Thanks to S.J. Edwards, Elizabeth Bear, DJ Chaotica, Larry-Bob Roberts, Zack Stentz, Daphne Gottlieb, Paul McEnery, James McGirk, Jessy Randall, Kevin Schmidt, Morgan Johnson, Susie Kay, Kat Page and David Fraser for the suggestions!

The Mayor In City Of Ember
He's the textbook example of a corrupt mayor who's only interested in saving his own skin. He knows the underground city of Ember is on its way out, and soon it'll be uninhabitable due to power failures and dwindling supplies. But instead of trying to cope with the problem, the mayor tries to hoard as much stuff for himself as possible, in a secret room — and puts together meaningless commissions to study the problem. Here he is in this video, eating sardines in the grossest possible manner.

Lando Calrissian in Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back
Okay, so Lando is the kind of scoundrel we love to watch. And he's a perfect counterpart for Han Solo. But would you really want him in charge of your city? His Cloud City of Bespin seems like a pretty corrupt, messed-up place. And then he goes inviting Darth Vader and his crew there, which is not good city planning at all. And then after Vader has demolished half the city in his battle with Luke Skywalker, Lando takes off and leaves his city behind. Call that leadership?

Aunty Entity in Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome
She does keep the city of Bartertown humming along — except when she gets stuck into an idiotic power struggle with Master/Blaster, and everything grinds to a halt. Plus she rules with an iron fist, and forces people to fight to the death in a deadly arena. That's not the kind of leadership our post-apocalyptic cities need!

Mayor in RoboCop 2
He makes deals with drug dealers and criminals. And then he mismanages the city's finances and winds up handing the entire city over to the evil OCP. This clip pretty much says it all. And when he's in a tight corner, he just loses his shit.

Mayor Wilkins, in Buffy The Vampire Slayer, season 3
Your average terrible mayor may let the city fall apart, or make deals with drug lords, or bulldoze your house for no reason. But a really awful mayor, like Wilkins, makes cozy arrangements with vampires and tries to kill off the town's only protector. And then tries to turn into a demon so he can eat the high-school graduating class. Now that's bad leadership.

Vilos Cohaagen, in Total Recall.
He's an evil administrator of the Mars settlement, keeping the mutants down and ruling with an iron grip. He uses mind-control and brainwashing to keep his minions in line. And worst of all, he won't give the people air. WTF, Cohaagen?

Mayor Bentham Rudgutter, in Perdido Street Station by China Miéville.
He's always described as sitting "regally on his throne," or sitting "behind his desk with an air of utter command." He rules over New Crobuson, with its corruption and oppression — and he's not averse to making deals with the city's crime syndicates as well as its demons. He systematically rounds up dissidents and has them tortured, and he's not above imposing martial law if the situation gets out of hand.

Father in Equilibrium
Father rules over the city-state of Libria and outlaws all human emotion, even the love of a small puppy. To this end, he keeps the people doped up on a drug called Prozium, and keeps everyone under constant surveillance. (Similar to other figureheads like Big Brother in 1984, or Mustapha Mond in Brave New World — except that Father just rules over one city.) The only good thing "Father" has going for him is his kick-ass gun-centric martial art, gun-kata. Woo hoo!

Judge Cal, In Judge Dredd
This character, closely based on the Roman emperor Caligula, seized power after he had the Chief Judge of Mega-City One assassinated. In Mega-City One, the Chief Judge has absolute authority — an arrangement that's caused some problems on several occasions. So Judge Cal goes completely nuts, making it a crime to criticize him and appointing a goldfish as his deputy. He even shoots Judge Dredd! Dude!

Mayor Prentiss in The Knife Of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness.
Prentisstown is not a nice place to begin with — there are no women, and the males can all hear each other's thoughts all the time, whether they want to or not. But Mayor Prentiss makes matters worse, by figuring out a way to control men's minds. He declares himself President and invades the neighboring settlement of Haven, where there are some women. And that's just the beginning of his reign of terror. Runner up: The mayors in Truancy by Isamu Fukui.

Terminator 2: Judgment Day:

Sarah Connor herself decides to explain the first movie, and the background of the second movie to us, while robots slaughter people and her scarred son scowls at us. (That glimpse of Future John packs more punch than five hours of Bale, incidentally.)

Robot Jox:

An all-time classic movie, this Joe Haldeman/Stuart Gordon joint starts out with a gruff voiceover packing everything we need to know about robotic single combat into one speech. With rubble.

Slipstream:

This opening monologue from Steve Lisberger's followup to Tron almost belongs in the "what the hell are you talking about" category. What the Hell? Earthquakes, okay. And then they "merged civilizations together?" But then there's a wind that ate everything. And someone is traveling it. Wha?

2019: After The Fall Of New York:

This one wins extra points for having the synthesizery blues score, and the guy in the trenchcoat pretending that the synthesizer is actually his trumpet. Twenty years after the bombs fell, New York is still a shithole. Sorry.

Doomsday:

This actually isn't the entire opening voiceover of this film, because it continues after about five minutes of people being shot by riot cops. Scotland gets turned into a scabby plague sore, and those sensible Brits wall it off. Which works out perfectly, of course.

Judge Dredd:

Can I just say, I love it when a voiceover comes with a text crawl, in case you need to follow along at home? Most movies do one or the other, but only a truly great movie has a text crawl and a voiceover. The U.S. has gone to mega-shit with Megacities, and a new breed of law enforcer rises up.

City Of Ember:

The movie's entire backstory is compressed into a couple of minutes. Global disaster, underground city, box of instructions... box gets lost. Oh noes.

The Road Warrior:

Thanks to John Hazard for finding this online. Still the greatest post-apocalyptic movie opening of all time.

I was super excited to get an advance copy of the Ember DVD. Partly, I was looking forward to reliving the story of two kids living in an underground city who discover their postapocalyptic world may be different than the adults believe. As the city's generators fail and the food stocks run out, the adults all passively wait for some mythical savior and trust in their corrupt mayor, but the kids piece together the clues and find a way out of the city into the outside world.

Ember featured incedible production design by Martin Laing, including sets that comprised a huge chunk of the city itself, and amazing attention to detail. Plus, "Barrow" Harrow, the father of one of the kids played by Tim Robbins, builds tons of amazing robots and mechanical devices, and they all have this cool jagged look to them.

For whatever reason, Ember bombed at the box office, but I firmly believe it could have a new life on DVD, both as a cult classic for adults and as a must-watch kids' movie. Sadly, Fox doesn't seem to have as much faith in the movie as I do, at this point. For one thing, they gave it a horrendous DVD cover, which makes it look like Eragon IV.

But more to the point, there are no extras. None. I seriously thought I was misunderstanding the DVD menu for a while. There is an "extras" option, but it only leads to trailers for movies like Garfield's Cocaine Orgy. And there's no Blu-Ray release. At all, as far as I know.

DVD Talk puts it best: "Considering the extensive production design and adaptation discussion that certainly accompanies this release, it's a shame to not see anything included." We read a lot about how Laing and director Gil Kenan filled the shipyard where the actual H.M.S. Titanic was built with subterranean tunnels, courtyards, and the city's massive generator. The sets were so large, actors actually got lost in them. Wouldn't a featurette about that incredibly ambitious process be a good idea? Or a commentary track? Something?

Early reports said the DVD would have two versions of the movie, in flip-disc format: one wide-screen, one regular. But that wasn't the case with my screener, and Amazon doesn't mention anything of the sort.

Bottom line: Ember is well worth renting or buying, just for the amazing film itself. But the DVD misses a chance to win new converts to an amazing film with a lot of really fascinating production work. The DVD comes out tomorrow.

In City Of Ember, based on a bestselling series of young-adult novels by Jeanne DuPrau, it's the distant future. Some kind of unspecified (in the movie) calamity has rendered the surface of the Earth uninhabitable. The last survivors of the human race huddle in an underground city, but they're running out of supplies and the city's generator is failing. Soon enough, the city won't support life any more. It turns out the people were supposed to leave the city long ago, but the city's incompetent leadership lost the instructions. So it's up to two plucky kids to discover the way out of Ember.

In some ways, it's quite similar to Wall-E: humans have abandoned the surface of the Earth for an artificial environment, because we trashed Earth. And now it's time for humans to return to the Earth's surface, but those in charge want to preserve the status quo. So it's up to two kids/robots to lead the way. The only difference between Wall-E and Ember is that in Ember, the humans are starving to death instead of living in luxury.

