Enjoy your Gender Specificity while it lasts.
Sorry, we still do not have personal jet packs.
Save the Rainforests, thats where the ape overlords say the best bananas come from.
Racism is no longer a problem now that all inferior humans are slaves.
Don't worry, it turns out the moon is made out of fossil fuels.

Surprisingly amusing. You can check out more of these, along with the original ads that aired 10 years ago, by visiting None Inc. Just ignore the "visit Syfy" image that pops up and scroll down the top, orange window.

As part of the promotions for the new name for the channel, SyFy will be providing free wireless internet — dubbed "WyFy from SyFy" — at Union Square and Times Square, as well as building something called an "interactive Imagination Park" outside parent company NBC/Universal's Rockefeller Center to include program-centric promotion between July 7th and 12th. The network has also been named as the lead sponsor of the Museum of Modern Art's November-launching Tim Burton retrospective.

Admittedly, if you live outside of New York, this doesn't do a lot for you... unless you're an NBC affiliate, in which case you can enter a sweepstake to win a trip to San Francisco for some Warehouse 13 and Eureka goodies. Everyone else, though? We just have to wait for San Diego Comic Con, where the network plans a "larger presence"... and hopefully some spoilers and teases for the year ahead.

SciFi's rebrand into SyFy officially takes place on July 7th.

Syfy's Two-Pronged Rebrand Strategy [Broadcasting Cable]

The decision to cancel the show comes after months of speculation about its future; it's been known for some time that ITV was considering cancellation due to the high production cost, leading to producers Impossible Pictures offering a co-production deal with the SciFi Channel as an alternative way to lower costs. Instead, ITV decided to simply drop the show. An ITV spokesman told the Guardian newspaper:

After three very successful series of Primeval there are no plans at the present time for it to return to ITV. High-quality drama remains a key part of the ITV schedule although our current focus is on post-watershed [ie, post-9pm] productions.

Impossible Pictures, however, refuse to let the show die quietly, telling Total SciFi Online:

At the point where we finished the third series, we had every reason to believe we would be doing a fourth. Had we known there was any likelihood of cancellation, clearly we wouldn't have left half the cast marooned up a tree in the distant past. We can understand that some fans might be frustrated by this ending and we're sorry for that. It certainly wasn't our plan to leave things so uncertain. That said, some fans may know that there are ongoing talks for both a film and a North American series version of Primeval and if and when those projects come to fruition we will make every effort to carry on the story in a suitable way.

Obviously we're devastated that things should end this way with ITV. But we're absolutely certain that although this stage of its evolution seems to be over, Primeval isn't dead. We're very proud of what we've achieved over the past three years and we have every intention of keeping Primeval alive in other ways.

Primeval's final season is currently airing in the US on BBC America.

Primeval dropped by ITV [Guardian.co.uk], ITV cancel Primeval [Total SciFi Online]

Studies show that the KFC/BSG teaming was much more successful than normal advertising, both for the chicken shack and the show: Brand recall for the "hybrid branding" spots was at 103% of the norm, with KFC scoring 82% likability as a result, while Galactica's audience proved 29% more loyal as a result. It gets weirder; of the BSG fans who participated in the KFC-sponsored online activities like the "Hear The Fans" feedback forum or "Cheer The Fans"' embeddable video clips found themselves 23% more likely to eat at KFC as a result of the sponsorship. SciFi's VP of strategic marketing, Shari Weisenberg, is happy with the results of the sponsorship:

It was a good match... Battlestar Galactica has a deep, loyal fan base, which we know would engage both online and on-air. KFC saw it as a means to get new customers.

While SciFi can't point to specific KFC sales figures, they know that over 100,000 KFC coupons were downloaded during the promotion with "intent to buy." I wonder if this means we'll see more of this kind of crossmarketing in future on the soon-to-be SyFy, and less awkward deodorant plotlines in our favorite shows.

Sci Fi's 'Battlestar Galactica' Promotion Scored For KFC [Multichannel]

Heraclitus said you can't step into the same river twice, but that's what Syfy, having adapted Riverworld into a standalone feature in 2003, is trying with next year's more ambitious, four-hour miniseries based on Philip José Farmer's beloved novels. Judging by this Q&A at SciFiWire, however, scribe Robert Hewitt Wolfe (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, The 4400) seems undaunted by the prospect of alienating Farmer's loyal readers with an adaptation that ditches the original's storylines and relegates its protagonists to supporting character (or antagonist) status.

The basic premise is the same: deceased humans from across time find themselves living in a watery limbo, a planet-traversing river, where famous historical personages and obscure folk unite to unravel the mystery of their situation. Like the 2003 movie, however, the Wolfe miniseries will push aside the first book's protagonist (real-life Victorian explorer Sir Richard Francis Burton) in favor of a contemporary American protagonist (to be played by Dollhouse's Tahmoh Penikett) with a simple motive: to find his missing love (Smallville's Laura Vandervoort), who died with him in a suicide bombing.

Wolfe (whose strong résumé includes multiple episodes of Andromeda, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and The 4400) suggests that he wants to leave the saga's spiritual and philosophical underpinnings intact, but downgrading the swashbuckling, complex, real-life protagonist to a supporting role because American TV viewers might find him too obscure and unlikable doesn't speak well for the project's literacy and thoughtfulness. In fact, Wolfe hints that Burton may be more of an antagonist than a protagonist. Mark Twain, the hero of the second book, will turn up early on, having managed to build himself a riverboat.

Plus, Wolfe envisions future installments of this possible ongoing series, where he uses Farmer's platform as an opportunity to dig up various historical figures and watch them fight. "I'd love to do a story where the real Macbeth finds out about this play that has been written about him and is freaking pissed off because it makes him look like a dick!" Heh heh. Watch your back, Shakespeare!

Farmer, who died in February at 91, was reportedly upbeat about the prospect of this miniseries. These days, however, he's probably on a steamboat somewhere with Twain and Shakespeare, plotting vengeance.

British newspaper the Guardian is reporting that, despite Primeval being one of ITV's most successful dramas, the high production costs may force the network to share expenses with the UK SciFi Channel, allowing them to show the series before it ends up on its home network. While neither SciFi nor Primeval production company Impossible Pictures offered comment - and ITV's comment was a generic "no decision has been made about a fourth season yet" - an anonymous source was quoted as saying:

Everything is being looked at to see if the show can be brought in most cost-effectively and there is a plan that has been put to ITV which involves other channels. It is a couple of weeks away from a decision. [ITV Director] Peter Fincham wants to see what kind of business deals can be put together.

The UK SciFi Channel shares a parent company, NBC Universal, with the American SciFi/SyFy, which leads us to wonder whether a deal could be worked out allowing the US channel to own American rights and premiere the episodes simultaneously with ITV in the UK, similar to the co-funding of Battlestar Galactica between the US SciFi and UK Sky networks...

