Sci-Fi Storm

Are you playing Defiance? Would you like your character to appear in Season 2 of the TV show? If you are a good enough Ark Hunter, it can happen…

Syfy and Trion Worlds today announced a new contest that brings a gamer into the television world of Defiance, the groundbreaking online open world shooter and hit television series on Syfy. The “Play the Game. Join the Show.” in-game contest pits players against the game’s Arkfall events to see who can rise to the top and become the ultimate Ark Hunter. The winner’s character will appear during the second season of the TV series.

The ten Ark Hunters who complete the most Major Arkfall events between July 8 (10am PDT) and July 30(10am PDT) will compete for a chance to have their character written onto the show. These ten semifinalists will be fleshed out with backstories written by the show’s writing staff, which will then be featured on Facebook, where Defiance fans will choose their five favorites. From this pool of five finalists, a member of the Defiance team will select the final winner to appear in season two of Defiance.

The “Play the Game. Join the Show.” contest marks the second time that players have been invited to make their mark on the world of Defiance. Earlier in the year, Trion Worlds and Syfy ran the “Most Wanted” contest, which saw gamers competing to have their likeness included on wanted posters on an episode of the TV show.

To enter, players must register for the “Play the Game. Join the Show.” contest at www.defiance.com/en/game-show-contest , then complete as many Major Arkfalls as possible between July 8 (10am PDT) and July 30 (10am PDT). Between August 12th and August 21st, one semifinalist backstory will be posted per day. Registered Facebook users can vote for the top five characters between August 26th (3am PDT) and September 6th (8:59pm PDT), and the final winner will be selected in September. Defiance season two premieres in 2014 on Syfy.

Syfy announced last night that it will begin production on the pilot of High Moon, an adaptation of John Christopher’s best-selling novel [asin=0020426917]The Lotus Caves[/asin]. Along with a creative team featuring Bryan Fuller (Hannibal, Pushing Daisies) and Jim Danger Gray (Pushing Daisies, Hannibal), Universal Cable Productions will serve as the studio.

Said Mark Stern, President, Original Content, Syfy, and Co-Head, Original Content, Universal Cable Productions: “In the hands of visionary Bryan Fuller and this outstanding production team, High Moon will be an imaginative, groundbreaking story featuring complex characters in a high-stakes drama. This represents our commitment to quality programming that redefines the genre and we’re excited to begin production.”

High Moon is an imaginative, out-of-this-world series exploring what happens when the countries of Earth establish colonies to mine the Moon’s resources and discover a new form of life. Chaos erupts in a genuinely emotional, humorously thrilling and always unexpected fashion as the people of the Moon race to uncover this life form’s powerful secrets. Co-executive producer/writer: Jim Danger Gray (Pushing Daisies). Executive producer/writer: Bryan Fuller (Hannibal, Pushing Daisies). The pilot is written by Gray from a story by Fuller and Gray. Executive producers: Cary Granat & Steve Granat of Reel FX and Don Murphy & Susan Montford of Angry Films (Real Steel, Transformers). Studio: UCP.

For anyone that thinks Syfy wanted out of the space-based science fiction show business, think again: At the upfronts they announced a bunch of new shows in development, and many are space-based! Here is a list with synopses (borrowed from THR), some of which we’ve talked about before. Note: These are in development (like Blake’s 7), and not all are likely to make it to series:

Orion
The space opera centers on Orion, an adventurous female relic hunter who tracks down valuable artifacts while trying to piece together her past. Set amid an intergalactic war pitting humans against a terrifying alien race, Orion must decide whether to use her abilities to save herself or commit to the cause and unearth long hidden artifacts that could free all of humanity from a horrible fate. Ron Milbauer and Terri Hughes Burton (Alphas) will write and executive produce, with George Krstic and Ryuhei Kitamura on board as co-executive producers. F.J. Desanto will serve as a supervising producer on the UCP project.
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I haven’t seen a press release on this yet (Syfy’s press releases have been more sporadic than normal lately), but Deadline reports that Syfy has purchased a spec script from Alfonso H. Moreno (NCIS) that follows two survivors of a plane crash caused by a meteorite who have no memory of what happened, and are being pursued by the government. Moreno and Ross Fineman (Drop Dead Divas) will executive produce for Fox TV Studios and Fineman Entertainment.

We finally have an air date for Primeval: New World and the new British import, Sinbad: June 8th! From the press release:

SYFY’S NEWEST ORIGINAL SERIES SINBAD AND PRIMEVAL: NEW WORLD WILL PREMIERE SATURDAY, JUNE 8

NEW YORK – March 28, 2013 – Building on the success of acquired original series such as Lost Girl and Continuum, Syfy today announced that Sinbad and Primeval: New World will join the prime time schedule beginning Saturday, June 8.
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Good news – we will not have to wait until next year to see the second season of Continuum in the U.S.

Syfy has announced that they will air the second season of the Canadian production starting on June 7th at 10pm ET/PT, marking both a shift to Fridays and to a later time slot – and also 13 episodes, up from the 10 episodes of Season 1.

Here is the press release:
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Syfy’s hit competition series Face Off has been renewed for a fifth season, the network just announced. From the release:

Syfy’s critically-acclaimed hit reality competition series Face Off will return for a fifth season of mind-blowing special effects ingenuity, offering a new group of rising SFX make-up artists with the opportunity to compete and showcase their imagination and creativity. Production on the new season begins April 2013 in Los Angeles for a Summer 2013 premiere.

“Face Off continues to prove itself as a ratings hit, earning critical and viewer accolades alike, and we are proud to bring the series back for another stunning season,” said Mark Stern, President of Original Content, Syfy, and Co-Head of Original Content, Universal Cable Productions.
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This may just be the show you’ve been waiting for from Syfy. Aliens. Spaceships. Frontier justice. Interesting characters. Monster bugs. Bullets. Energy weapons. An alien world – that just happens to be Earth in 30 years.

Let me set the stage for you…in April 2013, gigantic alien ships appear in the skies above Earth. on board are the refugees of the Votanis star system – binary star system that gave rise to a number of intelligent races that was destroyed 5,000 years ago. These Votans, as they are collectively called, escaped their system aboard these Arks – giant ships on board which they slept for thousands of years en route to a suitable planet on which they could terraform and live – which they did not expect to be inhabited.

For years, negotiations between the Votans and humans dragged on, with distrust of both sides. Eventually some 10 years later, the U.N. grants a large amount of land in Brazil to the Votans, but when a human assassin kills a Votan representative, everything falls apart and the Pale Wars begin – a series of global conflicts that lasted for 9 more years.

Towards the end of the war, all of the Votan Arks are mysteriously destroyed in orbit. But this results in not only debris from the Arks crashing to Earth, but also the terra-spires – giant terraforming devices that wreak havoc and forever change the the landscape, flora and fauna of the Earth.
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As reported in January, Syfy has picked up Ron Moore’s new series Helix for a 13 episode order. Helix is Executive Produced by Ronald D. Moore (Battlestar Galactica), Lynda Obst (Sleepless in Seattle, Contact), Steven Maeda (Lost, CSI: Miami, The X-Files) and Cameron Porsandeh, who wrote the pilot, will serve as Co-Executive Producer. The series will be produced by Sony Pictures Television. Maeda is also tagged to be the showrunner.

Helix is an intense thriller about a team of scientists from the Centers for Disease Control who travel to a high-tech research facility in the Arctic to investigate a possible disease outbreak, only to find themselves pulled into a terrifying life-and-death struggle that holds the key to mankind’s salvation or total annihilation.

“With its well-drawn characters, taut drama, and incredible production team, we couldn’t be more excited to see this intense thrill-ride of a series come to life,” said Mark Stern, President of Original Content, Syfy and Co-Head Original Content, Universal Cable Productions.

Helix is expected to begin production early in 2013 to debut later this year.

Syfy has formally announced their Spring TV lineup, which includes the debut of new series Defiance, Deep South Paranormal and Weird of What?, plus the return of Warehouse 13 and Ghost Hunters. Read on for the complete release.

An added programming note – Syfy has decided to push off the final five episodes of Merlin and will instead air them on each Friday in May (May 3rd-31st). For at least the next two Fridays, the slot will be taken by repeats of Robot Combat League.
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