Our Next Deadline:

MEDIA: SF TUBE Talk
- continued from page 1

One thing that hasn't hurt the show has been various references to Lost (Apollo candy bars and MacCutcheon Whisky) and the Disney films (with character names that originated from the Disney versions being used for characters in the show) which has sparked interest from fans in recognizing the references. Look for the show to continue unraveling the backstory of the characters as the conflict with the Evil Queen escalates.

While FOX's Terra Nova didn't deliver the giant ratings they were hoping for, the series did deliver decent and consistent ratings over its 13 episode run. At the winter Television Critic's Association Winter Press Tour, Fox Entertainment President Kevin Reilly indicated that "We made money on it, the studio made money on it and the audience enjoyed it. The show looked fantastic, it's clearly a conceit people wanted to watch, they had ample opportunity to reject it: they didn't."As for whether there will be a season two, Reilly said "we are going to decide very soon because it does need to get back into production over the next month."

Over on The CW, The Secret Circle has done fairly well paired up with The Vampire Diaries and has gotten a full season pickup from the network. While on Friday nights, Nikita is the lowest rated drama for the network, with Supernatural not far behind. Whether there will be additional seasons of those series is yet to be determined.

But, you may ask, what about the original BBC version of Being Human? It will be returning to the BBC sometime soon (and thusly on BBC America here in the U.S.). This will be its fourth series and it will have some major changes, especially with the departure of vampire John Mitchell (Aiden Turner) at the end of series three. Also, Sinead Keenan will not be returning as the werewolf Nina and Russell Tovey's George will exit during series 4. According to producer Toby Whithouse, "Not only would it be our first series without Aidan, but Russell had decided that series 4 would be his last, and Sinead had decided that her Being Human journey had come to an end after series 3. The mountain before us seemed even higher than usual, but once we'd stopped rocking and shaking, we saw series 4 as an opportunity: we could invent new characters, expand the show in different directions, create new worlds and monsters and heroes, and add new layers to the overarching Being Human mythology."

It appears that the new lead vampire will be Hal, played by Damien Molony, who is described as "an upper-class, very English, well-dressed vampire." Becoming a regular is Michael Socha, the werewolf,Tom McNair, who will join with Hal and Annie (Lenora Crichlow) in a new flat arrangement. About the new season, Whithouse says, "We introduce you to a new type of supernatural creature (thank you, Wikipedia); there are some stunning guest appearances from Alex Jennings, Mark Gatiss, James Lance, Mark Williams, Amanda Abbingdon, Craig Roberts (reprising his role as teenage vampire Adam), Selina Griffiths and Ellie Kendrick; there's a genuinely shocking death, and we take you to somewhere we've never been to before. The new cast, the crew and directors and the other writers have pulled off something extraordinary and completely reinvigorated the show. I hope you'll agree, rumours of Being Human's death have been greatly exaggerated."

BBC America is currently airing, The Fades, on Supernatural Saturdays through the end of February. It stars Lain De Caestecker as Paul, a teenager haunted by apocalyptic dreams that can't be explained. When he discovers that he's part of a small group of people who can see the ghosts and spirits of the dead, called The Fades. According to series creator, Jack Thorne, "What makes The Fades different is that it is a fantasy show rather than a science fiction show. It's about fairly ordinary people, none of these people act or behave like they're superheroes. The Fades is about the world itself being an extraordinary thing and how you battle it. This old school fantasy element combined with some pretty original characters - I hope this is what will make people want to watch."

As for more Doctor Who, we'll have to wait until later in the year when the series will return to the BBC and BBC America. There's not much yet to report on the new season, aside from that it will be split like the most recent season, which will then lead up to a 50th Anniversary celebration in November of 2013. Stay Tuned....

Let's not forget some of Syfy's upcoming Saturday movies. On February 25, look for Shannen Doherty in Gretl: Witch Hunter. The Witch Hunter Hansel (Paul McGillion)retruns to the village he lived in as a kid where a witch killed his sister, Gretl, only to find that she is not dead, and she's the witch's protege!. Also coming up in February is an original movie based on Jules Verne's Mysterious Island, timed obviously to coincide with the theatrical release of Journey 2: Mysterious Island and 2012: Ice Age.

AMC's Walking Dead returns for the second half of season two in mid-February. Fan response to the second season has been mixed, to say the least, with the group staying put at the farm for an extended period making for less action and more talking (and likely a lower budget).

On the development front, there's several things in the works that might be worth checking out if they get picked up. NBC is developing The Munsters with Bryan Fuller as an "imaginative reinvention of The Munsters as a visually spectacular drama". Having Bryan Singer on board to direct the pilot shouldn't hurt. FOX is developing The Magicians, based on Lev Grossman's fantasy novel, with Ashley Miller and Zack Stentz on board. Miller and Stentz got their start on Andromeda and have had recent successes working on movies such as Thor and X-Men: First Class. NBC has Beautiful People, which is set in a near future society "where humans co-exist with mechanical androids that look like people but are treated like second-class citizens."

In the works for Netflix, is an original drama Hemlock Grove, based on an upcoming novel by Brian McGreevy which "re-imagines everything it means to be a monster as reflected in the struggle to be human." Syfy is working on a series that will tie into the online MMO game, Defiance, making it the first interconnected video game and Televsion series. Rockne S. O'Bannon is the head writer and Scott Charlse Stewart is directing the pilot.

Copyright © 2005-2011