ITV could share cost of Primeval with rival digital channel [MediaGuardian.co.uk]

For each drinking game, we're just listing the absolute best rule of the bunch. For the whole set, click through on each link. (Unfortunately, there was no way I could test-drive all of these; I kind of wanted to keep my liver.)

General:

Drinking Game with the Sci-Fi Channels Original Movies (by Joanna Lopez, associatedcontent.com)
Best Rule: four sips if the movie looks like a poor person's version of the latest popular movie playing in theaters.
Likelihood of Intoxication: Relatively High

The Scifi/Action/Disaster Movie Drinking Game (posted by oblivion)
Best Rule: Evil clown/mime/street performer (Because, really, I had no idea that happened with any sort of regularity in sci-fi and action films.)
Second-Best Rule: Leading man named after verb or mineral (Because now I'm trying to think of an example and can't . . . You know, this game has some odd rules.)
Likelihood of Intoxication: Moderately High, especially if the plot involves a guy named Hunt Quartz preventing a syndicate of mimes from setting off their hurricane-causing doomsday machine

Spot the Scifi Cliché! A Drinking Game(by Charlie Jane Anders, here at io9)
Best Rule: The hero has a miraculous gadget (which may rhyme with ironic brew diver) allowing him to get out of literally any difficult situation with no hassle.
Score: Minus 10 points.
Drinking game: Make yourself a sonic screwdriver out of orange juice, vodka and ultrasonic vibrations. Drink the whole thing in one go.
Likelihood of Intoxication: Probably highest if you're watching a show that may rhyme with Proctor Glue (Speaking of which . . .)

Specific:

Doctor Who - The Drinking Game! (by Simon Oxwell)
Best Rule: If you see something of which 1970s anti-violence crusader Mary Whitehouse would disapprove (This is a drinking game designed for the classic series, by the way.)
Likelihood of Intoxication: Moderate, depending on which Doctor it is and how many Daleks are present.

The Batman Movie (1966) Drinking Game (Sky of Blue's Hoosier Journal of Inanity)
(Can I just say how pleased I am that someone's made a drinking game for this movie, considering how much it pretty much cries out for one?)
Best Rule: Now, here's the REAL kicker. At one point in the movie, Robin asks Batman, "You risked your life to save that riffraff in the bar?" Chug ONE ENTIRE BEVERAGE upon Batman's reply of, "They may be drinkers, Robin, but they're also human beings ..."
Second-Best Rule: "Under this garb we're perfectly ordinary Americans."
Likelihood of Intoxication: I'm going to say "Pretty High," because according to the creator of the game: "With what we were drinking, no one remained upright much past Rule 5." (Although now I just want to know what they were drinking . . .)

Drunkgate: Stargate Drinking Game (for Stargate: SG-1)
Best Rule: The team has to impersonate deities. (This includes if they are recognized as such but choose not to carry out the impersonation.)
Second-Best Rule: There are trees. (Basically, I think this rule should be added to any and all drinking games.)
Likelihood of Intoxication: Extremely High, from what I can tell (But only if you follow all the rules, of which there are about a million)

The (Original Series) Tomorrow People Drinking Game (by Beth Epstein, with submissions by Heidi Howard, Amy Houghton, and Maria Sloughter)
Best Rule: A trend in fashion or pop culture turns out to be an insidious alien plot.
Likelihood of Intoxication: Extremely Low if you follow the rule at the start of the game: "Tomorrow People don't ingest anything that will affect the functioning of their minds. Alcohol affects the mind. Therefore, Tomorrow People don't drink alcohol. This game is meant for root beer, juice, or other soft drinks, or you could use M&M's (1=sip, 2=gulp, use snack size/halloween size bags for whole drink— or two really big handfuls)." (I figure this is one of those instances in which rules were made to be broken, though.)

300 Drinking Game (SuperHeroHype Boards)
Best Rules (Aka, the only rules): Every time the word Sparta or Spartan is mentioned, you drink. Or if you want to get really plastered, you have to keep chugging during all the slow-mo.
Likelihood of Intoxication: For a game with only two rules, I feel the odds are pretty darned high.

The Battlestar Galactica Drinking Game (by Denise Martin, Los Angeles Times)
Best Rule: Sneak a swig... Every time you wonder why more people watch "Lost."
Likelihood of Intoxication: Moderate.

Supernatural Drinking Game (by Lsketch42, via YouTube)

Best Rule: I don't know that there's a best rule here, as I couldn't really get past the polka music and The Chicken Dance. That being said, I admire anyone who condenses an entire show down to the moments when you ought to be drinking.
Likelihood of Intoxication: If you watch the drinking game video, you're probably just going to have to chug for a couple minutes straight, so I figure your odds of being buzzed by the end are up there. (You will have also endured a few minutes of the aforementioned Chicken Dance music, so I think you've earned the buzz.) If actually watching the show, with all the extraneous plot and stuff, your chances of intoxication plummet pretty severely, I think.

KryptonSite's Smallville Drinking Game! (via KryptonSite)
Best Rule: You count more than a five second awkward silence between Clark and Lana.
Likelihood of Intoxication: Pretty Darned High
(Then again, here is another, which gives you new rules every time you refresh the page.)

The Star Trek Drinking Game
Best Rule: A newly discovered planet is "Much like Earth"
Second Best Rule: Kirk violates the prime directive (Mostly because I thought it said "detective" for a minute. Now that's an episode that should have happened.)
Likelihood of Intoxication: Pretty High (I'm interested to see how well it holds up in the movie coming out next week.)

Heroes: The Drinking Game (Miss Geeky)
(But you can find others here and here. As well as about a hundred other places.)
Best Rule: Mohinder saying "evolution", "mankind", or "cure". (I think you could pass out on this rule alone.)
Likelihood of Intoxication: Pick any one of the games and you can get really wasted. Combine all of them, and you're dead.

Lee Falk's newspaper strip hero, created in 1936, is known as a non-superpowered costumed hero fighting evil in the jungles of fictional country Bengali who uses his wits, natural strength and agility and two guns to get the job done. By contrast, SciFi's take on the character gives him a bulletproof suit that also acts as an exoskeleton to give him increased strength and speed. Oh, yeah, and a Matrix-esque trenchcoat. But he might need that, considering he's apparently going to be up against an "experimental mind-control program" in the network's backdoor pilot next year. Because, you know, a non-experimental mind-control program would just be taking things too far.
This isn't the first time that the Phantom has been given an update; Marvel Comics revamped the character in a similar fashion in the mid-90s, and there was a series about an animated futuristic Phantom called Phantom 2040 around the same period. Apparently, the best way to make the Phantom work for modern audiences is to come up with a different concept altogether and just keep the name and color scheme - a plan that, admittedly, gains credibility when you consider the fate of the faithful 1996 movie.

