This week in Sci-Fi TV Saturday, we’ve got details on NBC downgrading Day One to a miniseries and Primeval being revived for a fourth season, plus our first look at David Tennant as the Doctor in The Sarah Jane Adventures and much more, including all the latest casting bites, images and videos.
GENRE TV NEWS
NBC’s Day One Becomes Miniseries
NBC has cut their episode order for the post-apocalyptic series "Day One". Originally set-up as a mid-season replacement with a 13-episode commitment, the series will now air as a limited four-hour miniseries, according to Variety:
Day One will still bow following the Winter Olympics, but will no longer run as a 13-episode series, as originally announced.
Move is likely a cost-cutting measure, as NBC will be able to judge the performance of Day One’s first four hours before deciding whether to proceed with a series.
Two hours of "Day One" have already been shot and creator/executive producer Jesse Alexander is now reworking the second two hours to wrap up some storylines and leave things open for a potential series. For his part, Alexander put a positive spin on the news:
I worked very closely with NBC on this decision. We decided a more targeted, shock and awe approach was the best way to expose a great Day One story to a massive audience. Airing four hours over two nights is much more exciting to me than rolling out just one hour per week… I didn’t want to suffer the same fate as many first year shows and be moved to another time slot mid story, or worse, not be able to air the final episodes. This way, the fans get a kick ass story, and the show gets the best chance to succeed.
First Look at the Doctor in The Sarah Jane Adventures
We’ve known for some time that David Tennant will appear as The Doctor in the upcoming third season of "The Sarah Jane Adventures", but now we have our first look:
Tennant will appear in the fifth and sixth episodes of the new season. The two-part story (titled "The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith") will air October 29th and October 30th on BBC One. Here are the synopses for the two episodes:
Overall story summary: "Sarah Jane has met Peter Dalton and wants him to become part of her life; to become a father to Luke perhaps. But Clyde thinks Peter is hiding a secret or two of his own, especially when he and Rani find an empty house where Peter says his home should be…"
Part one summary: "The Doctor returns on the happiest day of Sarah Jane’s life – but a deadly trap is waiting for them all! As the strands of a clever and careful plan draw together, can even a Time Lord save Sarah Jane, on the day of her arch-enemy’s greatest triumph?"
Part two summary: "The Doctor joins the battle – but is it too late to save both Sarah Jane and the Earth itself? As the power of the Pantheon of Discord grows in strength, the old friends are separated across different time zones, and must fight to save each other – but for one, there’s a terrible price to pay."
You can check out an interview with star Elisabeth Sladen at Digital Spy. And now for something completely different: A Dalek made 480,000 of matches (via SCI FI Wire):
And here’s the second trailer for the third season premiere – "Prisoners Of The Judoon"
Primeval Saved; BBC America and UKTV Help Save Canceled Show
Back in June of this year, ITV was forced to cancel the sci-fi dinosaur series "Primeval" over funding issues, but now the series is making a comeback. Variety reports that BBC America and the U.K. pay channel UKTV are bringing the show back from extinction, with Impossible Pictures agreeing to produce a total of 13 episodes to air over two runs:
Under the new funding arrangements, BBC Worldwide, responsible for licensing the show to around 45 countries, replaces ITV as the program’s biggest investor.
Meanwhile, BBC America, which airs Primeval in the U.S., has joined Germany’s ProSieben as a co-production partner on the show.
"Primeval" will premiere its fourth season in early 2011 on ITV and then UKTV will get the fifth season later that year. No details on when it’ll premiere here in the states, but it will likely be sometime that same year. A big-screen adaptation from Warner Bros. — who acquired the screen rights in May — is still in development, with Akiva Goldsman and Kerry Foster producing under the WB-based company Weed Road.
SGU: Stargate Universe Premiere Numbers + Upcoming Episode Descriptions and Cast Interviews
The numbers for the series premiere of “Stargate Universe” are out, and they’re pretty weak. According to MGM’s press release (MGM is the studio that produces the show), the two-hour premiere drew 2.35M viewers and a 1.7 HH rating. Among the demos, it drew 1.32M Adults 25-54 and 1.12M Adults 18-49. Syfy is spinning the show’s premiere as a positive, noting that it’s the strongest premiere since the second season premiere of “Stargate Atlantis”, but the truth is that this is a very, very poor start and falls behind nearly ever other high-profile launch from the network, including “Stargate Atlantis” (4.2M), “Eureka” (4.1M), “Warehouse 13” (3.5M) and “Battlestar Galactica” (3.1M for the season one premiere). In the end though, all that matters is that it stays consistent. If it continues to drop, then there will be problems, but if it stays at around this level, it should be okay despite the weak launch. In other news, episode descriptions for the next four episodes of the series have been released. I’ve included the synopses for episodes three and four below (click the link to read the others):
“AIR: PART 2” Air Date: Friday, October 9, 2009 @ 9 PM
With the air supply failing on the Destiny, a team disembarks to a desert-like planet in search of the mineral needed to scrub the ship’s air of carbon dioxide. After testing numerous sand samples without success, and with their window of opportunity closing fast, the group opts to split into two to cover more ground, despite the unbearable heat. While one team presses on to find the treasured mineral, the other has another goal in mind. When it is apparent that Dr. Rush (ROBERT CARLYLE) can’t go on, Lt. Scott (BRIAN J. SMITH) decides to go it alone and orders Sgt. Greer (JAMIL WALKER SMITH) to return to safety with the exhausted scientist.
