sci-fi channel

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.

So, you've heard so much about this Heroes show, but you didn't watch the early episodes and you're afraid to jump in because you're afraid you'll be lost? No fear, the Sci-Fi Channel is here to help you.

The network is going to run an all-day marathon of the show starting at 9am tomorrow. The only problem I see is that it seems like they're not running the shows in order, which seems like an odd decision. For example, the first episode at 9am is "Homecoming," followed by "Six Months Ago" and "Fallout." Huh? I think watching the shows out of order like that might be more confusing than jumping into the show sight unseen in episode 20. Not to mention the fact that all of the reveals and cliffhangers will be ruined.

If you're interested in seeing the pilot, it airs tomorrow night at 11pm. The season finale airs Monday at 9 on NBC.

(S01E01) So, you watched the premiere episode of Painkiller Jane, didn't you? Curiosity struck you even after reading my less-than-glowing review of the show, didn't it? Well, good for you! Just because I wasn't enamored with the program doesn't mean my opinion is gospel. Everyone has free will in this society and should be able to decide whether a show is good or not.

So, did you dislike Painkiller Jane as much as I did? No? Well, you must be from another planet to like something like that! How dare you not think what I think! Oh, wait, that rant voids what I said in the first paragraph. Um, never mind.

Seriously, I didn't like the show just because the acting was bad and the writing the was poor (even though the writing was poor and the acting was bad). What turned me off to this show as soon as the first scene showed up on my television screen was that this type of show has been done over, and over, and over. Let's see if this sounds familiar to you: tough-as-nails law enforcement agent obtains remarkable powers and laments over the freak that she is rather than using those powers to fight evil. Let's count on our fingers how many times that's been done. You may need your toes, too, because this has been done a lot.

• David Thomas over at FireJeffZucker.com wonders why the Sci-Fi Channel isn't in HD.
• For election day today, TV Newser is going to update his blog every hour, with the latest TV News news and analysis. Check out the real Wolf Blitzer and the cardboard Wolf Blitzer.
• Great article over at TV Party about the original pilot for The Twilight Zone.
• TV Guide's Matt Roush has a rundown on all of the midseason comings and goings.
• Over at PopWatch, George Lucas says he's done with big screen movies and will be focusing on TV now. As a moviegoer, I applaud this. As a TV lover, it makes me cringe.
• Great episode of Heroes last night, eh? TV Addict has an interview with stars Adrian Pasdar and Milo Ventimiglia.
• I don't believe this story at all. It just seems like some bs someone made up because Mario Lopez is doing so well on Dancing with the Stars.

The Sci-Fi Channel confirmed the other day that Stargate SG-1 has been canceled. But now comes word that MGM and producers are hoping that another network picks up the show. Ratings have dropped, but the show still gets around 2 million viewers a week.

MGM spokesman Jeff Pryor: "We do have plans. This is not the end of the Stargate franchise. This is just the end of [Stargate SG-1] on the Sci-Fi Channel."

But that quote just confuses me, because saying it's not the end of the Stargate "franchise" makes it sound like they might make a third Stargate show.

[via TV Tattle]

Taking a page out of the Law & Order and CSI handbooks, MGM Television is considering a third Stargate series to run concurrently with veterans Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis. This is according to MGM TV executive vice-president Charles Cohen.

On the heels of the upcoming 200th episode of SG-1, whose 10th season begins July 14th on the Sci-Fi Channel, Cohen is discussing a feature film derived from the series. That film would then dovetail into a third Stargate show. However, that doesn't mean that SG-1 would end for the movie to appear. In fact, Cohen believes that the movie could run while the series was still producing first-run episodes.

According to Cohen, Stargate SG-1 represents the same sort of franchise on television as the James Bond series does; while it is good financially it also keeps their name in the marketplace. He proves this by putting more money into new episodes, hiring new people such as Beau Bridges, Ben Browder and Claudia Black (both formerly of another Sci-Fi channel show, Farscape), and bringing back old favorites like Richard Dean Anderson's Jack O'Neill.

Our fellow blogger and The Prisoner fan Michael Sciannamea will be happy to hear this!

