Tagged: Battlestar Galactica

Bionic Woman Returns

michelle_ryan-2k5-arena-calendar-5844310NBC has picked up David Eick’s remake of The Bionic Woman for the 2007 -2008 season.

Eick was best known for his work as executive producer of the remake of Battlestar Galactica, running on NBC’s Sci-Fi Network. Now he’s best known as teevee’s go-to guy for science ficiton teevee revivals.

The revisioned series stars British actress Michelle Ryan as Jaime Sommers. Eick has said that they only used the title of the series as their starting point and that the show will go in its own direction. So we know Ryan will have a chip on her shoulder – as well as everyplace else – and, well, that she’s a woman.

Galactica‘s Katee Sackhoff (Starbuck) co-stars in the pilot as the mandatory evil bionic woman. Whereas she worked on this during her brief time-off from Galactica, since Eick wrote the pilot we shouldn’t be astonished if we see her come back – certainly, after Galactica wraps its next and final season.

No word on any reappearance of The Six Million Dollar Man. Today, six mill wouldn’t buy you a used Dalek.

 

MATT RAUB reveals: Bob Dylan is a Cylon!

  • News
  • April 5, 2007

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So it’s been about two weeks since the season 3 finale of Battlestar Galactica. “Crossroads Part 2” has aired, and I’m tired of sitting on what I have to say about it. If you’re one of the unfortunate one’s who have still yet to see the show, here’s the spoilers: Basically we learned: who the final four Cylons turn out to be, how everyone copes with the recently deceased Starbuck, the outcome of the Gaius Baltar trial, that President Rosaline’s cancer has returned and she’s back on the wacky drug that made her see snakes, and finally, that Bob Dylan is a Cylon!

Don’t worry; I know there is a lot here, so I’m going to break it down for those playing along at home.

Those of you who remember the set-up in “Crossroads Part 1” know that throughout the episode, Colonel Tigh, Sam, Chief Tyrol, and Press Secretary Tory Foster (played by Michael Hogan, Aaron Douglas, Michael Trucco, and Rheka Sharma, respectively) hear strange sitar music that draws them toward the center of the ship. We don’t know where it comes from, only that these four are the only ones that can hear this music. We find out in the finale that mysterious music is a cover of the Bob Dylan song “All Along the Watchtower” – and not Jimi Hendrix’s, either! Now, those of you who read my review for the film 300 know my feelings about switching from orchestral beats to heavy modern guitar, but that goes full force when it’s a sci-fi show that uses an actual song when the show takes place millions of years ago and/or galaxies away!

Either way, we discover that these people hearing the music are drawn together and discover that they are all Cylon sleeper agents. This is probably one of the biggest moments in the season, and I feel likeit  didn’t get the respect it deserved by clumping all of the Cylon-outings in one scene.

Moving on, we also get the verdict of the excruciatingly long trial of Giaus Baltar. The arc basically consisted of a whole lot of father/son Adama melodrama, cranky Rosaline explains how her cancer has returned (which should be a non-issue because we know that the bastard Cylon-baby is the cure) and some more mystifying lines from Batlar’s lawyer, Matt Murdock-lite Romo Lampkin (played by 24’s Mark Sheppard). After some deep prodding from the prosecution, a recently de-commissioned Apollo takes the stand and gives this entire speech on what he’s been feeling from day one. This was a great little monologue, because he talks about how the fleet has forgiven all of its past “crimes against humanity,” referencing a lot of the back story along the way. Essentially this is what persuades the tribunal of judges to give Baltar a verdict of not guilty.

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Hugos for Who?

  • News
  • March 29, 2007

hugoaward-8543783The 2007 Hugo Awards, most prized of the science-fiction awards, just might wind up in the hands of longest running s-f teevee series of all time

Three episodes of Doctor Who from the past season were nominated in the best dramatic presentation – short form category: "School Reunion," the episode that reintroduced Sarah Jane Smith and written by Toby Whithouse,  Steven Moffatt’s "The Girl in the Fireplace," where the Doctor saves Madame de Pompadour from really neat looking robots, and the season’s two-part finale, "Army of Ghosts" and "Doomsday," written by executive producer Russell T. Davies and featuring the Cybermen and the Daleks in a battle scene that made 300 look like a Disney flick.

These three shows are up against an episode of Battlestar Galactica ("Downloaded) and an episode of Stargate SG-1 ("200."). As usual, the winner will be announced at the World Science Fiction Convention, to be held in Yokohama, Japan from August 30th to September 3rd.

The new season of Doctor Who begins in England this Saturday.

JOHN OSTRANDER: Fire-bombing Dresden

  • News
  • March 29, 2007

ostrander100-8914753I’m a big fan of The Dresden Files. Which is why I can’t take The Dresden Files.

Maybe I should explain.

About a year ago or so I picked up a novel by Jim Butcher about a wizard-for-hire working out of modern day Chicago. It meshes the hard-boiled detective genre with the wizard and fantasy genre. If you know me, then you know I’m already into what I’ve called narrative alloys – the blending of genres. And I’m still a Chicago boy at heart so of course I was drawn to the book series. Butcher, not a Chicago native, sometimes gets his Chicago geography wrong – one book refers to what is obviously Hyde Park as Lincoln Park which is a very different neighborhood – but he generally gets the feel right.

As the series has progressed, the world of his hero – Harry Dresden – gets richer. He has an army of wonderful supporting characters and an overall interlocking story has emerged. While each book can be read on its own (I read them way out of order); they’re all connected and events in one book have ramifications in later books. Butcher has thought out his magic pretty well, its consistent and believable. In short, he’s created not only a wonderfully interesting main character but his own world that just happens to intersect the real world in a city that I love a lot.

