Iron Man 2:

Sam Rockwell says his character, Justin Hammer, is sort of like Lex Luthor (the Hackman and Spacey versions) mixed with Bill Murray in Kingpin and Richard Gere in American Gigolo. And in case we didn't cover this before, Rockwell also says his character is the one who builds Rhodey's War Machine armor, and Rhodey has no choice but to work with Hammer. But Rhodey doesn't let Hammer try the armor on. [MTV]

Tekken:

At a party for distributors, the studio showed off some footage from this live-action movie adaptation, starring Luke Goss, Jon Foo, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, Gary Daniels, Ian Anthony Dale, Kelly Overton, Cung Le, and Tamlyn Tomita. The movie follows Jin Kazama as he struggles to get revenge on Tekken Corp. chairman Heihachi Mishima for the death of his mother. And the only way to get revenge is to enter Tekken's Iron Fist Tournament. Just because.

So the trailer/sizzle reel included captions saying:

One tournament ... decides the fate of millions. ... They fight for power ... They fight for honor ... They fight for pride ... But one man ... fights for revenge. ... Courage fuels him ... Rage drives him.

We see a flying car soaring over an arena in a futuristic city, and a bloodthirsty crowd waits for the action to begin. We see a montage of the movie's fighters, including Raven, Eddie Gordo, Bryan Fury, Craig Marduk, and Yoshimitsu. They all look sort of like their game counterparts. And there's lots of fighting, punching, kicking and general mayhem. Jin Kazama runs along building tops, parkour style, and fights in a cage match, rising up from the streets to the Iron Fist competition. Woo!

Jin Kazama meets Steve Fox (Goss) and the sexy Christie Monteiro (Overton), and then there's a training montage, showing him pummeling a wooden dummy. Steve Fox yells, and Kazuya Mishima (Dale) walks bare-chested in front of a wall of fire. There's a hero shot of Jin looking like his game counterpart, then he's fighting in the ring, and then chicks are fighting in the ring. Jin fights Bryan Fury (Daniels) and one of his blows causes an energy ripple across Fury's chest. Guards pull a distraught woman away, and then there's more fighting, including maces and half-moon axes. Even more details of fighting and posing at the link. [IGN]

Avatar:

This totally ridiculous Coke Zero ad and a couple of new TV spots include a teeny amount of new footage from the movie. [Thanks Slashfilm!]

Resident Evil: Afterlife:

Milla Jovovich is still Tweeting from the set of this movie, and among other things, she explains that her new costume includes a leather gun harness and a "butt bra." And those mysterious figures in all white are "Pod People," who've been subjected to horrific Umbrella Corp. experiments. [ShockTillYouDrop]

The Hobbit:

Guillermo Del Toro explains exactly what he'll be adding to Tolkien's original story:

We will be integrating Gandalf's comings and goings [into the script] because he does disappear in the book quite often. So, as opposed to the book, we see where he goes and what happens to him.

That means we'll see the battle against the Necromancer. And the Wargs will have "a certain beauty" so you don't get the message that everyone beautiful is good, and vice versa. And Smaug the dragon will be unique and look unlike any dragon you've ever seen. [Total Film via MTV]

Twilight:

The Wolf Pack come up on Access Hollywood to talk about their abs and explain why werewolves are better than vampires.

Dark Days: 30 Days Of Night:

Here's your first image from this sequel, showing Kiele Sanchez as Stella Oleson (played by Melissa George in the first film) waving a knife as she prepares to take the fight to the vampires. Also in the film are Lost's Harold Perrineau, Mia Kirshner (as the vampire Lilith), Diora Baird, Rhys Coiro, Troy Ruptash, Jackson Berlin, John De Santis, Marco Sorian and Katherine Isabelle. Full version of the image at the link. [AICN via ShockTillYou Drop]

The Prisoner:

Ian McKellen was on The View, where he showed a brief clip from this remake of the classic 1960s series... and put up with Whoopi Goldberg confusing him with Michael Gambon. Oops. [Cinematical]

Lost:

The show was filming at the Survivors' camp, and actors in attendance included Evangeline Lilly (Kate), Matthew Fox (Jack), Michael Emerson (Ben), Jorge Garcia (Hugo), Emilie de Ravin (Claire), Yunjin Kim (Sun), Jeff Fahey (Frank Lapidus) and Nestor Carbonell (Richard Alpert). [SpoilersLost]

Doctor Who:

Here's a brief new TV spot for this episode, premiering (in the UK) on Sunday!

And Russell T. Davies says this episode is "absolutely terrifying, one of the scariest things we've ever done." The things the Doctor and the people around him are forced to do are totally mad and it's a really exciting hour. [BlogtorWho]

V:

Here are some promo pics from the fourth and final episode of the year, "It's Only Just Beginning." It looks as though someone is getting pregnant... and the father is the last person you would expect! [VisitorSite]

And here are six clips from tomorrow night's new epsiode, including Morena Baccarin turning herself into a virtual paper doll to try out outfits on.

Fringe:

Here's some info about the Nov. 19 episode, "Observer":

An unusual abduction in Boston reveals information about the Observer and bizarre evidence that Walter, Peter and Astrid must sort out in the lab—-in between Walter's constant cravings for a milkshake.

[TV Guide]

FlashForward:

In upcoming episodes, we'll meet the adult version of the mysterious scarred Somalian child from episode three, and he may be played by The Wire's Michael K. Williams. Also, we'll be meeting Miles Fogel (Michael Ealy) who becomes a thorn in Benford's side and becomes a regular character starting in episode ten. Episode nine will be all about Dr. Bryce Yarley, and we'll be meeting the Japanese woman from his flashforward, Keiko. Callum Keith Rennie will be back at least a couple more times this season, says David S. Goyer. [MTV]

A new featurette focuses on Dominic Monaghan, showcasing his role as Simon and the actor's thoughts on quantum physics:

And here are a few stills from an upcoming episode — but we're not sure which one. [SpoilerTV]

And here's a sneak peek from the next episode, in which Monaghan talks about being oh-so-tawdry:

A casting call for episode 14 details a couple new characters we'll be meeting:

[DON SESTITO] 50s-60s, open to all ethnicities. Wry, very sharp. A veteran Federal judge for some 20-plus years, he's seen and heard it all and cuts to the chase. one scene

[JOSH BARKHAM] late 20s-early 30s, open to all ethnicities. Intelligent, well-spoken, argues in court. A once-idealistic attorney, experience has worn the shine off his former earnestness. one scene

[SpoilerTV]

Supernatural:

As you've seen already, Lucifer gets Castiel trapped in a ring of holy fire — but he doesn't just question the angel. He tries to convince Castiel to join him as a rebel angel, according to Misha Collins. Also, we might see Castiel using his supernatural tolerance for alcohol to win some drinking games. [Huffington Post]

Chuck:

Season three will be like "The Matrix," says Zachary Levi. Plus Brandon Routh explains his new character. [AOL via ChuckTV]

Smallville:

Zatanna will be back in an episode early next year, entitled "Warrior." [TV Guide Magazine]

And here's the description for the Nov. 20 episode, "Pandora":

Lois is kidnapped by Tess and forced to reveal what she learned during the weeks of her disappearance. She witnessed a future with Metropolis controlled by Zod and Clark left without his powers because of the red sun. With this information, Clark makes a big decision about Zod.

[TV Guide]

Stargate Universe:

Eli may get to handle some guns sometime soon, hints David Blue. And he would like to have a long scene where he and Rodney McKay geek out about stuff. [SF Universe]

And here are some pics from the episode "Time" — in which, I'm guessing, they're running out of time, until they get some more somehow. [SpoilerTV]

Additional reporting by Mary Ratliff.

White's Deviant Art gallery includes tons of these amazing paintings, some of which are still for sale. They're all acrylic on stretched black velvet, generally around 14 by 18 inches, although some are as big as 18 by 24. And they're like your most vivid dreams about robots, spaceships and aliens, only brought to life in pure velvet.

Says White:

I am a huge scifi geek. I saw this velvet painting on the Star Wars Collector's Archive, and I thought it was so cool in an awesome, yet cheesy way. I figured I could reproduce it pretty quickly. I was wrong. Painting on velvet is a lot harder than I thought. I did a few more, which were a little better, but they were still more like the "oh god that's so bad that it's funny" velvet paintings that seem so prevalent. I stopped trying for a while, and then had the idea, instead of trying to make them "cheesy", that I would try to paint them as realistically as I possibly could. Slowly, the paintings got better, and I started to get the hang of working on velvet. So, the more realistic paintings in my "deviantart" gallery are the more recent ones.

Check out more of his artwork here: [Bruce White on Deviant Art]

The Avengers:

More on Edward Norton's will-he-won't-he dance, with regards to returning as the Hulk. It doesn't sound like Norton's had any talks with Marvel, and he says he has no idea where they're at with this project. Nor is he terribly interested, unless Marvel comes to him with something especially fascinating. (But I'd be shocked if Marvel doesn't have Norton under contract for one or two more movies, in which case his interest, or lack thereof, would be irrelvevant.) [AICN]

Resident Evil 4:

Milla Jovovich Tweeted from the set of this film, and mentioned that the final shot of the film is a 3-D shot from high up, so they had to hoist a 3-D camera using a custom-made rig. And there's a scene where she lands a plane on a boat, and it looks like it's crashing — hundreds of neighbors called 911 to report a plane crash. And Alice and Claire fight the Executioner, an eight-foot-tall boxer toting a huge axe. They fight him in a prison shower, and every time he swings his axe, showers explode, so it's sort of raining. [ShockTillYouDrop]

Red Dawn:

The China-invades-America movie involves blowing up all of downtown Detroit, says Josh Hutcherson. And he describes his character, based on C. Thomas Howell's from the original: "In the story, I start out as not a geek, but sort of a tech guy. And by the end, I'm a total warrior, drinking blood from the animals and going crazy." [MTV]

Ghost Rider 2:

This movie will be darker and "more existential" than the first movie, but won't be a reboot, says writer David S. Goyer. Not that much is changing from his old screenplay, which is available online somewhere, but it'll be toned down to get a PG-13 rating. And it takes place eight years after the first film, when Ghost Rider is in a darker place. [MTV]

Doctor Who:

OMG new trailer for "The Waters Of Mars." So scary. [Oh No They Didn't]

And here are three whole minutes of the episode, of which about two minutes are new. Cannot. Wait. [Guardian]

And here are the episode descriptions for the (incredibly poorly) animated adventure "Dreamland":

Episode 1: Dry Springs, Nevada, 1958. The Doctor befriends a young waitress, Cassie, and her friend, Jimmy, at a diner. The Doctor activates an alien artefact and, after finding further signs of alien activity, the US Army intervenes and takes him and his new companions to the mysterious Area 51 in Roswell, where they find out about Operation Fallen Angel. Will Operation leader Colonel Stark succeed in making the curious trio forget what they have just seen?

Episode 2: Seeking refuge in the abandoned town of Solitude, Jimmy stumbles across a disconcerting discovery and the trio encounter Viperox royalty.

Episode 3: The Doctor cannot understand why the Alliance of Shades' mop-up team are more concerned with the whereabouts of a piece of space flight hardware than the hordes of Viperox pods hidden underground. Things start to fall into place when Jimmy's grandfather, Night Eagle, introduces the Doctor to Rivesh Mantilax.

Episode 4: Captured by the US Army, Rivesh is finally reunited with his wife, Saruba Velak. Meanwhile, the Doctor discovers the unsettling truth about his real identity.

Episode 5: The Doctor and Saruba have to confront the mysterious alien force in the vault housing her space ship if they are to save her husband and stop Lord Azlok from rousing his sleeping army.

Episode 6: As sunset falls, the Viperox drones start to attack the US Army base. Can the Doctor find a way to halt the seemingly unstoppable aliens in their tracks?

[BlogtorWho]

Fringe:

In tonight's Broyles-centric episode, Broyles will step on quite a few toes to solve the case that's personal to him. And there be cosmonauts and cover-ups, and we'll discover the CIA's extraterrestrial connection. [EW]

Also, turns out the Broyles in the alternate universe is a happily married man. [TV Guide]

Here are a few characters we'll meet in episode 2x13, from a casting call. [SpoilerTV]

[ALFRED] Mid 30's to early 40's male, blond hair and blue eyes, with a slight German accent. He's a young Aryan with a bad boys vibe. Guest Star

[NANA] Nana is 80 with a slight Eastern European accent. Really good Co-Star or possible Guest Star.

[ELIZA] Mother of the groom in her 60's. She's warm and sympathetic. Really good Co-Star or possible Guest Star

A few new set pics show our heroes hanging out by a police car. [SpoilerTV]

And a couple sneak peeks:

The Box:

The early reviews for this Richard Kelly tripfest are out, and... they're not very positive, sadly. But there are spoilers! Apparently, the box with the mysterious money-making, stranger-killing button is somehow connected to Arthur (James Marsden)'s work with NASA's Mars mission. The couple traces the license plate of the limo carrying around the burnt-faced Frank Langella to NASA, and then one of Arthur's NASA colleagues kills wife. Children get kidnapped, zombie civil servants chase the couple around, and then there are hints that aliens are behind the whole thing. There are bleeding noses, and Norma (Cameron Diaz) hires a babysitter without checking her references. Oh, and Arthur and Norma aren't broke, like in the original version of the story — they're well off, but their kid's tuition is going up slightly. [Reuters]

The Men Who Stare At Goats:

Here's a new TV ad showcasing this whimsical psychic-soldier film:

Supernatural:

In the upcoming body-switching episode, Sam and Dean swap bodies with each other, and with a couple other characters. [EW]

I think we mentioned a while back that Lucifer would be trapping Castiel in an upcoming episode. Here are a couple behind-the-scenes pics. [LilMissX on TwitPic via Chicago Tribune]

And here are some pics from the last episode of the year, "Abandon All Hope," in which an all-star cast goes up against Lucifer. And Mark Shepherd's demon character, Crowley, has the Colt! [Chicago Tribune and SpoilerTV]

Caprica:

We already showed you some new TV spots for this BSG prequel, but here's a bit more footage... including our first look at James "Spike" Marsters as terrorist leader Barnabus Greeley. [CapricaTV]

Chuck:

Chuck meets Batman! At least, Dietrich Bader will guest star in the ninth episode of the season, "Chuck Vs. The Beard," directed by Zachary Levi. [EW]

FlashForward:

This week's episode is supposed to be a great improvement over recent outings, and we may actually learn the significance of the blue hand. [EW]

And in case you're not getting the message that tonight's episode is going to be good for a change, David S. Goyer tells MTV it may be the best thing he's ever worked on, including The Dark Knight. It's a gamechanger, and here's what happens:

Titled "The Gift," this week's episode focuses on Agents Al Gough (Lee Thompson Young) and Demetri Noh's (John Cho) continued investigation into the mysterious Blue Hand, which Goyer described as an organization "with a very specific purpose in mind." Over the course of their investigation, a shadowy figure by the name of Jeff Slingerland (Callum Keith Rennie of "Battlestar Galactica") is revealed as a new nemesis with connections to the Blue Hand.