Meanwhile, with life on the ship looking bleak, and with the aid of the communication stones, Col. Young (LOUIS FERREIRA) reports in to O’Neill, and Chloe (ELYSE LEVESQUE), has one last chance to see her mother.
“DARKNESS” Air Date: Friday, October 16, 2009 @ 9 PM
Dr. Nicholas Rush (ROBERT CARLYLE) has been working throughout the night to try and determine why the ship’s power reserves are critically low. He reiterates his mounting concerns to Colonel Young (LOUIS FERREIRA), who advises the crew to limit their power consumption to essential services only. Suddenly the lights dim to emergency levels and everything but life support goes dead. Overwhelmed by fatigue and frustration, Rush declares that all on board will perish within days. But when Destiny’s flight path towards a solar system reveals the existence of three planets, they hope that one of them is habitable.
Meanwhile Eli (DAVID BLUE) records individual messages from the crew in case they don’t survive.
In other ‘SGU’ news, GateWorld is reporting that the season one DVD set is expected to be released in two volumes, ala "Battlestar Galactica". And here’s a recap of some of the interviews that were conducted with the cast over the past week
:
- Alaina Huffman [CinemaSpy]
- Elyse Levesque [CinemaSpy]
- Brian J. Smith [Joseph Mallozzi & Chicago Now]
- David Blue [io9]
- Ming-Na [io9]
Stars Ming-Na, Robert Carlyle and Lou Diamond Philips on the Today Show
Promo for episode three – "Air"
Robert Carlyle Q&A, Part 1
Date Set for AMC’s The Prisoner
We’ve known for some time that AMC’s remake of "The Prisoner" would premiere in November, but we now have a date and schedule. The network announced that the miniseries — starring Ian McKellen as Number Two and Jim Caviezel as Number Six — will premiere Sunday, November 15th and air from 8-10:00 p.m. over three successive nights. By the way, AMC is still offering all 17 episodes of the original 1967 series online for free (click here to watch).
Lost Cast Talk Season Six
"Lost" stars Michael Emerson (Ben Linus), Jorge Garcia (Hurley), Daniel Dae Kim (Jin) and Terry O’Quinn (John Locke) recently spoke with TV Guide about the upcoming sixth and final season of the hit ABC series. Here are some excerpts:
Emerson on the conclusion of the show:
"I don’t know if they’ll be fully satisfied or not," Emerson says. "I don’t know if we want to be fully satisfied. I think it’s always best to go away wanting a little more."
"Basically a bomb went off at the end of the last one and all bets are off," Garcia said. Adds Kim: "At the end of last season there was a big explosion."
Check out another interview with Emerson here (via Dark UFO). In other premiere news, Dark UFO is reporting that Desmond will appear in the sixth season premiere. Closing out this week’s "Lost" updates, here are two more set reports that have surfaced on the net over the last few days: Beach Camp filming. [The ODI] and Filming in the Valley. [Hawaii Blog].
Set images [more here, here, here and here]
NEW IMAGES
Caprica
Posters [more at io9]
Dollhouse
Episode four – "Belonging"
More images: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7
Promotional (cast) images [more at SpoilerTV]
Heroes
Set images of Nathan and Peter Petrelli [more at The ODI]
FlashForward
Poster [SpoilerTV]
Fringe
Episode five – "Dream Logic"
More images: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6
Set images of the Observer [Twitter via SpoilerTV]
CASTING BITES
- A casting call has gone out for extras to appear in HBO’s upcoming pilot of "A Game of Thrones", the network’s adaptation of the fantasy novel by George R.R. Martin. [Extras NI via George R.R. Martin]
- A casting call for "Fringe" is looking for a guest star to appear in the eighth episode this season. [SpoilerTV]
- The producers of "Eastwick" are looking for three characters including one guest star for the eighth episode. [SpoilerTV]
- Sebastian Roche revealed on his Twitter account that he landed a recurring role as a villain on Fox’s "Fringe". [via the TV addict]
- "Smallville" is getting a "NEW SEXY SUPERHERO". The character — male, age 37-48 — is described as being "the most handsome and sexy of ALL the D.C. Superheroes". [SpoilerTV]
NEW VIDEOS
Trailer
Dollhouse
Interview with Tahmoh Penikett and Eliza Dushku
FlashForward
Episode three – "137 Sekunden"
Character profile: Inside the Mind of Mark Beneford (Joseph Fiennes)
Fringe
Episode four – "Momentum Deferred"
Ghost Whisperer
Episode three – "Till Death Do Us Part"
Heroes
Episode four – "Acceptance"
The Phantom
Teaser trailer
Medium
Episode three – "Pain Killer"
Riverworld
Trailer
Smallville
Episode three – "Rabid"
Supernatural
Episode five – "Fallen Idol"
V
Sci-Fi Channel UK promo
Sneak peek clip
Watch another clip here
The Vampire Diaries
Episode five – "You’re Undead to Me"
TV BITES
- Previously on TrekMovie: John Cho talks about his role on "FlashForward", and how it may or may not interfere with his ability to star in the next "Star Trek" film.
