SciFi Stream

There is a ton of news in our weekly wrap up of genre entertainment. We have the latest (including some video) on Up, Land of the Lost, GI Joe and Tranformers Super Bowl spots, plus news on remakes and reboots of The Thing, Predator, Tomb Raider as much more movie news and and previews. In [...]

This week Cryptic have released three new images from their upcoming Star Trek Online MMORPG, including the a good look at a Klingon ship and another Federation ship. Plus Cryptic has answered some questions, including how money will work in the ‘moneyless future’ of Trek. And coming up this week there is a new trivia [...]

In our Thursday ShatWatch we alerted readers that Bill was to appear on the BBC One show Friday Night With Jonathan Ross. The video of that appearance is online now where The Shat talks about being recognized around the world as Kirk and also his thought on not being in the new Star Trek movie, [...]

Michael Ausiello over at Entertainment Weekly has shared some bad news for fans of “Kyle XY.” The ABC Family show is calling it quits after its current run of episodes, but there could be other genre shows close behind. Over the past week, SyFy Portal has been talking to various studio sources trying to get a handle on whether genre fans will have a chance to continue seeing a ton of program in 2009-10, or if there will be a bloodbath coming up. So if you’re curious about whether your show is going or gone … here’s the latest. Fringe (Fox)STATUS: Staying Fox has had nothing but praise for the latest outing from J.J. Abrams and the other masterminds behind the upcoming “Star Trek XI,” and while ratings haven’t been homerun-ish like “House,” they’ve been enough to celebrate. There …

There has been talk about the new and improved “Knight Rider,” and since I like to at least try to be a fair person when dealing with television shows, I respect when a failing show recognizes its problems (and when I say that, I mean NBC and not showrunner Gary Scott Thompson, who has stated the series was fine before NBC asked for the direction change) and I’m always willing to give it a chance. So I tuned in to “Exit Light, Enter Knight.” Well, not really tuned in. I spent a couple bucks and bought it on my Apple TV since my DVR refuses to have anything to do with this. And I’m immediately welcomed to an episode that is all Thompson — he wrote it and directed it. You can see the effort that’s trying to go into this show, but there are really no grades for that in real life. Michael …

Yesterday in his interview with the LA Times Star Trek director JJ Abrams got people buzzing about humor, trek purists and of course…nacelles. Tonight the LA Timeshas posted the second part of their interview with Trek’s new helmer, and this time he talks about Trek’s optimism, the story, a sequel, and most interestingly – how [...]

The Daleks? Check. The Cybermen? Check. The Tritovore … who? That’s a question BBC hopes fans won’t be asking come Easter when the next “Doctor Who” special is set to air with David Tennant and special guest companion Michelle Ryan. The Tritovore are a new bad guy described by The Mirror as part man, part fly. “They are disgusting and will last long in the memory,” a source told the newspaper. “Everyone remembers the Daleks and the Cyberman, but not a lot else if their honest. The Tritovore will change that.” The Tritovore will be a part of an episode already billed “Planet of the Dead,” and will bring Ryan — best known to American audiences as the star of the short-lived NBC series “Bionic Woman” — back to the small screen. It also will begin what will be the final stretch …

John Kenneth Muir has returned for new episodes of his popular series “The House Between,” the independently produced online series that begins its third season with the episode “Devoured.” The newest installment, the 16th in the series, continues the story of five strangers trapped in a Victorian house with no furniture and no escape, surrounded by dark matter. It stars Kim Breeding, Jim Blanton, Craig Eckrich, Lee Hansen, Tony Mercer and Alicia A. Wood. The latest episode is dedicated to the memory of “Space: 1999″ script editor Johnny Byrne, a friend of Muir who died just as planning for Season 3 was getting under way. “Discussing that low-budget phenomenon ['The Blair Witch Project'], Johnny told me that the filmmakers had learned well the key secret to creating good films and …

Save this date: The third Stargate series may kick off October 2, and will air with Sanctuary.

Mark Valley, who plays the traitorous and ill-fated FBI agent John Scott on Fox’s sci-fi drama Fringe, promised closure to his storyline in February episodes.

“They do answer some questions that have been lingering in my mind, like who he’s been working for, exactly,” Valley said in a conference call with reporters on Friday. “It sort of confirms the verity or the truth of his feelings toward Olivia [Anna Torv].”