In addition to the Blue Hand, the episode deals with Demetri's lack of a flashforward and his subsequently tenuous relationship with fiance Zoey (Gabrielle Union).

[MTV]

And a casting call for episode 13 makes it sound like we're going to Somalia:

[MALVEAUX] 40s, Male, Caucasian. A tough-looking mercenary working security on a dangerous job. A more muscular Jean Reno..

[KORFA] 9-11, Somalian, Male. A young Somali boy fighting with a friend over a toy. Dialogue in Somali..

[SpoilerTV]

True Blood:

Terry and Arlene will make a surprising discovery that brings them closer together — sounds like all their loving under the influence of Maryann's spell has left Arlene pregnant. [TV Guide]

Smallville:

Rumor control: There's no official word that the show is going to turn into a sequel called Metropolis. Michael Rosenbaum hung out with the writers recently, but there are no plans for Lex to come back — even though everyone wishes he would. Also, Perry White isn't reappearing any time soon. [EW]

Heroes:

Hiro will stay with the carnies at least through the Thanksgiving episode, which sees ballroom dancing with weird masks, and zzzzzzzzz. Oh sorry. Dozed off. Anyway. Hiro is with the carnies for a while. [TV Guide]

And here's the description for that episode, "Thanksgiving":

H.R.G. hosts an unconventional Thanksgiving dinner; the Petrelli family receives a surprise guest; Lydia searches for the truth.

[SpoilerTV]

Additional reporting by Mary Ratliff.

Doctor Who

Digital Spy has a ton of teasers from "The Waters of Mars." The first line of the episode is, "Hello mum. Susie says hello!" which apparently holds great significance. The exact date the Doctor lands on Mars is November 21, 2059. Captain Adelaide Brooke is the head of Bowie Base One, the first human colony on Mars, and the Doctor recognizes her as the pioneer of humanity's colonization of space. He calls her, "The woman with starlight in her soul."

This episode will show a lot of behavior from the Doctor that we haven't seen before. For one thing, as soon as the Doctor arrives, he realizes he needs to leave. He tells the folks at the base, "Whatever has started here, I can't see it to the end. I can't." But before he has a chance to leave the water plague starts. We get some references to two stories from season four and the recent Easter special. There's also a flashback that hasn't been previously mentioned. There's also the quote: "It's taken me all these years to realise *** **** ** **** *** **** - and they **** **** **."

Additionally, an Ood makes an appearance (and it's significant that it's an appearance), and it's also significant that the human body is 60% water. And, at the end of the episode, the Doctor says something incredibly shocking, both in its content and in the way he says it. Apparently, the Doctor's odd behavior will tie into David Tennant's eventual departure. [Digital Spy]

True Blood

Want to see Lafayette's vamp blood-fueled sex dreams about Eric? Actor Nelsan Ellis says we might get a scene or two in the new season. [Den of Geek]

The Host 2

We get another piece of monstrous concept art from The Host sequel. We'll also be seeing a video game tie-in, a first person shooter featuring mutant humanoids with superhuman abilities. [ShockTillYouDrop]

The Hobbit

Ian McKellan has read the script. He can't spill much about the content, but he does say that Guillermo del Toro's directing style is eerily similar to Peter Jackson's:

They were separated at birth. They're twins. They have the same attitude. Neither likes working in Hollywood. They're both fascinated by fantasy and violence on the screen, and gore, and things that frighten you. They like going into the psyche. They're both brilliant storytellers in very much the same way. And I think the script, because I have read it, plays very much to Guillermo's strengths, as I've seen them. I have seen his other movies, and people act very well in them. So I think it's all fine. And Peter will always be there.

[SCI FI Wire]

New Moon

We meet some more violent vampires in a featurette, introducing the Volturi. [via Cinema Blend]

Lost

Zuleikha Robinson, who plays Ilana, and Jeff Fahey, who plays Frank Lapidus, has been confirmed as series regulars for Season Six. [Lyly Ford]

While Boone is returning to Lost, he may not be getting quality time with his stepsister Shannon. Maggie Grace is the much-speculated-on holdout from the original cast, and hasn't signed on to return. Her rep says she's just filmed three movies back-to-back and just got back from filming last week. [E!]

The season's seventh episode will be called "Dr. Linus" and will naturally center around Ben. [Spoiler TV]

There is a new casting notice out for the eighth episode:

[SELENA] Any ethnicity, early 30s. A striking beauty who knows how to use it, mischievous, confident in tense situations. Ends up in bed with an attractive man, all by her own choosing. But after corporate negotiations, she finds the terms of the deal have changed and doesn't know who to trust to save her job...ONE DAY GUEST STAR

[Spoiler TV]

We already know that, despite being dead, Juliet will play an important role in the new season. Elizabeth Mitchell says that she's already shot some scenes with Sawyer and "It's one of those things where it appears to be one thing, and then it turns into something else." [LA Times]

The Lost crew was spotted at the Hawaii Medical Center East, which was playing the role of St. Sebastian Hospital in the timeline where Oceanic 815 lands safely. But the non-castaways are still running into one another as Jack was at the filming, along with Sayid and his girlfriend. Fans spotted another set of scenes filming at Papailoa Beach with Ben, Frank, Ilana, Miles, and Sun. In on scene, Frank was gathering wood and working in the sand, but in another he was carrying a gun. Then Ben was digging in the sand. Eventually, Ilana was holding Ben at gunpoint and marching him down the beach.

And below are photos from the Papailoa Beach filming. [Hawaii Blog]

Supernatural

There will be much lampooning of Grey's Anatomy in this week's "Changing Channels" episode. On the set of Seattle Mercy Hospital, Sam and Dean will run into Dr. Sexy, MD and the show's waifish lead Ellen Piccolo. The characters use the word "seriously" a lot and there will be some "seriously" melodramatic music. Plus, Dean will explain the "dead Denny" character (Jeffrey Dean Morgan plays dead Denny on Grey's, in addition to playing Sam and Dean's father) to an exasperated Sam, who will ask, "This show has ghosts? Why?!" [E!]

V

We seen some of these before, but here is the full set of marketing posters for V. [Spoiler TV]

Heroes

Now we know that Adrian Pasdar, who plays the deceased Nathan Petrelli, will be leaving the show, but how does he take his final bow? As Sylar, in a battle with Matt and Peter.

Yes, once again not really a death since Nathan was dead already, but it seems like there will finally be a battle between not only Sylar and Nathan and Sylar and Matt but Peter and Sylar (as Nathan). At the end of everything apparently Sylar takes over the body and that is the end of Nathan.

[The ODI]

There's a new promo for next week's episode, "Shadowboxing."

In the eleventh episode, aptly title "Thanksgiving," HRG hosts an unconventional Turkey Day dinner and the Petrellis receive a surprise guest. Meanwhile, Lydia searches for the truth. [Spoiler TV]

Fringe

We get a little more background on the Broyles-centric episode in a new featurette. A Russian cosmonaut brings something back from space that is turning people to ash. And it's all linked to an old case Broyles worked on. [via Spoiler TV]

We're going to learn more about the Observers in the upcoming episode "August." All of the observers are named after months, and the Observer we've come to know and hunt for is named "September." Walter is able to communicate with the Observers because of his experiences and the things they have done. John Noble, who plays Walter, believes the Observers were transporting a photo of Walter because he's their only contact, and the Observers aren't generally supposed to make contact with people. We'll also learn what the Observers' weakness is. And we're coming up on the Walter/William Bell meetup, and an upcoming episode will answer some of the questions from when Charlie died. Plus, Olivia will remember more about what William Bell said to her, especially about the supersoldier leader with the mark on his head. [Fancast]

We also get a couple of images of September from "August." [Spoiler TV]

Chuck

Yvonne Strahovski says that Sarah won't be happy about the new Intersect in Chuck's head. She always admired Chuck for his innocence and as Chuck becomes more of a superspy like her, she wants him to hold on to that more normal person that he once was. It's especially disheartening for her, since she was starting to feel that it was time for the two of them to run away and be normal. She also says we'll be seeing more action this season. [Chuck TV]

Stargate Universe

We're going clubbing in a clip from this week's episode, "Earth."

Smallville

There's some good buzz going for the two-part Justice League episode airing in January, and some folks are saying Michael Shanks as Hawkman could be Smallville's most entertaining DC Comics import. [Fancast]

FlashForward

Here is the UK promo for this week's episode, "The Gift." [Flashforward Blog]

And there's a fresh casting call for the fourteenth episode:

[AUDREY] 50s-60s, Caucasian. No-nonsense, pragmatic retired school administrator who cares very deeply about her family. Possesses a good sense of humor and has a grace about her. Thoughtful and measured in her actions, her manner is infused with an underlying warmth...GUEST STAR. WILL RECUR

[Spoiler TV]

Sanctuary

In this week's episode, "Pavor Nocturnus," Magnus wakes to find the Sanctuary mysteriously destroyed.

Additional reporting by Josh Snyder.

Chabon talks about how his eldest son startled a British attendant at the Smithsonian with his Dalek T-shirt, and then his other children had to regale the man with tales of their Cybermen and Time Lord shirts, until he understands they're a geek family. And then Chabon talks about how the new Doctor Who series has brought his family together, and sings the show's praises:

And if you aren't watching and loving the glorious new BBC incarnation of Doctor Who, geeking out on the mythos of the Daleks and Time Lords and Cybermen, swooning to the polysexual heroics of Captain Jack Harkness, aching over the quantum transdimensional heartache of Rose Tyler, and granting yourself the supreme and steady pleasure of watching the dazzling Scottish actor David Tennant go about the business of being the tenth man to embody the time-and-space traveling Doctor on television since the show's debut in 1963, then I pity you with the especial harsh pity of the geek.

As you might have gathered from its subtitle ("The Pleasures And Regrets Of A Husband, Father, And Son") Manhood For Amateurs is Chabon's collection of essays about being a man, and the various personas he's taken on. But even as he delves into the heart of his own struggles with maleness, Chabon invokes science fiction and comics, exploring topics as diverse as why Big Barda is the greatest superheroine, or why all futurism is now retro-futurism, and we've lost our starry-eyed optimism. Like manhood, these geek avatars gain their meaning from other people, they're public and subject to interpretation. They also change over time, like the Doctor. (Chabon, himself, has gone through incarnations, including being a "little shit" in his twenties, as he makes clear at various points.)

The Doctor Who essay, one of the last in the book, returns to the theme of the book's first essay: the solitary and communal sides of fandom. Chabon grew up, like many of us, as a solitary geek, with nobody to share his obsession with comics and science fiction paperbacks. The first essay talks about how he tried to start a local comic-book fan club, with his mother's help — they even paid $25 to rent a room for the first meeting, and only one other boy showed up, then immediately left before he could get sucked into this "loser's club." The Doctor Who essay is about how the new version of the show has given Chabon's children the gift of each other, and how fandom and families are the same, with their rituals and obsessions.

Most provocatively, in the earlier "Loser's Club" essay, Chabon even suggests that fandom and the artistic drive come from the same impulse, and even hints that fanfic and literature spring from the same well:

This is the point, to me, where art and fandom coincide. Every work of art is one half of a secret handshake, a challenge that seeks the password, a heliograph flashed from a tower window, an act of hopeless optimism in the service of bottomless longing. Every great record or novel or comic book convenes the first meeting of a fan club whose membership stands forever at one but which maintains chapters in every city — in every cranium — in the world. Art, like fandom, asserts the possibility of fellowship in a world built entirely from the materials of solitude. The novelist, the cartoonist, the songwriter, knows that the gesture is doomed from the beginning but makees it anyway, flashes his or her bit of mirror, not on the chance that the signal will be seen or understood but as if such a chance existed.

Manhood For Amateurs isn't just notable for the honestly with which Chabon deals with every aspect of his life, including his insecurities and his relationships with women and his own children — it's also a more revelatory look at fan culture, and science fiction, through the lens of the personal essay. Anyone who's interested in discussing science fiction and its attendent genres for their personal as well as cultural significance should be checking out these essays.

More than ever, Chabon uses superhero comics, Star Wars toys and Doctor Who's Daleks as signposts to the masculine imaginary. He geeks out about these things as if they are the only points of certainty in a shifting, illusory world.

(The book is by no means perfect: At times, his opinion-spouting gets a little overwhelming, and by the time he gets to the section where he talks about women, about two-thirds of the way through, I was starting to wonder if Chabon really did live in some male-dominated enclave — but then a lot of the last third of the book is about women, and he addresses that criticism of his writing head-on. But my criticisms of the book mostly have nothing to do with its discussions of science fiction or geek culture, and they're pretty minor in any case.)

Manhood, Chabon seems to be saying, is improv. You create yourself on the fly, in roles as perplexing and diverse as husband, father, lover and friend, and hope to project an impression of knowing what you're doing. The fact that Chabon deconstructs masculinity while pulling together so many elements of science fiction turns nerd culture into a set of anchor points. You sort of expect Chabon to use comic-book and science-fiction icons to illuminate his inner world, the way in which superhero storytelling in Kavalier And Clay became a kind of emotional atlas. But it goes beyond that: one of the constants in Chabon's essays is the primacy of play, in the midst of all this role confusion. And geeking out is an essential ingredient of that play.

The discussions of play includes a very carefully considered history of Lego toys, and their development from abstract bricks to a world dominated by crudely representational minifigs. (We featured a "quote of the day" a while back, in which Chabon talked about how his kids were remixing these Lego sets and transcending the tyrannical corporate-sanctioned instructions.) He joins the chorus of people lamenting the fact that kids no longer roam free on their bicycles and skateboards. He narrates some bizarrely awesome-sounding games he and other kids played, based on the 1973 Planet Of The Apes TV series (not the movies, weirdly enough). And he talks about stargazing, and discovering our smallness in the cosmos, as well as the Long Now Foundation's 10,000 year clock and how it's making him wonder why we've stopped obsessing about the far future.

All in all, Manhood For Amateurs is a much geekier book than you might have expected from its title, and yet also a much more personal book than most geeky essay collections. If you've suspected that fandom's signs and collections of ill-fitting clues were markers in someone else's inner cosmology, just as they are in yours, then you will definitely bond with this book.

