Weekly Sci-Fi Thread (04/12/09)

04/12/09 | Kevin Davis

[KevinDavis]

This week in Scifi:

Mon:
8/7 -- CHUCK -- NBC
9/8 -- Heroes -- NBC

Tues:
10/9 -- Fringe -- Fox


Wed:
8/7 -- Lost -- ABC

Fri:
9/8 -- The Dollhouse -- Fox
10/9 -- Primeval -- SciFi

Sat:
8/7 -- Kings -- NBC

[exist]

Too bad Sarah Connoer is over. I hope the movie does well and they bring it back.

Ya I dug that show.

[TomGuy]

Some news from the TV news websites:

Kings is facing cancellation. However, the remaining episodes will be broadcast on Saturday nights.

Chuck, holding in the ratings, may be cancelled because NBC is giving 5 primetime hours to Leno next fall and may need the room for other programming. If so, The CW has indicated it might pick up Chuck.

Sarah Connor is probably not going to be renewed.

Fox may do another pull before the series finishes: Dollhouse. It may get pulled before the final episode(s).

Fringe will probably be renewed for next season.

Primeval season 3 has begun in the UK.

[LibertarianLiz]

Too bad Sarah Connoer is over. I hope the movie does well and they bring it back.

I was pretty sure it would be cancelled as well; but, Friday's "season finale" seemed to set up for a whole new arc. So, until I hear officially that it is cancelled, I will remain hopeful.

[Question_Assumptions]

Have you watched Chuck? It's not strictly science fiction but is quasi-science fiction in a classic Knight Rider or Air Wolf sort of way. As an added plus, it stars Adam Baldwin from Firefly. It does an excellent job of capturing the light 80s action drama feel. The first few episodes of the first season (more to follow at the end of the month) on on The WB site here and the later episodes of the second season on the NBC site here and on Hulu here. While it's threatened with cancellation, it's not dead yet.

How about Legend of the Seeker, a fantasy show in syndication by the team that did Hercules and Xena based on The Sword of Truth novels by Terry Goodkind. More serious than Hercules and Xena, it manages to keep some of the optimism and playfulness without being so silly. While some of the fans of the books are disappointed (book translations like this usually disappoint someone), it's done well enough in the ratings to get a second season. You can watch the first season so far on the show's web site here courtesy of Hulu.

[Question_Assumptions]

I give the people doing the new Star Trek big kudos for doing a preview showing with the military in Kuwait (see here and here).

[buccaneer81]

I guess I’m more of a straight-up “space” sci-fi fan, with a few exceptions, like “Lost” or non-space time travel (I miss Journeyman.)

[buccaneer81]

I have the UFO megaset too.

I need to get that as well.

[buccaneer81]

Don't know if Kings is SF,

I'd classify it as Alternate History a la the works of Harry Turtledove.

[dan1123]

Dollhouse had I believe its first worthwhile episode last Friday. The NSA interest, the break-out of Echo, the weirdness of the head of the corp being a customer, and the insertion of the message into one of the dolls all made for a good platform for future gov’t intelligence involvement (why wasn’t this the case in the first place?).

[buccaneer81]

Fringe— great show.

They lost me when they showed the Toronto exterior shots subbing for Boston (I mean, come on, send a second unit camera crew to Boston for a week and get some establishing shots.) That along with references to landmarks and geography in the Greater Boston area that are all wrong. Either cheap or lazy production.

[Question_Assumptions]

That’s fine and understandable, especially with Legend of the Seeker (some people mix their fantasy and science fiction and others don’t). I also miss Journeyman a great deal. It was an excellent show, too. In fact, of that whole original Monday night NBC line-up (Chuck, Heroes, Journeyman), I liked the show that was cancelled (Journeyman) and the show that’s teetering (Chuck) better than the anchor show that seems to be making money for NBC (Heroes). With Lost, my guess is that there is an old crashed spaceship on the island, which will ultimately make it science fiction.

[Question_Assumptions]

I’m really enjoying Kings and I’m sorry to hear that it’s already on the chopping block.

[wally_bert]

Chuck is a big favorite here. I like all of the people on it. Another thing about Chuck is that it gives backstory and character development to other characters than the main three.

[wally_bert]

Ed Straker was one tough hombre. I haven't run a disc through in a while. Need to at some point.

[buccaneer81]

With Lost, my guess is that there is an old crashed spaceship on the island, which will ultimately make it science fiction.

Like "Sphere?"

[wally_bert]

Primeval is about a small group of people who get caught up in rifts in space/time where weird and violent creatures show up around England. There is also some time travel and political agendas in it too. On the whole, I like it.

[buccaneer81]

Ed Straker was one tough hombre.

A bit more mentally balanced than John Koenig at times ;-)

I always wondered how Koenig passed the psych evaluations for the Lunar Commission.

[Question_Assumptions]

I’m currently guessing Anubis-headed aliens. We got to see the back of the statue and it was definitely Egyptian, holding an ankh, and looked like it had animal ears (we already know it had 4 toes). In the basement of the temple, we see a carving of an Anubis-headed creature summoning the smoke monster.

[Question_Assumptions]

I think Chuck has both excellent writing and excellent acting and I’ll be incredibly disappointed if it gets cancelled. Got to love Casey’s picture of Ronald Reagan and the reaction he gave when the general told him that the 80s are over, too.

[Question_Assumptions]

I always wondered how Koenig passed the psych evaluations for the Lunar Commission.

It makes sense if Straker signed off on the evaluation. There were a lot of mind games and issues in UFO, not only Straker's marriage and son but the episodes with drug trips and hallucinations, not to mention the mind games they played with Foster and other characters.