Thinking about Ember, I was reminded of something Steven Moffat, the new showrunner of BBC children's show Doctor Who, told me when I interviewed him in July:

The misconception about children's fiction is that it's lightweight or fluffy. It's about really big and important things. It's adults who like light and fluffy. Everything is big and important to a child, [so] their stories are about big and important events.

You don't have to dig terribly deep in Ember to find a wealth of political allegory. It's all right there on the surface, like it was in Wall-E. The thing that's great about Ember is that its story of post-apocalyptic survivalism feels like a tangible thing. You practically smell the fug of the city's generators and the rot of its ancient timbers. You can feel the dirt and tar under your fingernails. That makes the story of a city that's running out of resources much more compelling and hard to forget. Director Gil Kenan said in an interview recently that he wants you to walk out of Ember and feel surprised and relieved that there's a sky overhead. Which is exactly the feeling I had.

Kenan and production designer Martin Laing built the entire city, more or less, in the hangar where the actual Titanic was built. And this fiendish over-building pays off, because Ember feels like a real place. It's a cliche to say that a place becomes like a character in a story, but it's kind of true this time around.

Another reason why Ember might have a bit more oomph than Indiana Jones 4 or Incredible Hulk: Bill Murray has the time of his life playing the corrupt mayor, who sees his job as making people okay with a doomed status quo. At some level, the mayor knows everybody is fucked, but he has no answers. So his version of leadership is to administer slow euthenasia to his citizens, keeping them optimistic long enough to cushion the blow of their inevitable extinction. He promises to assemble a blue-ribbon commission to investigate the city's power outages, and meanwhile stockpiles supplies in a hidden bunker for when things go all the way south.Which brings me to another way Ember ruled: it showed how nice and cozy political propaganda can be. People always talk about hope being a brave thing — the phrase "the audacity of hope" is a bit shopworn at this point — but actually, hope is the coward's way out. When the sky really is falling, hoping for the best is just a coping mechanism. The people in Ember have a sort of vague theology about the Builders, who created the city and will come back to save everyone. The townsfolk also believe that there's nothing but darkness outside the city, and the surface of the Earth — and the sun — don't really exist. Propaganda and religious dogma blend together into a warm slurry.

I haven't even talked about Saoirse Ronan yet. The good news is, she's pretty great in a role that could easily have been annoying or worse. She's a much better detective this time around than she was in Atonement. She and costar Harry Treadaway compile a series of clues that mostly fall into their laps, but they also make a few clever deductions and put the pieces together. I love detective stories, including kid-detective stories, and any movie that blends genres is automatically on the right track as far as I'm concerned. A post-apocalyptic Nancy Drew story? Sign me up!

The thing that's moderately clever about the kid-detective plot is that a small act of rebellion touches the whole thing off. Both Lina (Ronan) and Doon (Treadaway) receive assigned jobs from the state in the Day Of Assignment. Murray's mayor pulls job assignments out of a bag in front of a mostly empty auditorium, and gives each kid the job that he or she will have for the rest of his/her life. There's no social mobility, no aspiration, just the job you're assigned. Lina and Doon both receive the absolute worst jobs for them: she's assigned to the city's pipeworks, and he's made a messenger. Even though these assignments were announced in front of everyone, they agree to swap. And it's thanks to that trade that both kids start noticing the clues that lead to a way out of the city.

Right after I watched Ember, I got into a debate with another critic, who was there to review it for a film site. She felt like the film was religious propaganda, because the kids find the way out of the city by having faith and persevering in the face of obstacles. They become the saviors of Ember and lead everyone out of the darkness into the light. I felt like the movie was actually saying the opposite: the two kids save the city precisely because they don't have blind faith. Instead of taking the received wisdom and believing the city's leadership, they observe the world around them and look at actual evidence. Their emergence into the light is a triumph of reason over superstition.

I don't have a definite answer as to which of us was right. But the fact that two adults could have a spirited argument about the political meaning of this film — just the way conservatives and liberals have both claimed Wall-E as a conservative or liberal parable — seems like a good sign to me.

Oh, and I almost forgot. The major addition to the film that wasn't in the novel appears to be a giant tentacle-faced mole that stalks our heroes through the tunnels. It didn't bother me, and it was kind of a crazy surprise in the middle of an otherwise semi-realistic story. But you can see it for yourself here, and decide if you think it mars an otherwise great film.

In the end of Ember the corrupt Mayor met a grisly demise by way of giant tentacle-faced mole. But Murray insists this is not the last you'll see of him, based on science. But both Tim Robbins' and Saoirse Ronan's characters are in the novel sequel, so you'll probably see their dirt streaked cheeks again.

Do you think it may be possible to bring your characters back for other films, I know Bill you're eaten by a mole....

Bill Murray: I may have been injured by the mole. I see myself in a sling in the sequel.

Tim Robbins: I think when you are eaten by a mole, that it doesn't really digest you.

Bill Murray: You become regurgitated.

Robbins: So yeah, that's the scientific explanation.

Murray: They are aerobic, they're not anaerobic, so you are even able to breathe within the digestive tract, and procreate.

Robbins: Apparently, both characters are in the next book.

Saoirse Ronan: I haven't read the second book, but I don't think you're in it [to Murray].

Murray: [Laughs] My people.

Ronan: I asked Gil [Kenan the director] when we were on set whether we were going to do a sequel or not and he said, "Get all of your friends to go and see it and then we'll see." I think it's basically how this one goes and then we'll see.

But you would do it?

Ronan: Yeah, if Gil was still going to do it and we still had all of the cast, then yes.

City Of Ember:

The core message of the film is that we have finite resources, says director Gil Kenan. And it's intended to be claustrophobic, and to show us the inner workings of lots of giant machines. He seems to be okay with describing his film as "steampunk." The film never really explains why the humans had to go live underground in the first place, it's just an unspecified calamity. [Premiere]

Dollhouse:

So you might have heard that Amy Acker (Angel) will be in Joss Whedon's Dollhouse as Dr. Claire Saunders, with a distinctive scar on her face. But you haven't glimpsed that scar — until now. Here's the first image of Acker's new look, from Sci Fi Magazine. [Amy Acker Fan]

Doctor Who:

As someone pointed out yesterday, there are some spoilers in the commentary tracks for season four for upcoming storylines. Apparently you'll hear the phrase "cache of info stamps" at some point in the 2008 Christmas special. A character named Aubrey Fairchild meets a terrible death in the special. And the Hub set from Torchwood has been trashed for use in filming the Who Christmas special. (I still wonder if those pics of the trashed set weren't from the filming of Torchwood. Maybe the two shows cross over somehow? Why would the Doctor visit the Hub again so soon? I thought the special only took place in Victorian England.)

Also, a scene with the Shadow Proclamation, featuring monsters from throughout the series, was written but not filmed. But it'll appear during one of the 2009 special episodes, at David Tennant's request. And don't hold your breath for the Ice Warriors — Russell T. Davies loves them, but thinks they're "generic." River Song is not the Doctor's wife — "it's more complicated than that," says Steven Moffat. Also, the Doctor's cameo in the Sarah Jane Adventures would have helped explain why K-9 isn't in the series, but it could still happen in SJA season three. [Den Of Geek]

Fringe:

Not every mysterious occurrence will turn out to be connected to Walter's research. But a lot of Walter's research was stolen from him, and he's lost his memory of some of it. There will be more people looking for Peter, and he's on the run from the mob for complex reasons. We'll find out more about Peter's mom at some point, and she's still a pivotal figure in Peter's and Walter's lives. We'll be seeing more of the mysterious Observer, who's been in the backdrop of every episode so far, and he's not actually an alien. And his mysterious writing will be explained. [E! Online]

And here's a link to a video podcast where the show's producers discuss important insights about the show's characters, plus the Pattern. We'll soon learn more about Olivia and why she's a cop. And William Bell is like Walter's doppleganger. [Fox via Fringe Television]

Also, in the Oct. 14 episode, the one about the guy whose body generates electrical surges, Walter and Anna sharea really beautiful moment together that's not just a procedural thing for once. [TV Guide via SpoilerTV]

Heroes:

Another new character! Yay! We'll meet a guy named David who is "teen angst incarnate" and gives our heroes quite a bit of trouble during next spring's "Fugitives" arc. I was just saying to myself, "What Heroes really needs is some teen angst." [EW]

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles:

Richard Schiff (The West Wing) will turn up in the season's tenth episode as someone who's come back from the future to help the machines. Also in that episode: Adam Busch (Buffy's killer nerd) who plays a character too spoilery to reveal, apparently. [EW]

Meanwhile, the show's official blog says the next episode (airing a week from Monday) will tell us more about Catherine Weaver's daughter, show us Derek's new love interest (Stephanie Jacobsen), and let us know where Andy Goode's chess-playing computer went. And in the coming weeks, we'll get more details on Derek's "past in the future," see more of that bloody list, and see episodes called "Complications" and "Mr. Ferguson Is Ill Today." Sarah Connor will get a new obsession, and James Ellison will finally meet the Connors. [Fox]

Meanwhile, SpoilerTV got hold of some casting sides for the 13th episode of the season. (As usual for this show, they're not actual pages from the script, and some names have been changed. It's entirely possible none of this stuff will be in the episode.) We meet a guy named Pete who is tracking incidents of a certain medical condition, which all happen to people in remote locations. The condition's symptoms include three red dots, which are talked about the "Abraham" blogs. Supposedly Abraham is a blogger who claims to be a scientist working on a top-secret medical project being covered up by the authorities.

