NBC shakes up it's SF schedule

As the warped IO9 put it: NBC says 'Happy Thanksgiving but we are taking away your TV'. As tongue in cheek as it sounds, IO9 is being straight. NBC's science fiction offerings are going to take a major hit come 09. Heroes and Chuck will be given a month's hiatus while the wonderfully twisted "My Own Worst Enemy" may be given the boot altogether. The new January slot will be filled with guess what....yep - a reality show....who woulda guessed! The new show is called Superstars Of Dance (I kid you not! what is it with dance shows this year! I could tirade about how silly these shows are or worse, but I will save it for now) For some brain dead reason, Knight Rider will keep it's Wednesday slot (they keep that one but pull Enemy? Sci-fi execs are not the only crack smokers it would appear!) I really have to say that My Own Worst Enemy surprises me a bit. Kind of a smart mans Chuck (I know a bit of a stretch) but no where near as one dimensional as Chuck. It is a show that I have really enjoyed from the start. It is a wonderful veicle for all involved, pulling each and every one out of type casted stereotyping. The way most of the characters had two distinct personalities was very inventive. I will be disapointed to see this one pass. But it would seem people dancing must be cheaper to produce. I won't be watching though.

<- NBC schedule changes -> via IO9

Takei Announces Wedding

In Mark Wilson's About.com Guide to Sci-Fi / Fantasy I read that Star Trek / Heroes star George Takei announced he's getting married to his companion of 21 years, Brad Altman, now that California's Supreme Court has ruled than banning same-sex marriage is unconstitutional in that state. Takei made the announcement on his blog saying in his announcement - "Now, we can have the dignity, as well as all the responsibilities, of marriage." Takei publicly revealed he was gay in October 2005, though his homosexuality was an open secret for decades before that. I would like to go on record with Mark in saying congratulations, George and Brad. Publicly declaring your love is something everyone should be able to do.

Chuck n Heroes premiers

NBC trotted out something new and something....weird for their premiers and redos of science fiction shows...well mostly science fiction. Chuck downloaded. ehhhh..... All I could think of was Jake 2.0. I mean the guy even looked like him. And Geek Squad....Nerd Herd? And are the shows drastically different? Lets see... One guy gets hurt during a breakdown of security and there is an accidental transfer of material that gives the hero a special power. Which show am I talking about? My point exactly. Nanos are out and embedded computer information is in. The only diff is the guy wants to be the manager of a big box store instead of being nsa/cia whatever. Lame....Nope, Chuck didn't work all that well for me. Although seeing Adam Baldwin doing that creepy Gman character is kind of a treat.

Heroes was a bit of a mixed bag....Don't get me wrong, it really is the 800 pound guerrilla of sci-fi shows this season. Heiro has gone back in time to find out that his childhood hero is a drunkard Englishman....that might have a comical twist in future episodes.....Mohinder and Claire's father are plotting against the "company" - that came across as pretty weak. Claire and family are trying to fit in hiding out in Texas. Claire has to prove to herself that she still has the mojo? Oh come on! LAME! Now I was just waiting for the moment that Claire's father did some violence on the big box geek manager. That my friends was a creepy / scary 10 minutes that still goes to show that for all his "I love you Claire bear" face giving, this guy is is just seconds away from being your worst nightmare. Nathan self destructing?!!! WTF?! Though kicking his mother out calling her evil made points with me. And Peter showing up inside a cargo crate chained to the wall with amnesia? I am sorry, but just how does that happen. So, a bit of a mixed bag, but all in all well worth watching again next week.

Nichelle Nichols Confirms ’Heroes’ Role

From SYFY portal blog:

"Star Trek" legend Nichelle Nichols, who played Lt. Uhura in the original series, has shared what kind of role she'll be playing on the series, and it looks like it will involve Noah Gray-Cabey's character of Micah. It's a role similar level to that of her former Trek co-star George Takei who was an integral character during the first season as Kaito Nakamura, the CEO of a massive Japanese corporation as well as the father of hero-in-training Hiro Nakamura. And just like Takei, Nichols will have a fraternal relationship with one of the heroes…namely Micah Sanders.