Get a sneak peek at the title character from SCI FI's The Phantom [SciFi Wire]

The channel added 7% to their adults aged 18-34, and 4% to their overall viewership, according to the press release, with the final episodes of Battlestar Galactica and the ever-present Ghost Hunters and Ghost Hunters International leading the way in viewers, making the network the fifth watched basic cable channel for the month (Last March, they were 8th). Considering that the network is already growing its female audience at such a rate, it'll be interesting to see if the channel's rebranding in June will change these numbers in any way whatsoever, really.

Sci-Fi Jumps to Number 5 in Adults 25-54 for March [The Futon Critic]

One of the channel's founders, Mitch Rubenstein, called the name change "just plain dumb" in a letter to hollywood.com. Rubenstein recounted how he, Laurie Silvers and Isaac Asimov strove to convince fans to accept the Sci Fi Channel - and how difficult it was when he was booed off stage for merely calling the new channel "Sci Fi," instead of "science fiction" or "SF". But it was Isaac Asimov who wooed the crowd:

Then Isaac started to speak and said that the name had to be Sci Fi Channel and not the SF Channel, in order to draw a wide, diverse audience and be successful. To be in a financial position to acquire and produce the best programming. That's really what counts, right? The writers came around and agreed. Heck, it was Isaac Asimov saying "Sci Fi Channel" was OK, and that was that.

What would Isaac have said if the name was instead SyFy Channel. He would have said (we believe): That's just plain dumb.

Yesterday we got a chance to speak with Sci Fi president David Howe - who said he loved our proposed "yo9" redesign, from Garrison Dean. We asked Howe if he thought Asimov would approve of the channel's name change. He replied:

I honestly suspect not. I wasn't around and I wasn't aware of the genesis of the network and the name. But I think when I read that piece... the thing that struck me most about it is, I suspect [that] if we took them through the rationale as to why we were changing, they would probably get it. If you read that piece, it kind of says that when it was launched, it was launched as the Science Fiction Channel, exclusively. And that it was primarily about space and technology, and the future, and essentially Star Trek. That is something we in no way shape or form want to get away from. But I think what we want to move to the position where we can move into the broad scifi fantasy landscape and include in there fantasy, paranormal, supernatural, super-hero and some of the speculative action-adventure. I think that's sort of the object of this exercise. So it's about: "How do we embrace the broader scifi-fantasy landscape," as opposed to, "How do we escape our past?"

Maybe Howe's right and he could have won Asimov over. It certainly sounds like Howe and staff are incredibly dedicated to the idea of selling this new branding to the world, and he seems pretty darn smooth. But is changing the name from Sci Fi to Syfy going to bring in more viewers, who were previously deterred by the "scifi" stigma? I'm not too sure. If they keep making things on a par with BSG then sure, but finding that kind of content is pretty impossible these days.

But what else could Syfy have been labeled? According to Howe they were also tossing around the names Beyond and SFC, but even the word Beyond was deemed by a test group as being over John Q. Public's head. That's incredibly depressing - maybe they should have called the channel Not Sci Fi - that way, no one would be challenged or scared by us geeks.

But Howe reassures us all that this isn't about shoving the channel's loyal viewers into a locker, so Syfy can hang with the cool kids. Howe is still dedicated to those not afraid to think for themselves, who won't run away from the words "science fiction."

This is not about alienating our existing core viewers because frankly we are still the scifi-fantasy channel and will continue to be so. This is absolutely about embracing our heritage, and embracing our future, and figuring out how we can bring even more people into the camp. The thing that I think disturbs us most was, people, as we expected, saying ‘Well this is just another opportunity to put more ECW on the air.' Or, ‘This is another opportunity to do even more reality.' That isn't true and recent announcements [prove otherwise]. We've picked up Caprica, it'll launch in the new year. We've picked up Stargate Universe, the next exciting chapter of the longest running space opera in TV history. This isn't about retrenching, this is about absolutely embracing the totality of not just our core audience but actually, a new audience in the future."

So there you have it, it could have been Beyond, so that makes Syfy look a lot better in my opinion. I know we fear change, but I'm curious as to what you guys think what kind of content Syfy will be hosting two years from now.

Honestly, my heart sank when I saw the announcement, because it foregrounds Syfy's planned Alice In Wonderland miniseries. Presumably it'll be "dark" and in the style of the channel's Wizard Of Oz reinvention, Tin Man. But some things just ought to be left alone, and the idea of a more "character-driven" Alice makes me feel slightly ill.

Oh, and here's Whoopi Goldberg as the Cheshire Cat, just to seal the deal:

Aren't you excited now?

There's also a four-hour miniseries based on The Phantom, which Syfy promises will be in the vein of the Batman Begins and Iron Man movies. (I'm guessing it'll be similar to the Flash Gordon series.)

But really, the only thing that gives me hope is the idea of a four-hour Riverworld miniseries, which could turn into an ongoing show. Of all the science fiction book series you could imagine turning into an open-ended TV show, Riverworld is probably the best idea. In Farmer's novels, everyone who's ever lived on Earth wakes up - naked - along the banks of an endless river, with no idea how they got there. Historical figures and random oddities rub shoulders as they try to figure out the mystery of the Riverworld.

Oh, and I just realized the Sci Fi Channel already did an adaptation of Riverworld some years ago - but it sounds like this new version is not a continuation. Rather, it's a reboot or a fresh remake, judging from VP Mark Stern's comments in the Hollywood Reporter interview. Explains Stern:

"Riverworld," about a photojournalist transported to a mysterious world occupied by everyone who has ever lived on Earth, could have the most series potential if producers pull off the novel's tricky combination mixing a modern protagonist with reborn historical figures.

Characters in the story's world will be portrayed by actors in their 20s, so somebody like Napoleon wouldn't be "a balding man with his hand in his coat."

"Part of the fun of this is the reveal of who each character is," Stern said.

All three four-hour events are being made by RHI Entertainment, which also worked on Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars and a billion made-for-TV movies. Let's just keep our fingers crossed they don't do a hatchet job on Farmer's awesome novels. [Yahoo News]

13enster: "The Further Proof of the Decline of Western Civilization Channel"

Final: "Every Cable Channel needs a Wrestling Show but we were too cheap to go after Kaiju Big Battel"

LarsThorwald: "We Are Not Above Marketing an Original Movie About a Giant Snake and Starring Chase Masterson as a Major Television Event in Every Single Commercial Break"

oboesqueaks: "Being A Broadcast Network That Specializes In Pictorial Representations Of A Technical and Supernatural Nature - The Only Place Where You Can Find Purple Nazi Monsters"

SuperTuna: "The Ooo - that looks/sounds interesting. Oops looks like it was another Animal turned into man's worst fears made for (turned off) TV movie channel"

Lassus: "The Everyone Hates The Genre That Cannot be Named Network"

AlyssaAnaxo: "The We Can't Tell The Difference Between Science Fiction and Horror Channel"

TarynO: "The If they shot it in Vancouver then it's on our channel channel"

BeccaSaurus: "The We've Lost Our Way, But What's It To You? Wanna Make Something Of It? Channel"

ElsaBabby: "The Acne Network Shut Your Fucking Yaws Shit, You Farscapers YELL! The We Really Wanted to Work For Lifetime Channel The What is Science? And What is Fiction? Station The Damn I Thought I was Working for the Other Michael Jackson When I Was Promoted Channel SyFlyByNight I Cant Spel But I Kin Txt Chanel The English Channel Why Won't This Network Die Already Place on The Cable Box KSFY: All The Crap NBC Doesn't Want Cap'n Syphilis Network I Thought "Demographics" Meant Demonstrating Onion Slicers and Oxy-Clean Our Viewers Really Don't Live With Their Parents? But the Dream Was So Real! Why You don't Hold Your Meeting on Branding at 4:20 KPox What Will We Do When Our Usual Actors Bail on Us They Shoot Networks, Don't They? Kick Me, I'm a Cable Channel It's SyFy, Not Sissy!" (But mostly because I like to pretend that that's all one name.)

