SciFi Weekend: Doctor Who News; Daleks Repeat 1964 Invasion of London; Utopia; Star Trek Bloopers

The questions: Who is Clara? Doctor Who?

The Dalek invasion of London from 1964 is being recreated for Doctor Who, An Adventure in Space and Time. I have moved the video under the fold as it begins running automatically.

A quote from Steven Moffat is keeping rumors alive that all eleven Doctors will be in the 50th Anniversary episode. From The Mirror:

Seven of the surviving actors are set to return in cameo roles on the 3D episode to mark the 50th anniversary of the sci-fi favourite.

And chiefs also want to involve the first three Doctors – William Hartnell, Patrick Troughton and Jon Pertwee – who have died since the first episode screened back in 1963.

They would be included in the feature-length special using computer generated images and old footage.

Doctors of old Tom Baker, 79, Peter Davison, 61, Colin Baker, 69, Sylvester McCoy, 69, Paul McGann, 53, Christopher Eccleston, 48, and David Tennant. 41, are thought to have agreed to take part alongside current star Matt Smith, 30.

This week writer and producer Steven Moffat – who is notoriously secretive – admitted: “Getting the other Doctors involved would be very fitting for the anniversary episode, wouldn’t it?”

He is still writing the special, which is due to be filmed this spring.

The plot is a fiercely-guarded secret, but Moffat said the fact the original show was delayed by more than a minute by an extended news bulletin would be referenced.

The first episode with Hartnell as The Doctor was broadcast on November 23 – the day after President Kennedy was shot.

The special episode is likely to provide the exit point for Smith, who is expected to regenerate into the 12th Time Lord.

Smith, set to star in movie How to Catch a Monster, admitted he would love to work with his predecessors. “How amazing would it be to see Tom Baker? Can you imagine seeing him back in the scarf? That would be so cool,” he said.

“Paul McGann is a great Doctor – I say bring back Chris and Dave too.”

If bosses manage to pull off the coup, it will be the biggest gathering of Doctors since 1983, when five were reunited for the 20th anniversary.

That quote is hardly a clear cut answer without full context and, besides, it is well known that Moffat lies. Both the details of the anniversary episode and how long Matt Smith will remain on the TARDIS remain unknown.

Before we get to the anniversary episode, it has been confirmed that the Ice Warriors will return after 40 years in an episode written by Mark Gatiss.

channel-4-utopia-forum-ian-and-becky

Utopia concludes its first season this week in the UK and is widely considered one of the top shows on television. While not involving aliens, it has the feel of Torchwood at its best–and shows the advantage of not dragging out a season beyond what the story justifies. While I cannot be specific to avoid major spoilers, the goal of those behind the conspiracy was revealed in the fifth episode last week in a manner which almost made it sound justifiable. One problem with the plan was pointed out by a character later in the episode. Things looked pretty grim at the end of last week’s episode. I wonder to what degree they will resolve the problems versus leaving things open for a potential second season.

I doubt Utopia will air in the United States anytime soon in light of the violence in the series, which has included children as targets. At least Utopia, while often very graphic in showing violence against adults, has left deaths of children off screen.

Once Upon A Time spoilers here.

If you were hoping to go to San Diego Comic Con in July and don’t have tickets yet you are out of luck. Tickets sold out in 93 minutes.

Above is a 41 minute collection of the best Star Trek bloopers. The video on the recreation of the Dalek invasion London is below.

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SciFi Weekend: Doctor Who; Sex in Game of Thrones; Homeland; Dexter; Elementary v. Sherlock; The Avengers; Merlin; Blake’s 7 Reboot; Amy Sherman-Palladino Interview

Doctor Who has become the first British television show to make the cover of Entertainment Weekly.

How do you know when a TV show has become a cult phenomenon? When its (often comparatively small) ratings are eclipsed by the wild ardor of its fans. Take the case of the British science fiction show Doctor Who, whose current lead, Matt Smith, is this week’s cover star. The now 49-year-old Who is hugely popular in its homeland but has always enjoyed a more select appeal here — not that you know that from the devotion of U.S.-based “Whovians.” In 1983, 7,000 people attended a Doctor Who convention in Chicago and over the past couple of years the time-traveling “Doctor” has received a bordering-on-the-absurd number of onscreen shout-outs from Community, Criminal Minds, Craig Ferguson’s The Late Late Show, Supernatural, and Grey’s Anatomy, whose creator, Shonda Rhimes, describes herself as a “psychotic” follower of Matt Smith’s time travel adventures in this week’s cover story. “It’s not an obscure show anymore,” says executive producer Steven Moffat. “It’s not even a ‘British import.’ It’s just Doctor Who.”

Has the time finally come for the so-called “Time Lord” to break big in America? Could be. The Doctor Who team has assiduously courted fans here with a succession of publicity appearances, including a panel at this year’s Comic-Con where Whovians paid homage to Smith’s red-haired costar Karen Gillan by donning ginger wigs. (No. 2 way you know  a TV show has become a cult favorite? When fans start dressing as characters.) In June 2011, the show’s U.S. broadcaster BBC America enjoyed its best ever ratings with the premiere episode of the sixth season since Doctor Who was revived in 2005, following a 16 year hiatus. The new season, which debuts later this summer, may well be the most eagerly anticipated ever as the Doctor prepares to say goodbye to his two trusty and beloved-by-fans “companions,” Gillan’s Amy Pond and Arthur Darvill’s Rory Williams. In the cover story we track the ups and downs of the show’s remarkable half-century history and preview the new episodes with help from Smith, Gillan, Darvill, and  exec producer, Steven Moffat.

Mary Tamm, the first actress to play Romana as companion to Tom Baker on Doctor Who died during the past week at age 62. Regret ably she was not able to regenerate like the character she played. A video tribute to Mary Tamm follows:

BBC America will be broadcasting four documentaries about Doctor Who in August:

The Science of Doctor Who: explores the real life science behind the biggest concepts and most iconic ideas in Doctor Who. The Science of Doctor Who premieres Saturday, August 4, 11:00 pm ET.

The Women of Doctor Who: Behind every great Time Lord there’s a great woman. Whether they’re busting Daleks or the Doctor’s ego, the women of Doctor Who prove that you don’t need testosterone to save the universe. Premieres Saturday, August 11, 9:00pm ET.

The Timey-Wimey Stuff of Doctor Who: When the Doctor’s around, tomorrow is yesterday, yesterday is tomorrow and 18th century France is in your fireplace. Confused yet? You’ve already seen it in the future. The Timey-Wimey Stuff of Doctor Who premieres Saturday, August 18, 11:00pm ET.

