From Fringe to FlashForward to V, with sidesteps into Dollhouse and Warehouse 13, the FBI were all over 2009's science fiction television (And yet, none of these activities make their list of top cases of 2009. I smell cover up). But why are so many of today's heroes working for The Man? And the same Man, at that?

Positive media portrayals are nothing new for the FBI; since its creation, the agency has actively participated in various projects, including 1935 radio show G Men and the wonderfully-titled This Is Your FBI. We remember Special Agent Dale Cooper from Twin Peaks, or Mulder and Scully from The X-Files, but this year's federal fetishism seems to have hit a new high. Part of it could be put down to a mix of comforting the audience while pretending to ramp up the excitement at the same time: They're risking their necks to make your life a safer place like the cops... But more extreme!

There's something to be said for the post-9/11 wish-fulfillment aspect of the new rash of FBI heroes; it plays directly to the idea that, even when the threat is literally unimaginable on a human scale, the people charged with protecting us will (in whatever small way) be able to recognize it first, and mobilize to stop it even if said threat is internal, which it so often seems to be. In fact, today's FBI dramas seem a particularly backhanded compliment, if they're meant to reassure; in most of the shows our new G Men and Women idols appear in, they're faced with an institution that's against them and, in some cases, implicit in the "bad stuff" that's going on around them. How many times, after all, has an FBI agent turned out to be an undercover bad guy (V, Fringe) or mentally unstable in some way (FlashForward, Fringe, Dollhouse because, let's face it, Ballard has problems) this year?

Besides the apparent ease of infiltrating the FBI, the new wave has also produced other 21st Century FBI cliches: Apparently, emotionally distant blonde women advance up the ranks easily, especially when paired with joking-yet-caring male partners. Department heads are often African American and gruff, yet ultimately caring. And new taskforces will be created at seeming random, but have to answer for budget overruns just before important breakthroughs happen. Are these really things that happen all the time in the real FBI? If so, I think someone in HR needs to find the moles immediately (Here's a clue: They're probably the ones from an alternate dimension).

Maybe the FBI-zing of science fiction is just a way of making everything into a procedural, making it easier for non-genre fans to get to grips with the new shows, turning everything into a CSI: Aliens or the like, and we're reading way too much into it. Perhaps it's a fad, and next year, every new show will have firemen. But for whatever reason, 2009 has been the year when only one kind of government employee could save the world, and we were happy to have them. Viva la FBI.

Get The Nostalgia While The Nostalgia Getting's Good
The failure of Jennifer's Body at the box office punctured the myth of Megan Fox, but in doing so left Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen's epic success even more inexplicable. You mean that everyone who went to see that genuinely wanted to see giant robots fighting for the right to appear in a story that made sense instead of Megan Fox's ass? Really? (To be fair, maybe it was John Tuturro's ass they couldn't resist.) Of course not; they wanted to relive memories of their childhood/the first Transformers movie/the Go-Bots by proxy. Same reason that Star Trek was such a hit, and the dismal Terminator Salvation made money at all. The problem with this for movie studios is that there's only a limited number of things to be nostalgic about, and they're burning through them quickly (Next year's Tron Legacy and The A-Team show that we're already up to the mid-'80s); when there're already plans to reboot Battlestar Galactica as a movie franchise months after its conclusion as a (rebooted) television show and restarting the Fantastic Four movies from scratch just a few years after the failure of Rise Of The Silver Surfer, you can tell that there's nervousness. With good reason; the lawsuit over the rights to Superman show that nostalgia could get more expensive for filmmakers in years to come. Maybe one day, Disney's $4 Billion buyout of Marvel Entertainment's IP will look like a bargain.

Find A Voice With Something To Say, Then Let It Speak
2009 was a year of extremes when it came to the creation of movies and television that didn't (entirely) rely on IP graverobbing. On the one hand, it was the year when the phrase "production hiatus" became widely known as code for "The Powers That Be don't like what's being done and are about to 'fix' it" as the trains seemed to come off the usually-smoother-running TV production track more often, and more publicly, than usual (See: Dollhouse, FlashForward and V, which has had two such hiatuses, and "coincidentally" switched showrunners twice, as well). On the other, it was the year when smaller movies like District 9 and Moon garnered critical acclaim - and, in the case of D9, a pretty amazing box office haul - for being individual, unusual and something other than generic production line blockbusters. Avatar, too, is being hailed for being the singular vision of James Cameron and, maybe most importantly, that being a good thing. Maybe this was the year that started a renaissance in an appreciation for the auteur theory after all?

On Television, Burying The Lede Will Kill You
We've said this more than once recently, but the fact that Dollhouse's second season was promoted to critics with its lackluster first episode may have damaged the show's chances irreparably. You can't blame the promotions people, because it makes sense to sell something based on the product itself; the "blame" lies with those making the show, who thought that they had the time and space to ramp up the season slowly, reiterating the central concept of the series with episodes that (sadly) repeated the rhythm of the first season. As the creative teams behind V (Put on hiatus after its first four episodes, and before we'd even seen a complete lizard reveal and/or any rodent eating) and the upcoming Day One (Restructured from a full season to a four episode mini-series to test the waters for a regular show) can attest to, there's no time for a slow build on network television anymore. Both Fringe and FlashForward sped up their timetables to try and meet demand for near-instant gratification, and both are still dogged with rumors of cancellation. Remember, television people: Put your best foot forward immediately.

Goodbyes Should Always Be Brief
Yes, yes: We loved Russell T Davies' run on Doctor Who as much as anyone, but the year of special episodes seemed weighed down by a sense of its own self-importance that reached epic proportions during this weekend's "The End of Time, Part One" (On the plus side, Now we know that Barack Obama will save the world with his economic announcement or something. Not that that'll seem horribly dated, oh, anytime after February 2009). Battlestar Galactica, too, approached epic levels of pomp and pretension during its final days. It's not that we would rather have rushed either show offstage unfinished, but there's something to be said for brevity and not getting too wrapped up in your own ego. Lost, consider yourself on notice.

Just Because You Can Doesn't Mean You Should
One word: Watchmen. Yes, we get it; we have the technology to make Doctor Manhattan look like he exists in a particularly shiny version of reality. But, months after all the hype, hoopla and multiple versions on DVD, it's still worth asking: Did Watchmen gain anything from the transition from comic to movie? Besides Zack Snyder's bank account, did anything? Sometimes it's okay to leave the original alone.

Inception:

Here's a giant concrete building in Alberta that 40 construction workers and carpenters spent three months building for the filming of this Christopher Nolan mindfreak saga.[Calgary Herald]

Lost:

Here's a new fairy-tale-themed trailer. (Still with no new footage.)

One of these things is going to happen early in the final season: Sayid kills Jack, or Sayid dies. (I'm guessing it's Sayid dies, but only in one of the two timelines, meaning we still get alternate-universe Sayid.) [E! Online]

Josh Holloway hints we'll see Sawyer try and track down his daughter Clementine, in the universe where Sawyer's off the island. "That's something I would like to see. Even if they don't meet, his intention to meet her would be important to me. To see him off the island with her name and address on a piece of paper." [TV Guide Magazine]

Doctor Who:

Here are some pics from the scene you've already seen, featuring June Whitfield grabbing the Doctor's butt. [BlogtorWho]

Repo Men:

Here's a new still and a new poster from this artiforg-repo movie. [IGN]

Battle: Los Angeles:

We already featured a slew of set pics from this movie, but here's a pic of Aaron Eckhart in his uniform. [Jonathan Hoff on Flickr via Slashfilm]

Swamp Thing:

Producer Joel Silver says he's hoping to make this film soon — in 3-D — but don't hold your breath for Wonder Woman. [MTV]

Lobo:

This is another movie that Silver is hoping to get done soon — but rumored director Guy Ritchie says it's definitely not a done deal that he's directing it. [MTV]

Nightmare On Elm St.:

Is this movie in trouble, or just being fastidious? A second round of reshoots is happening, including a funeral scene that required extras to portray mourners. [Cinemablend]

Dollhouse:

Wondering who's back in the third-to-last and second-to-last episodes? Just about everybody, judging from these new pics. [SpoilerTV]

Chuck:

Here are a few clips from the season opener, "Chuck Vs. The Pink Slip". [Yvonne Strahovski Fansite]

Here are summaries of the first three episodes:

Chuck Vs. The Pink Slip/Chuck Vs. The Three Words: Chuck flunks out of spy school and loses Sarah; Morgan tries to help Chuck get over Sarah; Chuck tries to talk to Sarah about their relationship.