- The eighth episode of "Supernatural" will be done in the style of a sitcom, complete with a laugh track. [EW]
- Episode 11 of "Heroes" will be titled "Thanksgiving". [The ODI]
- The two-hour premiere of Syfy’s "Caprica" was screened Friday at the Woodstock Film Festival and will be screened again at the festival tomorrow (Sunday, October 4th). [via SCI FI Wire]
- Syfy will launch "Ghost Hunters Academy" — previously referred to as both "Ghost Hunters: New Generation" and "Ghost Hunters: College Edition" — on Wednesday, November 11th at 10:00pm. Six episodes have been ordered. [The Futon Critic]
- Some casting sides for the still untitled eighth episode of ABC’s "Eastwick" are available to view at SpoilerTV.
- Think "FlashForward" is too similar to "Lost"? Well SCI FI Wire had a little fun and constructed this Venn diagram to find out one way or the other. [SCI FI Wire]
- "Sanctuary" stars Amanda Tapping and Robin Dunne talk about the show’s upcoming second season in a new interview with CinemaSpy.
- NBC has released the official synopsis for "Tabula Rasa", the fourth episode of "Heroes". [SpoilerTV]
- Meanwhile, The CW has released the synopsis for the sixth episode of "Supernatural" – "I Believe The Children Are Our Future"… [Supernatural Fans Online]
- …as well as the synopsis for the fourth episode of "Smallville" – "Echo"… [SpoilerTV]
- …And lastly, episode descriptions for the sixth ("Lost Girls") and ninth (untitled) episodes of "The Vampire Diaries" can be read at VampireSite.
- Syfy has set a December 6, 2009 premiere date for the miniseries "Alice". It’ll air from 9:00-11:00 p.m. over two nights. The trailer is included above in the videos section.
- Friday was the 50th anniversary of the first airing of "The Twilight Zone" (October 2, 1959). In honor of the anniversary, check out this 10-minute video compilation of all 156 episodes of the series. [via SCI FI Wire]
SCI FI TV RATINGS
Monday
As if it’s season debut wasn’t weak enough, "Heroes" dipped even further in week two. Falling to series lows, episode three drew only 5.72M viewers and a 2.5 A18-49 rating, down 6% in viewers and 11% in A18-49 rating.
Wednesday
"Eastwick" (ABC) fell 23% among both viewers (from 8.5M to 6.57M) and adults 18-49 (from a 3.0 rating to a 2.3 rating) from its already sub-par series premiere. As I noted in last week’s report, retention was an issue and it remained one this week with the episode holding onto just 67% of its lead-in’s total audience ("The Modern Family"/"Cougar Town") and just 61% in A18-49 rating.