Heroes and Stargate Atlantis News

From About.com's sci-fi blog


Stargate Atlantis:

Fans of Stargate Atlantis's Scottish medical officer, Carson Beckett (Paul McGillion), who was killed off in January, plan to rally at ComicCon in San Diego to make sure that producers and network execs know just how outraged they still are. The popular character's death was all the more startling because it came at the end of an idyllic, off-duty episode called "Sunday," the 17th episode of the spin-off's third season. While many agree the episode itself was well-written and beautifully executed, fans worldwide immediately reacted negatively to the finality with which Beckett was written out.

NBC's Heroes:

George Takei discussed his role recently on Sirius's Howard Stern show, where he hinted that Kaito will exhibit some form of light-emitting powers. Takei plays Kaito Nakamura, the father of Masi Oka's Hiro.


Photo by Sandy Huffaker/Getty Images.

'Heroes' Grabs Eight Emmy Nominations

PLUS: 'Lost' earns six nods, 'Battlestar Galactica' four - Thanks to SyFy Portal

Masi Oka was the only member of the "Heroes" cast to get nominated for his role as Hiro Nakamura. Some of the other nominations were for Outstanding Drama Series and Outstanding Supporting Actor. Other "Heroes" nominations were for Outstanding Art Direction for a Single-Camera Series, Oustanding Single-Camera Picture Editing for a Drama Series, Outstanding Sound Mixing for a Comedy or Drama Series, and Oustanding Stunt Coordination, all for "Genesis," while the episode "Five Years Later ..." earned an Outstanding Visual Effects for a Series nod.

Sci Fi Mondays on NBC this fall

NBC announces Sci Fi Mondays. NBC will air Chuck, Heroes and Journeyman. Expect the premieres of most of these series in September. "Chuck" is about a tech support guy for a Best Buy-like store who unwittingly becomes the holder of important government information and a pawn for the CIA and the National Security Agency. "Journeyman," about a time-traveling newspaper reporter.

Heros creates a spin off and more NBC SF

SFGates.com's Tim Goodman writes in his blog:

NBC was the announced that it would spin off "Heroes" into a second series called "Heroes: Origins," a limited-run, six-episode drama that will introduce a new character each week and incorporate an online element that will allow "Heroes" fans to vote on which of the six new characters on "Origins" will be added to the original series.

in other NBC science fiction news -reports of solid additions to the fall schedule

-- "Journeyman," a drama about a San Francisco newspaper reporter (Kevin McKidd from "Rome") who can go back in time to alter the events in people's lives. It will follow "Heroes."

-- "Bionic Woman" -- yes, that bionic woman (sans "the" in the title), a series "reimagined" from David Eick of "Battlestar Galactica."

Zeroes

I know a whole lot of you have seen this clip....I know I have watched it several times, laughed each and every time. However here is some news on this extremely well made spoof!

Zeroes, features a familiar voice talking about regular people with "Pointless Abilities". For example, one guy can ripple his stomach and a girl can put her entire fist in her mouth. You get the idea. It's worth a chuckle or two.

It turns out, the 2-minute spoof was an NBC creation. Marketing guru Vince Manze admitted to Variety that he created the spoof without any fanfare or even a tease to the real series, just as an experiment. He didn't even tell Heroes creator Tim Kring about it.

Click the title of the article, its worth a giggle or 2

Science Fiction show reminders

Here are the updates for Science Fiction shows that have been on hiatus

Daybreak on ABC - all episodes, even those unaired will be available January 29 on the web.

Battlestar Galactica returns this Sunday, January 21st. SciFi has moved it from its Friday slot

Heroes will be back January 22nd.

Jericho returns on February 21st

Masi Oka gets movie deal

In a recent TVSQUAD blog article - Masi Oka the breakout star of the 2006-2007 television season (Heroes). From The Hollywood Reporter comes word that he is in talks for a gig in the Robert Luketic film 21.

