The show, which has been given a script commitment from the previously genre-phobic CBS, centers around The Commission, a time traveling agency that "corrects" changes to the timeline known as "murmurs." Not the most original idea from Lucky Number Sleven writer and show creator Jason Smilovic, whose previous TV credits include pilots for My Own Worst Enemy and Bionic Woman, but if it can have the humor of Marvel Comics' Time Variance Authority or Terminator-chic of DC Comics' Linear Men, then we'll definitely check out the first few episodes.

CBS hears 'Murmurs' [Hollywood Reporter]

Okay, that's obviously not completely fair; after all, this last ten years have also seen things like Lost and Twilight winning over new fans, not to mention the end of the Harry Potter book series. But there's no denying that this has been a decade of recycling ideas: James Bond, Batman and Star Trek all got movie reboots (Trek also got a television one, if you count Enterprise), Star Wars gained new life as a TV show, Doctor Who and Battlestar Galactica was reborn to much acclaim, unlike fellow television reboots Bionic Woman, Knight Rider and V. We even have Tron waiting in the wings for next year, along with a new Charlie's Angels TV show. The most successful "new" media franchises were Transformers and Spider-Man - based on ideas that are over two decades old (You could even argue that things like Lost and Twilight are simply mashing up old ideas into relatively new forms; they're definitely standing on the shoulders of giants, at least). So what happened?

It's easy to just say "Well, the geeks are in charge of media now," even if it's not necessarily untrue. But that doesn't explain how they got there, and why they're not making us fall in love with all manner of new things, instead of retreads of old flames (Does Fringe count as new, or just an updated X-Files?). Personally, I think the blame is shared pretty much equally between creators and the audience. For all that we may cry YARM whenever someone talks about their dream to make the ultimate Logan's Run project, it's as much a desire to succeed as creative backwards-looking that's behind it; audiences, for the most part, tend not to support the new in numbers necessary to make it a big success. Look at the most successful movies of the last ten years: Each one is based on a concept that people grew up on.

So, is it simply nostalgia? Perhaps; it's tempting to play armchair psychologist and stroke the chin, commenting on a return to childhood things following the trauma of 9/11, but it doesn't quite fit, because how does that explain the domination of 2000's The Grinch or 1999's Phantom Menace? You can see definite post-9/11 tropes throughout the pop culture that followed (A simpler morality, where good guys always won and could save us from death from above, in many cases; stories of people dealing with increasingly familiar apocalypses in others), but I don't think that the prevalence of reboots was necessarily one of them. It's not laziness, either; some reboots (Battlestar Galactica, for example) put in as much work as any original concept in terms of worldbuilding and creation.

In the end, it may simply be the result of conservatism on everyone's parts: Audiences don't want to spend time or money on something they don't know will entertain them, and studios/creators don't want to spend time or money on something that they don't know will have an audience waiting for it. Movies like District 9 or Moon, web content like Dr. Horrible and the increasing use of comic books as source material for other media back this up, to an extent; the new ideas, and new voices, now have to find new - and cheaper - outlets through which to make themselves known, and become popular and proven enough for the big time. Maybe that'll have happened by the time they've been around long enough to be nostalgic about.

Variety report that Laeta Kalogridis - newly hot in Hollywood after completing the script for the upcoming Martin Scorcese movie Shutter Island, but better known to us as writer and executive producer for the Bionic Woman reboot of 2007 - will replace originally-announced writer Jamie Moss on the project, which Dreamworks is now planning to make in 3D.

The movie will be produced by Avi and Ari Arad, perhaps more familiar to fans as executive producers on Marvel movies like Spider-Man, Fantastic Four and Iron Man.

Kalogridis to adapt 'Ghost in the Shell' [Variety]

It's the "uncanny valley," the mysterious place where robots become lifelike enough to trip some of our systems for detecting fellow humans... but there's still something wrong with them. And the scariest killer bots often nestle malignantly smack in the middle of the uncanny valley, waiting to freak us the fuck out. Does this make them deadlier than other killer robots? Only if fear paralyzes you and makes it harder for you to strategize.

