Sci-Fi TV Sunday: Dollhouse, FlashForward, Lost, Smallville, V + more

This week in Sci-Fi TV, we’ve got you covered with the first eight minutes of the new ABC series V, David Goyer taking full showrunning duties on FlashForward, some updates on Lost, Justice League casting news on Smallville, a scheduling change for Dollhouse and more, including the latest television ratings, casting bites, images and videos.

 

GENRE TV NEWS

Marc Guggenheim Leaves FlashForward; David Goyer Becomes Sole Showrunner
Marc Guggenheim, who has experience as a showrunner and was brought in help co-creator/executive producer David Goyer, is leaving the series.  With his departure, Goyer will step up as a sole showrunner.  Brannon Braga is a co-creator on the series but is unavailable per his commitment to the Fox series "24". A new episode of "FlashForward" airs this Thursday at 8:00 p.m. on ABC.  Here’s an excerpt from ABC’s press release for the subsequent episode "The Gift", which airs on November 5th:

"The Gift" – Mark, Demetri, Gough and MI6 agent Fiona Banks (Alex Kingston, "ER") investigate a Blue Hand club and its possible connection to some recent suicides. Meanwhile, Aaron receives a surprise visit from a former army buddy of his late daughter’s, Demetri comes clean with Zoey (Gabrielle Union) about his lack of a flashforward, and Nicole helps Bryce uncover the mystery of his flashforward while volunteering at the hospital.

Promo for episode six – "Scary Monsters and Super Creeps"

Behind-the-scenes featurette

Interview with V Star Morena Baccarin + ABC Goes "Sky-High" With Series Promotion
Morena Baccarin was interviewed by SCI FI Wire about the new series.  Here’s an excerpt from the interview:

"It completely re-invents the material, actually," Baccarin told us in an exclusive interview last week. "It’s a re-imagining of the old one, so it’s the same concept. Aliens come down from space. You have the conflict between them and humans. Why are they here? The show in the ’80s was more about communism and totalitarianism, and our show plays a little bit more with the terrorist aspect, which is more the reality of the world we’re living in now. And the characters are different. I’m not Diana. I play Anna."

Head on over to SCI FI Wire to read the rest of the interview.  Meanwhile the network has begun a new marketing campaign to the promote the show.  Beginning this past Friday, a giant red letter V (written by skywriting planes) will appear over 26 landmarks across the United States.  From the ABC press release:

Beginning October 23 through November 3, the Visitors from "V" will mark the sky with their distinctive red "V" over several U.S. landmarks in different cities in preparation for their highly anticipated arrival to ABC on NOVEMBER 3 (8:00-9:00 p.m., ET). The sky-written image will be visible multiple times during the day above and around the cities below at the times listed.

Here is the list of cities and times the image will be visible:

Date/Time Location
October 23 — 9:00 a.m. Boston, MA
October 23 — 9:00 a.m. Minneapolis, MN
October 24 — 9:00 a.m. San Francisco, CA
October 24 — 9:00 a.m. Seattle, WA
October 24 — 9:00 a.m. Orlando, FL
October 25 — 9:00 a.m. Chicago, IL
October 25 — 12:00 p.m. Hollywood, CA
October 25 — 9:30 a.m. New York, NY
October 25 — 2:15 p.m. Philadelphia, PA
October 26 — 12:00 p.m. Tempe, AZ
October 26 — 9:00 a.m. Atlanta, GA
October 27 — 12:00 p.m. Dallas, TX
October 28 — 4:15 p.m. Austin, TX
October 28 — 9:00 a.m. Las Vegas, NV
October 31 — 12:00 p.m. Hollywood, CA
October 31 — 12:10 p.m. Hollywood, CA
October 31 — 12:20 p.m. Los Angeles, CA
October 31 — 12:00 p.m. Santa Monica, CA
October 31 — 9:00 a.m. New York, NY
October 31 — 9:15 a.m. New York, NY
October 31 — 9:30 a.m. New York, NY
October 31 New York, NY (throughout the morning)
November 3 — 12:00p.m. Hollywood, CA
November 3 — 12:10 p.m. Hollywood, CA
November 3 — 12:20 p.m. Los Angeles, CA
November 3 — 12:00 p.m. Santa Monica, CA

"V" premieres on Tuesday, November 3rd on ABC.  It will run for four weeks before heading into hiatus until the new year.

