Since a manned mission to Mars would, using current technology, take roughly 520 days, both NASA and the ESA have planned simulated missions to test their astronauts' ability to live in tight quarters for extended periods of time. Six NASA astronauts recently completed a 105-day mock mission, and a 520-day simulation is in the works. The ESA, in a joint effort with the Russian Academy of Science's Institute for Medical-Biological Problems, is also planning a 100-day lock-in, offering astronauts who survive the experience a reality show-eque incentive of $20,000 each.

Luke McKinney of the Daily Galaxy thinks the ESA has missed a valuable opportunity to increase interest in the space program by treating its astronauts like island castaways:

With all the recent work by space agencies to raise their profile in the public eye, especially in a world with people asking "Why should we spend money on this when nobody has any?" You literally don't need to add anything - the experiment will be full of cameras anyway, you've got volunteers from three different countries (Russian, Germany and France), you just need to connect it to the TV and it'll start making money. Also, elimination rounds and "voting people off" is a lot more interesting with spaceships and airlocks.

It's a cute idea, but the biggest obstacle the NASA astronauts faced in their 105 days of isolation wasn't back-biting, strategizing, or romantic entanglements — it was boredom. And the sorts of antics that fuel reality television aren't exactly conducive to a successful space mission. Still, perhaps this is the golden opportunity for some enterprising reality TV exec: finding a way to break up the monotony of space travel without sabotaging the mission, and somehow keeping audiences coming back week after week.

Manned Mission-to-Mars Simulation: The Ultimate Reality TV Show [Daily Galaxy]

Even as more women are becoming astronauts and getting to pilot the space shuttle, science fiction has shown tons of women taking the helm. Here are some of the most awesome, in no particular order:

Lady Sharrow in Against A Dark Background by Iain M. Banks

We don't get to see combat specialist Sharrow doing that much piloting in this book — but when she does take the controls, she makes it count. The one sequence where she does some fancy flying is one of the best moments in the book.

Carolyn Fry from Pitch Black.

I don't know how I managed to forget her — I actually had her on my list, and had grabbed this cool pic of her in advance. She manages to bring a dead ship down in spite of incredible odds — and sure, she tries to jettison her passengers. But she's just being sensible, after all.

Sue Parsons from Virtuality

As with Sharrow, Sue Parsons spends most of her screen time doing other things — mostly, like all the other characters on this show, bickering and freaking out about virtual reality nightmares. But when she does actually get to handle the Starship Phaeton's controls — watch out. She does an incredibly complex series of maneuvers while giant bombs are going off in her wake. Makes all the drama totally worth it.

Jenna, from Blake's 7.

This smuggler is the best pilot around — there's no competition, except maybe that arrogant twerp Del Tarrant. Jenna manages to take the controls of the Liberator, the most super-advanced ship in space, and master them almost immediately. And she's able to take it on manual and do some fancy flying, on occasion.

Saint-Emxin from Battle Beyond The Stars.

She's a mean Valkyrie fighter pilot, who more than holds her own in the movie's crucial Star Wars-inspired firefights. Han Solo not only couldn't pull off her headgear, he also couldn't outfly her. (I almost included Padme Amidala in this list, since she pilots a ship in Attack Of The Clones — but could Amidala really hold her own against Saint-Exmin? I think not.)

Tak from Invader Zim.

The "hideous new girl" shows up hoping to do a better job of invading Earth than Zim, and she has the ability to hypnotize humans into doing her bidding — but she also pilots her own ship.

Faye from Cowboy Bebop

Faye is an awesome fighter pilot, and even held her own in a dogfight with Spike. Runner-up status also goes to space trucker V.T., aka Victoria Terpsichore.

Carol "Foe Hammer" Rawley in Halo.

She does some pretty nifty flying as the pilot of Pelican transport Echo 419 on the UNSC Pillar of Autumn. She specializes in doing lots of missions involving hostile insertions and rescues, making her stand out from the rest.

Ana Khouri in Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds.

This assassin joins the crew of the Nostalgia For Infinity, intent on killing one of the crewmembers, but then two different digital entities fight over control of her, and thus of the ship. Also a killer pilot is the ship's de facto captain, Illia Volyova.

Mary Raven from Ignition City.

This grounded space pilot journeys to Earth's last spaceport, Ignition City, to find out what happened to her dad, in this new comic by Warren Ellis and Gianluca Pagliarani. Space-jockey Mary Raven is determined to find out what happened to her dad, and she won't leave Ignition City until she gets some answers.

Lt. Shane Vansen from Space: Above And Beyond.

According to this site, she's "one of Earth's most celebrated pilots," piloting the SA-43 Hammerhead space fighter into battle.

Corp. Ferro in Aliens.

Okay, sure, she gets killed after speaking only a couple lines of dialogue. But she has cool sunglasses, and she manages to put the ship down through a lot of turbulence.

Carmen Ibanez in Starship Troopers.

Many of the badass pilots in this movie are women, and Carmen (Denise Richards) is the most memorable of them. She's a pilot in the SICON fleet, who pilots the drop ship, and even helps on the ground when things get rough.

Col. Wilma Deering in Buck Rogers In The 25th Century.

She doesn't just look good in a slinky jumpsuit, or boogieing next to Buck — Wilma's an ace fighter pilot in her own right, and a lot of episodes see her flying off solo to deal with the bikini-clad menace of the week.

Aeryn Sun in Farscape.

She's a formidable fighter generally, but she's also a former Peacekeeper pilot, and some of her best moments involve her taking the helm of a ship — like the season two finale, when Crichton is flying away with Scorpius' mind controlling him, and Aeryn chases after him in her own ship.

Yoninne Leg-Wot from The Witling by Vernor Vinge.

We don't actually get to see much of her piloting skills, since she and her companion Ajao Bjault get stranded on the planet full of telekinetic aliens early on. But she does turn out to be resourceful, and despite being unattractive by Earth standards, she helps win over the "witling" of the story's title, Prince Pelio.

River in Serenity.

Okay, so Serenity's real pilot is, and always will be, Wash. But you can tell, at the end of the movie, that River is gearing up to be a pretty great pilot in her own right. And in the series of movie sequels that unspool in my daydreams from time to time, she's piloting the ship all the time.

Manda in Burning The Ice by Laura J. Mixon.

Manda CarliPablo's stigmatized because she's the only colonist on a barren gas giant who's not a twin or triplet — her other clones died before they were "born" — but her isolation turns out to be a good thing, as she becomes the best pilot in the colony and explores the unexplored regions of this new world — discovering an alien race along the way.

Turanga Leela from Futurama.

Despite being captain, she's also always ready to take the helm of the Planet Express ship, and her lack of three-dimensional vision doesn't seem to interfere with her amazing piloting skills.

Jaina Solo from the Star Wars expanded universe.

The daughter of Han Solo and Princess Leia didn't just inherit her mom's Force powers — she also became a kick-ass pilot, like her dad. She flew the Millenium Falcon on a few occasions. When she got caught flying the Merry Miner, an unarmed mining ship, during the Yuuzhan Vong war, she managed to dodge the aliens' attacks until help arrived. And then she became one of the New Republic's most valued starfighter pilots.

Captain Beka Valentine from Andromeda.

Thanks to everyone who suggested adding her — Beka Valentine is, among other things, the Andromeda's first officer and pilot, taking advantage of her better-than-human reaction times and strength.

