Sci-Fi Storm

Another lost to the stars…Canadian actor Donnelly Rhodes, best known in these parts as Dr. Cottle in the updated Battlestar Galactica but also for his role of Dutch Leitner on the late 70s ABC comedy Soap, passed away yesterday at the age of 80 due to cancer while in hospice care according to talent agency Northern Exposure.

Rhodes most recently made an appearance in the 2016 “Invasion!” Arrowverse crossover as Agent Smith, and he also starred as Det. Leo Shannon in the Canadian series DaVinci’s Inquest. He had many small roles as well, such as the grandfather in TRON: Legacy and a couple of appearances in The Outer Limits anthology series. In all he had appeared in more than 160 series and movies over a 60 year career.

It’s been a light holiday week (a working one for me…) unless you are in the political news arena, but I thought I’d just do a quick roundup of the most interesting stories…

Comic Con International is coming up, and I won’t be there again (yes, we know Doc, every year…hey, it’s pretty far away!) and so there ls lots of news swirling around about who will be there…but just recently announced is a reunion of the Syfy version of Battlestar Galactica. So far confirmed are Tricia Helfer, Katee Sackhoff, Mary McDonnell and Grace Park, with many more expected. It will take places at 2:30 PM on Thursday, July 20, in Ballroom 20. Word is that Peter Capaldi will appear one last time as well for Doctor Who on the final day (July 23rd) in the massive Hall H.

Comic Con International also re-upped with the city of San Diego to stay put for four more years.

Remember that lawsuit by the Tolkien estate against Warner Bros over the license for gambling devices and games? Well, it’s finally over. The parties agreed to a settlement in the case, and in a joint statement said, “The parties are pleased that they have amicably resolved this matter and look forward to working together in the future.” Hmm…could they be considering more productions?

Oh…Sony Pictures posted an interesting YouTube video:

A lot of people seem to think this may mean an sequel to Close Encounters Of The Third Kind, but we would put money on this just being viral hype for a 40th Anniversary release of the original.

Supergirl fans will see the return of a character this upcoming season, but with a slightly different face. Laura Benanti, who played Alura Zor-El and Astra in the first season (and an appearance in one episode in the second season), is apparently not available due to commitments in New York. Erica Durance, who played Lois Lane on Smallville and most recently was starring in Saving Hope which finishes it’s final season this summer, will take over the role of Alura.

And lastly, it is with great sadness that we learned of the passing of Stan Lee’s wonderful wife Joan yesterday at the age of 93. She’s widely considered to have helped convince her husband to come up with a new kind of superhero – flawed and human – that propelled Stan Lee into comic royalty. They had been married for 69 years. Our thoughts are with Stan.

I’m sad to say that we’ve lost another icon of SF…actor Richard Hatch, who played Apollo on the original Battlestar Galactica and later had a recurring role on the reboot, passed away today at the age of 71 after an extended illness, while surrounded by his family and friends.

Hatch started off on All My Children, then a string of guests spots on a variety of shows before landing a regular role in the last couple seasons of The Streets of San Francisco. He followed that up with his best known role on Battlestar Galactica, for which he received a Golden Globe nomination.

After that, he went back to guest roles and lesser known movies, and some short runs on Dynasty and Santa Barbara. All the while, he kept the fandom of Battlestar Galactica alive at conventions, even writing and producing Battlestar Galactica: The Second Coming, a short featuring several of his fellow cast members in raising interest in the possible return of the series. Even when Universal decided to go for a complete reboot, he felt that any Galactica was a step in the right direction, and was the only original cast member to appear in the new show, in the recurring role of Tom Zarek.

I had the good fortune to meet Richard at a smaller local convention a couple years ago, and he genuinely enjoyed talking with the fans. We chatted for a while about his thoughts on the reboot and the differing opinions of his cast mate, Dirk Benedict, who was next to him. He was glad the show came back in any form and was nothing but supportive of the effort. A franchise is lucky to have such a proponent that gets the fans and works with them, and Richard was one of the few.

Battlestar Galactica may in fact get it’s long-rumored big screen treatment…Deadline reports that Lisa Joy, currently working on the HBO series Westworld, is working on a script, while Francis Lawrence, who helmed the last three Hunger Games films, may be tagged to direct.

