SciFi Friday: Kara Thrace is Still Dead, Veronica Mars Might Warp Into The Future, and Extermination by Chocolate

No news might not necessarily be good news, but this week no news was bigger news than any real news. That’s no news on Starbuck’s fate. Katee Sackhoff’s name is off the credits for Battlestar Galactica, but otherwise we found out nothing beyond the hints mentioned last week. There was something about preparation for a big trial, but was anyone really paying that much attention beyond searching for clues as to whether Kara will be back? My bet is that we’ll get a teaser in the season finale to keep people guessing over the summer. Maybe we’ll see her eating lunch with Elvis in a restaurant at the edge of the galaxy.

Those who recognize the allusion to Douglas Adams might also be interested in this collection of quotes in honor of his birthday last Sunday. Other recent science fiction posts include this listing of classic science fiction novels.

While Starbuck’s fate remains a mystery, hints about the cast of Heroes are being released, most likely to keep the attention of fans while the show is on a brief hiatus. Slice of SciFi and SciFi Wire reveal that “Linderman has superpowers of his own, that he was once a member of a group of heroes, that the members of the group eventually used their powers for personal gain—and that he is behind the plot to blow up New York as a way to engender widespread fear, which he believes will bring the nation together in hope. Linderman also reveals a prophecy that Nathan will eventually wind up in the White House.”

Looking into the crystal ball with regards to the CW Network is very hazy. Nothing is official, and as of now Veronica Mars might wind up remaining a student as she solves mysteries, the show might be cancelled, and there is yet another possibility. Kristin Veich reports that the show might leap four years into the future and show Veronica as an FBI agent after graduation. This scenario makes it less likely that many of the regulars will return (with some minor characters already getting parts on other shows).

The rumor is that negotiations are not going well for another season of Gilmore Girls. Melissa McCarthy, who plays chef Sookie St. James, has already signed for a role on a comedy pilot on ABC. Alexis Bledel apparently isn’t very interested in another season, and Lorelei says she won’t return without Rory. If this must be the end, at least Dave Rosenthal has managed to pull off something that Amy Sherman-Paladino and Dan Paladino could not. Rory’s idol, Christiane Amanpour, has agreed to appear on the season (series?) finale. Speaking of Rory, anyone else notice that, now that she’s back living with Paris, she has a poster for Fahrenheit 911 up in her bed room?

While I hope to see Vernoica Mars and Gilmore Girls return, even if this wasn’t the greatest season for either, hopefully CW will do the right thing and put Seventh Heaven out if its misery. If they don’t end the show after this year I suspect that God might personally intervene to end it. (Incidentally, to get this back to SciFi, Katerine Hicks, who plays Annie Camden, also played Dr. Gillian Taylor in Star Trek IV.) For those who haven’t been watching this year, Eric Camden finally died of heart disease, but was sent back to earth after an episode in heaven, which appears strangely like Glen Oak. The other big crisis of the year is that Ruthie Camden got a tatoo with the name of the homeless guy she fell in love with going across her rear end. As I said, put this show out if its misery.

Rory’s sign for Fahrenheit 911 isn’t the only sign for anti-government ideas on television this week. I already noted last week that the new character on Lost is named after Russian anarchist Mikhali Bakunin. There must be some meaning to having seen Bakunin killed as a result of Locke’s actions beyond the obvious that destruction seems to follow Locke around ever since his actions led to the destruction of the hatch. Also in last week’s episode we saw Sawyer sitting on the beach reading The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand.

Finally, for those who enjoy various “death by chocolate” recipees, this one takes it to a new level–Extermination by Chocolate. ChocaBlog has the recipe.

6 Comments

  1. 1
    democrafty says:

    I’ve always thought the Battlestar credits were on the odd side, since the show only lists 7 (now 6?) actors as cast members…. I did hear that Katee Sackhoff is done filming for this season, but that doesn’t mean much, IMO.

    I’m really torn about Veronica. I can understand wanting to repackage the show, since no matter how great it is, nobody watches it. And I would certainly miss it if it ended. At the same time, I do wonder if it’s time just to let Kristen Bell, et. al., off the sinking ship and with their lives…

  2. 2
    Ron Chusid says:

    I think that the removal of Katee Sackhoff from the credits was intentional to get attention. Beyond that, I suspect they will keep us guessing until next season.

    Veronica Mars doesn’t have the ratings of a major network show, but there are many shows that could be considered successes without that type of rating. Generally great cable and small network shows, including Battlestar Galactica, Supranos, Six Feet Under, and Gilmore Girls, as well as Veronica Mars, will have much smaller ratings than major network shows but still have an impact.

    With Veronica Mars the question isn’t the number of viewers but whether it can regain the greatness it had the first two seasons. It’s a long shot, but I’m hoping that someone realizes that dumbing it down didn’t help ratings so they might as well return to the quality of the first two seasons. It’s more likely the’d cancil it than do that, but we can hope.

  3. 3
    democrafty says:

    I agree on the credits thing.

    And also on Veronica – there’s been so much sturm and drang about cancellation for the past three years, I’m just sort of over it. (Or possibly bitter and cynical after the axing of Arrested Development.) I’d much rather see it go out with a bang than take the long road to suck, a la The West Wing.

  4. 4
    Ron Chusid says:

    The West Wing was a little different situation where it went downhill after losing Sorkin, whose writing was responsible for the greatness of the show in its early years. It was worse after the intitial change in writing staff, but I think it did improve over time. At the end it never achieved the greatness of early West Wing, but then shows rarely achieve that greatness. While I never expected it to last beyond the final season, I would have liked to have seen what they could have done with another season on the first year of a Santos administration. Having new characters and situations could have helped revive the show further. Of course there is also talk that at one time they planned to have Vinick win, which would really have changed the show if it had been renewed. They said they decided against a Vinick victory as that would have been too much of a loss with Leo also dying. Despite that talk, my bet is that they would only have had Vinick win if it was definite the show would not have been renewed. If they were to do another season, I bet they would have ultimately decided to go with Santos as this would have allowed them to keep some old characters (such as Josh, Leo and Donna) to give a sense of continuity. Maybe they could have even gotten Rob Lowe to stick around instead of taking the role on Brothers and Sisters.

    Veronica Mars didn’t have The West Wing’s problem of losing the person responsible for its greatness but did suffer from trying to dumb down the show in order to achieve a bigger market. Another problem is that they simply might not have been able to recreate the situations which they had with the season-long mysteries of the first two seasons. It also hurt going off to college as the social structure of the high school was a big part of the first two seasons. Such a situation wouldn’t work on a college campus as at a local high school.

    They also lost something by having Veronica lose her outsider status. Going back to dating two rich kids ended this, but regardless it would be hard to believe that such a beautiful girl, who also seemed to be helping virtually kid in her school at one time or another, would remain on the outside socially.

  5. 5
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  6. 6
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