QuantAnteater: "The Proof That All the Good Names Have Been Taken Channel"

Bloodboiler: "Scary Door" (I have to admit, I love the idea of a network called "Scary Door." I would totally tune in just to see what the hell was on.)

KoopaLee: "The 'Things We'll Never See In Our Lifetime, So Don't Get Too Excited' Channel"

IngramAmyntor: "The We Don't Care About Our Viewers And Never Did Which Is Why We're Doing Our Damndest To Alienate Them Channel"

ShinjiniPyrrha: "You won't find 'Sex and The City' rerun here Network."

Remember, SciFi/SyFy execs... We're available for all manner of consulting work. And we're very, very cheap.

(* - Yeah, I have no idea how I managed to repeat #15-17. That's what I get for rearranging them after I'd written the post first time out.)

ABC has grabbed the American rights for Impact, a four-hour mini from Germany's Tandem Communications, proud makers of such Sci-Fi Channel Original Mini-Series as Lost City Raiders and Ring of the Nibelung, with an eye to making it a summer event, according to the Hollywood Reporter. Don't feel too bad for the Sci Fi Channel, however; they managed to snag second-run rights to the series, something that makes Sci Fi Executive VP Thomas Vitale very happy indeed:

'Impact' is an ideal acquisition for Sci Fi's weekend-movie franchise... A high-caliber disaster-genre film with such a stellar cast is a recipe for success for Sci Fi.

Sadly, as soon as he said that, everyone else realized that this is probably just another Mansquito and lost interest.

ABC nabs rights to German mini 'Impact' [Hollywood Reporter]

First off - lookin' good, Stoltz. I'm still glad he's a part of this series and playing the slightly creepy genius who brings back Grandpa Adama's daughter from the dead... as a robot.

We've seen Caprica's trailer and how it just barely overlaps with the BSG characters, but I'm really interested to see how the story behind the final Cylon on BSG, will play out on Caprica. Because right now, I'm a bit confused by how Caprica's centurions overlap with the ones the Galactica crew found on Earth, and how the Final Five fit in, exactly.

[Yahoo]

At a press roundtable for the upcoming release of Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li, McDonough told reporters that SciFi is planning to bring Tin Man back as a regular series after it became the channel's most watched show ever last year:

Last year, I had the great fortune to play Wyatt Cain in Tin Man, that could have been my favorite performance of anything I've done. That was a character that was really close to me... I do enjoy playing villains, and I had a great run the last year or so doing it. I certainly would love to go back and visit a guy like Wyatt Cain, whteher its Tin Man the series, which wenve talked about, or just to explore the character [in some way.]

When asked whether a Tin Man series was a possibility, McDonough replied,

It is, yeah. Sci Fi and [producer] Robert Halmi are talking about it. We were going to start up when I got back from Street Fighter, and then [Desperate] Housewives came along, and we weren't ready yet. So I said, let's do some Housewives and let's see if we can get Tin Man done when I come back. It's definitely a possibility, they just talked about it a few days ago. They would like to do it.

Does this mean weekly Alan Cumming and Zooey Deschanel may be in our future? If so, we can't wait.

Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li comes out February 27.

Start unpacking that backpack of homo sapiens privilege, and tune into these awesome posters by Milan ad firm Saatchi & Saatchi. They're designed to promote Sci Fi Channel but let's just ignore that and remember that there are two sides to every alien encounter story.

I'm not entirely joking.

See these posters in an even more giant size at Copyranter.

The show isn't scheduled to start airing on Sci Fi until 2010, but an unrated, uncut version will be out on DVD in April. And it sounds like you'll be able to influence the development of the show through your reactions. Says Sci Fi executive VP Mark Stern:

We wanted to give them a chance to see the pilot in its original form and experience the prequel to the BSG story while that series' finale was still ringing in their ears. It also affords the creative team an unprecedented chance to get viewers feedback before production on the Caprica series begins this summer.

The uncut version will be an hour and 33 minutes long, and the DVD will include the following special features:

Feature Commentary with Director Jeffrey Reiner and Executive Producer/Writer Ronald D. Moore and Executive Producer David Eick

Deleted Scenes

Video Blogs:

• What the Frak is Caprica?
• The Director's Process
• The V Club
• The Birth of a Cylon

[NBC/Universal]

The series is co-written by co-creator Andrew Cosby and Daily Show writer Brendan Hay, with art by Diego Barreto, and takes place between the first and second seasons of the Sci-Fi Channel series, which can only mean one thing: More Nathan Stark. Admit it. You're excited.

Eureka #1 is released tomorrow.

When reviewers (including yours truly at io9) received their screener DVDs of tonight's episode, they also got a note from SciFi Channel explaining "with all due respect" that a "sensitive reveal" had been excised from our review copies. We were asked to review the episode without seeing the entire finished product. While it's normal for studios to send out early screener copies that lack special effects or some sound editing, sending out an incomplete version of an episode to stop spoilers is extremely rare. (UPDATE: This isn't as rare as I originally believed - apparently several studios have sent out incomplete screeners to critics for key episodes in series such as Doctor Who, ER, and for shows winning contestants.)

Obviously the message was that SciFi couldn't trust reviewers to keep secrets to themselves. Or they were worried the excised scene was so lame that they didn't want to risk bad reviews. Either way, the official story was that this weird move was merely a pragmatic precaution. Reps explained that removing the "sensitive" scene was:

an extra precautionary measure to protect the content in the event that this package should become lost or unintentionally delivered to and viewed by someone other than the intended.

Um, what? Are we on orange alert?

A lot of critics noticed the weirdness, and commented. The Los Angeles Times' Mary McNamara mourned the omission of the scene, and the New York Times' Mike Hale grumbled about all the "things you can't know" about Battlestar. Even the Pioneer Press in Minnesota complained about not getting to see the crucial scene. And the Boston Herald's Mark Perigard tried to be nice about it by patiently explaining that as a reviewer he wouldn't want to spoil the ending - but that without seeing it, he basically can't review the whole episode with confidence.

