Fox announced on Wednesday that Human Target - starring Fringe's Mark Valley as Christopher Chance, a bodyguard who takes over the life of his clients in order to save them - will premiere on Sunday, January 17th between a NFC Divisional Playoff game and the two-hour premiere of 24's latest season (wonderfully described by the Hollywood Reporter as "a male-skewing ratings sandwich"), before moving to one of the network's coveted post-American Idol timeslots on Wednesday, January 20th. Given such lead-ins, either Fox is very eager to push what they see as a potential monster hit, or trying to give as much help as possible to something they're not sure will be able to stand on its own.

Talking of Fox failures, it looks like Dollhouse's cancellation may have finally convinced the network that Friday nights aren't good nights for drama: Joss Whedon's mindwipe series is being replaced by a new season of reality show Gordon Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmares on January 29th.

Fox sets 'Human Target' premiere [Hollywood Reporter

Avatar

Producer Jon Landau says that the character Jake Sully begins as a more vulnerable and sensitive character, and gradual becomes the sort of person who can lead a nation into battle. He also says that we won't see any Na'Vi or Avatar sex, just romance. [IGN]

Thor

The casting call has been put out for Marcy Lewis:

(20) Is a college student. Aloof, jaded beyond her years, she thought her internship with scientist Kate Spelling would be an easy 6 college credits. However, she's been stuck for months in this small New Mexico town and relegated to a wide range of unglamorous activities. Kate has been particularly hard on Marcy, making it her personal project to see that Marcy lives up to her potential. Marcy deals with her situation both by using subtle irony and by being an overt wiseass.

[Spoiler TV]

Doctor Who

Yesterday, we told you about the sonic screwdriver explodey scene, and the latest news is about what takes place before that. The TARDIS crashes into a garden, destroys a garden shed, and skids to its resting place. At some point, the smoke comes pouring out of the TARDIS, and Amy is dragging the Doctor away, crying "Come on!" (she still in her policewoman outfit and he in David Tennant's suit). He keeps trying to escape her grasp, screams "I must save her!"

Oh, and that TARDIS? If you peer through the brush, you can see it (Update: I mistook this for the Series Five TARDIS, but it's the Series Four):

[Planet Gallifrey]

And there's more! Here is a shot of the Doctor saying something to Amy, and Amy grabbing him by the tie and dragging him into a black car:

Planet Gallifrey says the dialogue goes something like this:

Doctor: (...), I hate (...). As much as I would like to say goodbye, (...) .... I'm sorry.
Amy: NO!
Doctor: No—no—Amy—no, what are you doing?!

Another line of dialogue heard on set:

Twenty minutes till the world ends and do you know who I am?

In another scene, the Doctor and Amy are running toward a white screen and the Doctor turns to someone in hospital overalls. Set reporters heard something about a coma and staring at a dog.

[Planet Gallifrey]

Commenter bluehinter adds a bit more:

Back in Llandaff, a scene was shot with The Doctor, Amy, and Rory where they look up at the sky (presumably at the CGI "spaceship" that other people were filmed watching earlier) then a dog barks, and Matt goes towards the beer garden, and begins talking down to something on the ground (presumably the dog, or something else to be CGIed in later).

He says "Hello, Prisoner X" and then we hear something about a "Level 20 planet scanning the earth" and "6 billion people."

He also says the February episode written by Richard Curtis will feature Van Gogh.

The Lovely Bones

Peter Jackson's post-death drama gets a moody pair of posters:

[Movie Web]

New Moon

Death Cab for Cutie is contributing a mopey track to the Twilight sequel, and premieres a few shots from the movie in their new video:

[via Cinematical]

Lost

Apparently, the first episode of the new season is going to be so laden with twists and turns that the producers have convinced ABC not to show a single frame before it airs. That's right: no clips in the promos, no teaser images, nada. They want you good and surprised. [Watch with Kristin]

There are, however, spoilers from the fourth episode. We'll learn about a connection between the Smoke Monster and the Man In Black. The fake Locke will convince an old friend to join up with him. Ben will lie to Illana about what happened inside the temple, while someone will try to convince Sun to visit the temple, claiming that Jin is there. Jacob is dead, and someone whose name has five letters will collect his ashes. Franks wants to see if his plane on the other island will still work. [DarkUFO]