The British satellite channel Sky One is giving a green light for a remake of the cult-classic The Prisoner, which aired on ITV from 1967 until early 1968. The new series would run for six episodes to be aired next year, which would be the 40th anniversary of the series.

There are unconfirmed reports that Number 6, the main character that was played by Patrick McGoohan, will be played by Christopher Eccleston. Eccleston is currently portraying The Doctor in the new series of Doctor Who episodes being broadcast in America on the Sci-Fi Channel. Eccleston lasted only one season on the show and was replaced by David Tennant in the series currently running on the BBC.

The remake of The Prisoner will stick to the original concept of the series: a government agent is drugged and sent to a prison called The Village after he resigns from service. While in prison people are referred to by their numbers rather than their names. This version of the series will probably have a modern shine to it. Perhaps it will take place in one of those secret CIA prisons we aren't supposed to know about.

When you see Lt. Kara "Starbuck" Thrace on the season premiere of Battlestar Galactica this fall you'll notice a few things. First, her hair will be very, very short. Second, she will not be with the same man she was with at the end of last season.

This is according to Katee Sackhoff, who portrays Starbuck on the very popular Sci-Fi Channel series. In an interview on Zap2it.com, Sackhoff reveals that she will go through some very tough times in the first four episodes of the new season. By the fifth episode she will recommit herself to her military career and sport a nifty crew cut to go along with her new attitude.

Starbuck will also have a new love interest other than the man who she married during the second season finale. It's unsure if Samuel T. Anders (Michael Trucco) dies of the pneumonia he suffers during the finale, or while he resists the Cylon occupation.

Production on the third season of Battlestar Galactica began on April 10 and will continue until December, with the Sci-Fi Channel premiere in October.

(S01E07) For a couple of episodes now The Doctor (Christopher Eccleston) and Rose (Billie Piper) have been slumming around our humble planet Earth in about a one hundred year time span. This episode we get off of good ol' Terra to a satellite hovering around the planet in the year 200,000. Joining the intrepid travelers is Adam (Dalek's Bruno Langley).

From the beginning you could tell that this episode would be different from last week's dark,  introspective episode. The Doctor, Rose and Adam land on Satellite 5, which broadcasts news of the entire Earth Empire (Yes! We're still great even in the future!). News gathering is performed by one person, whose brain is one big storage unit, while subordinates put the reports together using small mind chips. An 'Editor-in-Chief' oversees everyone on the satellite and in the entire empire through a control room manned by zombies.The whole thing reminded me a bit of Max Headroom.

Anyone who performs well gets promoted to floor 500. However, after they get promoted they are never seen again. And there, dear readers, lies the mystery that The Doctor must solve. Because, not only does he need to find out where these people go, but why their technology is so backwards (for the year 2000,000 that is.)

(S01E06) All right, let's get this out of the way so we can proceed with the review. Here we go . . .

I didn't like Tom Baker as the fourth Doctor. Call it blasphemy, call it satanical, but I just didn't get the vibe with Baker as I did with some of the other doctors such as Jon Pertwee (third Doctor), Peter Davison (fifth Doctor) and Sylvester McCoy (seventh Doctor). Maybe it was the scarf.

Having said that, I am really enjoying these new Dr. Who adventures that are appearing on the Sci-Fi Channel while their normal Friday night schedule is taking a hiatus. To paraphrase... it's not your father's (or grandfather's) Dr. Who. While there are some occasional cheesy aliens and special effects, this version of the show is definitely the one of the most slickly produced in the series' 43-year history.

In order to satisfy the appetites of those Battlestar Galactica fans who are waiting with barely reined-in anticipation of the next season, Dynamite Entertainment is releasing a new comic book series based on the hit Sci-Fi Channel show.

According to writer Greg Pak, who is a fan of the show, the series will begin in the middle of the 2nd season, before the arrival of the Pegasus. While he did have to send story treatments to Universal before writing the comic Pak says he is being given a lot of latitude in the BSG universe. He may even go into the past to detail the conflict that the humans and the Cylons decades before the timeframe of the current show.

In my opinion, the best thing about the comic book series is no special effects budget that needs to be kept. This means that the writer and the artist can use their imaginations to produce scenes that the show never could.