We're comfortable with robots as long as we can easily tell they're robots, and there's something abstract and mechanistic about them. But once a robot looks enough like us, but without all of our human mannerisms and foibles, we suddenly become uncomfortable. You can see it in David Byrne's singing robot, Julio. And in the guy who made a robot version of his girlfriend (left). (And she didn't dump him, why again?)

We've already charted the relationship between a robot's human likeness and how evil it is. But I'd argue that the scariest, and therefore most effective, killer robots are the ones which fall into that nether zone between artificial-looking and totally human. Just look at Masahiro Mori's famous chart. The "uncanny valley" refers to robots that remind us of corpses and zombies. So it's partly the stiffness and jerky motion, as well as the feeling of deadness, that creep us out.

Here are some examples of how robots that seem like dead humans, or humans lacking some "spark" of life, are scarier than other kinds:

Battlestar Galactica:

For my money, the "skinjobs" in BSG were actually pretty scary and intense in the first couple of seasons, when they seemed the most inhuman. For one thing, in a sense, the "skinjobs" are dead, since we keep seeing them die and come back. The famous scene where Caprica Six is tossing Starbuck around is partly so awesome because Six's abnormal strength also makes her seem more jerky and suddenly less human. In later seasons, the Cylons started to seem more and more like regular humans, and even lost their ability to resurrect.

Alien:

Just check out this scene with Ash, the creepy android whose secret corporate agenda is not terribly human-friendly. He even looks sort of like a zombie, with weird fluid coming out of his mouth:

Doctor Who, "Robots Of Death":

I'll be writing more about this 1977 storyline later on this week, but I would be remiss to leave it out here. The eponymous deadly robots in this story are deliberately designed to look cold and unresponsive, so we're not really surprised when they "suddenly" go all red-eyed and start strangling people. But the true genius of this story is that it verbalizes just why people are so terrified of lifelike robots: it's their deadness. The newly invented disease "robophobia" (or Grimwade's syndrome) takes this fear of corpse-like stiffness and pushes it to its farthest extreme.

Blade Runner:

Let's accept, for the moment, that the artificial "Replicants" are actually robots in some sense. (It's kind of vague in the movie, IIRC, and they definitely have a biological component.) They're stronger and smarter than regular humans, but they're also closer to death, because they have an in-built expiration date.

The Terminator:

You can't get more zombie-like than the original T-800, played by Arnie in his prime. Arnie has never been stiffer, and deader-looking, than when he plays this unstoppable murder machine. Especially once he gets some face damage, and he starts wearing those sunglasses, so he has absolutely no expression whatsoever. You shoot him and blast him, and he keeps getting up... because he's already dead. Not to mention, he turns into a walking skeleton, which doesn't hurt, either.

Westworld:

OMG this is the clincher as far as I'm concerned. Yul Brynner is the walking dead in this movie. Look at his frozen expression and how it slowly turns into a rictus smile when he says "Draw." Now I'm going to have nightmares of him singing "Shall We Dance" while dismembering people:

Star Trek, "What Are Little Girls Made Of?"

This is is the classic zombie-bot strategy: have one robot who clearly resembles a dead guy, and give him a creepy name like Ruk, or Krob, or Glop, and then nobody will notice that the rest of you are all zombie robots as well. Just look at Dr. Korby's stiff, jerky motion and empty eyes. Even Shatner looks more deathlike after he's a robot:

I, Robot:

There was a lot wrong with this Will Smith Converse All-Stars vehicle... but one thing it got right was the fact that its deadly robots look totally like ghosts, pale and almost translucent... and they have the nearly-but-not-quite human expressions as well:

Eve Of Destruction:

Those staring eyes. The way she flirts and laughs with absolutely no real expression. The way she covets people's fashion items. She is a hot dead lady, and she's out to kill you. Her only means of showing emotion is to make her eyes even bigger and buggier. It's up to Gregory Hines, that dancing fool, to put her back in her box. Which sounds a lot dirtier than it probably really is:

The Bionic Woman's Fembots:

Like Eve in Eve Of Destruction, the "fembots" in Bionic Woman are dead girls. They're blank-eyed, stiff and heartless, and there's something just "wrong" about them, even before their faces inevitably fall off:

Talking to the British Guardian newspaper, Ryan has much fonder memories of the show than we do:

I have very strong legs from dancing... One day I was on set and I had to kick this stunt guy. I warned everybody that if I kicked him, I would probably put him through the set wall - but the stunt guy was like, 'Yeah, whatever.' So I kicked him and he went through the wall. I loved it! We really established a fan base and I did think she could be a female Bourne. I love those films and that's the kind of dark, fast, stylish mood we were going for.

