Call it Syfy's answer to The Love Boat.

Warehouse 13 has welcomed a number of geek-friendly guest stars during its first season, including Battlestar Galactica's Tricia Helfer and former Stargate Alantis lead Joe Flanigan. Another BSG alum, Michal Hogan is set to play Agent Myka's father later this season.

The trend continues tonight with Eureka's Erica Cerra and Niall Matter guest starring as a pair of grifters looking for a big score in Las Vegas. Another Eureka vet, the awesome Joe Morton, will appear on the show in episode nine. (Minor spoilers ahead...)

Apollo has landed ... in Joss Whedon's Dollhouse. The first (very tiny) promo pics of the season premiere of Dollhouse, "Vows," have popped up online. The pics feature former Battlestar Galactica cast member Jamie Bamber apparently tying the knot with Eliza Dushku's Echo.

The ep follows Echo on her latest engagement as the bride of a wealthy financier who might be involved in arms trafficking. The engagement is set up by do-gooder and former FBI agent Paul, played by Bamber's former Battlestar co-star Tahmoh Penikett, who wants to use the Dollhouse to do some good for the world.

The folks at Caprica central are making a lot of geeks happy this week. First, we heard that comedian and professional nerd Patton Oswalt was joining the Battlestar Galactica prequel series as a Caprican talk show host. Now comes news that Buffy the Vampire Slayer vet James Marsters is joining the show for a sizeable arc.

Marsters will do what he does best on Caprica: play a dangerous and unpredictable baddie driven by his carnal and moralistic desires. EW tells us that Marsters will play a terrorist leader named Barnabus Greele in at least three episodes of the upcoming Syfy series.

Patton Oswalt will be joining the cast of Caprica on SyFy. He will have a recurring role of Baxter Sarno, a Caprican comedian and talk show host. I can see how the building of artificial life forms such as the Cylons could provide him with a wealth of material.

One plot point revealed in the article is that Daniel and Amanda Greystone will appear on his talk show. If you're going to sell to the public the concept of robot slaves, a talk show is the place to do it.

Oswalt has long since revealed himself to be a sci fi nerd. Other than his role on King of Queens, he's also appeared on sci fi shows like Dollhouse. He's also had a recurring role on The United States of Tara, which while not exactly science fiction is pretty close to it. I think the true reveal for me of his nerdiness was when he co-wrote a Justice League of America comic (he's also written Batman).

Keep in mind that, according to lore of Battlestar Galactica from the mind of Ron Moore, we're all now descendants of Patton Oswalt.

There have already been rumors, but we all know how studios have this annoying tendency to milk franchises until they're dead, and then milk them some more before the corpse gets too cold. Well, Universal seems to think that now that Ron Moore's operatic space war version of the show is done, now would be a great time for Bryan Singer to direct yet another reboot of the Battlestar Galactica franchise.

Singer is said to be a big fan of the original 70's series, but the supposedly $10 million dollar paycheck for Singer probably also has an effect on his directorial willingness. Despite the talent behind it, this reboot is a bad idea. Singer did X-Men, but he also did Superman Returns. Plus, too many reboots in too short a time would only be confusing to people.

Of course, this time creator Glen Larson is on board to produce. While it didn't turn out so bad last time Larson wasn't involved, not having him would be like remaking Buffy without Joss Whedon. Oh, wait.

Battlestar Galactica's Luciana Carro is returning to Syfy with a role on the BSG prequel series Caprica. Fans will remember Carro as Kat on BSG, the cocky Viper pilot and "stims" addict who became a thorn in Starbuck's side. Carro is the first BSG actor to join the Caprica cast, says Battlestar Blog, who heard the news at a recent Wizard World Chicago Q&A.

Kat succumbed to radiation poisoning after flying her last mission in season three of BSG. Carro will most likely be playing a new character on Caprica, since the show takes place more than fifty years before the events of BSG. The news has fans wondering whether or not Carro's Caprica character will be related to Kat.

Michael Hogan isn't done with Battlestar Galactica just yet. The actor who played the show's hardest drinking toaster will appear in the upcoming BSG TV movie The Plan, directed by Edward James Olmos. Hogan is sticking with sci-fi for his next two TV outings, a possible recurring role on Syfy's Warehouse 13 and a guest spot on Dollhouse.

Hogan will join former BSG actor and Dollhouse cast member Tahmoh Penikett in a season two episode of Dollhouse. He won't be the only BSG alum guest starring on Dollhouse this year. Jamie Bamber, who played Apollo, will show up in the season premiere, set to air September 25.

Tonight, the members of the Television Critics Association (including me) gathered at the Langham Huntington Hotel in Pasadena to give out its annual awards. The membership voted on the awards in the month leading up to the press tour; we were given a number of candidates to choose from in various categories. The membership was also asked to choose recipients for an individual Career Achievement award and the Heritage Award, which recognizes a past show that had a big impact artistically and on the industry.

The members gave ER its Heritage Award, which honors the impact the show has had on the TV landscape. As for current shows, the members gave Battlestar Galactica the Program of the Year award, Mad Men Outstanding Achievement in Drama. The Big Bang Theory won for Outstanding Achievement in Comedy, and Jim Parsons won the Individual Achievement in Comedy award for his performance. Bryan Cranston of Breaking Bad won the Individual Achievement in Drama award. True Blood won the Outstanding New Program Award. And, finally, the award I'm most excited about (because she'll likely be there): Betty White received the Career Achievement award.