Chuck Versus the Angel of Death: Chuck must protect a visiting dictator from an assassination threat; Awesome is excited about the idea of being a spy

[MSN TV]

And here are some new cast interviews and snippets:

Heroes:

Here's the official synopsis for the Jan. 11 episode, "Close To You":

H.R.G. exposes Samuel's biggest weakness in an attempt to take him down; Ando and Hiro try to save Dr. Suresh.

[AOL TV]

Daybreakers

We get a human-vamp encounter in a new clip. [via CinemaBlend]

Thor

Apparently, there was a rumor that Jude Law was going to be in the movie. He's not. [MTV]

Inglourious Basterds Prequel

Quentin Tarantino has written 40 pages of the prequel to his history-shattering slaughterfest, but he's working on a "less epic" picture first. [MTV]

30 Days of Night: Dark Days

Producer JR Young talked about the sequel to the vamps-in-Alaska adaptation, which takes the widowed Stella Olemaun to Los Angeles to try to expose vampires to the world:

I think the second film definitely stays within the world of the first film and it stays true to the second graphic novel in the series for those fans out there. The story is within that world but there are differences and a lot of that is due to the graphic novel. The first film is very much a survival film and this next one is all about revenge. There's an action component. The last one is a western, this one is more of a war movie. It's taking the battle to the vampires.

[ShockTillYouDrop]

True Blood

Alan Ball has confirmed that he's looking at a Latino actor in his 30s to play Lafayette's boyfriend. [EW]

Lost

Apparently, one of the following spoilers is false, and the other is true:

* We find out John Locke is related to C*****s *id**re [Charles Widmore] and J*** ***ph*** [Jack Shepherd] in a way you would never ever expect-yes, "related" as in by blood!

* Terry O'Quinn does something bat-poop insane involving a character we have known since the very first episode of Lost's first season, then says: "I'm sorry you had to see me like that."

[E!]

Dollhouse

Eliza Dushku's real-life boyfriend Rick Fox will have a brief cameo in the January 8th episode. He'll be one of dozens of Dolls imprinted with their original personalities and then released from the Dollhouse. We'll also Summer Glau return during that episode. [EW]

Fringe

We've mentioned that Fringe is filling some of its second season gap with an unaired episode from season one. That episode, "Unearthed," features a girl who, after being pronounced dead, is taken off life support only to wake up and star screaming alphanumeric code. And, for those who miss Charlie, Kirk Acevedo will be in the episode. [MTV]

And here's a promo that appears to contain footage from the episode. [via Spoiler TV]

After "Unearthed," the next two episodes will be titled "Edina City Limits" and "Jacksonville." [Spoiler TV]

Chuck

Michael Ausiello has seen the first three episodes of the season and says they're phenomenal — and there's nary a Subway sandwich to be seen. The first episode picks up six or ten months after last season's finale, and we'll see a recurring character die. We'll also find out that a recurring character is secretly a fan of Wilson Phillips. And we'll get a look at Morgan's huge collection of something. We'll be seeing lots of Awesome in the third episode — and his bare chest will apparently guest star. [EW]

Zachary Levi explains Chuck's connection with Kristin Kreuk's chracter Hannah:

They're both tech geeks. They're both into that world where they know how to reboot servers off of backup script.

Kreuk has filmed three episodes so far, but may be back for more. [Fancast]

The latest promo focuses on Chuck's choice between being a spy and being with Sarah. [via ChuckTV]

Heroes

According to Deanne Bray's Facebook account, Emma will appear in at least five more episodes, including the January fourth winter premiere. [Spoiler TV]

The puzzle pieces fall together in a trailer for the January return. [via Spoiler TV]

Over the past few weeks, Dollhouse season two has started reminding me of Jericho season two — both shows came back from cancellation, with a limited number of episodes. Both shows' fans cherished hopes that they'd continue past those truncated second seasons, but the people making both Jericho and Dollhouse seemed aware that they shouldn't save any trail mix for the hike back. Both shows abandoned their slow, incremental approaches and started racing forwards... almost too fast. But I'd way rather have too fast than too slow... or a setup that never pays off.

The other comparison, while we're at it, is that both Dollhouse and Jericho have pretty unique spins on the apocalypse — both involving an evil corporation and entitled assclowns who just have to control everything.

So last night, Dollhouse served up one decent episode, and one great one. In the first hour, we learned, yet again, that you never really leave the Dollhouse. Victor's contract expires, and he gets set free, wealthy but adrift, and unsure why he's in love with a woman he can't remember. He's so used to doll life, he sleeps in his bathtub because it reminds him of his coffin. And then he gets kidnapped/recruited to become a soldier in a new Rossum unit, that's basically a linked group mind. And then in the second hour, Echo, Victor and Sierra get sent to the Attic, where they encounter Mr. Dominic, and a serial killer... who turns out to be one of the founders of Rossum Corp.

The first hour was a slight disappointment, but only a slight one. After seeing so many hints about Victor's war-related PTSD, I figured we were in for an exploration of the ways in which trauma comes back even after you think you've defeated it. Even though Topher seemed so confident that they'd "cured" Victor's PTSD, I assumed we were going to learn otherwise. But after waving a bit in that direction, the episode lurched towards the "hive mind" soldiers thing — which was a really neat concept, and yet another fresh spin on the Dollhouse's tech. (The execution was pretty good, but the "chanting soldier voices" thing veered towards being cheesy once or twice.)

Mostly, instead of being an homage to Kimberly Peirce's underrated movie about PTSD and getting re-drafted against your will, the episode "Stop Loss" served to show us just one more way in which Rossum is evil. And at this point, we're pretty much primed to think Rossum is more evil than a dozen standard evil corporations put together. So it's just as well that the show is moving forward beyond showing us how evil Rossum is — towards explaining how Rossum got that way, and how our heroes are going to fight it.

You have admire how quickly the second episode, "The Attic," ran through all the standard science-fiction cliches for this sort of situation. Echo is in a virtual shared world, along the lines of the Matrix, and then she and Laurence Dominic are being chased by a shadowy serial killer through people's worst nightmares. The first half of the episode was fun, and some of the nightmare imagery was pretty jarring — especially the vision of Echo and the other dolls on tables, with wires going into their brains and tubes going down their throats, as liquid slowly flows into their trays.

There's nothing wrong with a "chasing a serial killer through people's nightmares" episode — we all like a good mindscape serial killer. But it's probably just as well that the episode took a sharp lurch halfway through, when the good guys finally catch up to the evil mass-murderer Arcane — and he's revealed to be a British nerd.

The Attic turns out to be more than just the random hell all of the broken dolls and disloyal employees are sent to — it's a giant computer, made out of hundreds of human brains, all supercharged by experiencing trauma over and over again. It's another neat spin on the show's central "brain hacking" conceit, and then it leads to us discovering the origins of Rossum. Arcane, the serial killer, is actually Clyde, the co-founder of Rossum, who developed "encephalic coding and communication," only to be betrayed by his partner after he imprints someone with a more docile version of his own mind.

And ever since Clyde got sent to the Attic — in 1993 — he's been running statistical analysis and scenarios for the future of the ECC technology. And in all but 3 percent of these scenarios, the ability to read and write brains leads to the collapse of civilization. Presumably, Rossum has access to Clyde's data-crunching, and knows about this — but doesn't care.

Conveniently, Clyde's memory of the name of his partner in founding Rossum, as well as the person who was imprinted with the obedient "Clyde 2.0" persona, has been removed. But it turns out Echo's original personality, Caroline Farrell, discovered who they were before she was wiped and turned into a doll. (We know a lot of time passed between Caroline breaking into the Rossum lab on that college campus and her becoming a doll — so presumably she discovered more about Rossum during that time.) So after Echo and the others break out of the Attic, they know enough to start taking the fight to Rossum.