Maybe Ryan saw a different Bionic Woman than we did, but if the show had been dark, fast or stylish in any way whatsoever - never mind anything like the Bourne movies - it would probably still be around. If nothing else, I would've loved to have seen something that had the complexity, ambiguity and clarity of purpose of Bourne rather than the confusing "She's bionic and working for, uh, some guys who, like, might be dicks or something?" of the actual show. At least now I can be comforted with the knowledge that they were trying to do something worthwhile, even if they failed... and tortured by the possibilities offered by the show that wasn't.

Take me to your Tardis [Guardian.co.uk]

We noted on Wednesday that none of Fox's seven recently-announced pilots were the kind of sci-fi fare that we've come to expect (and worry about) from the network, and now that news of ABC and NBC's latest pilots has been released (more here), it may be time to wonder if sci-fi's lure has faded in light of recent ratings flops.

Of course, NBC's sci-fi phobia isn't entirely unfounded; in the last couple of years, Journeyman, Bionic Woman and My Own Worst Enemy have proven to be high-profile SF launches that flopped for the network, and with falling ratings for Heroes and rumors of the possible cancellation of both Knight Rider and Chuck circling, NBC could be forgiven for thinking that science fiction isn't really something they can succeed with long term (They'd much rather stick with er clones; two of the network's few announced pilots are medical dramas: Mercy and Trauma). In fact, you could make the argument that science fiction as a genre doesn't have a great track record for broadcast networks in general, especially considering the ratings worries of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles and content concerns leading to reworkings of both Dollhouse and Virtuality over at Fox. Maybe the success of Fringe and Lost has more to do with JJ Abrams' name and the personal dynamics of the shows over the science portion (Remember, too, that Lost's producers have talked about having to introduce the sci-fi elements of the show secretly, over time)...?

(This is where you can insert your own argument about the failure of shows like Knight Rider or Bionic Woman being more closely attributed to their quality than their nature, and I think that definitely should be taken into consideration. But, at the same time, was Bionic Woman really that much worse that, say, NCIS? Or Law & Order? Do mainstream audiences hold sci-fi series to higher standards than other genres, or do the majority of them just stay away, and there's a discerning, curious crossover audience that'll give a show a try before bailing if it's not up to their standards?)

Instead, it's beginning to look as if television networks are beginning to look at more fantastical escapism for their audiences; Fox have a new pilot about reincarnation, and ABC have given the go-ahead to a television version of The Witches of Eastwick. Even Flash Forward, ABC's new high-profile series from David Goyer and Brannon Braga, could end up being played as a more spiritual/fantasy-based drama, depending on whether the series stays with the original novel's reason for the worldwide flash-forward (by-product of the Large Hadron Collider being activated), which - considering they've said that each season will end with another flash-forward, may not be the case.

(Interestingly enough, ABC may be the network to pay attention to next fall; in addition to Flash Forward and Eastwick, they've also greenlit Happy Town, a mystery pilot from the makers of Life on Mars that's described as being the next Twin Peaks.)

If we are about to see television networks shift away from hard sci-fi towards a particular urban brand of fantasy, there are some good reasons why, outside of the (relative) failure of sci-fi shows; the sleight-of-hand of urban fantasy allows for cheaper shows that require less world-building or technobabbled explanations that may confuse audiences, for example, and in the ongoing journey for television to grab as many youthful eyes as possible, exploiting the genre of Twilight and Harry Potter would seem like a no-brainer. Most importantly, of course, the term "science fiction" scares mass mainstream television audiences for some reason, despite the success of Fringe and Lost and Heroes, and the networks are just following the advertising dollars... which, of course, are following the mass mainstream audience.

It's not permanent, of course; all it'll take is another "surprise" hit SF show and we'll see science fiction stage another takeover bid, just as Heroes begat Journeyman, Chuck, Bionic Woman et al, and Lost's success brought us Surface, Threshold and Invasion. Jesse Alexander, we're pinning all our hopes on you.