Reveal the truth about Artoo's secret Skaro connection, and prove that you own the owner's manual for the droid, by getting the T-shirt today only. [TeeFury]

This is how we know that Russell T. Davies is no longer really involved in running the Sarah Jane Adventures: if RTD had been in the mix, "The Wedding Of Sarah Jane" would have been laced with little references to the Doctor as Sarah Jane's former boyfriend, who's showing up to stop her wedding to the cute new guy, Peter. As it was, the episode was remarkably respectful to the former companion, repeating several times that the reason she'd never gotten a bloke was because she was too busy saving the world herself, and she wasn't sure if any guy could deal with her weird life. Which is way better than the explanation RTD wrote: that she was still hung up on Tom Baker all these decades later.

So in "The Wedding Of Sarah Jane," she falls in love with a guy remarkably quickly and then agrees to marry him like a shot... so of course you know it's an evil scheme. The nice touch is that Peter Dalton isn't actually evil himself, or alien for that matter. He's just a pawn, who happens to be genuinely a good match for Sarah Jane. If they'd met under other circumstances, they might have gotten together normally, without any of this "fiendish trap" nonsense.

But the fact that Sarah Jane feels she can't tell Peter about her real life of hanging out with robot dogs sort of raises a larger point that the RTD version of Doctor Who has skirted around a few times: At this point, after all these alien attacks, there are just two kinds of people left: The ones who know all about aliens and are completely obsessed with learning all about them... and morons. So if Sarah Jane feels like she ought to date a man who can deal with her alien-fighting lifestyle, then her dating pool ought to be enormous. I guess this is a sort of suspension of disbelief thing, except that Doctor Who has gone out of its way to poke holes in it a few times.

In any case, the wedding episode was fun — and completely a rehash of stuff we've seen before, of course. Every time we see the Trickster, he gets a bit less interesting. His first outing, where he changed history so Sarah Jane died as a small girl, was fantastic — but since then, he's been stuck doing variations on a theme. Plus some homages: This time, we get a bit of the "Buffy's mom dates evil Jack Ritter" episode, a bit of every wedding episode ever, and a bit of the final episode of Sapphire And Steel, with the being trapped in the house that's floating outside of time and space.

Presumably a lot of regular Doctor Who viewers tuned into this one for the Tennant appearance, so I'll just say that the Sarah Jane Adventures is sometimes a bit better than this story, which felt a bit motionless, especially in its second half. At its best, the more young-kid-friendly Who spinoff is fast-paced, fun, a bit silly, and very reminiscent of classic 1960s and 1970s Who, with implacable monsters, young companions, and dilemmas that are soluble with large amounts of pluck. (Especially in its first season, the show ruled, and it's been making a major comeback this year after a weak second season.)

I never actually thought I'd say this, but I think a bit more RTD sentimentality could have served this story quite well — it had the Murray Gold "woooooooo" sad music for large chunks of the second episode, but it never quite felt like it got to the emotional root of what was going on — either the kids feeling left out or worried because Sarah Jane had someone new in her life, or Sarah Jane realizing that it's all a trap, and she can't really have romantic love as well as everything else she's built in her life. Somehow, the episode kept skimming over the really interesting bits - and Sarah Jane and the Doctor never quite manage to have a real conversation. I was sort of hoping they could have a chat about how she's becoming more and more like a human version of the Doctor, and what that's meant to her relationships. I know it's a show for little kids, but little kids like to know that these characters are real people, with feelings.

Other stuff: We got yet another otherworldly creature giving a speech about how the Doctor is fire and ice and chocolate and nougat and so on. It was really nice to see K-9 back in his element, and especially interacting with the Doctor once again. K-9's little rivalry with Mr. Smith is fun as well. I'm glad the Doctor realizes how terrific those kids are, and once again Clyde gets to be the hero, which makes me happy. And I guess it's good that Sarah Jane's arch-enemy rates the Doctor's respect — since the Trickster mostly seems like a very second-string villain at best, it's nice that the Doctor didn't just dismiss him.

Oh, and most of all, we're getting Sarah Jane built up as the defender of the Earth, without whom we're all toast. The first time around, there was a concrete reason for that — an asteroid on a collision course with the planet, that Sarah Jane needed to be there to deflect. But now, it's just more vague and all-encompassing. Without Sarah Jane, the aliens will just run rampant. It makes you wonder quite how ineffectual U.N.I.T. is these days.

Monday

If you didn't lose most of your Sunday to Syfy's V marathon, don't despair; they're continuing it today, from 8am through 7pm (And then again tomorrow, starting at 8am again). Jane Badler fanatics of the world, unite for one last time before Morena Baccarin takes over. Talking of remakes of beloved shows, AMC have a 15 minute Prisoner Preview at 2:45, teasing the reboot that premieres later this month (It re-runs throughout the week, if you miss it).

Of course, Monday wouldn't be Monday without Heroes; this week is the much-anticipated "Once Upon A Time In Texas" episode that sees Hiro try to save Charlie's life again, even though I thought we'd conclusively proven way back in the first season that he couldn't do that. Oh, Heroes, suddenly that House re-run on Fox at the same time seems that bit more interesting...

Tuesday

Having presumably primed yourself with the end of Syfy's V marathon, you'll be eagerly anticipating the premiere of ABC's brand new, now-with-extra-Scott-Wolf V, for the first of four weeks before a winter break. We reviewed it at Comic-Con and were pleasantly surprised by the "creepy and intriguing" update of the classic show. Here are the first eight minutes or so:

Meanwhile, AMC and FX are showing off their superhero movie chops: AMC has a doublebill of Batman and Batman Returns starting at 8, while FX shows the better-than-the-first-but-that's-not-necessarily-saying-much Fantastic Four: Rise Of The Silver Surfer at the same time.

Wednesday

Get your humpday started properly with AMC showing of the Buffy The Vampire Slayer movie at 9:45 in the morning, and then stick around for Reign of Fire - one of our favorite dragon war movies ever - at 3pm. In fact, when you add in more showings of Batman, Batman Returns and Batman Forever (at 8pm) and Batman Begins (at 10:30), you could pretty much just leave your television tuned to AMC all day.

But if you did that, you'd miss a new episode of Eastwick at 10pm on ABC. Considering I've never seen the show, I'll just quote the summary instead:

After Chad visits her one last time in a dream, a grieving Roxie resolves to fulfill his last wish — if she can figure out what it is. Hounded by Max, her replacement at the Gazette, about her kidnapping ordeal, Joanna grapples with her own lingering questions while dodging his and Kat, startled by a newfound ability, realizes that Bun's old friend Eleanor Rougement may have answers for both of them.

For those looking for documentary-esque thrills, Mythbusters investigate liquid nitrogen myths in a new episode at 9pm on the Discovery Channel, and, after rocking a marathon of Destination Truth from 8am through 3pm (There's also a new episode on at 9), Syfy celebrates the power of brand loyalty by bringing in Warehouse 13's Eddie McClintock to help track down the "Ghost Of Buffalo Bill" on a brand new episode of Ghost Hunters at 8pm.

Thursday

As if the V marathons earlier in the week weren't enough, Syfy has a Threshold marathon starting at 8am and running until 3 in the afternoon. Remember Threshold?

Because it's Thursday, it's time to give your TiVos a workout. At 8pm, you can choose between a new episode of FlashForward on ABC -

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

- or a new Vampire Diaries on the CW:

On his birthday, Stefan is surprised by a visit from Lexi, one of his oldest friends. Still upset by the events at the Halloween haunted house, Elena does her best to stay away from Stefan, but Lexi gives her some unsolicited relationship advice. Elena and Jenna are surprised by a change in Jeremy's behavior. At Damon's insistence, Caroline tries to get his medallion back from Bonnie. Finally, Damon's offer to help Sheriff Forbes has sudden and tragic results.

Similarly, 9pm brings a choice between Fringe on Fox -

The Fringe Division takes on a puzzling investigation where victims are inexplicably disintegrating into ash. The shadowy case casts light on Special Agent Phillip Broyles' past and leads the team to the possibility of foreign Fringe Science. Emotions run high as the alarming events stack up and revealing personal details emerge about the leader of the Fringe Division.

- and what looks like a very fun episode of Supernatural on the CW:

The Trickster throws Sam and Dean into an alternate universe where they are characters in different television series, including a sexy medical show, a Japanese game show, a forensics show and a sitcom. The brothers realize the only way to get out of this world is to play along and become the characters in the shows. However, Castiel appears and warns them this universe is dangerous and they must get out before they become trapped.

(My suggestion: Watch FlashForward and Fringe live, TiVo Supernatural and try to pretend Vampire Diaries doesn't exist. Sorry, Kevin Williamson.)

Friday

Today's Syfy marathon? The third season of Doctor Who. Again, it starts at 8am: Set your TiVo to relive the awesomeness that is Martha Jones. Otherwise, you'll be left with nothing to watch until Smallville on the CW at 8 (Jor-El meets Chloe, Clark realizes that a younger version of his dad is on Earth and Zod keeps disappointing in the villain stakes).

That's followed by the Syfy double bill of Stargate Universe at 9 (Wherein Richard Dean Anderson guests with a crazy plan about how to bring the accidental crew of the Destiny home. Spoiler: It's only the sixth episode: It's not going to work), and Sanctuary at 10 (Magnus wakes up with no idea where she is, or why everything around her has been destroyed. I know how she feels).

If you're feeling like you're missing old friends, though, you could always tune in to White Collar on USA at 9, which counts Fringe's dear departed Charlie and The Middleman's Natalie Morales amongst its cast this week. Plus, of course, Matt Bomer, whom everyone keeps telling me is the new David Tennant in dreaminess quotant.

Saturday

Syfy seems to have forgotten that Halloween was the week before, with three horror movies: Open Graves (starring a pre-Dollhouse Eliza Dushku), in which American students abroad find a deadly boardgame, the remake of The Amityville Horror, and From Within, which apparently has something to do with a Christian questioning her faith when people around her get gruesomely slaughtered.

Thankfully, the movie that follows those three, Snakehead Terror features both snake-headed mutant pirhanas and Bruce Boxeleitner, so things seem to getting back to normal in the end. (Open Graves starts at 4, and each following movie comes two hours later).

Sunday

Worried about the truth behind Roland Emmerich's new destructo movie? Then don't watch 2012: Startling New Secrets on Syfy, which sounds as if it treads the fine line between Destination Truth-esque knowing parody and tacky sensationalism. Which, come to think of it, sounds pretty like the 2012 movie itself, actually... Instead, finish off your weekend with "Return To Malice," the latest, and no doubt entirely awesome, episode of The Venture Bros. on Cartoon Network at midnight. Let's face it: Brock would be disappointed if you didn't.

Transformers 3:

A secret video hidden on the Blu-Ray disc of Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen shows Michael Bay discussing his early ideas for the third movie (although he says they're all lies.) You can't get any bigger in the third movie, so instead he'll go "sideways," and possibly go darker and more emotional. He's going even deeper into Transformers lore. And he says there'll be more of Bumblebee in the third movie, and more of the robot characters generally. "It doesn't have to be action, action, action," says Bay. (Really?) [Transformers Live]

Doctor Who:

Move over, K-9! The Doctor will be teaming up with a new robot named Gadget in this Martian adventure. We ran some set pics featuring this robot ages and ages ago, but here are the first official pics. [Den Of Geek]

As you'd probably gathered, "Waters Of Mars" takes place in 2059 on our first Mars colony, and there's a parasitic virus that makes people spurt water. And the Doctor must choose whether to save everyone, or avoid changing the future. Says Adelaide actor Lindsay Duncan, "It tells a different story. It is a long time into the episode before the Doctor takes control. We expect him to know [what to do] and take control earlier. It is a long time before he does it." [Daily Mail]

And here are some new promo pics in general. [Blogtor Who]

Someone asks the Doctor his name, rank and intent, and he replies, "The Doctor, doctor, fun." And the line "As consolation" will hit you like a punch in the gut. There's a mention of the Ice Warriors, and one sequence is lifted directly from 28 Days Later. [Bleeding Cool]

And here's a couple new clips!

Also, David Tennant says he filmed his last scenes as the Doctor out of order, so the actual last words he spoke as the Doctor were "You two, with me, spit spot." (The first time I read this, I thought he actually said those were his last words on screen as the Doctor — I was a bit upset.) [Guardian]

Caprica:

Reader Scott saw that this show had transformed the campus at Simon Fraser University into "Caprica Inter-Colonial Spaceport" for an upcoming shoot, and he sent us these amazingly sweet photos. [Thanks Scott!]

Lost:

In late October, the show was filming a scene in the kitchen of a local Presbyterian church, involving Sayid — plus Keamy and Omar, two thugs whom we saw die. Equally shocking is the report that the show was filming another high school scene involving Ben (who we're guessing is a substitute teacher) and Ben's late, lamented daughter Alex was there. And so was the late, somewhat lamented science teacher, Leslie Arzt. And new guest star William Atherton was there too, playing the principal at the high school. (I can just see it now — Ben wants to restart the high school glee club, and...) [Hawaii Weblog]

Here's a casting call for episode 6x08:

[KENDALL]Female, any ethnicity, early to mid 30s. An intellectual beauty with a sharp edge to her wit. Caught committing corporate espionage and has to lie her way out...GUEST STAR, POSSIBLE RECUR.

[Lyly Ford]

Nightmare On Elm Street:

Jackie Earle Haley says this version of Freddy Krueger is a bit darker, more serious and less campy than what you might be used to. [MTV]

Supernatural:

There's a pretty detailed review for the next episode, "Changing Channels." We start out on a sitcom with bright lighting and laugh track. Dean's sandwich is three feet tall. "I'm going to need a bigger mouth," says Dean. Then we go to wacky sitcom credits, explaining the monster-hunting brothers... including a shot of the two of them riding a tandem bicycle. Then we're in the real world, watching the Winchesters investigating an unusual "bear" attack, before being whisked into a Grey's Anatomy spoof in which only a doctor who's in love with a dead guy can see his ghost. There is some Jeffrey Dean Morgan in-jokery. We even visit a Japanese game show, NutCrackers, which is just what it sounds like, and there's a fake Japanese commercial. Finally, they're shoved into CSI Miami, and we get a bit of a lecture about the lack of originality in prime-time TV. Says the Trickster, "300 channels and nothing on." [SF Universe]

Here's a casting call for a character we'll meet in episode 5x12, "Swap Meat":

[GARY] 17 years old, physicality is extremely important for this role, GARY NEEDS TO BE THIN, THIN, THIN, and needs to be very likeable and appealing. Ideally he's like the character "McLovin" from "Superbad" or Anthony Michael Hall in "16 Candles." Puny, gawky, bespectacled, smart and geeky, he's a naive, amateur Satanist who works at a fast food joint and longs to break free from his wealthy, stifling parents. He's granted one of his wishes, and starts to live the life he's always wanted. Please denote age next to your suggestions. GUEST STAR

[SpoilerTV]

New Moon:

OMG Bella gets a papercut and sparks some bloodlust in Jasper. I love the blood-falling THWOOM sound effect:

V:

Even though Alan Tudyk's undercover alien character apparently dies in the series pilot, he'll still manage to be a recurring character in following episodes somehow. The final scene of the first episode has been redone since it was shown at Comic Con, and now there's a floating alien device called a "seeker," and one character wields a machine gun. And we'll see one of the aliens shed its human skin in the first few episodes. The alien mothership includes a chamber called a "Bliss Chamber." And the fourth episode will end with a series of cliffhangers, keeping us in suspense until March. [Sci Fi Wire]

Here's a new (I think) trailer, counting down the days until this show premieres:

Laura Vandervoort says her character is assigned to recruit humans for the Peace Ambassador program, but the experience gets more intense than she expected:

I think when she experiences a bit of the hate that's going on with the Visitors being on earth, and protestors, some of the things she sees impact her more than she expects. She feels more for some of the humans, I think, and I think she's learning more about dealing with conflict and not being wanted... But I don't know where they plan to go with it. Especially because she's focused on Tyler right now, and I'd like to see that develop into something, and perhaps that's where the Fifth Column will come in.

