Sci-Fi Storm

It’s official – there will be no Doctor Who Christmas episode this year. A tradition since the show returned in 2005, it will not happen this year, and the reason is simply they seem to have run out of ideas.

After all, we’ve had alien invasions, a Spaceship Titanic, cybermen, evil snowmen, and more – and even said goodbye to the last two Doctors all on Christmas Day.

“I sort of think we might have mined, and possibly over mined, every single thing we could about Christmas in Doctor Who and the last time we more or less ignored it,” according to new showrunner Chris Chibnall.

But don’t fret too long – there will still be an extra episode, it will just happen on New Years Day instead, with a storyline that will help ring in the 2019. So maybe a new tradition is born?

Remember that story about the Desilu Studios name being revived when someone acquired the name rights and was going to reboot V?

Well, we now doubt it is going to happen.

Apparently Charles B. Hensley, who announced he had acquired the Desilu Studios name earlier this year, apparently has a shady past including a conviction for selling a bird flu vaccine that was never approved by the FDA. And now CBS has accused him in a lawsuit for using the Desilu name to dupe investors into his shell companies, and not actually using the name for legitimate purposes, as well as creating a false valuation letter claiming the company was worth $11.2 billion. His Desilu Studios and Desilu Corporation did not obtain the catalog of original Desilu productions, which are wholly owned by CBS through it’s acquisition of Paramount.

This might be interesting to see how it pans out.

Just wanted to give a bit of an update…I know there hasn’t been a lot of news from me lately, and I apologize. Life has been extremely busy, and as part of that I’ve started a new project – not really related to anything here, it’s actually a technical project involving turning a Raspberry Pi computer into a weather information system and hopefully a home “integration” system. I haven’t even posted anything about that yet because I’ve been too busy…but it has lights, a touch screen, and it even talks.

In the meantime Sci-Fi Storm turned 18 years old, and I’m at least hoping to make it old enough to drink 🙂

I do have an interview coming I did with an old friend, which I hope to have out this weekend – but transcribing is a slow process for me, and that whole busy thing…and I’ll be heading to Super Megafest in Framingham, MA Sunday to meet up with my childhood, personified by Lost In Space stars Mark Goddard, Marta Kristen, Angela Cartwright and Bill Mumy…I’ve met the former two before, but this will be the first time I’ve met the latter two.

In the meantime – hey, look, it’s the news!

Jodie Whittaker made her Doctor debut in Doctor Who on Sunday as did new showrunner Chris Chibnall, and by all measurements it was a rousing success. We found her portrayal wonderfully manic, and we accept her totally. I can see where her fast Yorkshire speech might be some trouble to understand for some viewers though. And we like the new ensemble of companions as well. Can’t wait to see where it goes…in the U.S., it scored 1.4 million viewers and a 0.5 rating in the 18-49 demo for BBC America, up 48% from the Series 12 premiere, Peter Capaldi’s last, 18 months previous. It also beats David Tennant’s and Matt Smith’s debuts.

And some interesting news – James Gunn, after being unceremoniously expelled from his Guardians of the Galaxy chair by Disney after revelations of some old controversial tweets, appears set to join the other comic universe – in this case the DC universe, and in particular write and perhaps direct Suicide Squad 2. Gavin O’Connor was set to direct but is now working with Ben Affleck on a non-DC film at Warner Bros. This would seem to mean any possible reconciliation between Gunn and Disnwy is over, although who will take over for Guardians is still up in the air.

We finally have some details – and a title – on the upcoming Star Wars live-action series from Jon Favreau, thanks to the director himself.

The Mandalorian will be the title, and as you might guess it follows a Mandalorian – but not one of the few we’ve met so far. “After the stories of Jango and Boba Fett, another warrior emerges in the Star Wars universe. The Mandalorian is set after the fall of the Empire and before the emergence of the First Order. We follow the travails of a lone gunfighter in the outer reaches of the galaxy far from the authority of the New Republic,” according to Favreau’s Instagram post.