Once again, the star of last night's episode was really Olivia Williams as Adelle — her arc moved awfully quickly, but it was still pretty amazing to watch. In the first hour, she has one last fling with "Roger," her perfect lover who's installed into Victor's body — only to have Roger confess that he's in love with someone else... Sierra. Even a pre-programmed lover won't love Adelle. "Roger" only rubs salt in the wounds by scoffing at the idea that Adelle would be pathetic enough to hire a programmed doll to love her. This rejection, and evidence that Adelle has lost her grip on the Dollhouse by not preventing Victor and Sierra from "grouping," sends her into a tailspin, and she spends pretty much the rest of the episode drunk, while everyone around her schemes. Echo bursts in to tell Adelle that they're not equals, and Boyd tells Adelle that she needs to find the old Adelle quickly, or he'll help take her down.

And then Adelle takes a shower with the Actives, and when she comes out, she's apparently sobered up a bit — and chosen her side in the fight between Rossum and the human race. We think at first that Adelle has finally discarded the last little piece of her soul and become "Darth DeWitt" in full — but then it turns out she sent Echo to the Attic on purpose, to discover Rossum's secrets.

If these episodes had aired on a weekly basis, this progression would have felt a lot slower, probably — Adelle losing control of the Dollhouse to Harding, selling out to get it back, turning into a bitter shell of her former self, and then finally making her choice. But even getting all six of these episodes over a three-week span, it still feels like a pretty intense journey, with Olivia Williams fully investing you in Adelle's downward spiral.

Once again, I also really liked Echo — especially the bit where she went shopping in the Dollhouse's imprints and turned them into an all-you-can-eat skillset buffet. After so long of Echo being helpless and glitchy and confused and headachy, it was just beautiful to see her turning her previous source of weakness into an amazing strength. And yay for Echo taking on an army single-handed and winning, by hacking their brains with her super-brain. If we didn't already know the good guys were going to lose, I'd say maybe Rossum had created the engine of their own destruction.

And I wonder if Victor and Sierra are gone for good — are they just Tony and Priya now? Their love has overcoming brainwashing and programming, and now it's overcome a military hive mind as well. I wonder if we'll get to see what it is that drives them apart in the future?

Speaking of which, it seems like we're leaping over the flashforwards in "Epitaph One" at amazing speed now. I'm having a hard time figuring out where those segments fit into all this. I'm guessing we've already passed by the sequence where Echo is programmed to be a Russian girl and complains to Ballard about her headaches — when did that happen? Right before Alpha's visit? It doesn't seem like the sequence of events allows for that. (Or did that scene purely happen in Echo's nightmares inside The Attic?) And then the scene where the Rossum scumbag Mr. Ambrose takes over Victor's body and announces that the Dollhouse is now renting out its Actives to become spare bodies for rich people — did that happen during the three months Echo was away, but before Mr. Harding took over the Dollhouse? I'm a bit confused at this point.

In general, though, Dollhouse is delivering unforgettable characters and a mind-blowing spin on its basic premise, and it's really fully become the show it's hinted at from the beginning. It's going to be a long three weeks' wait to see our heroes posse up to take on Rossum, and I'm hopeful based on the past few weeks' incredibly strong track record that the revelations about Caroline's past aren't going to be disappointing. (It helps to know that the next episode is written by Tim Minear, the man who can do no wrong.) Even if you were hoping the show would plunge us into the post-apocalyptic Felicia-Day-on-the-run future right at the start of the season, you can't deny that getting to see the building blocks of that future sliding into place has been amazing. This show may be on its way to cancellation, but we're going to be seeing people building on it for years to come.

Also, I hate to be a broken record, but the more we see of season two, the sadder I am that the show didn't put its best foot forward. The season's first two episodes were just so lackluster, compared to everything that's come after, that it's depressing to look back on them. I get very sad when I think of the fact that Fox sent out DVD screeners of "Vows," the I-married-a-boring-arms-dealer episode, to every TV journalist in the country, thus generating bad or no buzz. What if Fox had mailed out the Sierra/Nolan episode instead? Or any of the episodes since then?

Anyway, there are just three episodes of Dollhouse left, including two present-day ones and then a return to the post-apocalyptic future. Now that the show has already proved it's not holding any plot (or character) developments back for a later that'll never come, those last three episodes are going to be the most anticipated television of January, as far as I'm concerned.

Kick-Ass

The final character poster has been revealed to give us purple-haired, plaid skirt-wearing Hit Girl. She still kind of looks like Stephanie from Lazy Town. [/Film]

Daybreakers

The human blood shortage means something more monstrous than vamps forgoing their bloody snow cones. The one sheet below depicts a subsider, the horrific creatures vampires become if they go too long without feeding. [ShockTillYouDrop]

The Book of Eli

Mila Kunis looks much more appropriately post-apocalyptic in these stills than in the character posters. [SpoilerTV-Movies]

X-Men: First Class

Not only has Bryan Singer signed on to direct the new prequel, it also has a writer: Jamie Moss, who has been working with DreamWorks to develop a live-action version of Ghost in the Shell. [THR]

Toy Story 3

This new still reveals little, except that Buzz Lightyear's helmet has seen better days. [/Film]

The Phantom

Character breakdowns for the miniseries reveal a great deal about the plot. Chris Moore, the biological son of the Phantom, takes up his father's mantle after his adoptive parents are killed by the Singh Brotherhood and his girlfriend Renny's life is put in danger. Guran has an unbreakable mystical connecton with Chris, and serves as his most trusted ally. When Able Vandermaark, Chris' conservative mentor and keeper of the ways of the Phantom, forbids Chris from returning home to protect Renny and her father, it is Guran who ensures Chris gets his wish. Meanwhile, as Chris chafes under Vandermaark, Chris begins to question his mentor's true intentions.

Paramedic Renny was Chris' elementary school crush, and is later reunited with him at the scene of an accident involving Chris' friend Jordy. Their flirtatious quickly turns to a passionate relationship, but then Chris suddenly disappears at the same time Renny's father is wounded in a shooting. Renny's father is treated for his injury in Bengalia, and that is where Renny learns Chris' identity as the Phantom.

Raatib Singh is of course the leader of the Singh Brotherhood, and he attempts to keep wars and social and economic upheaval churning so that the Brotherhood can reap a profit. He is obsessed with the implementation of a technology called "Flicker" and has plans to assassinate Jalil Ben David, a politician who could bring stability to the Middle East. But he doesn't regard the Phantom as a real threat, and that leads to his assassination plans being foiled. The Brotherhood's latest asset is Dr. Bella Lithia, who developed the Flicker technology. Flicker can turn ordinary citizens into deadly assassins, but it has its limits. But when Singh refuses to heed Lithia's warnings and tries to control the technology himself, Lithia tries to outsmart him. [PhantomSite]

Doctor Who

The BBC six o'clock news interviewed David Tennant about his final episodes and gives a behind-the-scenes look at "The End of Time," including a fiery moment with the Master. [Blogtor Who]

True Blood

Mad Men actress Shannon Welles has been cast as "a mysterious old woman who lives in the middle of nowhere." It sounds like Bill will be shacking up at her place following his abduction. [EW]

Dollhouse

We'll be seeing more of Alan Tudyk's Alpha in the "Epitaph Two" finale. [EW]

Being Human

The vampire, werewolf, and ghost flatmates return in January, and here's a new one-sheet. Poor Annie is still stuck in that same outfit. [Den of Geek]

Lost

We will soon find out how Mikhail lost his right eye, but someone whose name is three letters long already knows (Ben?). [EW]

And here are a few more of those casual wear photos. [Lyly Ford]

Fringe

Fringe's second season is going on hiatus early in the new year, but on January 11th, we'll be getting an unaired episode from the first season, titled "Unearthed." [Spoiler TV]

Chuck

Chuck tests out his new powers — and encounters a bar full of spies — in images from the season premiere "Chuck vs. The Pink Slip." [Spoiler TV]

And glittery streamers and beach torches aside, everyone looks very serious in the second episode, "Chuck vs. The Three Worlds." [ChuckTV]

