Sci-Fi Storm

Coulson lives…on.

ABC has given a back nine order for Marvel’s Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D., to no one’s great surprise, bringing the series up to a full season of 22 episodes. The show has been the best drama so far this year in the 18-49 demographic, and it was the highest rated debut in nearly four years.

This one is official…nine previously missing episodes of classic Doctor Who from the Troughton years have been recovered in Nigeria, Africa. Two more were found but had previously been recovered elsewhere.

The entire serial of “The Enemy of the World”, the fourth of Season 5, has been recovered, and all but one episode of “The Web of Fear”, which introduced Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart, to later be affectionately known as “The Brigadeer”, were recovered. Both serials have been painstakingly restored and remastered, with set photos and recorded audio filling in the still missing Episode 3 of “The Web of Fear”. Both will be available exclusively on iTunes October 11th, with DVD releases to follow.

Phillip Morris, director of Television International Enterprises Archive, tracked down the missing episodes via shipping records the BBC had of recordings sent out of the country. “The tapes had been left gathering dust in a store room at a television relay station in Nigeria,” Morris said. “I remember wiping the dust off the masking tape on the canisters and my heart missed a beat as I saw the words ‘Doctor Who’. When I read the story code I realized I’d found something pretty special.”

Sadly, this is far, far less than the rumored 90 episodes, but it still allows hope that still more will be found.

Tonight is the mid-season return of Ghost Hunters, where TAPS investigates a mansion with a dark history involving an ill-fated and secret love story. Check out the sneak peeks below!
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Here are a couple teasers for tonight’s new episode of Revolution, plus an interview with J.J. Abrams about Season 2…tune in tonight at 8/7c on NBC!
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I mentioned this on Twitter yesterday, but just wanted to confirm…there were rumors a couple months ago that Syfy had passed on the Blake’s 7 remake, and that it was possibly being looked at for Microsoft for XBox Live, but I could find no credible sources.

Well, I spoke directly with Mark Stern, President of Original Programming at Syfy and Co-Head of Original Content for Universal Cable Productions, and asked him about Blake’s 7. He said that they did indeed pass on it, and had heard the same about Microsoft, but didn’t know anything more than I did.

Tweets from Georgiaville’s Leon Clarance as recent as last month did seem to indicate that it is indeed still in development, but I have been unable to get any further info yet. Hopefully we will learn something soon, but sometimes it can take a couple years of development before production can begin.

Wow…the saga continues. But this time it seems really real!

BBC News’ Lizo Mzimba says that BBC Worldwide will announce later this week that a number of Doctor Who from the First and Second Doctors have been recovered.

If you’ve been following, there was a rumor that as many as 90 of the 106 remaining missing episodes, all from the Hartnell and Troughton years, were recovered by archivist Philip Morris from film transfers sent to other countries for broadcast. But then he denied it, seriously dashing hopes. But now it appears to be true, at least in some respect.

No information yet on how many episodes (The Daily Mirror reports 106, but that would be all of them and highly unlikely), or which episodes will be announced – or even if they will release them all or just some, or how. That we will hopefully learn this week.

Syfy greenlights an eight episode order for Jim Henson’s Creature Shop Challenge (working title), a competition series featuring ten aspiring creature creators competing to out-imagine one another in a series of challenges where they will build everything from mechanical characters to whimsical beasts, bringing high-end inanimate creature designs to life. The contestants compete for $100,000 and the opportunity for the job of a lifetime – a contract working at the world-renowned Jim Henson’s Creature Shop™. The announcement was made today by Mark Stern, President of Original Content, Syfy.

Brian Henson serves as lead judge on the series. Henson is the Chairman of The Jim Henson Company and the Creature Shop. An award-winning writer, director and producer, he is also a creature designer and performer taught by the master, his father Jim Henson. His long resume in movies and television includes iconic roles like Hoggle in the fantasy classic Labyrinth and the dog in the groundbreaking anthology series The Storyteller. Henson has also produced and directed such television projects as Farscape, Muppets Tonight and Dinosaurs. His film directing credits include The Muppet Christmas Carol and Muppet Treasure Island. Henson was part of the team that first created and utilized the Henson Performance Control System, a powerful custom-based interface for puppeteers, which won an Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences (Scientific and Engineering) Award in 1992. He also led the Shop’s work in creating the revolutionary digital puppeteering technology, the Emmy Award-winning Henson Digital Puppetry Studio.