Thursday
ABC’s "FlashForward" took a slight hit in total viewership (down 14% from 12.47M to 10.73M) but those numbers are still very solid for an 8:00pm show, and the series saw better results among adults 18-49, where it was down just 7.5% and tied with CBS for the hour in the demographic with a 3.7 rating (from a 4.0 rating the week prior). Over on Fox, "Fringe" staved off any further decline, growing 5% in total viewers (from 5.73M to 6.03M) and holding steady among adults 18-49 with a 2.3 rating. It’s good news that the show didn’t decline any further after a rather steep week two loss, but the show remains well off its season one pace and it looks like Fox made a bad decision in moving the show to this highly competitive Thursday night time slot. "The Vampire Diaries",(3.80M and a 1.6 A18-49 rating) and "Supernatural" (2.60M viewers and a 1.2 A18-49 rating) rounded out the rest of the sci-fi/genre programs airing on Thursday night. "The Vampire Diaries" was mostly steady, but did hit new series lows (-7% among total viewers and -6% in A18-49 rating–tying a series low), while "Supernatural" held steady (even in A18-49 rating and -2% among total viewers). I’m sure The CW is pleased with the numbers ‘Diaries’ is giving it (it’s the network’s highest-rated series), but it’s important to note that it’s not doing any better than "Smallville" did last season. The key point there is that it’s doing it at the expense of "Supernatural" which is off its year-ago numbers and was a bit more compatible with "Smallville" than it has been with "The Vampire Diaries":
First Four Week Average ("Smallville"/"Supernatural" [2008] versus "The Vampire Diaries"/"Supernatural" [2009]):
Viewers (in Millions) – 3.81M to 3.43M (-10%)
Adults 18-49 Rating – 1.6 to 1.5 (-6%)
Granted, they’re not huge declines, but The CW put "The Vampire Diaries" into the "Smallville" timeslot specifically because they thought it would get better numbers and fit in better with "Supernatural":
First Four Week Average ("Smallville" [2008] / "The Vampire Diaries" [2009]:
Viewers (in Millions) – 4.17M to 4.00M (-4%)
Adults 18-49 Rating – 1.7 to 1.8 (+6%)First Four Week Average ("Supernatural" [2008] / "Supernatural" [2009]:
Viewers (in Millions) – 3.45M to 2.86M (-17%)
Adults 18-49 Rating – 1.4 to 1.3 (-7%)
Great move CW, great move. Moving on to Friday night…
Friday
…"Smallville" dipped to new series lows in its second week of its ninth season, drawing just 2.39M viewers (-7%) and a 0.9 A18-49 rating (-10%) according to preliminary fast affiliate numbers. Those poor — which again reinforce the poor scheduling decisions of The CW — numbers pale in comparison, however, to the absolutely pitiful performance turned in by "Dollhouse" on Fox. The series also hit series lows, albeit at a considerably weaker 2.09M viewers (-16%) and a 0.9 A18-49 rating (-20%). Fans better prepare to say goodbye…again… to the Dollhouse. CBS dominated the night with its pairing of "Ghost Whisperer" (7.63M and a 1.7 A18-49 rating) and "Medium" (7.72M and a 1.8 A18-49 rating) although both shows were each down 13% from the week prior among viewers and 26% and 14%, respectively, among adults 18-49.
The complete SF&F chart from the week prior follows below. As always, the chart is one week behind. Numbers from programming airing during this current week will be available in chart form next week.
CHART (9/21/2009 to 9/27/2009)
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Follow Russ on his blog: Your Entertainment Now and on Twitter: Twitter.com/YourEntNow.
SGU is different in many ways but I believe it’s worth watching more episodes. My wife (who is NOT a sci-fi fan by any degree) actually liked it and said she’d watch again. No disrespect to any SGU cast member, who all did a great job, but it was good to see some old SG-1 faces again.
SGU was pretty lame. I was all for a more serious approach (since I always thought the previous Stargates were too jokey and generic), but SGU was dull beyond belief. It’s not enough to copy the dark TONE of BSG– you also need some strong writing to go with it.
And looking forward to seeing Tennant on SJA. Never cared for the show before, but with the Doctor there it’ll definitely be worth checking out.
Ouch! Two of the shows to which I was most looking forward both look to be dead on (before) arrival. Last week, “V” got the “shut down production for retooling” treatment (which is almost always the first sign of impending cancellation) and now “Day One” is shunted off to miniseries hell… almost certainly a Saturday night burn-off sometime next spring.
wonder if the tag line for Caprica “Two Families, One Destiny” is a little homage to Star Trek: Generations tag line “Two Captains, One Destiny.
I’ve been a huge Stargate fan and Stargate Universe sucks compared to SG-1. They’ve completely strayed away from the original formula. I think they should recast the original cast characters and make a SG-1 movies.
@ 4.
No surprise there. Ronald D Moore worked on both.
Why is ABC effing with V? It went over big at comic cob. Just air it after FlashForward, which I also enjoy. I just don’t get it.
SGU got poor ratings. Shocked! Shocked, I am!
For all the hype and fanboy appreciation “dark” shows like B5, DS9, and BSG get, they are almost never big in the ratings. People just don’t seem to want to watch gloomy shows.
Hopefully, the likely failure of SGU will be the final nail in the coffin of “gloom and doom” TV. “Enterprise’s” dark Xindi season-long storyline essentially killed that show. “Atlantis” had a sense of humor in its first season, but was retooled thereafter to be darker, and went into ratings free-fall. The ultra-dark “BSG’s” ratings sank to the point that it couldn’t justify its expense any longer. “Sarah Connor”, perhaps the darkest show in TV history, was terminated. “Dollhouse”, which is lighter than them but still pretty dark, defied logic and returned for a second season, but it is on life support and will be gone soon, too.