Also, we now know the identity of Jacob's rumored offspring: Illana. [SpoilersLost]

Supernatural

During the episode when Sam and Dean fight Lucifer, two fan favorites meet their ends. [Watch with Kristin]

Fringe

We're headed to a small town in episode eleven. The producers are soliciting identical twins to play Tommy, a good kid who wants to see the outside world. We'll also meet Tommy's mother Rose who has a strong moral sense, and the avuncular Sheriff Velchik, an "In Town Elder." [Spoiler TV]

Better Off Ted

In the tenth episode, we learn that even execs get screwed by Veridian Dynamics. Arthur Wells, the company's brash and blunt former CEO, finds out that the company plans to vote him off the board. So he enlists Veronica to help him dig up secrets the company would rather the public not know about. Initially, Arthur and Veronica don't like each other, but they eventual bond over their shared history; after all, they both chose the company over personal relationships. We'll also meet Phil and Lem's nemesis, an obnoxious fellow scientist named Ritchie, a pretty employee named Susan, and Donald, a nervous fellow who works the Veridian swag booth. [Spoiler TV]

Smallville

Lois and Clark will be a "full blown couple" this season. [Watch with Kristin]

Zombie pics from tonight's plague episode "Rabid," including brain-hungry Lois:

[Spoiler TV]

It's unconfirmed, but IMDB is listing Emilie Ullerup as hard-drinking, hard-flirting Daily Planet gossip columnist Cat Grant in the upcoming episode "Crossfire." [Kryptonsite]

House

Cuddy and House will, in fact, hook up this season, but not before the tenth episode. And unlike last time, it won't be a hallucination. [Watch with Kristin]

Heroes

It's not set in stone, but Mohinder may get the axe sometime this season or next season (assuming the show lasts that long). [Watch with Kristin]

It looks like even when the lesbian kiss has passed, we'll still have girl-girl hazing on the table. Here's the official description for the October 26th episode, "Strange Attractors:"

THE HEROES ATTEMPT TO RESCUE THEMSELVES AND OTHERS WITHOUT THE USE OF THEIR POWERS- Matt (Greg Grunberg) goes to extreme measures to extinguish Sylar (Zachary Quinto), who continues to torment him. Elsewhere, HRG. (Jack Coleman) calls in a favor from Tracy (Ali Larter) to save a troubled young boy whose misfortunes resemble her own. While Claire (Hayden Panettiere) and Gretchen (guest star Madeline Zima) are being hazed by their new sorority sisters, they realize pledging might not be their biggest problem.

[Spoiler TV]

Sanctuary

Looks like we're in for a chase scene in tonight's season premiere:

Human Target

The fifth episode of the series is called "Rewind." Christopher Chance will be guarding someone on a plane when the plane catches fire. One person on the plane is hiding a secret. Also, Guerrero will get help from a contact named Sergei. [Target419]

Additional reporting by Alexis Brown and Charlie Jane Anders.

Iron Man 2:

The sequel features a special Stark Industries race car which competes in the Grand Prix de Monaco Historique, a venerable race in Monte Carlo. Everyone's assuming that Tony Stark takes part in this race, but since it's sort of a 1970s looking car, I'm wondering if it's his dad Howard Stark? More pics at the link. [Road And Track via Comic Book Resources]

District 9:

Someone got an advance look at the new trailer for this August release. Among other things, it includes a couple of human bureaucrats tagging along on a raid of the aliens' homes in District 9. One of the bureaucrats puts on a bulletproof vest, and the other one says "I thought I was getting a vest." Don't worry about it, replies the first, you won't need it. Later the vestless guy in a suit picks up a mysterious alien canister and it sprays him with something. Then we see him strapped to a table and thrashing as military people try to hold him down. Later, he's being med-evaced on a chopper, strapped upright to a table, with electrode pads all over his chest. And a close-up of his clenched fist shows something metal attached to his wrist, and he may be in the middle of some kind of transformation. And finally, he's in some kind of decontamination bag looking sickly.

There's also more footage of soldiers and aliens during the raid, as a voiceover says "Nobody knew what this place was." And we see some kind of robot powersuit, similar to Iron Man or Ripley's loader in Aliens. The power suit makes a fantastic leap, and looks menacing. A soldier fires a rocket at the alien mothership, and the robot suit jumps up and deflects it. Voiceovers say things like "Get the freak," "It's gonna be quick," "It's gonna be clean," "It's going to be quiet." And the last shot is the alien mothership, with helicopters approaching it, as a voiceover says "There's a lot of secrets in District 9."