According to the BBC, Ryan is playing Lady Christina de Souza, "a woman with a mysterious past who's going to have a huge impact on the Doctor." Her one-off appearance doesn't mean she can't return in 2010 as a regular companion, since Donna Noble already achieved a similar feat. (And those of you who saw Ryan's cringe-making Bionic performance should bear in mind, she's a better actor when she doesn't have to fake an American accent.)

Last night, fans observed the filming of a scene where Tennant and Ryan were riding the bus to Victoria. Also, there was a scene of Ryan in an alleyway, where she burst from a doorway and ran into a crowded city street. And policemen seemed to be arresting a businessman in a pink shirt.

Meanwhile, comedian Lee Evans will play Malcolm, "whose life becomes connected to the Doctor's in unusual circumstances." [BBC and Doctor Who Forum]

Images by WENN, except for top image by BBC.

Ryan may be best known to Americans as the lead in the failed Bionic Woman reboot from 2007, but prior to that, she had appeared in British drama Jekyll — written and exec-produced by new Doctor Who boss Steven Moffat. According to British tabloid, the Sunday Mirror, an anonymous source involved in Who production said,

Michelle's been in secret talks with BBC bosses. They are likely to announce her as Doctor Who's new assistant very soon. She is perfect for the role. She is goodlooking and the right age to star alongside Matt. Everyone agrees they look great together and reckon fans will think they're the perfect team too.

If true, the decision would make sense — through Bionic Woman and current BBC series Merlin, Ryan has become comfortable with genre television fans, and a high-profile role on Who may give her career a boost in the same way that it did Billie Piper's.

Doctor Who's New Assistant Set To Be Ex-Eastenders Star Michelle Ryan [Mirror.co.uk]

Gordon Tracy from Dick Tracy. In the radio serial, Dick Tracy's brother Gordon has an equally square jaw (I think), but isn't quite as smart as the Dickster. A supervillain who goes by the names The Spider and The Lame One (Really — worst supervillain name ever!) captures Gordon Tracy and does brain surgery on him to make him EEVIL. (The "Lame One" also uses a sound weapon to destroy San Francisco's bay bridge, and steals a superspeed airplane, according to Wikipedia.) Anyway, the brain surgery may turn Gordon Tracy ebil, but it doesn't make him a match for Dick. Probably because now he's evil and brain-damaged. Oh well.

Superman has a million evil duplicates, to the point where you wonder what's his deal. Luckily, they're all lacking in the super-intelligence aspect of his Kryptonian rockstarness, especially Ultraman, the evil alternate universe version whose name sounds like he's the spokesman for a dish-washing liquid. And who keeps coming to our universe despite some bizarre rule that says he can only win in his own universe. And then there's Superboy Prime, who's just kind of a nutbar. Really, the smartest quasi-evil Superman duplicate is Bizarro, who can at least master the incredibly complex grammar involved in saying everything in reverse — except for the things that make it possible to understand what he's saying.

Star Trek is full of slightly addled evil dupes as well, including bearded Spock, who's first a pawn in an evil alternate universe, and then lets Kirk talk him into betraying all the evil fascist principles he stands for. The real Spock would never have let Kirk talk him out of supporting the Empire with one of those five-minute Kirk rants. And then there's Transporter Kirk, who wears too much eyeliner, macks on his Yeoman and wears the wrong uniform shirt. The worst, though, is probably Data's evil twin Lore — can anybody explain to me his evil scheme involving a Borg alliance and giving Data fingernail-enabled emotions? Anyone? (I think fingernail emotions probably feel sort of chalky.)

Knight Rider: Not only did KITT have a rival with a somewhat slower processing speed, KARR, but Michael Knight also had an evil brother, Garth. As far as KARR goes, he's sort of the less-streetwise prototype of KITT, who often drives into situations his tires aren't fortified for. Garth, meanwhile, is Michael's twin, also played by David Hasselhoff. Only Garth drives a truck... named Goliath. I love how even the KR fan site admits that Hasselhoff may have given in to overacting slightly when playing Garth. Here's Garth meeting his sad end. ("So cold and so ruthless! You remind me of my mother!" "You're hungry for my touch... just because I look like HIM!")