[SciFiTVZone]

And here are descriptions of the third and fourth episodes:

"A Bright New Day" — Chad reports from the Peace Ambassador Center as 100 diplomatic visas are being issued to the first wave of American Visitors, with Anna getting the 1st, but not everyone agrees with the decision - Erica has started tracking a death threat while paired with a V officer, as she actually has to protect the V's. Meanwhile, Ryan starts reaching out to his old friends to build up opposition forces and help fight-off the V's, on ABC's "V," TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 17 (8:00-9:00 p.m., ET).

"It's Only The Beginning" — Erica works with new formed allies to uncover a biological threat they suspect the Visitors have been plotting, on ABC's "V," TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 24 (8:00-9:00 p.m., ET). Aboard the mothership, Anna meets with a special guest, while managing the investigation into the murder of a V. Chad does a segment on the V Healing Centers demonstrating their amazing medical abilities, but then finds himself conflicted by some of his findings.

[SpoilerTV]

Fringe:

Here's the official description for the Nov. 5 episode "Earthling":

When the Division probes bizarre cases of people turning into ash, the investigation also reveals clues about Broyles' past. Directed by Emmy Award winner Jon Cassar ("24").

[TV Guide]

And here's a couple previews:

Plus some promo pics for episode 2x08, "August". [SpoilerTV]

FlashForward:

Peer into the future! Here are some casting calls for an upcoming episode:

[ABDI] - 29, Somali, Male. Leader of a group of outlaws. Has the ability to intimidate with barely a stare. Charming, yet capable of shocking brutality. Formidable, charismatic. Must be capable of a Somali accent...GUEST STAR

[JEAN-PIERRE] - 40's French ambassador to the UN. Continually at odds with the General Council on the developing Flashforward global situation. Potentially recurring.

[SOMALI WOMAN] - 30s, Somali, Sweet-faced. Loving but firm, she teaches her 11-year-old-son the right way to do things without preaching at him. Must be capable of a Somali accent..sptv050769.DAY PLAYER

[AWAALE] - 30s, Somali, Male. A Somali translator hired to travel with a group. Eager to please, easily unnerved, but confident in his language skills. Must speak preferably fluent, but at least some, Somalian. Day player

[SpoilerTV]

And here's a sneak peek of episode 1x07, "The Gift":

True Blood:

The writers were at a conference, and gave some more season three hints:

Get excited because season 3 will launch June 2010, and we will find out where Bill is in episode 3.01! Also, season 3 will introduce a lot of new characters, including the Newlins and Maryann is totally dead. The theme for season 3 is "identity," causing Sookie to find out more about what/who she is! Insiders also said, "Bill will not be marginalized. Bill and Sookie will have troubles, but Bill and Sookie have a connection that will not die." You are going to see more of Pan and Nan Flanagan in season 3 as well! As for Gordac, his death scene was partially live, partially green screen and they got it in only two takes! Lastly, you have not seen the last of Gordric- he will be featured in flashbacks!

[Daily Fill]

Heroes:

Here's the official description for episode 4x09, "Brother's Keeper":

THE TRUTH SETS OUR HEROES ON NEW AND DANGEROUS PATHS. Samuel (Robert Knepper) learns just how powerful he can become and takes dangerous measures to reach his full potential. Meanwhile, as Tracy (Ali Larter) begins to lose control of her ability, one of her own comes in harms way. Elsewhere, Sylar (Zachary Quinto) continues his battle with Matt (Greg Grunberg).

[SpoilerTV]

Smallville:

Michael Shanks says his Hawkman costume has involved a lot of fittings, and explains his relationship to Clark:

Hawkman being the alpha in the Justice Society, being someone who...has made some missteps along the way, can or could represent a type of mentor character to Clark in his leadership abilities with his burgeoning team members of the Justice League. He represents a character that has a lot of wisdom to pass down to this next generation, so there is a strong possibility that once the initial phase wears off that there will be a coming together of those two to paint a larger portrait of the future, of what Clark has available to him and what his options are.

Also, his relationship with Dr. Fate is heartbreaking in the first episode. [HuffingtonPost]

Stargate Universe:

Some promo pictures for episode 1x07, "Earth," which I don't think we've shown you. [SpoilerTV]

Additional reporting by Mary Ratliff.

The British press had a chance to see The Waters of Mars, the first of the three final episodes, (Premiering in the UK November 15th on BBC One, and in the US December 19th on BBC America) this week and Bleeding Cool's anonymous reviewer called it "[b]oth an action adventure, base under siege, story, plus an enormously powerful emotional story" similar to Torchwood: Children of Earth:

This ep puts you through the emotional wringer. Perhaps it's not so hopeless-feeling as the Torchwood: Children Of Earth but without doubt "Waters Of Mars" is mining the same sort of territory and it's the closest Doctor Who will ever come to nihilism.

The review is pretty spoiler-free, but something that caught our eye was the mention of

more than one old enemy that puts in an appearance, either in flashback (not necessarily from The Doctor's life) or… dare I say, premonition.

A flash-forward of sorts to the "End Of Time" two-parter closing out Tennant's take on the timelord, or Steven Moffat's reign as new Who-meister? Either way, we can't wait. Luckily, we may not have to; BBC America announced on Friday that the final episodes of Davies/Tennant's Doctor Who will air over the holiday season in the US, presumably days after their UK airing (Dates are to be announced next month).

Review: Doctor Who – The Waters Of Mars (SPOILERS) [Bleeding Cool]

Thor

Bad news for Brian Blessed fans: Anthony Hopkins is in negotiations to play Odin, Thor's father and the ruler of Asgard. [The Hollywood Reporter]

Avatar

We posted an international version of the official trailer the other night, but here is the high quality version:

The official Avatar website has launched with a set of high quality images. A few we've seen before, but most are new:

Mad Max: Fury Road

We told you earlier that Charlize Theron was being considered as the lead for the latest Mad Max movie. She'll be co-starring with Jean-Luc Picard's clone, Tom Hardy. [Cinema Blend]

New Moon

Tonight, MTV will air its special Ulalume: Howling at New Moon, which will include a new clip from New Moon. Naturally, MTV already has said clip and shared a few screen grabs from the clip. [MTV Movies Blog]

Doctor Who

The Tenth Doctor flees monsters with Super Soaker hands in the latest clip from Waters of Mars:

True Blood

Fans of the Sookie Stackhouse Mysteries have wondered whether the werewolf Alcide Herveaux would appear next season, and Alan Ball has finally answered them. Alcide will appear, probably by the third episode, although he hasn't been cast yet. Alcide will already come into the searies with a love interest, a very bad woman named Debbie Pelt. We won't be seeing a Sookie-Bill wedding this season, but, while the couple will have some rough patches, their connection won't disappear. As for Eric, he lost some hair last season and this season he'll lose his clothes. We'll see Eric nearly naked in the season premiere. Everyone else is exploring their identities this season. We already know Sam is seeking out his biological family, but we'll also see Sookie closer to understanding why she has supernatural abilities and Jason doesn't. Plus, Jessica will explore her vampirism and experiences a dangerous identity crisis. [E!]

Powers

Brian Bendis has an update on the live action adaptation of his comic about police detectives in a superpowered world:

"We're making a cop show with superhero elements to it, not a superhero show with other elements to it," he continued. "It's a cop show-a dark one, hopefully in the same vein as 'The Shield'-and it really seems to be shaping up that way. Fingers crossed for the green light!"

He also says that it will be akin to Dexter in terms of faithfulness to the source material (which is to say, there will be some deviations), but that the first arc will involve Christian Walker and Deena Pilgrim solving the murder of Retro Girl. And the first arc will also set up all the mysteries Walker and the other officers will be solving in the series. [MTV]

Lost

The new promo teaser is up, and, as promised, it contains no new footage. [via Lyly Ford]

Looks like Juliet is indeed dead. Damon Lindelof said the decision to kill her was "brutal," but she did go up with the hydrogen bomb. Of course, on Lost, dead doesn't necessarily mean gone, and we'll see Juliet in a few episodes this season. [NY Mag]

The producers are looking to cast the possibly recurring role of Kendall, a beautiful and intellectual woman in her mid-30s with a sharp wit. She gets caught committing corporate espionage and has to lie her way out. [EW]

Fringe

We get a glimpse of the Observer in the promo for the return of Fringe on November 5th (if the World Series doesn't go to Game Seven). [Fringe Television]

Stargate Universe

Water levels are low on the Destiny in tonight's episode, "Water."

V

With just a few days before the Vs arrive, ABC releases a new promo:

The Sarah Jane Adventures

We're going ghost hunting in these images from "The Eternity Trap." [The Doctor Who Image Archive]

And in the 11th and 12th episodes, the two-part serial "The Gift," the crew will face off against the green Slitheen once more. Once the Slitheen have been foiled, however, the Blathereen, rivals of the Slitheen, will appear on the scene to declare piece between the planets. They offer Sarah Jane a civilization-changing gift, one that quickly runs amok. Soon Sarah Jane will be battling for her own son, Luke. Clyde, Rani, and K9 become trapped in a school under siege, London is facing yet another alien threat, and there will be a final showdown in the attic, one that could end someone's life. [Blogtor Who]

Additional reporting by Josh Snyder.

Gossamer (Looney Tunes)
Cute? Look at him. He's basically a hairy valentine in tennis shoes.
Terrifying? He tries hard, but he's ultimately no match for Bugs Bunny. Then again, no one is.

Giant Killer Rabbits (Night of the Lepus)
Cute? They're your average giant mutant bunny rabbits.
Terrifying? Actually, they just seem more adorable when they're gigantic and raiding people's kitchens. But I suppose that whole eating people business could be scary. Maybe.

Beep the Meep (Doctor Who)
Cute? Passably. It helps that he looks like giant puffball.
Terrifying? Absolutely. Meeps are a murderous species who revel in pain, torture, and galactic domination. And Beep is the worst of the worst and a notorious war criminal.

Stay Puft Marshmallow Man (Ghostbusters)
Cute? He's basically a giant version of the Pillsbury Dough Boy. Plus, I've had a soft spot for him since the cartoon.
Terrifying? He nearly destroys New York with his deliciously sugary body.

Lenore, the Cute Little Dead Girl
Cute? It's right there in the name.
Terrifying? Not on purpose, but let's just say you should probably keep your pets (and yourself) clear of Lenore.

Hello Cthulhu
Cute? He might be an unspeakable horror, but he's a huggable one.
Terrifying? Honestly, he's no match for Hello Kitty.

Mogwai (Gremlins)
Cute? Sure, for now.
Terrifying? Just try feeding them after midnight and see if they're still they're still so cute.

Wolvogs (Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood)
Cute? These genetically engineered dog-wolf hybrids look like adorable domesticated puppies.
Terrifying? They may look like dog pups, but wolvogs hunt and kill as vicious wolves.

Beryllium Miners (Galaxy Quest)
Cute? They look like little children, at least until they open their mouths.
Terrifying? They look like they'd happily chow down on any of the Galaxy Quest cast members.

Were-Rabbit (Wallace & Gromit: Curse of the Were-Rabbit)
Cute? Just about everything Nick Park designs is at least a little bit cute.
Terrifying? He's a strictly vegetarian monster.

Audrey II (Little Shop of Horrors)
Cute? Despite the teeth and the thirst for human blood, she is pretty cute when she's small.
Terrifying? Even forgetting the business about eating people and wanting to take over the world, Audrey II's most frightening aspect is her ability to convince milquetoast Seymour to kill for her.

Goblins (Labyrinth)
Cute? In an adorably ugly sort of way.
Terrifying? They're by no means the most critters in Labyrinth, but they do an impressive job of slinking around in the shadows and stealing infants.

Shmee (Squee)
Cute? Squee's teddy bear has seen better days, but he's still cuter than the Doughboys from Johnny the Homicidal Maniac.
Terrifying? Shmee provides emotional comfort for the perpetually terrified Shmee, but he also encourages Shmee to take violent revenge on his enemies. Of course, it could all be in Shmee's head.

Pac-Man (Blade: Trinity)
Cute? If you happen to like pomeranians.
Terrifying? It wasn't enough to make a vampire pomeranian; the vamps of Blade: Trinity had to create a mutant vampire pomeranian with xenomorph mouth.

Woodland Critters (South Park)
Cute? In a Disney sort of way.
Terrifying? Anything that comes out of Cartman's brain is automatically terrifying, but the woodland critters get extra points for possessing satanic powers and holding blood orgies. Also, they're trying to ensure the birth of the Antichrist.

Nubbins (Sanctuary)
Cute? It's doubtful anyone would bother taking care of the troublesome little things if they didn't resemble fat chinchillas.
Terrifying? They're basically tribbles with teeth. They're cute and cuddly until they start breeding and eating. And when they get hungry, they can take down the most vicious predator.

Bunnicula
Cute? He's your standard bunny: long ears, fluffy tail.
Terrifying? Maybe if you're a vegetable. Or a conspiracy-theorist cat.

The Denizens of Halloweentown (The Nightmare Before Christmas)
Cute? There's a reason they've been lining the shelves at Hot Topic all these years.
Terrifying? The Oogie Boogie is especially nightmarish, but the rest of Halloweentown gives a good scare, even when they don't mean to.

Sully (Monsters, Inc.)
Cute? That one child calls Sully "Kitty" throughout the entire movie pretty much sums it up.
Terrifying? About as scary as a monster from Sesame Street. But he does make his living terrorizing children, so we'll give him a pass.