The Destinations of Doctor Who: Leave the beach towel at home and take a trip to the end of the Earth – literally. From the Starship UK to one very haunted hotel, you won’t find the destinations of Doctor Who in any guidebook. This final instalment premieres Saturday, August 25, 9:00pm ET.

George R. R. Martin commented on the reaction to the sex in Game of Thrones during an interview with the Daily Star:

Martin, who has a blue collar background in an industrial suburb of New Jersey said he has been surprised with the reaction against explicit sex scenes coming from some American readers.

“I can describe an axe entering a human skull in great explicit detail and no one will blink twice at it. I provide a similar description, just as detailed, of a penis entering a vagina, and I get letters about it and people swearing off,” he said.

“To my mind this is kind of frustrating, it’s madness. Ultimately, in the history of [the] world, penises entering vaginas have given a lot of people a lot of pleasure; axes entering skulls, well, not so much.”

Above is a trailer for the second season of Homeland, which returns on September 30. Showtime has released this press release:

In the wake of Israeli air strikes against Iran, the Middle East threatens to erupt in fresh violence. In Beirut, flags bearing the Star of David, and the Red, White, and Blue, burn in the streets. A woman swims through the chaos towards the American embassy, trying to make contact. The abused wife of a Hezbollah commander, she carries information about an attack – retaliation against Israel’s ally, the United States. But this would-be informant insists she will only speak to her one-time CIA handler: Carrie Mathison.

The problem: Carrie Mathison is no longer with the Agency. The disgraced ex-officer is on the slow path to recovery, after her manic flight in Season One nearly crashed the political career of American hero Nicholas Brody. Months after her expulsion from the CIA, the adventure and turmoil that once defined Carrie’s life is now a dull memory, replaced by regular ECT treatment and her father and sister’s protective cocoon. It’s this fragile new existence that Carrie’s former colleagues Saul Berenson and David Estes threaten to shatter, when they come to her door asking for help.

Meanwhile Nicholas Brody, several months into his inaugural term as a freshman Congressman, finds himself buffeted daily by competing agendas. Everyone has a plan for him – whether it’s Vice President William Walden, fellow Marine Mike Faber, or terrorist mastermind Abu Nazir. While Brody strives to change the face of American foreign policy without bloodshed, he learns that doing so may not be good enough for Nazir. And with every lie he tells, the walls around him close in a little tighter, threatening to bring Brody down, along with his family and everything they’ve achieved since his return.

As the situation at home and abroad escalates, Carrie and Brody’s worlds will collide yet again, deepening a relationship built on lies, suspicion and longing. Will Carrie finally be vindicated for the truth she was so close to uncovering? Can Brody keep his head above water, as opposing powers play him like a pawn? Whoever gains the upper hand in this dangerous pairing, neither Carrie nor Brody will come out of it unscathed.

They also released this press release about the seventh season of Dexter:

Season 7 returns in explosive fashion, as Dexter (Michael C. Hall) is finally forced to confront his greatest fear, as Debra (Jennifer Carpenter) witnesses his insatiable, ritualistic slaying of a killer. Now Deb knows the secret of his Dark Passenger, his undeniable thirst for blood, and the Code that their father Harry (‘James Remar’) instilled in him as a young boy.

But as Deb tries to reconcile the unfathomable idea that her beloved, mild-mannered brother is Miami’s most notorious serial killer, Dexter is still pulled by his natural impulses to seek out the guilty and exact his brand of vigilante justice, which leads him on the trail of a brutal Ukrainian mobster (Ray Stevenson).

Along the way, Dexter meets Hannah McKay (Yvonne Strahovski), a strong, independent woman with a past that she’s struggled to put behind her. As a turn of events leads Miami Metro Homicide to ask for her help in solving some old cases, Dexter works with her and begins to wonder if there’s more to this woman than she’s professed.

The producers of Elementary and Sherlock star Benedict Cumberbatch discussed comparisons with the other show and the choice of a female Watson on Elementary. Elementary‘s executive producers Robert Doherty and Carl Beverly answered these questions at Comic Con:

Can you talk about how it came about that Watson is a woman in this show?
Robert: “[In preparation for the show], I read a handful of psychological assessments of [Sherlock] that real doctors have written up over the years. Somebody classified him as bipolar, somebody else said he had a mild form of Asperger’s, and one of them happened to mention that he was classified as a gynophobe – he had just not a terribly healthy relationship with women, he was a little suspicious of them.

“And it just sort of made me laugh when I read it because I was like, ‘Well, what would make him crazier than Watson is a woman? He’s actually living with someone who’s monitoring him who’s also a woman’. All of that said, our Holmes is not a gynophobe, he’s not a misogynist – it’s just sort of what got that ball rolling.

“I also was sort of up for the challenge. I knew it would be inevitable that people would be fascinated by the ‘will-they-won’t-they’ that would come up and I like that the question is there and it exists, but I also don’t feel any rush to… In fact, let me be blunt – I don’t want them to end up in bed together. That’s just not what the show is for.

“I don’t think that would be true to the spirit of the original relationship between the two characters, and that’s important to me. I’d like to show that a man and a woman can be friends and go to work and live together and not end up romantically entangled.”

Carl: “Robert often calls it a bromance, but one of the bros just happens to be a woman.

“I think it’s a really apt description because there’s this idea that a man and woman can’t be together – on a show, especially – without needing to be together sexually or in love or whatever. And this is really just about the evolution of a friendship and how that happens. Watching that should be as much the story of this show as the mystery you see week in, week out about who killed who.

“You know, we love that and those stories will be great, but the mystery of this relationship and how the friendship comes into being, that should be something that draws people in too.”

Obviously there will be comparisons to the BBC’s Sherlock
Carl: “We think it’s fantastic.”

Robert: “It’s an incredible show. I have nothing but the highest regard for that show and Steven as a writer. I think sometimes we catch flak because we are a contemporised Sherlock. Sherlock has been contemporised dating back to the ’40s. There were movies with Basil Rathbone set in the Victorian era and then suddenly there were movies with Basil Rathbone in World War II where they’re fighting Nazis, so the idea’s been around a long time.

Sherlock has done it extremely well – I think it’s a brilliant show. I’ve only seen the first series but I hear the second series is just as excellent. But as far as taking from the show, I just don’t think that’s true. Because he exists mostly in the public domain, many hands have handled Sherlock over the years.

“He’s been everywhere – he’s been to the future, he’s been to the past, I’ve seen him in comics, I’ve seen him in books, I’ve seen many, many, many different takes and interpretations of the character and the franchise. They’re all great. I don’t think any of them hurt any of the others. Sherlock the character has big shoulders and I think he can carry all of us.”