Then we meet a woman named "Eileen," who lives in an antique trailer and tracks sightings of "Abraham." She has push pins in a map for each sighting, and she's convinced the government is covering something up. She and a woman named Stephanie (Sarah Connor?) decide to go look at the site of the latest sighting.

But then it turns out that Eileen is actually a guy named Mark Alan wearing an "Eileen" wig. (It's hard to tell, honestly. But it sounds like Mark and Eileen are the same person.) Mark hangs out with Jill aka Sarah Connor, telling her that the machines "killed Mark Alan, and I thank them for it." The machines gave him a gift — the life he had been scared to lead. Before, he was a cog in the machine, ordinary and repressed. He never knew where the company he worked for was located, because a van with blacked-out windows carried him to the facility every day.

Eileen and Stephanie go to a support group for addicts, because this will somehow lead to Stephanie finding out more about the red dots. She's been having nigthmares about them and arguing with her boyfriend about them.

Meanwhile, Charley Dixon goes to a priest to talk about the fact that his dead wife was pregnant in 2001 and decided to have an abortion right after 9/11 because she didn't want to bring a child into that type of world. And Sarah Connor threatens a warehouse worker with a gun, thinking he's stolen an important box. But he turns out to be innocent. [SpoilerTV]

Smallville:

SpoilerTV got hold of some casting pages for Smallville's big wedding episode, "Bride." There's lots of huge prep going on at the Kent Farm, with pots boiling and stuff, and Lois is in the middle of it, multitasking with her bluetoothy swankness. "It's eleven hundred hours, people. We've only got til sunset to change this heifer house into my little cousin's chapel of love, so let's pick up the pace." She tweaks the flower arrangements and bosses the catering staff. Clark accidentally runs into two guys carrying a giant ice sculpture wrapped in burlap. The sculpture starts to fall, but Clark catches it easily. Then he has to feign difficulty, because the statue weighs 300 pounds and the guys are shocked that Clark can lift it.

The wedding is lovely and when Jimmy kisses the bride, he gets fancy and dips her. Later, Clark is standing on the landing at the wedding reception, watching Chloe and Jimmy kiss, and he sees Lois chatting with an attractive male guest. He is stricken by double jealousy, which is like his kryptonite. (Well, his other kryptonite, I guess.) But then he snaps out of it, because it's his time to dance with Chloe. And you know, she's had the time of her life, and she's never felt this way before.

Meanwhile, we see friendly paramedic Davis Bloome dumping two giant garbage bags full of bloody stuff. A rent-a-cop sees Davis and offers to help with whatever call he's on. Davis says it was a false alarm, but then the rent-a-cop spots one of Davis' bloody latex gloves and gets suspicious. Davis' hands start to shake, and he warns the rent-a-cop to get out of there. The rent-a-cop says he's not leaving till the real cops get there. Davis' eyes turn blood red and he yells "Run!" The rent-a-cop shoots him, to no avail.

Still later, Clark's at the hospital, looking at Lana on a gurney with a wounded leg, knowing it's all his fault. She sees him and they have a conversation, which is crossed out. [SpoilerTV]

Just how trashy is Maxima the alien sex queen going to look in tonight's episode? What do you think?

Meanwhile, you may or may not see Lex this season, but you'll definitely hear him at some point soon-ish. [E! Online]

Also, in the 12th episode, Clark and Lana have a dinner date, but it's just two old friends reconnecting. Or is it? And meanwhile, Lana meets Tess, and the ex-wife-vs.-devoted-follower sparks fly. [SVGurl]

And here are some pics from episode 5, "Committed," including that Kryptonite lie detector. Yeah. [Smallville Spoilers]

Chuck:

Woot, here are some pics from 2.03, "Chuck Vs. The Breakup" and 2.05, "Chuck Vs. Tom Sawyer." Including a look at new Buy More muckety muck Emmet in action. [SpoilerTV]

Iron Man 2:

In a web chat with Los Angeles Times readers, Jon Favreau gave some pretty major hints about the sequel to this past summer's second biggest superhero movie. Don't count on seeing the Mandarin leap into action in the second movie at all — Favreau hinted that the writers were experimenting with trying different villains from the comics. Asked whether he'd consider a female villain, like Madam Masque, Favreau strongly hinted that he'd like a female villain. (Maybe Black Widow, before she turns good? Please say yes!)

Also, Favreau said they'd developed an "interesting take" on the Mandarin "that allows us to incorporate a whole pantheon of villains. The whole 10 Rings thing in [the first film] was a good tease for it." (So the Mandarin has other supervillains working for him? Or each villain is one ring?)

Also, the second film will deal with how Tony Stark's already out-of-control celebrity is affected by his "coming out" as Iron Man at the end of the first movie. And Favreau wants to deal with Tony's alcoholism, but not necessarily build a whole storyline around it. "I don't think we'll ever do the Leaving Las Vegas version, but it will be dealt with." And of course, he mentioned that the second Iron Man movie leads into the Avengers movie. [IGN]

Terminator Salvation:

I don't think this is actually news, but Common say his character in Terminator 4 is a resistance fighter who fights alongside John Connor. [MTV]

Blindness:

In the movie version of Jose Saramago's novel, opening Friday, the Doctor's Wife wonders if the inexplicable blindness is somehow linked to a loss of faith, to losing one's way spiritually. Much is made of the irony of the pharmacist's assistant sitting near the sex worker he insulted, and the car thief with the man whose car he stole. (The car thief plot is pretty close to the book, actually.) [Orlando Sentinel]

City Of Ember:

Coming Soon has more details on the amazing sets built for this movie, which sound like reason enough to see it on their own. There are greenhouses, and vegetables are sold in Garden Square, and a phone booth has been turned into a messenger center where you can leave a message to be picked up. Doon's father fixes up failing bits of technology, and has built a fantastic breakfast machine. [Coming Soon]

Splinter:

More details about the weird parasite movie we covered the other day. There's a prickly parasite that infects a host, either a forest creature or a human, and then spreads throughout the body until the host suddenly transforms into a "violent, abstract" monster. Three young people are trapped in a remote gas station trying to get away from the creature that has trapped them inside. There's a scene where they're searching through the gas station that's a direct homage to the lab-search scene in Alien. And you have a horrible moment where someone realizes they're infected but they haven't yet turned into a monster. The parasite victims don't have a long lifespan before they go "dormant." [Shocktillyoudrop]

The Burrowers:

And here's a poster for the Western horror movie about cowboys facing a subterranean threat. [Shocktillyoudrop]

Lost:

According to Michael Emerson, Ben's mission and methods have changed somewhat since the last time we saw him. He has different resources, and he moves around a lot. And as you'd heard, Ben and Desmond will be meeting up soon. [TV Guide]

As you've probably gathered, Ben wants to kill Widmore's daughter in revenge for the death of his own daughter. [LylyFord]

Heroes:

Molly the little superpower-detecting girl will be turning up in a "unique" way in a couple of episodes later this season. We'll learn more about how Sylar's power works, and also the ins and outs of Mohinder's adrenaline hypothesis. We'll see Nathan's wife and kids again. Claire, Adam, Peter and Sylar can all be killed permanently by decapitation. (I'm picturing the four of them lined up, and someone grabs a very large scythe.) Sylar has to start over gaining powers, because he lost all his old ones in season two. Sparrow Redhouse may appear in episode 12, or a bit later. [Heroes News And Spoilers]