SGU wasn’t as terrible as I’d feared, but it wasn’t great either. If i keep watching it’s only for the characters of Dr. Rush, Eli and TJ the medic — they were the only ones that managed to keep my attention for any span of time.
Seeing familiar faces like Michael Shanks only made me remember how much I’d missed SG1, and how dreary and humor-less this new show seems in comparison…..sci-fi should be trending away from the dark gritty ‘BSG’ vibe that’s becoming so hip these days and more toward the brighter, fun adventurousness of the new ST film. God knows we could use some cheering up.
Fringe needs to move back to Tuesday, or just out of the Thursday 9PM slot. It can’t compete against Grey’s Anatomy and CSI (unfortunately).
Heroes looks like this will be the last year, which is good as I am tired of getting the DVDs (I want to have season 1 and I can’t own just one season, it’s the way I am). At least the season so far has been fairly decent.
SGU was terrible. I can’t believe people watch Stargate. It’s so boring. I tried to sit through it, but I kept flipping channels. Oh, and Clone Wars Season 2 started last night, but you guys never comment on it.
SG1 was fairly strong for an opener, but I agree that there was not enough to differentiate itself from the obvious comparison (BSG). What I’m most interested in is seeing how it plays out differently from Voyager… at least with SGU they appear to be taking the limited resources thing seriously.
It’s kinda sad… I think SGU has much more promise than Atlantis, but I have doubts about its longterm success. And Heroes is finally starting to pick up after 1.5 seasons of mediocrity… but it would be best if they cut it down after this season.
I’m a huge Battlestar Galactica fan.. but I’m sorry, Caprica was so boring and slow paced. I am hoping that it will be a little better once the series starts.
I think the new V has potential from the trailer I just watched, and with talk of having some of the original cast slipped in here and there per executive producer Jace Hall it could be fun…only time will tell. As an original fan of the mini series it will be interesting to see where it goes…
Watch SGU with my son, who spent most of the time making fun of it. (He gets that from me.) Seriously though, it was a little confusing. That was an awful lot of characters to take in in one swallow. And Lou Diamond Philips. a) why? b) it looked like he died (a la Robert T-1000 Patrick in the pilot of SGA.) But, Lou is in the previews, so I guess I’m not that lucky.
I think the show has a lot of potential. But, they have to flesh out the premise better. Just hackin’ around being lost in space until the series comes to an end… has been DONE! Does Destiny have a mission other than dropping off more Stargates than anyone knows what to do with? Does something interesting happen with the hot medic? Or Ming-Na? Anymore cool gadgets? How does Eli avoid turning into Wesley?
I’ll stick around long enough to find out…
Man, Tennant’s hair is out of control. Someone get me an anti-douchebag hairclippers please.
Is it just me or is Anna Torv getting lovelier by the episode? Perhaps they’re playing that up? She’s really smoldering. I know they’ve made her a little more vulnerable with the injuries and such, so perhaps we’re being given a little more room to care about her?
I’m also really enjoying how Olivia’s injury have made her a little more dependent on Peter. That’s a beautiful little relationship and the tiny bits they give us each week are stellar.
Also how awesome is it that Walter finally remembers Astrid’s name?
I am glad I was not the only one who found SGU alittle boring. It is the first episode so I am willing to give it a few more episodes. Heroes I have just taken off of my DVR, I just can not watch it any more. It just feels like they are going in circles. At least with Smallville you have Clark becoming Superman and have him actually use his powers to do something cool. Fringe I am starting to like more and more, the little moments of the show really make it for me. Like Peter eatting the hamburger in front of the cow, that was just great.
Caprica’s pilot WAS a little dull. They’ve manged to turn such a cool premise into another courtroom drama
I think most of the reactions to SGU are pretty unfair: People expect too much from the pilot (which isn’t over yet, by the way); it’s not supposed to be all the series will ever be, but supposed to be a pilot.
Go back and watch SG1s first season, which for the most part was pretty boring, if not atrocious, by the standards the show later set. The same goes for the Miniseries with which BSG started out, compared to the pure genius the show later delivered.
I just hope SyFy is a little more calm about making decisions about SGU than the hysterics the fans are working themselves into.
I cannot tolerate 10 seconds of anything Stargate. A boring waste of time.
Regarding Fringe: As we approach 2012, end of the world hysteria will intensify. If the show makes it that far, and as this war between the universes becomes more defined, it would be interesting to see them capitalize on current events with fears over a nuclear Iran and NK to work an EMP bomb type of threat, from the agents of the alternate universe, into the storyline. After 9/11 it’s become more apparent that the nuclear threat has less to do with bombing our individual cities than exploding one or two bombs 300 miles OVER the country so that the electromagnetic pulse will fry the country’s entire power grid, communications, and transportation systems.
