Catching Up After LosCon, Blood on the Satellite of Love

Still catching up a bit following LosCon. Still need to write up a report or two to go with the pictures. I did get the SFTV Schedule lists updated! Lots of changes coming up in the network schedules.

Typing has been slowed down a bit by a cut index finger that happened when I was opening the tin case for the MST3K 20th Anniversary collectors edition. Be careful opening up the back of it to free Tom Servo from his cage! Wow! In putting in the link to Amazon.com, I realized that it is now worth a lot more than what I paid for it at Borders with my 40% off coupon earlier in the week... Maybe I should auction it off complete with blood stains?

SFTV Updates and more!

Still playing catchup after the Conapalooza at the end of the summer...

The SFTV Page has been updated with updates to current and season to date lists. I've also updated the individual schedule links page listing (which I use in tracking down the various schedules). Also updates to Connie Willis.net.

Over on the BBC, Merlin starts up this weekend on Saturday night. You can check out most of the content on the official page on the BBC website and even more information on the Press Office in the Merlin Press Pack.

Starting up on September 29th on the BBC and children's BBC is the second series of the Sarah Jane Adventures. Check out the official BBC site as well as a Press Office Press Pack.

Be warned that Spaceballs: The Animated series debuts on G4 this weekend. It looks pretty low-brow and treading a lot of ground already tread very heavily by others.

HBO has picked up True Blood for a second season after liking what they've seen in the ratings so far. Press Release at The Futon Critic.

Catching Up a Bit, TV & Doctor Who News

Catching Up

I'm getting caught up a bit, between LepreCon 34, going back to Kansas for my father's funeral, and bringing a nasty cold back from Kansas, I've not been keeping up with a lot of stuff, including the SFTV Blog.

I have gotten the SFTV Schedules updated, including schedule information for the new NBC series Fear Itself, the new ABC Family series The Middleman (and the fan site, Middlefan), and new to SciFi series Charlie Jade (more details at the Wikipedia Charlie Jade web site). Check it out on the SFTV Schedule links to the right of the blog. I'll have some more details on the new stuff as well as information on the broadcast networks Up Fronts soon (highlights are in the SFTV Schedules News section if you can't wait).

Doctor Who New Executive Producer - Steven Moffat
The BBC announced that writer/producer Steven Moffat will take over as Executive
Producer and Head Writer of Doctor Who starting with Series five in 2010. Russell
T. Davies will step down after producing the four planned specials in 2009. Moffat has been the writer of the Hugo award winning episodes The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances and The Girl in the Fireplace (and is also nominated this year for Blink) and the upcoming Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead two-parter is highly anticipated). It is good to see another well-respected writer/producer who is also a fan take on the show. I've had a chance to talk with Moffat at the Gallifrey One conventions and, while he indicated last year that he wasn't interested in the job, being much too busy doing things like scripts for Tin Tin movies for the likes of Steven Spielberg, I have a feeling it was already in the works and he was just trying to avoid the question. I'm looking forward to seeing what he will do with the series as well as who he might bring in to write an episode or two that hasn't yet had the chance. The only downside I can see is that he may no longer be able to join us at Gallifrey One now that he is the person in charge. But, since he is the person in charge, he may be able to change the current BBC policies.

Other Doctor Who Writer News
Paul Cornell recently survived a nasty car crash which he documented quite thoroughly on his blog. I'm glad to hear that Paul and his wife, Caroline, both escaped with relatively minor injuries when it sounds like it definitely could have been a lot worse. Paul has been a fun guest at Gallifrey One for the last ten or so years and it has been fun hanging out with Paul and Caroline occassionally at WorldCon and World Fantasy recently. Besides some of the better received Doctor Who episodes (including Human Nature/Family of Blood, also nominated for a Hugo this year), Paul has recently written for Robin Hood and Primeval and has been working on pitching his own series to the UK production companies. He's also started doing comics for Marvel, having done a Wisdom miniseries last year and having just launched a new series, Captain Britain and MI-13 with a Fantastic Four miniseries on the way (and who knows what else is coming up that he can't talk about). Here's a nice list of all of the recent and upcoming comics Paul has done for Marvel. Paul has also published a few novels as well, including British Summertime, recently published in the US by Monkeybrain Books. He'll be at WorldCon in Denver in August, hoping to take home his first Hugo award for Doctor Who.