And here's a sneak peek from next Monday's Heroes where it turns out superpowers really are an aphrodisiac. [NBC via SpoilerTV]

Meanwhile, producer Jesse Alexander posted a storyboard from the first episode of volume four, "Fugitives," which airs next spring. Looks like Nathan is stalking someone at an aircraft hangar, and watching a plane take off. [Heroes Spoilers]

Battlestar Galactica:

Discover Magazine has a great rundown of all the reasons why the rumor that there's another Earth out there besides the one our heroes just found is probably bunk. [Discover]

Dollhouse:

Here are a couple of promo pics of Echo and Sierra, two of the mindwiped "Actives" in Joss Whedon's new programmable puppet series. [SpoilerTV]

Chuck:

Here's the press release describing the Oct. 27 episode of Chuck, "Chuck vs. Tom Sawyer":

Life in espionage takes its toll on Chuck (Zachary Levi) and everyone is taking notice. Chuck tries to explain his unusual behavior to Ellie (Sarah Lancaster) and to the quirky Buy More efficiency expert Emmett Milbarge (guest star Tony Hale), but a new assignment only complicates things. After a global terrorist comes searching for Jeff (Scott Krinsky), Chuck is forced to socialize with Jeff in order to find out what role the oddball plays in the mission. Sarah (Yvonne Strahovski), Casey (Adam Baldwin) and Chuck are all shocked when they discover that the fate of the world and the prevention of World War III rest in Jeff’s hands.

[SpoilerTV]

Smallville:

So that flashback we mentioned, where Young Clark invites Young Chloe up to his hayloft? Turns out there's a kiss involved. And the actress playing Young Chloe wears some kind of Chloe wig. Sounds great! [TV Guide]

And here's the Canadian trailer for "Toxic," tonight's sick-Ollie episode:

Want to know what's coming up for Oliver Queen? Maybe this will help. [Superman Homepage]

Additional reporting by Lauren Davis.

The Day The Earth Stood Still:

UGO has a roundup of spoilers for this remake of the classic first-contact movie, mostly stuff we've reported before, or which you can glean from watching the footage we've posted. A few new tidbits: Jaden Smith is actually Jennifer Connelly's stepson, not her son. And Klaatu's people use machines with a biological basis, not a mechanical one. And the new version won't have quite such an obvious Christ metaphor as the original. Also, the longer Klaatu spends trapped in a human body, the more conflicted he feels because he realizes the humans aren't so bad. [UGO]

City Of Ember:

The new movie of Jeanne DuPrau's classic novel stays pretty close to the original story, with a few minor changes. For example, the movie adds a new character, Sul (Martin Laundau), a guy who knows all about Ember's inner workings. [Sci Fi Wire]

Repo! The Genetic Opera:

Curious about how the dark futuristic organ-repossession musical came to be? Here's a new behind-the-scenes video. [ShockTillYouDrop]

Lost:

Doug Hutchison says he's back for at least four episodes as hippie Dharma Initiative member Horace Goodspeed on Lost this season. [Sci Fi Wire]

Also, we won't see Jin at all in the first three episodes of the new season, and we'll learn his fate in episodes four and five. And it turns out he's the guy who turns up, floating on a door in the middle of the ocean. But is he alive or dead? Will he be in the show as a ghost? No clue yet. [E! Online]

Battlestar Galactica:

I read this post at SyFyPortal the other day, but somehow I totally missed this somewhat dubious spoiler, which a source told the site. Apparently our heroes did find Earth in the mid-season finale, but after the Cylons wrecked Earth in their nuclear catastrophe, they moved on to another planet, also called Earth. And that's the planet that you are (most likely) sitting on as you read this. The rest of the series will be about the fleet searching for this second Earth. [SyFyPortal]

Heroes:

Tracy will embrace her ice powers instead of freaking out about them. Also, after Matt sees a bunch of paintings in Africa of his past events, he sees a couple of paintings of things that haven't happened to him yet. And Matt has some really cool scenes with Daphne the speedster. And Matt still might go to the dark side, like his dad. [Heroes Spoilers]

Hiro and Ando go down to the Company's sinister Level 5, but not of their own free will. Also, when we see Elle again, we'll find out her electrical power is on the fritz, and she turns to Claire for help. [E! Online]

In that upcoming episode where Future Sylar is living in the Bennett house and has a kid named Noah, it turns out Sylar also has Mr. Muggles. And there may be waffle-making. Also we may see several different alternate realities in that episode. And Dr. Zimmerman has some answers for Tracy Strauss, and it turns out another one of the Ali Larter clones may actually be running around as well. (Or maybe we'll just see her corpse?) [E! Online again]

Star Wars: Clone Wars:

We got another press release from Warner Bros. about this Friday's upcoming season premiere, and it noted that the "Yoda episode" sees a mixture of the impish mischievous Yoda from Empire Strikes Back, and the bouncy ninja Yoda from the prequels. And here are some new pics. [Warner Bros. and Los Angeles Metromix]

Smallville:

In the Chloe/Jimmy wedding episode, Ollie can't be there, because he's in a more interesting episode — I mean, he's off on a mission as Green Arrow. Clark and Lois make "video messages" to cooperate Chloe and Jimmy, and Chloe and Clark dance at the wedding reception. And then in the following episode, Geoff Johns' Legion of Superheroes romp, Johns says he was suprised by what prominent Legion villain he was allowed to use. (Mordru? Time Trapper? Darkseid? Ooh, maybe Lemnos!) [Kryptonsite]

Sarah Connor Chronicles:

John Connor is totally focused on Riley the magazine-quoting girl, instead of Cameron, this season. Also, episode five of this season is a big turning point in the John-Derek relationship. [E! Online]

Chuck:

More about that upcoming episode ("Chuck vs. The Best Friend") where we see Chuck and Morgan aged 12: apparently a female bully wants to wail on Morgan in revenge for his spying on her, but Chuck stands up for his pal. Chuck and Morgan lament their girlfriend-less states and promise they'll have girlfriends when they're older. Morgan says he'll have a beard, and that'll totally help. Then, in the present day, a bearded Morgan still laments his girlfriend-lessness, now that Anna is dating a guy named Jason. Turns out Jason is connected with a Triad (Chinese organized crime group), and Chuck has to go undercover at Jason's car showroom along with Sarah. Unfortunately, Morgan wants to tag along and spy on Anna. And when they get caught, Chuck saves Morgan's life by convincing the Triad members that Morgan isn't spying on them, he's just a loser stalking his ex-girlfriend. Morgan feels betrayed, but Chuck doesn't have time to patch things up, because the Triad members are targeting an ambassador. Meanwhile, Jeff and Lester also have strains in their relationship. [ChuckTV]

Chuck and Sarah really won't be getting together any time soon. And Zachary Levi wrote a song about how bad he smells. [E! Online]

Here's the synopsis for the fourth episode, "Chuck vs. The Cougars":

Chuck (Zachary Levi) learns more about Sarah’s (Yvonne Strahovski) past when they run into her old high school nemesis Heather Chandler (guest star Nicole Richie). Sarah’s teenage insecurities come to surface and she tries to avoid Heather at all costs. Chuck, on the other hand, does everything he can to hear more about Sarah’s hidden life. When Heather’s nerdy husband Mark (Ben Savage) turns out to be a key player in a new mission, the agents must attend Sarah’s high school reunion to prevent the sale of potentially dangerous super-bomber plans — all the action ends with the ultimate cat fight. Meanwhile, Big Mike (Mark Christopher Lawrence) leaves town for a day and Buy More’s new assistant manager Lester (Vik Sahay) decides to implement a new sales policy.

Have you noticed how every episode synopsis is like, "there's a guest star who has a personal connection to someone on the show, but he/she is also tied up in spy shit. And meanwhile, stuff happens at Buy More"? [SpoilerTV]

Stargate Atlantis:

In episode 14, "Prodigal," Michael finds his way into Atlantis and tries to gather as much information as possible, while the crew tries to keep him from getting to Teyla's child. And in episode 15, "Remnants," a long-lost race has sent out repositories of themselves and their knowledge before they were destroyed. Woolsey and Sheppard see visions of their dreams and fears because of these repositories. (This is the one we featured some details from ages ago, where Woolsey gets an imaginary girlfriend.) [SpoilerFix]

Eleventh Hour:

In the second episode of Jerry Bruckheimer's "Hey science! Stop being mean!" show, Jacob Hood investigates when several healthy 11-year-old boys die of heart attacks. It's up to him to prevent further deaths. [SpoilerTV]

Knight Rider:

Here's the press release for the fifth episode of your favorite show, "I Wanna Rock And Roll All Knight":

A CRIMINAL COUPLE WITH CONGRESSIONAL TIES THREATENS TO REVEAL THE SECRETS OF KNIGHT INDUSTRIES — Knight Industries is hot on the trail of a Bonnie & Clyde-esque criminal couple, only to discover their true identities have a serious impact on a national congressional race. As the mission unfolds, Mike (Justin Bruening) and KITT (voiced by Val Kilmer) are forced into action to save Agent Rivai (Sydney Tamiia Poitier).