Answers from additional questions suggested a couple of ways in which Elementary might differ from Sherlock. They do not plan to update original Sherlock Holmes stories as has been done on Sherlock. Mycroft will probably wind up on the show eventually, but not initially. Sherlock’s father will probably appear first.

Benedict Cumberbatch expressed these views on Elementary:

“If I were the [producer], I’d be frightened of the dynamic of male friendship that you’d lose,” he confesses to TVLine, “because that is obviously the bedrock of the books as well. [Now] there might be sexual tension between Joan [Holmes] and Sherlock, which is [a different dynamic than you’d have] between the two men. So, that’s a new thing to explore.”

And not necessarily a bad thing to explore. Cumberbatch – who is friends with Miller and even appeared opposite him in the UK stage production of Frankenstein – believes the world is big enough for multiple interpretations of Sherlock. (And, having seen the jolly good pilot, I’m inclined to agree.) “I wish them luck, I really do,” the actor insists. “I think it will be great. It will be a different spin on it, because obviously, theirs is modern-day as well, so it needs to be different from ours, and I think the more differences, the better, to be honest.

“I don’t see why they shouldn’t co-exist with us,” he adds, “I don’t think they’ll steal our audience. I think people who are Holmes fans who think they do a good job of it will have a treat in watching ours and the films. So I wish them good luck!”

I’m not exactly sure what a television show set in the Avenger’s universe but without the superheroes would be like, but such a show is being considered:

After scoring huge at the box office with its Avengers movie, Marvel is looking to explore the mythology on the small screen too. I’ve learned that Marvel’s TV division is in conversation with ABC and ABC Studios about doing a drama series in the Avengers world. I hear that the connection to the Avengers franchise would be light as the project is expected to be set in the universe and feature some of its themes and feel, but may not include any characters from Joss Whedon’s blockbuster. I hear the project is in a nascent stage, described as “a kernel of an idea,” with a number of scenarios being explored, including a high-concept cop show. Marvel has already given the Avengers the animated treatment with Disney XD’s The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes and the upcoming Avengers Assemble.

Establishing a primetime foothold has been a priority for Disney-owned Marvel. The company has developed several projects for ABC Studios over the last couple of years, one of which, a Hulk series, is still in the works. Search is under way for a new writer to pen the project.

Perhaps they could start with repairing all the damage to New York. Actually I stayed on Park Avenue in New York last weekend for the first time since the damage depicted in the movie and everything seems to have been restored. I did pass a couple of shawarma restaurants, but no sign of any superheroes.

The above trailer has been released for the fifth season of Merlin. The show was originally envisioned as running for five seasons but now there is talk of extending to a sixth season, along with a movie.

William Shatner’s new documentary Get A Life! premiers this weekend on Epix. Trekmovie.com has a review.


A reboot of Blake’s 7 is in the works, directed by Martin Campbell (Casino Royal). A reboot makes the most sense considering how much time has gone by and how the original ended, but I’d love to see them try to continue the series from the point of the finale of the original series.  The opening to the original series is above.

Amy Sherman-Palladino was interviewed by Deadline Hollywood about her new show, Bunheads, and inevitably Gilmore Girls came up. No word on her planned final four words for the series and she is quite pessimistic about the chances of a Gilmore Girls movie:

DEADLINE: Well, Gilmore Girls worked — until you left. Right now, Gilmore Girls is back in the news because journalists are comparing your departure to the situation at NBC’s Community, predicting that series won’t survive the ouster of creator Dan Harmon as showrunner. Can a series successfully outlive its creator?
SHERMAN-PALLADINO: I think certain shows can. Great shows like Cheers went on and on after the original guys left, but you have to be able to train people in the style. I think procedurals can go on because you are doing cases. When a show is about a singular voice or a singular relationship, I think it’s a lot harder. When you’ve got the guy who basically was Community, and you get rid of him in year four, I don’t understand that position. You either keep the guy for a fourth season, or maybe you just don’t pick it up. I don’t know Dan Harmon; some people say terrible things about him. I don’t know, maybe he is Lucifer. But if we based everything in Hollywood on who was a nice guy, holy moly, we would have no movies. No actors would work. This is not an industry that is ruled by kindness and generosity. But maybe Community will be a fucking phenomenon this year, who knows? I didn’t watch Community, I don’t have a dog in this race, but all the things I read about it just felt weird.

DEADLINE: Was the end of Gilmore Girls inevitable after you left?
SHERMAN-PALLADINO: Gilmore was tough and the cast was tired. It was a hard show, and I think that once I left there were pressures to do it cheaper, to really streamline it, to do things that they could not get me to do. But there are practicalities. If you are new, and they are telling you to do something and you would like to remain in your job, you need to do that. I think Gilmore Girls could have gone on another couple-three years. I was sad the way it went down and I don’t think it had to go down that way. But I don’t control the business, although I would like to. It was a great and wonderful experience, and I was lucky to have it.

DEADLINE: Sounds like that’s TV.
SHERMAN-PALLADINO: It is TV. If I had any other transferrable skills, any other way to make a car payment, I would do it. It’s the one thing I can do. You talk to people and they say, the business is changing and it sucks and it’s awful. Well OK, but what’s my option? This is it. It may suck, it may be awful, but you’ve got to just keep going.

DEADLINE: Any chance of a Gilmore Girls movie?
SHERMAN-PALLADINO: I thought so for a long time, I was into it, Lauren [star Lauren Graham] was into it, but the studio just does not seem to want to discuss it, so I’m thinking it probably won’t happen. She and I were totally there, we were game, I had stories, I had a way that I thought would have worked for fans and non-fans alike, but Warner Bros right now is not interested in doing that kind of movie.

SciFi Weekend: Doctor Who; Sherlock; The Newsroom; Downton Abbey; Three Breasted Prostitute; Superman; Harry Potter Ten Years Later

Here’s more Doctor Who news from Comic Com and elsewhere since last week’s report. Above is video of an interview with Steven Moffat and Caroline Skinner. Den of Geek has posted a selection of comments from various interviews with them along with the cast:

On how much of a plot arc there will be in series 7:

Steven Moffat: “There’ll be something going on, yes. Last time we went for a very big arc, this is a much more lightly sketched one this time, but there is something yeah, to reward the one who watches it every week.”

Will the series 7 story arc continue between the two chunks of episodes?

SM: “There’s obviously the story of the Doctor saying goodbye to the Ponds and there’s obviously him saying hello to someone else, but wait and see, wait and see how we do that. I can’t say something else without giving everything away.”