James Moran has been writing about his experiences writing for TV on his blog. He's started a series of posts on his experience writing for Torchwood and promises a detailed report on his experiences at Gallifrey One. He wrote The Fires of Pompeii episode for the current series and has episodes in the new series of Primeval as well as the new UK version of Law and Order. He's also got several other things in the works that he can't yet say what it is. James was a big hit at Gallifrey One this past year with the fans and he is already scheduled for a return visit next year.

SFTV Roundup - Schedule Updates and Network juggling

SFTV Schedules Updated, Schedule Shuffling, TV Big Shot

The Upcoming SFTV Schedule list and Season to Date list have been updated with the latest information I've been able to track down. With the writer's strike now really having an affect on availability of new episodes for most of the shows that started this fall, there's a lot of schedule juggling going on as new shows are brought in, shows with no more episodes left are dropped, and the networks play chicken with each other to try to gain an advantage. Right before Christmas, CBS dropped new episodes of three shows at short notice to run repeats. This past week, ABC and NBC played chicken with the start of Celebrity Apprentice with apparently NBC winning as ABC didn't move the last new Grey's Anatomy to Jan 3rd after NBC moved The Apprentice back to that date, after moving it to Jan 10th AFTER having previously announced it to start Jan 3rd.

Yes, I've been paying much more detailed attention to non-SFTV shows to attempt to keep near the top with TV Bigshot. My top network, SFTVPlus, is at #17 currently. Aleph still has most of the top ten but others have been gaining on him. I'm just trying to keep up with them. TWOP will definitely need to rethink the game for next season, though. Too much of the game has become dependent on increasing your network value by buying and selling shows to gain network value.

But I digress. The latest schedule juggling is from FOX, who instead of just burning off New Amsterdam on Friday nights starting in late February, have now decided to give it a big push by previewing the first two episodes following American Idol episodes and then putting it into the Monday night 9 pm time slot once they run out of Terminator episodes. That's a pretty surprising turn of events for the show considering FOX shut down production on it BEFORE the writer's strike, effectively killing it before it aired. With the strike continuing, that may be a new lease on life for New Amsterdam.

Fans4Writers Auction, Special shirts

The fans4writers web site is having an auction to raise money to support their efforts that includes a lot of signed Galactica scripts and other items of interest. You can also support the strike by buying Strike Swag including the special Star Trek day shirt (assuming they aren't all gone.) I got mine already...

I definitely would like to see the strike settled soon, but only if the writers get what they are due. If anything, we've got some new genre stuff coming up including new Torchwood and Doctor Who (which is UK made and not affected by the strike).

SFTV News Roundup

Schedules Updated

The SFTV Schedules have been updated and can be viewed by the direct links. The Upcoming listing isn't quite done yet and hasn't been emailed out but will be soon.


Galactica Renewal


The SciFi Channel has renewed Battlestar Galactica for a fourth season. Instead of 20 episodes, they committed to a minimum of 13 episodes. Production is supposed to start this summer with the series likely returning next January. No news on the DVD movie they had been talking about. The full press release can be found on SciFi's press website.

Blood Ties Pictures

Lifetime has put up a basic web site to promote Blood Ties and has also made available some pictures from the initial batch of episodes.

First up is Christina Cox as Vickie Nelson, the P.I. with a degenerative eye disease.


Next is Kyle Schmid as Henry Fitzroy, a 450-year old vampire who embodies the physique of a twenty-something playboy. He also writes graphic novels (a change from the book version who writes romance novels).

Dylan Neal stars as Detective Mike Celucci, the ex-boyfriend of private investigator Vicki Nelson.

Gina Holden ("Reunion") stars as Coreen Fennel, who convinces Vicki to let her work as her assistant after her boyfriend is murdered by a demon. The first few episodes are described as follows by Lifetime:

Blood Price (Parts 1 & 2): Fearless ex-cop turned private investigator Vicki finds her entire life changes after she witnesses a bizarre murder and is suddenly thrown into a supernatural world in which she discovers her suspect is a demon and she is working alongside a 450-year-old vampire, Henry. Below is an image from the episode where Vickie is attending to Henry after he's been beaten up pretty bad.



Bad Ju-Ju: Vicki is hired by a woman desperately seeking her missing brother. With Henry's help, Vicki soon discovers that her client is more than what she appears to be. There's also Zombies, one of which has Vicki in a nasty grip on the left.


Gifted: When a young girl is left alone following her mother's death, Vicki is hired to track down her estranged father. During her investigation, Vicki and Henry discover that the young girl has special powers and an imaginary friend who might be more foe than friend.