And everyone (including Ellie and Awesome) get fancied up in the season's third episode, "Chuck vs. The Angel de la Muerte." [Spoiler TV]

Iron Man 2:

So you've noticed that press clippings about Tony Stark are a big part of this sequel — and three of them have been appearing on various sites. The clippings talk about Tony Stark "coming out" as Iron Man, but they each have a different word highlighted: Secret, Stark, and Confession. Is Tony going to confess something else besides being Iron Man in the next film? [MTV]

John Carter Of Mars:

Mark Strong plays the villain, Matai Shang, and he's not doing any motion-capture — although his character is a shape-shifter, so he's had to be photographed by a 360 degree camera, so he can shift into things. He mostly turns into other people, says Strong. [ComingSoon]

Avatar:

Here's a new clip of dragon-flying excitement. [MTV]

And Sam Worthington and Sigourney Weaver were talking the film up on The View:

Dangerous Species:

Apparently Eli Roth's Cloverfield-esque film is no longer called Endangered Species. Or else somebody misheard him. [Collider]

Daybreakers:

Wondering just how crazy it gets when the future vampire population starts to run out of blood? Behold for yourself, in a new clip:

Doctor Who:

Another new trailer includes a bit of new footage of John Simm's Master rocking the weird bottle-blond/hoodie/collar look. [Thanks again CJ!]

Lost:

Michael Emerson says:

I think next year, after the conclusion of the final season, when people see the strength and style of how we go out, I expect Lost to have more recognition.

And he says Terry O'Quinn is continuing to do staggering work in the final season, and Josh Holloway is also having a really strong final season, with a gripping, moving storyline. [TV Guide Magazine]

Says Carlton Cuse:

I think we're doing something new in this final season narratively, so we have that combination of fear and giddiness. The fear is, oh, what if people don't like it, what if the audience doesn't like what we're doing?

[TV Guide]

The show was filming a beach scene with Locke, Ben, four scientists... and Widmore? Is this on the Island, or just some random beach? [SpoilersLost]

Apparently clues in the latest Lost posters include a flaming ankh in Hurley's hand, and an upside-down Oceanic logo. [SpoilersLost]

Dollhouse:

Felicia Day says the final episode, which she co-stars in, "wrap[s] up the storyline in an amazing way and I'm blown away by the writing." But doesn't really go into specifics. [TV Guide Magazine]

Supernatural:

Rejoice! Ash, the mullet-sporting nerd, will be back soon, says actor Chad Lindberg via Twitter. [Twitter via SF Universe]

Chuck:

Chuck's new abilities may include speaking Thai and sky-diving, among other things. Someone else besides Awesome will learn Chuck's secret this season (my money's on Morgan). Robert Patrick is playing a soldier from Casey's past, and Stone Cold Steve Austin is a baddie that Chuck gets trapped on a plane with. [Sci Fi Wire]

And here is a sneak peek, plus some new promos!

Caprica:

Here are some new featurettes about this BSG prequel:

Heroes:

Remember this series? Well, it remembers you. And here's what's coming up when it returns:

As Claire becomes immersed in the world of the carnival, she becomes increasingly suspicious of Samuel's motives; Hiro goes on a mission to rescue one of his own; H.R.G. recruits Matt to help him take down Samuel.

[SpoilerTV]

Justice League: Crisis On Two Earths:

William Baldwin (Dirty Sexy Money) plays Batman, and here are some pictures of Bats from this new original animated film. [Warner Bros.]

Additional reporting by Mary Ratliff.

Transformers 3:

That leaked script we mentioned yesterday, that we thought was probably a fake? It is, according to Nelson, an administrator at Michael Bay's Shoot For The Edit Forums. [Shoot For The Edit via TFW2005]

Avatar:

CCH Pounder reveals a bit more about her character, Moat:

Queen Moat is the queen of of the Na'Vi. She is married to Eytukan and has two children: Tsu'tey and Neytiri. Neytiri is her really valiant, extremely brave and very independent daughter. She tries to keep the peace between Neytiri and her father... [And] she in some way sort of creates the freedom for Neytiri to be with the protagonist.

[L.A. Times]

Iron Man 2:

Here's a new pic of Tony Stark, hard at work in his workshop on an alternative energy source or something. Cool glasses. [Cinemaspy]

Battle Angel Alita:

James Cameron indicates his adaptation of this manga classic would be in a similar 3-D blend of live-action and CG animation to Avatar. But so far, all he's got is some concept art and a good script. [MTV]

Lost:

Another filming report involves the alternate-universe versions of Sun, Jin and Sayid meeting with Keamy and Omar on the same golf course where Sayid originally met Keamy and Omar. And there's speculation, based on set reports, that Mikhail is involved with Keamy and Omar, and that Mikhail is the one calling the shots. Also, there's a suspicion that Mikhail, Keamy and Omar are the agents of the Man In Black in this alternate timeline. [SpoilersLost]

And here are a few more season six promo pics, featuring Hurley, Claire and Miles. [Lyly Ford]

And someone blonde and female who we thought was dead will turn out to be still alive, in the time period when we last saw her. And Sheila Kelly's new character interacts with more than one regular character, and Kelly says the role is "like a petal opening," and you slowly understand how her character intertwines with the existing storylines. [E! Online]

Dollhouse:

Here are some promo photos from this Friday's double dose of Dollhouse. [SpoilerTV]

True Blood:

A couple bits of casting news: Broadway veteran J. Smith-Cameron will play Melinda, Sam's estranged mother. And Tudors star James Frain will be starring as Franklin Mott, Tara's new overprotective vampire boyfriend. The two of them meet in the second episode, and have an "immediate and torrid" connection. [EW]

Supernatural:

Sam and Dean will find a town full of happy zombies — people's loved ones come back to life there, but they're friendly, non-brain-eating zombies. And they include Bobby's dead wife. Also, Sam will use his demonic powers at least once before the season ends, and Dean won't be happy about it. And Chuck will be back, but without his fangirl girlfriend. [E! Online]

Stargate Universe:

The second half of the first season will be more serialized and deal with tensions among the Destiny's crew, says producer Robert Cooper. We'll be spending less time on Earth (thank goodness), and meeting a new alien race.

The implications of leaving Rush on the planet, the real division that will cause amongst the crew, the judgment of those characters and their actions are going to have a big impact on the show. We have a lot of things planned for the second half of the season... There is a big story point coming up that does introduce an alien race. It's more along the line of a "District 9"-type alien. Our interaction is handled in a very "Universe" way; they're not the typical "Stargate" alien bad guys.

[Hollywood Reporter]

Chuck:

Ellie and Aweesome have moved out to an apartment across the way, so Chuck and Morgan share a bachelor pad now. [E! Online]

Additional reporting by Josh C. Snyder.

Monday

Get your day started off in the right way with Syfy's Highlander: The Raven marathon, from 8:30 in the morning until 3:30 in the afternoon. Wait, did I say "right"? I meant, "It's Highlander, surely you can find something better to watch on another channel."

The CW, meanwhile, takes advantage of everything else in primetime being on holiday break by starting a weeklong catch-up for The Vampire Diaries at 8pm, with two episodes running each night until Friday.

Tuesday

You know you're in trouble when a new episode of Syfy's Outer Space Astronauts is the highlight of the day (It's on at 9pm). Otherwise, it's an Early Edition marathon on the same channel from 8am through 3pm and another two hours of The Vampire Diaries on the CW at 8pm for you. Suddenly, NBC's Glee/American Idol mash-up The Sing-Off seems very tempting, doesn't it...?

Wednesday

Again, it's a Syfy marathon from 8am to 3pm (Today, Moonlight) and two hours of Vampire Diaries (from 8pm on the CW) to keep you busy today, although your sanity may be regained with the help of a brand new Mythbusters on Discovery at 9pm (It's called "Hidden Nasties," which can only bode well) and you can always wash your brain out at the end of the day with Eastwick's new episode, "Tea and Psycopathy":

After Jamie reveals to Roxie that Darryl is his father, she sets about having a dinner party where father and son can bond. However, Jamie has a secret, darker plan for the evening. Meanwhile, Kat embraces her newfound power by healing every patient she is exposed to, but her compassion leads to drastic physical consequences. Max asks a reluctant Joanna to help him crack a famous unsolved Eastwick murder, but their snooping leads them to a perilous situation with Eleanor.