Tanni from Mutineer's Moon by David Weber

Here's the key sequence:

"And," MacMahan added gently, "Tanni will be your pilot."

"What?!"

"Tanni will be your pilot," MacMahan repeated mildly. "I'm speaking now as the commander of a military operation, and I don't have time to be diplomatic, so both of you just shut up and listen... we can't afford anything but our very best pilot behind those controls. You're good, Colin, and your reaction time is phenomenal even by Imperial standards, but good as you are, you have very little experience in an Imperial fighter.

Tanni, on the other hand, is a natural pilot and the youngest of our Imperials, with reaction time almost as good as yours but far, far more experience. The overall mission will be under your command, but she's your pilot and you're her electronics officer, or neither of you goes."

Kathryn Fairly in Space Camp.

A group of teenagers get to go aboard the Space Shuttle Atlantis during a test-firing of its engines. But the mean android named Jinx decides to — what else — jinx them by making the space shuttle blast off for real. They're stuck in orbit, without enough oxygen to get home. And Kathryn (Lea Thompson), who was struggling with the "multi-axis trainer" that's required for shuttle pilots, manages to ace the real-life situation that simulator creates: a flat spin after the shuttle's reorbit burn. She brings that bird down safe and proves she's an awesome pilot.

Starbuck from Battlestar Galactica.

As I said before, these are in no particular order — but if they were, Starbuck would be #1 in any list. She's clearly the best pilot among Battlestar's flyboys and -girls. Adama always refers to her as his best pilot, and she pushes herself harder than anyone else. Kat may have tried to challenge Starbuck's impressive kill rate, but she never really had a hope.

Additional reporting by Alexis Brown. Special thanks to Pete Gofton, Brian Williams, Erin Souza, Ira Wile, Jordan Hoffman, Austin Grossman, Ekaterina Sedia, and @soapboxx on Twitter.

Suggesting that Fox execs knew what they were doing by jettisoning the show in the Friday night death slot - or, perhaps, that they created a self-fulfilling prophecy by doing so - the former pilot for Ron Moore's new show turned "two hour movie event" drew only 1.8 million viewers and tied with ABC's The Goode Family for the title of least-watched show on network television for the night (By comparison, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles was cancelled with an audience twice that size).

It'll be interesting to see the DVR numbers for Virtuality in a few weeks - we wouldn't be surprised if it gets a Transformers-related bump, although nowhere near enough to have made the show make sense as an ongoing series.

Fox's 'Virtuality' tanks [THR Live Feed]

Talking at Virtuality's lowkey press launch on Wednesday, Taylor admitted that Fox has never actually explained what it would take to turn the pilot into a series:

There's never been discussion of a threshold [of success]. I don't know if they know what the threshold is. The threshold for renewing Joss' show [Dollhouse] was ultimately pretty low and I think was out of respect for what he showed he can do and respect for sci-fi fans, let's face it. If we could do that well? If we could do better? If we could do as well as 'Battlestar' did, with a huge following behind it by its fourth season? That would be lovely. There are, however, no guarantees.

Michael Taylor on the fate of FOX's 'Virtuality' [HitFix]

The setup for the show is immediately intriguing. The Phaeton is a spaceship on a ten-year voyage to the nearest star system with a habitable planet, in search of alien life. Its crew of 12 are funding the voyage by filming their adventures for reality TV, and their only escape from each other is into hyper-realistic virtual reality programs. So even as they try to capture the gritty reality of ship-board life for "Edge of Never: Life on the Phaeton," their sanity depends on an ability to escape the ship via immersive VR fantasies.

It's the kind of meta-meditation on technology that Ron Moore loves, and which he explored via the cylons' synthetic-but-real identities in Battlestar. Virtuality is dark like Battlestar too, but in a much more intimate way. The ship's counselor Roger Fallon is also the producer of the reality show, so he has a vested interest in keeping his patients neurotically off-center. After all, perfectly mentallly healthy people do not create good drama. While his wife sneaks off to have sex with the ship's captain in virtual reality, Fallon is left to lecture the reality TV audience back home about how everybody "plays a role" in a crisis situtation and therefore all the roles they play on ship are "as real as it could possibly be."

The ship's crisis, at least in the pilot episode, is whether or not there will even be a ten-year mission at all. Captain Pike must decide when they reach Jupiter whether they'll slingshot out of the solar system using the gas giant's gravity (along with several nukes), or return to Earth. Given that new research has revealed Earth will be going waterworld in less than a century, finding a possible new home for humanity is more important than ever. As millions tune in to find out whether it's "go or no go" for the Phaeton, Pike has to consider whether his tiny crew is ready to endure ten years together in deep space - especially given that the doctor has just discovered he has Parkinson's disease, and their virtual reality program is starting to act really weird.

Although the "go or no go" dilemma is solved in this episode, we get a potential season-long arc in the VR bug plot. A strange man starts appearing in the crew's VR fantasies, beating them and killing them before they have a chance to take off their interface goggles. It's not as if the VR fantasies can harm people physically - this isn't a Matrix deal where dying inside means you die outside - but there is still something psychologically scarring about being murdered no matter how it happens.

Much of the pilot episode, directed by Peter Berg (who is also directing an upcoming film version of Dune), simply introduces all our characters. There's the girly hacker who also serves as host for the reality TV show; the gay couple of astrobiologists who cook for the rest of the crew and complain that they come across as "bitchy queens" on TV; the sick doctor; the lonely ship's designer; the creepy counselor and his biologist wife; the tough-but-fair captain; his irascible second-in-command who manages to turn a wheelchair into his macho accessory; and the ex-military pilot who is a smart-mouthed, tomboy maverick. It's a cool group, and you'll definitely wind up wanting to know more about some of them.

It's unclear whether FOX will turn Virtuality into a series, but this two-hour premiere is certainly not a self-contained story. As I said earlier, the "go no go" plot is resolved, but so many lose ends remain at the end that it feels unsatisfying as a stand-alone TV movie.

Virtuality spins a lot of balls into the air with this pilot, and it's not clear that Ron Moore can keep them from crashing down. Is the show really going to be able to balance the reality-TV storyline with our crew's virtual reality adventures (and their real-life dramas)? The reality TV angle brings a much-needed cynical subtlety to the show, which rescues it from pure space psychodrama. But Moore isn't exactly known for his cynical storytelling, and I worry that this prickly aspect of the series will get smoothed over by Fantasy Island morality tales set in VR land.

Still, I would like the chance to find out where Virtuality might take us. Moore was willing to deliver quite a shock at the end of the pilot, which set the stage for a show unafraid to take risks. And I have to admit I'm intrigued to see what will befall the crew next, in a watching-a-trainwreck-on-Livejournal way. Creepy mind games mixed with media weirdness in space? Yeah, sign me up. Let's hope the show goes on.

Scott Pilgrim:

Director Edgar Wright posted another video diary during the filming, involving a rock concert. [Scott Pilgrim The Movie]

And Wright also posted a couple cryptic set pics. [Edgar Wright Here]

Cowboy Bebop:

A slight update on this live-action adaptation, starring Keanu Reeves as Spike. Writer Peter Craig is a huge fan of the original animated series, and he spent some quality time with the original studio, Sunrise, talking about their take on the show and how it might convert to live-action. He mentions that he's a fan of many of the minor characters from the original episodes, namechecks a lot of story elements he loves:

I've probably watched every episode at least three or four times now - and I really adore what a complete world Watanabe and Nobumoto created. I was also extremely drawn to all of the characters' backstories: Faye's amnesia after being taken out of cryogenic freeze, and the con played on her; Spike's history in the Syndicate and with Julia; Jet's days as a cop on Ganymede, and his run-in with Udai Taxim.

