Well, that didn't last long: the Sci-Fi Channel has canceled Painkiller Jane.

The show about a DEA agent with special powers who tracks down others with special powers will finish its first and only season on September 21 (it's still strange to me that a show's season can end in September). That means that the show will have completed 22 episodes total. I predict that fans will be able to buy the show in a "Complete Series" DVD set late this year or early next year.

The creative team behind Sci Fi's new female superhero, Painkiller Jane, took the stage at TCA, but spent most of the time fielding questions about what they thought about NBC's Heroes. Executive Producer Gil Grant and series star Kristanna Loken both claim to have not seen Heroes, and seemed to bristle a bit at the questioning. Honestly, the shows are fairly different, both in plot and scope, but they haven't even taken a peek at what could feasibly be called the competition?

Q&A: "Can Jane feel pain?" -- overheard from a critic behind me: "Yes, when she reads the reviews." Ouch.

In November, production will begin on a new hour-long drama for the SciFi Channel titled Painkiller Jane, based on the Dynamite Entertainment comic book of the same name. The new series will feature Kristanna Loken of Terminator 3 as the titular character, a woman who can instantly heal and regenerate from any injury, but still feels pain, nonetheless. She works for a covert agency and hunts "Neuros," powerful humans with super mental powers. The series is set to premiere next Spring, with a syndication deal scheduled for the Fall. Twenty-two episodes of the series have been ordered. The original comic book was created by Jimmy Palmiotti and Joe Quesada for Event Comics in the mid '90s before switching over to Dynamite Entertainment, a company that also publishes comic book versions of Xena and Battlestar Galactica.

The Sci Fi network just announced its purchase of the U.S. rights to a German production, titled Dark Kingdom: The Dragon King, based in part on the Ring of the Nibelungs myth. Never heard of the myth? Apparently it's been known to have inspired composer Richard Wagner's operas and J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings trilogy, so what's one more?

The movie stars Benno Furmann, Kristanna Loken, Alicia Witt, Julian Sands and Max Von Sydow. The German version first aired on German TV in 2004, where it was the year's top-rated TV movie.

Honestly though, if Sci Fi's track record is any indication, I have high hopes for this mini-series. Though, the question is, is this mini-series meant to stand on its own, or is it a test precursor to a full-blown series? The movie was top-rated on German TV in 2004, if that's any indication to its success here in the U.S.