What happens when every gadget you depend on to survive doesn’t work anymore, and most of the population is suddenly, maybe permanently, unemployed?
If they wanted to really creep the hell out of people, that might be a thing to work into the show.
22. A novel about that scenario, titled “One Second After”, came out earlier this year. Very sobering stuff.
V uk promo looked too much like ID4
and the ABC promo was too much to serve man
SGU i was dissapointed
Dollhouse 201 was also a dissapointment
should have kept TSCC
another Riverworld? please.
As for Twilights 50th, I posted a comment of friday that it was fifth years old that day. The reaction seemed more like the people here expected fresh prime rib steak and where feed cardboard cutout pictures insted. Still have to watch SGU on my DVR, will have time after Dallas comes to Denver to lose another football game.
The happy news is Season 4 of PrimeEvil, I was bummed back in the early summer it got canned I only have one minor complaint, 6 to 10 shows is not a season, it’s a quarter of a season for me. But even current 2009 TV is shrinking to British sizes, 11/18/22 shows for a year. It use to be 48/32/26/22 now even 20 to 16. Getting that low in week count it’s more like filling a time slot not filling a year of a show. And 10 show seasons with the show makers making 20 shows a year and counting that as 2 seasons, that to me is cheating only to give more fake self engrandment making them only feel they have gained more power.
In other words it’s more 2 + 2 = 5 self envisioned empowerment and ego boosting with words not actions.
What happened to the truth is the truth, not what you think the truth needs to be.
sgu-i cant believe they ripped off the last starfighter for part of its plot-haha-how original-not-eli makes wesley look 3 dimensional by comparison so far anyway–the couple of minutes of cameos of characters from sg1 were the best things about sgu-not a great sign…i was unclear about who attacked the planet the sgu crew were on-was it a known sg enemy? I might have fallen asleep haha-i am enjoying fringe this season-writing is getting better and yep the small moments are great-some funny great moments too-
SG-U – At least, for a show with “Stargate” in its name, they will actually be using a stargate as the central story element. That’s how it was in the great early seasons of SG-1, where they actually used the Stargate to go have an adventure every week. The bad guys had teleportation, ray guns, and space ships, but the humans just had were their one Stargate, ingenuity, and determination.
Later, as SG-1 progressed and led to SG-A, the humans had starships, warp drive, transporters, and force fields. In some episodes, you barely even saw a stargate. The Stargate franchise just became a take on Star Trek. I like Star Trek, but Stargate lost its identity.
So I think SG-U is an attempt to go back to the roots of the franchise. Appropriately, it’s a fleet of Goa’uld motherships attacking the planet with death gliders; back to its roots, indeed. And we have a team of human explorers who are underdogs again, lacking experience and knowledge of their situation. And the Stargate is once again their only means of traveling to new worlds.
So I think we should give this show a chance. They basically spent the first two hours cutting the ties from the past seasons of Stargate and setting up the new premise. It’s almost a reboot. The new series really starts next week.
So hopefully we get some more clues about the upcomming regeneration of The Doctor….
And glad that Primeval is saved – and if only for seeing Hannah Spearritt…(-;
So this is the second time they had trouble determining the last chevron. Shouldn’t that be the easiest one to find? I’m pretty sure if I gave all of you my phone number minus the last digit, on average it would take you five attempts to call me.
When, oh when will the executives learn.
Premise only gets you in the door. Writing – GOOD writing – will make or break a series.
Humor, be it slight or slapstick needs to be earned. Fringe has earned the right to incorporate it (they acknowledge the ridiculous nature of the events they are investigating and use the humor as a release).
Joss may have a vision, but I am hard-pressed to see it so far. I think he’d have better ratings with Dr. Horrible, the Series. Unfortunately, both actors have gigs already.
Heroes needs to go away – great miniseries, horrible TV show (kinda like the original V).
Flash Forward – at least if there is a fat guy, he can still stay fat. If you are lost on an island, how do you not lose weight even if time travel is involved?
SGU – verdict to be rendered eventually, but main characters are nuanced, but not very likable. The Dr. being slightly mad I could take if he wasn’t trying to be sincere (Rodney had the much better cred early on in Atlantis being full of himself). WHY is Eli there – couldn’t you just have taken his contest win and use it without using him??? A video game junkie does not a brilliant scientist make.
I now relinquish the soap box to another….
Go in peace.
The Vedek
I tried SGU. It was pretty bad. It would seem to have so much potential, but the writing seemed poor and the terrible acting of the Senator and his daughter had me cringing. It clearly has more money than the hokey SG-1 series, which seemed to always take place in some Canadian forest. I’ll give it another shot until there’s a new Star Trek series.
# well SGU is deffenitly a tiny bit moar adult and like the original movie, which I like and never like SG1 or atlantis for. But it does have the atlantis reboot feel, which is needs to shake.