Bun-Bun (Sluggy Freelance)
Cute? Yes, even while wielding a knife.
Terrifying? With a violent temper and the ability to produce switchblades seemingly out of no where, Bun-Bun is a force to be reckoned with. He's been known to slay telemarketers, the Easter Bunny, and anyone else who gets on his nerves.

Ickis (Aaahh!!! Real Monsters)
Cute? Unfortunately for him, yes. The small children he's supposed to be scaring frequently mistake him for a bunny rabbit.
Terrifying? Not as much as he'd like, but he gives it a solid try.

The Gingerbread Men (The Tick)
Cute? And delicious.
Terrifying? They're thoroughly evil and pretty clever, but because they're made without preservatives, they tend to go stale after a while.

The Gingerdead Man
Cute? This one falls a bit more on the disturbing side.
Terrifying? A psychotic killer resurrected as a knife-wielding cookie and voiced by Gary Busey? Actually, yes, it's pretty terrifying.

Reynardine (Gunnerkrigg Court)
Cute? Sometimes. He's trapped in the body of a stuffed wolf.
Terrifying? He's a body-stealing demigod, although at the moment he's confined to a single body. Still, he can shift into a pretty intimidating wolf form.

The Rabbit of Caerbannog (Monty Python and the Holy Grail):
Cute? From a distance.
Terrifying? It's not just the fact that the rabbit can decapitate you with its teeth. It's the awful can opener noise it makes when it does it.

Evil Children Everywhere
Cute? Creepifying to be sure, but reasonably cute.
Terrifying? Absolutely. It doesn't matter if they're banishing you to the cornfield or sacrificing you to the Devil; evil children are always utterly terrifying.

Thor:

Here's a new casting call, which gives another hint about where the bulk of this film takes place:

[ISABEL ALVAREZ] 50's/60's A sweet small town gal who has lived her whole life in the same little town where she grew up. She's faced plenty of ups and downs in her many years but has everything she's ever wanted or needed in the small slice of Americana, family, friends and the best little restaurant in town

Avatar:

A new pic shows Sully looking at a cool display. [IGN]

Lost:

The show is going to offer us an answer to one of the show's "oldest and most confounding" mysteries, and it's going to be an answer none of us expected to get. [EW]

The show's focus will remain on the characters rather than the mythology, says Damon Lindelof, and season six will explore their relationships (including romantic ones) — just not in the way you expect. And yes, we'll get an answer to the mystery of the numbers, but it may not satisfy us. Also, we may be reading too much into the hieroglyphics on the new poster which seem to say "Who is the leader?" [E! Online]

But talking to USA Today, Lindelof hints that nothing in the show's posters is accidental. Also, the mystery of why Walt was so special, and why the Others wanted to study him, will be addressed in the final season, and will attain a new significance — even if Walt himself doesn't come back. There's still a chance that Cynthia Watros may come back as Libby, but it's up to Watros. Also, Frank Lapidus has been promoted to "series regular" this season. (Yay!) We won't have to wait until the very final episode to start getting the big answers. [USA Today]

Someone sneaked around the show's filming locations, and they found a bunch of new stuff. Out in the jungle near where Claire gave birth, there's a crude lean-to with animal skins on it. At the beach camp, there are those lean-tos made of airplane wreckage and sticks that we showed you a while back. And there's that crude grave we showed you as well. Otherville is looking run-down and destroyed. The Flame has been fixed up and has an updated Dharma logo on it. And there's a new pic of the back of the Temple. [SpoilersLost]

A supposed inside source says Locke is a "man about town" on the island, reconnecting with a bunch of the original Losties, including a gun-toting Claire... and he finds time to get stabbed by a genuine Iraqi. [SpoilersLost]

The Box:

Did you realize this Richard Kelly Twilight Zone-esque movie is coming out a week from Friday? I feel like we've barely heard about it. But fear not, there are TV spots airing on network TV, and here they are:

And a new poster. [ShockTillYouDrop]

Dollhouse:

Eliza Dushku Twittered about the ongoing filming:

We're shooting way outside LA in an underground bunker w/ methane meters, exit plans (one way in & out w/ a 100+ crew!), firearms. G.I.Jane.

Could this be a return to the post-apocalyptic universe of "Epitaph One"? Fingers crossed! [Twitter]

Fringe:

Seems like the show will keep playing with the tension of everybody getting clues that Peter is from an alternate universe, but Peter being unaware, for the rest of the season. [EW]

Leonard Nimoy has one more appearance on the show that he's already filmed — but he hints that he may not come back at all after that. The producers want him to come back, to deepen the "alternate universe" mythology, but he's waiting for them to come up with a story arc, and he'll see if it's compelling. [MTV]

Sarah Jane Adventures:

Here are some more pics from the wedding episode, in which the Doctor shows the kids the TARDIS. [BlogtorWho]

Doctor Who:

Another interview about the animated story "Dreamland," this time with the animator. [BlogtorWho]

Supernatural:

Sam and Dean swap bodies in episode 5x12. (I want to mail Kripke a copy of that Quantum And Woody TPB, but it's probably too late for a shout-out.) [EW]

And here are some pics from the upcoming episode "The Real Ghostbusters". [SpoilerTV]

And a casting call for episode 5x12, "Swap Meat":

[GARY] 17 years old (would prefer 18 and overs), puny, gawky, bespectacled, smart and geek (think "McLovin" from "Superbad"), he's a naive, amateur Satanist who works at a fast food joint and longs to break free from his wealthy, stifling parents. He's granted one of his wishes, and starts to live the life he's always wanted. Please denote age next to your suggestions. GUEST STAR

[NORA] 16 years old (would prefer 18 and over), she is a cute, smart, alternative girl (in the vein of Thora Birch in "American Beauty") who is a naive, conflicted high school student, she's an amateur Satanist, she's not really interested in hurting anyone; she's mostly going along with Gary and Trevor's plot because she has a crush on Gary. Nora's follower-type nature is squelched when she becomes possessed by a dark force. Please denote age next to your suggestions sptv050769. Please submit all ethnicities. GUEST STAR

[SpoilerTV]

V:

Here are a couple of new promos, teaching how you can join the "Peace Ambassador" program:

Also, episodes three and four will be called "A Bright New Day" and "It's Only The Beginning." [VisitorSite]

FlashForward:

Here's a new awesome promo for tonight's episode, featuring Dominic Monaghan:

Paula Newsome (Women's Murder Club) will be joining this show as a doctor, for an arc starting in early 2010 — speculation is, she plays an Ob-GYN. [EW]

Smallville:

Kelly Souders talks about the Lois/Clark relationship:

They both have a few issues, so things never go as smoothly as you think. But what's great about the relationship, because it's sort of more adult, mature relationship, is it actually brings their issues up to the forefront, and makes them start dealing with them instead of being the younger versions of themselves, where they might not have been that conscious of it.

And in episode 9, "Pandora," we go to the future and deal with the fallout from Lois' sex dream, and there is some Lois skin. That episode plays like a finale, and we'll see an alternate ending for everyone in the cast. Also, in the next few episodes, Clark may contemplate wearing glasses. Chloe will have an unexpected love interest, and on a related note, she'll meet a superhero who's not all he's cracked up to be. (Booster Gold? That's my guess.) [EW]

Also, not only will the Martian Manhunter be back, but so will Zatanna. And — this feels like a spoiler at this point — the producers are still talking about Clark eventually turning into Superman. [MTV]

And here are a ton of promotional photos of the upcoming episode "Kandor," on top of the handful we showed you yesterday. [SpoilerTV]

Heroes:

Greg Grunberg Twittered a picture of himself wearing "scary" makeup for an upcoming scene — and it looked sort of zombie-ish. (The pic is down now, alas.) [Twitter]

Also, there are five clips from next Monday's episode, "Once Upon A Time In Texas," but I can't find them in an embeddable format. If you really care, they're here: [TV.Com]

And here is the synopsis for the following episode, "Shadowboxing":

Claire investigates the sorority attacks, which may have a link to Noah. Elsewhere, Peter finds his job performance improved after gaining a new ability, which also provides a means to help Emma, and Sylar escalates his assault on Matt.

[TV Guide]

Chuck:

Here's a casting call for episode 3x10, "Chuck Vs. The Tic Tac":

[COLONEL JAMES KELLER] (55) but needs to be able to play younger in flashbacks. Military man for life, yet relatable and casual despite his rank. GUEST STAR. All ethnicities

[SpoilerTV]

Additional reporting by Josh C. Snyder and Mary Ratliff

After compiling 43 clips of science-fiction dream sequences, we started to wonder exactly why we invade people's dreams so often in SF stories. What purpose does this unreality serve?

We all want to venture past our own limited little reality fields and pop our limiting bubbles of experience — and sometimes aliens, spaceships, time-machines and weird mutations just aren't enough to make that possible. Sometimes we have to get all the way liminal. Stand in the doorway for a bit.

But more specifically, here are some reasons why science fiction gets so dream-happy:

1) The cheap foreshadowing

So we haven't thought about the Borg in months, and they haven't flashed so much as a single implant around these parts. But they're never far from our thoughts — or our dreams, for that matter. And it's just a nifty coincidence — and by "nifty," we mean "ominous and horrifying" — that our hero has a terrible dream about the Borg right before they pop up again. Such a dream does double duty: it reminds us of exactly what the Borg are about and why they're so fearsome. And it sets the mood for another round of Borgian devilry.

2) The prophetic dream

This is similar to the use of dreams as foreshadowing, but usually the foreshadowing dream also includes some actual useful information that our heroes can decipher and use against the monster/villain later. The prophetic dream is a plot device as well as (or sometimes instead of) a grace note. It's not just thrown in for effect, it's actually providing useful info, or at least clues to future developments. The frequent dream sequences in Buffy The Vampire Slayer often set up developments years down the road, like the coming of Dawn. A cruder version is the Doctor's dream at the start of the Doctor Who story "The Time Monster," which gives him tons 'o' clues.

3) Escaping the straitjacket of realism

Science fiction often works really hard to establish a mood of complete realism, paradoxically because it features so many elements that don't, and maybe couldn't, exist in our world. And sometimes, the only excuse for letting go of that need for realism is to stick in a dream sequence, where everything goes loopy.

4) Heightened realism

On the other hand, if people really did meet aliens or their own grandparents, or whatever, people would probably have severe, bizarre mental reactions as a result. Reactions that, honestly, would seem over the top or crazy if you tried to depict them normally. So sometimes the only way to convey a realistic sense of humans coming face-to-face with the unreal is by representing their terror and confusion in the form of an alarming dream. It's actually a form of added realism.

5) Thematic gracenotes

This is something that seemed to leap out from many of the dream sequences we looked over. Like Fahrenheit 451, for example — the hero is facing a conflict, or a mind-blowing decision, and we see that mental anguish amplified in a dream sequence. Preferably full of whirling shapes, and faces going around in a circle. Whoosh.

6) The easy scare that doesn't break any toys

Oh no, Ripley has an alien in her stomach, and it just burst out! Oh, except she doesn't, and it didn't. False alarm, folks.

7) Padding the running length.

What do you mean, we still have another ten minutes left? Do we have any explosives we haven't set off? No? Can we afford another monster costume or some extra CG? No? Okay, how about a long, trippy dream sequence where people stand around and recite e.e. cummings. It's puddlewonderful — in space! The fans will be debating what it means for decades...

8) Up the surrealism ante.

Imagine you're David Lynch. Okay, that may be asking too much. But pretend for a moment that you're impersonating a guy (or Laura Dern) and who has weird hair. And the person you're impersonating has done a lot of drugs, and it's making him or her have loopy visions of worm babies. What can you possibly do to make this guy (or Laura) have more weirdness on top of that? How about a totally batfreak dreamsequence, preferably featuring David Bowie? Or maybe a tiny radiator lady with facial hair?

9) Meeting the alien

Sometimes alien creatures (and gods, and demons) are so alien that no real-life encounter will work. The only way we can talk to them, or have any kind of meaningful communication, is in a dream, or a dreamlike world, where everything is semi-nonsensical and there's a bit of vaseline on the lens... because we're meeting a consciousness that's totally unlike our own.

10) Extra sexiness without consequences

And most importantly, we want to see Mulder shirtless and handcuffed. We want to see Sookie and Eric doing the wild thing. We crave random titillation, and we don't care if it makes sense in the context of the story. In fact, the less sense it makes, or the more it hints at undercurrents of sexitude under the surface, the more exciting it is. So it's almost mandatory for dream sequences to include "I can't believe they went there" friskiness.

The truth is, we want to be smacked in the face with strangeness. Our desire for the bizarre and ridiculous is so much greater than our pitiful suspension of disbelief that you need to short-circuit the whole "is this really happening" question.

Mad Max: Fury Road:

Director George Miller says the film's many vehicles are so intricate that it could take a year just to build all of them. The vehicles will be over-the-top but also need to be safe — because it sounds like there will be a lot of live action stunts. The film will be "shot at speed" and there will be "a huge number of stunts." [The Hollywood Reporter via MTV]

Avatar:

Rumor has it that if James Cameron gets to do Avatar 2, the sequel won't be set on the planet Pandora at all. The second movie will be totally different from the first, like Terminator 2 was to the original Terminator. Pandora "is not the be all and end all of the Consortium." (The source also claims that Cameron will produce the Alien prequel that Ridley Scott is directing, and it'll be in 3-D.) Remember, this is a rumor, and you should give it the same level of credence you give everything else you read on the Internet. [MarketSaw]

And here are a couple of new stills showcasing some blue archery action. [Movies-Spoilers]

2012:

A few new (I think) TV spots for this demolition derby:

Twilight: New Moon:

Here's a colorful new TV spot:

Lost:

Hurley was filming a scene at a new camp, which looks awfully ramshackle, and there was at least one Dharma logo amongst all the detritus. And Jack was also around, wearing a red sweater with "a red spot on his forehead." And judging from the signs on the trailers, Claire was also in the scene at some point. And there was talk of fires and explosions happening on the set later. [Lost-Spoiler-Over via SpoilersLost]

Also, Titus Welliver, who played the mysterious Man In Black in the season finale, says he's coming back to film some more episodes soon — meaning maybe the MIB will abandon his Locke suit, or maybe we'll see more of him in a flashback? [Boston Herald via Doc Arzt]

Chalk up another castaway who's returning to the island: Maggie Grace will return to film some new scenes as Shannon, after a delay caused by some other film projects she was doing. (Meaning, I think, that her scenes could be slotted into the early episodes of the season, already filmed.) [TV Guide Magazine]

Sarah Jane Adventures:

Here it is — the big one, coming in a couple days. I'm only sad that it's not being saved for the end of the season, because that means we know how it ends — Sarah Jane is almost certainly not getting married. But in any case, here's a new trailer, with the TARDIS materialization sound taking the place of "Here Comes The Bride," plus a new interview with the groom, Nigel Havers:

V:

Here's another new promo spot for this remake, showcasing some nifty camera work. It's encouraging that ABC is putting so much promotion into this series. Fingers crossed!