On how Amy and Rory will re-join the show:

SM: “What you’ve seen is them leave the TARDIS. What you’ve seen is a decision, ‘let’s go and get on with our lives’. It’s not that they then move back in as it were, it’s a continued relationship with the Doctor. Something that’s always intrigued me about the Doctor, certainly in the old series you know, someone would leave the TARDIS and he’d never see them again, I mean, who does that? You’d go and visit.”

On Asylum of the Daleks:

SM: “You’ll be seeing more generations of Daleks than you’ve ever seen before”

Matt Smith: “My favourite Dalek is one from, I think it was the Troughton era, the sort of blue and white one. We had to draw in every Dalek that had ever been made around the world so we could fill a room full of Daleks, and it was sort of incredible. I think we’ve made them scary again in a way that perhaps we didn’t achieve in my first season, and that’s really exciting.”

Arthur Darvill: “They’re really, really scary in this one. They’re really, genuinely, brilliantly scary. That is such a great episode.”

Karen Gillan:Asylum of the Daleks is such a great episode. And then we have four more, we have five, epic, movie-style episodes and we’re going to leave in the fifth one.”

On how the new companion changes the show’s dynamic:

SM: “It does, and in some ways having a new companion about is the biggest change, bigger than even changing the Doctor. It’s always about how their life is changed because of that, so yes, it does give a new dynamic, it’s brilliant and brings out a very new side to him, pretty much a different Doctor really.”

MS: “The show remains the show. The Doctors come and go, the companions come and go, that’s the nature of the beast, that is what happens. By its very nature it’s a show that regenerates itself so you’ve got to move with that and you’ve got to go with the times. Of course we will miss Karen and Arthur, they’re great friends of mine, but Jenna’s doing a wonderful job, she’s a wonderful actress, very dedicated and I think Steven’s writing her in a very interesting way, in a very different way to Amy Pond.”

On the thinking behind the Doctor’s new costume:

SM: “Well that is plot-driven, so the reason is… he goes through stuff.”

Caroline Skinner: “It kind of just works, you’ll see next year.”

MS: “Weirdly enough, when I started I always wanted a sort of purple-y coat, but they felt it was too much like the Joker, and I liked it being a bit longer to the leg. It’s still tweed. I always thought that the costume would evolve year after year. I’m absolutely part of those conversations, we have a wonderful costume designer who comes in and does great work, you know, different hats every year, it’s fun to keep it moving.”

On plans for the 50th anniversary episode:

SM: “We know what we’re doing, but we’ll tell you when the time is right. Every time when you sit down in meetings about the next episode of Doctor Who, it’s the same size of challenge, because they’re always different, they’re always huge. So we set ourselves the task of never making an ordinary episode, they all have to be exceptional.”

On the rumoured big-screen Doctor Who movie:

MS: “I don’t know. There’s talk of it. I think David Yates was attached to do something. For my money, whoever is playing the Doctor should be in the movie. I don’t think there should be two Doctors. I think it would take four or five years to get something like that off the ground, and I don’t anticipate that I’ll be playing the Doctor then. […] I think they should get Steven to write it because he’s the best.”

The video above has more from Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill. The two also say the Weeping Angels have become even more scary.

Sci-Fi Storm reports that Moffat might reveal the Doctor’s real name:

At Comic-Con he said of the Doctor, “He never gives his name. Other Time Lords do, but he doesn’t. Clearly the question is tremendously important… And only I know why! We actually find out the truth.” When pressed on whether he really knew the Doctor’s name, he said, “Yes… You’ll see.”

 

Here’s a gadget I can’t wait to buy–a television universal remote in the form of the Sonic Screwdriver.

The cast of Elementary commented on the comparisons to Sherlock.

Aaron Sorkin is replacing most of the writing staff for the second season of The Newsroom.

It was obvious by the end of last season that Emily’s mother would surface on Revenge. The character has been cast–to be played by Jennifer Jason Leigh.

News on Season 3 of Downton Abbey:

THE TIMES THEY ARE A-CHANGIN’ | A rather revealing trailer – which was met with excitement and audible gasps by the assembled press – proved that the Season 2 finale’s respite of happiness will be short-lived. Major financial woes will plague the Earl of Grantham and his family – Maggie Smith’s Countess remarks that an aristocrat with no money is as useful as a glass hammer – while Mary and Matthew are in the midst of wedding planning. But will the big celebration actually take place? The two are already arguing. Elsewhere, a new footman enters the downstairs world and former chauffeur Branson (now the husband of Lady Sybil) elicits some strong reactions at a family dinner. Plus, one of his old cohorts doesn’t want to dress him!

A WHOLE NEW WORLD | “This season is about the recovery from the war,” previewed creator Julian Fellowes. “There were those few years where people were trying to decide [if] the world was going to go back? Is it going to be the same as it was before? Was the future going to be completely different? That’s the theme of the [season].”

CORA THE EXPLORER | One person on the grand estate is more prepared for the changing world coming in Season 3 than any other. The introduction of Cora’s mother, Martha (played by Shirley MacLaine), “reminds us that Cora’s upbringing was not the same as Robert’s,” explained Fellowes. “Cora is less afraid of the future than Robert is. She’s much less afraid of change. She’s less afraid of expressing that. … If anyone understands the world that’s coming, it’s Cora.”

GREAT DAMES | MacLaine admitted that she was not a fan of the show before she was cast. But she overhead the hairdressers at her Malibu salon chatting away about it and went to them for scoop on Martha. Joining the series “was an extraordinary experience for me in stamina and work ethic,” she said, recalling long shoots in the rain and wind while wearing her formal attire. As for whether she and Dame Maggie Smith – whose characters went head-to-head with pointed barbs in the sneak peek – knew each other before the show, the actress joked, “We were lovers in another life.”

WELCOME TO AMERICA | Now that Mary’s decided to brave it out in England, the show will not be traveling across the pond. Instead, “we have chosen the other route and brought America to us [with MacLaine’s character],” said Fellowes.

SEE YOU NEXT DECADE? | Don’t look for Downton to jump to the 1930s anytime soon. Fellowes intends to continue “moving pretty slowly through the 1920s” because he finds the transitional period “very interesting.” For one, it allows him to explore major events of the time such as “the impact on this family [by] the Irish problems.” So where will it all wrap up? “We could end with the Wall Street crash and have Robert playing the ukelele,” joked the creator.

The three-breasted hooker from Total Recall remains in the remake, and she was seen at Comic Com, played by Kaitlyn Leeb.

Two Man of Steel trailers can be seen here.

Wonder what happened after the events of the Harry Potter books and not satisfied with the epilogue? Check out the first installment of the web series, Harry Potter And The Ten Years Later.