[AnimeVice News via Sci Fi Squad]

Lensman:

Remember this in-development movie adaptation? Writer J. Michael Straczynski says he's finished his second draft, and producer Ron Howard and Universal are happy with it. He says it'll be very character-based, typical of Howard's work, and yet the special effects will be cutting edge. And it'll keep the massive scale of the original novels, as much as possible:

I think it really does create that world and what's cool about it is all the character stuff that's in there now. It's just the sheer scope and scale of it, which is what the Doc Smith books were always about to me to a large extent; the scale was insane. We found ways to really dramatize that.

And he describes one crucial sequence:

Case in point, this is a very small example from the script, take this as being emblematic of the scale of the whole thing: you've got these two fleets battling it out, you've seen it a hundred times before. But now, within that massive fleet battle you have two ships locked on with gravity (lances?) firing at each other, they're linked together like scorpions in a bottle tied with a string, by the gravity beams. Inside that, you have the crew of one ship in EVA suits with armor coming out to try and board the other ship. They send their people out to stop them, so we have hand-to-hand combat.

[Babylon Podcast via Cinemablend]

Doctor Who:

David Tennant talks his final three "specials" as the Doctor, "The Waters Of Mars" and the final two-parter:

I think inevitably, because we all know the Tenth Doctor's days are numbered, the storm clouds hang over the last stories. "Planet of the Dead" [the special that airs July 26] is in some ways, the Doctor's last hurrah. He's clearly in a death-defying situation, but he's enjoying himself and having a blast.

By the time we come to "Waters of Mars," things start to happen that mean things can never be quite be the same again. Stuff occurs in "Waters of Mars" which leads directly into the final story, where the Doctor really is on the run from the inevitable, I think it's fair to say.

Mostly stuff Tennant has said before... except for the "on the run from the inevitable" part, which is intriguing.[Chicago Tribune]

Fringe:

Judging from a new casting call, season two episode two, "Night Of Desirable Objects," will be about a series of disappearances in Vermont, which our heroes arrive to investigate. There's a local sheriff, the fifty-something Sheriff Golightly, who meets a male and female FBI agent (Olivia and someone else?). And Golightly warms to the male agent — especially after they bond over fishing lures, but stays stand-offish towards the female agent. The chief suspect in the series of disappearances is the fiftyish Anton Hughes, a former doctor — who shoots himself in the head as soon as the agents come knocking on his door to interview him. [SpoilerTV]

Virtuality:

You're staying in and watching this TV movie tonight on Fox, right? In any case, Wired's review includes some details. It's six months into the ten-year mission, and the crew has already started bickering, much to the delight of the ship's reality TV producer. And after reality-TV host Billie has an especially nasty encounter in the virtual reality, it colors her real-world interactions with the crew, during a mission-critical crisis. The movie/pilot throws a lot of balls in the air, and most of them are still hovering at the end of the two hours — leaving you wishing for a continuation. [Wired]

Impact:

Are you stoked to see the final part of this two-part miniseries on Sunday? Of course you are. Here are some pics to help get you even more stoked.[Daemon's TV]

True Blood:

Here are some season two promo photos you may not have seen before. Not sure how many of these are new. [True Blood.net]

Iron Man 2:

An anonymous tipster tells io9 that this movie is seeking tons of extras to be in a large scene shooting in Van Nuys, CA over a five-day period. The extras are being asked to bring their street clothes, but also formal attire and casual wear. So the source speculates it takes place at some kind of science-and-technology expo. Possibly a scene where Tony Stark butts heads with Sam Rockwell's Justin Hammer? As always, take it with a few grains of salt, but it sounds plausible. [Anonymous source]

Also, Leslie Bibb, who played Christine Everhart (the reporter who jumps into bed with Tony Stark), let slip that she'll be back in the sequel. Could she be one of the people hounding Tony about his admission that he's Iron Man? [NY Post]

Star Trek:

Those of you are tired of vague quotes about whether the next Trek will be an all-new adventure or a rehash, skip to the next item. Director J.J. Abrams tells Sci Fi Wire, "The great thing is we're all open to anything," Abrams said. "I think the fun of where we are with Trek is that it can and should just be fully explored. So I think to limit ourselves to only new adventures would be a mistake. But I also think we want to take advantage of [the rich universe]." [Sci Fi Wire]

Inception:

Star Marilon Cotillard talks about this ambitious film, but doesn't say much besides volunteering that Christopher Nolan has "so many things to say and share." And the movie is hard to pin down to one genre. "It's about the mind, it's that complex," she adds. That clears everything up. [MTV]

Battlestar Galactica:

This is a totally unconfirmed rumor, but a source tells io9 that the "Plan" TV movie is all from the point of view of your favorite cranky Oedipal Cylon, Cavil, because that's the only way they could get Dean Stockwell to agree to be in it. And apparently, it's sort of a collection of outtakes from the first two seasons, to allow you to connect the dots. [You heard it on the Internet so it must be true]

Fringe:

So you know how the World Trade Center is still standing in the alternate New York that Olivia visits in the first season ending? The next season will explore the ramifications of that discovery, in terms of whether 9/11 never happened or whether it simply hit a different target, says J.J. Abrams in the same interview as the Trek comments above. "You have to watch to see how that plays out... I think it will be very satisfying." [Sci Fi Wire]

Virtuality:

A frakload of images from Friday's TV movie just turned up online. Enjoy! [SpoilerTV]

Heroes:

The stories this show is about to tell will "ROCK YOUR WORLD," promises Greg Grunberg, who wouldn't lie to you. Also, you can't fail to be excited when you find out the show is hunting for an eleven-year-old actor to play a young Nathan Petrelli. After all, the one crucial ingredient the show has been missing all along? Flashbacks. [EW]

Also, a source claims that Claire finds a dead body on the sidewalk in the season opener, and there's speculation it may be one of her two roommates. And the title of episode 4x03 has been confirmed as "Acceptance." [The ODI]

Additional reporting by Alexis Brown.

In Virtuality, Siena Guillory plays Rika Goddard, the ship's exobiologist who's trapped in a passionless marraige with Roger, the ship's psychologist and producer of the fake reality TV program the ship's crew stars in. And Clea DuVall (Carnivale) plays Sue Parsons, the ship's brash pilot who's already drawing comparisons to Starbuck. Both actors went on a conference call with reporters today and talked about how they approached their characters in this TV movie (which could spawn an ongoing series). Virtuality airs this Friday night at 8 PM on Fox.

I hadn't realized, until listening to both actors, just how much of Virtuality was improvised. Apparently Peter Berg (Hancock), who directed the pilot, is a huge believer in letting actors run with their scenes and create their own interpretations of their characters.

One of the coolest parts of the pilot is Sue Parsons' relationship with some of the other female characters, especially the computer scientist and reality-TV show host Billie Kashmiri. Sue is constantly sniping at the naive, privileged Billie, but then after Billie suffers an extreme trauma inside the virtual-reality world (which feels real even though it's just VR) Sue and Billie suddenly share a moment of closeness, and they have a really intense scene together, which feels like it could be the foundation of a really interesting friendship. You don't see such complex relationships between two women in science fiction all that often.