True Blood:

Alan Ball gave a huge interview to the Advocate, full of season three hints. Among other things: We will be seeing a lot more of Ryan Kwanten (physically) in the first few episodes of the season after his relatively modest stint at church camp. If you've read the books, certain developments will not surprise you. Sophie-Anne, the Vampire Queen, is fascinated with Sookie but it may or may not turn sexual. The vampire king of Mississippi has a long-term — and that means very, very long-term — companion. [The Advocate]

Chuck:

Hannah, Chuck's new love interest, is sort of a female version of Chuck, who meets Chuck on a plane and then winds up working at the Buy More after she's lost her job. She's directionless and drifting, like Chuck was before he became the Intersect. And Shaw, Sarah's new love interest, is the new team leader at Team Bartowski and an expert on the Ring. He's a mentor to Chuck and (we think, anyway) a good guy. [ChuckTV]

Smallville:

Here's the official synopsis for Nov. 13's Twin-tastic episode, "Idol":

DC COMICS THE WONDER TWINS SHOW UP TO HELP CLARK CLEAN UP METROPOLIS Superhero twins Zan (guest star David Gallagher) and Jayna (guest star Allison Scagliotti) show up in Metropolis to help The Blur fight crime but end up botching several rescues, landing Clark (Tom Welling) in hot water with the District Attorney's office. Clark decides to come forward as the Blur to clear his name.

[SpoilerTV]

The "Society" two-parter featuring the Justice Society also will feature the return of Phil Morris as the Martian Manhunter. [EW]

Additional reporting by Josh C. Snyder.

Paul Johnson, who calls himself "Otaking," is working on his own Doctor Who anime, a video in which the Third Doctor encounters thugs, the military, and a stereotypical anime babe, and gets caught in a war between the Daleks and the Cybermen.

He's released a couple of brief clips, including this one starring the Daleks:

Here's the most recent segment, which features the Cybermen and shows us a glimpse of the Doctor himself:

He's also posted a video that shows his process from penciling to final product for a scene where the Doctor takes down a few street thugs:

[via Japanator via Topless Robot]

Geocities had a fantastic DIY sensibility that encouraged absolutely anybody to put up a website. And people used it to upload articles from their old fanzines, and create sites on incredibly niche topics, like all the different versions of the Fourth Doctor's scarf we saw on Doctor Who, or the history of obscure TV shows. Nowadays, people would probably start blogs instead — but it's hard to keep a blog about Tom Baker's scarf going for terribly long.

Is there another fansite for science-fiction disco wizard Meco on the internet? We couldn't find one.

Anyway, we searched through Geocities in its last remaining moments, and pulled up some of our favorite sites that cover obscure or odd topics, plus a few of the silliest. What are your favorites that you'll miss when it's gone?

Jellied Jar-Jar Binks! Ummmm... yeah. Okay. http://www.geocities.com/rhelynn/SFC/
A really fun unified timeline for all science fiction stories (well, a lot of them, anyway...)




http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Zone/3746/Scarf.html
Nobody will ever be this earnest about The Matrix again. Sadly. http://www.geocities.com/hollywood/theater/9175/neo/matrix101.html

Did you know there was a Space Family Robinson series for years before Lost In Space? I didn't.
Admit it, you want an easy to find repository of the original screenplay for Star Trek V. I love the part where they explain that the universe is real, and this movie will adhere to REAL science. http://www.geocities.com/ussmunchkin7/Star_Trek_V.htm

http://www.geocities.com/~mikehartmann/ads.html
http://www.geocities.com/ktesh_kag/SMrecipes2.htm
This seems to be some kind of Star Wars parody site, but I couldn't quite figure it out. It's cute, though.
http://www.geocities.com/asnapier/nano/n-sf/
http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/4953/trout.html
http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Studio/6600/bwld.html
http://us.geocities.com/naran500/index.html







http://www.geocities.com/terabithia.geo/string.html
http://www.geocities.com/Area51/5555/

This appears to be the official site for Jupiter Moon, a somewhat obscure and short-lived science fiction series from England, containing reams of information. Hard to imagine that info will be available anywhere else...

Star Trek:

Zoe Saldana says she can't wait to take off her shirt again, although she presumably doesn't know if that's happening in the new movie. She also hints that filming may take place next year after all, despite all those delay reports. [E! Online]

So what's the new one about? J.J. Abrams offers some vague ideas:

The second one has an obligation to go deeper and maintain the fun and adventure in the sense of optimism and scale that [Gene] Roddenberry created. But I do think it has to evolve and not become some polemic over-the-top, on-the-nose allegory. It needs to be something that is not just about the characters meeting each other and having their first adventure; it needs to be about having their most meaningful one.

But he says it definitely won't be called Star Trek 2.[MTV]

Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows:

There's an insanely detailed description of Bill Weasley's wedding scene, at the link. [HP4U]

Doctor Who:

The Eleventh Doctor lands in a graveyard and has a jolly chat with his new companion Amy, in some new set pics. Theories suggest this is for a two parter starring Sam Davies, a child actor, playing Elliott. And there are a couple of Youtube videos of the filming as well. Photos by the amazing Scooty, more at the link. [Gallifrey Base and BlogtorWho]

And the writer of the next animated adventure, "Dreamland," talks about the creation of an American companion for the Doctor, Cassie Rice. [BlogtorWho]

Sarah Jane Adventures:

Digital Spy has more details about this week's long-awaited two-parter, guest-starring David Tennant as the Tenth Doctor. Tennant doesn't show up until the end of part one, and his first words are, "Stop this wedding!" Sarah Jane's relationship with businessman Peter Dalton moves quite quickly, although there is liberal use of cue cards saying "One Week Later." The Trickster appears to behind the whole business, and when the Doctor shows up, he's quickly parted from Sarah Jane as well as his TARDIS. He's got the kids to help out, though, and one of them receives a massive electrical shock. The Doctor says "Allons-Y" and "I'm so sorry." And he's referred to as "the man of ice and fire," and told "the gate is waiting for you." At the end, Sarah Jane tells the Doctor (I think) that nobody will ever forget him. One more pic at the link. [Digital Spy]

The Prisoner:

A big batch of new stills from the AMC miniseries remake. Fingers massively crossed! [UGO]

Fringe:

A bunch of pics from the Nov. 12 episode "Of Human Action." The gang investigates a kidnapping that rapidly turns into a hostage situation in New York, and discovers an unknowable force has "mind-blowing consequences." And they go to Nina Sharp for help. [Fox]

And here's a casting call for a character we'll be meeting in episode 2x12:

[CDC FIELD HEAD ARNOLD MCFADDEN ] Male. Open Ethnicitys. This authoritative man in his mid 40s is brought in to help prevent a potential bio-terrorism event...GUEST STAR

[SpoilerTV]

Supernatural:

I'm pretty sure this is a new clip from Thursday's episode, featuring a super-aged Dean. [TrekMovie]

And here's the synopsis for the ninth episode, which I would be dreading if it wasn't written by Eric Kripke himself:

IT'S A SUPERNATURAL CONVENTION! Super fan Becky (guest star Emily Perkins) uses Chuck's (guest star Chuck Benedict) phone to trick Sam (Jared Padalecki) and Dean (Jensen Ackles) into attending a Supernatural fan convention, complete with fans dressed up as Sam and Dean. One of the activities is a live action role playing game, but things quickly turn sour after a real ghost appears on the scene.

[SPNSite]

Smallville:

We'll be meeting a new villain in episode 9x12. Could this be Amanda Waller?

[ANDREA POTTER] 35 – 55 yrs old. A heavyset, imposing and ruthless African American woman. She has sinister plans for the citizens of Metropolis…Do not limit your suggestions to heavyset. This role is established in Episode #912 but is a RECURRING GUEST STAR role.

[SpoilerTV]

Producer Kelly Souders warns: "You will see more people than you can imagine die in the first 12 [episodes]. Luckily it's Smallville, so not all of them stick." He says some of these deaths may take place in the future, and we also may see some people snuff it in some of Lois' visions. [TV Guide]

Geoff Johns twittered that his episode featuring the Justice Society is actually "an insane DCU infused two-part epic. Part I is 'Society' and Part II is 'Legends.'" And yes, it features Stargirl, Dr. Fate and Hawkman. [Twitter via SpoilerTV]

Heroes:

Another episode, another flashback. Here's a casting call for episode 4x15, one of the truncated season's final episodes:

[20 YEAR OLD SAMUEL] 20 Male. Caucasian. A passionate rock & roller in love with his childhood sweetheart. Dangerous and charming. We are casting the young version of the actor Robert Knepper…Please see attached photo. Actor will not have lines but will be featured and paid.

[SpoilerTV]

And the episode before that, 4x14, will be called "Let It Bleed." [The ODI]

Stargate Universe:

Here's a clip from Friday's new episode, "Water," that I don't think we've shown you yet.

And here are some stills from the episode. [SpoilerTV]

Additional reporting by Mary Ratliff.

Thor and The Avengers

Jon Favreau might have wondered how the supernatural aspects of Thor would blend with the more scifi bits of the other Avengers movies, but Brian Bendis isn't worried:

"My advice is, has been, and will be, that much like the comics, you look at movies like the 'Oceans' movies that have all these different flavors, you put the flavors together and you cook 'em," Bendis told MTV News. "It absolutely can be done."

Like Joe Quesada, Bendis has read the Captain America script, in addition to the Thor and Iron Man 2 scripts. And he's pleased, saying they go somewhere better and different from where the comics have gone. [MTV]

Paul

To research their film about an alien and a pair of friends who tour America's famous UFO sites, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost did their own UFO tour, starting in LA and ending in Colorado. Although most of the dialogue for the alien (voiced by Seth Rogen) has been recorded, it's going to end up being tweaked and re-recorded. Why? The pair were pushed to make an R-rated film, and now Rogen's dialogue needs to be raunchier. Jason Bateman's character — an agent chasing the group — is named Lorenzo Zoil, a goof on the drama Lorenzo's Oil. [SCI FI Wire]

New Moon

Jacob and Edward face down in the new TV Spot:

Lost

The crew was filming near a school in Hawaii yesterday. Fast fingered tweeters nabbed photos of Matthew Fox and described the scene: Jack drives down the street in his old Jeep, and runs into a school called Saint Mary's Academy (is this the same as Central Intermediate School from the other day, or a different school?) in quite a hurry. [Dark UFO]

Despite rumors to the contrary, Harold Perrineau did not turn down an offer to appear in the final season. In fact, he was never asked. He has no idea if he'll be back, but says he'd jump at the chance to return and say his goodbyes. [E! Online]

Dollhouse

We've known for a while that this week's episode "Belonging" focuses on Sierra's backstory, and it will be a real nightmare; we'll learn that she's a missing and exploited woman. Plus, Adele gets to unleash her moral fury on Sierra's abuser, telling him, "You're a raping scumbag one tick shy of a murderer." But Adele and Topher will face some moral quandaries of their own.

We've seen lots of pictures of Alexis Denisof's Senator Daniel Perrin hanging out with Echo in next week's the next episode The Public Eye, and we'll actually see them in bed together. They don't actually have sex, but Echo will be in a lace bra and panties during the scene in question. Also, there's a moment that reminded the pre-reviewers at E! of the BSG episode where we find out Boomer's a Cylon. So is Daniel a doll? It would explain the Dollhouse-type pajamas we saw him wearing a while back. In fact, the episode will be full of sleeper agents, twists and turns, moral relativism, and role reversal.

Summer Glau's character Bennett will have a surprising connection to another character on the show, and Miracle Laurie will be back as Madeline, formerly November, to break Paul's heart. [E! Online]

In the ominously titled tenth episode "The Attic" (written by none other than Dr. Horrible's Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen), we'll encounter Clyde, a genius who "holds the secrets to the Dollhouse." The episode will also feature Matsu, a proper businessman. [Spoiler TV]

Fringe

Sebastian Roche is replacing Thomas Kretschmann as the head of the hybrid supersoldiers from the other dimension. [The Hollywood Reporter]

Caprica

Ryan Robbins, who played Charlie Connor in Battlestar Galactica is about to start shooting on an episode of Caprica. He'll play a character named Diego who is very important to Clarice's storyline. [Battlestar Blog]

And here's a closer look at Athena Academy, where Zoe and other members of the Caprican elite go to school. [SCI FI Wire]

V

The Wall Street Journal has a great interview with Morena Baccarin. She talks a bit about the politics of V, saying she watched a lot of political debates when modeling her alien diplomat. She also mentions that, in the pilot, we see an alien sleeper cell, and humans will get the sense that the people in their communities may not be whom they see.

Will Baccarin eat a guinea pig like Diana did in the original series? She says she hasn't eaten anything odd yet in any of the episodes she's filmed, but the producer did ask if she had any issue with rodents. [WSJ]

In the second episode, "There Is No Normal Anymore," Erica and Father Jack have decided they're anti-Visitor, and soon find they're being tracked by a V Seeker. Chad thinks he blew it with his exclusive first interview with Anna, and looks to be more investigative in his next newscast. Dale Maddox has gone missing, and both his wife and law enforcement start questioning Erica about his whereabouts. [Spoiler TV]

Also, Scott Wolf is way smiley in the episode's promo photos. [Spoiler TV]

Heroes

It looks like we're back in the Burnt Toast Diner in "Once Upon a Time in Texas." [The ODI]

The title of the twelfth episode is "Upon This Rock." [Spoiler TV]

Smallville

There have been a few small changes to the episode schedule. The two-part "Society" will be the season's eleventh and twelfth episodes, and "Persuasion" will be episode 13. [Spoiler TV]

The Sarah Jane Adventures

The Mona Lisa comes to violent life in Mona Lisa's Revenge, airing November 12th and 13th. The gang goes on a school field trip that quickly turns disastrous as art comes to life. The kids find themselves trapped without Sarah jane's help when Mona Lisa vows to release her terrifying brother from his prison. But Clyde has the key and everything will depend on him. [Blogtor Who]

And David Tennant returns! Here are images of the Tenth Doctor in The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith. [Blogtor Who]

Additional Reporting by Alexis Brown and Charlie Jane Anders.

Thanks to the amazing Scooty for the pics, and thanks to Jesse Six for the heads up. More details at the link. [Gallifrey Base]

Actually, my absolute favorite of all time has to be this weird sequence from Futureworld, with the red ninjas, and the bondage, and the sexy, sexy gunslinger action:

If you can explain to me exactly what that dream about Yul Brynner symbolizes, I'll buy you your own lifesize Yul Brynner gunslinger robot.

