Mark's Sci-Fi / Fantasy Blog

In the past, I've complained about sci-fi seems to be restricted to the ghetto of visual effects when Emmy nominations come around. But this year, sci-fi and fantasy shows are literally all over the Emmy awards, from acting and writing to sound and editing to, yes, special effects.

The darling this year is Pushing Daisies, with tons of nominations including lead actor (Lee Pace) and supporting actress (Kristin Chenoweth), as well as writing and a slew of creative and technical nods.

• A complete list of the Emmy Award nominations for 2007-2008 is here, with sci-fi/fantasy nominees highlighted.
• A discussion of the nominations in sci-fi / fantasy, as well as detailed breakdown of the 49 sci-fi / fantasy nominations, is here.

It hasn't happened in 25 years: practically all the companions, past and present, ganging up to help the Doctor. And even then, in "The Five Doctors," the reunion of companions was incidental to the gathering of all the Doctors.

But the big news about the two-part Doctor Who season 4 finale, "The Stolen Earth"/"Journey's End" (airing Friday, July 25 and Aug. 1 on Sci Fi), isn't the casting. The episodes are a twist-packed culmination not only of season 4 but of plot threads stretching back to the beginning of the series – and beyond, with roots and links to 1970s Doctor Who. This is edge-of-the-seat stuff with lots of closely guarded secrets queued up for revelation. (Check out our image gallery for the two-parter here.)
Read more...

A new, three-episode series of Heroes webisodes called "Going Postal" premieres this week on nbc.com, offering a glimpse at a new character and providing some setup for this fall's third season.

Heroes, which has been off the air since the writer's strike aborted the bottom half of the second season, is essaying its first web series. Short web dramas have proved very successful in generating attention for other genre properties, including Smallville and in particular Battlestar Galactica, whose ten-episode preview to season 3 in 2006 provided background about the Cylon occupation of New Caprica.

Here's the official rundown:

• In the first webisode of "Going Postal," "A Nifty Trick," Echo DeMille, an everyday mailman, discovers a startling ability that quickly makes him a target.
• In the second webisode, "The Houseguest," posting on July 21st, Echo races home to protect his girlfriend Gina, and finds deadly uses for his new ability.
• In the third webisode of this installment, "Let's Talk," which posts on July 28th, Echo sends Gina off to safety while he confronts his enemies, but the tables turn with an unexpected twist.

Echo is played by Kiko Ellsworth, whom Dexter fans will recognize as Bertrand, Lt. Pasquale's wayward boyfriend. Also present are girlfriend Gina (Rebeka Montoya), the ominously named thug Constrictor (Mark Steger), and the watchful Agent Howard (Brian Prescott). Echo's ability? Don't read the rest of this sentence if you don't want to know he can generate very loud screams.

The webisodes are a nice thing to have after six months without Heroes, but they're short, even for webisodes (less than four minutes), and – as with other nbc.com video – fronted with a commercial. There's also a 90-second trailer, which seems to reveal the unadvertised presence of Angela Petrelli (Cristine Rose).

By coincidence, both new episodes this week, which happen to be airing back to back on the Sci Fi Channel this Friday, feature the return of popular ex-regulars in long-bruited guest starring roles. (Check out the newly expanded listings for more info.)

On Doctor Who, Billie Piper returns after several episodes of foreshadowing: she appeared as a (oddly blasé) illusion in the season premiere, "Partners in Crime," and as an image on a screen in "The Poison Sky" and "Midnight." Not only do we get Billie's Rose Tyler back from the alternate universe where she's been trapped, but there are hints of how other stories we've seen this season have played out where she's been. Rose and Donna (Catherine Tate) join UNIT in trying to undo a timeline that resulted in the Doctor's unnatural death. Those engaged in the sport of following repeat small-part players in Who will notice Chipo Chung, who plays the fortune teller who sets things in motion here and was Yana's assistant Chantho in "Utopia" (3x11).