Admittedly, after a plot description like that, I'm not sure anyone needs to actually watch the show.

Thursday

I don't remember Level 9, but Syfy definitely does; that's their 8am through 3pm marathon for the day. Aside from the CW's two hour Vampire Diaries block - 8pm until 10pm, remember - your night is both free and clear for you to tune into the special Christmas compilation of Saturday Night Live sketches on NBC at 8pm, just to see if "Dick In A Box" is still funny years later.

Friday

Finally, Syfy's daytime marathon comes through with the goods! It's Stargate SG-1 all day from 8am to 3pm.

As well as (an old) Christmas episode of Batman: The Brave and the Bold, you can be advance-grateful for Dollhouse's latest double bill ("Stop-Loss"/"The Attic", Fox 8pm) for giving you something new to watch instead of another couple of episodes of The Vampire Diaries on the CW at the same time. If you need any more reason to tune into the Whedon world, this double bill includes the episode where Victor's contract expires...

Saturday

Syfy put in a strong showing with a monster movie marathon (9:30am: Mutants, 11:30am: Lockjaw: Rise of The Kulev Serpent, 1pm: Ginger Snaps Back: The Beginning, 3pm Ginger Snaps II: Unleashed, 5pm: Ice Spiders, 7pm: Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer, 9pm: My Name Is Bruce, 11pm: Alien Apocalypse and finally at 1am, the infamous Mansquito).

But U.S. viewers who haven't already found a way to watch it will be much happier with BBC America's Doctor Who afternoon, which runs old episodes from 2:30 before the 8pm Inside The Tardis behind-the-scenes episode, and the 9pm premiere of the uncut The Waters Of Mars. Thank you for being so good to us, American Beeb.

Sunday

I think you might want to leave the house for the day. Do some last-minute holiday shopping or something, because there's not really a lot to keep you inside and in front of the television... Maybe you should TiVo all those Vampire Diaries and watch them...

The new Not A Doll site is from the same person behind Why I Watch, but instead of focusing on convincing more people to tune in, it has more important subjects to discuss:

We know what you're thinking.

You've had a long day, you're tired. You'd like to relax. You'd really rather not be disturbed. This world is too real and too sad, and things are too broken for any of us to fix it. No one wants the weight of the world on his shoulders. But here comes the plot twist... Just as you kick back, remote in hand, your entertainment catches you off-guard. These characters and their stories hit too close to reality: a girl without identity, contracted to unassailable powers, wiped of self, then sold to fullfill another's fantasy. Is this science fiction or a reminder of the 640,000 souls who are truly missing?

Joss Whedon's Dollhouse has captivated and inspired us. It has moved us to tears and then spurred us to action. We may root for Echo and Sierra, Victor and November, but what of the countless, the nameless, the real ones? This site is for them.

Addressing the issues behind the show more directly than the show itself managed for the majority of its run, the site was created "to inspire, to raise funds, and to organize" around, as the site's FAQ says,

the very real issues of human trafficking, poverty, oppression against women and children, the loss of self, and the negation of human rights. These are all issues that Dollhouse touches upon and as its audience, we have been compelled to attract greater attention to these very real monsters and find ways to combat them here and now.

While the show may have had a short and controversial life, it's heartwarming to see it inspiring this kind of thing - or even Ditch The Tech, the fan-created ARG also from Not A Doll's creator - from those who enjoyed the show. If only the show had inspired the same passion in Fox executives...

It's hard to believe this is still the same show that used to serve up timid "engagement of the week episodes" that only hinted at the questions that lurked in its premise. By my reckoning, this makes six outstanding Dollhouse episodes in a row. And what's more, the show is starting to race forward, at breakneck speed, as if to make up for its slow pace earlier.

Was it just me, or did your heart stop too when you read the words "Three months later"? Sure, BSG and DC Comics, among others, have pulled similar stunts before — but in the middle of a random episode?
It was gutsy. And yet, it turned out to be a brilliant move. As usual with the "jumping ahead in time" stunt, everything had changed, and part of the fun was figuring out how. (For a moment, I thought Echo really had just taken a nurse job using one of her imprints, and was just living quietly.)

But more than that, part of the coolness after the three-month jump was seeing how much closer we were to the glimpses of the future we saw in the post-apocalyptic episode "Epitaph One."

So after the jump, suddenly Echo is playing house with Paul Ballard (which feels logical, considering how much they were already conspiring together) and they're in cahoots with Boyd back at the Dollhouse. Meanwhile, Topher has gotten a promotion, and Adelle has gotten a demotion. Most of all, Echo is now fully in control over her multiple personalities and their talents, instead of having them triggered randomly. She's now much more like a superhero (who's occasionally glitchy) than a puppet who occasionally turns into a superhero, and really, thank goodness. I'm imagining the new Echo is like Chuck with the "Intersect 2.0" installed.

Last night's first episode, "Meet Jane Doe," subverted so many expectations, it's hard to know where to begin. For starters, we expected a story about Echo in her childlike "doll" state wandering around for an hour, while the Dollhouse tried to find her — instead, we got five minutes of that, then something totally different. And then, at the end, you expected Adelle to do something cunning and brilliant to regain her mastery of her Dollhouse — and instead, she kissed up to the evil scumbag, Harding. In the second hour, you think Alpha is just trying to take down the men that Echo has had romantic engagements with — but his real target turns out to be Ballard, because Alpha was spying and realized that Ballard and Echo are in love.

Even with everything else that happened last night, it's hard to avoid fixating on Adelle. Her transformation was incredibly painful to watch — first, from steely-but-sensitive mistress of her domain to subservient, resentful underling to Mr. Harding. And then, from underling back to boss — but this time, she's willing to do whatever it takes to please her masters and save her own skin. Olivia Williams was incredible last night — most of all in the scene where she is willing to give Alpha whatever he wants, because that's what she's become. She's lost her self-respect, and whatever shreds of idealism she may have had left, and become a monster. And it's fascinating to watch.

The other big star last night was... Eliza Dushku. A lot of people have doubted her ability to carry this series — including me, on a few occasions. But now that she's playing a more self-aware version of Echo, she's able to bring a lot more real acting to the table. Her scenes with Paul Ballard, where she's in love with him and he's unable to reciprocate because of his whole "Galahad" complex, were brilliant and rich, and she seemed to snap between different personas pretty easily. Dushku's talent has never been mimickry or creating different mannerisms — she's not an Enver Gjokaj — but she's a lot better at handling nuances of emotion. She's always Eliza Dushku, no matter who she's playing, but she's capable of bringing a lot of expressiveness and subtlety. And last night, we saw more of what she can do when she's in her comfort zone.

Meanwhile, once again Topher was ethical-dilemmas guy — turns out the remote wipe device he's been working on is just one piece of a larger puzzle, one that will lead to everyone in the world becoming mind-controlled slaves. Topher cracks the problem of how to program anyone, anywhere remotely — but it's Adelle who hands it over to the evil corporate overlord. No wonder those two are basket cases after the apocalypse.

As Adelle says towards the end of last night's first episode, with the kind of power Rossum has, you don't want to be on the opposing team. Apparently Rossum doesn't just control a sitting U.S. Senator (who's got an excellent chance of becoming President), they also have 22 Dollhouses, with a 23rd on the way — and that means thousands of current and former clients who will safeguard Rossum's interests. And now, they have the means to reprogram whoever they want. Shiny.

It was interesting to see Harding running the Dollhouse, in contrast to Adelle. Her fancy performance was always aimed at creating the impression of a humane, caring service that was therapeutic and philanthropic — much like Inara's "Companion" poise in Firefly. Inara and Adelle even both use tea to symbolize the fact that they're fancy and full of happy empowerment. Harding keeps the tea, but drops the empowerment schtick — he's happy to be a pimp, and his dolls are property. As Boyd points out, the only real difference is that Harding doesn't lie to himself.