# V looks good, looking forward to that
# Fringe, kind of didnt go in the direction I thought it would thought it would go more alternative reality mode, changing the show from the original season. Still got that too look forward too
# **** heroes its **** cancel that show omg.
#
@31
Yeah, a lot of SG1 did take place in the filming location. Is that any worse than most of Star Trek? Just because they were on the same shipside sets for most of the time doesn’t forgive their boring scenery–you’d think they’d have *more* money for better locations. Instead we got things like “Equinox, Part II” where ensign expendable actually *points out* how much the location looks like Earth.
I really don’t get all the dogging on SG1. I wasn’t a big fan of its spinoffs and I agree that the later seasons suffered from too much tech and not enough McGyver, but the middle four or five seasons dominated anything that Voyager or Enterprise were putting out at the time. It’s a grade A sci-fi series, just like the best of Trek.
Bummer about Smallville. I guess its a sure thing that that this is the last season.
29… “So this is the second time they had trouble determining the last chevron. Shouldn’t that be the easiest one to find?”
They were trying to find a ninth chevron that was unique to that Stargate, after Daniel Jackson discovered the seventh symbol (point of origin) in the original movie and O’Neil discovered how to use an eighth symbol to dial another galaxy (in “The Fifth Race” and later SGA). They tried using the symbol for the planet where the Super Stargate was located, but that didn’t work. Then the kid suggested they use Earth’s symbol as the last chevron, because it might really be a code to “unlock” the stargate. (A trick the Ancients had evidently used to prevent anyone else using that gate.)
30. “Flash Forward – at least if there is a fat guy, he can still stay fat. If you are lost on an island, how do you not lose weight even if time travel is involved?”
It was only about three or four months of “real time” on the Island before the Oceanic Six were rescued. Hurley, accused of hoarding food, mentioned once that he had in fact lost weight (“I’ve dropped two notches on my belt! When you weigh as much as me, it’s gonna take time!”)
I enjoyed Stargate Universe. I am not a big fan of SG-1 at all and preferred Stargate Atlantis. I plan to watch the second episode. Robert Carlyle is one of my favourite actors.
I am so thrilled that Primeval is coming back. Abby and Conor are my favourite characters. I watched the show on BBC America when I lived in the US.
I am a huge fan of the Sara Jane Adventures and Dr. Who. I am looking forward to the Doctor’s appearance in episodes five and six. I cannot get
enough of David Tennant.
Fast Forward was intriguing. I do hope John Cho comes back to reprise his role as Sulu in the next Star Trek movie.
I’m amazed that timeslots still play such a role on network TV. So many viewers now timeshift with DVR’s, or, like me, have switched to the PC to watch first run shows. Does Nielsen even cover this in their numbers?
Genre shows have lost so many key 18-49 y.o. viewers according to this report. Where did they go?
#9- DS9 was not a “dark” or “gloomy fanboy” show.
Obviously, you’ve never seen it.
Makes me wonder what show you think is any good.
Watching Premieres on the PC is nice, great quality in the image, and you can pause it, then in most cases whatch it when you want. In other words a DVR like TV tuner.
But to really enjoy on line viewing you need a high speed connection, i.e. a T1 DSL or cable connection as Dish is getting faster now about 2/3rds a T1 line for random access.
And some new HDTV’s have software/hareware for a Ethernet high speed link to the Net.
I say by 2025 TV will be coming to homes via Fiber Optic Ethernet links to the Net. This because the Bell phone will be VOIP and 3D video links for picture phones, and cells will still have at least video phone service.
The bad point is by then the IRS will be taxing you for the bits you send, all because software will make it easy, and easier to hunt terrorist that may have to start using smoke signals to keep things private. So a warning before a warning, start bad mouthing Government person to person not via mail, e-mail, the phone or even signs on video.
The first prototypes of video visual subject reading is coming from Japan, indirectly from the P3 video game people that use video instead of the Wii controlers for motion detection.
ScyFy crammed in way too many commercials during the premier of SGU. I re-watched it without the commercials on Hulu and the story flowed much better.
Here’s a link to Fortean Times’ special on Star Trek:
http://www.forteantimes.com/specials/star-trek/
40:
I find “advertising diarrhea” on cable to be offensive. My six-year-old started crying once when the SW prequels were on Spike because he wanted to watch the movie (He thought I had changed the channel, but it was a long sequence of ads). I counted 19 ads at one point during one commercial break.
Once a channel gets to that point, it’s time to pack it in.