I've been reviewing movies and television now for almost a decade, and I've never been asked to review an incomplete product. Sure, I've been told I can't view a flick until the night before the release, and sometimes studios decline to screen stuff for critics at all (usually a very bad sign). But when you get a review screener, or go to a critic's showing, the studio gives full, unedited access so you can make an honest evaluation of their creation.

I understand why SciFi is worried about spoilers. It sucks when people reveal your "sensitive reveal," but that's a risk whether or not you let critics do their jobs properly. Most leaks come from within studios themselves, not from outsiders who are accidentally delivered a screener DVD. And not from reviewers.

Which leads me back to a point I made earlier, which is that when studios don't want to screen something for critics, it usually doesn't bode well. I really liked what I got to see of tonight's episode, but it looks like we should brace ourselves for a disappointing final cylon.

The final episode of SGA managed to score 2 million viewers, capping off an incredibly successful season that had seen the show grow its audience by 5% compared with the year before. More impressively, its household rating increased by 14% when compared with last season. Sanctuary, meanwhile, also managed to grab 2 million viewers, giving the show its best ratings since the season premiere.

The one-two finale punch managed to make the channel the fourth most-watched cable network for the night, something that has to make the people in charge very happy... especially knowing that this Friday sees the start of the final episodes of Battlestar Galactica, replacing the departed shows.

'Stargate,' 'Sanctuary' Give Sci Fi Stellar Ratings [TV Week]

According to Craig Engler, senior vice president of SciFi.com, Sci Fi Wire will still be a part of the Sci Fi Channel, following its spin-off earlier this week, and the channel hasn't sold the newswire or anything.

When we say spin-off we mean it's become a stand-alone site and no longer a sub-section of SCIFI.COM. Although it's still fully integrated into SCIFI.COM, it lives at its own URL and has its own personality... To borrow a TV term, it's still "owned and operated" by Sci Fi, but the URL and design have changed, and the content is being expanded.

The move should allow Sci Fi Wire, which launched in 1997, to grow more quickly, hopes Engler:

We've been talking about spinning off the Wire as its own site for the last few years to accommodate its continuous growth in traffic, as well as interest from advertisers. Like our tech blog DVICE.COM — which started off life as a sub-section of SCIFI.COM called Sci Fi Tech — the Wire had grown to the point where it seemed like it would work better as s stand-alone site. Simply having its own URL instead of being a slash-something off of SCIFI.COM makes a huge impact. We expect existing readers to enjoy a lot of new content, and new people to find us more easily. So far it's working, because we launched at 1 p.m. on Monday and even though we were only up for 11 hours on our first day, we doubled traffic from our daily average last month.

In any case, the continued link between the Sci Fi Channel and the newswire certainly can't hurt, as the presence of exclusive clips from Battlestar Galactica and its spinoff show Caprica prove.

The new version of the site is here: [Sci Fi Wire]

According to a press release from the Sci Fi Channel itself, 2008 saw audience growth of around 7% overall, with a staggering 14% increase in women aged 18-49 (or 12% increase among Women 25-54, if you'd rather skew a little older). The network is now the ninth-most watched cable channel in the US in the 18-49 demographic, and the fifth in the 25-54 age group.

Most Valuable Player for the channel seems to be Ghost Hunters, which gained an additional 41% viewership this year, and won its Wednesday timeslot in both 18-49 and 25-54 agegroups. No surprise, then, that the release about the success of the channel was followed by one announcing that Ghost Hunters has been renewed for a sixth season.

There is light at the end of the tunnel for those who fear that the future of the channel is just reality shows, however - despite positive mentions for Destination Truth and Scare Tactics - Eureka and Sanctuary are singled out for their ratings in addition to the concluding Battlestar Galactica and Stargate: Atlantis, with Eureka actually delivering more total viewers than Ghost Hunters (2,972,000 versus 2,783,000). All we have to do now is get even more people to watch Eureka and show TPTB at Sci Fi that they should invest in more drama than supernatural phenomenon series...

SciFi Scores Best Year Ever in all Key Demographics [TV By The Numbers]

Talking to SciFi Wire about the second spin-off movie from the hit show - following last year's Razor - Espenson said,

The events of The Plan are the events that you've seen ... in the show, from the miniseries to almost the end of season two, [so] it's that chunk of time, but sort of seen with the Cylon perspective. So you're going to see a lot of stuff that was going on that you weren't aware of at the time: on Caprica, in the fleet... A lot of loose ends are tied up, a lot of questions are asked that you don't even know you have.

Questions are asked that we don't even know we have? Not answered? She continues to be coy about the movie's perspective with this weird tease:

If you had a copy now, you might feel that you could go ahead and watch it, because it's about stuff that already happened... But don't do it. Of course, you don't have a copy now, because there isn't even a cut yet. ... But it's very much designed to be watched after the run of the series, because it definitely relies on stuff you don't learn until much later.

So it doesn't spoil any of the upcoming final episodes to the series proper, but it's meant to be watched afterwards because it relies on things that we don't know...? I'm confused. Maybe you could come up with something that isn't so ambiguous to sell us on the movie, Jane?

[We] made a ton of [script] changes in the preproduction phase and ended up with a really tight script that we filmed sort of as they were demolishing the sets out from under us. And [we] ended up with something that I think is so much better than our highest hopes had been for what this movie could be. It really sort of caps off the show.

That's exactly what I was looking for! The Plan is expected to be broadcast in the second half of 2009.

Battlestar: The Plan Secrets Teased! [SciFi Wire]

Talking to the LA Times, Howe admitted that "none of us could ever overestimate the success of 'Battlestar' in terms of putting us on the map with not just a critical audience but actually with a new audience... I think all of us will be depressed when it's over." However, that doesn't mean all hope is lost for the channel's future; in fact, they're working on something special for the year after next:

Howe and his team are pushing online as well and view the cable channel as just part of the hard-wiring needed to get today's sci-fi and fantasy fans. Sci Fi is now working on a project for a 2010 premiere that Howe calls "the Holy Grail": The channel is teaming television writers with video-game designers to create a franchise that is both a television series and a massive multi-player game on the Internet — more than that, the fans who play the game will actually help shape the show's story arc.

Is this the Stargate MMO that we already know about, or something else...? Interesting, too, that this is due in 2010, same as Caprica - Should we write off next year for the channel already, once Galactica finishes...?

Crossing the streams between television and video games isn't the only way for the channel to breed success, of course; the article also mentions Howe pointing to Sanctuary as a model for a future course of SciFi. So look forward to many more greenscreened monsters in your future, while we wait for our MMO saviors to take us away.

Sci Fi charts its course for the future [LA Times]

Here's what Sci Fi Channel president David Howe told Variety:

"Battlestar Galactica was absolutely our flagship show. It put us on the map and helped transform the perception of the network," said Sci Fi prexy Dave Howe, noting that the cabler hopes to draw a broader audience to a series it sees as more compelling family drama than "space opera."