SciFi Weekend Part II: More News from San Diago Comic Con

Above is the Season Five Trailer for Fringe, which begins immediately after the events in last season’s episode, Letters of Transit. Here is more on the Fringe Panel:

It’s official: Season Five will take place in the future we saw in the episode “Letters of Transit,” where the Observers have taken over and the Fringe team, after being encased in amber for 20 years, is freed by Henrietta “Etta” Bishop, Peter and Olivia’s daughter (played by Georgina Haig) and Simon Foster (Henry Ian Cusick). We saw the proof-of-concept reel that the production team made as a pitch to the network, featuring the Fringe team, Leonard Nimoy’s William Bell, our new FBI agents, and plenty of Observers. Walter delights in firing some futuristic weapons; Olivia says that Etta is “Everything I ever hoped for;” Peter says, “Let’s create some Fringe events of our own.” At one point, Walter, looking up from his research in a much more brightly lit lab than we’re used to seeing, says, “I know how to get rid of the Observers.” At the end of the reel, Walter sets, and an Observer happens upon, what appears to be an antimatter bomb.

Executive producer J. H. Wyman revealed that Season Five picks up the day after “Letters in Transit.” We’ll learn much more about the Observers, who may not be as bad as we think. When asked if we’ll see any female Observers this season, Wyman replied that we’ll get the answer to that question fairly early on, and “the reason will become apparent.” He also announced that an Observer book is in the works, exploring the series from September’s point of view. We’ll learn about his feelings and views on the characters, and we may be surprised.

The actors spent much of the panel reflecting on the last four seasons. Jasika Nicole expressed immense relief that her character hasn’t been killed off, a fate she’s feared from the beginning. Anna Torv became teary-eyed when describing her favorite scenes in the series, Nicole’s performance in “Making Angels.” Lance Reddick actually became so choked up as he discussed Astrid’s conversation with her alt-universe version before returning home to her father that he almost couldn’t describe it. Joshua Jackson took a different tack when describing his favorite moment, a scene in “Snakehead” where Walter pulls a long, wormy creature from a body. The effects were so convincing that Jackson hadn’t realized the body was a mockup and not a real person, and nearly lost his lunch during the initial take.

The cast also spoke about the possibility of a Fringe movie. #fiveseasonsandamovie

The Doctor Who panel is above. For those just looking for Karen Gillan’s Dalek inpression, the clip is below:

More information on the Doctor Who panel here and here.

News on True Blood here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ben Kingsley is playing the Mandarin in Iron Man 3.  More on Iron Man here. Release date is May 3, 2013.  The title of  Thor 2 will be Thor: The Dark World with a planned release date of November 8, 2013. Captain America 2 will be titled Captain America: The Winter Soldier, suggesting Bucky will be brought back. Target date for release is April 4, 2014.

Notes from the Batman panel can be found here.

NPR’s Weekend Edition gives an audio tour of Comic Con here.

Earlier news from Comic Con can be found here.

SciFi Weekend: News From San Diago Comic Con

The best news so far out of Comic Con is that there is hope that NBC won’t force the new show runners to destroy Community after firing Dan Harmon. Here’s good news from David Guarascio and Moses Port:

“Listen, a couple of months ago, we were a lot like most of you, just huge fans of the show who thought it was one of the most special things on television,” Guarascio said. “The only thing we care about is keeping it this weird, wonderful gem … That’s not gonna change.”

“Like no other show, the fans influence what [gets on the show],” he continued. “So, thank you, it’s been a beacon.”

Added Port: “It’s not us coming in and taking it on by ourselves. It’s the best cast on television.” “We could be really, really crappy and this would still be a great show,” Guarascio said.

To that end, here’s what the pair has already planned for Community’s fourth season: a visit to Pierce’s mansion (“We’ll get to see the twisted world where he lives,” Guarascio said), a trip to the Inspector Space Time convention, and, yes, more inventive animation is on the way.

As for graduation? It will definitely happen, and it will definitely be emotional. “We’ll explore some new relationships, some real significant relationships. One might involve the dean and Jeff,” Guarascio said. “And the show will keep going, even if they’re not all at the school at the same time. They’ve become this real family that will exist no matter what happens.”

Inspector Space Time convention? It still sucks that Harmon got fired, but I am certainly interested in seeing the upcoming season. #sixseasonsandamovie

More on Community from IO9:

Then, all our suspicions about the show were confirmed when executive producer Russ Krasnoff said, “When Dan Harmson first talked to us about a show, he pitched time travelers and aliens from space, and then this one . . . but we didn’t know he would put it all in Community.” So even the execs have figured out that Community is basically a science fiction show.

McHale also dropped a hint about his father. “Eddie Murphy will be playing Jeff’s father,” he joked. “Pluto Nash himself.” Was he joking? You never know.

A gag reel is posted here.

There’s a lot of couples news regarding The Big Bang Theory:

Howard and Bernadette
Astronaut Howard “Fruit Loops” Wolowitz will spend the first few episodes in space, exec producer Bill Prady says, noting that his living arrangements with new bride Bernadette will come up relatively quickly upon his return to Earth. “All of those things that we thought might happen at the end of Season 5 are happening in Season 6,” he says. Exec producer Steve Molaro noted that the issue — whether the couple will continue to live at home with the nagging Mrs. Wolowitz or find a place of their own — won’t be resolved quickly. “He’s torn between two really powerful, strong women who both adore him,” Prady says, noting that he doesn’t want to disappoint his mother or let his new bride down. Says Helberg: “He’s going to piss someone off a lot, whether it’s his wife or his mother. He’s got growing up to do. … Either way there’s going to be someone yelling at him from another room.”

As for his outer space experience, it won’t all be smooth sailing for the Mama’s Boy. “Howard learns that even though he makes it all the way to space, all the issues of life that plague him won’t stay on Earth and have a way of following him all the way up to the space station,” Molaro warns. Meanwhile, Helberg notes that Howard will encounter some rough space travels as he’ll bear the brunt of the jokes on his mission — both from his fellow astronauts as well as from home. In terms of what will happen once he does return home? Expect a boosted ego from the former leader of the wolf pack. “I don’t think he’s going to burry [that he was in space] and it sounds like he’s going to be bullied in space,” Helberg says. “He’s definitely going to hype [having gone to space] … he’s going to wear the NASA shirt to take the trash out.”

So could kids be something that comes next for the new Mr. and Mrs. Wolowitz? Melissa Rauch said the union could make for some noisy offspring. “With the vocal tone of Bernadette and the Wolowitz family, that baby’s cry would break glass,” she said with a laugh.