[SpoilerTV]

Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen:

The Transformers sequel is seeking a bunch of extras to play "airport travelers" in a big scene being shot soon. Also, the film is shooting a big sequence in a place called the "boneyard" where the dead military jets go to die, which could lead to a sequence where a lot of jets get blown up. [Transformers Live]

City Of Ember:

Here's another clip from one of the most eagerly awaited movies of the fall. [IGN]

Doctor Who:

More bugshit insane Doctor Who rumors. First of all, there are whispers that Patrick Stewart is so happy with Hamlet costar David Tennant, he wants to appear on Doctor Who in 2009, so they can take their relationship to the next level. Stewart's character would have no facial prosthetics, but sport a killer costume, and he's a significant enough figure that he could be brough back. And Stewart doesn't want to play a "good guy." One theory: Picard could revive the role of the Meddling Monk, the mischievous member of the Doctor's own time-traveling race, last seen in 1966.

Meanwhile, a guy who knows a guy who talked to a guy says the long-distant fifth season will start with a Dalek two-parter written by new showrunner Steven Moffat, and will also feature the Zygons, the Ice Warriors and a non-contemporary Celtic companion. [Planet Gallifrey]

Lost:

More Lost filming, more detailed spoilers. The show took over a swimming pool and transformed it into the high seas for some watery filming. In one scene, Josh Holloway, Elizabeth Mitchell, Ken Leung, Rebecca Mader, and Jeremy Davies are in a raft, paddling like mad. And the onlooker was pretty sure Terry O'Quinn (Locke) was in the lead. They're on rough waves, hit with lighting and rain. Sawyer yells for them to turn back. But then they spot something and row towards it.

A second scene involved a big red-and-black rescue raft full of new characters, arguing in French. One of them spots something in the distance, and they look using a flashlight, then row towards the object. (Are the two craft rowing towards each other? Or something else?) And then there was a sequence where a large wooden door, splintered at the top, has a man laying motionless on it, floating on the waves. [Hawaii Weblog]

And here are some set pics and video which show a military-looking barracks set. [Spoilers Lost]

Another sequence being filmed recently involves Ben driving a carpet-cleaning service van, with Sayid riding shotgun, with a limo driving behind them. Both vehicles drive into a parking garage out of the rain. In the back seat of the limo is a short man with white hair. (Maybe Charles Widmore, maybe a new character.) The two vehicles pull into parking spaces, side by side, but facing opposite directions so their windows are facing each other. The limo's chauffeur talks to Ben through the car window. Also there: Jack, sporting a beard and long hair, with a band-aid over his eyes. [SpoilersLost]

Star Wars: Clone Wars:

Here's a still from the first episode of the Clone Wars series, coming to the Cartoon Network on Friday. Yoda fights off a whole droid army plus Asajj Ventress on a crucial planet that he's trying to negotiate a treaty with. [Warner Bros.]

Heroes:

Here are some new pics from tonight's episode of Heroes. Look who's back! [SpoilerTV]

Also, it sounds like a badass FBI agent (along the lines of Tommy Lee Jones in The Fugutive) will turn up in the second half of this season, "Fugitives." [EW]

Also, that ubervillain we mentioned? The one who creates a sort of deadly vortex from which you can never return? His name is Stephen Camfield, and he's played by Andre Royo. [Sunday Mercury]

Is HRG back with the Company completely? Not exactly. Actor Jack Coleman explains. [Heroes Spoilers]

Sarah Connor Chronicles:

Remember those photos of Thomas Dekker in military camo gear we showed you recently? Turns out in the Oct. 6 episode, "Goodbye To All That," John Connor has to go undercover as a student at the Presidio Alto Military Academy to track down the Terminator's latest target, a student named Martin Bedell. [Fox]

Meanwhile, a ton of casting sides have come out for episode 12. As usual for Sarah Connor, they're not actual script pages, so they may not represent the actual content of the episode. A young female "field reporter" interviews a guy who found some metal in a ravine, along with bones belonging to Mitch Friedman, who died in 1975. There's archival footage from a 1970 documentary where someone interviews Ruby, a fiesty 70 year old who saw someone throw a bomb into a 1920s speakeasy, causing a deadly fire. Then there's Myron Stark, who wanders around in the 1920s and hassles Valentino, then tries to buy some land from (Raymond?) Chandler, saying he'll pay twice what it's worth. [SpoilerTV]

Fringe:

And here are some pics from episode five, "Power Hungry." Walter discovers a simple man has the ability to harness electrical power and then runs tests on an electrically charged heart. While Olivia examines a crime scene, and is forced to confront a blast from her past. And Peter finds a confused Olivia outside Walter's lab. Finally, Walter decides to enlist the help of homing pigeons. That wacky Walter. [Fox and Fringe Television]

Eleventh Hour:

Here's a trailer for the show about how science must be smushed! Smushed with a big, big hammer made out of Rufus Sewell. [SpoilerTV]

Stargate Atlantis:

Can't wait for the second half of the Daniel Jackson-heavy two-parter that started on Friday? Here's a clip from the second episode, which airs Oct. 10. [Cinemablend]

Life On Mars:

I just finally watched the second episode of the original British version of this time-travel cop show, and it looks as though the American version will be pretty different. Also, producers say Sam definitely won't get back to the present day at any time in the first season.

"The Real Adventures of the Unreal Sam Tyler" - Is this vintage1973 Sam Tyler real or not? Sam's unbelieving ears clearly hear a radio station announcing that Elvis will perform a concert in memory of his mother, but he's still not sure how or why he landed in these circumstances. Moreover, he doesn't have much time to think about his own predicament. A string of fatal robberies at AAA Money check cashing stores are baffling the 1-2-5, and Sam jumps headlong into the case, which features no forced entries and no witnesses. Even with Lt. Hunt strong-arming the lead suspect, it still takes an unexpected turn of events to make the squad to look within to solve the crime. At the end of the day Sam, in spite of himself, might even experience some true happiness - temporary though it might be

[SpoilerTV]

Chuck:

We got hold of some more script pages from the Chuck Christmas episode, the one where a gunman named Ned holds the Buy More for ransom. The Buy More employees have a betting pool on what'll happen to a car being chased on the freeway by tons of LAPD vehicles, and then the car crashes right into the Buy More itself. "Pay up, suckers," Anna says. The driver, Ned, holds Chuck at gunpoint. Ned asks who's in charge and everybody points at Chuck and yells his name. Big Mike and Emmett cower. Chuck helps the gunman put the store on lockdown.

Ned says "as long as nobody gets brave, nobody gets hurt." Chuck assures him the store has a "strict no-bravery policy." Later, Chuck teaches Ned how to use his gun, which accidentally gets Casey shot in the foot. Jeff and Lester panic and freak out that they're going to be forced to resort to cannibalism.

When "Lt. Mauser," the police negotiator, shows up, he negotiates for two hostages to be set free: the injured Casey, and Chuck's "girlfriend" Sarah. Chuck, realizing he's about to lose both his protectors, yells "No!" at the idea of releasing Sarah, and everybody looks at Chuck like he's a monster. A random Buy More employee says: "Oh no he didn't." [Casting sides]

And in the following episode, "Chuck vs. The Best Friend," we meet Chuck and Morgan at age 12, plus Suzy O'Keefe, the 12-year-old who punched young Morgan and knocked him down. There's also a Chinese ambassador, the handsome successful Jason Wang, and an androgynous, intimidating female spy named Smooth Lau. (Is there any way we can avoid any more of Morgan's weird Chinese humor?) [SpoilerTV]

Meanwhile, as we may have mentioned, Chuck will kiss both Sarah and upcoming guest star Melinda Clarke soon. [Zap2It]

Smallville:

Here's the official description for episode five, "Committed":

CHLOE TELLS JIMMY HOW SHE FEELS ABOUT CLARK — After they leave their engagement party, Chloe (Allison Mack) and Jimmy (Aaron Ashmore) are abducted by a psychotic jeweler (guest star David Lewis) who was emotionally scarred by his wife’s infidelity and is now kidnapping couples and subjecting them to a kryptonite-enhanced lie detector that shocks them if they lie. The abductor asks Chloe if she is in love with anyone else. Meanwhile, in an effort to find Chloe and Jimmy, Clark (Tom Welling) and Lois (Erica Durance) pose as a couple and are kidnapped themselves then, asked how they feel about each other.