The One features an evil version of Jet Li from an alternate universe, who's killing all of the other versions of himself so he can become god, or something. If I had the power to jump into alternate universes, I'd probably be too busy tracking down Firefly season three DVDs and then selling them on eBay.

Invasion Of The Body Snatchers, in most versions at least, shows people being replaced with alien "pod people" duplicates, whose prozac-addled demeanor gives them away.

UFO: In this series by Gerry Anderson (Space: 1999), Commander Straker and Col. Foster run into duplicates of themselves hiding out in a secret undersea base. Unfortunately, the alien duplicates can't quite copy human speech, so they just play taperecordings of the real Straker and Foster when they need to fool people.

Blork's Evil Twin. In this sequel to the classic children's book Space Brat, the space-brat Blork has mended his ways... until he creates an evil duplicate of himself named Krolb that does the opposite of whatever he does. And for some reason Krolb wants to shrink their home planet of Splat using a shrink ray. Why? Don't ask for logic from a person named Krolb. Just... don't.

Futurama features a duplicate of Bender named Flexo, complete with the required goatee... but it turns out Bender's actually the evil one. And you know that Bender is pretty brain-damaged from all his wild robo-carousing.

Godzilla has at least two evil duplicates, Space Godzilla and Mechagodzilla. But neither of them can dance as well as Godzilla can.

Darkwing Duck has an evil duplicate from an alternate universe, Negaduck — he's just as skilled and smart as Darkwing, but with a chainsaw instead of friends. Actually, not such a bad trade-off.

Dark Samus sprouts out of the DNA of the real Samus, in the Metroid Prime video game. Called "the Dark Hunter," she's almost a match for the real Samus, except that she's overconfident. Plus she keeps destabilizing and losing her physical form. (I have days like that too.)

Inspector Gadget has an evil twin named Robo-Gadget, whose hands are replaced with machine guns in the movie version. Built by Dr. Claw, he's probably only about as smart as his creator. Plus he only has a handful of gadgets built in, as opposed to the dozens with the Inspector wields.

The Simpsons Treehouse Of Horror VII includes an evil twin of Bart named Hugo, who lives in the attic wants to reattach himself to Bart. As in so many of these evil twin stories, though, it turns out Hugo is actually the good twin, and they switch places. (And since Bart's really the evil twin, it's pretty safe to say the evil twin is the dumber one. Just think of all the self-inflicted brain damage.)

The Flash has Professor Zoom, aka the Reverse Flash, who isn't exactly a duplicate of Barry Allen, he's just an evil counterpart in a color-reversed costume.

The X-Men have tons of counterparts, including the Beast's evil twin Dark Beast, plus a ton of Skrull dupes. Professor X has an evil twin named Cassandra, who actually comes pretty close to wiping out the mutants but underestimates poor old Cyclops. (Everybody always undestimates Cyclops, probably because they've seen X-Men 3.) As for Dark Beast, he's just not as brilliant as Hank. There's no way.

Bill And Ted meet Evil Robot Bill And Ted in Bill And Ted's Bogus Journey. They've been sent back in time from the future to take Bill and Ted's places in the Wild Stallynz. Actually, they probably are smarter than the original Bill and Ted, come to think of it. Scratch them from the list.

Miles Vorkosigan has a clone named Mark, who starts out being designed to kill and replace Miles by terrorists, but ends up not really being evil. In Mirror Dance, he even becomes a sympathetic (if flawed) character who wants to free other clones from non-consensual brain transplants.

Wonder Woman meets an evil alternate version of herself, from another universe, who's seen how lame Wondy's relationship with Steve Trevor is, and decides to come take Steve for herself. (Why??) For some reason, this leads to a contest of wills in the evil alternate universe, where Wondy gets de-aged to her pre-pubescent self.

Lois And Clark featured an evil clone of Lois, who tries to take her place, and does a good enough job that Clark marries her. She only gets caught out because Clark notices she's behaving strangely. There's also a clone of Clark named "Vatman." And a frog-clone that takes the place of the president. And Smallville featured Bizarro Clark, who's weakened by direct sunlight.