In short, I’ve become a fan and I was really excited when I learned that it was going to be made into a series on the SciFi network. I remained excited – up until I started watching it.

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Galactica plots its new course

  • News
  • March 27, 2007

Now that the third season is behind him and he’s got a full commitment from the SciFi Network for a third, Battlestar Galactica developer and executive producer Ron Moore decided to spill a few beans about what’s ahead for the series.

Moore revealed Katee Sackhoff will be back as Starbuck throughout the upcoming season, although he did not reveal if she was the final Cylon. Despite her previous public comments regarding her getting new work on other series, Moore told the trade magazine TVWeek "She was very careful how she phrased it. We wanted people to feel the loss. We didn’t want to put Katee in the position of lying to people. She did look for other work and is getting other work — just other work that won’t interfere with her "Battlestar" commitments."

He also disclosed the upcoming two-hour Galactica made-for-teevee movie that will be airing this fall (and available on DVD shortly thereafter) will not pick up from the point where season three left off, providing a convenient "jumping in" point for new viewers. "It didn’t feel right to try and resolve the cliffhanger with a single airing and DVD release. It didn’t make any sense. We told a story that takes place in the past in the "Galactica" universe but relates to events in the fourth season."

As has been widely rumored, Moore confirmed the possibility of a prequel series called Caprica. It’s "still in development," Moore said. "They’re not picking it up as a pilot right now. They’ve talked about doing a two-hour version of it, or a DVD. The longer it goes on, the less likely it seems that anything will happen."

Of course, if this fall’s stand-alone movie does well – or if the Star Trek theatrical prequel does extremely well (a longer shot, IMHO) – don’t be surprised if SciFi gets a lot more interested.

Battlestar 4 to go the distance

  • News
  • March 22, 2007

At long last , the SciFi Channel’s embattled Battlestar Galactica has received a renewal for a full 22 episode fourth season.

A partial renewal order of 12 episodes was given several weeks ago after what was perceived as a near-cancellation. The show performs well enough in the ratings, but is extremely expensive to produce.

According to TVWeek, the fourth season will include a special two-hour "event". The third season concludes this Sunday.

DIY BSG

  • News
  • March 11, 2007

bsgvid-2957943Because Battlestar Galactica fans demanded it, and they didn’t even know it!  Also because hey, it provides the SciFi Channel with more airtime filler and they don’t have to work to get it.  In any case, the newest bit of viral interactive fun care of SciFi is the Battlestar Galactica Videomaker Toolkit, which allows viewers to insert sound, visual and music clips from the show in their own homemade four-minute masterpieces, which they can then upload to the site in a sort of contest where the winner will be shown during the airing of a future BSG episode. 

Maybe we’ll get to see a cool Starbuck resurrection scene, combined perhaps with a Stephen Colbert green screen kinda deal…

Reboots abound!

  • News
  • March 4, 2007

bobgreenberger100-5877925With J.J. Abrams now confirmed as not only producing and scripting but also directing 2008’s Star Trek XI, the buzz has begun on the latest reboot of a beloved franchise. As one might imagine, fans of the series have been divided over whether or not this has been necessary, a debate we’ve all heard before.

The entire notion of a reboot is an interesting one because, looking back, reboots were largely throwing ideas against the wall to see what might stick. While there were fans of The Flash, there was certainly no groundswell of support demanding DC Comics bring Jay Garrick back. Instead, management created Showcase as a title to try new things and after three issues of straight-forward adventure, they thought it was time for something different. As legend has it, someone thought the time might be right for a new super-hero and all heads turned to the last editor with any success as characters without S-shields and bats: Julius Schwartz.

Instinctively, Schwartz knew Jay Garrick and his mercury-helmet felt too dated. Things in the 1950s were fresh and new, sleek and shiny. He kept the name and the powers and recreated from the ground up, perhaps pop culture’s first reboot.

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Podcast #4

Marvelous May, DC’s scheduling nightmare, Stan Lee and tons of news and previews — we it all in the fourth Comicmix Podcast, now downloadable right here, right now:

 

Plus — Timeline, a guide to new variant covers, a reveal on Battlestar Galactica, Buffy and … John Wayne?

If you missed any of our earlier ComicMix Podcasts, here they are.

Galacti-can!

  • News
  • February 18, 2007

To nobody’s surprise, the SciFi Channel has renewed Battlestar Galactica for a fourth season.  The series has garnered plenty of critical acclaim since its debut, winning a Peabody award for its high-quality scripting (including that of Superman/Batman writer and comic book veteran Mark Verheiden, who is also an executive producer of BSG) and making the American Film Institute’s top 10 outstanding TV programs two years in a row, and the ratings shot up even more with the show’s recent move to Sunday nights.

Another major factor in the no-brainer decision had to do with new viewing habits.  On the one hand, more than a million BSG DVDs have been sold, offsetting production costs considerably (SciFi admits BSG is its most expensive original series).  On the other hand, SciFi’s Mark Stern told the LA Times that 510,000 additional viewers in the 18-to-49 demographic are watching the show on DVRs, for which advertisers don’t yet pay (on the general assumption is that viewers fast-forward through ads during playback).  The Times’ Denise Martin says this "could be a crucial point for the channel, and Stern is hopeful that the business model is shifting."  The renewal could also give a greater boost to plans involving a direct-to-DVD BSG movie.

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