First Look: Watch the first eight minutes of V

Promo

Damon Lindelof Talks Lost: The Final Season + Show Taking Hiatus During Olympics?
Speaking with Comic Book Resources during an appearance at LA’s Earth-2 Comics, "Lost" co-creator/co-executive producer Damon Lindelof said that although fans will receive answers to many of the questions that have come up over the years on the series, not everything will be revealed:

"I don’t think it would be ‘Lost’ if we answered every question to every viewer’s satisfaction," Lindelof said. "I mean, there are some people who are still asking us ‘What’s the story with Kate’s toy plane?’ and there is nothing more to say about it; we’ve definitively answered that question to the best of our ability on the show, so you won’t be hearing anymore about the toy plane. That being said, there are other sort of meta questions, like, what do the numbers mean, that we will be addressing more directly in the final season. But some people will feel like, ‘Wow, they answered more than I thought they ever would about that question,’ and some people will say ‘What a hose job, I am so unsatisfied!’ Our goal is to land in the middle of the ‘hose jobers’ and the ‘too much informationers,’ because you can’t make everybody happy."

It also appears that the sixth season won’t be running straight through.  The ODI is reporting that while visiting Harvard, writer Carlton Cuse explained that the show would begin airing this January and then stop for the Olympics before starting up again in February. The Olympics run on NBC from February 12, 2010 to February 28th.  Meanwhile in casting news, EW’s Michael Ausiello reports that Emilie de Revin (Claire) will be back for the whole sixth season:

My Lost mole says season 6 will showcase “a version of Claire we’ve never seen before — a Rousseau-esque version.” We’ll be in need of a Rousseau fix since the real version will be MIA.

However, Mira Furlan (who played Rousseau), turned down the show’s request to return for the final season due to a “prior overseas commitment.”  And lastly, DarkUFO reports that the sixth episode of the series will be called "Sundown" and is presumed to involve either Sun or Jin or both.

Set images [more at HawaiiWeblog]

Bloopers from the Season Five DVD

Smallville Justice League Casting: Hawkman, Doctor Fete, Stargirl and Dark Archer
We’ve known that this season of "Smallville" would feature the Justice League in an upcoming episode written by comic book writer Geoff Johns, and now we’ve got some casting news on just what characters, and actors, will appear.  IGN reports that two of the characters will be Hawkman and Doctor Fate and they’ll both be played by ‘Stargate’ alums:

Playing Hawkman will be an actor who brings his own notable sci-fi following to the role. Michael Shanks, who has recently been appearing on Burn Notice, but is best known as Daniel Jackson on Stargate SG-1, will portray the classic DC hero.

Doctor Fate will be played by Brent Stait, who had an ongoing role on Andromeda as Rev Bem. Stait also has experience in the Stargate world, having appeared on SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis, along with the direct-to-DVD movie Stargate SG-1: Children of the Gods.

Shortly after that news broke, Fancast reported that the third JSA member would be Stargirl and the character would be played by Britt Irvin ("Aliens in America").  "Society" is scheduled to air on The CW in January.  In other casting news, Comic Book Movie reports that Steve Bacic has been cast as the Dark Archer.  He’ll appear in the episode "Disciple".