Based on the Ben Mezrich book "Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six M.I.T. Students Who Took Vegas for Millions," the movie will also star Jim Sturgess.

The book tells the story of the MIT Blackjack Team. Organized by a former math instructor, and backed by anonymous investors, the team used a system of card counting, disguises, and secret signals to take Vegas for nearly $4 million before they were found out.

Heroes review for 12/04/06

This review is for Heroes that aired 12/04/06

I pity the fan that missed this season ender. As you know, Heroes is taking a break until the end
of January. This week's show was loaded up with weirdness. Some things just don't make sense.
The first thing that didn't make a whole lot of sense was this Sylar character. Claire's father, it would seem, has him well under wraps, in a glass and concrete bunker. It would appear escape proof. As you know, Sylar is the ultimate copy cat. Able to absorb anyones ability and make it his own. He is brought low by Eden and the brain drainer and shuffled of to his present abode. He is informed by Claire's father that “we're going to take you apart”. That was rather creepy. Shortly there after Eden shows back up at the “bunker” with a gun. Eden uses her “voice” to tell Syler that he is going to take this gun and shoot himself in the head. Where upon Syler shatters the glass or whatever it is and manages to get Eden in a strangle hold....The confusing part? Well, how did they manage to catch this guy if she had no effect on him in the first place? This Syler doesn't impress me as having any umm “long range plans” if you catch my drift. He seems more the maniacal hell bent on destruction type to me. Then we have Claire wandering through a world that doesn't seem to remember that she has the ability to heal. Seems the brain drainer has been going around making everyone forget anything they knew about Claire. But when he finally get to Claire, he seems on the verge of telling her something very important....Which again doesn't make any sense, because up to this point, he has been more of an appendage of Claire's father. More of a tool than anything....so now all of a sudden he has an agenda? Woven through all these snippets is Isaac who now with the help of Hiro can draw without umm using rocket fuel....Jessica turns herself in to the police after shooting DL, Parkman kind of fumbles around trying to figure out his own powers and unravel how Claire's father and Syler are connected, Mohinder is told by Eden that she is not all she has purported herself and he is even more determined to contact the rest of the people on the list and Peter who if we are to believe the last few minutes has a very “explosive” personality. Oh and Hiro's ending comment...”I really need to find that sword!” ok...I laughed...I admit it....

Look for Heroes to return January 22^nd 2007

Heroes coming to BBC Two next year

From the TVSQUAD blog: You know that a series has become a hit in America when British TV starts clamoring for it. But its especially interesting when the stuffy, government-run BBC picks up a show. So, to US fans, the news that Heroes will start airing on BBC Two in 2007 is a bit of a surprise; this seemed like a show that was more suitable for one of the independent channels over there, like ITV.

Heroes review for episode 11/27/06

You know this episode could have been run as the”answer” episode. There were many more answers this week than last. Though if your like me, there were fleeting impressions of the first Star Trek episodes mix up with Heroes this week. Ok, before you glaze over, let me explain myself. The first “true” episode of Star Trek didn't get air time until well into mid season. Reason? It was too long and confusing or so thought the powers that be. Oh and Tab Hunter had the bad timing to kick off.....So Roddenbery recut the original into the 2 part “the Cage”. Well how does this apply to Heroes? Well just look at what we learn and tell me that this show should have been the original first episode? Am I right? So lets take a closer look. Heroes this week was a “prequel” or maybe a sideways episode. The premise is the Hiro jumps back to save the waitress but jumps too far, 6 months too far to be exact, right to when people's “powers” really began to manifest. We find Mohinder's father not only working but finding and contacting a perspective. Unfortunately he contacts the soon to be Syler (the name of a watch we find out) who it seems can do what Peter can do and that's to “copy” a person's ability but Syler takes it a gruesome step further and kills off the competition. Definitely a “there can be only one” mentality here. We see Nathan fly out of a car just before an accident. ( one it seems that paralyzed his wife) Matt, starting to hear voices in his head ( though, if you ask me those clips were the most confusing because the writers never made it clear if that was what was happening or was he having relationship angst, and and excuse me... the doughnut thing with him and Eden....excuse me?) Claire cutting her hand rather badly and discovering it healed shortly there after and in the middle of this we have hapless Hiro desperately trying to save the waitress only to accidentally jumping out at the critical moment and shows up back in present day at the chafe with the chilling realization that time isn't as easy to manage as once thought. Claire's father is still an enigma. It seems even at this early date, he was well aware of people with abilities and has openly recruited the “brain drainer” and works to have Eden come on as well. One more curious note...when Eden tries to use her “voice” on him he retorts, “ You have never come across someone that could say NO to you before Eden, now you have.” Does he have “abilities”? Can you see how this would have been a great first episode? Yeah maybe it tells too much. Oh one thing that was made eminently clear this week was the fact that next weeks episode is the last until some time in January....supposed to be a good one...but then, NBC has made that promise in the past...