So the first episode was, once again, all about how the wealthy get what they want, and the rest of us are just their soon-to-be-broken toys, what with the evil boys' club of rich assholes congratulating themselves in Adelle's office. And then in the second half, we discovered that the wealthy don't always fare that well with the Dollhouse — we meet a guy who blew his entire fortune on engagements with Echo, and get to see a bunch of her other clients killed horribly as well.

Patton Oswalt returns as the tech whiz who needs Echo to impersonate his dead wife, and he's somewhat unsettled to learn that even though he's never planning on hiring the Dollhouse to recreate Rebecca again, she still exists. You can't really delete a program — once a program's created, it has a life of its own.

Did anybody else think Alan Tudyk was channeling Heath Ledger's Joker, just a bit, in his performance as Alpha last night? Maybe I'm on crack. In any case, Alpha was nattily dressed, and was (thank god) doing less of the "crazy talking to myself and snapping between personas" thing, and more of the "super-genius psycopath" thing. I was "meh" about Alpha last season, but he went a lot further towards winning me over last night. Especially after having just gotten such a powerful glimpse of the real evil of the Rossum Corp., Alpha is looking more and more like the lesser of two evils.

I don't have much else to say about the second hour — Alpha's still obsessed with Echo, and wants her to love him. It's a bit underwhelming as a villain motivation, but I think it's partly supposed to be that Alpha is obsessed with Echo because he sees himself in her, and he wants to be able to understand the difference between programmed and "real" emotions. And he knows that Echo's feelings for Paul Ballard are "real," so he wants to be able to see where they come from. Maybe now that Alpha has imprinted himself with Ballard's personality, we'll get something new and different out of it, like an Alpha who struggles with doing the right thing occasionally. We know, from "Epitaph One," that Alpha does turn out to be something of a force for good.

I liked the Actives being turned into killer zombies, which was a nice twist. And the Monty Python references. And Boyd, Echo and Ballard choosing to trust Topher with Echo's secret — wonder how badly that'll backfire? And co-writer Maurissa Tancharoen doing her sassy "I ain't got time for no neurocondensing" act. And Ballard's "My ass does feel very pampered."

Bottom line: This show is now much more clearly about an evil corporation that wants to own your brain. This has been true from the beginning, but it was harder to tell in those early episodes. Now it's pretty clear and straightforward, and the storytelling that can come as a result (with alll of those broken, complicated people, squirming under Rossum's thumb) is going to be magnificent. For as long as it lasts.

Avatar

The first (generally positive) reviews are utterly brimming with spoilers. The Hollywood Reporter lays out the basic plot most clearly, and includes some more details about the Na'vi. Apparently, one of the reasons that the Na'vi are so reluctant to relocate is that the unobtainium deposit sits beneath a holy tree that happens to be the center of Na'vi life. The tree holds tribal memories and ancestral wisdom, and apparently the Na'vi can access this as they possess an innate ability to tap into a Force-like ability that ripples through Pandora's plant life.

And from Empire's review, it sounds like the holy tree might not fare well, as there's "a human attack on a Na'vi landmark that recalls 9/11 in its devastating imagery."

We already know the humans set up schools to teach the Na'vi English, and Variety clarifies that they learned English from Grace.

James Cameron added more details about Pandora and what we'll find there. He himself designed the monstrous Thanator which features flexible bone shields and sensor quills. It also has a single nostril called an operculum, which is based on the flapper valve on top of a stingray's head. He also says that his goal with the animated characters was to cross the uncanny valley, and while he believes that some of the shots are an eight out of ten, there are some that go right up to eleven. He calls the Na'vi's central tree the Tree of Souls, and says it's the input-output station for the Pandora biological communications network — and where Neytiri's clan has lived for 10,000 years. There are apparently two scales of trees on Pandora, normal jungle canopy trees and gigantic Great Trees. Getting into human technology, the same magnetic fields that cause Pandora's mountains to float also mess with the instrumentation on the Samson gunship, forcing it into "Second World War-style combat mode." [Times Online]

Splice

We get more images from Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley's genetic experiment, including another peek at the transgenic fruit of their labor. [ShockTillYouDrop]

Sherlock Holmes

Can't wait to watch Robert Downey Jr. solve possibly occult crimes? Here's a cornucopia of stills to tide you over.

Book of Eli

A trio of character posters to keep you company at the end of the world. [CinemaBlend]

Dark Shadows

Shooting is scheduled to begin on the supernatural soap adaptation in October 2010, but producer Graham King says it's still waiting on a script. [ShockTillYouDrop]

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Tom Felton, who plays Draco Malfoy describes the final showdown between the forces of good and the forces of evil as akin to a Western shoot-out. [MTV]

Lost

Yet another filming report places Hurley and Alpert near a big tree in the middle of a jungle. Hurley was wearing his red shirt and Alpert was in dark clothing. Apparently, the crew said they did a lightning scene with pyrotechnics in the area and are planning to do a similar scene on the beach location. The camp had recently been rebuilt with green palms, and Ben, Kate, Jack, Hurley, Sun, Miles, and Ilana were all filming on the beach, sitting around a campfire. [DarkUFO]

True Blood

Rutina Wesley says that Sookie will be helping Tara deal with her grief and the fallout from last season, as well as the handsome vamp ready to sweep her off her feet. Alexanger Skarsgard adds that we'll get another Eric flashback; he won't say what era we'll see, but Eric and another person wil act as a tag team. [TV Guide]

Dollhouse

Five clips from tonight's episode show Echo contemplating whether she's really Caroline, a Dollhouse interrogation, and a tease of Alpha's return:

Fringe

Here's a neat detail from the alternate universe. An eagle-eyed viewer noticed that in Peter's childhood dream in the alternate universe, there's a poster celebrating the Challenger's 11th mission in June 1984. In our universe, the Challenger exploded during its tenth mission on January 28th, 1986. How advanced is the other universe's technology? Check out the photo evidence at the link. [Tallisen LJ]

Anna Torv doesn't know precisely how Peter will react to the news that he was kidnapped from the other universe, but like everyone else, she has her speculations:

"And I think its going to be heartbreaking… heartbreaking for Walter, but particularly for Peter too because this year seeing him take an active interest in his father and an active interest in the investigations and he's really taken it on. For that to explode, or implode, is going to be devastating," she explained. "But that's what you want isn't it?"

[MTV]

Peter-Olivia shippers don't have an ally in Joshua Jackson:

"This is only my opinion, but I don't think that's the direction that the story is going in," Jackson said. "In my head, what you have between these three people is a family dynamic rather than a romantic dynamic. She would be a very tolerant woman if she were willing to start dating a man who lives with his father."

[Inside TV]

Smallville

Sometime before the Justice Society two-episode movie, Chloe will get a non-Watchtower job offer. In "Society," the first part of the movie, some Justice Society member will know who Watchtower really is before it's revealed to them, and there's a supervillain that we haven't learned about so far. [KryptonSite]

Chuck

By law, all science fiction television series must feature Mark Sheppard at some point, and Chuck is not exempt; Sheppard tweets that he's starting an arc this week. [via Spoiler TV]

Additional reporting by Josh Snyder and Charlie Jane Anders.

Avatar:

A few new TV spots. Spot #13 includes some sexy heavy walker action.

And an early review from someone who's seen the film says its plot is almost non-existent, but it's like the biggest first-person shooter ever. And:

What we have is: Boy meets alien through marines, boy loses aliens and marines, boy fights marines and gets girl. And I was also told that despite all the trappings of special effects, blue people and CGI skies, Sigourney Weaver still manages to register strongly with warmth and a commanding presence.

[Hollywood Elsewhere via Slashfilm]

Lost:

So, trying to piece together all the clues in E! Online's latest spoiler column... Charlotte (Rebecca Mader) is back from the dead, but the timeline in which she's suddenly alive is not the same one in which Flight 815 landed safely in L.A. — it's the other timeline, which we'll be visiting concurrently. Charlotte will be revealed to be alive in the same time period where we saw her die. And the explanation of Charlotte's survival will blow your mind (and presumably has nothing to do with Juliet's hydrogen bomb.) Also, Jack and Rose will be reunited, and it will feel so good. [E! Online]

So if you've been paying attention, you'll have heard there's a "Temple" set being built for the sixth season, and we've only glimpsed its exterior so far. But now, some fans seem to have stumbled on the full Temple set, and it includes the expected Egyptian imagery (Anubis) , but also the Hindu Trimurti. Given that there was a little campfire with a cauldron out front, with some rotting potatoes and an old blanket, the eyewitness suspects these scenes take place on the Island in ancient times — and the Island may be a paradise for many different religions. And there are some pics. (More at the link.) [SpoilersLost]

A new promo for season six is truly "Amazing." Okay, maybe not.