Promo for episode six – "Crossfire"

Fox Pulls Dollhouse from Nov. Sweeps; Joss Whedon Responds
Last week there was some good news to report for the low-rated Fox series "Dollhouse" when Fox announced that they intended to air all 13-ordered episodes of the show this season.  This week?  Not so much. The network has announced that they will temporarily pull the show from November Sweeps (a critical ad sales-related period).  It will return to the line-up in December, where they will basically burn off the remaining episodes in back-to-back blocks at 8:00 p.m. on December 4th, 11th and 18th.  Joss Whedon responded to the news in a post at Whedonesque:

"Howzabout that schedule? Well, I’m not as depressed as everyone else. We weren’t about to rock sweeps anyway, and though there’s a chilly November, December is CRAZY. It’s like an Advent calendar of episodes! We get November to try to spread the word (which I’ll be leaning on Fox to do, though it’s hard to imagine them doing as good a job as the WhyIWatch guy) and then December is pure gluttony. Plus the episodes line up extremely well in these pairs, and we’ll have an absurdly appropriate lead-in. Back to breaking Tim’s [Minear] episode.

Keep the faith, peeps. I’ll bring you news (and hopefully a little humor, I mean would it kill me to punch these up a little?) when I can. -j joss

NEW IMAGES

Battlestar Galactica: The Plan

Stills [more at Latino Review]

Doctor Who

Set images [more at Blogtor Who]

Inside the Tardis (set images) [via Den of Geek]

Dollhouse

Episode six – "The Left Hand" [FOX]

Fringe

Episode seven – "Of Human Action" [FOX]

More images: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7

The Sarah Jane Adventures

Episodes three and four – "The Mad Woman In The Attic" [more at Radio Times via Blogtor Who]

Episodes five and six – "The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith" [more at Blogtor Who]

CASTING BITES

  • CBS has confirmed that Katee Sackhoff ("24", "Battlestar Galactica") will guest star on the November 23rd episode of the hit comedy "The Big Bang Theory".  She’ll reportedly play Howard Wolowitz’s fantasy woman. [Chicago Tribune]
  • Jason Momoa ("Stargate Atlantis") has been cast in HBO’s pilot of "Game of Thrones", the network’s adaptation of the George R.R. Martin fantasy book series "A Song of Ice and Fire". [Winter is Coming via SCI FI Wire]
  • A casting call has gone out looking for two characters to appear in this season’s 11th episode ("Sam, Interrupted:) of "Supernatural". [SpoilerTV]
  • Sebastian Roche has been added to the cast of "Fringe" as a recurring villain character.  He’ll play a soldier from another dimension, replacing Thomas Kretschmann who was originally cast as the super-spy and appeared in the Oct. 8th episode "Momentum Deferred" (we saw him lying on the table at the end of the episode).  Kretschmann couldn’t recur because of a scheduling conflict.  [THR]


NEW VIDEOS

Eastwick

Promo for episode six – "Bonfire and Betrayal"

Fringe

Promo for episode six – "Earthling" (Featuring music by Trent Reznor)

Ghost Whisperer

Promo for episode six – "Head over Heels"

Heroes

Promo for episode seven – "Strange Attractors"

Legend of the Seeker

Sneak peek clip from the two-hour second season premiere – "Prophecy" & "Destiny"

Medium

Promo for episode six – "Bite Me"

Sanctuary

Promo for episode four – "Hero"

Stargate Universe

Promo for episode six – "Water"

Sneak peek clip from "Water"

Jamil Walker Smith (Master Sgt. Ronald Greer) Q&A – Part 1

Supernatural

Clip from episode seven – "The Curiouse Case of Dean Winchester"