Heroes 11-20-06

Well this this episode of Heroes, we were enticed with the possibilities of answers. Did we get any? Nope – nada, if anything I am a bit more confused. Hiro is still missing, except for the enigmatic Polaroid on the bulletin board. Claire's father continues to be a difficult person to figure out. He continues to strong arm the painter Isaac into painting. The sole motivation seems to be to save Claire from being brutalized by the same shadowy killer that took the back of the waitress' head off. We are privy however to a little break in the ranks when one of Claire's father's “toys” Eden openly revolts when ordered to drug Isaac again to get him to paint. But practically the next scene we have her and the “mind wiper” playing well together to take down the “shadow man”. You know, that bothers me too. Here we have been set up to think that there is a true and present danger to Claire at the very least and here we are show Eden saying when the killer show up in the woods....”sleep” and as he wobbles the “wiper” puts some sort of Vulcan nerve pinch on him and he is out like a light. Sheeeeeeeesh! The writers and special effects people at NBC/Heroes need to watch a couple of episodes of Fox's Mutant X. As campy as that show was, when it came time to “git bizzy” you could just about hear “Lets get ready to rumble!” This was lame. Ok, Heroes is suppose to be more thoughtful and noir, but it came across as an after thought. Yeah we see Claire get seriously pummeled and some shelves flung about, but I thought this was just a warm up....nope. “Shadow Man” looks to have ALL the powers and I was thinking there is going to be some whoopin goin on, next week I think. Though for teasers, we see Hiro pop into the diner in the past and blithely say “I am here to save your life” I don't think he has ANY idea just how far back he went. The Heroes site on NBC says 6 months – before their powers were known..- uh...wrong.... Mohinder's father was doing research and “found” them long before. But it should be interesting how this plays out. Also “dark Niki” has bought an ubber rifle and “goes hunting” and we are left with DL in the cross hairs.... Peter is arrested despite his brother's best efforts to keep him out of trouble. Ok, Nathan cares about his brother. So he doesn't want him hurt. Does he have to be so slimy about it?! Yeah I get the idea, Nathan is interested in Nathan and getting what Nathan wants, but this scene came across as more Snidely Whiplash than a self serving politician. But if the writers intentions were to dislike Nathan Pertrelli and question his motives no matter what he does, well then they have succeeded at least in that. I think Matt is a much more interesting part of the show, lol put him on more would be my suggestion. Anyway, this episode was more about misdirection than clearing up loose ends. We will be waiting at the very least until next week to find out if this “save” was the one to save the world.

Zachary Quinto signs on with the Heroes cast

From this week's Entertainment Weekly: Zachary Quinto has been cast as the mysterious Sylar who will show his face and speak a line on the November 27th episode.

Sylar up until this point has been a mysterious shadowy person who is being tracked by the FBI for a string of very grisly murders. In the last Heroes episode we see that the murders are not as random as the FBI would have us think. Sylar is methodically eliminating anyone that has any special abilities in a manner that may be efficient but also extremely gruesome. Also there are subtle hints that Sylar himself may have the very same "abilities" that he is eliminating, leading one to suppose that he may not be a rogue but more an assassin.

