Sci-Fi Storm

We are sad to learn of the passing yesterday of actress Zienia Merton, most known for her role as Analyst Sandra Benes in Space: 1999, per her publicist and friend Barry Langford. Merton also appeared in an early episode of Doctor Who, “Marco Polo”, which is unfortunately one of the remaining “lost” episodes.

Anyone who follows me knows I was a big fan of Space: 1999, and there was something about Merton’s character that despite the relatively minor role was memorable, and was one of the few carried into the severely retooled second season of the show. And she even took part in the fan-produced “conclusion” of the series, “Message From Moonbase Alpha”, which featured her alone in a recorded message to Earth telling that the crew of Moonbase Alpha were finally forced to abandon the moonbase and make a new life on a planet.

And the irony of the date of Merton’s passing was not lost on me…September 13th, 2018 – 19 years after the moon was blasted out of orbit…

The BBC has already given a second season order of 8 episodes for the big budget TV adaptation of His Dark Materials, based on the books by Philip Pullman, and which just started filming in Wales, according to Deadline. In addition, it was announced earlier today that HBO has join as co-producer and distributor.

The series follow the young orphan Lyra Belacqua (Dafne Keen, Logan), who exists in a parallel world to our own where each person’s inner self, called a daemon, has physical form outside their bodies in the form of a sentient animal. Their form can vary when the person is young but eventually take a single form as they grow older. Lyra and her daemon Pantalaimon (who has not yet fixed form) discover Dust, a strange particle that was being researched by her uncle, Lord Asriel (James McAvoy, X-Men: First Class), and may hold the key to travel around the multiverse. The series also stars Ruth Wilson and Lin-Manuel Miranda.

HBO acquired the worldwide rights to the series outside the United Kingdom.

The Netflix series Another Life, which follows astronaut Niko Breckinridge (Katee Sackhoff) and crew of the Salvare on a mission to find extraterrestrial life., added 8 more to the cast this week.

A. J. Rivera (Grandfathered) will play Bernie Martinez, a microbiologist and part-time chef. He is an understated super-brain with a crazy green thumb and an ability to turn even the most cardboard-tasting MRE into something you’d get in a Michelin-rated restaurant. That, plus his barrage of jokes is a form of currency on the Salvare.

Alexander Eling (Shadowhunters) will play Javier Almanzar, a former hacker on board the Salvare as an expert in computer engineering. He doesn’t pull punches and, though he doesn’t say a lot, he always speaks his mind. Quick to perceive offense, this quality reveals his tendency to wear his impoverished childhood like a badge.

Alex Ozerov (The Americans) will play Oliver Sokolov, one of the Salvare’s engineers. His family fled the floods of one of the world’s many water cities and – untethered on land – he’s discovered and built an entire life online. But what happens when he is forced to live in reality, gazillions of miles away from the Earth?

Jake Abel (Dirty John) will play Sasha Harrison, the son of the U.S. Secretary of Defense. Sasha grew up in wealth, enjoying every luxury. He never wanted to go into space, but finds himself on the Salvare as the government’s representative and diplomatic liaison. With any luck, the PR from this mission will fast-track his political career and help land him in the Oval Office one day.

JayR Tinaco (Rake)will play Zayn Petrossian, the ship’s medic, and since in the future medicine is a whole lot more holistic than it is now, he is also the ship’s shrink. He is extremely logical, intuitive, and curious. As chief medic, he must confront his worst fears of losing those people he’s grown closest to.

Jessica Camacho (The Flash) will play Michelle Vargas, the Salvare’s communications expert. Michelle says it like it is, which you think would help her in her job. The problem is, she’s aggressive, she complains a whole lot, and she can rub people the wrong way. She’s also exciting to be around, because you never quite know what’s going to come out of her mouth.

Barbara Williams (Mayans MC) will play General Blair Dubois. Dubois is a General with the United States Interstellar Command, in charge of United States’ response to the Artifact. She is career military, with years of combat experience. If she was younger, she might well have been leading the Salvare mission, rather than leading the teams on the ground. All the scientists around her may be in awe of the Artifact, but she is preparing for the best and expecting the worst.

Lina Renna (The 100) will portray Jana Breckinridge-Wallace. Jana is a wonderful mix of both her parents, Niko Breckinridge (Sackhoff) and Erik Wallace (Justin Chatwin) – adventurous and brave, intelligent and curious. She struggles to find normalcy at home with one parent in space and in perpetual danger.

Previously announced cast members are Sackhoff, Chatwin, Selma Blair, Tyler Hoechlin, Samuel Anderson, Elizabeth Faith Ludlow and Blu Hunt. Noreen Halpern executive produces for Halfire Entertainment.

In 2005, one of only four known surviving pairs of ruby slippers worn on-screen by Judy Garland in The Wizard of Oz were stolen from the Judy Garland Museum in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Since then they’ve been the subject of rumors and speculation, and several investigations, including from some of our friends featured on their shows – Joe Maddalena from the Profiles In History auction house and Hollywood Treasures and Josh Gates in an episode this past summer on Expedition Unknown. All leads went nowhere, and whoever had them would have loads of problems selling them, given how well known they are and how difficult they would be to hide. There we worries that they might be destroyed.