TV BITES

  • Sam and Dean will fight Lucifer in "Supernatural’s" 10th episode, which will also feature the death of two supporting characters. [EW]
  • Here’s a brief description for "Shadowboxing", the eighth episode of "Heroes": "Claire is determined to get to the bottom of the attacks; H.R.G. realizes he may be the source of Claire’s troubles; Peter’s new ability is the perfect fit for his job; Sylar’s battle at gaining full control of Matt’s body escalates." [SpoilerTV]
  • Sam Jones III (who played Pete Ross in seasons 1-3 of "Smallville"), was arrested last week for his alleged part of a conspiracy to deal several thousand pills of oxycodone. [TMZ]
  • "The Vampire Diaries" has been a strong performer for The CW and the network is rewarding the series with a full season pickup.  It premiered with 4.91 million viewers and a 2.1 A18-49 rating, and has held fairly steady–between 3.5 and 3.9 million–since, with last week’s episode drawing a post-series premiere high of 3.88 million viewers and a 1.8 A18-49 rating (the show is on hiatus until next Thursday). [LA Times]
  • "Fringe" Spoiler [highlight to view] It’s not a definite that we’ve seen the last of Charlie on the Fox TV series, says executive producer Jeff Pinkner: “We’ve already met Charlie’s doppelganger in the alternate reality,” he says. “He still exists.” Pinkner is backed up by fellow exec. producer J.H. Wyman: “No one ever really dies on Fringe.”  "Fringe" is hiatus until November 5th. [EW]
  • Check out an interview with "True Blood" star Stephen Moyer at Den of Geek.
  • Bad news for U.K. sci-fi fans.  ITV owns the rights to both "The Prisoner" and "V" and while both shows will premiere this year on AMC (November 15th) and ABC (November 3rd), respectively, the network will not be airing the two shows until next year at the earliest… [Den of Geek]
  • …Speaking of which, check below for a new ‘Prisoner’ trailer.

The Prisoner trailer [io9]

SCI FI TV RATINGS [Based on final national numbers]

Monday

The leveling off continues for "Heroes".  The once-dominant sci-fi hit was up a modest 3% among viewers to 5.72 million and 4% in A18-49 rating to a 2.4 rating.  Monday night also featured Wil Wheaton’s guest-starring role on the hit comedy "The Big Bang Theory".  The show has improved dramatically this season in its new post-"Two and a Half Men" time slot, but the recent episode did even better than usual, hitting series highs in viewers (13.47M), A25-54 rating (6.3) and A18-34 rating (4.0) and matching a series high in A18-49 rating (5.3).

Wednesday

ABC may say they’re happy with the ratings for "Eastwick", but you can’t ignore the numbers for much longer.  The show hit a series low this past week with 4.77 million viewers (-6%) and a 1.6 A18-49 rating (-6%).

Thursday

"FlashForward" was even from the week prior in the key A18-49 demo (a 3.1 rating), but saw a nice boost in overall audience, increasing 9% week-over-week to a solid 9.87 million viewers.  Fellow Thursday-night occupants "Fringe", "The Vampire Diaries" and "Supernatural" were in repeats this week.

Friday [Oct. 23rd episode numbers are based on preliminary fast affiliate data]

CBS’s "Ghost Whisperer" and "Medium" again led the pack Friday night.  "Ghost Whisperer" grew 5% among both viewers (8.46M–#1 for the evening) and A18-49 (2.1), while "Medium" grew by 4% in viewers (8.43M) and an impressive 16% in A18-49 rating (2.2–#1 for the evening).  Rounding out the rest of the evening, both "Dollhouse" and "Smallville" returned from their one-week hiatus but had different results.  "Smallville" held steady in A18-49 rating (matching a season-high with a 1.1 rating) and was down only slightly in viewers (-3% to 2.52M), but "Dollhouse’ dropped a steep 20% in A18-49 (0.8 rating) and was off 7% in viewers to a weak 2.15 million.

In cable news, the October 16th episode of "Stargate Universe" drew 2.10 million viewers (-14%) and a 0.9 A18-49 rating (-10%), while "Sanctuary" drew 1.77 million viewers (-4%) and a 0.6 A18-49 rating (-14%).

CHART (10/12/2009 to 10/18/2009)


Follow Russ on his blog: Your Entertainment Now and on Twitter: Twitter.com/YourEntNow.

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Ah, Fringe, my new best friend. I do hope that you’re around for a long time to come.

Fox needs to put it back on Tuesdays. It’s getting murdered where it is now.

V should have substantial Trek references in it.

i hate how viewing stats dominate shows :*(

CANCEL Dollhouse already!!! (Sorry Joss, it blows,)
Tardis. Lame interior, eh?
Been watching the original Prisoner as a palette cleanser lately…
it works! That show is a masterpiece.