I love that the jeweler uses the Kryptonite lie detector to make Chloe confess she loves Clark as well as Jimmy. It makes perfect sense. But what about Davis? I'm a Doe shipper, man. [Smallville Spoilers]

So that thing about Lois getting superpowers? Bit of a letdown. She gets possessed by an alien thingy and wreaks havoc, then she has to search for a person who's special to her. [Smallville Spoilers]

Knight Rider:

Are you excited for more episodes of Knight Rider? Actually, I don't think "episodes" is a kickin enough word — we should call them "crashisodes" or something. In any case, the not-yet-canceled smart car show put out another big batch of script pages from the upcoming episode called "Don't Stop The Knight." W00t! This is the episode we mentioned, where Mike breaks a guy named Gunner Haas out of prison and hands him over to the "Pussycat Dolls of international assassins." Gunner isn't thrilled, because these are women he screwed (metaphorically) in a business deal.

The reason Mike has to spring Gunner from prison is because someone has kidnapped a foxy young ambassador named Olara Kumali. She's foxy, and she'll get hurt unless Mike does the kidnapper's bidding. There's a whole conversation about how Olara has brought peace to central Africa... but they only care because she's hot. After he springs Gunner, he has to steal a super-expensive X-ray machine for the kidnapper, getting himself tasered in the process. The kidnapper gets Olara in an enclosed space and cuts off her air, leaving her only two hours to live.

It turns out the kidnapper is Stevens, a Pentagon weapons designer who was fired after he was suspected of selling secrets to the Russians. It turns out Mike is collecting the elements for a SUPERBOMB that will destroy a whole city. Mike uses KITT's self-driving, talking superpowers to trick Stevens into thinking he's inside the car, while Mike sneaks around and rescues the ambassador. But then they get caught. Stevens assembles his superbomb and puts it in KITT's trunk. He rigs it so that if KITT slows below 100 miles per hour, the bomb explodes, destroying everything in a 30 mile radius.

Meanwhile, Hank, a plug-in robot that Charles Graiman created years ago, is mad at him because Graiman isn't acknowledging his earliest creations. Hank throws something at Graiman, and tears a page from a magazine showing a young Graiman and his early robots. "Are you feeling lonely, Hank? Because it's okay if you are," says Graiman. Awww. Hank "gives a sad little shrug."

Ain't It Cool is reporting that Murray was asked about whether or not he'd be interested in appearing in Ghostbusters 3 during a press conference for City of Ember on the last day of Fantastic Fest:

[T]onight he said that he knew "some writers from The Office" were taking a stab at the script right now (which we already knew) and that he thinks that's a good start. He paused for a few seconds then said that he thinks enough time has passed and that "the wounds from Ghostbusters 2 are healed" and that he would definitely be into doing another Ghostbusters movie, stating that the first 40 minutes of the original film is some of the best stuff he's been associated with and the whole shoot was an amazing amount of fun.

He also went on to say that his enthusiasm for Ghostbusters was heightened after recording the voice of Peter Venkman for the video game over the summer. In fact, he said he found himself walking down the street singing the Ghostbusters theme song and then thought people walking around him were going to start yelling at him to "get over yourself, Bill," so he stopped... But the enthusiasm was there.

This is very exciting news - Not least of all because the idea of a Ghostbusters without Bill Murray is depressing to the point of pointlessness. But if Murray is willing to sign up one more time, we're ready to get in line for tickets right this minute... as long as Dan Ackroyd's dream of Seth Rogen involvement stays in his nighttime subconscious.

Bill Murray commented on Ghostbusters 3 tonight at Fantastic Fest! [Ain't It Cool]

Clip 1:

Clip 2:

Clip 3:

City of Ember: So Far So Good from City of Ember on Vimeo.

[Sci Fi Wire]

Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen:

The Transfomers sequel filmed a big fight scene in the desert, and extras included a "strike force" and Egyptian soldiers. There's a rumor Sam's parents are on set there, along with the movie's main cast. The movie may soon be filming in Ruidoso, which is in the mountains surrounded by forest. And here are some images of Ratchet, Bumblebee and Optimus Prime from the set. (Way more pics at the link.) [Transformers Live]

Also, there's a new report from a toy fair claiming that Optimus Prime will join together with Jetfire to form some kind of awesome truck-jet robot. Awesome! [TFW2005]

And here are some behind the scenes videos which show stuff blowing up, from Entertainment Tonight and The Insider. Sorry for picture quality. About the only spoiler here, from what I can gather, is that White Sands, NM is doubling as Egypt. I couldn't watch this video all the way through without my eyes starting to throb a bit though. Update: Here's the proper embed of the Entertainment Tonight video. Hope it doesn't start auto-playing again!

City Of Ember:

Saoirse Ronan only has four scenes with Bill Murray, but they're memorable. And her character is very responsible for her age, because she has to look after her younger sister Poppy and her granny. Plus she has to go to school and start her new job as a messenger. [Sci Fi Wire]

Repo! The Genetic Opera:

I can't tell if any io9 readers are excited about this Rocky Horror-esque dystopian jaunt, but someone at Ain't It Cool News sorta didn't hate it. A few tidbits: For some reason, in the future people's bodies break down at a much faster rate (pollution?) so everybody needs new organs all the time. And these artificial organs are genetically perfect. Also, the movie's narrator is someone who drains liquid anesthesia out through the noses of corpses. [AICN]

And here are some new photos. [Shocktillyoudrop]

Battlestar Galactica:

Not all humans are okay with becoming buddies with the Cylons, says Grace Park. Some staunch human loyalists remain anti-Cylon, even though everyone's in the same boat now. Also, John Hodgman ("I'm a PC") has a cameo in an upcoming episode, as a doctor. (Which means it's either a flashback, or they travel someplace where there are doctors besides Cottle.) [Galactica Sitrep and Galactica Sitrep]

Lost:

Ben's master plan is sort of nonsensical, but everyone who wants to live will go along with it. [E! Online]

Sarah Connor Chronicles:

The first member of the Connor clan former Agent Ellison meets up with is John Connor, and it goes badly for Ellison. Ellison shows up with Cameron, or at least he's not alone (it's unclear what actor Richard T. Jones means) and it turns out weird. "He's not just coming by himself to say hi, so it's an interesting meeting, and I get the worse end of it." Also, he meets another Terminator, besides Garret Dillahunt, before he meets Cameron. [Sci Fi Wire]

Eleventh Hour:

In Jerry Bruckheimer's remake of the British stop-the-science show, Rufus Sewell plays a quirky scientist and Marley Shelton plays a by-the-rules agent. Can they get along? Also, in the sixth episode, "Outbreak," they investigate a smallpox outbreak in Pittsburgh, and the outing is actually based on one of the British episodes. At one point, Shelton goes into a crypt with skeletons and shit. In another scene, Shelton and Sewell wear cotton facemasks as they go through the apartment of a victim. She goes through the victim's mail, while he finds a fortune cookie amongst Chinese food boxes: "Good fortune is the result of good planning," which he observes is more a statement than a future prediction.