George Takei joins cast of Heroes

George Takei, Star Trek's Captain Sulu, will be playing Hiro Nakamura's father on NBC's Heroes. You can expect Hiro's father to be showing up stateside to bring his super son back to Japan. If you've been watching the series, you know that won't go over too well considering that Hiro is on a mission to save New York City from imploding in five weeks.

Look for George to show in episodes in January.

Heroes for 11/13/06

Wow what's the deal with Claire's father? Up until now he has been some kind of black ops government scary kind of guy and then this week he is begging Isaac to help him save his daughter from being killed...(yeah I know, she is supposed to be unkillable) Well seems that there is this killer with “powers” that is killing people with abilities. We have only seen this mystery killer in shadows, but his methods sure aren't. Let me back up a bit...Remember that I have said before, I don't think the “heroes” are alone. Last week we find out that there is a “firestarter”. This week an unassuming roadside waitress has gained the ability to remember anything she sees or hears. She doesn't get to enjoy it though...Shadowman takes the back of her head off. Hiro is sure he can save her by going back a day to keep her from coming to work....He says he will be back by the count of 5 but by the end of the show he hadn't show up...well an old photo is now on the bulletin board of him and the waitress at a birthday party....so....Hiro is missing, radioactive man escapes but not before he and Matt find out that they both have had some sort of procedure done on them, Mohinder had a “special” sister years before who died mysteriously – confused? Don't feel like your all alone, Heroes writers opened the taps this week after last weeks snooze and we wound up with more plot loose strings than ever. But hey, I am jazzed again with what happened this week. Yeah, Heroes got legs again.

Heroes episode 7 for 11/6/06

You have got to hand it to the writers of Heroes. They have played some of their plot cards very close to their chests. That’s got to be hard. The “awesome!” or “oh wow” factor is fading fast as we become more in tune with the major players in the show. However they continue to dole out enough new twists that we still have a very “neat!” thing going on. For example…Micah, Niki’s child seems to be able to control machinery. There may have been earlier instances but the first overt manifestation is when he “calls” home to his mother. Somehow he manipulated the pay phone allowing him to make calls without entering any information…Micah’s father who put the squeeze on Niki last week demonstrates his ability to put his body out of phase with the material world by reaching through a glass window to unlock a car door to rescue a crash victim.

Niki it seems has strong recuperative powers and is back but it seems that her alter is not just “dark Niki” no, much much darker indeed. Stranger still is it seems her son is fully aware that there is “mom” and someone else. The strangest line in the show this week is when Micah calls his mom and gets “dark Niki” and he says “Put Mom on the phone.” Very weird.

Matt Parkman is back to aid the FBI in capturing a “firestarter” and winds up reading the last thoughts of a dying woman. The real card played this week was the dying woman’s husband who it seems can start fires with his mind. I know, hardly original but the big hint here is that the original characters at the start of the show are not the only one with ”powers”.

Micah’s dad is not an anomaly but a hint to even something stranger going on. Instead of being a quirk in biology we seem to have an epidemic of “super powers”. Just how many of them are there out there?

Heroes: Main Ten Characters' Profiles

From the ABOUT sci-f & fantasy blog

NBC's new Monday night show features a cast of dozens, but let's get started with the main ten people. Here are their vital stats, the connections to the other characters, and their current situation.

Hiro Nakamura, "Bend Time and Space"
Claire Bennet, "Indestructible"
Nathan Petrelli, "Flyer"
Peter Petrelli, "Borrower"
Niki Sanders, "Dark Niki"
D.L. Hawkins, "Walk Through Walls"
Isaac Mendez, "The Pre-Cog"
Mohinder Suresh, "Following Scientist-Father's Legacy"
Matt Parkman, "Mindreader"
Micah Sanders, "Boy Wonder"