Zombieland:

This movie was partly shot at the Valdosta's Wild Adventures theme park, and at one point Woody Harrelson uses the "Rattler" ride to destroy some zombies. The theme-park scenes take place at night. [Valdosta Daily Times]

Caprica:

Yes, this BSG spinoff is finally working on its second episode, airing next year. According to a casting call, the episode entitled "Rebirth" will introduce us to Buster Sarno, a TV host similar to Letterman or Leno, but with a bit of Jon Stewart's political edge, added to a retro Dick Cavett sensibility. We'll see him monologuing on the day's events, on his show "Backtalk with Buster Sarno." [SpoilerTV]

Lost:

Producers Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof promise there's a master plan, with some "sweet payoffs." And they hint, once again, that a lot of dead and/or vanished characters will be making reappearances in the final season. "The final season will resemble the first," predicts Michael Emerson. And along those lines, Ian Somerhalder says he may reappear as Boone. "There's definitely an avenue they're going down to bring back a lot of us." Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but the idea of "going down an avenue" sounds a bit more significant than just "Hurley seeing dead people." [TV Guide Magazine and TV Guide Magazine]

Fringe:

A new set pic. What do you think Pacey is handing to Lance? More pics at the link. [SpoilerTV]

Warehouse 13:

In the pilot episode, the college kid who beats up his girlfriend does so while chanting in Italian, a sure sign that evil is afoot. But the boyfriend turns out not to be evil — the main suspects are a evasive professor, and an "eerie rich lady." The show serves up a weird mix, with a mysterious death followed by a joke followed by an unnerving encounter followed by clever dialogue followed by a hallucination. At the end of the episode, demons are running wild and madness is in the air, and Pete Lattimer turns the whole thing into a goofy joke. [Salon]

Eddie McClintock explains the underpinnings of his character, Pete Lattimer:

Pete's father died when he was young. He's taken on a lot of guilt for that. It's caused him to be very driven, but at the same time it's caused him to be very reckless and self-destructive. He had some problems with drinking in college, but he's sober now and we touch on that a little bit, which I think is great. For a dramedy, to have the guy be a recovering alcoholic, it just gives the character so much depth.

The people around him Artie and Pete have a kind of father-son relationship, and Artie sees and understands Myka's flaws and strong points and whatnot. So he's a great sounding board for both characters. In one episode he says to me, 'You need to be in charge. You're more grounded. Don't let Myka know that I told you.' Then he goes to Myka and says the same thing, because he wants to get the best out of both characters.

[The Reading Eagle]

The mystical artifacts you see in the show include Lewis Carroll's mirror, which allows Myka to kick up her heels a bit. In one episode, "Breakdown," the characters end up trapped in the warehouse. At some point, we explore the Dark Vault in the warehouse, where the most dangerous stuff is kept. And the Gooery, which pumps the purple goo needed to keep objects in line. Plus there's the "bronze sector," where some of the world's most dangerous people have been preserved. But we won't be seeing Hitler's mind-controlling microphone any time soon. [Sci Fi Wire]

Smallville:

In the season opener, "Savior," Emil Hamilton reappears and has a scene with Chloe. Lois is back from wherever she disappered to in "Doomsday." And Clark takes a new approach to fighting crime in Metropolis. [Kryptonsite]

Eureka:

The computerized house S.A.R.A.H. tries to kill Andy, the new android replacement sheriff, then she apologizes: "I let my artificial emotions get the best of me." After Andy experiences a setback, Jack invites him to a party. But Andy says in a folksy manner, "I think I need to spend a little time in my box, you know, sortin' things out." [Salon]

The July 17 episode is called "Your Face Or Mine," and the next two episodes are "Insane In The P-Brane" and "It's Not Easy Being Green." [SpoilerTV]

Sheriff Andy's storyline wraps up in one episode, but he'll probably come back at some point. And the season finale deals with everything from fire to water to human evolution. And as we've mentioned, Jack will have a new love interest, Tess Fontaine, distracting him from Allison. Tess and Allison are old friends, but things get tense between them. The season three "big bad" isn't a person, it's a thing, and it relates to the history of the town. The threat means we'll be seeing some characters we haven't seen in a while, including Lexi Carter and Billy Campbell. Plus a couple of mystery characters. [Sci Fi Wire]