[SPOILER ALERT FOR THE NATURE OF THE VISITORS.]

If V has enough Trek references, one could almost consider it to take place in some kind of alternate Trekkian universe, with the Visitors being some kind of Gorn.

I’ve really been enjoying Fringe this season, and Smallville as well, even though they are spending way too much time on Oliver.I hope Flashforward stays as good as has been so far, as well.

By the way, I don’t know if anyone else has been keeping up with Defying Gravity via the interwebs, but the last 5 episodes-the ones ABC hasn’t aired yet but are still being aired in Canada- were the best episodes of the season. I really hope this show somehow sticks around. It is space sci-fi with great acting and an interesting plotline. Come on, Syfy, pick it up from ABC and keep it going!

#4
I like Dollhouse! Don’t cancel it! Better than Stargate Universe
Agreed on the lame interior for the new Tardis, but I’m excited just to get the Doctor back on the air.

The original V mini-series made a nice allegory for the holocaust. By the time it go to be a series, it was just Beastmaster fighting the guinea pig munchin’ lizard nazis. zzzzzz.

Heroes should be a three-parter twice a year. The filler is killer (not in a good way.)

New Tardis smell. I likey! Can’t wait to meet the new, sexy companion. (Anything would be an improvement over the recent battleax.)

Lovin’ that genre is gettin this much lovin’ on the tube!

Actually, there are people who believe in reptilian aliens as a real, nonfictional species — as real as the better-known “Grays.” Just Google “reptilian aliens.” I would even venture that there are more people who believe in their existence than during the run of the original V.

That is an excellent promo for Fringe.

Kinda bummed that I have to wait a long time for more Dollhouse, but what ever helps its chance for a 3rd season I’m cool with.

The worst actor on TV is Erica Durance playing Lois Lane in Smallville!

PEEEE-UUUUUU!! Take some much needed acting lessons, baby!

Nice post as usual Rosario!

Trent Revnor makes some great atmospheric sounds!

…hope they use him for more than just the promo!

Is anyone still watching “Smallville”? If so, here’s a stuntcasting suggestion: Dean Cain and Brandon Routh as guest star villains.

Thank you; that is all.

I believe in the likelihood of reptilians and grays and such.

Well, 15, there are only two possibilities: We are really and truly being visited by extraterrestrial biological entities (EBE’s), or we aren’t. Unless you believe that we can switch between realities, it’s one or the other.

If we aren’t, then it’s up to us to get off this planet; nothing out there can help us get our collective waste product together. If we are, then we’ve been living a lie for the last several millennia — and we are defenseless. Either way, at the current rate, we seem ripe for the picking. Kind of a downer, if you think about it.

Dollhouse is SOOOOOO GOOD! I haven’t seen this sort of original TV since Lost! It takes time to for it to grow on you, but once it does you never want to let go!

#14 – Dean Cain was a guest star in an episode of season 7. He played Dr. Curtis Knox, who was basically Vandal Savage.

Also, just so whomever it may concern knows so they can edit it, the Smallville section (as well as the introduction on the main site) says “Justice League” a couple of times when in fact what the news is talking about is the Justice Society. =)

That’s pretty neat, 18. Thanks for the info.

I believe, if we ran into aliens they would look neither like a grey nor an anthropoid reptile.

It’s the one big problem in trek:

the lack of, believably varied alien life.

I know about the whole thing with the preservers, doesn’t mean i have to like it.

#21

Yeah, but after a bunch of episodes where the crew talk to some octopus creature with diamond fang-like teeth, where do you go from there?

anybody interested in the real strangeness of ufos etc check out Whitely Streibers excellent website unknowncountry.com—ufos/aliens are far stranger than just what is generally known-his website is one of the top sites for that subject-

If we ran into real Aliens they would not be Gorn looking nor would they be Asgard looking. But totaly different. I love that Michael Shanks will play Hawkman. he will be great on Smallville. I love Flash Forward and have my Tivi recording it. I just love the Concept and Love how there takeing it and hope they can continue. Way to go Fringe. Love that show. Now V Looks like there coming to Austin Tx as well. Hmm Loves the prignal Mini series but hated the Series. I hope they do not dumb this down but make it grand and interesting. If V realy did happen I know we would not be duped into anything till proof. But who knows.