Watched SGU. It was soooo slow; I wanted to like it but I just couldn’t. It dragged. I wasn’t really into the whole BSG rip-off either. I’m not a Galactica fan at all but I could see that this show is going to mirror it pretty close. The actors were all good and i enjoyed their performances but the story was just plain bad and slow. It was the first episode and the writers expected us to care about the characters right out of the gate?! no way. I hope it will pick up but I doubt SGU will have a season 2.
Well, I see that the producers of “The Phantom” went ahead with their stupid and insipid “generic tech/ninja” costume “reimagining”. (Pardon me – where did the “imagination” part come in? I guess I missed it.)
Thanks for posting this clip, as in “Thanks for the warning!” I will definitely now be warned to avoid stepping in that particular pile of…stuff.
#27 … On SGU, I believe they said it was the Lucian Alliance attacking, not the Goa’uld. I’m no expert, but I think the Lucians were using Goa’uld ships in one of the Ben Browder episodes of SG1, in which he had to go undercover as a Lucian.
#28 … I’m liking the prospect of more Andrew-Lee Potts on “Primeval.” Hope SyFy will be showing the 3rd season sometime soon.
#31 … “I tried SGU. It was pretty bad. It would seem to have so much potential, but the writing seemed poor and the terrible acting of the Senator and his daughter had me cringing.”
The senator didn’t bother me, but they made such a BFD when he died – with the daughter crying and Rush’s lame attempt at sympathy – that I thought I was watching a series in its 3rd or 4th season, and that the senator had been a pivotal character whose ultimate sacrifice was a series-changing moment.
But this was only the pilot! I had *no* emotional investment in either the senator or his hysterical daughter. In fact, I hate the daughter character now. Grinding the show to a dead halt while they sang accolades to this “brave” senator was entirely unwarranted … a really bad idea. Didn’t work.
Overall, I gotta say I’m really shocked by fans’ mostly negative reaction to SGU. I’m not a “huge” SG fanatic, but I enjoyed this pilot. I thought SG fans were really looking forward to it … but I guess it just didn’t deliver. C’est la vie.
I hate that “pretty boy” Lt. Scott character. Who the frak does he think he is? “Oh, I’m such a good little boy … I can step up during this major crisis and everybody will love me and listen to me.” And then he has a scene banging that chick … what, so it worked on BSG and now it’s “mandatory” in all new space-based shows, just to keep them “down to Earth”? Disgusting. I’d love to zat that Scott twice and be done with him. “Pretty boy” … go frak yourself, actor boy.
Oh, BTW, the hour-long “Star Wars: The Clone Wars” premiere was good. I liked. Got really pissed at Anakin for handing over that Holocron to Cad Bane … just to save Ahsoka. Don’t get me wrong, I like Ahsoka and I don’t want her “gone,” but Anakin was just … so … vexing!
But then I remembered what Yoda said in the TCW movie, about how Anakin’s real test as a teacher would be his ability to “let go” when the time came. Yoda said the same thing to Anakin in ROTS. But the boy can’t let go. This is all part of his downfall. So, I understand why Anakin *had* to give Bane the Holocron … but it’s still vexing!
#40 … Aaaaaa-MEN! Waaaaay too many commercials. But that’s the price “we” pay for getting a 2-hour premiere.
Fringe finally ‘lost’ out to other shows on my DVR, now that it moved.
I kept watching and waiting for something truly interesting to happen in the story, but it just seemed too much like a LOST-style tease for me to enjoy… I’m sure it’ll get interesting now that I’m no longer recording it.
SGU reminded me a lot of the original Stargate movie, which I did like. The problem is that it reminded me too much of the movie.
Gov’t has this stargate dialing problem they can’t solve.
They tap some unsuspecting civilian to help them.
The civilian solves the puzzle.
At some point they end up on a desert planet.
If they have pyramids in the second episode, then I’ll know to just turn it off and pull out the original movie DVD and watch that instead.
26
it was a throw away line about a minor group of thugs with now real reason behind. just to put our group in jepody.
29
im still noy sure what it does. 7 your galaxy. 8 is this galaxy to another. and 9 is what? a realy effing long way away.
i think the trouble they had was they got the address wrong. the did a poor job of explaining it. the last chevron is the planet your on. and they assumed they were on the gates original programed planet. But apparently the gate was moved (for more power) and some damn ancient forgot to file a change of address. Hell didnt SG-A modify the gates to build their bridge?
I didnt buy that code BS. the kid didnt know about gate details like reprograming. he knows games and made that cheat code comment based on his game exp. he was prob right for the wrong reason.
didnt the preview for next week etc show ’em wearing ev suits. why couldnt they put one on in ‘air’. close the door, climb out the broken shuttle window and walk to an airlock.
and what was wrong again with the air? I remember it was a leak or two and bad co2 scrubers. iirc the substrance was saturated or what ever and needed to be replaced. so what life form was on that ship that saturated the filters? with a hull breach and no one on board howd they get bad again?