really chucking the entire pilot episode and starting over – to the point that George Eads will play an entirely different – yet familiar – character and how things get started will change – and James Wan will direct the new premiere episode.

Whereas the pilot had followed similarly to the original – MacGyver being recruited by a clandestine organization – the new one will apparently have MacGyver (Lucas Till) creating the organization itself within the U.S. government, utilizing his skills to save others’ lives. Co-star Eads, who was to play an original character who was described as something of a conspiracy theorist, will now play maverick former CIA agent Jack Dalton, a role originated by Bruce McGill in the original series. Peter Lenkov, showrunner for Hawaii Five-0 is writing the new script and will likely act as showrunner. And James Wan, who has been shepherding the production but had conflicts and couldn’t direct the pilot, will direct the new episode.

The Flash will lead off the CW’s parade of shows this fall, starting at 8/7c on Tuesday, October 4th. It’s sibling series The Arrow picks up the following night at the same time, followed by the series premiere of Frequency, based on the 2000 movie.

Supergirl makes it’s return the following Monday at 8/7c, and will feature the on-screen appearance of Kara’s cousin Superman (with Teen Wolf‘s Tyler Hoechlin as the Man of Steel). Then Legends of Tomorrow picks up the pieces on Thursday, October 13th, at 8/7c.

It’s a bit interesting that DC/Warner Bros have had the about face on allowing the CW to use Superman, as the triumvirate of Superman, Batman and Wonder Women were considered untouchable for TV properties while WB was working on spinning up a movie universe franchise.

Let’s not let the fact that he was just a head controlling a robot body working as a waiter in a restaurant at the end of “The Husbands of River Song” get in the way of the squee-inducing news that comedian Matt Lucas will return as Nardole in the upcoming 10th series of Doctor Who opposite Peter Capaldi and Pearl Mackie!

It isn’t clear for how long, but Lucas will be joining right away with the first episode, which starts filming next Monday, and he isn’t going away soon.

“Delighted and slightly amazed to be welcoming Matt Lucas back on to the TARDIS – and this time it’s not just for Christmas, he’s sticking around,” remarked lead writer and showrunner Steven Moffat. “One of the greatest comedy talents on planet Earth is being unleashed on all of time and space.”

“I’m chuffed to bits that Nardole is returning to the TARDIS for some more adventures,” Lucas said. “I loved acting with Peter and I’m excited to work with Pearl.”

This will actually mark the second time that a one-off Christmas episode character ends up returning for an extended run. The first was Donna Noble (Catherine Tate), who appeared in “The Runaway Bride”, and then returned as the Doctor’s companion for the fourth series. But Nardole is doing it a lot sooner…

Head TAPS Ghost Hunter Jason Hawes just announced moments ago that Ghost Hunters will be leaving the Syfy Channel, where it has been for over a decade.

Ghost Hunters, produced by Pilgrim Studios, will have run for 11 seasons on the channel, starting back when it was still the Sci-Fi Channel, and has been very successful. Details as to why the split, or where the Ghost Hunters will end up (it’s pretty clear that they are not ending, just moving somewhere else with some new plans), but with the seeming near-complete management changes, the focus of the channel could once again be changing.

The Agents of SHIELD will have some company on the TV dial with a new cable cousin – Marvel’s Legion has gotten an 8 episode order by FX. Fox’s X-Men production team of Lauren Shuler Donner, Bryan Singer and Simon Kinberg along with Fargo‘s Noah Hawley head the project, which stars Dan Stevens (Downton Abbey) as David Haller, the son of Professor Xavier, who has struggled since he was a teen with mental illness. Diagnosed as schizophrenic, David has been in and out of psychiatric hospitals for years. But after a strange encounter with a fellow patient, he’s confronted with the possibility that the voices he hears and the visions he sees might be real.

Legion also stars Rachel Keller, Jean Smart and Aubrey Plaza. Marvel TV’s Jeph Loeb and Jim Chory with John Cameron (Fargo) are also producing.

BBC America’s Dirk Gently series added a slew of new cast members this week, joining series stars Samuel Barnett (Gently) and Elijah Wood (Todd).

Neil Brown Jr. (Straight Outta Compton) and Richard Schiff (The West Wing) will play Estevez and Zimmerfield, missing person detectives operating increasingly off book as they follow the trail of a complex and mystifying case; Jade Eshete (Shades of Blue) plays Farah Black, a bad-ass Security Officer for a billionaire; Mpho Koaho (Falling Skies) plays Ken, a nerdy, friendly-faced tech trapped in increasingly difficult and bloody circumstances; Fiona Dourif (When We Rise) will play Bart Curlish, the terrifying “Holistic Assassin”; Michael Eklund (The Call II) is Martin, violent ring leader of the Rowdy 3; Miguel Sandoval (Medium) plays Colonel Scott Riggins, beleaguered CIA head of a defunct secret bureau investigating the paranormal; Dustin Milligan (Schitt’s Creek) is Sergeant Hugo Friedkin, Riggin’s subordinate, unpredictable, wildly ambitious and dangerous moron; and Aaron Douglas (Battlestar Galactica) portrays Gordon Rimmer, an enigmatic loser with an impressive series of horrible secrets.

Over on Syfy, Franka Potente (Copper) will have a recurring role on the second season of Dark Matter as Commander Shaddick, Chief Inspector of the Galactic Authority Serious Crimes Division. She is described as “cool, calculated and determined to prove the crew of the Raza were involved in the destruction of Iriden 3.”

WARNING – spoilers for the season finale of Legends Of Tomorrow ahead!
(continue reading…)

While others are just teasing their new shows, CBS decided to give a whole trailer to MacGyver, after it was picked up for series earlier this week. Interestingly, all this footage is from the pilot, but there is some chatter that the pilot might not make it to air, since they are dropping the supporting cast outside of George Eads. If the do show the pilot there would be a “what happened” issue, but it wouldn’t be the first time this has happened – it’s happened on many shows in the past. Even the original Star Trek aired the second pilot, “Where No Man Has Gone Before”, which had a different doctor, some other crew members, and set differences (the snake-armed communicator from the first pilot is still on the captain’s chair, and the forward viewer was shaped differently for instance.) Even weirder in that case, it was shown as the third episode, which made for a continuity issue.

[Video no longer available]

Come on, you knew this was being planned as soon as they made the move official…now that Supergirl will join her sibling superhero shows on the CW in the Fall, she’ll also be part of the December crossover event between the shows.

Right before their upfronts, CW chief Mark Pedowitz said, “Just imagine what our superhero crossover episode is going to look like come December.” Then, during the upfront presentation he officially said that she’d be part of it, calling it “our biggest ever.”

There will now be four shows for the crossover…Arrow, The Flash, and Legends of Tomorrow, with the latter two having spun off from the former, will get to play with their otherworldly sister. How will it happen? Well, it’s a long way off yet, but with it being established that Supergirl is on a different Earth from Flash (and not Earth-2 either – there were no metahumans on her Earth), it would seem likely that Kara will make the trip to their side this time…