The writers and producers of Syfy's Stargate Universe could've played it safe and got along just fine with their latest series.

After Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin's 1994 feature film from MGM, the series' first TV adaption (SG1) arrived in 1997. When you throw in the follow-up series, Infinity and Atlantis, the Stargate franchise has run on TV in one form or another for more than 12 years.

When the time came to invent the next step in the franchise, show-runners Brad Wright and Robert C. Cooper could have trotted out more of the same and done perfectly well. Instead, they upped the ante -- bringing a bigger budget and updated production techniques to Stargate Universe.

MGM and Syfy welcomed journalists to Vancouver's Bridge Studios to explore the show's starship Destiny set and discover how this series cruises beyond its successful predecessors.

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For one reason or another, people have been wanting to rename the Sci Fi network for a long time. About three years ago, someone shot a fake press release around the blogoshpere saying that the SciFi network was going to be renamed SurgeTV. Even as recently as last fall, surveys were going around suggesting that the name would change to Beyond. Now we finally have an official name change from the folks at NBC Universal and it's a big one: the Sci Fi network is becoming... the Syfy network.

Doesn't sound much different, does it? The shocking thing is that the network went through 300 (!) names before picking the phonetic version of their existing name. The name is supposed to be the "best of both worlds," network president Dave Howe tells TV Week; it sounds like the old name but it looks less geeky than the abbreviation for "Science Fiction." The new name and logo will start appearing on July 7, when the dramedy Warehouse 13 is launched.

I know, I know. It's old news to most of you die hard BSG fans, but in case you haven't heard, Kevin Smith is no longer going to be directing an episode of Battlestar Galactica as we mentioned earlier.

The initial news we got was via a message board post left on Sci-Fi's forums by the wife of executive producer and creator Ron Moore (thanks commenter Akbar!) Given that there were some people less than thrilled to hear of Smith's involvement with the show, I wanted to get confirmation myself first in case of shenanigans, thus the wait. Unfortunately my contacts couldn't get official word themselves, most likely because even Moore himself has come out to say it's not that big of news, something that "only registers on message boards."

UPDATE: Smith talks about it on his own blog.

Those are the latest rumors spreading around the internets and the industry, that The CW has all but canceled the cult favorite Veronica Mars and that CBS is going to give a surprising second season renewal to Jericho, which looked like it might be dead in the water.

USA Today is reporting that a really good source is saying that Veronica Mars is "all but dead." Critic Robert Bianco says that fellow writer Gary Levin says the show is gone and he's "almost always right about these things." I think any buzz that the show might have had a year or so ago is now dead and a renewal is unlikely. (Isabelle talked about this last month, too.)

As for Jericho, SyFyPortal says that not only will CBS renew the drama, but it will move it to a new night in the fall to get it away from American Idol. Time will tell. The networks reveal their new schedules next month.

[via TV Tattle]

There's good news, and slightly not so good news, for Battlestar Galactica fans. First the good news: SyFy Portal is reporting that the SciFi Channel is expected to give the go-ahead for a fourth season of the acclaimed drama. The announcement may be made even before the show returns to the SciFi schedule in its new Sunday night slot.

The news is not so good for the Battlestar prequel spinoff, Caprica. According to unconfirmed sources at SciFi there are still plenty of things to be worked out about the series, which will take place about fifty years prior to the current run of Galactica. The source says that a premiere of the series in 2007 is probably unlikely.

The article at SyFy Portal brings up an interesting fact: SciFi Channel is known for announcing potential new series that never see the light of day. Anyone remember the big plans for the Quantum Leap remake? Hopefully Caprica will not go this way. Personally, the concept of a science-fiction based family drama interests me.