Even though science fiction often strives to portray bizarre or other-worldly things happening in our "real" world, it often reaches for the most jagged tool in a film-maker's kit: the dream sequence, in which things are practically required to get loopy and unreal. Some creators — like, say, David Lynch and Joss Whedon — love the dream sequence more than others. But it pops up surprisingly often. With the melty faces, and the people falling in space, and the weird animal costumes, among other things...

Here are 40 or so dream sequences that we love, divided up by era...

1920s through 1970s (Or if you want to view it in a non-gallery format, click here.)

1980s. (Or if you prefer a non-gallery format, click here.)

1990s. (Or, for non-gallery format, click here.)

2000s. (And it's available as a non-gallery page, here.)

I wouldn't dream of claiming that we included every amazing SF dream sequence, ever. So what are your favorites? What did we miss?

Sources: UGO, Wikipedia, FinestFive and IMDB, among others.

Honestly, season two of the Sarah Jane Adventures was a bit of a letdown after the stellar season one. There was too much evil clowns, dumb zodiac magicians, and transparent rehashes of Doctor Who's "Father's Day," and not enough cool new stories about kids being forced to fight in intergalactic wars. After the thrilling first season, it was a bit sad to see the show losing its steam so early.

But judging from the first story, "Prisoner Of The Judoon," the Sarah Jane Adventures is back in silly, crazy — and yes, campy — form. The story wove together a bunch of strands, including the Judoon, the dim-witted cops from the Doctor Who stories "Smith And Jones" and "The Stolen Earth." Plus the destructive power of gray goo, and an alien supercriminal who can possess people's bodies.

We got to see Sarah Jane doing her "sassy reporter" thing, giving some much-needed attitude to a naive biotech startup that's meddling with nanotechnology. And then she makes the mistake of telling Rani's parents that the biotech firm could use a nice flower garden — forgetting that Rani's mum tends to get a bit carried away. And when Sarah Jane gets taken over by an alien demon thingy, the Androvax/Sarah Jane decides to go back to the nanotech firm to create a new spaceship, and destroy the Earth with gray goo to cover her tracks.

There was more fun in this one episode than in pretty much all of the show's second season — especially the Judoon cop, who has to obey all laws, no matter what. Who cares if this portrayal was completely at odds with the more ruthless, take-no-prisoners way the Judoon were portrayed in their first appearance? It was so much fun to watch the Judoon captain stomp around obeying the speed limit, enforcing noise pollution laws, and trying to observe all local regulations. Clyde was also in top form — and it was great that the show is being more overt about treating Clyde as our main "point of view" character, what with him narrating the opening credits.

And meanwhile, Elisabeth Sladen went for "deliciously campy" with her portrayal of the possessed Sarah Jane, and then way overshot. She left no piece of scenery unchewed, as she swaggered and vamped her way through a confrontation with her uppity supercomputer and launched her evil, world-destroying scheme. She might have been able to cackle just a tad more, or possibly clasp her hands together and go "mwa ha ha ha," but otherwise she pretty much had the bases covered. And it was nice to see the show using actual science-fictional ideas in its stories, even if they were portrayed in an outrageously cartoony way.

My only complaint about the show, generally, is Sarah Jane's constant nattering about the wonders of the universe, which has gone from cloying to outright obnoxious — and you'd think she'd be just a little bit concerned when flaming space debris starts crashing nearby, instead of rubbing her hands together. All in all, though, this was a welcome return to season-one form.

The Sarah Jane Adventures is always going to be the most little-kid-friendly show in the Doctor Who universe, which means simple plots and slightly broad acting. But as episodes like this one prove, it can be fun and genuinely entertaining, with characters we actually care about. More like this, please.

Iron Man 2:

The central relationship in this film is still Pepper and Tony, despite all the new stars joining the cast, director Jon Favreau tells MTV. But a lot of new stuff is added to the mix:

We introduce Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow and she has a dual identity, so that ends up affecting both the superhero side of things and the personal side of things-as I think all good superhero plotlines do... Then we have Don Cheadle. We've upped Rhodey's significance in the film and now I think the cat's out of the bag about War Machine, so he's in that suit," he said. "How does he become War Machine? What's his relationship to Iron Man?

Video at the link. [MTV via ComicBookResources]

As you might already have known, Stan Lee's cameo in this film will be as Larry King, who approaches Tony Stark and asks when he'll be on the show. Stan wore the suspenders and heavy glasses for the role. [Collider]

Predators:

Derek Mears, who recently played Jason Voorhees, will be in this film, probably as a Predator. [ShockTillYouDrop]

Priest:

Karl Urban describes this film as a "post-apocalyptic scifi vampire Western." [Collider]

The Fourth Kind:

A few new TV spots for this Milla Jovovic spooky-alien-owl thriller. [SciFiScoop]

Battlestar Galactica: The Plan:

Latino Review has a ton of pics and spoilers from this direct-to-DVD movie. The special effects are better than anything in the actual series, and we see the destruction of Caprica in much greater detail than before. There's also a ton of nudity and raunchiness, which will presumably be toned down in the televised version.

We follow two Cavils: the Cavil in the fleet, who is trying to complete the work of destroying th e human race so the Final Five will finally love the Cylons more than the humans, and the Cavil on Caprica, who starts to have second thoughts about whether the genocide against humans was really a good idea. It turns out a lot of the fleet's dilemmas in the first season were caused by Fleet Cavil. There are also multiple Sixes, including one raven-haired "floozy" who shares Cavil's bed.

Meanwhile, there are also two Simons: the Simon in the fleet is a human sympathizer, who's married to an engineer who works with Tyrol, and he tries to forestall the death of the human race. The Simon on Caprica, meanwhile, tries to sabotage Anders' resistance group, even as the Caprica Cavil starts to sympathize with these people. Also, Leoben tries to tell the other Cylons that Starbuck has a great destiny that may affect the Cylons in huge ways.

We also get more insight into Boomer, who actually realizes she's a Cylon sleeper agent earlier than we thought — Cavill gives her a trigger (a wooden elephant, I guess) that activates her programming. But even as she's carrying out Cavill's sabotage instructions, she's also trying to help the humans. And she's only really happy when she's living her human life.

All in all, Cavil starts to wonder if the Cylons' attempts at finishing off the human race are failing because the Cylons subconsciously want them to fail — all except Fleet Cavil, who's steadfast in his vendetta. More pics at the link. Warning: One of those pics is mildly NSFW, due to a very blurry naked woman in the background. [Latino Review via ComicBookMovie]

Doctor Who:

Another set report: Matt Smith, dressed in the tattered remains of David Tennant's costume, filmed a scene where the old TARDIS prop materialized, with tons of smoke pouring out of it, and Smith ran out, shouting that he had to get away. [GallifreyBase]

Lost:

Episode 6x05 will be called "Lighthouse." [Spoilers-Lost]

According to an Egyptologist, the hieroglyphics in the new season-six poster say "Who Is The Leader?" or "Who Is The Guide?" [Popular Mechanics]

Carlton Cuse twittered that they were doing a beautiful crane shot (probably in episode five) and at one point, Matthew Fox does some fine and subtle acting under the tropical night skies. [SpoilersLost]

And a bit more about episode five, which sounds like it's a Jack-centric outing. They were filming a scene at night in front of what looks like a concert hall, and Jack had a big scene — but I can't make out who's in the scene with him. Maybe Ben? Most of the set report is about how the tipsters tried to talk to Matthew Fox and he blew them off. But a familiar vehicle is present. More pics at the link. [Spencer-Stacy via Lyly Ford]

Also, sources claim we'll see Cindy again in the opening episode, as two characters open something of Hurley's. One of them has a connection to the Yellow Submarine. [SpoilersLost]

V:

The second episode will be called "There Is No More Normal Anymore." And here are a couple more TV spots. [VisitorSite]

Fringe:

In the Nov. 5 episode, "Earthling," someone (or something) is turning people to ash. And here are some pics from the episode. [Fox]

In an upcoming episode, we'll learn a lot more about the Observer, says actor Michael Cerveris:

We're going to learn about just how many there are and a lot more about what we're supposed to do and what we're not supposed to do.

[Slice Of SciFi]

Supernatural:

Some more pics of Sam and Dean in their scrubs, from the upcoming channel-surfing episode "Changing Channels." [Ten Gossip]

Episode 11 will be called "Sam, Interrupted," and will introduce two new characters, whom the show is casting:

[MARTIN CREASER] A weathered man in his late 40s-mid 50s, this twitchy, anxious ball of nerves is a former hunter who has ended up in a psych ward, where strange happenings are afoot...ANY ETHNICITY/GUEST STAR

[DR. ERICA FLETCHER] A beautiful, smart, credible psychiatrist in her 30s with a sweetly sympathetic manner who seems to understand Dean's conflict and pains...ANY ETHNICITY - GUEST STAR

[SpoilerTV]

Stargate Universe:

Here are a ton of pics from episode five, "Light." Including some supernova nookie. [SpoilerTV]

True Blood:

Season two's theme was about religion and the things it makes you do. Season three will be about embracing your identity. Sookie will start to discover why she has these strange powers — in the books, she finds out she has fairy blood, but in the TV show, it may be different. In any case, Sookie is part of another race, and if it does turn out to be fairies, they'll be fierce and primal, not like Tinkerbell. Sookie and Eric will get together at some point, but not necessarily in season three. We'll meet some shapeshifters who may be Sam's biological family, and they may be sketchy weirdos. [TV Guide]

Additional reporting by Alexis Brown.

And yes, we're only doing this list because Chip Overclock demanded it.

Evil overlords of braininess:

The Gamesters of Triskelion from Star Trek: I'm willing to bet dollars to quatloos that you've already appreciated this classic tale of gambling addicts who have itchy betting fingers despite not having fingers. If not, then this trailer is all you really need to know.

Mother Brain in Metroid In this NES classic, the boss of the game was giant, disembodied glob of grey matter surrounded by a futuristic security system. If feminist gaming pioneer Samus Aran ran out of missiles, there was no way to beat Mother Brain. The whole "running out of a common item at the final boss of the game" spiel was an infuriating conundrum typical of early Nintendo games.

Brain from Doom Patrol. This brilliant scientist was caught in an explosion which reduced him to a brain, and nothing else. Luckily, Monsieur Mallah, the gorilla he'd uplifted to genius intelligence, loved him and kept him alive inside a tank. Niles Caulder, the scientist who engineered the explosion, later transferred race-car driver Cliff Steele's brain into the robot body he'd built for Brain.

Disembodied brain develops psychic powers:

Donovan's Brain by Curt Siomak, and the 1953 movie of the same title, are about an evil millionaire whose brain is put in a vat, and then he develops mental powers, allowing him to control those around him. The movie co-starred Nancy Davis, the future Nancy Reagan.

The Brain Spawn in Futurama — they're evil overlords, but they also have telekinesis. They're not actually in jars, but they're definitely disembodied. And they try to conquer the Earth, until Fry stands up to their leader, Big Brain (sorry, foreigners):

The Outer Limits, "The Brain Of Colonel Barham" Mea culpa — I wrongly put this one into "robot bodies you can load your brain into" — but it fits way better here. Colonel Barham, an astronaut, volunteers to have his brain loaded into a robot body so he can go to Mars, but then he goes nuts and develops evil psychic powers and controls people with his mind:

Marvel What If, "What If The Fantastic Four Had Gained Different Powers?" In this "what if" tale, instead of getting stretchy-limb powers, the FF's Reed Richards becomes a super-smart disembodied brain, with mental powers. "I promise I will never dominate your brain again," he promises Ben Grimm.



The brain that cheated death:

They Saved Hitler's Brain! You only think Hitler died at the end of World War II — in fact (wait for it), they saved his brain!

Doctor Who, "The Brain Of Morbius" features an evil Time Lord named Morbius who wants to rule the universe — so the Time Lords, instead of giving him the kid-gloves treatment they give the Master, go ahead and execute him. But his followers save his brain and keep it in a vat. The brain is eventually transplanted into a weird hybrid body, with a bubble head:

"William And Mary" by Roald Dahl. William dies of cancer, but he has his brain preserved inside a machine that can keep him alive for 200 years. His wife, Mary, considers taking him home — but only so she can smoke in front of him and watch television, two things he hates seeing her do. This story was made into an episode of the Tales Of The Unexpected TV series.

Packaged for space travel:

The Mi-Go in Lovecraft's Cthulhu mythos are fungoid, crustacean extraterrestrials, who transport humans from Earth to Pluto, by removing your brain and putting it in a "brain cylinder."

Operating cities or spaceships:

Spock's Brain from Star Trek is probably the most famous example of this trope — what is brain? Brain is the ultimate city infrastructure planner! (Sexy babes steal Spock's brain and use it to run their city. It makes total sense.)

The Ship Who Sang by Anne McCaffrey is all about a girl whose physically disabled so she's put in life support to help run complex systems, and when she hits adolescence, her brain is removed and she becomes the "mind" of a spaceship — until she falls in love. Aw.

Neon Genesis Evangelion's MAGI computer system is run by disembodied human brains.

Tin Man: In this Syfy reimagining of the Wizard Of Oz, the Wizard turns out to be the disembodied brain of the Scarecrow's counterpart, and it runs a doomsday device. (Thanks, TVTropes!)

RoboCop 2: The second RoboCop is really just the brain of a psychopath, transplanted into a robot body. Which works out great!

Krang from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles sort of fits this one as well — he gets reduced to just a brain-like entity, and then his ally Shredder builds him a humanoid exo-suit, with his disembodied brain-creature in the tummy. Mmmm tummy brain...

"Becalmed In Hell" by Larry Niven. In this story in the "Known Space" series, the injured Eric's brain is used as the computer of a ship exploring Venus, using the empty fuel tank as a dirigible. When it's time to return to Earth, Eric announces there's a problem, and they have to land. But the "normal" human astronaut, Howie, decides the problem is actually with Eric himself.

Random weird disembodied brain:

The Man With Two Brains features brain surgeon Steve Martin falling in love with a woman's disembodied brain, as he searches for a gorgeous body to transplant her into. As Martin helpfully explains, "I can't fuck a gorilla!"

L'oncle Irvin ("Uncle Irvin") in City of Lost Children featured a talking brain in a tank named . He suffered from migraine headaches, and spouted pearls of wisdom throughout the film.

The Harlem Heroes in 2000 A.D. are a basketball team one of whose members gets destroyed, except for his brain, which is — you guessed it — in a jar. And he still gets to stay on the team.

The Curious Dr. Humpp is a random disembodied genius brain, who can only survive as long as his acolyte siphons off the sexual energy from hot young men and women, and beams these orgones into his cerebellum. We featured a clip here.