The film is expected to be a new retelling, and unrelated to the 2003-2009 remake on Syfy.

Bluegrass Films partners Scott Stuber and Dylan Clark are producing with Michael De Luca through his Michael De Luca Productions.

Two industry passings were sadly reported this weekend.

Tony Dyson, who referred to himself as “R2-D2’s Dad”, passed away at the age of 68. While working at his own studio, the White Horse Toy Company, he was commissioned by George Lucas to turn Ralph McQuarrie’s sketches of a plug-shaped mechanical character into an astromech that would become the most loved droid in two galaxies.

On his web site Dyson wrote about the return of R2-D2 in Episode VII, “The love for R2 is universal; no other Star Wars character has been loved over the years the way R2-D2 has, his merchandising has rocketed over the years and his influence in the world of robotics is truly remarkable.”

Emmy-winning visual effect artist Gary Hutzel, who’s career shot starward when he helped define the look of Star Trek: The Next Generation including the infamous Borg Cube, as well as the U.S.S. Defiant design for Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, passed away on Thursday at the age of 60.

Hutzel later worked in movies, including Red Planet and Spy Kids, but would return to television for Ronald D. Moore’s reboot of Battlestar Galactica, where he won two of his Emmys.

Veteran British-American actor Patrick Macnee passed away earlier today at his home in Rancho Mirage, CA from natural causes. He was 93.

First and foremost he is remembered as John Steed, the James Bond-esque secret agent in The Avengers opposite the tight-suit-wearing Diana Rigg in the 60s, turning the simple Bowler hat into a weapon. But he was no stranger to genre and non-genre TV all over the map. With his distinctive voice he provided the opening narration for the original Battlestar Galactica (listen to the long form version of the narration – it still gives me chills) as well as the Cylon Emperor, and later appeared in person in a memorable guest role as Count Iblis (along with Baltar recognizing the voice of the Emperor.) No role seemed too small for him either, guesting on shows from War of the Worlds and The Love Boat to even starring in voice-only on Super Force (aside from a brief in-person appearance in the pilot). He even provided his voice to Invisible Jones in the 1998 feature film version of The Avengers.

A tip of the hat to you, sir.

Just frakkin’ cool…here is every character (and group) callout mentioned in the original premiere episode of Battlestar Galactica, edited into 2 minutes.

Man, Boxey can be annoying… 🙂

And you can watch full episodes online
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The creator of a big part of my childhood passed away.

Glen A. Larson, best known as the creator of many science fiction shows as well as a variety of other popular shows in the 70s and 80s, passed away at the age of 77.

Larson was responsible for not only Battlestar Galactica, perhaps what he was best known for despite it only lasting one season, but he created such long running shows as Quincy, M.E., Magnum P.I., The Six Million Dollar Man, The Fall Guy, B.J. and the Bear, and Knight Rider.

Somewhat controversial, he was often accused of borrowing ideas from popular movies at the time for his TV shows, although that appears to be how Hollywood operates these days.

Many of his programs have been remade years later (Knight Rider and Battlestar Galactica), or have been floating around in development (The Six Billion Dollar Man, The Fall Guy).

Larson had hopes of doing his own remake of Battlestar Galactica, but Universal instead opted for the version that was produced for Syfy. He still had plans in the works for it, however.

He will be missed.

Syfy has finally settled on an air date for Battlestar Galactica: Blood & Chrome: February 10th, at 9/8c. Blood & Chrome is the Cylon War prequel to their hit series, which started as a web series, then considered for a full blown series, then back to a web series (and denied it was meant to be on TV) – and likely a lame-duck series at that. But who knows…if the ratings are really good – plus sales of the [sfs=1272]Blu-ray[/sfs] and [sfs=1273]DVD[/sfs] on the 19th, maybe they just might consider at least doing more webisodes.

Here are some of the big and our favorite stories we covered in 2012…

In January, rapidly rising British actor Benedict Cumberbatch joined Star Trek: Into Darkness, while CW’s Arrow dropped “Green” from the name and named Stephen Amell the lead actor.

We lost actor Ian Abercrombie and the voice of the Robot from Lost In Space Dick Tufeld.
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