“As Face Off does with SFX makeup application, Jim Henson’s Creature Shop Challenge showcases the incredible imagination and artistry of lifelike creature construction,” said Stern. “We are honored to partner with The Jim Henson Company and Brian Henson on this series. The Creature Shop has set the bar for a caliber of work that is unmatched in quality, design and sheer imagination.”
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Jeri Ryan (Star Trek: Voyager, Body of Proof) is set to join Syfy’s newest original scripted series Helix for a multi-episode arc. Ryan joins a cast led by Billy Campbell (The Killing, Killing Lincoln) and Hiroyuki Sanada (The Wolverine, 47 Ronin) on the 13-episode drama series, executive produced by Ronald D. Moore (Battlestar Galactica, Outlander), Steven Maeda (Lost, The X-Files) who is also showrunner, and Lynda Obst (Sleepless in Seattle, Contact).

Ryan will portray the beautiful and charismatic Constance Sutton, the Chief Operating Officer of Ilaria Corporation, owner of Arctic Biosystems, the research facility where the series takes place. Charming and savvy, Sutton is used to getting her way at any cost.

Jeri Ryan is best known to science fiction fans for her role as Seven of Nine on the series Star Trek: Voyager. Most recently, Ryan has been a familiar face on primetime network television as Dr. Kate Murphy in ABC’s Body of Proof. She was also a series regular in Boston Public as Ronnie Cooke, the CBS legal drama Shark opposite James Woods, and NBC’s Dark Skies. In addition to her recurring roles on projects like Two and a Half Men, Law and Order: Special Victims Unit and Leverage, Jeri Ryan has also appeared on the big screen in films such as Down with Love and Dracula 2000.

Helix is an intense thriller about a team of scientists from the Centers for Disease Control who travel to the high-tech research facility Arctic Biosystems, to investigate a possible disease outbreak, only to find themselves pulled into a terrifying life-and-death struggle that may hold the key to mankind’s salvation or total annihilation. However, the lethal threat is just the tip of the iceberg, and as the virus evolves, the chilling truth begins to unravel.

Campbell stars as Dr. Alan Farragut, leader of the Centers for Disease Control outbreak field team called upon to investigate and control a potential outbreak. Sanada also stars as Dr. Hiroshi Hatake, director of Arctic Biosystems and its mysterious viral research program.

Helix also stars Kyra Zagorsky (Supernatural) as Dr. Julia Walker, Mark Ghanimé (Emily Owens, M.D.) as Major Sergio Balleseros, Jordan Hayes (House at the End of the Street) as Dr. Sarah Jordan, Meegwun Fairbrother as Daniel Aerov, Catherine Lemieux (White House Down) as Dr. Doreen Boyle and Neil Napier (Riddick) as Dr. Peter Farragut.

Helix is produced by Tall Ship Productions, Kaji Productions and Lynda Obst Productions in association with Sony Pictures Television. Prolific director and producer Jeffrey Reiner is directing the premiere episode of Helix.

Syfy’s freshman series Defiance will get its first [sfs=1363]Blu-ray[/sfs]/[sfs=1364]DVD[/sfs] release in a couple weeks on October 15th.

Defiance is the first convergence of a TV program and a massively multiplayer game. The program follows the events in the town of Defiance, built on the remains of St. Louis, after the Earth is devastated by alien terraforming devices and a war between the humans and the races of the Votanis Collective. Now years later, the stranded Votans and the humans live together in an uneasy peace, working for the meager resources still available.

The [asin=B00576U8CC]game[/asin] takes place simultaneously in the area of San Francisco. Events in one can influence the other.

Season Two is currently filming in Toronto and will air in 2014.

On the next Haven, Nathan and Dwight investigate child disappearances linked to an ancient legend, while Duke tries to focus Jennifer’s trouble in hopes of finding Audrey. Catch “Lost and Found”, Friday at 10/9c on Syfy.
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