Also, the main difference between the U.S. and British versions is that the U.S. version has more character development, because it's not a miniseries. Also, England has more rural areas than the U.S., claim the producers (no, really), and so it's harder to do stories about plague outbreaks in isolated places. There just aren't any isolated places in America, like all those quaint coal-mining towns in the middle of the English countryside. (Have these people looked at a map of the United States? Like, ever?) [Sci Fi Wire]

Chuck:

As you may have gathered, Chuck is the best man at Captain Awesome's wedding, and Morgan is the ring-bearer. And Awesome actor Ryan McPartlin hopes his character gets drawn into Chuck's world of espionage at some point, and takes all the credit for saving the day even though it's really all thanks to Chuck. [E! Online]

Also, the whole season opener is already online, as I believe Graeme is about to explain in more detail, but if you prefer bite-size chunks, here are a couple of clips and a behind the scenes thingy. [SpoilerTV]

And here's an interview with star Zachary Levi. [Zachary-Levi.net]

Doctor Who:

As Russell T. Davies said a while back, the title of the Christmas special is "The Next Doctor." [Blogtor Who]

Sarah Jane Adventures:

The sexy Doctor Who spinoff is back next Monday, and the Radio Times has a few spoilers. Luke and Clyde use the supercomputer Mr. Smith to play computer games, according to the Radio Times, but they claim it's educational because they're playing out the Napoleonic wars. Also, Maria's mom Chrissie gets up to Sarah Jane's attic to discover what Maria's been up to there, and meets Mr. Smith.

And the Trickster, that eyeless villain who erased Sarah Jane from history in season one, is back again in season two. His cube, which Sarah Jane still has, lights up, indicating he's out for revenge.

Meanwhile, those Digital Spy people are doing the usual thing of mixing some real spoilers with a couple of red herrings. Several of their spoilers are also in the Radio Times piece. Also, off the top of my head, it makes sense for the Sontarans use their spaceship's usual cloaking device in the woods. And it seems likely that Maria's dad gets a letter telling him of his new U.S. job opportunity. It also seems plausible that a Sontaran's stumpy fingers are its undoing. I highly doubt either of Maria's parents will die though.

And here are some behind-the-scenes pics of Sarah Jane's attic. Notice the slightly softer look for Mr. Smith, befitting the fact that he's no longer secretly evil. [Planet Gallifrey and BlogtorWho and Radio Times ]

Fringe:

In upcoming episods, Anna Torv has to speak a foreign language. And Joshua Jackson had a copper wire shoved up his nose for one stunt. (Not sure if that's a plot thing, or if it was some weird special effects thing.) [Fringe Television]

Smallville:

BuddyTV caught up with Alison Mack on the set of Smallville and asked her some questions about the new season. [BuddyTV]

Heroes:

The revelation that Sylar is Angela Petrelli's son is just the first of a one-two punch, and the second giant revelation comes in the very next episode, says actor Christine Rose. She thinks of Sylar as her "weapon of mass destruction." And you'll find out a lot in episode eight about why Angela is such a bitch. We'll discover more secret Petrellis Also, we'll learn more about what it was like for Nathan and Peter to have grown up as a Petrelli, as opposed to all these other Petrelli-come-latelys. Oh and the new Ali Larter character will be following the old Ali Larter character into Nathan's bed. [TV Guide and Sci Fi Wire and E! Online]

The Haitian will be spending a lot of time with Peter Petrelli and the swinging Petrellis, but he still has a connection with HRG and he'll have some scenes with Hiro and Claire as well. And as we mentioned, he goes back to Haiti to deal with his brother, along with some of the Petrellis, as you saw on the pics we showed recently. [TV Guide]

Here's the official synopsis of episode five, "Angels And Monsters":

Armed with H.R.G.’s (Jack Coleman) old files and a taser, Claire (Hayden Panettiere) attempts to take down her first target — Stephen Canfield (Andre Royo), a Level 5 escapee with the ability to create black holes — unaware that others are closing in. Meanwhile, in horror, Peter (Milo Ventimiglia) flees from all the death and destruction in the future, only to grimly discover how deeply the experience has changed him. Frustrated that Adam Monroe (guest star David Anders) didn’t get them closer to “the formula,” Hiro (Masi Oka) takes a stab at becoming friends with Daphne (guest star Brea Grant) and new associate Knox (guest star Jaime Hector), much to Ando’s (James Kyson Lee) dismay. Later, Suresh’s (Sendhil Ramamurthy) urge to correct research errors puts Maya (Dania Ramirez), among others, in a sticky situation. Linderman (guest star Malcolm McDowell) advises Nathan (Adrian Pasdar) to stick by Tracy (Ali Larter), seeing that they could accomplish great things together. In Africa, Matt (Greg Grunberg) sees his vision of “happily ever after” destroyed.

[Heroes Spoilers]

Additional reporting by Lauren Davis.

When are they going to start pimping Bill Murray (who plays the futuristic underground town's mayor) in this movie's promotion? That's the poster I want to see. City of Ember follows a couple of crafty kids who have to uncover the mysteries of their ancient ancestors to find a way out of their underground city before the power runs about and the whole town is plunged into darkness. Based off the young adult scifi novel, Ember opens October 10.

Star Trek:

The J.J. Abrams-helmed Trek reboot will have all the gadgets you'd expect, including communicators, tricorders, warp speed, etc. It sounds like Uhura will still have the little earpiece in her ear, and all of the gadgets will be functional, with well-thought-out user interfaces. [MTV Movies]

Highlander:

UGO gathered some reports on the Highlander remake. Among the news: the film will be more "romantic" and include a subplot about Connor MacLeod falling in love with a mortal woman, and dealing with the fact that she's going to die. And it'll flesh out more of the backstory of the original film. [UGO]

City Of Ember:

Here are some new stills from October's subterranean dystopia film, which looks ridiculously exciting. [Movie Spoilers]

Dragonball:

The Dragonball movie features a character named Emi, who was invented just for the movie. And actor Shavon Kirksey says Emi is the queen of the social scene at her high school, along with best friend ChiChi. They're the "it girls." They only hang out with cool popular kids and jocks, but Emi is secretly smarter than she lets on. [DBtheMovie]

Descent 2:

The Crawlers are more scarred up and "bullish" with more deformities in the second Descent film. And there's a King Crawler, who's giant and scary. [Shocktillyoudrop]

Lost:

Lost has been filming some scenes involving Locke and Richard Alpert. In one scene, Locke and Alpert run across the island, to a rock formation with a square in it, which featured in a previous season. Alpert retrieves a device from somewhere and uses it, along with the rock formation, to find out what year it is. And then Locke and Alpert are being chased by men with guns. In another sequence, Locke is trying to climb a banyan tree, and he's shot in the thigh. These scenes were shot near the crashed Cessna plane we mentioned. [Sawyer840]

Heroes:

And here's a longer version of the promo you've seen a million times before. It includes a few new snippets, including Linderman murmuring about God's plan, and Claire's mom creating a ball of flame. [Heroes Spoilers]

And here's a quick snippet of behind-the-scenes footage of Peter confronting Sylar in his Company cell. [E! Online]

And here are some new posters, which have a common theme of shooting stars or something. (The Hiro poster was snapped by PreppiesOfTheApocalypse, who's been risking a bloody traffic death to take pics of the Heroes posters in L.A.) [PreppiesOfTheApocalypse and Heroes Spoilers and Watching Heroes and MySpace]

Sarah Jane Adventures:

Here's a new behind-the-scenes video and a trailer for the Sarah Jane Adventures season two, plus a new promo image. [Blogtor Who]

Fringe:

How obsessed with J.J. Abrams' Fringe are you? Obsessed enough to watch some "B-roll" of behind the scenes footage from the filming? (B-roll is usually the stuff news programs and featurettes run while someone is talking.) How about watching interviews with the show's cast and producers, where they talk about their creative process? (B-roll is below. Interviews are here.) [Fringe Television]

If you saw a whole bunch of gorgeous Fringe posters, would that make you more obsessed? Actual spoilers you can learn about Fringe from these posters: there are lots of equations, and funny symbols. Someone writes in French. There's an apple with babies inside. Anna Torv's hair is full of math! [Fringe Television again]

Sarah Connor Chronicles:

Some new stills from the second episode of the Terminator spinoff's new season reveal a few spoilers. Summer Glau's Terminator is obviously back on the team by the second episode, and she helps Sarah and Derek break into a power plant. And meanwhile, John has a new friend, who builds him a scary robot. Aww. [SpoilerTV]

Smallville:

Lana's reentry into Clark's life will cause some "heartache" for Lois, says actor Erica Durance. And it'll start the "whole triangle going again" in a way that's hard for her. [TV Guide]

Also, you may have your doubts about the apparently human Doomsday, but it turns out Smallville is going somewhere awesome with it, according to comics writer Geoff Johns, who's writing episode 11. Episode 10 will be a hard act to follow, full of twists and turns. And ep. 11, which introduces a faithful version of the Legion of Superheroes, also includes a classic Legion villain. [ComicBloc]

And here are some new stills from the first two episodes of the season. What is up with those weird jaggedy lines around Black Canary's eye-smudges? Also, is a threat to Metropolis' public transit system a major plot twist? [SpoilerTV-Smallville]