So I asked DuVall what she thought was going on between the two women, and whether it was in the script, or improvised:

It was in the script, and also improvised. It was a combination of the two... I thought a lot about my character, because she's kind of a hardass and kind of a jerk, and a handful to deal with..and I really tried hard to understand her and why she was so guarded and so protective of herself. And [I tried to think] what it was about this girl that really ticked me off... I sort of went inside myself and tried to find the parts of myself that I don't think are there, the jealousy and the competitiveness, and I used that, I used my own personal shortcomings, to fuel this character. But then understand, but then being able to see her as human and seeing the parts of Billie that were like me.

So was Sue angry at Billie because she saw Billie as a younger version of herself? DuVall explained:

[Billie was] somebody that was given the position they were given, because they had certain advantages that I wasn't given, and that jealousy of being born into good stock. Versus having to fight tooth and nail to get there, because my character was put through the ringer so much to be there even though she was one of the most qualified.

Meanwhile, Siena Guillory says Rika Goddard "hates having her privacy invaded" (in the reality TV show) but "she's also desperate for adventure." Rika is an "introvert but oversexed," she adds. "The fact that we're geeks doesn't necessarily mean that we're going to be handling our emotions, so we're all prone to exploding emotionally."

Both actors raved about the creative freedom they were given during the shooting of this pilot. "Of course I said everything that was in the script, but being able to build on it and find things that were in there [was terrific]," says DuVall. "Them trusting us so much also gave us the confidence to trust ourselves."

"They were so brave and didn't assume that the audience was stupid," adds Guillory. "They lent us that bravery and allowed us to inhabit the roles."

And even though Virtuality is about being trapped inside a cramped spaceship, and trapped in the not-quite-real performance of reality TV, and even trapped inside virtual-reality modules that turn into a horror show, Guillory says the show, in the end, is about limitless possibilities:

It's all about the fact that the possibilities are endless, and that's what the whole show is about. There are no limitations, and everything we grew up with here on Earth, in terms of "This is your life, and this is who you are, and you will die [isn't necessarily true]. And you can be anywhere and be anyone, and anything is possible and it's incredibly dangerous and exciting.

As I mentioned, Virtuality airs this Friday at 8 PM on Fox.

Iron Man 2:

Another tantalizing-but-cryptic set photo shows a huge greenscreen structure being built at Sepulveda basin, out in the Encino hills. What's it for? Well, obviously they need natural surroundings around whatever will be represented by the green screen. Actually, I'll throw my guess out there: the structure itself looks like a prison. Or maybe a factory, judging from the pile of shipping containers over to the side. It just looks as though the guardrails and fencing along the top walls is designed to keep people in, rather than out. More at the link. [ScreenRant]

Also, Marvel's Joe Quesada visited the set and witnessed the filming of a scene involving Tony Stark, Pepper Potts and Whiplash. And there was another scene between Tony and Whiplash that takes place in the dusk. (Or at least, it was filmed at the end of the day.) And Quesada says the movie's storyline "reflects the things that we've worked on" over the past decade — so who knows what recent comics storylines could turn up there? [Comic Book Resources]

Star Trek 2:

Co-writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman have barely started talking about Star Trek, but they're talking about it to reporters once again. Orci tells Sci Fi Wire:

The debate is do you do a story where you go through some familiar things from the series, but now their outcome can be a little bit different, or do you just make it totally new? That's what we're kind of debating right now," Orci added. "We're kind of going through everything we know and love and making sure we don't leave any unexplored gems. And then also simultaneously trying to think of new things completely. So we'll see. The best idea wins, original or old.

[Sci Fi Wire]

Lost:

Apparently Dominic Monaghan had breakfast with producer Damon Lindelof, and they may have discussed ways to bring back Charlie in the final season. [E! Online]

Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje bailed on the show a few years ago, but now he says he's eager to come back and give Mr. Eko some closure. [TV Guide Magazine]

Supernatural:

Adrianne Palicki, who played Sam's doomed girlfriend Jessica in the show's pilot, will be back for one episode next season. It'll be early on, but not the pilot. We haven't seen her since season two, when that demon projected Dean into the dream world where Azazel never messed with the Winchester boys. [EW]

Warehouse 13:

Hey, this warehouse-of-relics show starts July 7. And here are some promo pics. [SpoilerTV]

And here are some stills from episode 3, "Resonance." [SpoilerTV]

And maybe you haven't yet seen this trailer:

Doctor Who:

Shockingly, the Daily Mirror was blowing smoke when it reported that all eleven Doctors would appear in a Children In Need special this fall. There's no truth to that rumor, a spokesperson says. There is some talk of doing a special charity episode, but no details yet. [Digital Spy]

Heroes:

Greg Grunberg says he's getting ready to film a sequence for episode two of the new season, with Zachary Quinto, in which Matt Parkman "beat[s] up on Sylar." [SpoilerTV]

Eureka:

When the show comes back July 10, we pick up where we left off. Jack Carter has lost his sheriff gig, and his new job with Homeland Security means he has to leave town, which makes his daughter Zoe and everyone else sad. Jack's replacement is Sheriff Andy, a humanoid computer simulation who's detail oriented but possibly out of his depth. But of course, Jack finds a way to stay in Eureka. [SF Universe]

Virtuality:

Erik Jensen says his character, engineer Jules Braun, is fleeing from a family tragedy that hit him and his wife, but the show's virtual reality modules bring this tragedy up anew. And that's a theme of the show: that even going into deep space, you can't really escape from your demons. The show's as much about inner space as it is about outer space, he explains. [Sci Fi Wire]

And here are a ton of clips that Fox put up on Youtube. I don't have time to check which of these weren't in the 12-minute preview we posted last week, so I apologize if you've seen them before:

Better Off Ted:

What happens with Lem and Phil in the remaining episodes of this season? Malcolm Barrett explains:

There's a lot of more crazy experiments. There's a bio-machine that goes haywire. We learn a little something about Veronica's personal life. We learn about stuff between Ted and his dad. There's a show with an office thing where everyone is trying to work on this project, but nobody knows what it is. They just basically want in on the hot project, and that causes some craziness. ... We find out some secrets about Linda and Ted's relationship, which gets tested through some things that happen at the office.

Also, Jonathan Slavin says Phil finds out he's got an identical twin who's leading an exciting, confident life, and Phil tries to do the same, with tragic results. The duo try to splice firefly DNA with plant DNA to create an illuminated garden, but accidentally create a fire squirrel. And we find out how Phil and Lem met. [Sci Fi Wire]

Additional reporting by Alexis Brown.

Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen:

In the new movie, the Autobots have found a home on Earth, but they're only seen as a "smart tool" and a potential threat. We see them going from a mission to park in a hangar where they sit waiting for their next mission, instead of hanging out and conversing together. And you get a sense that Sam's dad is emotionally scarred, because of the Witwicky family history with transforming robots. [TFormers]

And here's some more concept art, from the movie's opening Shanghai sequence, including Demolishor and two of the girl motorcycles, Arcee and Chromia. [TFG2 via Seibertron]

Optimus Prime has a sword made out of energy, sort of an energon sword, and he wields it like a ninja. And in the final battle, he recites a verse that's sort of based on the old cartoons: "One shall stand, one shall fall/Arise Rodimus Prime" [MTV]

And here are some TV spots I don't think we've shown you before, one of which shows off the whole "Sam goes off to college" storyline.