"We want people to come to this who have never heard of Battlestar Galactica, " he added. "I think, because (Galactica's) backdrop was space and spaceships, there was a barrier to entry for some viewers. Caprica has none of that. It's an intense family drama set on an Earthlike planet, in the near future, speaking to a lot of the ethical dilemmas that we as a human race are going to have to face very shortly."

Those ethical issues include artificial intelligence and, sort of, human cloning. In Caprica, Daniel Graystone (Eric Stoltz) creates the first Cylon after his daughter is killed in a train bombing. The daughter has left a avatar of herself in cyberspace, and Graystone is able to download it into a robot body. (The bombing is the work of the daughter's boyfriend, who belongs to a fanatical monotheistic sect.) Meanwhile, Joseph Adams (a lawyer whose real last name is Adama) also loses a daughter in the bombing, but ends up deciding the robot-daughter replacement thing is a bad idea. This sets up a running conflict between the Graystones and the Adam(a)s.

The show could air as soon as early 2010, after BSG's final episodes air next spring, and a BSG TV movie, "The Plan," airs next summer. [Variety]

The Sci Fi Channel has comically billed Lost City Raiders as a combination of two critically panned movies: Waterworld and The Da Vinci Code. In the opening sequence, “Pa” Rubiah (Josh Brolin) tells us that global warming has caused the polar ice caps to melt, and the sea levels have risen to cover most of the Earth. Now the world’s only hope is…the Catholic Church. A group of friendly neighborhood cardinals operating in the city of New Rome have contracted Rubiah and his sons Jack (Ian Somerhalder) and Thomas (Jamie Thomas King) to find a scepter, which, legend says, will lead them to ancient technology that will save the world. And, they have to find it before a generically evil businessman (Ben Cross) can use it to for his own selfish gains.

The movie can be forgiven for being packed with stock characters; we’ve got the wise old salt dad, the rebellious action man son, the technologically proficient other son, the hot girl mechanic, the hot lady scientist, and, of course, the villainous capitalist. But the film suffers the mortal B-movie sin of being dull. The plot is contrived to drag its four most attractive leads to the ultimate world-saving discovery, the acting is wooden where over-the-top would suffice, and the archeological exploration scenes lack the tension of its obvious influences: films like National Treasure and the Indiana Jones franchise. Perhaps most unforgivably, the movie fails to deliver on its promise of mutant sharks. Early on, deep sea diving Jack is warned that a mutant shark is on his tail. Presumably, these sharks were created by the same kind of human negligence that caused the polar ice caps to melt. But what do mutant sharks look like? Are they hideously deformed? Can they shoot lasers from their eyes?

Apparently, the filmmakers blew their budget on underwater green screen scenes and creating the submerged buildings perpetually in the background, because all we get is stock footage sharks. I guess maybe they’re bigger than non-mutant sharks.

The movie is airing tomorrow as part of NBC’s Green Week, and the actors and marketers have harped on the film’s important message regarding climate change. But the global warming of Lost City Raiders looks strangely appealing. Where we would expect to see overcrowding and food shortages, we instead get a world where people get around by boats and everyone lives near the beach. I mean, the leads sit around in lovely restaurants drinking champagne.

And, if the humanity of the movie is saved, it won't be by science or changing its ways. It’ll be saved by the ancient knowledge of a religious institution, while threatened by business interests. The takeaway point seems to be: Church good, business bad, modern science irrelevant. Ultimately, the most frightening thing about Lost City Raiders isn’t the threat of global warming, but the possibility of a sequel.

In Warehouse 13, two Secret Service agents, Pete (Eddie McClintock) and Myka (Joanne Kelly) save the life of the President. As a reward, they're sent to the mysterious Warehouse 13 in South Dakota, where every weird artifact or supernatural item the U.S. government has ever collected is kept. The Warehouse's caretake, Artie (Saul Rubinek) sends Pete and Myka out to collect more weird items, and they also have to help keep the Warehouse under control. (The inevitable X-Files comparisons have already been made.)

Actually, it sounds sort of Eureka-esque. Firefly/Battlestar scribe Jane Espenson co-wrote the pilot, which is always a good sign.

According to Sci Fi Wire, the show has hired two new executive producers, Jack Kenny (Book Of Daniel) and David Simkins (Blade, Dresden Files). It doesn't sound as though Espenson, who just joined the staff of Joss Whedon's Dollhouse, will stay involved, but you never know. Other new producers include Drew Greenberg (Buffy, Dexter, Smallville, Star Wars: Clone Wars), Dana Baratta (Runaway) and Jericho's Matt Federman and Scaia. And the show has hired some staff writers with a background in comics and animation, including Ben Raab, Bob Goodman and Deric Hughes.

Warehouse 13 will premiere in July 2009. As for Caprica? It's anybody's guess. [Sci Fi Wire]

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Stargate: Atlantis and Heroes alumna Jaime Ray Newman (although she'll always be Veronica Mars' Mindy O'Dell to me) is joining the SciFi Channel series for at least five episodes as Dr. Tess Fontana, who's described as

a brilliant engineer and astrophysicist who sees things differently than those around her. Her scientific imagination knows no bounds putting her at odds with the mainstream scientific community.

Whether that's the mainstream scientific community or Eureka's mainstream scientific community is uncertain; after all, those guys tend to build the ridiculous and impossible on a weekly basis over there, so "mainstream" is somewhat of a movable feast.

Of course, the Eureka news we're really waiting for is when the show will come back to complete its third season...

'Eureka' nabs Newman for role [Hollywood Reporter]

Last night's episode concerned a centuries-old cult and echoes of the bubonic plague - and the only efforts at the science part of "science fiction" was Amanda Tapping looking vaguely concerned at the prospect of a CGI corpse. I don't suppose these Stargate vets have read Connie Willis' masterful Doomsday Book, the best presentation of the Middle Ages ever done in the genre? Had they done some research, there was a fine episode here buried under layers of dead skeletons. Once you've got a bunch of people with skulls for heads being gunned down willy-nilly, is time travel really that much of a stretch?

It's not that Sanctuary is entirely bad, it's that even when it's good, it's having trouble rooting itself in any firm ground between humans and CGI monsters. At the premiere, exec producer Damian Kindler mentioned an episode that takes place entirely in one warehouse-like setting. It's high time they brought that convention of the cobwebs and bonded these people together in some meaningful way.

I still believe there's a hint of something promising here in this concept. On the Fringe podcast this week show executive producers Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci answered a question about the future of Anna Torv and Joshua Jackson's characters: basically, will there be intercourse?

The Fringe creators responded by saying that you don't want to plan everything out on a series. It's fun to watch things happen to the characters along with the audience instead of plotting everything to the hilt. With that said, explicit CGI-enhanced sex between psychologist (Robin Dunne) and Amanda Tapping's Hayden Panettiere-inspired daughter (Emilie Ullerup) should probably be pushed to episode 3, and fast.

Did you watch, and did you weep softly during each brutal murder?