Heres an Idea for V. They are realy Cylons. Think about it. The resedents of the Colonys landed here on Earth 150,000 years ago and the Cylon Machines left here and went somewhere. So these Aliens who are realy Cylons came back to see what Huminity has become and pretend to help us but are realy here to interfere and maybe destroy us. So this could be set both in Star Trek and in the Realm of Battlestar Galactica. Just an Idea.

Watched two episodes of Flash Forward for the first time on hulu last night. I was surprised to see that it’s as good as everyone says.

Harry Balz: This is the second time you’ve used this site to attack Erica Durance. Everyone has an opinion but it seems your mission is to affect opinions of her and Smallville in general for reasons only you know. Don’t they call that TROLLING here.

I never figured out why MILLIONS of people watching wasn’t enough!
I can see hundreds, a couple thousand…but if you have MILLIONS watching..how can that be a ratings nightmare and death sentence?
What’s the cut-off?

Hm…I don’t watch FlashForward, BUT Guggenheim’s departure would be a hit. He is one of the most talented writers currently at Marvel comics! He is extremely talented.

27

Nonsense, Lore, no trolling intended. I just think she stinks as an actor and with all the great actors out there trying to get work she deserves to be called on it. Price of fame and all that? Besides, as we all know, everyone is entitled to an opinion, that just happens to be mine. What, is she a cousin of yours?

I couldn’t stay awake during any of the 4 Fringe episodes I watched (DVRed) last fall. Quite boring…I am upset now, because I heart Leonard Nimoy.

And…I do believe I (and most of the literate population of the Western hemisphere) predicted a cruel fate to Dollhouse after its abysmmal ratings continued! I do miss my TSCC!!! Nice job Fox!

I don’t get Ghost Whisperer’s appeal that the prime demographic audience 18-49 age range would watch it. I’ve watched a few episodes and though the the episode plots to be simple and the dramatic effect weak.

#30 Only if we were kissin cousins LOL. She’s been on the show for 5 years, we can’t recast now. I likes my Smallville and I guess I’m just protective.

After the demise of TSCC I can’t bear to lose another show.

#33

I like Smallville, too. That’s why I guess I feel strongly when I think someone isn’t holding up their end of things. LOL! That’s why I was sorry to see John Glover leave the show. Damn fine actor!

Thanks for understanding!

I like Dollhouse, but it is one of those shows that sits in my DVR until a few are stored. I’m like, meh. Then I sit down and watch them all and can’t believe I waited. Then they stack up again. Don’t know why. Heroes however, I get up early on Tuesday mornings just to watch without the interruptions of commercials!

For one brief but really weird moment, I thought “Rousseau-ilke” referred to the painter, Henri. Would we see Claire in a primitive-impressionistic setting? (Hmm. In a way, she already is. Jungles, and all.)

#35 To steal a line from Steve Martin in “The Pink Panther” and referring to Erica Durance. “WHATS THE MATTER WITH YOU! CAN’T YOU SEE SHE’S SEXY!?

#38

Oh, yeah, being stuck on a desert island with her would be fun, just as long as she doesn’t try and act out a scene from Othello! :>)

Any word on SGU’s future?

Is there an entire season ordered? I really like the show and I think they did an amazing job of finding actors that can act.

It’s a shame it is struggling. Probably not helpful that it airs on a Friday night when half of your 18-34 demo is doing something else. I hate these ratings numbers these days since everyone DVR’s the shows anyway.

the sky V would have been cool to see…if it didn’t happen in my area BEFORE the post.

Bring back Alien Nation. That show was pretty good. I was traumatized when Fox canceled it.