Stargate: SG-1 featured a replicator version of Colonel Carter. She turns out to be pretty unreliable, though, betraying her fellow Replicators when they attack the humans. Later she becomes the leader of the Replicators, but the real Carter gets to an anti-Replicator superweapon before she does, making all the Replicators disassemble.

Third Rock From The Sun tried to replace our beloved supreme commander, Dick, with Evil Dick, who may have been as good-looking as Original Dick, but isn't quite as good in bed, or as inspiring a leader.He decides to call all three of his underlings "Tommy," and has some very original ideas about courtship.

Doctor Who features many evil twins, including the cactus-faced Meglos, who duplicates Tom Baker's Doctor but utterly fails to carry off the burgundy-great-coat look with the proper panache. And the eye-patch wearing, mustache-clad Brigade Leader, an alternate-universe version of the Brigadier who just isn't quite as resourceful when faced with a monster rampage.

The Bionic Woman, Jaime Sommers, has a duplicate named Lisa Galloway, who actually just has plastic surgery to make her look like Jaime. But she's not even bionic, she just does a lot of drugs that make her able to jump high. Or maybe the drugs just make her feel like she's jumping really high. That seems very plausible.

Additional research by Katharine Duckett.

We reported the departure of Loeb and Alexander yesterday morning, with the news breaking Sunday evening; with the exception of Alexander posting the news on his blog ("I write this with a heavy heart. As of today I am no longer a writer/producer on HEROES.") and a short, generic comment from Loeb to Comic Book Resources, neither have yet commented publicly on their removal, nor have NBC or show creator Tim Kring, leaving a lot of people wondering what's going on over there. Many people inside and outside of the TV industry are pointing to Entertainment Weekly's cover story about the show's third season troubles as the final straw that forced NBC into action, but the question still remains - was firing Loeb and Alexander the right action?

I think that it's definitely a step in the right direction; Loeb and Alexander were often credited with being in charge of the writers' room at the show, and many of the problems that EW (and us, as well, but at least we didn't get anyone fired) were story-based - but without Loeb and Alexander there, who is in charge of the writing of the show? EW's own report of the firings said that it "was unclear" if the two producers would be replaced (although subsequent reports are now suggesting otherwise), which leaves it equally unclear who'll step in to provide the show's direction, storywise, from now on.

The careers of both Loeb and Alexander can also be used to identify some of the show's problems in terms of writing - The sudden reveal of Sylar's Petrelli heritage, his nonsensical turn towards being a good guy, the return of the previously dead Arthur Petrelli and overall uneven juggling of a far too large cast seem reminiscent of Loeb's past as an Marvel Comics writer from the 1990s - although the show lacked the stupid fun of his more current work like Hulk or Superman/Batman - and the never-ending plots and unconvincing personal traumas of the characters harkened back to Alexander's beginnings on Alias.

The obvious suggestion would be creator Tim Kring himself; after all, he appeared to be aware enough to identify and own up to the problems of the show's second season last year - problems that, tellingly, Loeb denied existed in interviews - but that's doesn't necessarily mean that he has the time, availability or even the ability to turn around the show's current creative direction; look at the ways that the third season has gone overboard in the opposite direction (and, at the same time, returned to old and tired themes and plots) in trying to course-correct from last year. There are many other producers on the show, but none of them have the writing experience - or the geek chops - of the axed duo, which doesn't necessarily bode well.

Axing some more of those producers - including Kring - is, of course, still an option for NBC, who are said to be unhappy about the show running over budget currently. Were Loeb and Alexander really in charge of the purse strings? It seems unlikely. Kring is apparently already under pressure from NBC to simplify the show, showing that the network isn't relying on the removal of Loeb and Alexander to save the show alone.