Heroes:

Don't expect Claire to try out for the college cheerleading squad: Hayden Panettiere says she's through wearing a cheerleader uniform. [TV Guide Magazine]

Human Target:

As you've probably heard, this TV series' version of Christopher Chance doesn't transform himself into other people — he's just very good at blending in and protecting his targets. And the pilot has a pretty simple storyline — it includes one outrageous "MacGyver moment" and the best fight scene ever. [Sci Fi Scoop]

True Blood:

It turns out Tara's new beau Eggs is too good to be true — he's got an old, old secret. When Tara finds out, she probably won't be that shocked, says Rutina Wesley. "With everything else going on in Louisiana, she'll probably be like, 'I like you, whatever...'" [TV Guide Magazine]

Maryann isn't a villain, says Michelle Forbes:

She is a woman who is all about appetite. She's not human. She has a definite myopic quest that she is on. And she is going to have one hell of a time achieving that quest. Maryann is definitely a character that's about perspective in the sense that she sees her goal as beautiful and blissful and of the divine and pure, so she doesn't consider what she is doing as being bad at all. It's quite a beautiful thing, and she's graciously allowing everyone to come with her.

[Boston Herald]

Additional reporting by Alexis Brown.

Reviewing the pilot for Bleeding Cool.com, screenwriter Adi Tantimedh has a less than positive take on what to expect from next fall's "bodyguard who stops at nothing to defend his client, even if it means taking on his life" drama... and he's looking to one of last year's new shows as a reason for his disappointment:

It's obvious Fox didn't want a situation worse than Dollhouse. The problem with Dollhouse was that there was no central character for viewers to identify and root for because the main character literally had no personality and the main actress would play a completely different person every week. If Human Target followed the comics, the hero, in impersonating his client, would end up being played by a different actor every week. So Christopher Chance [the show's lead character, played by Fringe's Mark Valley] merely goes undercover like any bodyguard and joins the staff or household of his client. Here he's a translator, where we're treated to some of the worst Japanese ever spoken by a white guy who only learned those lines a few weeks before production... It's utterly mediocre, composed entirely of clichés and parts cobbled together from other movies and served up in a slick, glib package that looks like it does the job but is only skin-deep. Which means it might actually be a hit for Fox. Who knows?

Other changes to the show include giving Chance a team of backroom back-up, including Pushing Daisies' Chi McBride and Watchmen's Jackie Earl Harley, and dialing back on the comic hero's psychosis from playing so many roles so often. More worryingly, though, is Tantimedh's mention of Tricia Helfer appearing in a geek-bait cameo role in the pilot... What do we have to do to get this woman a permanent gig somewhere that'll rely on her acting talents rather than asking her to show off and pout a lot?

Human Target premieres on Fox this fall.

Monday
Mondays stay their relatively lowkey selves with the new schedule and, if anything, become even more quiet for SFTV; Heroes and Chuck, both on reduced seasons, end up sharing the 8pm timeslot on NBC (Heroes' 19 episode fourth season goes first, with Chuck's 13 episode third season replacing it in the spring of 2010), with Heroes and Lost alum Jesse Alexander's new show Day One taking up the 9pm timeslot on NBC in 2010. Otherwise, it's a light night, although honorary io9 shows House on Fox and The Big Bang Theory on CBS keep on keeping on (Although BBT is being moved to 9:30pm).

Tuesday
Feel free to go outside or catch up on some cable shows on Tuesdays; Fringe has been moved away from its original timeslot, and until Fox premieres reincarnation crime procedural Past Life in its former 9pm slot midseason, there's almost nothing to see here (The exception being ABC's Better Off Ted, which will start its new 9:30pm slot as soon as Dancing With The Stars finishes). Move along.

Wednesday
Just like Tuesday, we're grasping at straws here until midseason, when new Fox drama Human Target will premiere at 9pm (It'll be replacing Glee, which I shamefully have to admit having loved the preview of last week. Don't judge me). Of possible interest: ABC's Eastwick, which adapts (and, more than likely, homogenizes) the John Updike novel/Jack Nicholson movie The Witches of Eastwick, may turn out to be more interesting than the "Desperate Housewives meets Bewitched" show I'm dreading. Not currently scheduled, but almost certainly on Wednesdays in spring 2010, the final season of Lost.