This is the second round of returning-companion alliances this year after the adventures with Martha Jones (Freema Agyeman) earlier in the season – the third if you count "future companion" River Song (Alex Kingston) from "Silence in the Library"/"Forest of the Dead" – and it won't be the last. For the two-part finale "The Stolen Earth"/"Journey's End" we get the kitchen sink: Rose, Martha, Sarah Jane Smith (Elisabeth Sladen), Mickey Smith (Noel Clarke), Jackie Tyler (Camille Coduri), Harriet Jones (!) (Penelope Wilton), and the (surviving) cast of Torchwood: Captain Jack Harkness (John Barrowman, who also counts as an ex-companion), Ianto Jones (Gareth David-Lloyd), and Gwen Cooper (Eve Myles, who also played a different role on Who in "The Unquiet Dead" (1x03).) Not to mention, of course, the Doctor's greatest and most compelling enemy from the classic series.

Then on Stargate Atlantis, one of those pesky alien organisms incapacitates Dr. Keller (Jewel Staite); needing a doctor to figure things out, and David Tennant not being handy, newly arrived expedition commander Richard Woolsey (Robert Picardo) hauls Carson Beckett (Paul McGillion) out of the freezer to get the problem sorted. Beckett was put in stasis because his clone body suffers from a degenerative cellular condition; his illness will add some tension to the crisis threatening Keller and the rest of the base. Apparently freezer burn has affected his hair -- not sure why that happened.

This episode also introduced Woolsey properly to Atlantis – in "Search and Rescue" we only saw him in the SGC, breaking the bad news to Col. Carter (Amanda Tapping), which means we see his uninspiring speech and other bits of newbie-Woolsey comedy.

Oh, and isn't it interesting to see what they came up with for the 8 o'clock slot -- Joan of Arcadia! So far I'm enjoying getting reacquainted with yet another prematurely canceled supernatural series, especially as I love seeing Erik Palladino in just about anything.

Aired: Friday, July 11, 2008 on Sci Fi. This is the premiere of season 5.

New regulars: The season 5 regular cast is introduced in the opening credits: Joe Flanigan (Lt. Colonel John Sheppard), Rachel Luttrell (Teyla Emmagan), Jason Momoa (Ronon Dex), Jewel Staite (Dr. Jennifer Keller), Robert Picardo (Richard Woolsey), and David Hewlett (Dr. Rodney McKay).

Guest stars: Amanda Tapping (Colonel Samantha Carter) is now a special guest star: though Carter is in command for this whole episode, Woolsey appears at the end to inform her she's been removed. Connor Trinneer (Michael) and Kavan Smith (Major Evan Lorne) appear in several scenes near the front of the episode, but then vanish. Mitch Pileggi (Colonel Steven Caldwell), seen only twice last season because of scheduling conflicts, again commands the Daedalus. Patrick Sabongui (Kanaan), the father of Teyla's child and now one of Michael's hybrids, recurs from "The Kindred" (4x18-19). New supporting cast member Leela Savasta (Captain Alicia Vega) makes a brief appearance but is not introduced, though her excellent marksmanship is. Rainbow Sun Francks (Aiden Ford), last seen in season 2, makes a very brief appearance at the top of the episode in a short dream sequence.

Creators: Directed by Andy Mikita. Written by Martin Gero.

The episode: At the end of season 4, Sheppard and his team were trapped when they got to Michael's facility before Michael and Teyla and the facility, booby trapped in case of discovery, collapsed around them. Now it turns out a badly wounded Sheppard is trapped deep in the rubble with Ronon; elsewhere McKay is trapped with Lorne. Carter and Keller arrive with a team to recover survivors with the Daedalus a few hours away, but the booby-trap had send a pulse to Michael and he arrives first, just as McKay and Lorne are rescued. Read more...

Aired Friday, July 11, 2008 on Sci Fi.