Leonard and Penny
“They have a complicated road,” Prady warns of what’s to come for the fan-favorite couple following Leonard’s spur-of-the-moment proposal. “If Sheldon and Amy’s relationship is baffling and Howard and Bernadette’s is traditional, Leonard and Penny’s is rocky,” he says. “They adore each other as people and friends and it keeps drawing them together and when they get together, they keep being unsure how to proceed there.” Adds Cuoco: “I hope down the line, at the end of the show, that they’re together but right now it’s probably not right.”

For his part, Galecki says timing continues to be a problem for Leonard, with Penny facing an entirely different issue. “I don’t know that emotional maturity is Penny’s strong suit right now; she seems to run away right now to any kind of proposal — like when Leonard professed his love for her and she shut it down,” he notes.

Sheldon and Amy
“A lot of the Sheldon-Amy relationship has to revolve around Sheldon, so in terms of [their relationship] expanding, that has to foster from Sheldon; whether that means he’ll learn new things about himself, learn new limits to his boundaries or new boundaries, it’s unclear. But I love the sparring that Amy and Sheldon have and the non-romantic elements of their relationship,” Bialik. “There’s never been any mention of Amy’s attractiveness — or lack of attractiveness — to him; he likes her as she is, it’s irrelevant to him and he’s truly in love with her mind.”

Raj, the Odd Man Out
Executive producer Chuck Lorre teased that there would be a new romance for Raj during Friday’s Comic-Con panel in Hall H, but that was news to his portrayer, Kunal Nayyar. “That was the first time I heard it at the panel,” he told THR. “He did say, ‘Excited to see it,’ so I don’t know if it is the person or thing he’s going to fall in love with or the actual relationship.” Raj always used Howard as his crutch and he’s going to have to lean on something, so whether he actually goes out there and risks his heart on some love, we’ll see. As for who he’d like to see as his potential love interest, it’s a short list: former Big Bang Theory guest stars Danica McKellar and Summer Glau or any “geek icon” since “Mayim Bialik is taken,” he joked.

More from the Big Bang panel here.

No confirmation from the BBC yet, but Matt Smith said at ComicCon today that Doctor Who will resume airing in August. A Doctor Who cast interviews can be seen above, the second interview conducted by John Barrowman.

Karen Gillan will be staring in a horror film named Oculus:

The plot begins 10 years after a horrifying family incident left two young children orphans. Although authorities charged the brother with murder, his sister, Kaylie, believed that the true culprit was a haunted antique mirror. Now rehabilitated and in his 20s, the brother is ready to move on but Kaylie is determined to prove that the mirror was responsible for destroying their family.

Last week we learned that Diana Rigg will be appearing in Doctor Who. She is also to have a role in Game of Thrones. She play Olenna Redwyne, the Queen of Thorns, the grandmother of Margaery Tyrell. More on the Game of Thrones panel here.

News on Dexter which returns September 30:

“New” Big Bad: Another Trinity killer is on the loose! Not exactly. In Season 7, Dexter is stalking a killer who “ritually murders on New Year’s Eve.” Whatever happened to resolutions like joining the gym?

A Little Help From a Friend: Strahovski is guesting as Hannah McKay, “a woman of mystery with a dark past,” explained the beautiful Aussie actress explained. “She meets Dexter and helps him with an investigation in an old murder mystery” — presumably the NYE killer. “She’s not working with the police,” Strahovski clarified to Zap2it at a Showtime party following the panel. “This is why the role was so enticing to me. The last five years I’ve played a CIA agent on ‘Chuck — it’s the complete opposite.”

No Seconds Wasted: Season 7 picks up immediately from last year’s shocking finale: Deb discovering her brother murdering Travis (Colin Hanks). Dexter tries to justify it as an act of self-defense, but considering Travis is “wrapped in plastic on an altar,” he has some splaining to do to his incredulous sister.

Incest Is Best:[Why!!!!!!] Sorry, it doesn’t look like “Dexter” producers have any plans to course-correct the show’s new controversial storyline: Deb realizing she has romantic feelings for Dexter. “There was certainly a fascination that I thought Deb had with Dexter, so it didn’t feel like it was so bizarre to play that last season,” Carpenter reasoned, before adding, “I think him stabbing somebody trumps those thoughts.” [I hope so].

Daddy Dearest: Dexter’s son, Harrison, is still “in the picture” this season, Hall confirmed. (And “very cute,” Carpenter piped in.) Being a serial killer parent to a growing boy “becomes a dicier proposition every day,” said Hall. “As someone who is also Harrison’s guardian, Deb now has a sense of what she’s dealing with her brother that changes things as well. He has someone encouraging him to face what he is trying to pull off as a parent.

“Dexter’s powers of denial are pretty strong, but he would be hard pressed to really argue that being a serial killer is an ideal hobby for a parent,” Hall concluded drily.

Neil Gaiman announced he is doing a Sandman prequel in the video above:

Twenty-five years after The Sandman, Neil Gaiman’s critically acclaimed series of graphic novels, first appeared, the award-winning author is returning to the books that helped make his name.

The very first Sandman comic, published in 1988, tells the story of how Morpheus, or Dream, is captured and imprisoned by an occultist. Gaiman stopped writing the popular and award-winning books more than 10 years ago, but announced yesterday at San Diego Comic-Con that, in 2013, a new mini-series will tell the story of Morpheus before he was captured. JH Williams, who has worked on Batwoman and Promethea, will illustrate the new stories, which will be published by DC Comics’ imprint Vertigo.

“When I finished writing The Sandman, there was one tale still untold – the story of what had happened to Morpheus to allow him to be so easily captured in The Sandman No 1, and why he was returned from far away, exhausted beyond imagining, and dressed for war. It was a story that we discussed telling for Sandman’s 20th anniversary … but the time got away from us. And now, with Sandman’s 25th anniversary year coming up, I’m delighted, and nervous, that that story is finally going to be told,” said Gaiman.

The producers of Elementary defended the decision to make Watson a woman. (No way the show will be as good as Sherlock.)

Joss Wheden is uncertain as to whether he will return for the sequel to The Avengers. More from the Firefly panel here. More on Marvel super hero movies here. Iron-Man news here. A movie is also to be made of –info here.

Footage shown from Man of Steel shows a more alienated Superman.

Bad things are still happening in Storybrook even after the curse was broken. Once Upon a Time season 2 preview above. Information from the panel here.

Person of Interest has big plans for Amy Acker.

More to come on Sunday–update here.

SciFi Weekend: Torchwood, Merlin, Hot Actresses Dig Star Trek, Rumors Karen Gillan Leaving Doctor Who, Sex and the City

 Torchwood: Miracle Day episode 6, The Middlemen, showed the aftermath of Vera’s incineration. The episode also  explored the conspiracy behind the miracle without providing any answers. Jack encountered a PhiCorp  executive who was suspicious but knew very little. He’s only a middleman in the whole matter.  One reason he didn’t know much was that an investigator he sent out wound up leaping from a building to create permanent unconsciousness–the closest thing left to suicide. The conclusion of the episode put Gwen in a situation where she had to betray Jack to save her family, with the U.K. preview of episode 7 , Immortal Sins, above. Rumors has it that the seventh episode starts to reveal what is going on.