Earlier this month, Fringe executive producers J.J. Abrams, Roberto Orci and Jeff Pinkner promised to wrap up Scott’s storyline, which kicked off in the pilot, when it was revealed that Olivia Dunham and Scott were lovers and that Scott was working secretly to undermine investigations into “The Pattern.”

Tuesday’s upcoming episode, “The Transformation,” sends the Fringe team investigating another airplane crash, while Scott appears to Dunham in her dreamscape. Valley talked about his appearances in upcoming episodes; the following Q&A features edited excerpts of the conference call. Fringe airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET/PT.

Is their more of a mythology episode than a stand-alone mystery coming up?

Valley: You know, I have to see the final cut the way it comes out. Sometimes it depends on what parts of the story they choose to accentuate in the edit. I would say this is kind of, as they all are, a stand-alone episode. If you have been watching it, it will sort of enhance the experience of watching it.

Is there any room for John Scott to come back after this resolution?

Valley: You know, I think there’s room for even you to be shot with a tranquilizer gun and dragged onto an episode of Fringe for a couple of scenes. It could happen to anybody, so I’m not going to rule it out.

Will we be seeing John in the flesh, or only in Olivia’s mind from now on?

Valley: I can’t really say. I think you’ll probably see both, but I can’t really confirm what condition I’m going to be in in either of those situations.

The next episode is about an airplane again. How is that different from the pilot?

Valley: It’s a completely different airline [laughs]. The first one was a Boeing 627, this was an Airbus 380. No, I have no idea, to be honest with you. They were both big airplanes, and they have a lot of people on them. A lot of airplane crashes on J.J. Abrams shows. Could you imagine being on an airplane with J.J. Abrams, what’s going through his head? Probably people screaming and luggage flying everywhere.

Is this a good place for new viewers to jump in?

Valley: I think any time is a good place to jump in. Then they can just buy the DVD edition for the first season and catch up on their own free time. It’s probably the best way to do it. Yeah, it’s exciting to watch the show as soon as the episode comes up, because that’s when everybody’s finding out about it, and it’s somewhat of an event as opposed to just a discrete television show. So I’d say start watching as soon as possible and catch up when it comes out on DVD. Or you could probably download the episodes too. So get on board!

What has your contractual status been this season?

Valley: Well, contractually I can’t really say too much. Basically, it’s one of those situations like they have with most TV shows. They can keep you as long as they want, but it doesn’t mean necessarily you can leave whenever you want. That’s all I can really say about that. It’s what they call a seven-out-of-13 or something. I had never signed up to be an every-episode regular.

Is it hard to portray Scott’s moral ambiguity since we don’t know yet if he’s working for good or evil?

Valley: Well, I think whether he’s good or he’s bad, there’s a degree of guilt that he carries around with him. Actually, now that I think about it, I actually forgot to play that. It makes a lot of sense, though, doesn’t it? I think when you watch it, you’ll have to make up your own mind about that.

Does it make a difference to your performance if he’s alive or dead?

Valley: That’s a really good question. I think when you’re talking about John Scott being inside Olivia’s brain, then you’re dealing with a consciousness or the way someone remembers someone, as well as his own particular memories. I like to think that his consciousness is actually in her head, so it’s actually as if he were definitely alive. No, I think when somebody’s dead, your job’s a lot easier. You just kind if lie there. You don’t have to do anything. That’s probably the big difference.

Tonight the "The Oath," the third of the final 10 episodes of Battlestar Galactica airs and the tensions are rising. In our weekly BSG Preview we have clips, details, interview links and videos, plus all the latest news on what is up with that frakin’ fleet of colonials.

Masi Oka, who plays the time-traveling hero Hiro Nakamura on NBC’s Heroes, told reporters that the show has weathered its problems and will return to its roots with the upcoming volume entitled “Fugitives.”

Oka spoke to journalists during a conference call yesterday. During the conversation, the actor addressed the show’s problems and creator-producer Tim Kring’s solutions, previewed the upcoming “Fugitives” arc and discussed the departure of writer-producers Jesse Alexander and Jeph Loeb and the return of writer-producer Bryan Fuller.

The first episode of the “Fugitives” volume, written by Kring and directed by Emmy winner Greg Yaitanes, premieres Monday at 9 p.m. ET/PT. Following are edited excerpts of the interview with Oka.

The last cycle of episodes, the “Villains” arc, got a bit of a critical beating, though most fans thought it was redeemed by the last couple of episodes. What can we expect with the new volume?