Doctor Who:

Here's another new clip from "The End Of Time Part 1," in which the Doctor explains about the Blinovitch Limitation Effect (sort of) to an uncomprehending Wilf. [BlogtorWho]

Dollhouse:

The show is looking for someone to play "T," a six year old with mixed Asian/Caucasian heritage, who's fearless, precocious and adorable, in the finale. And speculation is, this might be Sierra and Victor's son in the future. [E! Online]

Fringe:

Here's a new promo for this show plus Bones. [Fringe Italia]

Kick Ass:

Matthew Vaughn says this movie won't feature the typical boring action sequences — rather, every action sequence will tell a story:

It's 11-year-old girls slicing and dicing people, and getting shot. I mean, I'm very bored of the way most of the big movies shoot action, all this shaky camera, handheld, close cutting, quick cutting. So I've tried to put a narrative story into every action sequence.

[Crave Online via Comic Book Resources]

Daybreakers:

A new TV spot shows a bit more of the consequences of running out of human blood for this vampire-dominated future. [ShockTillYouDrop]

The Sorcerer's Apprentice:

Here's a new pic showing Nic Cage looking just as magical as he has in all the other pics you've seen. Bigger version at the link. [The HD Room]

V:

Morris Chestnut says the next episodes will be worth the wait (until late March). Things about the Vs will be revealed, and they'll be pushing the envelope. [E! Online]

Chuck:

As we mentioned before, the first 13 episodes of the season have their own arc which wraps up at the end of episode 13. But then the extra six episodes, which the network added to the season after the show was moved back from March to January, will have a totally different story arc, clarifies Zachary Levi. Yay for not trying to pad out the original 13-episode storyline to last another six episodes. [Sci Fi Wire]

Better Off Ted:

Someone sends out a memo with a typo, saying "Employees must now use offensive language," so everybody starts swearing up a blue streak to comply with it. "They think it's good for morale," says Jay Harrington. [E! Online]

Monday

With Heroes and House both taking a break for the holidays, it falls to Syfy to keep us entertained today, and they're definitely trying their hardest, with Stargate: The Ark of Truth at 9am, followed by Stargate: Continuum at 11.

Meanwhile, if you went down the rabbit hole last night, you'll be happy to know that Alice continues (and concludes) at 9pm.

Tuesday

Even if the day wasn't almost entirely otherwise devoid of SF entertainment, the return of ABC's Better Off Ted (ABC at 9:30pm) would still be at the top of our to-do list. In the first episode of its new run, the employees of Veridian Dynamics find their thoughts turning to reproduction, as Ted and Linda meet their genetically compatible matches, while Veronica tries to convince Lem to donate to a sperm bank. Oh, Ted. How did we get by without you?

If satires on corporate America are a little too close to the bone, then try the first episode of Outer Space Astronauts on Syfy (also 9:30); it's a new sitcom set in outer space - Maybe you missed that in the title - but we're a little worried about it based on the episode description being "Capt. Ripley invites aliens over to the O.S.S. Oklahoma for a pizza dinner, but the aliens want the ship, too." Uh, hilarity may ensue?

Wednesday

Oh, Syfy. With a Jericho marathon from 8am through 3pm, you know how to spoil us. From there until 9pm, it's a bit of a science fiction wasteland in terms of things that aren't re-runs, so consider it the Television God's way of telling you to leave the house and go and do some holiday shopping or something. Then be back in front of the visual entertainment box in time for 9 o'clock, when Discovery has a new episode of Mythbusters, with Jamie and Adam putting more gunslinging myths to the test.

Thursday

Remember 1990s SF vampire series Kindred: The Embraced? I definitely don't, but Syfy is looking to remedy my oversight with a marathon of the entire 1996 series starring former Soul Man C. Thomas Howell, starting at 8am.

Otherwise, with FlashForward, Vampire Diaries and Supernatural already in reruns, it falls to Fringe to keep the science fiction flag flying with its new episode "Grey Matters" at 9pm on Fox. Featuring the return of Leonard Nimoy as William Bell:

Friday

Get your day started off in the right way with Syfy's Outer Limits marathon, starting at 8am. You'll only wish it was Twilight Zone a couple of times, honest.

Depending on who you believe, there's either a rerun or new episode of Batman: The Brave and The Bold on Cartoon Network at 7pm (If it's a new episode, then it'll be the Plastic Man-guesting "Long Arm Of The Law," but some schedules have last season's "Duel of The Double Crossers!" listed. Your guess is as good as mine at this point).

But even if it is a new episode, that might not be enough to steal your attention away from Syfy's Sanctuary mini-marathon, starting at 7pm and ending with a brand new episode, "Penance," guest-starring Amanda Tapping's fellow former Stargate cast member Michael Shanks, at 10pm.

Or you can keep up with the latest double bill of Dollhouse on Fox at 8pm, with the "Meet Jane Doe"/"A Love Supreme" match-up offering Topher discovering the potential effects of science, Echo losing control of her multiple memory downloads, and the return of Alpha.

Once that's done, you might find yourself switching over to Sky Captain and The World of Tomorrow on Cartoon Network at 10pm, just to look at how shiny the whole thing is.

Saturday

It's All Disaster Movies All Day on Syfy, starting with Earthstorm (9am) before offering up Meteor (11am), miniseries 10.5: Apocalypse (1pm), Ba'al: The Storm God (5pm), Ice Twisters (7pm), Annihilation Earth (9pm) and finishing with Disaster Zone: Volcano in New York at 11pm. Why so many disaster movies? Why not? Over on BBC America, there's a Doctor Who triple bill of edited versions of "Journey's End", "The Next Doctor" and "Planet of The Dead" starting at 7pm, but you should really wait until tomorrow, for reasons you'll discover in a second.

Sunday

...What's that, you say? A Doctor Who marathon on BBC America starting at 1pm, including 1hr 15 minute (ie, unedited from U.K. broadcast, apart from ad breaks) versions of The Next Doctor and Planet of The Dead? I thought you'd say yes. The full rundown of episodes is:

1pm: Voyage of The Damned
2pm: Turn Left
3pm: The Stolen Earth/Journey's End
5:30pm: The Next Doctor
6:45: Planet of The Dead

All of this is a lead-in to next week's premiere of "The Waters of Mars," and the following week's "The End of Time," of course. But do you care why it's happening, as long as it's happening?

Around 2.1 million viewers watched Friday's double bill according to early reports, matching the series low and coming in last in its regular timeslot, behind a Muppet Christmas Special re-run and the soon-to-be-moved-to-Wednesdays Ugly Betty (It beat a Smallville rerun on the CW from 8-9pm, however; it was only last from 9-10pm).

Considering many were expecting some kind of ratings bump from the Summer Glau guestshot, we're wondering: Was there a Glau bump that offset what would, otherwise, have been another drop, or did the month-gap between episodes and cancellation announcement kill any potential enthusiasm in the show? As both FlashForward and V go off the air until March amid rumors of low ratings, ABC may want to think about that last option and think about ways to remind people about both shows during their three month-long breaks.

So I totally did not see the revelation concerning Senator Daniel Perrin coming — that he's the doll and his wife is his handler. It was one of the coolest plot twists I'd seen in ages, and yet it totally made sense once the show explained it.

It goes like this: the evil Rossum Corporation has tons of power and influence, but the bastards in charge wanted more. They wanted their own puppet as a U.S. Senator (and maybe, eventually, as president.) So they kidnapped Daniel Perrin, the scion of a powerful political dynasty (think of him as Fred Kennedy or something.) And they took the dissolute party boy and reprogrammed him to be a fiery crusader for justice, with tons of political ambition. Daniel Perrin 2.0 quickly became a senator. And then they decided their lucrative, illegal Dollhouse operation was getting too much attention, so they decided to have their puppet Senator investigate these rumors — only to disprove them and exonerate Rossum completely.