There have been complaints in the U.K. about the Americanization of Torchwood. John Barrowman says the show is still true to its British roots:

“Yes, it’s a bit more glossy. We have other actors in it. We’re filming over there so we have to have other American actors in it. But it’s still 100% core, the heart of it is still British,” he told the Daily Star.

“It’s now partly made in America and partly made in the UK. Throughout the entire series we always return to Wales or some place in the UK. Anyone can turn it on and know exactly that they’re watching Torchwood.”

“The global success… I’m just as bowled over by it as everybody else.”

He added: “I’m never going to give up the roots and the core that I have in the UK. UK’s home. This is where I got the start, this is where my doors were opened. And I’ll never turn my back on it.”

Merlin has been picked up for a fifth season, with the fourth to air on the BBC this fall, and later in the United States. In the upcoming season, Arthur will be taking a leading role in place of Uther.  Here are some additional spoilers as to season 4:

-We can expect series 4 to be darker and to see the return of Excalibur.

-New series of Merlin looks great! Much darker, lots of action and a hint of the sword in the stone!.

-With Uther a broken man, Prince Arthur has the emotional dilemma of either taking charge or waiting for his father to recover.

-Uther is a brokem man this series. This leaves a power vaccum in camelot which leaves arthur with a choice .

-Knights are proper knights now, Morgana looking after an injured Morgose, The return of “old Merlin”, lots of sword fights!.

-We’ll see a lot more from Arthur’s knights as their characters are explored.

-The creator said they have a specific mythiological end point for s5 which they have always been working toward.

The very last shot of series 4 has been filmed already (plenty of scenes to be filmed yet though.

While some authors have been trying to keep them off the internet, spoilers are not necessarily bad.  The BBC reports on a study which showed that knowing the ending of a book can enhance enjoyment as opposed to ruining it. The experience would often be different, but not necessarily better or worse. Instead of reading a mystery trying to figure out who did it, readers instead might instead enjoy watching to see how the author gets to the ending they know is going to happen. Rather than worrying about spoilers leaking out on the internet, it would make more sense to encourage web sites to clearly label major spoilers to enable the reader to decide whether or not they want to know the ending.

It looks like hot actresses dig Star Trek. Karen Gillan recently said she is a Trekie during an interview at the San Diego Comic Con. Now Olivia Wilde says she’d do anything to be in a Star Trek movie:

While promoting her latest film Cowboys & Aliens, actress Olivia Wilde professed that she would be willing to paint herself outlandish colours to star in Star Trek XII.

“[Paint myself] green? That’s fine, I’ll do anything!” Olivia laughed to Cover Media.

Olivia grew up watching sci-fi television and films and finds the characters very inspiring.

“I grew up watching Star Trek with my family,” Olivia recounted. “There have been great female characters in Trek over the years.”

“Captain Kathryn Janeway, she did it well,” Olivia explained. “She’s got that voice I could never compete with.”

Karen Gillan also stated during Comic Con that she will be returning to Doctor Who next season but now there rumors that she will be leaving at the end of this season.

SyFy has cancelled Eurkea.

Sex And The City was  an enjoyable television show on HBO, but the movies have been rather lame.  I think they are figuring that out. Sarah Jessica Parker might produce a new television series (with new cast) before going ahead with a third movie.

SciFi Weekend: Torchwood, Fringe, Catwoman, Cowboys and Aliens, Banned SF, Friday Night Lights, Big Bang Theory, Community

This week’s episode of Torchwood: Miracle Day, The Categories of Life,  has a new twist on death panels, taken from Nazi Germany. The episode speeds up the pacing of the series, but I want to reserve judgment how this plays into the full series until it has completed. I did have a couple of nitpicks about this week’s villain, Colin Maloney. He turned to quickly from one-dimensional buffoon to one-dimension villain, and it is not believable that he would be so shocked by a female physician. (The UK trailer for the episode is above).

Peter Olivia Walter Fringe

John Noble has some teasers on the upcoming season of Fringe and what happened to Peter Bishop:

“Because we finished off with the season so powerfully what you’ll see now is thread in through a mini arc of four episodes,” explained John Noble during a one-on-one with the the TV Addict in Los Angeles. “We thread in the feeling, the presence of and finally the manifestation of Peter.”

And while it probably won’t come as much of a surprise that Peter does in fact return, (Joked Noble, “Josh [Jackson] is our leading man of course he does [return!]“) what sure as heck will is that Peter’s reappearance may not mark the return of the Peter fans (Not to mention the two Olivias!) have come to know and love over the course of the past three seasons.

“What we do is find a way to bring Peter back in…. but not in the way he was before,” revealed Noble. “It’s grand for Josh because it gives him a chance to finally do another version of himself, which he hasn’t had before. So it’s a great pay off for Josh and it means that we get to rebuild somehow in a different way.”

But just how different will be Peter Bishop 2.0 (Peternate?) be? Noble, not surprisingly, was playing coy. To the point that the only thing he would tease is that the start of FRINGE’s fourth season will be eerily familiar to fans of the show who has stuck with it since day one.

“That wonderful humanizing element that we’ve had in FRINGE of Walter and Peter getting to know and love each other again and build up their relationship… we start the season without that,” said Noble. “”[When the season starts] Walter is still in the lab but he’s quite insane, agoraphobic, obsessive compulsive and under the guardianship of Olivia and Astrid. He’s just locked in and won’t go out of the lab, so that’s an interesting restart from my point of view.”

The first pictures have been released of Anne Hathaway as Catwoman.

Olivia Wilde discussed her dirty scenes in Cowboys and Aliens.

The Republic, Missouri school board has banned Slaughterhouse Five because “they teach principles contrary to the Bible.”

As for the modern classic Slaughterhouse Five, the book is no stranger to censorship. One of the first literary acknowledgments that homosexual men, or “fairies” in the novel, were victims in the Holocaust, school classrooms and libraries frequently ban the book for its use of profanity and depictions of sex. The Supreme Court actually considered the First Amendment implications of the removal of this book, among others, from libraries in the 1982 case Island Tree School District v. Pico. The Court’s plurality concluded that “local school boards may not remove books from school library shelves simply because they dislike the ideas contained in those books and seek by their removal to ‘prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion.’” Minor’s reason for removing the novel? “The language is just really, really intense…I don’t think it has any place in high school…I’m not saying it’s a bad book.”