Oka: Pretty much, to be exact, we’re going to go back to the fundamentals that made the show really great and what’s kept it grounded with it going back to the central characters and trying to tell smaller stories but with big action. There’s going to be more character-based [stories] as we see them finally come together towards the end to try to save themselves.

In general, do fans and critics need to be more patient with the show?

Oka: It would be great if you could. I mean, we can’t ask for that, of course. The creative process is one … that kind of builds, and Tim also has a great map to where we go, but at the same time there’s a collaboration that happens that allows us to go from interesting places and allows us to discover. And we hope that the audience and the fans will go on this discovery and journey with us knowing that there will be a great payoff.

I think with all our volumes we’ve sometimes have slow starts, but we always pick it up at a high gear towards the end. And I think because a show like this takes such risks and makes bold choices, it takes a little bit of time for the audience and the critics to get accustomed to this kind of new kind of journey that we’re starting to take. And once everyone is on board, we hit the ground running. So, you know, we do ask [for] maybe some patience from the fans and the audience. If we can ask for that, that’d be great.

Following up on that, did you personally feel the show had lost its way or were people just being too hard on it because it came out of the box so big, so strong, and so popular?

Oka: I don’t know. It’s so hard with the creative process because we tell so many stories so fast, because Tim is all about getting answers quickly and satiating the audience’s appetite for what happens next. You’re on the edge of your seat. And season one was so perfect, … and there’s so much story that you can tell, … it becomes difficult. To shake things up, you do need to make different choices, bold choices. So I don’t think it’s necessarily lost its way, it’s just trying different paths, and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t work. And I think when we started volume three, they found a different path, and they found a way to make it work.

Volume four, “Fugitives,” is another completely [new arc]. We’re going back to the grounded characters and the central characters, [and] people trying to live their ordinary lives being hunted now. And that’s a completely different story than we’ve been trying to tell. So it might take a while to get us accustomed to the “usual heroes,” but it still has the core ensemble drama. So I’m not sure if it’s lost its way, it’s just always different. Some people will respond to the way the story is told in the one volume and maybe not to another.

What will Hiro be up to in this new arc?

Oka: What’s interesting about Hiro is he starts off powerless. I find it actually interesting to play a powerless character, because you kind of get the joy of rediscovering that power and what it means to be a hero without powers. So having someone who had had powers and going to someone who’s powerless is an interesting character mindset. You kind of fall from grace in many ways. So it’s about adjusting to that and how do you live your life knowing that once you were a hero and that you can still be a hero by helping others … and possibly trying to get the powers back.

Can you talk a little bit about the Hiro-Ando relationship and what we have to look forward to in that regard?

Oka: In the beginning, Hiro’s powerless, and Ando has a kind of supercharger power, so Hiro is trying to nudge him on. In many ways he realizes, “OK, well now he’s had his turn, so he needs to kind of step up and see what he can do.” And he takes on pretty much the role of the butler. He becomes Alfred in many ways. He’s trying to make a Batman out of Ando, but Ando is reluctant, and he only cares about girls right now. So Hiro is trying to make him use those powers for good, to save other people. And of course, Hiro ends up getting in trouble, and Ando ends up helping him. But then, you know, then it’s about them trying to work together and find new ways to get [Hiro's] power back.

What has been the impact of Bryan Fuller’s return to the show?

Oka: You know what? First of all, my heart goes out to Jesse and Jeph. They were amazing writers, and I love them. They’re my friends, and they’re working on their own shows already. So I’m so glad that they’re doing well. I think that’s always a hard loss, one you actually don’t have control over. But with Bryan coming back I think it’s definitely a new dynamic, and it’s such a great energy that he brings to the show. He’s such an accomplished show runner, with great ideas, from Wonderfalls and Pushing Daisies. And he was on the show from season one, so he knows what the process was. He knows what made it great.

Then, having stepped out of it for a season and a half, I think he had such a subjective view on how the show was, what the show became, and how it kind of, in his mind, took a different path. And having him come back, being so excited, it’s like, “Oh, this is what was great. Let’s go back to this.” He came back the day after he found out Pushing Daisies wasn’t coming back. And he was just so gung-ho about the show. He came back with all these ideas, so excited.

And I think that really invigorated everyone because the writers, … we’re all artists, and we are insecure in some senses. So when we hear the critics, the writers do take it to their heart. So with Bryan coming in, I think it gave them an uplifting momentum and energy and I think it’s such a big morale boost to everybody. There’s a great synergy in the room right now. It’s just a lot of excitement for new ideas.