Gamer:

See a bit more of that weird orange-wigged girl in another still from this living-video-game movie. [IGN]

Cowboys And Aliens:

Co-writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman say their movie version of this graphic novel keeps the basic story of aliens trying to invade Arizona in the mid-1800s, only to face opposition from cowboys and native Apache, but they get pretty creative with it and add a lot of their own stuff to it. [Sci Fi Wire]

Frankenstein:

Guillermo del Toro probably won't be directing this movie for another five years, but he's already scheduled Doug Jones for a makeup test to play the monster in the near future. And Jones says the monster's look will be based on Bernie "Swamp Thing" Wrightson's artwork. Also, Jones says he's playing at least one creature in The Hobbit, but he doesn't know which one(s) yet. [Sci Fi Wire]

Harry Potter:

Much like The Hobbit, the final Potter book is being divided into two movies, and there'll be a cliffhanger separating them, says director David Yates. It'll probably happen soon after the scene where the Snatchers capture Harry, Ron and Hermione in the woods. [L.A. Times via Cinemablend]

Battlestar Galactica:

Not sure if this counts as a spoiler... but Edward James Olmos reportedly told a convention that the only reason "The Plan" TV movie was airing on TV was so that the special effects people would be eligible for an award. Apparently the special effects will be wonderful and amazing, and we're in for a treat. He also said the version airing on Syfy would only be 88 minutes, but the version on the DVD would either be 126 or 155 minutes, depending on which version of his remarks you believe. [Battlestar Blog]

Fringe:

The second episode of season two will be called "Night Of Desirable Objects," and it's co-written by showrunner Jeff Pinkner and regular contributor J.H. Wyman. [Fringe Television]

Heroes:

Greg Grunberg explains a bit more about what to expect from Matt Parkman next season. Apparently the guilt of mind-wiping Sylar will continue to prey on his mind. And the interaction with Sylar's brain may have left a "residue," like there's a bit of Sylar left in Matt. And when the Sylar mind-wiping inevitably goes wrong, everybody's going to look to Matt to fix it. [Lots Of Interviews via SpoilerTV]

Virtuality:

Suffice to say, Ronald D. Moore has not gotten over his obsession with death by airlock. [E! Online]

True Blood:

This Sunday, Sookie finds out that Eric has been keeping Lafayette in his basement and freaks out about it. In exchange for Lafayette's release, Sookie agrees to that Dallas trip we've been hearing about. And in the June 28 episode, Sookie faces a mythological creature with a bull head, a half-animal, half-human body, gnarly claws and the poison of a komodo dragon. It killed that voodoo lady in the season opener, and it almost kills Sookie, but Eric and Bill help make her as good as new. And Evan Rachel Wood's lesbian vampire queen of Louisiana doesn't show up until the Aug. 30 and Sept. 6 episodes, but she may be back in following seasons. [E! Online]

Additional reporting by Alexis Brown.

Monday

Spectacular Spider-Man -
High School Spider-Man is back tonight, and he's bringing you two colorful animated adventures. (G-rated, of course.) In the season premiere, Spidey and his NON-Mary-Jane girlfriend Gwen are talking about their first kiss, and whether it means anything. And the second episode has Kraven...I know which one I'm watching! Catch the season premiere on Disney XD at 7 PM.

The Crumbling of America -
Scientists and historians showcase the collapse of America's infrastructure in this two hour special, while animators give us new technologies and designs to prevent problems on the History Channel at 8 PM.

Movies:
Watch pre-Donnie Darko Jake Gyllenhaal, as a 1950s teen who escapes his coal mining town on a rocket in October Sky, on AMC at 5:30 PM.

If you're not into learning about 70,000+ structurally deficient bridges in America, the best bet is following security guard Ben Stiller in the live-action version of Toy Story, Night at the Museum on FX at 8 PM.

Tuesday

Life After People -
How much rain is too much? What happens when New Orleans is flooded from rainfall, corrosion destroys the Space Needle and humidity attacks the Middle East? (What do you think happens?) Tune in on the History Channel at 10 PM.

Movies:

There's a crazy thriller film marathon on television covering, in order, 1979's Dracula, followed by Steven Spielberg's Poltergeist; Sawyer/Josh Holloway in Sabretooth, and finally, the 2004 prequel to Exorcist. It all begins on AMC at 9 AM.

Wednesday

MonsterQuest -
Do dinosaurs still exist? Weighing the evidence, the show will investigate eyewitness accounts of legendary creatures. Hmmm, dinosaurs, I'd like to see the odds on finding them, compared to capturing Big Foot.

MythBusters -
Test the theory that it's impossible to pull two phone books apart, on the Discovery channel at 9 PM.

Movies:
Arguably Halle Berry ‘s worst post-Oscar winning decision, Catwoman, is on tonight. Seriously, with a cast that included Benjamin Bratt and Sharon Stone, this should have been so much better. Watch the incredible disappearing leather catsuit on AMC at 8 PM.

And if that's not enough bad TV for ya AVP-R (Aliens Versus Predator: Requiem) is on Cinemax at 8:15 PM.

Thursday

There's a Dark Angel marathon from 8 AM until 3 PM on Syfy Channel.

Naked Science -
Despite the fact that Earth and Venus were created around the same time, we populate Earth while the sister planet is deserted. So what gives? "Earth's Evil Twin" explores the why behind the barren planet with beautiful images of her. Naked Science is on National Geographic Channel at 10 PM.

And later, Megan Fox will hopefully transform into something on Letterman. That's on CBS at 11.

Movies:

The fight over best Bond theme continues with Timothy Dalton in The Living Daylights (representing the ‘80s) pitted against Pierce Brosnan in The World is Not Enough. The mini-Bondathon begins on the SciFi Channel at 6 PM.

Garbarge theme song for TWINE:

Friday:

Virtuality airs! In case you've missed it (which is very likely as FOX has apparently been trying to bury it), the show is about the crew aboard a spaceship that's equipped with a virtual-reality device/machine/version of the holodeck. What's designed to help them survive the 10-year mission becomes a problem, when a nasty virus is discovered in the system. Now they have to fix the VR and save Earth. Tough.

What 3 Things Would You Bring With You To Space For A 10-Year Mission?
Meredith: A Case Of Tequila (all for me), Some Sort Of Pet, And One Of Those Taser Guns (seems like a good idea)

Batman The Brave And The Bold -
OMAC and Shrapnel may or may not battle to the death, as long as the Bat doesn't interfere, this week on the Cartoon Network at 8:30 PM.

Saturday:

Kings -
We get to glimpse Silas outside the confines of the palace, and Rose struggles to keep her mouth shut. Watch Silas and David go a pilgrimage-ing on NBC at 8 PM.

Primeval -
A Cretaceous dino comes through the anomaly and so does a medieval knight poised to slay a dragon. It airs on BBC America at 8 PM.

Sunday:

Prehistoric Disasters -
Did an asteroid strike kill the dinosaurs? What's the deal with dinosaurs this week? Evidence of the claim is examined on the Discovery Channel at 10 PM.

True Blood -
Sookie and Bill head out to turn to their favorite vamp for help, and the show everyone thought was about Sookie really begins to turn into an ensemble. Hopefully this week we'll finally get some of Jason's behind, on HBO at 9 PM.