Still no idea when the series may premiere, but it will be on Disney’s new streaming service, which won’t kick off for about another year.

In a surprise announcement today, Netflix will produce a new films and series based on The Chronicles of Narnia stories by C.S. Lewis, with Mark Gordon of Entertainment One (eOne), Douglas Gresham (Lewis’ stepson) and Vincent Sieber representing the C.S. Lewis Company as executive producers for series and producers for films.

“C.S. Lewis’ beloved Chronicles of Narnia stories have resonated with generations of readers around the world,” said Ted Sarandos, Chief Content Officer, Netflix. “Families have fallen in love with characters like Aslan and the entire world of Narnia, and we’re thrilled to be their home for years to come.”

“It is wonderful to know that folks from all over are looking forward to seeing more of Narnia, and that the advances in production and distribution technology have made it possible for us to make Narnian adventures come to life all over the world,” said Douglas Gresham, stepson of C.S. Lewis. “Netflix seems to be the very best medium with which to achieve this aim, and I am looking forward to working with them towards this goal.”

“Narnia is one of those rare properties that spans multiple generations and geographies,” said Mark Gordon, eOne’s President and Chief Content Officer, Film & Television. “eOne and I are excited to be collaborating with The C.S. Lewis Company and Netflix who have the capacity to translate the Narnia universe into both stellar feature-length and episodic programming. We cannot wait to get started on the multiple productions we hope to undertake.”

Exactly how things will break down between series and films is not immediately known. How this affects the planned Silver Chair adaptation, which had Mark Gordon attached via his Mark Gordon Company and set up at Sony, is also unknown, but it would appear that any continuation from the previous films as produced by Walden Media is dead, and this would more than likely be a true reboot and logically restart with The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe.

Babylon 5 appears to be making a resurgence through available means lately, having appeared on Amazon Prime this past Spring, and now it returns to the airwaves tonight on Comet TV.

Comet TV can be often be found on a subchannel of one of your local broadcast stations. Check their website to see where it might be in your area. Don’t have a broadcaster or don’t have an antenna? You can still get Comet TV via Roku, Apple TV, YouTube TV or even streaming on the web site!

Alas, there still appears to be no movement within Warner Bros to do anything new with the show. But perhaps if it becomes popular via these various channels, they may see the light at the end of the jumpgate… <*>

Star Trek: Short Treks is a series of four stand-alone short episodes of Star Trek: Discovery that start next week on October 4th on CBS All Access as a lead-in to the return of the show early next year, and each will focus on a particular character. The first of these is “Runaway”, starring Mary Wiseman as Tilly.

Hot off the presses! Premieres Sunday, October 7th…

Despite Disney focusing a lot on its upcoming streaming service, they aren’t leaving their broadcast network out in the Marvel cold – Deadline reports ABC has given a production commitment for a series about female superheroes written by Allan Heinberg, the scribe behind Wonder Woman. No title or description has been given so far, but it is expected to focus on some lesser superheroes within the Marvel universe.

Heinberg has worked on various Shondaland series for ABC, starting with Grey’s Anatomy in 2006. And for Marvel Comics, he co-created and wrote Young Avengers and Avengers: The Children’s Crusade with co-creator/artist Jim Cheung. For DC Comics he re-launched Wonder Woman in 2006 and co-wrote JLA: Crisis Of Conscience.

Variety is reporting that Disney may be stacking the deck for its upcoming streaming video service by starting early development on some limited series based around characters in the Marvel Cinematic Universe – and Loki and the Scarlet Witch are likely the be first.

The plan is for a number of limited series – generally 6 to 8 episodes each, and are expected to feature the same actors as have appeared in the MCU as well. Marvel Studios will produce and MCU shepherd Kevin Feige is expected to be fully hands on for the development. This differs than the previous network and Netflix efforts, which have focused on other characters or secondary characters from the MCU.

They would join a Star Wars series from Jon Favreau and a High School Musical series, along with original movies and recent releases.