Chuck:

And here are a couple new Chuck teasers:

Star Wars: Clone Wars:

The one-hour premiere of Clone Wars, on Oct. 3, includes two episodes. "Ambush" is the one we mentioned about Yoda going to Toydaria, the fifth planet of the Action Figure system. And then "Rising Malevolence" is about a mysterious Separatist weapon that devastates the clones' fleet. Anakin and Ahsoka rush to save Master Plo Koon and his troopers before it's too late. Plo Kool! [Sci Fi Wire]

Next Avengers:

The direct-to-DVD animated movie is pretty faithful to the Marvel universe, except for a few details. Like, it says Tony Stark created the android Ultron, instead of Hank Pym. [UGO]

Transformers Animated:

There are some spoilers for the 30th episode of the animated Transformers spin-off, and for some reason they take the form of a poem:

Transformers Animated Season 3 rumor
Episode 30
Galvatron Team VS. Rodimus Prime Team
Galvatron very G1 looking ,transform into a jet
Rodimus Prime,Flame chest and pipes arms
Starscream and Megatron found some OmegaSupreme wreckages….
HotShot in Rodimus Prime Team
Female medic in Rodimus Prime Team
Some toad monster thing in Galvatron Team
no pics.

[Transformers Toys]

Additional reporting by Lauren Davis.

The Geeks of Doom interviewed Ciy of Ember director Gil Kenan and he promises his movie's look into the future won't get overly preachy about recycling.

There’s never a “Let’s take a step back and realize what we’ve just learned here, kids,” and there certainly isn’t that in the film. But when the film wraps up and you walk out of the theater I hope there’s a realization that this place where we live, ya know, is finite and we do need to appreciate it while we still got it. That’s woven into the fabric of the film.

Kenan also explained that they took some liberties with the screen translation.

Yeah, we did add some elements. We’re very respectful of the material because Jeanne Duprau wrote an incredible novel. But novels are meant to be read, not seen on screen and so to create this thing as a living, breathing presence of its own, we had to take a story that was kind of text-based puzzles and find a way to translate that into something that was cinematic. We created a visual language that gave the audience the thrill of solving the puzzle, but in a non-passive way.

For more pictures of City Of Ember check out IESB.

[Geeks Of Doom and IESB]

City of Ember
Based on a series of novels about a post-apocalyptic underground city that's running down, the movie focuses on two adolescent heroes who discover the world above ground. The movie comes out Oct. 10.
Steampunk levels:
The underground city, Ember, has an industrial feel. Expect a lot of giant pipes and huge generators. But the movie is set in the future, and there's no Victorian sensibility to it. On a scale of one to steamy, it isn't even wearing goggles.

Mutant Chronicles
Set 700 years in the future, the Earth is ruled by feudal corporations and has depleted most of its natural resources. During a war between two corporations, a machine unleashes mutants on the world and our heroes must destroy it to save the world. The movie comes out later this year.
Steampunk levels:
Steam power is all that's left in this future, and the feudal corporate governments are reminiscent of nineteenth century industrial companies that pretty much owned their workers. But there are also shades of medieval society here too. On a scale of one to steamy, it's condensed steam on brass.

Here Be Monsters!
Set in an alternate 1850s London, this is the tale of a boy who emerges from an underground city of monsters to live the life of a human. Based on a novel. No release date yet.
Steampunk levels:
Set in the Victorian era, complete with subterranean world of dreamy crawlies. On a scale of one to steamy, it's a burnished gear.

Larklight
Set in an alternate nineteenth century which includes extensive space travel, this flick is being directed by period movie master Shekhar "Elizabeth: The Golden Age" Kapur. Our heroes must travel in their Victorian spaceships to fight pirates. No release date yet.
Steampunk levels:
We've got the Victorian era crossed with the era of space flight, which is a classic steampunk mashup move. There are also pirates. On a scale of one to steamy, this flick is scalding hot.

The Diamond Age
Last year, the SciFi Channel announced they'd be doing a miniseries based on Neal Stephenson's classic retro-nano-corporate novel about (in part) a group of people called the neo-Victorians. No word on what's happening with the production, though last year George Clooney was attached as producer.
Steampunk levels:
There are neo-Victorians who borrow their fashions, social mores, and styles from Victorian England. But they use nanotech and computer science, not steam and industrial machines. On a scale of one to steamy, this miniseries is an iPhone tucked into a tophat.

Bioshock
Based on the popular videogame about a failed underwater Utopian community, Bioshock is set to be directed by Gore "Pirates of the Carribean" Verbinski, who told Variety that he's taking his concept design cues from Jules Verne and Ayn Rand (whose work inspired the game).
Steampunk levels:
You've got the Verne influence, and you've got an underwater city. Plus if the visuals in the game are preserved, there's a lot of brass and Victoriana, mingled with a strange 1950s feeling. Really, the city in Bioshock is a kind of historical hodgepodge. On a scale of one to steamy, this movie is unpolished brass.

The Adventures of Luther Arkwright
Based on a series of comic books, the story follows multiverse rift-tripper Luther Arkwright when he finds himself in an alternate reality where the British Empire never fell.
Steampunk levels:
Alternate reality that includes the British Empire, plus cross-dimensional travel. Expect a lot of swashbuckling and lovely scifi mumbo-jumbo about timelines. On a scale of one to steamy, it's screaming like a teakettle on the boil.

Additional research by Lauren Davis.

Both books come out in early September, just in time for the back-to-school blitz. And they share a similar theme: young people in the future discover that everything is frakked up and they're being lied to. But Resistance looks a good deal darker than Cyberia.

Malley's Resistance is a sequel to her first novel, The Declaration. In her first book, it's the 22nd century and children have been outlawed. Society has developed medical techniques to keep people young and healthy forever, so there's no room for new children. Everybody has to sign the "Declaration," agreeing not to have kids. The only way to opt out and reproduce is to agree to grow old and die. Anna's parents break the rules by having her without giving up their own immortality. So the state seizes Anna and sends her to a boarding school for "Surplus" kids, where she learns how to become a "Valuable Asset" doing shit work for "Legal" people. When Anna turns 15, a kid named Peter turns up at her prison/school with news of her outlaw parents, encouraging her to escape and join them. (And here's Malley's list of dystopian novels for teenagers, including some classics.)

In Resistance, Malley turns her first novel's premise on its head: the Pharma Corporation comes out with a new drug to let people live forever. Unlike the existing drugs, "Longevity+" will actually reverse the aging process altogether. But there's a catch, as Peter and Anna discover when they infiltrate Pharma Corp.: in order to create "the building blocks" of Longevity+, scientists will need to harvest them from young people. So it's sort of like that Maureen McHugh story I mentioned a while back: older people gain eternal youth, at the expense of the truly young.

Meanwhile, in Cyberia, Zane is a teenager living in a totally cyber future. His parents are hardwired into the Cybernets, and his bedroom is 100 percent cyber. Even his pet dog is cyber, thanks to an implanted microchip — in this world, all animals can speak. But then Zane finds a mole, a contraband animal, and takes it home. He hides it, and somehow discovers through it that the cyber translators are lying — the animals aren't really saying what the voice synthesizers are representing them as saying. Instead, they're saying something totally different, and they want Zane's help to fight for their freedom from the chips, which control their behavior. The animals want Zane to take them to a technology-free safety zone. I'm kind of intrigued by this concept, which sounds sort of like We3, except for the part about the animals "saying" stuff they're not really saying.

By the way, I found these titles by looking in Susan Fichtelberg's invaluable listing of new and forthcoming YA speculative fiction titles.

The PR stunt - advertising new Bill Murray vehicle City of Ember - will transform a two-car train for a special 150 minute trip to the convention on July 23rd, bringing in set designers to dress the cars with props, costumes and creators from the movie. Walden President of Marketing Jeffrey Godsick explains why such the producers are willing to take it to the rails to make people aware of his film:

We could certainly assemble a panel and present some footage, but then it will be one of 50 other films that they would see that day... that's really not the proper platform to immerse someone in the mythologies of 'City of Ember.'

Of course, if they did put together a panel, it'll allow more people to see the previews - This magical mystery tour is only open to 25 members of the press, making sure that whatever buzz that the train ride generates will have been filtered through some of the most cynical lenses available, letting you happily know how crappy everything was.

Walden rides 'Ember' to Comic-Con [Variety]