New comedy role for Michelle Ryan

The bionic woman returns

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Silverman Wants 'Knight Rider' To Avoid 'Bionic' Mistakes

NBC is hoping to avoid the mistakes made with the cancelled "Bionic Woman" to ensure the upcoming reboot series "Knight Rider" has a better chance of succeeding.

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Battlestar Galactica Season 4: FINALLY SCI-FI Worth Watching

With the ending of Stargate SG-1, the cancellation of The Bionic Woman, Jericho, The 4400, Dead Zone, and waiting through the writer's strike, the quality and sheer selection of science fiction shows has suffered. While we still have Stargate Atlantis, it wanes behind it's big brother in many ways. But at least for one more season we have 22 episodes of Battlestar Galactica.

Almost a year after season 3 ended, and delays due to the writers strike, Battlestar Galactica returned to television last night with a solar-system-sized bang. The much anticipated remake of the 1978 era television show of the same name opened it's fourth and final season right where it left off. Starbuck (Kara) mysteriously shows up off Apollo's (Lee's) wing. She returns to Galactica's hanger deck thinking she's only been gone "6 hours and change". Lee and Sam greet her with hugs, and with their confusion of her whereabouts. But when they tell her she's been gone for more than 2 months, and that Lee saw her Viper explode, she's clearly surprised. The Admiral orders the guards to take her to sickbay, where Doc Cottle proceeds to examine her and gives her a clean bill of health, and confirms her identity.

Back on the hanger deck, Kara's Viper also gets a clean bill of health, too clean in fact. The Viper has no marks, scratches, or any damage at all; like it came off the showroom floor. The on board computer is completely empty, no record of where she'd been. But she did gets photos of a planet she says is Earth; it has a large sister gas giant planet with rings around it.

Meanwhile, our four crewman that discovered they were Cylons at the end of last season are living with the realities of it's secret, not knowing if at any moment a switch will go off and make them do something terrible. While in the Command Center, Colonel Tigh has a daydream about shooting the Admiral in the head. Sam is worried that he will turn on his fellow Vipers. All four are certain that's how the Cylons (again) found the fleet, and maybe that's why the Cylons stopped attacking and retreated when it finally looked like defeat was imminent.

President Roslin is enduring the pain of her cancer. Sharon, Number Six, and the President had several shared visions, which neither can determine the meaning. The Number Six they have prisoner can sense the four new Cylon models nearby.

The President is also adamant about the fleet's path to Earth, and although Kara says she's need there and knows the way, the President ignores her. But Kara has acquired a sixth sense about the way to Earth, and with every jump of the fleet, the sense fades. Sam and her guards become the latest victims of her ball-busting behavior as she knocks them out, takes the guards sidearm, and heads to the President's quarters.

After taking down a few more guards, the episode ends with Kara in the President's quarters pointing a weapon at the President.

Twenty-one (21) episodes till the series finale, and it's a good bet they won't reach Earth until the very end. Until next week...


Regards
John Crawford

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5 Facts About Batman, TV’s Campiest Action Series

The production techniques used for Batman were far different than those used on the Superman series; bright colors, stilted dialog, and the POW! BAM! graphics used during the fight scenes all combined to make the series look like a comic book brought to life.

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Letterman: Top 10 reasons to watch Battlestar Galactica

The cast of BSG reads the "Top Ten Reasons to Watch the New Season of 'Battlestar Galactica'" in "The Late Show with David Letterman."... the #1 reason is PRICELESS! :)

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NCIS: Fictional Science Or Science Fiction?

Have you ever wondered how much of what Agent Gibbs and company do on NCIS is based on real science? While the producers do a superb job of pulling story lines from the headlines, and incorporating real world scenarios, anyone who knows anything about crime solving would call some of NCIS's crime solving techniques science fiction. Not the REAL NCIS, of course. The realities are much more harsh, and of course, crimes are rarely solved within 42 minutes of when they occurred.

So where did I get 42 minutes? If you've ever taped a one-hour show, and cut out the commercials, including the beginning and ending credits, there is about 42 minutes of actual air time. Agent Gibbs, my friends, is the master of solving a crime in 42 minutes. Right up there with Columbo, Kojak, Monk , and generations of one-hour crime dramas we know and love. NCIS silently blurs the lines between fact, fiction, science, and science fiction. OK, you won't hear any other TV critic call NCIS science fiction. Admittedly NCIS has no aliens (non-Earth people), no monsters, no space or time travel, no super secret government plots, No futuristic settings, no doomsday or apocalyptic scenarios. There are no story lines about super-human or unusual abilities.

In fact, each episode is your classic cop story. In the opening scene someone is usually killed. The other 40 minutes are spent investigating it. But it's how they go about solving the crimes and catching the bad guys that so far off but completely imaginable with just the right mix of science and fiction. For example, every piece of technology is right at their fingertips. The best any of them could hope for is they have a halfway decent computer of their desk and it doesn't crash just trying to get their email. And breaking into another network, especially another government agency's network, is a crime. Just to attempt a hack is a crime, the Navy would send their sorry butts to Leavenworth and let them rot.

Then they have the ability right at their fingertips to tap into any traffic camera, trace any phone call - even tell you what cell tower they are connected to. They can drive from the Washington Navy Yard to Quantico, VA in a few minutes, and they never once got on the Capital Beltway or Interstate 95! Also, as far as I can figure, Gibbs must live in the most crime infested neighborhood in Southeast DC. They can call him anytime at home and he's in the office in 5 minutes. (He could have a secret energy/matter transporter, wouldn't be that big a stretch). But that's not science fiction, that's episodic television being unrealistic.

In spite of it's super-scientific ways to solve crimes, NCIS is definitely a show worth watching, It recently went into syndication on The USA Network. NCIS is a spin-off of JAG, which was based stories about the U. S. Navy's Judge Advocate Generals Office.


Regards
John Crawford

AutismZone
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The Cartouche - Science Fiction Reviews
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Do Networks Ignore Sci Fi Fans?

Neilsen Ratings are the measurement of selected "families" who actually sit down to watch television programs. This tells me that networks tend to rely on the black and white data, and not consider what the "unnoticed" audience watches.

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Engadget: lovable and lame gadgets from the world of cinema

Previously on Movie Gadget Friday, we traveled across war-torn galaxies in the 1978 version of Battlestar Gallatica. Moving forward a few years to 1982, we'll take a look inside the computational arcade culture of TRON. Saturated with neon suits and Pac-Man blips and bleeps, the sci-fi cult Disney film has achieved pop culture status over the years

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William Shatner Announces Contest to Find Next Sci-Fi Star

William Shatner announced this week that he is holding an online contest to find the most talented sci-fi personality in the United States. To enter, contestants just have to create a short video clip that shows why they are the heir apparent to William Shatner, and upload it at http://shatner.blip.tv/ by September 30th.

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The Sci-fi Channel: A Review

The Sci-fi Channel review

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