Of course, poor old Madeline aka November would have to be the sacrificial lamb, stepping forward as a former doll only to be revealed as a crazy woman and then destroyed. But you can't achieve total political power without crushing a few people along the way.

Alexis Denisof did a fantastic job of bringing Senator Perrin to life, and the Dollhouse writers managed to find yet another fascinating twist on the idea of people's identities being erased and rebuilt: Here was someone the Dollhouse had made better. They'd taken a worthless shell of a human being and turned him into a good guy — except, of course, for the part where he danced to their tune. An extra layer of weirdness comes from the fact that they didn't just build a fictitious persona for him — they layered on a new personality on top of his old one, so that when he realizes he's been reprogrammed, he has a hard time separating his real life from his fake one. His fake marriage to a woman who loathes him is a new level of creepy from a show that seemed to have emptied its creepy-bag already.

The other big twist, of course, is at the end, when Perrin has killed his wife under the control of Bennett Halverson (Glau). And he starts to think that maybe it wouldn't be quite so bad to let the Dollhouse erase his memory of what happened, so he can go back to thinking of himself as a fine, upstanding senator. Who cares if it's a lie, or if the real murderers will get away with it? It's the easy way. And then Echo points out that Perrin didn't kill his wife, Rossum did. But if Perrin lets Rossum erase his brain again, then Perrin really did kill his wife. When you put it like that, there's no choice, right? Perrin has to do the right thing and hang on to his real memories.

Except he doesn't. The next time we see him, we think he's about to step up and expose Rossum, but then we realize that he's taken the devil's bargain. He's chosen to let Rossum wipe his mind one more time, rather than deal with the reality of his life. (Not unlike Sierra last episode, choosing to remain a doll rather than remember that she killed her tormentor.)

This was such a smart, challenging two hours of television, it's a crime that it's not the new 24 or House. Just rewatch the scene where Perrin is trying to explain to Echo that she's a doll, before he discovers he's a doll himself — his horror and disgust are so palpable, and then it turns out that he's the thing he's been describing all along.

If only this show wasn't airing on a Friday night. Or if only it actually appealed to the kinds of brain-damaged idiots that this Microsoft ad seems to think are watching:

It's Dollhouse for dummies! I will refrain from making any snarky comments about Microsoft's opinion of its own users' intelligence.

Meanwhile, November is all fired up to do the right thing — and you know it's not going to turn out well, even before you understand how she's being set up. She's still a puppet, even though she's no longer a doll. And just standing up and telling the truth about the Dollhouse is never going to work, because they can discredit her so easily. Weirdly, it's the best argument I've seen so far in favor of Ballard's decision to go work for the Dollhouse instead of continuing to work against it — there's no way to destroy it except from the inside. The scene where Ballard finally gets to talk to November and explains to her his version of events is pretty heartbreaking, but you can easily see why she's not won over. All she sees is another person trying to control her, and not being nearly as subtle about it as the Senator's people.

Ballard can't protect her from her own bad decisions, and when he realizes that, it's a crucial step towards him being less of a meathead. I actually love Ballard, but it's about time he got over his "knight in shining armor" fixation — and it's especially cool to see him starting to cast that off in an episode where the "you're my knight in shining armor" thing turns out to be a conditioning trigger for a mindwiped slave.

Adelle and Topher continue to be the best double act on television — the limo scene was great — and both of them had some great moments this week. After seeing Adelle acting a bit like a whipped puppy with Mr. Harding lately, it was great to see her regain her backbone and move to protect November. And the ball-grabbing scene with Ray Wise, cartoonish though it was, still totally ruled. Meanwhile, what's a better double act than Adelle and Topher? Two Tophers! Yet again, Enver Gjokaj proves that he can do pretty much anything, as he creates a spot-on impression of Fran Krantz.

So why did I say that the Summer Glau parts didn't work for me? Well, the stuff between Bennett and Topher was great — the nerd bonding, the rivalry, the scheming against each other, the flirting. I could have watched it for hours. The bit where Topher decides she's too pretty to be as smart as she is was a tad annoying, but also utterly believable. And I loved it when she's flattered that he tried to tase her. That was twisted and sweet and totally awesome.

But the rest of Glau's performance, for whatever reason, just did not work. I think it was the writing more than Glau's acting — they were trying to do something arty, and it fell flat. There were too many scenes of Glau soliloquizing and repeating weird phrases over and over, to show that she's tightly wound and psychotic. And the whole business where she has a vendetta against Echo because Echo's original personality, Caroline, left her crushed under some rubble just felt a bit contrived. It felt like way too much of a coincidence. And I just could not buy that Bennett would let the Senator and Echo escape, just so she could keep pursuing her vendetta against Echo a bit further. The whole thing felt, frankly, flimsy. And Glau struggled mighty to sell it, but the whole "psycho geek" routine felt a bit too close to a glitchy Cameron from Sarah Connor Chronicles. "Will you please make sure? Will you please make sure? WILL YOU PLEASE MAKE SURE?"

I think it was the fact that this is supposed to be such a huge operation for Rossum, and yet Bennett bungled it so hugely — first by torturing Echo when she was supposed to be mindwiping the Senator, then by letting the Senator escape, and finally by turning the Senator into a psycho-killer — seemed just a tad much. And I just couldn't buy into the "I got hurt in an accident and you ran away, so I'm obsessed with destroying your mindless shell even though you don't remember me" thing. It felt a bit forced.

Glau was a joy to watch whenever she had scenes opposite Fran Kranz. But the rest of the time, her scenes dragged the story to a halt. But I'm sure your mileage may well vary, and feel free to let me know in the comments!

But generally this was another fantastic outing — bringing the show up to four brilliant episodes in a row. There are so many ideas embedded in this story about what makes us who we are, and how much we're slaves to our programming — even the Bennett storyline, which fell flat for me, had an interesting spin on how she's a slave to her compulsion for revenge. It was depressing to see so many ads for Human Target, a show based on a comic book that explored similar ideas of identity and selfhood during its most recent Vertigo Comics incarnation but which is tossing all of those ideas away in favor of a dumb bodyguard storyline. Dollhouse is the show that fans of Peter Milligan's Human Target comics actually deserve.

Wee tidbits: We've had several hints lately that there was another Sierra before the current one, and that Adelle got a bit too attached to her, and it ended badly. I wonder what are the chances we'll find out what that's about before the show runs out of episodes?

Also, yet again we get another person telling us how special Echo is — this time, it's Bennett, saying that Echo has this magical ability to make people love her (or something.) I'm beginning to think she's turning into RTD's version of the Doctor, and we're going to have people saying that Echo is fire and ice and dragons and a lonely god and the reason the Earth doesn't turn backwards. Still, I'm willing to let it pass, since Echo being special turns out to be important in the post-apocalyptic world we're heading towards.

Also, more hints that Caroline wasn't a particularly nice person... and suddenly, Echo doesn't want to go back to being Caroline. After insisting in "Omega" and this year's season opener that she's just waiting for Caroline to come home, she's now gone over to Whiskey's point of view — if Caroline returns to Echo's body, then Echo is killed. So she'd rather remain Echo, and let Caroline rot in a wedge? It'll be interesting to see if that becomes an issue soon.

I love that the DC Dollhouse's Actives are named after Greek gods, like Hades and Aphrodite.

Great lines:

"This is the same tech that turned Echo into a serial killer." "We said we wouldn't dwell on that. He's dwelling."

"You just woke up a lot of people — and they all think you're a bitch!"

"How about the Senator beats his wife?" "The Senator doesn't beat his wife. The Senator loves his wife." "Lucky wife."

"No, no, you're very pale. White. Pinkish white. I mean, your skin. Your skin is like a pig. Because it's pink. People assume that pigs are bad, but I like them. I love them."

"Wasabi peas." "I'm excited and scared."

"Imagine John Cassavetes in The Fury as a hot chick." "Which you know I often have!"

"Oh, it's very nice." "She was kind of a hooker." "Mmm Hmm. How about while I build the magic bullets, you work on adapting your gun?"

"The Senator is filibustering."