It looks like there really is a chance of a Friday Night Lights movie, taking place after the conclusion of the final season of the television show. I’m still waiting for the Veronica Mars and Gilmore Girls movies which were discussed after those shows ended.

The two Thursday night genre comedies were both represented at the San Diego Comic Con two weeks ago. Above is an interview with the cast of The Big Bang Theory.During the shows panel,  Bill Prady  said that they will resolve the situation between Raj and Penny and explained that the show is not really a show about nerds:

“We’re not doing a show about nerd culture. We’re doing a show about people we liked,” he said.

“About extraordinary people,” fellow co-creator Chuck Lorre said.

More exchanges, including a terrific question about Sheldon:

Of course, a fan asked when Sheldon will lose his virginity, but asked in a great way: “When is Sheldon going to go through Pon farr?” (For the non-Trek oriented, this is when a Vulcan basically goes into heat.)

“Sheldon seems singularly devoted to science — only time will tell,” Prady says.

On the difference between Sheldon and Amy’s characters, Prady says: “Amy’s game. She wants to have the experiences she hasn’t had — and some of them burn between her loins.”

Parsons says his character’s famous Rock, Paper, Scissors, Lizard, Spock scene took the most takes of any scene he’s ever shot. “It nearly broke me as a man.”

There was also a lot of news about Community. Next season the cast will be taking Biology together. The stories will become more serialized. There will be more themed episodes, including one containing three different time lines. The vice-dean of Greendale’s air conditioning repair annex, played by John Goodman, will become an important and powerful character. Señor Chang will also return to a position of authority.

SciFi Weekend: More From San Diego Comic Con

This week and last week, instead of a single weekend post, there have been a series of posts with news and clips from San Diego Comic Con. Here are the posts so far:

Torchwood: Miracle Day Comic Con Preview

Game of Thrones Panel

Unaired Scene from Lost

Cast interviews from Doctor Who and the big news that Karen Gillan says she will be returning for Season 7

Merlin Renewed For Fifth Season

Doctor Who: The Second Half of Season 6

Doctor Who Panel (Post also includes link to the interview in which Karen Gillan stated she will be returning for Season 7.)

Matt Smith and Karen Gillan on Craig Ferguson

Video of Karen Gillan on Craig Ferguson

Torchwood: Miracle Day Comic Con News & Episode 3 Comments Videos include the Torchwood Panel Discussion and a link to the sex scene shown in the U.S. on Starz but cut on BBC.

Craig Ferguson Interviews The Doctor

Fringe (And Peter Bishop) At SDCC

Dexter at San Diego Comic Con

The Thursday Night Genre Comedies: Big Bang Theory & Community

Dexter at San Diego Comic Con

Above is the Dexter panel at San Diego Comic Com.

Next season, Dexter will skip ahead so that he is beyond the death of Rita and beyond Lumen moving away. Entertainment Weekly has some more information on next season:

  • Dexter (Michael C. Hall) begins the season with worries that the apple won’t fall far from the tree when it comes to his son, Harrison. Will the little guy be a killer, too? “That’s a fundamental fear that Dexter has, that’s where he’s at,” Hall told the crowd. “He knows he doesn’t want his son to show those traits and he doesn’t want to encourage them. That’s a constant fear and consideration.”  That’s where religion comes in! “His son is only going to get older and more in need of guidance, and Dexter feels ill-equipped to provide that. As a result he is motivated to find ways to do that, including giving him spiritual grounding .. something that Dexter hasn’t cared about.” Executive Producer Sara Colleton would like to add to that. “Dexter knows what he doesn’t want to pass on to Harrison, so he starts this journey that snowballs into a huge evolved plot for the season. It’s initiated by his desire to define faith … which is by it very nature, undefinable. It’s done in true Dexter style so it’s a lot of fun.”
  • Mos Def showed up but unfortunately, didn’t tease much about his new character Brother Sam. Dang. However, he’s dang glad to be here! ”I’ve been a fan of the show since day one. I bought the DVDs. If I wasn’t here, I’d be out there asking the same questions. `What happened to Rita?’”
  • Colin Hanks, however, teased a little more about his new character, Travis. A little. ”I really can’t give away too much. We want to keep it a fun surprise. But the one thing I can say is you’re gonna see some stuff this season that you have not seen in previous seasons. It’s exciting and I may or may not be a part of that.
  • C.S. Lee said his character Masuka has some shenanigans in store. “Interns are coming up this year.  Women and men. He probably gets into some trouble with some interns.” What about a real romance? “We all know him as a flaming crotch but there are other signs to him,” Lee said. “You’ll see more this year this season.”
  • What’s next for you, Hall, when Dexter is over? (Don’t worry, fans: No one said anything about ending the show yet). “I didn’t know Dexter was in my future back when I was a funeral director,” he said. “Hopefully it will be something I can not quite imagine.”

They also posted a longer trailer for season six than the one that I previously posted:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsvGslI_KcM&feature=player_embedded

Fringe (And Peter Bishop) At SDCC


Above is the Fringe panel from last week’s San Diego Comic Com. The clip below was also released:

Joel Wyman has revealed on Twitter that the title for the first episode of season four of Fringe will be A Sort of Homecoming. I wonder if that refers to Peter in the teaser clip above.

Jeff Pinker and Joel Wyman also discussed Peter’s fate in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter:

Joshua Jackson joked to THR that he would like his alter ego to return to the cult sci-fi drama in a “flash of light,” when the time came. Wyman, however, wasn’t as giving. “You know, that is an assumption,” he replied when asked about how Peter would return to the series. “He will not be another identity.”

“For us, we are really using Peter’s story this season to explore a lot of the basic rules of the show, which are choices and connection,” Pinkner added.

But Wyman and Pinkner were adamant in dispelling any theories that questioned whether the events in the season finale actually happened.

“It really happened,” Wyman reassured. “What we are trying to do from a conceptual standpoint is have the audience understand that it happened and you know it did happen. We watched it and there has been a catastrophe and it needs to be righted. It will either right itself properly or it will go in a very negative way. Now you have to understand what those repercussions are going to mean.”

He added, “Peter sacrificed himself. He was a selfless hero. There are sacrifices; a sacrifice wouldn’t be hard if it was easy.”

Before they decided to go ahead with the finale, there were discussions about the events that unfolded that would affect the trajectory of the series.

“Before we decided to actually pull the trigger and do that season finale, we convinced ourselves that it happened and we were willing to play with consequences,” Pinkner said. “I think it ends up in a place that is really kind of beautiful.”


There was also a second teaser released. Plus below is an interview with Anna Torv: