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TV Log
Hailing Frequencies #378
9.27.07
HELLO
And here's the three hundred and seventy-eighth edition of "Hailing Frequencies."
If you want to be notified when this newsletter is updated, email me to be put on my "notification" list.
Smallville premieres tonight on The CW at 8 PM. Don't forget! Stargate Atlantis premieres this Friday with a kick-ass episode! (review here)
NEW AT THE SITE
Picture Galleries Back Online!
They're a little rough and unfinished in spots, but the pictures should all work. :-)
Stargate Atlantis Returns for Season Four
BIONIC WOMAN
Review from ozzygreybeard:
I watched the pilot of Bionic Woman. It had real time and flashbacks and it was a jumble of each. Eventually the oldest "Bionic Woman" showed up, and I think it was too bad not to have Lindsay Wagner in a cameo (It would certainly be an up tick on her current job on mattress commercials). It's back and forward and back and forward again, was not viewer friendly. With modern film technology being what it is today, the CG's should have been far better. It would have been really neat to have Lee Majors drop in and say Hi! It definitely needs a better, more defined storyline. One can only hope it will improve, if the series gets by three episodes without being relegated to the trash bin. In it's current form, it might well not make it to Episode #2. I liked Lee and Lindsay, too bad this group, modern CG technology notwithstanding, does not work,actors and production just does not make the grade. I give it a C-
CANADA
Canada will get more fun for the kiddies November 30 with Family Channel's Playhouse Disney Canada. Shows will include Disney properties as well as original Canadian series such as Franny's Feet, The Secret World of Benjamin Bear and King. As a multiplex channel, Playhouse Disney will only be available to Family Channel subscribers.
DR. WHO
North Scotland.com has a fun article on Patrick Stewart. Though he's currently starring in the Scot's Tragedy at London's Gielgud Theatre, Stewart mentioned he'd love (hint, hint) a guest role on Doctor Who. He's worked with David Tennant before, in a recent production of Hamlet, and says he's a long fan of the Dr. Who franchise.
Make it so!
EUREKA
Good news! SCI FI Channel has greenlit production on a third season of 13 episodes for its "most-watched original series." Eureka will begin production on a third season in Vancouver early next year for a summer 2008 premiere.
Michael Shanks tells SCI FI Wire he had a great time working on Eureka: "It was great," he said. "Colin [Ferguson, who plays Sheriff Jack Carter,] and all the cast and crew are absolutely fantastic. They're going through the growing pains, dealing with the quickness of the pace of a series and the building of the mythology, so it was interesting, because they were asking me a lot of questions about what it was like to work on a show as long as I did. I was smiling and nodding, listening to the same things we went through in the early years of Stargate, just in terms of the adjustment process you have to go through." The episode, "All That Glitters," is a two-parter that airs this week and next.
HALO
Microsoft reports sales for Halo 3 generated $170 million during the first twenty hours of release, surpassing the $125 million sales record set by Halo 2. More than 1 million players have logged on the play the Xbox Live version.
HARRY POTTER
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince has a tentative opening date of November 21, 2008.
HEROES
The season premiere of Heroes raked in an impressive 8.1/12.
JUSTICE LEAGUE
Joss Whedon is no longer gonna give us a Wonder Woman movie, but we should see her in her satin tights, fightin' for our rights in the Justice League of America movie. Warner Bros. is reportedly courting Jessica Biel for the title role.
KNIGHT RIDER
I think I first report that NBC was considering a Knight Rider remake about two years ago. As often happens, the success of a related project has moved a stalled project forward. NBC has gotten Doug Liman do a Transformers-style rework of the show, with a two-hour pilot to air, if possible, later this season. If the pilot works out, we can look for Knight Rider on next fall's schedule.
MISC...
- Michael Bay's participation (or at least, his salary) is uncertain, but Paramount Pictures has set a release date of June 26, 2009 for Transformers II.
- Sony has posted part one of the 18-part video blog by Jay Russell, director of The Water Horse.
- Variety reports ABC has ordered six episodes of Section 8, from writers Zak Penn and Michael Karnow, about a team of people with "advanced neurological abnormalities" working for a secret government agency. (No Bush Administration jokes at this time, please.)
- Sad news, Alice Ghostley, (Esmeralda on Bewitched) died Sept. 21 at her home in Studio City, CA; she was 81.
- E! Online's "Watch With Kristin" says James Marsters will return to The CW's Smallville for four episodes, starting in January.
- IGN has a clip and the trailer for The Seeker: The Dark is Rising.
- AnnaSophia Robb will play the lead female role in Disney's remake, Witch Mountain.
NOT SCI-FI, BUT COULD INFLUENCE A LOT OF SHOWS
Hollywood writers are getting close to walking out of negotiations and going on strike over compensation for online distribution. A lot of what's on the Web is coming from non-union digital studios, and writers "fear abuses" (read that however you want) from a "farm system." Complicating matters is the issue of whether online video should be considered promotional -- meaning no writer residuals -- or not.
RANDOM DIALOG QUIZ
Can you name the TV show? "All this trouble over a fat little man in a red suit!"
Highlight to read the answer: Santa Claus Conquers the Martians
RATINGS
- CBS's rerun of Ghost Whisperer scared up a nifty 3.6/7.
Top Syndicated Shows, week of 9.3-9, 2007
Alias 1.3
Smallville 1.3
Stargate Atlantis 1.1
Star Trek 1.0
Stargate SG-1 0.9
Farscape 0.7
The Outer Limits 0.4
STAR TREK
Well, we know he can do the accent. TrekMovie.com reports that Paul McGillion (SGA's Carson Beckett) has auditioned for the role of Scotty in J.J. Abrams' Trek movie, now in pre-production. Chris Doohan, James Doohan's son, has reportedly endorsed McGillion.
Meanwhile, the role of Kirk is still up for grabs, and IGN reports the rumor that Mike Vogel may be the one.
EW.com has a fun retrospective on Star Trek TNG.
STARGATES
Stargate Atlantis Returns for Season Four
You probably already know that Rachel Luttrell, and thus also Teyla Emmagan in season four, is pregnant. Worried about telling executive producers Paul Mullie and Joe Mallozzi about her news, she called "Amanda Tapping—because she's the [Stargate] veteran, and she's always been very accessible to me in terms of discussing aspects of the show....She showed up on the day that I went upstairs to have my conversation with the producers, and that was a wonderful support." Luttrell says the cast and crew, many of them fathers, were very equally supportive. -- SCI FI Wire
Michael Shanks, who's guesting on Eureka next week as well, has a blurb on the SCI FI Wire about the Stargate movies: "I was part of one long day where we were filming on a frozen set, and that was fantastic, because we had this big, refrigerated set and this ship they'd built," he said. "It was a recipe for pneumonia, going in and out of the Vancouver sunshine, which was really warm, and this refrigerated set, but it was a lot of fun, because we could take our time a little bit more than we'd been able to in the past. And the look of it was fantastic."
The Hollywood Reporter reports that our beloved Joe Flanigan is being sued by UTA (fresh from victory in similar suit against Wesley Snipes) for $99,225 in commissions for the fourth season of SGA. Manager John Carrabino says: "I had no idea they did this. This is the first time I'm hearing about this." Maybe McKay can fix it.
TERMINATOR IV...V...VI
IGN learned from James Middleton, consulting producer on the new Fox Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, that Ts4, 5, and 6 are being planned by The Halcyon Company, which owns the franchise rights: "It will be written by Michael Ferris and John D. Brancato, the same team that wrote Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines. Halcyon would like to be in pre-production in October with an eye towards a 2009 release."
No director or cast members have been signed, but John Connor and Kate Brewster are in the script -- though not as the mains. Middleton seems to feel the new hero will be of Biblical proportions: "Ben-Hur was influenced by Jesus Christ, but it was his story. Much in that way, this character will be influenced by John Connor."
X-FILES
I'm starting to feel like David Duchovny is going to get that sequel made if he has to part pulling guns on the studio suits. Duchovny told Movieweb.com that "the script is written and as far as I know we're all trying to shoot in December at some point. We would all love it if we could keep it a secret and just give everybody a fresh experience of not knowing what the movie's about. I know if I was a fan of the show I would kind of be excited to be surprised."
TOP US MOVIES TODAY FROM THE NUMBERS
1. Resident Evil: Extinction...............$26,610,561
2. Good Luck Chuck....................... $15,620,709
3. The Brave One...........................$26,076,723
4. 3:10 to Yuma.............................$38,726,153
5. Eastern Promises..........................$7,459,492
6. Superbad.................................$116,710,279
7. Mr. Woodcock............................$16,146,000
8. The Bourne Ultimatum................$220,631,115
9. Sydney White..............................$5,554,085
10. Across the Universe.....................$3,187,923
Weekend Box Office Estimates:
September 21-23, 2007
Resident Evil:Extinction (ScreenGems) $24.0 million - opening weekend
Good Luck Chuck (Lionsgate Films) $14.0 million - opening weekend
The Brave One (Warner Bros.) $7.4 million - 2 wk total
$25.1m
3:10 to Yuma (Lionsgate) $6.4 million - 3 wk total $37.9m
Eastern Promises (Focus) $5.7 million - 2 wk total $6.5m
Sydney White (Universal) $5.3 million - opening weekend
Mr. Woodcock (NewLine) $4.9 million - 2 wk total $15.7m
Superbad (Sony) $3.1 million - 6 wk total $116.2m
The Bourne Ultimatum (Universal) $2.8 million - 8 wk total $220.2m
Dragon Wars (Freestyle) $2.5 million - 2 wk total $8.4m
Source: Box Office Mojo
TOP BOOKS SCI-FI/FANTASY @ Amazon, 9.21.07
1. Harry
Potter and the Deathly Hallows, J.K. Rowling
2. Eclipse (Twilight, Book 3)
3. New Moon (Twilight, Book 2)
4. The Road, by Cormac McCarthy
5. Twilight (Twilight, Book 1)
6. Harry Potter Paperback Box Set (Books 1-6)
7. His Dark Materials Trilogy
, by Philip Pullman
8. Making Money (Discworld Novels)
9. Spook Country
10. Inferno (Star Wars: Legacy of the Force, Book 6)
TOP DVDs SCI-FI/FANTASY @ Amazon, 9.21.07
1. Smallville - The Complete Sixth Season
2. Heroes - Season 1
3. Transformers (Two-Disc Special Edition)
4. The Secret (Extended Edition)
5. Stargate Atlantis - The Complete Third Season
6. Shrek the Third (Widescreen Edition)
7. Superman - Doomsday (DC Universe Animated Original Movie)
8. Spider-Man 3 (2-Disc Special Edition)
9. Lost - The Complete Third Season
10. Supernatural - The Complete Second Season
INSANE TREK TRIVIA
This Week's Question: What is this?