Mother Brain in Captain N: The Game Master This Saturday morning cartoon show. She was voiced by Levi Stubbs, better known as the voice of Audrey the carnivorous plant from Little Shop of Horrors.

Star Wars features the B'omarr monks, whose brains live in jars, but sometimes spider droids carry them around, and you can just glimpse them in Jabba's palace if you squint like a Hutt.

Ghost In The Shell features many characters who've kept their organic brains but scrapped everything else. And according to TVTropes, this is a common motif in Dragonball, Kara No Kyoukai, Appleseed, Captain Future and Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagan as well.

Additional reporting by Cyriaque Lamar.

Ghostbusters 3:

Don't count on Bill Murray being in this threequel — he tells Britain's Absolute Radio that he won't do the movie unless the script is really good. (How long have they been working on this script, and still nobody has read it, including the director?) [Latino Review]

New Moon:

Some more promo pics highlight the pasty-faced brooding. [Movies-Spoilers]

Snowpiercer:

We already wrote about this film, which Bong Joon-Ho is adapting from a French comic book. The official English title appears to be Snowpiercer, and Bong says he wants to film in 2011. The class-ridden survivors on a train traveling through the frozen world wind up struggling and fighting amongst themselves. [Collider]

Lost:

Set pics show that Randy Nations, Hurley's old boss at the Mr. Cluck's Chicken Shack, is coming back — except this time around, probably Hurley will be Randy's boss. One more pic at the link. [SpoilerTV]

Fringe:

Leonard Nimoy returns as William Bell in the season's tenth episode. And Astrid is going to be getting out of the lab a lot more — and she has a big arc with Walter coming up. The writers know Astrid is a "diamond in the rough," and they are looking for ways to expand the character. [EW]

And here's a behind the scenes featurette on tonight's episode, "Dream Logic."

FlashForward:

In the Oct. 29 episode, Lloyd Simcoe knocks on the Benfords' door, and Mark is not happy to see his wife's future lover. Meanwhile, Lloyd's autistic kid Dylan recognizes the house, and the Benfords' daughter Charlie, from his own flashforward, and feels an immediate connection with the place. [TV Guide Magazine]

New set photos show Demetri on a bike. More at the link. [SpoilerTV]

How scary does episode six, "Scary Monsters and Super Creeps," get? Look at some new promo pics. [Pizquita]

Doctor Who:

One new still showcases the alien monster from this animated story, Lord Azlok (David Warner) as he menaces Colonel Stark (Stuart Milligan.) The other one shows the Doctor entering a 1950s diner. [BlogtorWho]

Supernatural:

A new pic from the "Changing Channels" episode shows Sam and Dean stuck in Grey's Anatomy. Full version at the link. [EW]

And here are a few pics from "The Curious Case Of Dean Winchester," in which Dean gets hella old. [SF Universe]

Smallville:

The episode "Roulette," in which Ollie gets drugged and beguiled by Roulette, also contains a twist involving Chloe and Oliver. [EW]

And here are a ton of pictures from the episodes "Crossfire" and "Roulette" — including what looks like Clark smooching Lois in the Planet offices. [Kryptonsite]

Star Wars: Clone Wars:

Here's a clip and new image from Friday night's new episode, "Senate Spy":

Heroes:

We'll finally get some more of Mohinder in November, and at least half his scenes are with Hiro Nakamura. (I'm guessing, he'll be concocting some magic fix for Hiro's brain problem.) Also, don't hold your breath for Sylar to get a love interest. [EW]

Todd Stashwick (The Riches) will join the show as Eli, part of the carnival storyline — he has close ties to Samuel. [THR]

And in case you really thought it was Hiro who was going to bite the dust, the show is casting three Japanese-speaking actors for episode 4x13. One is a policeman who detains a local citizen in Tokyo for outlandish and potentially dangerous antics. There's also a grumpy ramen vendor who encounters a confused hero, and a woman who is accosted by a teenage purse snatcher. [SpoilerTV]

Stargate Universe:

Here's a sneak peek from Friday's new episode, "Darkness":

Sanctuary:

And here's a sneak peek from Friday's episode of this Syfy show, "End Of Nights Part 2":

Now that the show has established its setting and characters, the second season will play around more with the interpersonal relationships. We'll see more of Henry, plus a lot of the newly introduced Kate Freelander. The relationships will all move around. [SF Universe]

Additional reporting by Alexis Brown.

Spider-Man 4:

MTV's readers voted in a poll that the Lizard is the villain they'd most like to see, with Carnage coming a close second. In response, director Sam Raimi says he loves the Lizard, but doesn't know much about Carnage. (And let's hope he picks just one villain this time around.) Gary Ross is still revising the screenplay, but Raimi explains the criteria that will determine the next movie's villain:

What we're trying to do right now is really understand the journey Peter is going to go on this time and have the villain maybe be a counter to that growth, something that he has to overcome. Or maybe he has to grow in a way to overcome the villain, because there always seem to be stories of coming of age, of a young man growing up and learning things about life, so once we are identifying the exact movement that Peter has to grow to, I think the villain-and we're trying this right now; we're trying to choose a villain based on who would be the proper counter to that growth, so we really have dramatic conflict.

How many times can one hero come of age though? [MTV]

Dollhouse:

Here are all the promo pics from "The Public Eye (Part 1)," the first episode featuring Summer Glau as Bennett Halverston, the "genius programmer" at the DC Dollhouse, who gets Echo strapped to a table. As interesting as the pics are their captions: Like, apparently Summer's character is "seeking revenge" on Echo?

Plus here's a new season two promo pic (click to enlarge). [SpoilerTV]

Lost:

Reader Michael visited the beach where they film all the beach scenes, back in August — a mysterious structure, maybe part of that new mysterious building, was there. But none of the castaways' camp, and none of that airplane wreckage we've shown you pics of recently. Which means the camp stuff and the airplane stuff was definitely added more recently. Here are a few of Michael's pics from August. [Thanks Michael!]

Also, Locke and Sawyer were just filming some scenes together, and Saïd Taghmamoui has come back to film some scenes as Caesar. [SpoilersLost]

Sarah Jane Adventures:

Here's the "cinema trailer" showcasing the third season of this awesome Doctor Who spin-off. [BlogtorWho]

Supernatural:

"Changing Channels," the penultimate episode of 2009, is the one in which Sam and Dean get trapped in various parodies of TV shows, including a Japanese show, a classic sitcom, Grey's Anatomy, and CSI. And since Richard Speight is coming back, it's very likely the Trickster is the culprit. [Supernatural.TV]

V:

Here's the official description of the pilot episode:

In the premiere episode, "Pilot," an image of Anna (Morena Baccarin), the leader of the V's, is projected worldwide as she speaks about everyone joining together and no longer being divided by country or separated by fear. She wants us all to unite, and is counting on a very important component of human nature — devotion. At first considered a threat, the V's quickly become a fascination and a link to things that lay just beyond our reach. For Tyler (Logan Huffman), a teenaged boy, the V's are his ticket to being a part of something big and something that offers hope. To Chad (Scott Wolf), an egotistical news anchor who wants to further his career, his exclusive interview with Anna begins his desire to dominate the airwaves. Father Jack (Joel Gretsch), a priest with questioning faith, is hesitant to believe in the Visitors' righteousness and goes outside of the church in search of the truth. There are other dissidents who believe the Visitors aren't who they say they are, including Ryan (Morris Chestnut), who is faced with a life-altering decision when the V's show up. And to FBI Counter Terrorist Agent Erica Evans (Elizabeth Mitchell), who discovers, while investigating a terrorist cell, what lurks beneath the alarmingly human exterior of the Visitors, resisting this new world has never been more important — and never has there been more at stake. This truly is the dawning of a new day.

[SpoilerTV]

And here are new TV spots, focusing on InaraAnna. [VisitorSite]

Heroes:

Elizabeth Rohm joins the show Nov. 2 as Lauren Gilmore, a CIA agent who gets a hot romance with HRG. She describes her character:

Lauren, as we meet her in the beginning, is partners with Jack. They work in the same company, so she sort of does what he does. She's just a bad-ass kind of guy like him, but a girl... [HRG] and I have a past, that I can't say is exactly romantic, but there's definitely love between us. There was a period in time when they were incredibly close – nothing happened but they were really close – and you could see that there was a real bond between them. [Something] was almost going to happen, but he was still married at the time. So she erases her memory of when it started to become a little hot and heavy between them.

[TV Guide Magazine]

Smallville:

Here's a sneak peek from Friday's new episode, "Echo":

And here are some extra pics from the episode. [SpoilerTV]

True Blood:

Alan Ball shares what happens in season three:

After last season you would think things would sort of return to normal – but no, that's not going to happen!" Ball told TV Guide Magazine. "No, there's just as much weird stuff out there, and we're going to meet some werewolves for the first time; we're going to find out some roles vampires played in history, which is interesting and shocking and funny. It's more of the same.

He's excited about the Vampire King of Mississippi, and Eric continues to break out — plus Jessica and Hoyt will be dealing with everything that's happened. And Arlene and Terry will have more of a life and presence on the show.[TV Guide Magazine]

Additional reporting by Alexis Brown.

[Rec] 2:

Javier Botet returns as Medeiros, who's possessed and the object of a manhunt by a priest and a S.W.A.T. team. The priest needs Medeiros' blood so he can synthesize an antidote for the virus that allows demons to possess people's bodies. As with the first movie, Botet only shows up at the end of the film. The sequel has more explanations than the first movie, and is more action-oriented and commercial, says Botet. [Shock Till You Drop]

Green Hornet:

Apparently the new "it" band The Anvil just filmed a cameo where they play in a rock club and then, literally, explode. [L.A. Times via Cinemablend]

Lost:

More details on episode four, "The Substitute," from an anonymous source. (Grain of salt definitely indicated.) Apparently this is the episode where we deal with Faux Locke and Jacob's murder. And in the episode — according to source — Sun insists they should give someone a proper burial, Frank makes a comment about the "weirdest funeral ever," and Ben makes a touching speech. Someone reveals that he/she know a lot more about the island than Ben does, and the identity of Jacob's child is revealed. Also, a drunk Sawyer reunites with a familiar face, and an old friend meets someone unexpected off the island — possibly the Ben/Locke scene at the school that people witnessed the filming of? [SpoilersLost]

Some new set pics include a bit of airplane, a hole in the ground, and a weird structure. More at the link. [SpoilersLost]

Dollhouse:

Enver Gjokaj, aka this show's new MVP, says he's very clear that Victor and Sierra really do get wiped in between assignments — it's only Echo who remembers stuff. But Victor and Sierra have a love/attraction that can't be wiped. And upcoming episodes will explore Victor's backstory and we'll discover that he's actually "a very broken character." We'll realize that both Victor and Sierra were very "damaged characters." [L.A. Times]

Caprica:

Some set pics from a Syfy set visit, mostly showing the nice interior furnishings... but that one Cylon pic is fucking cool. [SpoilerTV]

Doctor Who:

More details about the upcoming animated storyline, "Dreamland." The Wire's Clarke Peters will play a Native American named Night Eagle. (Oh.) Peters says his character gets caught up in an alien invasion in New Mexico: "He's an old man, but a hell of an archer." And as you might have known, Georgia Moffett (the Doctor's daughter from last year) plays a new character, companion Cassie Rice. And David Warner also guest stars. [Telegraph]

Fringe:

A couple of photographers captured some snaps of the recent filming, including a stint at UBC involving an altercation, a fedora, and a group of children in orange outfits. More pics at both links. [My Little Insanity and BlueTeeth on Flickr, via Fringe Watch]

Supernatural:

A goofy sneak peek and a new promo from this week's episode:

Romo Lampkin/Manservant Neville himself, Mark Sheppard, will guest star in the last episode of 2009, "Abandon All Hope..." He plays a pivotal crossroads demon named Crowley. This episode, written by Ben Edlund, will be epic and leave you on the edge of your seat until the show returns in early 2010. (The show takes Oct. 22 off, but otherwise has new episodes every week, through Thanksgiving.) [Chicago Tribune]

And here's the synopsis for next week's episode, "The Curious Case Of Dean Winchester," written by Sera Gamble:

OLD MAN DEAN! - Sam (Jared Padalecki) and Dean (Jensen Ackles) discover a witch (guest star Hal Ozsan) is running a high-stakes poker game where the currency is life years vs. money. Bobby (Jim Beaver) sees the game as a chance to get out of the wheelchair and bets 25 years, but loses. As Bobby begins to age rapidly, Dean steps in to save him but also ends up turning into an old man, leaving Sam holding the bag for their survival.

[SpoilerTV]

Chuck:

Episode 3x07 will be called "Chuck Vs. The Mask," written by Phil Klemmer with Michael Schultz directing. [ChuckTV.net]

FlashForward:

A couple of sneak peeks from this week's episode, "Black Swan":

And here's the official description for episode six, "Scary Monsters And Super Creeps":

Mark, Demetri and Wedeck try to connect Janis' attack with a separate attack made on them; Olivia confronts Mark about his flashforward; Demetri and Gough track down a clue from Mark's flash; Dylan goes missing from the hospital

[SpoilerTV]

Smallville:

Those rumors that Laura Vandevoort would turn up in episode 9x07, "Kandor," aren't true. And here's the description for the Speedy episode, 9x06, "Crossfire":

OLIVER TAKES DC COMICS' CHARACTER SPEEDY UNDER HIS WING - Oliver tries to help a young street girl, Mia AKA Speedy (guest star Elise Gatien), get out of her dangerous life by offering to train her, but Mia double crosses him. Lois asks Clark to help her land a job as an on-air television host, but the two are shocked when the station wants to hire them as a team.

[KryptonSite]

Stargate Universe:

The lost-in-space show had a press day in Vancouver last week, and Collider was kind enough to post the whole thing on Youtube. [Collider]

Even though this show is such a departure from the past 15 seasons of Stargate shows, in one respect it represents a return to tradition: co-creator Robert C. Cooper says that the Stargate had become marginalized somewhat in Stargate Atlantis, and in this show it's central once again. It's the "device that allows us to tell stories. It's very much a central icon to this show." [Den Of Geek]

True Blood:

Someone you hate isn't long for this world, according to Alan Ball:

"Somebody is going to bite the dust and it's going to be really good to see them get what they deserve," Ball says.The only clue the Blood boss would reveal is that "it's a person we'll be happy to see go."

[TV Guide via True-Blood.net]

The contest is only open for children in the UK, and only those agde 6-12. The lucky child with the winning design gets to meet the Doctor Who cast and crew, and perhaps best of all gets to help oversee production of the design.

The re-design is specifically for the TARDIS console - not, sadly, for the outer appearance of the ship as well. The winning design will be used in a new upcoming episode of the show. We're curious to see how they work this in and even more curious to see the TARDIS console as designed by a ten-year-old.