Also a problem, at least in terms of perception, is the nature of the move; NBC axing executive producers of an underperforming, high-profile, show brings to mind memories of last year's perpetually-endangered Bionic Women relaunch, where the (admittedly low) quality of the show eventually became irrelevant because the real story became the behind-the-scenes problems... Problems that NBC were never really shown to be able to fix (BW went through, what, three creative teams on eight episodes of that show?) - leading to an impression that the network couldn't fix its own problems... which won't help with this situation.
The best case scenario for both NBC and Heroes as a series, is getting new producers in place who can revitalize the writing of the show, bring a new discipline to the series that will silence critics, and have some level of nerd cred to reassure the hardcore fans that it won't become ER Plus Flying Dudes. E!Online is claiming that NBC want Bryan Fuller to return to the show post-Pushing Daisies cancellation (although that isn't necessarily a done deal yet), and Meredith's already suggested Steven DeKnight as another alternative, but I'm thinking of a couple of people a little more unexpected (and a little more employed): Drew Goddard and Brian K. Vaughan, both currently at Lost. Goddard's experience on Lost, Alias, Angel, Buffy (not to mention Cloverfield) show that he's good with the fantastical, multi-character, labyrinthine nature of a show like Heroes - and also that he's able to pare back a lot of the growth to get to the core of the stories, emotions and concepts necessary to make said series work - while Vaughan brings a similiar comic book experience of superpowers, superhero teams and longform storytelling to Loeb, but with the addition of better (or, at least, more subtle) character work and a fresher eye towards how to deal with the stereotypes of the genre.

Whatever happens next, however, one thing's for sure - Sunday's firings has taken Heroes from being a troubled show to a symbol of NBC's problems as a network; their stepping in to try and fix the show in such a public way has meant that it's going to become a priority for the people in charge - and one that they can't afford to mess up. Save the Cheerleader Show, Save the Network.

Jamie Bamber
The adorable Lee Adama from Battlestar Galactica is actually British. The first time I heard him speak in his native tongue in the Razor special DVD I was completely floored. His American accent is spot on. Bamber, who grew up in London, wins first place for most convincing American accent in scifi. Check out his interview at BSG Con below.

Lennie James
Also another surprise, James grew up in London but talks American lingo in Jericho.

Kevin McKidd
Proof that the Scottish can master American grammar better than most Americans. McKidd grew up in Scotland and starred in Journeyman.

Hugo Weaving
Agent Smith's hard 'Ah's in "Mr. Anderson" were like nails on a chalk board. The Matrix wouldn't have been the same without him and his weird stretched-out speech. Bravo, Hugo — you've mastered the annoying nasal "A" sound that I get teased incessantly about.

Ewan McGregor
McGregor gets a gold star in the accent book for his work as Lincoln Six Echo and Tom Lincoln in The Island. Plus he does a pretty mean Alec Guinness as Obi-Wan.

Lena Headey
British actress Headey nails it, nails it, nails it playing Sarah Connor in The Sarah Connor Chronicles. Her accent is flawless, take a listen.

Mel Gibson
Nailed the farmer speak in Signs, but how much of his accent even still exists I wonder? So he's a questionable member of this list.

Christian Bale
Grew up in Wales and the UK, and talks American in Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, Equilibrium, and the forthcoming Terminator Salvation. Does great — except when he's overdoing the Bat-growl.

Heath Ledger
Ledger's accent in The Dark Knight as the Joker was just like his character, pretty committed to crazy. But it's pretty easy to lose your accent when the range of your character goes high to low in pitch alone. So for this scifi performance alone he's in the middle of the pack, but not bad by any means.

Emily Watson
Ms. Watson does a so-so job with her American accent in Equilibrium, but she's much more charming with her original dulcet British tones.

Nicole Kidman
Now the accents start to get a little lazy. Kidman slipped in and out of sing-song Australian to nasal New Yorker, and they clash in The Stepford Wives and Invasion.

Hugh Jackman
Our Wolverine likes to slip back into his Australian accent now and again in his X-Men get up. But the times are few and far between. Plus no one really knows where Logan has been all of the time, so maybe he spent some time down under?

Patrick Stewart
While I love the Commander of the Enterprise's elegant sentence structure and poise, with every lofty word, he's showing his hand, especially as Professor Charles Xavier in X-Men.

Clive Owen
I didn't even realize Owen was doing an American accent in Sin City until someone told me. Even when he was doing the voice-over, he slipped in and out. Awful, terrible blach words. I much prefer your natural UK sound, Clive... like in Children of Men.

James McAvoy
He may be dead sexy without a shirt on in Wanted, but his character Wesley constantly slipped back into his Scottish brogue.