Guest stars: Lesley Sharp (Sky Silvestry) was in The Full Monty and was in The Second Coming with Christopher Eccleston. David Troughton (Professor Hobbes) is the son of Second Doctor Patrick Troughton and was King Peladon in "The Curse of Peladon" 36 years ago. Ayesha Antoine (Dee Dee Blasco) was a regular on Grange Hill. Colin Morgan (Jethro Cane) will be playing the title role in Merlin this fall. Billie Piper once again gets guest star billing for a brief appearance on a monitor.

Creators: Written by Russell T. Davies. Directed by Alice Troughton (no relation).

The episode: This is a bottle show, most of the episode taking place inside the passenger compartment of the Crusader 50 shuttlebus. The Doctor and Donna are on vacation on the planet Midnight, where the landscape is made of diamonds but the sunlight is lethal to all life. Leaving Donna to relax in the leisure hive – I mean, palace – the Doctor takes a four-hour trip to see the fantastic sapphire waterfall. (Catherine Tate got a bit of a holiday herself and only appears at the beginning and end of the episode. There's no TARDIS in this episode either, apparently for the first time since "Genesis of the Daleks" in 1975.) Read more...

Following up on Grace Park's revelation that a Battlestar Galactica TV movie was in the works, cast member Aaron Douglas has confirmed that the process to get it made is under way and provided some new details.

Douglas, who plays former flight deck chief and "sleeper Cylon" Galen Tyrol, told The Chief's Deck that one TV movie (and apparently only one, at least for now) is slated to start production in September. Like Razor, the as-yet unnamed movie will be set in the past: in this case, during the time-frame of the show's first season.
Read more...

Season 5 of Stargate Atlantis will involve a number of changes, not least of which is a brand new expedition commander. Actually, he's not brand new at all – Richard Woolsey (played by Robert Picardo) has been around since season 7 of Stargate SG-1, evolving from a stiff stickler for protocol to someone who's starting to understand the real world doesn't always line up with the rule book.

Picardo talked with me about the forthcoming fifth season of Atlantis and how Woolsey deals with the uncharted territory of giving orders instead of reviewing them. He also talks about how his development of Woolsey has been affected by his past experiences, both as Woolsey and in other roles on Star Trek: Voyager, China Beach, and a Showtime sitcom where he had to sign a nudity clause – wait, what?

For my interview with Robert Picardo, click here. (There's an image gallery, too.) For highlights of what's expected in season 5, check out this preview.

Looming over the entirety of season 4 of Stargate Atlantis were two unwelcome character deaths. The much-loved Dr. Carson Beckett (Paul McGillion) had been killed off late in season 3 ("Sunday"), arousing a storm of fan protest, and the leader of the Atlantis expedition, Dr. Elizabeth Weir (Torri Higginson), sacrificed herself to destroy the Replicators in the second episode of season 4 ("Lifeline"). Reports swirled that the current lead producers of the series, including Martin Gero, felt that Dr. Weir was a flawed character and that Higginson had been let go from the series for that reason.

The great thing about DVD sets is that they give you an opportunity to view an entire season as an entity, with helpful explanations in the form of featurettes and commentary to actually provide some answers to that oft-repeated refrain, "What were they thinking?" And this DVD set in particular, the complete season 4 of Atlantis, continues the fan-conscious franchise's effort to provide as many of those answers as possible, by providing commentary tracks for all of the episodes, "Mission Directive" director overviews on key episodes, and overall featurettes on what's new and different about the season as a whole.

• My review of Stargate Atlantis: The Complete Fourth Season

At the Sci Fi Channel upfront party in March, James Callis (who plays Gaius Baltar) told me in no uncertain terms that there would be no more Battlestar Galactica projects with this cast once production concluded on the fourth and final season (the wrap party, in fact, was last Saturday). The impression I got from Callis was that giving your all to a series as intense as Battlestar left the cast and creators more than ready to move on, but whatever my interpretation of the reasoning behind it, Callis was quite clear that season 4 was the end of the line.

So I was quite surprised to hear Grace Park (who plays Athena/Boomer/Number Eight) telling the press that at least one Battlestar movie is on the way after all.
Read more...