SciFi Weekend: Returning Shows; Diana on V; Torchwood; 24 Script Rejected

SyFy will be starting Season 3 of Merlin which already was broadcast on the BBC. The series started out seeming far different from the traditional King Arthur legends, but the second half of season two showed development of key characters (Arthur, Gwen, Morgana, and Mordrid) which led them in the direction of the previous stories.  A fourth season has also been announced.

SyFy is also  broadcasting the final five episodes of Caprica on Tuesday night. These episodes, which have already been broadcast in Canada and which are available on DVD, were surprisingly good. I’d suggest recording them and watching without commercials, making the total viewing time more suitable for one or two sittings. The episodes were good enough to keep interest for watching in one sitting. If only the series had  been this good earlier.

Here’s the return date of some selected shows which are returning this week:

Mon., Jan. 3
How I Met Your Mother (CBS), 8 p.m.
Rules of Engagement (CBS), 8:30 p.m.

Tue., Jan. 4
Caprica
(SyFy), 6 p.m.
Parenthood (NBC), 10 p.m.
V (ABC), 9 p.m.

Wed., Jan. 5
Friday Night Lights (DirecTV 101), 9 p.m.
Modern Family (ABC), 9 p.m.

Thur., Jan. 6
The Big Bang Theory (CBS), 8 p.m.

Fri., Jan. 7
Merlin
(Syfy), 10 p.m.

Jane Badler returns to V, but on this version Diana is not necessarily a villain. She was interviewed by Entertainment Weekly:

What was your initial reaction when the producers approached you about reprising the role?
Can I just tell you, when I heard that V was coming back, I could feel this huge swell just from my Facebook page that there was a lot of interest in it and my old character. I thought, that’s it, I’m coming back to the show! So I called my old agent, who told me I was ridiculous, that they weren’t going to be interested. And so that was that. Then I called the producer and met with him. Since then, the show got a new producer, so I did the same thing and met with him. But when this role came up, they weren’t thinking of me. Can you believe it? They called the character Diana as an homage to the original one, but it wasn’t the Diana. Crazy! Later, I got an email from my agent saying some person from Los Angeles wanted me to audition for the role of Diana and I went, what? That’s a hoax! How would anyone want me to audition? So I had to audition. And from what I hear, there were a lot of very well-known actresses who wanted the role, like big names, which is very flattering. But my audition was the best. So that’s how I got the role! It wasn’t, like, handed to me. Isn’t that kooky? So here I am with what I thought was going to be four episodes, and it turned into the whole season, which has been absolutely amazing. I’ve loved every minute of it. It’s been crazy to be back involved in it again.

How is your character re-introduced as Anna’s mom?
I think it’s a really powerful thing. It’s a whole Greek tragedy, mother-daughter. I was the queen before her. She imprisoned me. She put me in a dungeon, and everyone thinks that I am dead. And so she has become the new queen. Very early on, she comes to visit to me, so that’s when it is revealed that I am alive. It’s a whole power play – my different ways of ruling versus her ways of ruling. They make me out to be the more benevolent of the two. And perhaps I am, but I’m also the queen. That carries arrogance with it. It’s not just all nice. It also is revealed why I can’t leave the dungeon, which is all kind of exciting, too. There are lots of special effects.

Where is the dungeon?
I’m in the bowels of the ship. But in the hole where I live, they have recreated it like our planet. It’s like this extra -terrestrial terrain. It’s really cool.

Do you undermine Anna?
Yes. It does take a while but once people come to visit me by mistake, once people enter my lair…I can’t say what happens, but it’s huge last episode and hopefully viewers will flock to see the show because it will be amazing.

Torchwood won’t be returning until summer but a new synopsis of Torchwood: The New World has been released:

The new ten-part series of the Doctor Who spinoff will also see the return of regular Torchwood characters Captain Jack Harkness (John Barrowman) and Gwen Cooper (Eve Myles).
Gwen will be shown living peacefully in Wales with husband Rhys (Kai Owen) and new baby Anwen when she encounters a “new, epic danger” that will “push [her] to the limit”.
Having left Earth at the conclusion of previous miniseries Children of Earth, Harkness will be drawn back to the Torchwood institute by “his unstated love for Gwen”.

24 might not be returning soon as the first movie script was rejected:

Fans of Jack Bauer who were hoping to get a big screen fix of their favorite anti-hero may be in for a long wait: EW has learned exclusively that 20th Century Fox has nixed a script from Billy Ray (State of Play) that would have continued the storyline of the rogue CTU agent from the long-running drama 24.

“As far as I know, it is in suspended animation,”  Howard Gordon, the longtime executive producer of 24 who is also expected to produce the big screen version, told EW exclusively. ”There is talk about re-approaching it. I understand (director/producer) Tony Scott is meeting with Kiefer to talk about ideas. People are still talking about it.”

Maybe they should have gone with the death scene for Jack Bauer which had been written for the finale.

3 Comments

  1. 1
    Eddie Wemple says:

    » SciFi Weekend: Returning Shows; Diana on V; Torchwood; 24 Script …: The new ten-part series of the Doctor Wh… http://bit.ly/fC3gO6

  2. 2
    Infidel753 says:

    Speaking of evil reptilian women, don’t you think Sarah Palin looks a bit like Diana?

  3. 3
    Ron Chusid says:

    The original show (including mini-series) was the way that they gradually built up to the fact that Diana and the Visitors were evil and not what they seemed. Same might be said of Sarah Palin considering how some still do not realize how dangerous she is to our way of life.

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