Michelle Claire Ryan
Worst American accent ever. Sorry Ryan, your London roots kept creeping up in your dialog as Jaime Sommers the Bionic Woman, and the bland American accent led to bland acting. Many times it looked like she was actually thinking about her vowels instead of acting.

Next week: terrible British accents coming from Americans. James Marsters, your time has come.

Additional reporting by Andrew Hudson

According to Horizon Media's annual speculative report on the year's new shows, the three shows showing the most hit potential are Fringe, Jerry Bruckheimer's remake of UK science drama Eleventh Hour and, interestingly enough, ABC's Life On Mars, despite its current creative overhaul.

The series spin-off from February's Knight Rider revival isn't expected to do so well, but NBC can take some small level of comfort from Horizon's bleak prediction that no new show is going to win its timeslot in the all-important 18-34 age demographic. If they're still paying any attention to Horizon, that is: Last year, the report suggested that the big hit show of the year was going to be NBC's Bionic Woman, and we all know how that turned out.

Report: 'Fringe,' 'Eleventh Hour' will lead fall shows [Hollywood Reporter]

Boys in the '70s were given all manner of toys to tie in with their favorite televisual cyborg; not only could you get a Steve Austin action figure, there were also additional "critical assignment arms" to collect as well!

And when Steve got tired after fighting Maskatron - "The ultimate enemy of the Six Million Dollar Man" - he could always kick back in the Bionic Transport and Repair Station. Which, as the ad copy states, is multi-purpose:

Poor Jaime Sommers didn't fare so well, though. Not only did she not get her own villain to fight, she didn't seem to get to do that much at all, besides... well... be a Bionic Barbie. Look at the way her figure is described:

Beauty and Fashion plus Bionic Action! 12 1/4" beautiful fully articulated figure modeled after Lindsay Wagner, the star of the Bionic Woman TV show. Silky fully rooted hair... Dressed in official stylish jogging outfit and tennis shoes.

Kenner Toys 1976 Catalog [PlaidStallions.com]

Moore just signed a deal to write and produce an original science fiction movie trilogy for United Artists, the resurrected production company that wants to create its own home-grown franchises. No word on what the trilogy will be called, or what it's about. New UA CEO Paula Wagner worked with him 10 years ago, when he co-wrote Mission Impossible II, which she produced.

As for Eick, he just signed a two-year development deal with NBC/Universal, on the heels of his failed Bionic Woman reboot. He's going to work on reinventing another, as yet unnamed, Universal franchise. But he's also working on two other projects, which scarcely sound science fictional at all: AKA, a "family adventure" that he describes as Little Miss Sunshine meets Thelma And Louise, and another series that's "sort of a modern-day Hart To Hart." [Hollywood Reporter and Variety, via Wes]

Talking to Variety, Graboff admitted that he's perfectly happy if no-one watches Mike Tracer following in the footsteps - well, wheeltracks - of his father, Michael Knight:

Advertisers don't care as much about a specific show as opposed to 'Am I getting the kinds of eyeballs I paid for?' ...If we say we have a one-hour drama going into a timeslot, and it turns out it's not up to snuff, we'll put on another one-hour drama we have in the pipeline. What we won't do is put on a reality show.

People need to escape. Ben [Silverman, NBC's head of programming]'s programming strategy is to find some shows where people can tune in and then mentally tune out. That's his directive, and I think you'll see that reflected in the programs.

NBC offers escape with new slate [Variety]

NBC aired three TV movies from 1987 to 1994: Return Of The Six Million Dollar Man And The Bionic Woman, Bionic Showdown and Bionic Ever After?. Showdown suffers from the leaden pacing of a TV episode padded out to two hours, but it also lets the characters move forward in a way they never could on a weekly show. In particular, Steve keeps trying to ask Jamie to marry him, but some emergency always interrupts just as the question is being popped. He finally succeeds at the end of the show, and she says yes.

In the third TV movie, as they prepare to get married, Jamie's bionics show signs of breaking down: she has trouble walking, and she can't tune out conversations happening hundreds of yards away. She thinks she's doomed to the scrap heap, but it turns out to be just a computer virus.