Movies:

Aliens - Yes, the "s" signified a whole new film, and Sigourney Weaver will remind you why she is the only constant in the Alien films. Ripley wakes up on AMC at 8 PM.

Additional writing and reporting by Caitlin Petrakovitz.

It turns out the stakes for the Phaeton's mission are even higher than we realized, since the Earth will be uninhabitable within a century — or will it? Is that just a trick? Either way, the pressure is making our heroes crack, and having to deal with it live and on hidden camera all the time isn't helping. Too bad their main safety valve, the VR modules, is being overrun with nightmares.

So what do you think? Were the VR worlds what you wanted? What about the suits? I kind of like the fake advertising, though it's been done before. I guess we'll have to wait for the air date for the final verdict. Virtuality will air June 26th on Fox.

[via Cinemablend]

I'm not convinced by James D'Arcy's advice, I have to admit.

Virtuality premieres June 26th on Fox.

[YouTube]

Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen:

Michael Bay, Shia LaBeouf and Megan Fox had a press conference in South Korea, and here's the whole thing. [TLAMB]

Deadpool:

Ryan Reynolds has a promise for you about his Deadpool solo film:

He's going to be the Merc with the Mouth, [we're going to give] all those answers that everyone wants. He's going to have the scarred-up face, he's going to be in the suit - and, it's going to be incredible.

Right now, he says they're just working out what the spine of the story will be, including what antagonists Wade will face, and whehter there will be flashbacks or flash-forwards or what. [MTV]

The Hobbit:

Not sure how much we're covering this franchise, but in any case Guillermo del Toro says the plan is no longer to adapt this book into two movies plus a "bridge" movie. Instead, the new plan is simply to adapt the book into two movies, adding in some subplot material. What subplots, you ask?

There is a whole other chapter, so to speak, which is the comings and going of Gandalf which are dealt with, people that know the lore know that Gandalf was delayed with a crisis… with a character that is very shady called the Necromancer that proves to be Sauron.

Also, he says Andy Serkis, Ian McKellen and Hugo Weaving are back in their roles from the earlier films. And he says he's definitely still directing Frankenstein, with Doug Jones playing the monster. But he says Blade IV and Hellboy III will probably never happen, and he's only producing Jekyll and Hyde, not directing. [Slashfilm]

Zombieland:

Here are the first official photos from this zombie comedy, which has the following storyline:

Jesse Eisenberg plays Columbus, a teenage who has made a habit of running from what scares him. Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson) doesn't have fears. If he did, he'd kick their ever-living ass. In a world overrun by zombies, these two are perfectly evolved survivors. But now, they're about to stare down the most terrifying prospect of all: each other. The film also stars Emma Stone (Superbad) and Abigail Breslin (Little Miss Sunshine).

More pics at the link. [AICN]

Moon:

It's not just that the duplicate Sam meets on the Moon is a clone — the "original" Sam is a clone too, says director Duncan Jones. After he's injured in an accident, the robot Gerty activates an "energetic and irritable" copy of him. The older Sam is burned out and ready to go home, the newly activated Sam is still the guy who was eager to escape his wife and go to the Moon. They bicker and fight, until they realize that the mining company views both of them as disposable. [Wired]

Lost:

Shannon probably won't be back next season, but Charlie might turn up, you never know. And Rebecca Mader says she's eager to come back and play Charlotte for one or two episodes. [E! Online]

Torchwood:

The new five-part miniseries "Children Of Earth" pushes the Torchwood storyline forward, but leaves the door open for a fourth season, says Eve Myles. It starts with the gang still grieving their lost comrades, but then they have to put that aside and face a new threat, in a bigger storyline than the show's had before. It ends up with the team's relationships to each other, and to the world, greatly transformed. [Wired]

Battlestar Galactica:

Did we already show you this teaser for this fall's TV movie, "The Plan"? Just in case, here it is. There's more coming on Friday night, during Primeval.

Dollhouse:

So why will season two be better than season one? Joss Whedon explains:

We really understand the show now. We understand what works, and what didn't work so well or what we weren't so thrilled about. We don't have the onus of trying to be a big hit sitting on our shoulders. We can just be ourselves. And so the stories we're breaking are pure, and exciting, and everybody's on-board in the room, and it's never flowed better.

As for what will happen, he says the stories will expand on the second half of season one, and a lot of the plots are driven by wanting to have the most fun with these actors, and seeing all the stuff Eliza Dushku can become. Plus expanding the mythology of the Dollhouse. As for Alpha, the season won't pick up right away with "We've got to find Alpha!" Rather, the character will be used sparingly. As for Echo, here's her storyline in the new season:

Echo wants to find not just Caroline, but what's going on behind everything. She doesn't have all of the skills. [Laughs] But she does have this weird super power of becoming a different person all the time, so she might start using that more specifically to find out who Caroline was and what happened to her and why this place exists.

And surprise: Echo's past imprints may not be as wiped out as the Dollhouse would like to believe. [EW]

Supernatural:

Jensen Ackles says the Winchesters won't be calling the shots in the war between Heaven and Hell, but they may play a pivotal role. To some extent, the Winchesters will just be caught in the middle, but they will lend whatever help they can to Castiel and the other angels. And Ackles says Sam's demon blood addiction will remain a problem next season:

The demon stuff is still coursing through his veins, and he's got that to deal with. The season finale ended with the big, giant realization that he was being duped into becoming what he didn't want to be. So now he's got to deal with that and try to get back to neutral

Also, he says that a sixth season of the show isn't really all that likely. All he and Padalecki meant, when they talked about season six at that convention in England, is that they're signed up for six seasons. So if it happens, they have to be part of it. [E! Online]

Virtuality:

Ronald D. Moore talks more about the strands that run through this TV movie, airing June 26:

I think some of the fundamental questions on the show go to things like "What is real? What is not real in this story? What is manipulation? What is not manipulation?" If we went to series we would continue to explore that, and we'd play different characters starting to unravel different mysteries. What are they telling them from Earth, and is that true? Are they just being paranoid? Is somebody aboard manipulating their messages, the virtual reality? There are a lot of mysteries and certain interesting things that were set up that we would continue to play if the show went to series.

[Sci Fi Wire]

True Blood:

Sam Trammell and Rutina Wesley talk season two on a morning talk show:

Additional reporting by Alexis Brown.

Moore, creator of Battlestar Galactica, didn't seem to mind our obnoxious question. Here's what he said:

Well, it's a different concept. The holodeck is a space, and you would go into [it] and 3D forms were created in front of you... This is truly a virtual world, much more akin to a virtual headset. Whereas you have an experiential ability touch things [you're not going into an actual space], so it's a different sort of mechanics. At the story level, we're not explaining the idea that if you die in the virtual space, you die in the real space. [Instead, if you die in the virtual space, you just wake up.]

It's more like gaming is now. You game, you don't get killed, you wake up. We're using it much more psychologically now. The experiences that the astronauts have aboard the spaceship in the virtual space are things that are psychologically motivated. They go in there in and do things for entertainment. [And this reveals something about their personalities, and where they want to spend their time.] When things go wrong in that space, how is it going to affect them in the real world? How does the virtual space affect the real world storyline, and vice versa?

