Sci-Fi Storm

This will be a trivia question that will trip even some experts up: What science fiction series did David Tennant receive an Emmy nomination for?

Doctor Who‘s 10th Doctor, David Tennant, who will return to that role in the upcoming 50th Anniversary special episode, is now an Emmy nominee – but not for his well known role, or probably one that you’d expect at all…but for a guest stint he did on the animated Star Wars: The Clone Wars!

Tennant twice voiced the role of Huyang, a droid who is also a master lightsaber builder – in fact, he seems something of a cross between a droid and Ollivander from the Harry Potter franchise, where he guides some young padawans on the art of constructing a lightsaber.

Sam Witwer, currently starring in Syfy’s Being Human, also received a nomination for his voicing of the revived Darth Maul. When we talked to Sam last December, he said of playing in the Star Wars universe:

“It’s every bit as cool as you’d think – it turns you into a bigger fan that you were before. I was already a huge Star Wars fan, and really knew my stuff, but just sort of working for these guys…it can be all consuming. It’s really, really fun. I dreamed of working on a Star Wars project since I was a kid. So to actually contribute to that mythology in my own small way is a tremendous privilege and an honor, and a great responsibility as well, because you don’t want to get it wrong. It’s a wonderful mythology. The Clone Wars have gotten so good at telling stories in that world, it’s fascinating. It’s really fascinating. Especially to be Darth Maul, to bring this really, really dark element to the show is challenging, to keep it within the confines of Star Wars, but at the same time make it psychologically messed up, interesting like that. And I’ll tell you, if people think they’ve seen dark, they haven’t yet. It gets horrifically dark in upcoming episodes this season. People will see why the first several episodes of this season, that there are lighter episodes, because they are trying to balance out some very, very dramatic stuff that happens when the dark comes.”

In addition to Tennant and Witwer being up for the Emmy for Outstanding Performer in an Animated Program, Jim Cummings also received a nomination for his role of Hondo Ohnaka.

Clone Wars also received nominations for Outstanding Directing in an Animated Program (Supervising Director Dave Filoni and Kyle Dunlevy, Brian Kalin O’Connell, Steward Lee,and Bosco Ng), Outstanding Achievement in Sound Editing – Animation (David Acord and Cameron Davis), Outstanding Achievement in Music Direction and Composition (Kevin Kiner) and Outstanding Special Class Animated Program.

As an animated program, Star Wars: The Clone Wars is part of the Daytime Emmy Awards, which will be presented June 16th.

It has been officially announced that Star Wars: The Clone Wars will “wind down”, and is no longer being produced for Cartoon Network. However, it isn’t quite over yet. Here is the official announcement (from www.starwars.com):

As we enter into an exciting new era focused on the next Star Wars trilogy, Lucasfilm has decided to pursue a new direction in animated programming. We are exploring a whole new Star Wars series set in a time period previously untouched in Star Wars films or television programming. You can expect more details in the months to come.

As part of this shift, we have also made some key decisions affecting Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars Detours.

After five highly successful and critically acclaimed seasons of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, we feel the time has come to wind down the series. While the studio is no longer producing new episodes for Cartoon Network, we’re continuing production on new Clone Wars story arcs that promise to be some of the most thrilling adventures ever seen. Stay tuned for more information on where fans can soon find this bonus content. In the video below, Supervising Director Dave Filoni offers a peek of what is to come in Star Wars: The Clone Wars.
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Sorry I didn’t report on this earlier – but yes, that is Tim Curry’s voice you will hear on tomorrow morning’s Star Wars: The Clone Wars finale as Emperor Palpatine. The Huffington Post broke the news yesterday.

Curry is taking over the role after the death last year of Ian Abercrombie. Although Abercrombie had pre-recorded ahead of time a lot of his segments, that did not apparently include the season finale, so Curry, who has done a lot of voice roles, stepped up.

Catch this little preview below – and let’s all hope that Ahsoka’s ultimate fate isn’t settled just yet…
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There are just for episodes left in Season 5 of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, and all four of them make up the season finale!

Catch the trailer here and get a glimpse of what is to come…could we be getting hints of Ahsoka’s ultimate fate? Is Anakin beginning to slip to the Dark Side? Who is going to disappoint who?

The finale starts today at 9:30 ET on Cartoon Network.
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This Saturday, Star Wars: The Clone Wars airs its 100th episode as it returns from holiday break, with “Missing in Action” – check the preview below, when a man learns he isn’t exactly unique…then check out the interview with George Lucas, where he says goodbye to Star Wars as he transitions control of Lucasfilm to Kathleen Kennedy…
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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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I had the fortune of talking with Being Human‘s Sam Witwer, who plays the vampire Aidan, ahead of Being Human‘s Season 3 premiere next month on January 14th on Syfy. We talked about Being Human, Star Wars, Battlestar Galactica, and how he originally turned down the audition for Being Human because it was for the role of a vampire…
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A bit of Star Wars lore will finally be revealed! In tomorrow morning’s episode of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, “The Gathering, Part 1”, a group of Jedi padawans, led by Ahsoka, will journey to build their own lightsabers – something of a mystery to fans. We knew they built their own, but not how…

Here is a preview of the episode, which airs Saturday, November 3rd, at 9:00am ET on Cartoon Network.
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Here is the trailer for the upcoming fifth season of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, and it looks like the fights are escalating, with Darth Maul and Savage Opress leading the charge – and it looks like the darksaber will return!

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Ashley Eckstein, who voices the character of Jedi padawan Ashoka Tano in Star Wars: The Clone Wars, is not your typical SF actor…she’s a fan as well. And as a female fan, she’s trying to change the SF merchandise landscape: one that has been marketed primarily to males, even though females account for half of science fiction fans. That’s why she’s founded Her Universe, which produces products focused on female fans.

Her Universe just launched some of their Star Wars shirts online with retailer Hot Topic, and Ashley begins her job as co-host for Star Wars Weekends at Walt Disney World this Friday, and taking place every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday through June 10th.

I spoke with the always friendly Ashley about Her Universe, Star Wars, and Disney.
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