A complete list of winners is after the jump.

We know that Caprica is coming to Syfy on January 22nd. We also know that Edward James Olmos is directing the Battlestar Galactica TV movie "The Plan."

An extra little tidbit of news today is Ron Moore's response to the Emmy committee for their snub of the final season of the show. In short, he is not a happy camper.

I wish I could say I was surprised by the Emmy snub, but Hollywood committees do tend to ignore science fiction and fantasy shows when it comes to awards (The Lord of the Rings being the only exception that comes to mind, and that's based on a pretty classic trilogy of books).

The good news is that really good science fiction develops a following that goes far beyond any sort of award recognition. Look at Star Wars. Did that Academy even notice that one? Not really. Yet it still sells loads of merchandise. Battlestar Galactica will likely do the same for some time to come.

For a guy who seemed reluctant to climb aboard a Battlestar Galactica series when it first launched, Edward James Olmos is committed body and soul now.

At a Friday early afternoon press conference at Comic-Con International, Olmos hosted a BSG: Caprica - The Plan event to show preview footage of the new Caprica show and to discuss The Plan movie he directed to continue Syfy's top original franchise. The DVD release for that film hits stores on Oct. 27.

Olmos alluded to his one-time hesitance to become full-time commander of the Galactica when he told fans, "I'm on board Battlestar Galactica for the rest of my life." That would have brought a huge cheer from fans at a panel, but reporters and such tend to be more subdued.

Olmos' enthusiasm and partial contrition is a classy way of saying, "I never foresaw how successful BSG would be, and I know a good thing when I see it." In fact, the sci-fi epic completely resurrected his career.

Caprica premieres January 22, 2009 on Syfy.

One of the best parts of this job is the advance copies we get of television DVD sets. In short: Holy frak! The final set of Battlestar Galactica episodes is awesome.

Minor spoilers follow...

There are those who liked the ending and those that didn't. I didn't like the lack of explanation of Kara's return from the dead and found the finale generally anti-climactic. But the series set a high standard and, overall, it's a minor complaint. In most ways, the series is perfect and far better than most of us deserve.

I'll give them this: the people who make the show know their audience ... that audience being nerds. Nerds like information. Hence, the DVD set is full of extras and special features. These include deleted scenes, behind-the-scenes featurettes, and extended versions of episodes, including the three-part finale, "Daybreak." And every episode (let me repeat that:: every episode) has podcast commentary by Ronald Moore.

Every year I foolishly get excited that maybe this year the Emmys will reach out and nominate something different. But then it's the same old nominees from the previous year. Even if a show has an off year, Emmy just goes ahead and nominates it again.

Of last year's six nominees for Drama Series, only one didn't make the cut this year. Lead Actor kept five of their six nominees as well, and Lead Actress kept all five nominees from last year. That's fifteen of 17 repeat contenders from last year in three categories. If Emmy hadn't added a slot each to Series and Actress it might have been a virtual rerun.

With all those repeats, there's no room to honor the final season of Battlestar Galactica. Maybe Emmy voters look at the shows they picked last year and say "That's still on, right? Let's go with that." And they're done picking their nominees in less than ten minutes.

If you are, then you could potentially work for Bear McCreary, who wrote the theme to the new(er) Battlestar Galactica and its spin-off Caprica. He's looking for a web designer to design a site for The Battlestar Galactica Orchestra.

I gotta hand it to the man for his cleverness. There are likely web designer rabid fans out there who would happily clean Bear McCreary's car with their tongue for a chance to have their name attached with any aspect of the franchise (hopefully they have some talent). I'm sure there will be a cyberspace line to help Mr. McCreary design his site and he doesn't have to pay a dime.

On the other hand, the winner of the contest gets some pretty cool one-of-a-kind Battlestar Galactica merchandise (including the baton from the BSG concert McCreary be conducting), so maybe everybody wins. If you want to create that clever idea of an entire orchestra of Cylon Centurions, now's your chance.

[via Ain't It Cool]

"Let's get this genocide started!"

That Cavil is one evil bucket of bolts.

Sci Fi's new trailer for Battlestar Galactica: The Plan is making the rounds and drumming up anticipation for the TV movie, which premieres this fall. The Plan will portray the events of the Cylon attack on the twelve colonies through the perspective of the Cylons. It's directed by Admiral Adama himself, Edward James Olmos, and written by BSG and Warehouse 13 scribe Jane Espenson, who also helped craft the BSG Web series the Face of the Enemy.

You know what? I'm down with all the cast, er, cross-pollination that's going on in sci-fi TV these days. Especially if it means good actors can keep working after their previous shows were given the axe. Earlier today, we reported that Brian Austin Green, formerly of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, is joining Smallville for a two-episode arc. Now it looks like Battlestar Galactica's Rick Worthy is in talks to join NBC's Heroes.

On BSG, Worthy played Simon, the Cylon famous for conducting icky experiments on Kara Thrace. He'll play telepath Matt Parkman's new partner, an experienced L.A. cop, on Heroes when the show returns this fall. It's still unclear if Worthy's character will develop superpowers on the show, but something tells me he'll be more than just a normal cop before long. This is Heroes were talking about, the show where everyone gets superpowers.

Worthy is a sci-fi vet. He's appeared in everything from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine to Dark Angel and Stargate: SG-1. He'll be joining new Heroes season four recruits Robert Knepper and Madelina Zima.