He did admit, in response to another caller, that Virtuality's virtual headsets are pretty similar to the ones you'll see in the BSG prequel Caprica. The main difference is that in Virtuality, there's less of a shared virtual world, and it's not an infinite space with tons of orgy rooms and different environments. Rather, each crewmember has a private virtual reality module, which can be shared but is pretty limited. The show conveys the virtual nature of these environments by filming all the VR scenes in greenscreen, instead of a real setting.

And Moore promises that Virtuality is less serious than the post-apocalyptic BSG. "There's more humor probably in the first 10 minutes of Virtuality than there was in the whole run of Battlestar," he says.

Virtuality is much more about the tensions and manipulations and cross-tensions among a group of people "in a metal tube going in a straight line for a decade or so." In addition to serving in this deep-space exploration mission, they're also taking part in a reality TV show for the viewers at home. And the crew was chosen as much for their diversity and mix of characters — for this reality show — as for their skills, which gives rise to questions over whether the best people for the mission were chosen. Another source of tension: when the crew hears news from Earth (including news of major ecological disasters) they don't know if it's true, or if they're just being fed horrendous news to make the reality TV show better viewing.

These three elements: deep space exploration, VR, and reality TV are "tough to juggle," Moore admits. "It's a very ambitious piece. That was the reaction on the part of Fox when they saw it: It's a very complicated piece with a lot of moving parts." Fox felt the two-hour pilot would have been a great feature film, but weren't sure if it could launch a TV series. But Moore still holds out hope that it could be picked up as a series if the response to the June 26 airing is positive enough. It's also possible the story could be continued as a comic book or as another TV movie.

Also, keep your eyes peeled in the next few days for some special web-only content created for Virtuality:

There is a series of webisodes were created for Virtuailty... The webisodes were episodes of the reality show. You would see pieces of the reality show as it's broadcast back to Earth. That was part of the pitch [to the network. If the show had been picked up, you would have been able to watch installments of Edge of Never, the reality series, on the website.] The concept and plan would have been that you can log in on to the website and there would be information included that would not be accessible to people watching the show. If you wanted to know everything that is going on. The astronauts may not be aware of how the show is being viewed back on Earth, they may not understand how things are. My understanding is right now fox is going to put them up on the Facebook page for Edge of Never In the next few days you'll be able to download or view these webisodes.

Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen:

Entertainment Tonight features an interview with Megan Fox, where she explains that the new movie has "bigger everything." [TLAMB]

Moon:

There's a scene with the two Sam Rockwells, where they have an actual physical interaction and one of them helps the other with his fly and helps him put on a hat. It was the most challenging special effects sequence in the film, says director Duncan Jones. [Screen Crave]

The movie has quite a hopeful ending — although it's not such a great ending for Sam I, it's an upbeat ending for Sam II. And some of this hopefulness comes in the form of "radio chatter." Jones tried leaving out the radio chatter, but the movie was too bleak without it. [Cinemablend]

Dead Snow:

A group of Norwegian medical students take a rowdy, naughty holiday at a remote cabin in the mountains, where they fall prey to zombies — who happen to be Nazis who fled at the end of World War II and are hoarding treasures from during the occupation. There's one wise-guy character who comments on the zombie-movie cliches in the film and talks about the ill-advisedness of going into the woods, etc. And he happens to be the only character who gets laid. The zombies do a bit of strategizing in between their blood-lusty attacks. [Sci Fi Wire]

And here are some eye-blisteringly awesome photos. [IGN]

[Rec] 2:

Chances are, the sequel will deal with the clean-up of all the the infected people left in the basement of that tenement, including the little girl, who's shown in a new still. [ShockTillYouDrop]

9:

Here's an awesome new poster for this world-without-people ragdolls versus machines movie. [Cinemablend]

Scott Pilgrim:

Director Edgar Wright posted a couple new set pics. [Edgar Wright Here]

Dollhouse:

Don't get your hopes up for November (Miracle Laurie) to reappear in season two. A source tells TV Guide that since Paul negotiated November's freedom, her storyline seems to have come to a close. [TV Guide]

Stargate Universe:

Not only will Richard Dean Anderson and Amanda Tapping be showing up, but you'll be seeing plenty of Sam/Jack quality time. However, in less encouraging news, Joseph Malozzi says the Stargate: Extinction DVD won't include the character of Elizabeth. [TV Guide]

Lost:

Not sure if it's worth posting a spoiler that's already been debunked... but here goes. Someone on Twitter (you can already see why this rumor was debunked) claimed to be a Hollywood talent agent's assistant, and tweeted that all of the Lost season one cast would be back in season six for some episodes, except for Michael and Walt. That included Charlie, Shannon, and Claire, of course. But sadly, the rumor's already been debunked, before we even had a chance to tell you to take it with a grain of salt. (However, EW's Ausiello says Team Darlton is checking the availability of several past stars. [Lost Rumours]

Virtuality:

Producer Michael Taylor co-star Billie Kashmiri sings a "punk rock" version of the Munsters theme song, with the lyrics in Japanese. (Okay then.) And he hints the TV movie's original ending has been tweaked, which may be good news for people who like Captain Frank Pike. And he provides more backstory: the show takes place twenty or thirty years in the future, when global warming is wrecking the planet. The Phaeton travels on our first interstellar voyage, to discover new life and hopefully find some solutions to our eco-nightmares. It's a straight shot to the next star system, which means the voyage is pretty uneventful most of the time. So to keep the crew from going bonkers in the enclosed space, they get the nifty virtual reality modules, which go so terribly, and fatefully, wrong. [Televisionary]

True Blood:

Ashley Jones plays Daphne, a new waitress at Merlottes and a new love interest for Sam Merlotte. She appears in the season's first episode, and at least seven others. Sams's never been too lucky in love, but Daphne come salong, adn she's from a similar background, and she and Sam "get" each other. She's a complicated person with her own agenda, and nobody understands her but her man. There's a lot more to her than you realize at first, and her connection to the whole vampy world goes "pretty deep." And she comments that the show's fake blood does not taste good. [Sci Fi Wire]

In the first episode, Sookie and Bill have a big fight, followed by makeup sex... followed by makeup biting, with blood gushing all over the sheets. Sookie gets gored by a "horned, taloned creature" in the woods after she storms off in her fight with Bill.

Also, we'll see more of Eric's "sensitive and funny" side this season. And Eric makes a play for Sookie. The death they investigate in Dallas is one of Eric's associates, so it throws Sookie and Eric together. Jason, meanwhile, has a "small romance," and his Fellowship Of The Sun storyline eventually intersects Sookie's Dallas visit, because the Fellowship is also in Dallas. And Jason has to put on his Rambo outfit and go to war.

Jessica will have a new romance, and will struggle with the immense power she's taken on as a vampire. New character Daphne is a "sweet, spunky gal," says Jones, but she complicates many situations. [TV Guide and Rolling Stone via SpoilerTV]

Deborah Ann Wolf describes Jessica's arc this season:

I see the second season, for Jessica, really being about growing up and maturing, and dealing with situations in a way that she can be accountable for her own actions and for things that happen, and looking for solutions. In essence, it is a coming of age story for her. She's starting to deal with some of these problems and issues of being a vampire, a bit more like an adult would, in a way that I think Papa Compton would be proud of me, if he knew that that's how I was responding.

[IESB]

Sanctuary:

Michael Shanks will guest star in this show's second season this fall, playing a character named Jimmy. [Sci Fi Wire]

Vampire Diaries:

And because you demanded it, an extended preview of this CW show. [SF Universe]

So you mentioned that you got involved with Virtuality to do something to for the genre similar to what BSG did. What will Virtuality change, what does it have to offer to the world that BSG did?