Thursday
Okay, this is the night to be thankful for TiVo, or else to make some hard choices as to what to watch and what to torrent Hulu later. ABC's new Flash Forward will air Thursdays at 8pm, which is the same timeslot as the CW's equally-new-but-probably-less-good Vampire Diaries and the not-SF-but-kinda fifth season of Bones on Fox (Also, not SF at all but still potentially worth watching at 8pm: NBC are doing more SNL Weekend Update Thursday). 9pm, you'll have to choose between Fringe in its new timeslot on Fox or Supernatural in its old timeslot on the CW; Annalee's head may explode, but this is one of those occasions where my love of multiverse stories makes a choice surprisingly easy (Sorry, Winchester Bros.).

Friday
With more networks pushing more "hit" shows to Friday, I can't quite tell if that means that the old "Friday is where shows go to die" school of thinking is over, or that networks are trying to kill off some shows quietly (Hi, Ugly Betty!). There're only a couple of shows in our target demographic here, though; Smallville takes up residence for its please-God-final season at 8pm on the CW, while Dollhouse starts all over again in its old timeslot, and we keep fingers crossed that (a) it has a stronger start to the season than last time, and (b) more people tune in live this time (Seriously, DVD sales and Hulu views aren't going to keep this thing alive for a third season, people).

Saturday/Sunday
Both nights are incredibly quiet, especially following this summer's burning of remaining episodes of shows we love (Don't forget, Pushing Daisies' final three episodes begin May 30th at 10pm on ABC, and Kings is back on Saturdays next month), but we're hopeful that that'll change as various shows begin to become so unpopular that they get dumped there. Call us cynical, but we'd rather just say realistic...

Still Unscheduled
We know that ABC's V remake is a go, but it's not been given a home yet; looking at the schedules that've been announced, there's theoretically space for it on Mondays following the end of Dancing With The Stars, but somehow I'm not sure that the network would really want to pair it with The Bachelor... Perhaps they're waiting to find out when Lost is returning, to make an Elizabeth Mitchell one-two punch, or perhaps details are still being worked out about exactly how the rebooted V will work (We've heard rumors of a six episode season, a thirteen episode season and a full season so far, after all). Wherever it ends up, I wouldn't expect to see it until midseason at this point.

Terminator Salvation:

A few more early reviews are out, including some details. When Serena Kogan visits Marcus Wright on death row, she's wearing a head scarf to cover her baldness. She wants to turn Marcus into a cyborg, and he agrees in exchange for a kiss. "So that's what death tastes like," he says, which is not what I'd want to hear after kissing someone.

Kate Connor's pregnancy is not even mentioned in the film, even though she's visibly pregnant. Her interactions with her husband are boiled down to just a couple of scenes where she tells him to be careful.

Kyle Reese serves up a delicacy, two-day-old coyote. ("Better than three-day-old coyote," he quips.) Everybody wears snazzy camo pants and vests. Somehow a giant Harvester robot manages to sneak up on a group of people in a gas station despite the fact that it moves slowly and thunderously. Also, the bleak original ending was replaced with a "milquetoast crowd pleaser."
[Emmanuel Levy and Newsarama and BoxOffice.com]

Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen:

Here are a couple new images. (More at the link.) [Cinematical]

Gamer:

Allison Lohman explains her character in this film:

I play Trace. She's part of the resistance. I try to get Gerard Butler back to his family. It's this dystopian future where humans are playing humans on a global scale through video games.

And she says the evil future is "debaucherous" and the film is more serious than the Crank films, from the same directors. [Sci Fi Wire]

Land Of The Lost:

A couple new TV spots. (Not 100 percent sure about the second one, but I think there's some new stuff in there.)