They’ve been found.

The FBI and North Dakota United States Attorney Christopher Myers reported today that the missing pair were located in an undercover operation in Minneapolis this summer. The investigation is still ongoing, however, as they determine who was responsible.

It’s finally happening…Isaac Asimov’s seminal novel trilogy Foundation will become a series, now that Apple has given a 10-episode straight-to-series order from Skydance.

The history of Foundation being adapted spans many years and many studios, most trying to squeeze the novels into a feature film, with may writers and producers attached including Dante Harper and Roland Emmerich at Sony, and Jeff Vintar.

A couple cast additions…Katy O’Brian, who recurred on this past season of The Walking Dead as a member of the Saviors who was captured and held at Hilltop, will join the upcoming fifth season of Z Nation as new regular character Georgia “George” St. Clair, a leader in NewMerica who 8 years prior as a college freshman led a group of students and teachers to safety in NewMerica. O’Brian also appeared in episodes of How To Get Away With Murder and Halt And Catch Fire.

Deadline reports that Selma Blair (Anger Management) will join the upcoming Netflix sci-fi series Another Life, starring Battlestar Galactica and Longmire star Katee Sackhoff.

Blair will recur in the role of Harper Glass, a media influencer “who uses journalism, social media and keen intelligence in an attempt to break one of the biggest stories in human history.” The show follows astronaut Niko Breckinridge (Sackhoff) on a mission to find extraterrestrial life.

The Amazon series based on the 1999 hit sci-fi comedy Galaxy Quest is on hold according to writer Paul Scheer, but he is confident it will proceed.

According to an interview with The Wrap, Scheer says the show is “in a little bit of a hold pattern,” due at least in part to the June firing of former Paramount TV president Amy Powell for racially insensitive comments.With any regime change, there is also uncertainty over projects greenlit under the previous management, but it seems at least in this case there is a good chance that things will still proceed once management shakes out.

Star Trek: Discovery has its Spock. Ethan Peck, the grandson of late actor Gregory Peck, will be the third actor to play the character, behind Leonard Nimoy and Zachary Quinto. “We searched for months for an actor who would, like them, bring his own interpretation to the role,” said executive producer Alex Kurtzman. “An actor who would, like them, effortlessly embody Spock’s greatest qualities, beyond obvious logic: empathy, intuition, compassion, confusion, and yearning. Ethan Peck walked into the room inhabiting all of these qualities, aware of his daunting responsibility to Leonard, Zack, and the fans, and ready to confront the challenge in the service of protecting and expanding on Spock’s legacy. In that spirit, we’re thrilled to welcome him to the family.”

Spock’s appearance was announced at San Diego Comic-Con last month. We know that the U.S.S. Discovery answers a distress call from a pre-Kirk NCC-1701 U.S.S. Enterprise commanded by Captain Christopher Pike, who will be played by Inhumans‘ Anson Mount.

Peck is best known for the movies In Time and The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, as well as the series 10 Things I Hate About You.

Some casting news this week…

Damon Lindelof’s Watchmen pilot for HBO added three more to the ranks this week, in the form of Dylan Schombing (Girlfriends’ Guide to Divorce), Lily Rose Smith (The Vampire Diaries) and young newcomer Adelynn Spoon. They join an extensive list which includes Regina King, Jeremy Irons, Don Johnson, Frances Fisher and Louis Gossett Jr. Producers are tight-lipped about any characters though.

The eighth installment of FX’s horror anthology American Horror Story, subtitled “Apocalypse”, sees a bunch of familiar faces returning. Alums Gabourey Sidibe, Taissa Farmiga, Lily Rabe, Frances Conroy, Sarah Paulson, Kathy Bates, Evan Peters, Adina Porter, Emma Roberts, Cheyenne Jackson, Billy Eichner, Leslie Grossman, Billie Lourd, and Stevie Nicks will all join Jessica Lange, which director Ryan Murphy is billing as a crossover between the “Coven” and “Murder House” seasons. Joan Collins is also joining the cast this season.

And it appears that the DC TV Arrowverse will see a Gotham addition. Orange Is the New Black‘s Ruby Rose has signed on for the role of Batwoman for the next four-series Arrowverse crossover event this December, and is also expected to film a full-length pilot for a potential Batwoman TV series, which already looks like it will have a good chance of going to series.

Wow…Patrick Stewart just announced at Star Trek: Las Vegas that he will star in a new Star Trek series featuring Captain Jean-Luc Picard himself! The show will follow Picard in the “next chapter” of his life – presumably after he was captain of the U.S.S. Enterprise. Alex Kurtzman, who is currently heading production of Star Trek: Discovery, will also manage this show.

Not much detail was given, so more news as soon as we know.