Executive producer Damian Kindler (left) wrote the concept for Sanctuary as a spec after his agent told him his West Wing pilot wasn't in his own voice. For those who haven't sampled the web version, Sanctuary is about Dr. Helen Magnus and the monsters she keeps in her stately mansion overlooking the fictional 'Old City.' Her team features the quirky tech guy (Battlestar Galactica's Ryan Robbins), her murderous daughter Ashley (Emilie Ullerup), and nemesis Jack the Ripper (Christopher Heyerdahl).

The show's 11 webisodes marked a first for a series with a budget and cast of that stature, but the experience didn't necessarily hearten the show's producers. What distinguished Sanctuary on the web was its high production values, and the upgrade for television is startling. This is one of the best looking and most ambitious series ever done, and at a price "equal to catering budget for Battlestar Galactica," Kindler joked.

Look at how much greenscreen the final product uses! Fellow executive producer and star Amanda Tapping describes the process as "a lot a like doing theatre." She's worked with considerable greenscreen before on Stargate, but really, no one has to this extent:

The castle-like facility that is home to the team of monster-hunters doesn't exist, except digitally:

This process requires a different skillset from every member of the production team. The number of special effects shots is a new one in the television format, and the amount of SFX is staggering: "When you watch, you'll think, they would have built that," Sanctuary director Martin Wood said of the elaborate digital sets.

Filling in the green is special effects supervisor Lee Wilson, who said that the opening shot in the premiere took three months for his Vancouver-based company to put together.

"On Stargate we'd do 12 [special effects shots]," Wood said. "Here, we did 486 shots." The show's broad array of monsters bears that out. What Wood calls "a computer with a lens" creates stunningly detailed mermaids, lizards, Neanderthals and all manner of misunderstood creatures. While the writing in the premiere is slow at times, Sanctuary is almost never not fun to look at.

The revolutionary special effects will attract fans of science fiction, Kindler believes, but the show won't stop there.

"I was trying to find an interesting common ground - this will satisfy really hardcore passionate sci fi fans, but not be such an amazing suspension of disbelief that you there would be tuning out it's about people flying around in giant spaceships that make noise," he said. That's fair enough, but with a 157-year cryptozoologist and her hot mercenary daughter as the protagonists, there's some question of where "the suspension of disbelief" barometer sits at the moment.

Sanctuary's two hour premiere happens tonight in the Battlestar Galactica timeslot, and from what we've seen in the premiere, the show is sufficiently different from its competition that it warrants a look. Sanctuary plans to add to the graphic novel feel by debuting Sherlock Holmes in subsequent episodes, and Kindler promised a serial staple in the form of a cliffhanger in the season finale.

We won't render judgment until the series starts going, but there's reason to be excited. You can watch Samantha Tapping on The Today Show here:

This November, Sci Fi will start airing Cha$e, which has been described as a real-life video game crossed with manhunt. Contestants are armed with a backpack, iPhone, compass, and other essential items, placed in Los Angeles, and sent after a cash prize. But along the way, they are stalked by "Hunters," dark-suited professional athletes who capture the contestants and remove them from play.

Estate of Panic, also starting in November, places contestants in a mansion where they will also hunt for cash. But instead of avoiding hunters, they'll have to contend with the house's challenges and make it to the Vault Room. There, they'll be shackled to the floor and surrounded by safety-deposit boxes, one of which contains the key to their restraints. Crossing Jordan's Steve Valentine has signed on to host.

And Sci Fi announced this weekend that it has greenlit RelicQuest, an archeological documentary series. From SCI FI Wire:

RelicQuest is an action and adventure series that travels the globe with [documentary filmmaker Bruce] Burgess, who guides the viewer in a first-hand exploration down mysterious roads to uncover objects fabled to hold hidden powers and mystical significance for both ancient and modern cultures.

Traveling to Cairo, Burgess attempts to solve the riddle of who Moses really was and to unravel the true story of what happened on Mount Sinai. Burgess will also go to the ruins of Montsegur Castle to investigate the Holy Grail of the Cathars, a small cup that was said to have enormous healing and spiritual powers. Other journeys will take viewers to Amman, Jordan, on the trail of the Armageddon Priscillian Codex, a sought-after document said to be a prophecy for the alleged "end times."

The introduction of these shows come on the heels of Sci Fi's summer success with shows like Ghost Hunters International and Scare Tactics. But the real question is: are we being denied a full season of Caprica in favor of more reality programming?

Ghost Hunters Weekend Blog Part 2 [IESB]
SCI FI Green-Lights RelicQuest [SCI FI Wire]

On the show's wonderful Eureka Unscripted blog, the somewhat unbelievable situation is explained:

It all began with Eva Thorne. All season we knew we had to pay off her storyline, including the revelation that she was much older than anyone suspected. But what kind of story could we crouch this revelation in? Tons of ideas were batted around. First we toyed with our old fear idea… that everyone’s past would come back to haunt them, trigged by what was essentially a “fear cloud.”

This version of the story was working really well, so much so that it made it all the way through several actual script drafts. A week before shooting, we were in great shape. Then the Network told us that while our script was good, it wasn’t appropriate for a season finale. It was thrown out.

Now we know what you’re thinking. Throwing out a script a week before production? That’s CRAZY. Well, actually it could have been… but then something cool happened.

One Wednesday before shooting, the entire writing staff convened and re-broke 308 [the episode's production number] from the ground up in one, marathon late-night session. Then, we divided the script up and everyone wrote an act. It was a real team effort that was pretty darn exhilarating.

The new 308 script arrives in Vancouver with a mere four days to go before shooting began, and was received with raves. Somehow, we’d pulled off a miracle. Problem solved, right?

Wrong.

Two days before production began… the Powers That Be pulled the plug AGAIN on the script. Major elements were deemed inappropriate for a season finale. There was an especially large disagreement about the final fate of Eva Thorne – what should happen, and how it should be handled. Should Eva live or die? Should there be a romantic subplot between her and Henry? Should the person she came back for in the bunker be her a) husband, b) son, or c) brother? Also, should Eva be immortal (our original concept) or merely very, very old? And what about Zoe? As a result of her contact with Element X (the purple liquid), should she remain immortal, or at least immune to diseases for the rest of her natural life?

Answering all these questions meant re-conviening the writing staff ALONG with the Network Big Cheeses for perhaps the more important story conference call in Eureka history (so far!). On the line was this: we were to shoot in two days. Could we have an entirely new script in time? Yes, but after a second, page-one rewrite… it would probably be very weak, and this was our season finale. And if we couldn’t have a script in time, should we delay or “push” the production schedule… a move that would, literally, cost anywhere from $175,000 to half-a-million dollars? Well, for better or for worse… the decision was made to have us all rewrite 308 YET AGAIN at the eleventh hour. But there was no way such an important episode—our mid season finale—could get done AND be in awesome shape in just 48 hours.

So what did we end up doing?

We wrote the script as we went along.