Also, Anna Friel says her character isn't just the standard wimpy movie chick: she's strong and ballsy and a Cambridge graduate. Friel is already signed up for the sequel. [Sci Fi Wire]

Spider-Man 4:

The fourth picture will delve into Peter Parker as a human being more deeply than the first three. It'll bring the character to life with a level of detail you haven't seen before, says Sam Raimi. [Sci Fi Wire and L.A. Times]

Planet 51:

Justin Long says he plays an alien who's the Henry Thomas character in this reverse version of E.T.: He takes in Dwayne Johnson's astronaut, who visits his planet. [Sci Fi Wire]

Thor:

Here's the casting call for the ultra-important supporting character, Volstagg:

Male. Early to mid 30s. 6'2" or taller. Obese but agile, fun, good-hearted, a warrior but prefers eating over fighting...SUPPORTING; OPEN TO ALL ETHNICITIES.

[Movies-Spoilers]

Lost:

Elizabeth Mitchell will be a regular on the V reboot, so don't expect Juliet to be a regular on Lost as well. However, she will be in an unspecified number of Lost episodes next year, so it's possible she really did survive the bomb going off in her face. [EW]

Human Target:

Just how vapid will this comic-book adaptation be? Behold four new clips. [Target419.com]

And here are some promo pics. Shiny! [SpoilerTV]

Additional research by Alasdair Wilkins.

New drama Human Target stars Mark Valley (Oliva's brain boyfriend from Fringe) as a know-it-all, can do sort of fella for hire. According to the DC comic, the Human Target is supposedly a "master of disguise" and swaps his life with the client he's been paid to protect, thus becoming the "human target." Sadly, this TV persona puts forth zero effort on his disguise and tries to pawn off two minutes of wretchedly-accented Japanese on the audience to seal the deal of his crap cover. So yeah, it's absolutely nothing like the clever comic from which it was adapted. It feels more like a poor person's Burn Notice, but only if the main character was a smarmy dick who fails miserably at being incognito. They even got Tricia Helfer to star in the pilot. The show is being produced by McG — yes, THAT McG — which isn't really a marker of bad TV as the man produced Supernatural (which we all adore). Jackie Earle Haley guests stars, so maybe he can save this action drama. Here is the trailer:

Next up is the paranormal-ish detectives show Past Life. But instead of it being a direct rip off of Medium, this lady can sense your past lives. So either she's going to be talking to a lot of kids, or solving crimes from thirty years ago. Either way, I'm not too sure how this will work for a weekly TV show. Here's the trailer, let me know what you think.

Human Target premieres with a special preview Sunday, Jan. 17 9 PM. Past Life does not have a launch date yet.

It'll Be Cheaper
Part of the negotiation process for the second season centered around cost. As the Chicago Tribune's Maureen Ryan points out,

Fox didn't renew "Dollhouse" because the show's fans would have been sad about the Joss Whedon show's untimely death. Fox doesn't care about how viewers feel (you saw "Moment of Truth," right?). No, Fox renewed "Dollhouse" because it thinks it can make money off the project — enough to keep the enterprise profitable.

According to the Hollywood Reporter's James Hibbard,

Fox received some serious budget concessions from 20th TV and Whedon to continue the show, with 20th now shouldering a greater portion of the load. Another factor was the show's unaired 13th episode, which Whedon shot on a shoestring budget for the "Dollhouse" first season DVD set. Whedon presented it to the network as an example of how "Dollhouse" can achieve a high-quality production with a lesser budget.

So does this mean we can expect a series of episodes based inside the Dollhouse, using existing sets and fewer actors? Potentially. Or, just as likely, we may see a less glossy aesthetic for the new season. Remember, Whedon made Dr. Horrible for almost no budget at all; he's probably got some ideas on how to work around cost-cutting. And besides...

It'll Be Shorter
Fox is dropping its "Remote Free TV" scheme, meaning that the second seasons of both Dollhouse and Fringe are going to have regular ad breaks, and lose somewhere around 6-8 minutes per episode as a result (On the plus side, no more glittery Eliza trying to smolder to the camera as the voiceover guy tells us that the show will be back in sixty seconds). How will the loss of that running time offset the budget tightening? Not enough, most likely - unless those were six really expensive minutes - but the added ad revenue may make the network feel better about the show moving forward.