Send your answer to julia.houston@gmail.com. All correctly answering trivia maniacs will have their names mentioned in the next letter. The first winner gets to make a request, anything they like -- within reason -- for the next "Hailing Frequencies" Issue. Please let me know if you don't want me to post your email address if you win.
Last Week's Question: "Weird is part of the job." -- Who said it to whom?
Answer: Janeway to Kim.
First winner
Joanie & Lou (email times matched to the second, talk about weird)
Second winner
Sue
Third winner
Tamara
Fourth winner
Claudia
Fifth winner
NL Coglan
Sixth winner
athena28
Seventh winner
evay
CAPTION CONTEST
Send in your best caption for the picture below. The best (as in, my favorite) entry will appear in next week's issue.
[Insert caption here.]
THIS WEEK'S WINNER:
"The new officers uniform when the Star Trek franchise jumped the shark." - Katherine
Honorable mentions...
"Rollerball 3 - all right, who's in favor?!" - Doug
"Who knew you could use super elastic bubble plastic as clothing! Pretty cool I say!" - Joanie
"The cheap new holograhic comedian Quark installed in the bar desperately tried to get a laugh." - Katherine
"Well, ya see, Mr. Lee. I calls myself FEEDBACK cuz I eats lots and lots of beans!" - BrownRd226
"Come on, people, give me some feedback about my running for President." - Sue
"For the last time, I am not gay, and that is not my superpower!" - BTCHONWHLS
"Nice outfit, but where's the zipper when I need to take a leak?" - ozzygreybeard
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR"
Last week's topic: What would you pick as the best three Star Trek TNG episodes?
***
Hey Julia--I couldn't come up with my favorite 3 so I came up with my favorite 9. Listed them below for you. The offspring--liked the interaction between lal and data.
relic--scotty is back
tapestry--how wild for picard to be able to live his life over again and make it different. way to go Q.
unification--spock is back attached--picard and crusher are finally together---sort of.
sub rosa--i just liked watching Dr. Crusher---you know---.
rascals--the kids they chose for the parts were very accurate to their counterparts.
all good things---what a way to tie up the entire series. encounter at far point--because it was the beginning of it all. - Sue
***
1 & 2: The Best Of Both Worlds, not necessarily in that order.
3: Relics, Ah Scotty, how we missed you.
***
EW's top 10 wasn't too bad - I think I agreed with a lot of them (definitely not all though). Mine would be:
1) Yesterday's Enterprise
2) The Best of Both Worlds 3)
I'm torn between Inner Light which was a fairly simple episode with an original premise, or Lower Decks which has both continuity (re: Ensign Sito from First Duty) and was probably the first episode of a sci-fi series to focus on the lives of regular crew members. Very close behind would have to be The Wounded which gave the first real insight into the Cardassians and their history with the Federation. Actually, I completely forgot about Frame of Mind which has got to be one of the cleverest episodes ever made - it keeps you guessing the truth right up until the end and it's easily Jonathon Frakes' best performance of the series. I'm so conflicted...
I think that in addition to the ones above which weren't on EW's list, I'm also disappointed that The Offspring was not among them. While The Measure of a Man is there and was certainly an important episode for defining Data's rights, it was only in the Offspring where we saw those definitions being put to the test in what was a very emotional episode.
I rambling now aren't I?
Later
mac
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Next week's topic: What was (or is) your best sci-fi or fantasy-inspired toy, and why?
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Send me something if you've got something to say. It can be about anything that's on your mind!
HAILING FREQUENCIES CLOSED