For Virtuality, I think our focus is more technological. It's more about the technology we are already dealing with and how that will change our lives. I would say that, that reality is the internet. The technology which enables us to communicate with other people. We conduct a lot of our lives though websites dating sites, facebook, email, phone links that allow us to get in contact with people on the other side of the world. But there's no physical contact. In other words we're already living our lives in a kind of virtual reality. This is what the show Virtuality looks to explore. How that kind of technology will change us... In that sense, it's a very different kind of show than Battlestar, a very new show. But with a cultural reference that is just as profound... It's looking ahead.

We read a lot of rumors about the show getting changed from the original pilot script? Did a lot of things change?

The show that will air on June 26 is not really changed at all from what we shot. On the other hand, the show did start out as a one hour pilot. NBC Universal and Fox the airing network [asked us] to turn it into a two hour movie. In a way, that had to change the nature of the script that had been widely circulated on the internet (for the original one hour show). It deepens the draw in some ways, it complicates it in others. I think when Fox saw the end result, they thought, "wow this is a very heady mix." Or as one Fox executive said, it's "Very cool but kind of dense."

Clearly they were afraid that it was not the kind of network material they were used to. Initially Peter Berg, our marvelous director, said, "I think I can boil this down to an hour, and maybe that will make it an easier sell for you guys. Let me try." So they gave him the legway to do that, and he did it in a one-hour cut. It turned out very interesting, but very different — and it would have to be. To make a two hour movie from a one hour, you have to make a lot of changes and focus on different things.

In the end, I don't think Fox found that [one-hour cut] more compelling than the two hours. There were compromises made along the route. There are things Ron and I would love to change, or Pete would love to change if we had the opportunity or the budget. The chance to reshoot some stuff, to work even better as a two hour. But what you will see is essentially what we set out to make, for better, hopefully, and for worse too. It's a show that we're all really proud of and we think is really cool. But I should say that it looks more like an indie move than Mission Impossible 3.

We read that the gay couple might have been edited out or removed?

None of that is true. I think that was at the point where the network said, "Gosh this is very cool but I don't know if this is for us." They basically took their hands off. They didn't give us any budget to do some of the things we wanted to do, but they said, "Do what you want."

Fox's involvement at this point is giving us great help in terms of promotion on the web. And the rest is pretty hands off. It's been put out on a night that I've heard is sort of the graveyard/boneyard of television. You won't see a billboard or a bus shelter sign. There is no overt promotion in that sense, but we have a wonderful publicity department at Fox, who really love the show and is helping us push it on the internet as much as we can. We cannot squawk that anyone messed with it, we can always [see] the things we didn't get to do [and] the things we wanted to make it even better, but it's still very much the show we set off to make and that we made. We hope people dig it.

How much time do your characters spend in the virtual world and is it different for each character?

Every astronaut on the show has their own personal reality module. A chance to create a space that is unique for them, and they occupy it on their own. They can share it or leave it if they want to. But by and large, they are considered private spaces. In the course of the show, I would say we spend about 10 - 20% in these environments.

Because we're meeting the group for the first time, we're setting a lot of balls in motion as far as the plot and what the story and the situation is. So it requires us to spend a lot of time in the reality of the spaceship. Also it's expensive to produce these virtual realities. They were all created digitally — there are no real back drops to these virtual environments. Everything was created in the computer. We are creating a true virtuality. And that's expensive. We get windows into our characters' experiences, which are kind of mind blowing in some places. But the meat of the show takes place in the reality of the spaceship. But by the end of the show, you may start to wonder what is real and what is not. Which is one of the themes of the series as a whole.

Could you describe one character's virtual world?

One of our characters, he name is Billie Kashmiri (Kerry Bishe) she's a young computer scientist on the ship. And she's kind of shy, she's still finding her confidence she's in with a lot of seasoned astronauts. What is her virtual reality? She's created a alternate ego for herself. She's very much a Buckaroo Banzai, a character who is a rock n' roll superspy. It's very funny and tongue in cheek. It's whimsical, and kind of James Bondy. We get to see a bit of it. So in a way, her environment is an expression of who she is, or who she wants to be. It tells a lot about her, but is also a lot of fun for the audience to see. The other characters' environments are more serious, exploring issues that they are grappling with perhaps, situations in their lives. Secrets, even. But it can be a restful retreat, from environments where you can work through issues to pure wish fulfillment and entertainment.

We heard that the movie will no longer become a series. Is that true?

I can't confirm that. Fox has not given us the official word. I have to be honest, I think the scheduling of this the way it is... it does not look good. The chances are very slender. Slim to none — who knows? It would take pretty much a miracle for that to happen. It would take millions of people watching, on this night when people normally aren't watching television in general. I can say if a lot of people watch it and like it, and make their feelings known whether it's writing a letter to Peter Rice, or even better, to someone like Mark Stern at the Syfy Network, who really does love the show. It's part of the NBC Universal family, and I think they'd love to put it on if they could afford to put it on. If they could find backing, that would be amazing a miracle. Neither Ron nor I are holding our breath for a miracle. We're just happy people have a chance to watch what we made.

Here's the gallery, which also includes a photo of the ship's captain, Frank Pike, acting out a Civil War scenario on horseback via the ship's virtual reality modules. And a picture of visual effects supervisor Gary Hutzel in action. After this post had already gone up, producer Michael Taylor sent me a bonus image showing the Phaeton's workings, which is now in the gallery.

And because the gallery software doesn't seem to be able to give you a high enough resolution of it, here's that explanation of the Phaeton's physics:

Having read the script to this TV movie (which still could become the pilot for a new series if the stars align just right) I'm incredibly excited to see it play out on screen. Here's the official description:

The crew of the Phaeton is approaching the go/no-go point of their epic 10-year journey through outer space. With the fate of Earth in their hands, the pressure is intense. The best bet for helping the crew members maintain their sanity is the cutting-edge virtual reality technology installed on the ship. It's the perfect stress-reliever until they realize a glitch in the system has unleashed a virus on to the ship. Tensions mount as the crew decides how to contain the virus and complete their mission. Meanwhile, their lives are being taped for a reality show back on Earth in the World Broadcast Premiere of VIRTUALITY airing Friday, June 26 (8:00-10:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX.

The possible series (possible), which will be airing as a two-hour TV movie on Fox, follows a crew who is on a 10-year mission, all the while visiting their own virtual reality dream sequences and having their lives taped and aired back on Earth for reality TV. I'm actually really excited to see what Jimmi Simpson and Clea DuVall are going to bring to the table, since both actors are pretty good at "troubled and disturbed" character acting. Yes that's McPoyle I'm talking about, so we're rooting for positive feedback from the audience and maybe, just maybe, it will come back as a series. But probably not.

The crew of the Phaeton is approaching the go/no-go point of their epic 10-year journey through outer space. With the fate of Earth in their hands, the pressure is intense. The best bet for helping the crew members maintain their sanity is the cutting-edge virtual reality technology installed on the ship. It's the perfect stress-reliever until they realize a glitch in the system has unleashed a virus on to the ship. Tensions mount as the crew decides how to contain the virus and complete their mission. Meanwhile, their lives are being taped for a reality show back on Earth

Virtuality will air Friday, June 26 8 PM on FOX.