Who's In The Backseat Of Claire's Car In Heroes?

Welcome back to spoilerland. New set photos reveal another weird plot twist in season three of superpowered soap Heroes, plus another villain in the Doctor Who spin-off Sarah Jane Adventures. We have full spoilage for one episode of this fall's Star Wars: Clone Wars animated series. Plus a major character will show up on Chuck for the first time, and we have some Stargate Atlantis pics. Plus two very confounding reports on The Dark Knight, and one new clip. Spoilerland is a happy place.

Star Wars: Clone Wars:

Lucasfilm screened an entire episode of its animated Star Wars: Clone Wars series for critics the other day, and a few spoilers have trickled out. Every episode starts with an old-timey war newsreel explaining what's been happening in the war. You hear a lot more of the annoying battle-droid voices than you heard in the prequels, and it gets even more annoying. They say "Roger! Roger!" a lot. There's also a lot of battle-droid slapstick.

The episode in question doesn't actually feature Anakin and Obi-Wan, who won't be in every episode. Instead, it's about Yoda, who goes to a pink coral planet to convert its residents to the side of the Republic. But Asajj Ventress is also there, and she has a plan to sway the planet to the Separatists.

And apparently we see Yoda kick butt with his lightsaber, plus give some personal quality time to his Clone Troopers when they hunker down for the night. Faced with a massive onslaught of droids, the three Clones are ready to give up. But Yoda has them take off their helmets, so he can read their minds and tell them their own greatest fears. "So small in number are we, but greater in mind," Yoda says. Later, he adds: "The Force lives in all living beings. Use it, you must." He jumps on one of Ventress' big attack machines and makes them shoot each other.

And one of the Clone Troopers has a cool weapon. (But the Chicago Tribune's Maureen Ryan found the whole exercise left her cold.) [IGN, Sci Fi Wire and Chicago Tribune]

The Dark Knight:

According to David Letterman, the new Batman movie is called The Dark Prince, and everybody dies in the end. [Defamer]

And hey, here's a guy who's already seen The Dark Knight twice and says it's not quite as good on the second viewing. Spoilt bastard. [The Hot Blog]

And here's a new clip that turned up on YouTube:

Heroes:

Here are some new Heroes set photos, filming in an old zoo that may be doubling for part of Level Five. Claire is looking sassy as someone (Sylar?) kneels before her. And her daddy HRG definitely seems to be teaming up with Sylar now. Plus, is Claire in the car with HRG and Sylar in one shot? As Heroes France so eloquently puts it, "Sylar n'arbore pas son look habituel, il ne semble pas très sylarien..." I would start using the word "Sylarien" in everyday conversation, but my friends would all think I was saying "Silurian" instead. Drat. More pics at the link. [Heroes France, via Dragon Bleu]

Chuck:

The nerd-with-a-spy-computer-in-his-head action comedy Chuck was uneven in its first season, but bringing back the dead best friend Bryce rekindled my interest. And in the sixth episode of season two, we'll meet Liz, the girl Chuck has been pining for ever since she dumped him for Bryce five years ago. We start with a flashback of Liz telling Chuck it's over and she's with Bryce now in 2003, then she comes into the Buy More in 2008. He wants to impress her with all he's accomplished, but he's doing a computer install and she's a big-deal doctor curing lots of diseases

Liz is about to tell Chuck what he's been longing to hear for five years, but then her big-deal scientist boss shows up and whisks her away. Chuck "flashes" on the boss and realizes he's connected to bioterror. Chuck has to figure out the boss' plot before a convention full of top scientists are the guinea pigs for a deadly virus. And that means he has to use his suave spy powers to get information out of Liz, his ex. It appears Liz will be in at least three episodes. [ChuckTV and EW]

The Sarah Jane Adventures:

More set pics from the kid-friendly Doctor Who spin-off, the Sarah Jane Adventures show the Sontarans and the Brigadier in action, plus a random UNIT officer of some sort. And Miss Wormwood from the first ever SJA episode. More importantly, what in the name of the Sky Demon has happened to Clyde?

Meanwhile, there are some new spoilers for the episode in question. Mr. Smith receives info that an attack on Earth is imminent, and Luke starts having weird dreams that Miss Wormwood (I'm guessing) is calling out for him.

Meanwhile, Sir Alistair, Sarah Jane's old military friend, is visiting. He's semi-retired because he's been annoyed by the way the Ministry of Defence has treated UNIT in recent years. Plus he's finally realized what "a wise man" was teaching him all along: violence doesn't solve every problem. (Just pretty much every problem that "wise man" encounters.) The Brig sees a photo of Harry Sullivan in Sarah Jane's attic, and this leads to some reminiscing. We learn what the Brig was doing during the Dalek invasion. Oh, and the Brig has a nice Bentley.

So the Sontarans are back, and they've formed an alliance with "an old foe" (Miss Wormwood, I'm guessing.) Sir Alistair the semi-pacifist has a gun hidden in his cane, and he uses it to shoot a Sontaran in its probic vent (in the back of the neck.) A florist plays an important role in the episode. More pics at the first link. [Life Doctor Who And Combom and Bad Wolf One via TARDIS Newsroom]

Stargate Atlantis:

Here are some new promo pics for the early episodes of Stargate Atlantis season five, including last Friday's. [SpoilerTV]