It'll Be Based On A Different "Creative Direction"
While Fox execs were viewing pilots for next year's schedule, they also watched the now-mythical "lost" episode of the show, "Epitaph One," to decide Dollhouse's fate. So when sources talk about "a shift in creative direction" for the new season, should we start considering "Epitaph One" a second season pilot and the shape of things to come? Joss Whedon's not saying just yet (although he is saying things like "oh, the terrible things my brain is brewing... Just wait. We'll make it worth it," if that helps), but co-executive producer Elizabeth Craft has suggested that the episode may even become part of the second season:

[T]o us, we don't think of ["Omega"] as the last episode of the season, even though it technically is, because ["Epitaph One"] gets into - well, I don't want to say too much about it... Hopefully if we get a Season 2, we'll show that episode.

(Now there's a thought on how to cut costs; have one of the episodes already done and costing nothing. Of course, you'll have to pull it off the first season DVD, but still. Joss, you listening?)

Also, British viewers? Here's where you get to have the jump on the Americans - Sci Fi UK have announced that they plan to show "Epitaph One" at the end of the first season, as intended. Don't gloat too much.

For what it's worth, changing the direction of the show would make sense, given how the second half of the first season played out; the (original) arcs of Ballard and Caroline are finished, with the FBI agent having found the girl and Carolinecho having become self-aware without becoming another Alpha. I hope that the second season would focus on the themes and questions introduced at the end of the first (What is the true purpose of the Dollhouse technology? Are humans just vessels for interchangable personalities? What happens when an Active is aware of her status? How are we supposed to believe that Ballard would join the organization he'd been trying to destroy for the last twelve weeks? and so on), but as long as we don't have any more "blind girl with camera eyes working for the FBI" episodes, that's enough to start with.

One thing is very unlikely to change, however:
It'll Still Have A Shitty Timeslot
Both the Hollywood Reporter and Variety are saying that the show is likely to stay on Friday nights, which really isn't a good thing - Look at the dips the show took when geek-friendly movies opened, if nothing else. It's unsurprising, though, considering Fox's other returning shows taking up timeslots on most other nights. What we're now wondering is what will get paired with it; I said yesterday that new series Human Target would be a great partner, as it shares questions about identity as well as a format that sees its lead "become" a new person every week, but is Fox really willing to dump that show on a Friday? If they do, expect to see Dollhouse bumped to 8pm and act as a lead-in.

The renewal of Dollhouse is a strange triumph of hope versus experience; as THR's Hibbard pointed out when breaking the news,

"Dollhouse" might very well be the lowest-rated in-season scripted drama to ever get a renewal on a major broadcast network. Almost certainly if based on where the show concluded — a 1.0 among adults 18-49.

So what brought it back? It's doubtful that it was fan outcry (or jamming Fox's switchboards because Miracle Laurie suggested it, for that matter), because... well, have you seen similar surprise news for the equally-beloved Terminator series? Much more likely is Fox's belief that they can turn the series into something financially worthwhile for them, which will be fueled not only by cutting costs, but by the exceptionally good DVR audience for the show, the critical upswing for the first season's second half, the undoubtedly pleasing pre-orders for the DVD boxset and - no pressure here - faith that Joss Whedon can turn everything around the second time out.

How he'll do that, and what the show will become in order to gain more viewers without losing its existing hardcore faithful, may be the most interesting behind the scenes story of the year, whether it succeeds or not. All we know for sure is that, in order to survive, the show has to - ironically, perhaps - become something new and different while staying the same. Are you ready for your treatment, Dollhouse?

With rumors of a Dollhouse return still circling ahead of next week's announcements of the network's fall line-up - Sadly, much less chatter about Terminator getting a third season - Fox have already announced that they've picked up Past Life and Human Target as series.

Target, based on a DC comic, centers around Christopher Chance, a bodyguard who protects his clients by taking their place. For anyone who's ever wanted to see the super-science of shows like Bones and CSI applied to the world of make-up, this will be your chance (No pun, etc.); this plus side will be if the show follows the lead of the most recent comic take on the character, adding a messed-up layer of identity politics and confusion to the drama. If Terminator doesn't end up getting renewed, this could be the ideal partner for a second year of Dollhouse.

Past Life, on the other hand, sounds like an ideal pairing with Fringe, being a show about detectives using somewhat unusual methods - like talking to the dead, or investigating victims' former incarnations - in order to get their perp. While it may lack Fringe's wonderful use of parallel Earths, I'd be surprised if it doesn't allow for jerky camera shots and fast edits just as much.

Fox announce their complete fall line-up next Monday.

Fox picks up 'Past Life' [Hollywood Reporter]