NO. That is not a typo. The staff literally wrote the next days’ pages (whatever scenes were shooting the next day) and turned them in the night before. This meant that our production team and actors were literally getting the story in the morning and shooting it several hours later.

Considering that the episode that resulted was more or less coherent, I'm pretty sure that the entire Eureka writing team - not to mention the actors and special effects team - deserve some kind of an award, even if it's only for patience. Here's hoping that the DVD will contain the scripts that we didn't get to see, if only so that we can find out why the SciFi Channel suits were so picky.

By The Skin Of Our Teeth... [Eureka Unscripted]

Over on the show's writers blog, Eureka unscripted, Eric Wallace - the co-writer of "Here Come The Suns," the episode where Degree saved the day and the town, alongside executive producer Jaime Paglia - described the experience:

It all began way back in October 2007 when the Sci Fi Channel announced to the Eureka staff that 1) we would have an official commercial sponsor this season, one that was kicking in a lot of dough and would therefore 2) require tons of product placement throughout Season Three. We were also told that 3) ONE EPISODE in Season Three would have to incorporate a storyline in which the actual product HAD to save Eureka somehow, or at the very least, be INDISPENSABLE to Carter’s Act 5 solve.

Oooooookay…

That product turned out to be Degree Absolute Protection For Men (deodorant) and “Here Comes the Suns” (originally entitled “Little Miss Sunshine”) would become that episode.

And how did the staff feel about writing an episode of Eureka under so many pre-existing conditions? Well, on the one hand… Degree money meant a higher budget, which would hopefully translate into a better-looking show. On the other hand, there was the danger that this much product integration could throw our story off balance. Needless to say, great care was taken along the way during this one. Never before has any episode of our show been so scrutinized on all levels.

I’d be lying if I didn’t say it wasn’t just a bit nerve racking. But, man… it was also fun as heck, too.

Fun, perhaps, but also more research-intensive than Wallace had expected. Basic research, mind you:

Along the way we got tons of Network notes about the “Degree”-ness of things. The funniest one involved the ending. Originally Carter and Zane used a spray-on Degree deodorant to protect themselves from the heat in Act 5. However, it was then pointed out that Degree is a roll on. So the spray quickly got changed to a roll-on-esque fireproof goo.

It's that ability to roll with the punches that keeps the Eureka staff upright in the midst of production uncertainty. Revealed elsewhere on the blog is that fact that they don't know when the second half of the season will appear:

Honestly, we don’t know yet… and we’re as anxious to find out as you. Trust us, as soon as we can confirm airdates for those final thirteen episodes, we’ll let you know HERE FIRST.

(And, obviously, as soon as they confirm, we'll tell you.)

[Eureka Unscripted]

The story broke on the AV Science Forum, of all places, as message board poster "Buttabean" posted the following image from the end of a recent survey about the channel:

We've complained about the SciFi Channel not living up to its name before, but we always kind of saw the solution being to show more sci-fi on the channel, not to change the name of the channel. Especially to something as bland as "Beyond." Beyond what, exactly? Does this mean that the channel will be hosted by an omnipotent being from another dimension with a bad Michael Jackson haircut? If so, then not only are we onboard with the new name, we'll rename this site "THANKYOUFORBRINGINGBACKTHEBEYONDER.com"

SCI-FI thinking of changing the name to Beyond [AVSforum]

We mentioned the existence of this book in passing earlier this week, but it's worth taking a longer look at the hardcover gift to the people responsible for making Ron Moore cry, as he admitted in his introduction:

It was at Legendary Noodle, on Main Street, listening to [Moore's son] Robin's twenty-third question regarding the nuance of design between the Mark V and Mark II Vipers that I realized what I had done.

Over seven days, the universe I imagined and the world which gave it life had merged in a way they had never done before, giving me to understand fully for the first time the true sweep of the show I had created both within the confines of the frame and without, and...

It was all going to end.

I picked up my takeout dinner, answered queries from my son about the reasons why the old Cylons had handguns and our Cylons had guns built into their arms and wouldn't that be weird to have guns back in your arms although they're robots and they probably can't feel that unless they do, so why would that be? on the way home. I walked in the door, kissed my wife and daughter, walked out onto the bluff behind the house that will now forever be a sense memory for this lovely city, stood there...

And cried.

Knowing what I know now about working among you as you create this show day after day, I now know that if I had known it earlier, I would've known enough to have done it long before now...

You know?

Not only did it give me an incredible appreciation for the professionalism with which you apply your crafts and genuinely touch me with your good humor and warmth, directing this episode gave me a new appreciation for the world we have created on the screen.

Cinemaspy managed to get their hands on a copy of the book by some nefarious means, and their pictures give an idea of the work that went into the book, and into the show itself, including concept art, call sheets and an amazing number of behind the scenes photos.



Don't get me wrong; I don't think that we need to read Moore and co-executive producer David Eick's personal tributes to everyone who worked on the show, as such, but I'd love the chance to have such a wonderful memento to the series for myself.

Exclusive: The 'Battlestar Galactica' Cast & Crew Coffee Table Book [Cinemaspy]

As part of a retrospective look at the creation of BSG's Cylons, original designer Andrew Probert revealed the hidden Dalek-eque origin that we were all spared:

Originally the Galactica motion picture (for overseas distribution) was filmed with dialog explaining that the Cylons were creatures. They were blind and created helmet scanners to see. That explains the helmets... The living Cylons were changed to robots for the TV series because of an hourly body-count limitation for prime-time television. There was, however, no limit to how many robots could be ‘killed’ per hour so they became robots and dialog was revised to explain it all.

It's not often you'll hear us saying this, but thank the Gods for network TV standards and practices. It's not that we're against the idea of Daleks with legs per se, but if the Cylons had been armor-wearing aliens in the original show, it's unlikely that we would've gotten the various twists, turns and headfraks provided by the sleeper agents in Ron Moore's reinvention of the show.

the true history of the cylons [Darth Mojo]

The Butterfly Effect series - announced way back in 2006 - wasn't actually intended for Fox, but for the Sci Fi Channel, and would have ditched a lot of the emo baggage of 2004's "Time Travel Can Leave You With No Legs" drama in favor of a more Quantum Leap-esque take on the concept, only without Al and Ziggy. As the series got bogged down in pre-production, Benderspink tried to raise the concept's profile with a direct to DVD sequel that only disappointed fans of the first movie (Apparently, they didn't learn their lesson, as there are plans for a third movie being made right now).

It's not clear whether or not Benderspink's CBS deal includes all the shows that were being developed with Fox, but if it does, we have one clear message to send: No-one wants to see someone travel backwards through their life thanks to cosmic seizures with each trip making their life shittier every week, thank you very much. Unless it's done as a broad comedy and stars the guy who played Hyde from That 70s Show, giving it some consistency with the original movie. Otherwise, let it suffer the same fate as Benderspink's planned Preacher show.

Benderspink segues to CBS Par TV [Hollywood Reporter]