TV News - from Westercon

New Voyages

One of the panels I went to talked about something new for Star Trek fans. A man in New York state is filming episodes to complete the original five year mission from the original Star Trek. They have built a complete set . . . . . at Ticonderoga, New York. It has a new cast playing the familiar roles. However, the second episode has Walter Koenig and the third episode - yet to be shot will have George Takei taking on the role of an older Sulu. This is a new concept - these episodes are being aired over the internet. The third episode has picked up a real TV producer who is planning to shoot in high definition. Most of the actors have real day jobs, and this is a work of love. I haven't yet seen an episode - Henry has downloaded them for me. But the review I heard at the con makes me think I'll enjoy them. Because this is all volunteer work - don't expect episodes to come out frequently.

Eureka

A new TV series will air on Tuesday night on the SciFi channel. The official blurb: "Nestled in the Pacific Northwest, Eureka is a seemingly ordinary town whose residents lead ordinary lives … at least to the naked eye. Shrouded in secrecy, the picturesque hamlet is actually a community of scientific geniuses assembled by the government to conduct top-secret research." At the SciFi panel they showed clips and previews. I think it will be worth watching at least the first few episodes.

Garth Marenghi's Darkplace

They showed clips from this - It will be shown on SciFI beginning July 27. Filmed in the 1980's, it apparently has never been aired - or perhaps it was filmed to look like it was filmed in the '80's. Definitely looks strange. I'm not sure it will be on my watch list more than once, but I know I've got friends in the science fiction world that will watch this.

Dr. Who

SciFi is negotiating to get the second season of the newer version of Dr. Who. We've got it on Tivo, but I have not watched it yet. Most fans of the original Dr. Who seem to like the new one.

Saturday night movies:

After going to the website, some of the trailers make sense now.I will have to say many of these movies that were mentioned as upcoming for Saturday Night Movie night - don't thrill me. They sound more like the "B" movies from my childhood. But once again some people LIKE this kind of stuff. This is from my notes, there is better info on the website.

Cyclops - Roger Corman
Supergator Roger Corman film
Screech - deadly bird flu
Yetti - curse of the snow demon - college football team struggles to survive . . .. .
Lake Placid II - sequel to 1999 thriller . . . . .
Beyond Sherwood forest - slay creature slaying poor and innocent
Stan Lee - Lightspeed - guy who travels faster than anyone else
Harpies - female wing monsters
Ron Moore - Batle star spin off set 50 years before . . . . .




Other news:


It looks as though the SciFi channel will be showing "Dead Like Me" perhaps with cleaned up language. From the website, first episode, July 18. They also talked about showing the original "Nightstalker" complete with episodes that were never aired. For those that actually like reality shows - on Thursday night "Who wants to be a Superhero?" Count me out on that one.

In development:

I'm just going to post my rough notes. These are series in development. They may not ever make it to our TV screens.

In development:

Kip Stanley Robinsons - Mars

Tale of 2 cities
Mini series base on Myst
Remake of Thing
Ringworld Pilot live action anime witchhunter robin
Urban arcane
Own pilot for Time Tunnel 3or 4 versions pilots made nothing happened

Lots in developmnet but whether we see

developing Steven Baxter ???? - Times' Ice novel series - very preliminary

Surface and Invasion - Threshold - all cancelled by networks -

Surface in daytime block - new episodes - not likely

Maybe pick up Threshold , Invasion - genre series - sci fi will look at if cheap enough to pick up

For those of you wondering about the wrestling now on SciFi - ratings went down beginning in 2006. Wrestling in theory is bringing in those coveted younger viewers. SciFi is owned by NBC and connected with USA Network. For those of us that have been enjoying some of the good science fiction on TV, I guess we either need to be vocal (which is not really very effective - the networks don't tend to listen) or we need to pass the word around about the shows that are good, that we enjoy.