TVSquad

Despite living in the U.S., I was able to catch the BBC Easter Special for Doctor Who titled "Planet of the Dead". My thoughts on it are as follows:

It wasn't the best special broadcast thus far (I enjoyed the 2008 Christmas special more), but it was on par with the better episodes of the show. The Doctor seems to fight two general categories of alien menaces: intentional threats or forces of nature (or the first taking advantage of the second). This was one of those "forces of nature" enemies (and I'm not referring to the fly-headed creatures seen in the previews).

The next Doctor Who special, "Planet of the Dead" will be airing on April 11th of this year, according to the BBC Press Office. The BBC website does list the air date as "unplaced"; however, Outpost Gallifrey is the source I've used for this news, and they've been pretty reliable in the past.

Is anybody else itching for the next Doctor Who special as much as I am? There hasn't been a new episode since December, and while I appreciate the need to give a franchise such as this a break, there's only so far reruns, comic books and audio dramas can go.

Of course, once the Easter special is done, it will be a long eight months until the three episodes that wrap up David Tennant's time in the role are broadcast. And who knows when the American broadcast will be. Perhaps Sy Fy will take the five episodes for this year and broadcast them as a mini-series like Torchwood: Children of Earth.

I wasn't a big fan of NBC's Bionic Woman remake. The best thing about it – besides Katee Sackhoff's guest turn – was star Michelle Ryan. The English actress not only looked the part, but her performance sometimes managed to make the show feel richer and more complex than it actually was. So I was happy to hear that she might play the new Doctor's companion on Doctor Who.

"Michelle's been in secret talks with BBC bosses," a source told the UK's Sunday Mirror. "They are likely to announce her as Doctor Who's new assistant very soon. She is perfect for the role. She is good looking and the right age to star alongside Matt (Smith). Everyone agrees they look great together and reckon fans will think they're the perfect team, too."

When Keith and I were discussing some of the awards that we were going to do for the TV Squad Awards, we initially thought that doing an award about miscasting was going to get us a ton of nominees. Then we started thinking about it, and we couldn't come up with too many names off the tops of our heads. It seemed like our readers were equally flummoxed, as our call for considerations got less nominees than many of the other categories. I guess casting directors and producers are doing a much better job these days, since it seems like Elizabeth Röhm-esque casting disasters are happening less often.

But some names did emerge, which I'll list after the jump. The Squadders will choose the winner, and you'll get a chance to select the Readers' Choice for this award in the poll at the end of the list. So, here are the four people whose casting made us wonder just what the heck people in Hollywood are thinking:

We've been discussing this a lot lately, the fate of NBC's Bionic Woman. There were rumors flying around during the writers strike that it had been canceled, then I heard from someone on the show that it had indeed been canceled, and then Joel reported that it was probably canceled. but there was never any "official" word from the network about whether it was coming back or not.

There still isn't.

However, I think we can take the word of the show's executive producer David Eick, who says that the show is gone. He tells Wired.com that even though he though Michelle Ryan was wonderful (*cough cough*), he thought "the process was frustrating" and they "just didn't bring it all together like we did with Battlestar." He even makes a point of saying that "some" of the writing was good, which means he knows that some of the writing was bad too.

In the least surprising news I've seen all week, the British tabloid Daily Mail is reporting that NBC's Bionic Woman will be canceled, "barring a last-minute miracle." The Mail's "source" tells the tab that star Michelle Ryan has returned to England "because the writing was on the wall," and is "defeated and depressed" that things didn't work out. Their source also claims that NBC Universal is pinning the blame for the show's failure on Ryan: "Their bet was that American viewers would fall in love with her looks, personality, and the character she played."

Gee, you think this "source" was a friend of Ryan's? Anyway, given the fact that a) this news hasn't shown up in any of the trades, like Variety and The Hollywood Reporter (UPDATE: this article in Variety says that the show is "probably canceled," which isn't that definitive, either), and b) the British tabs never let the truth get in the way of a juicy story, you have to take this news with a whole shaker of salt. Still, it's not like people were clamoring to see Bionic Woman return after the writers' strike. So, I'm sure it's just a matter of time before Ben Silverman and the folks at NBC make this cancellation official.

We've been talking about NBC's Bionic Woman every week this season. How the show "has potential" and is "entertaining," while at the same time I think we can all agree it's really disappointing, has been all over the place, and has a lead that has the personality of the flashlight that is currently on my desk. What went wrong?

Brian Stelter over at The New York Times TV Decoder blog has a rundown on what happened to the show, from the pre-launch hype to how the numbers dropped so badly that NBC even took the repeat off of Saturday nights and replaced it with a repeat of Chuck.

(S01E08) Jaime: "Antonio used to say 'a briefcase is never really a briefcase.' "
Jonas: "Yeah, well, Antonio's dead."

I usually highlight a good, funny line of dialogue or exchange, but the above is so laughably bad I had to place it right at the top.

So let me get this straight: Jaime, who doesn't want her sister to know about her spy life because she doesn't want to put her life in danger, brings her along on an assignment to drop off a mysterious package to a mysterious stranger? Yeah, that's a good idea. And then she slips up and gives away info that the bad guy isn't supposed to know that she has, blowing her cover.

I believe I said this before, but I'll say it again: Jamie Sommers is the worst agent in the world.

(S01E07) "Would it kill you guys to put up a painting, a plant?" - Jaime, to Ruth, about the cold decor at HQ.

Jaime Sommers: Worst. Spy. Ever.

Seriously, I don't care how much money has gone into her, I'd fire her right now, send her back to bartending. She follows a bad guy with a suitcase and then gets distracted by a cell phone call from boyfriend Tom? She couldn't just not answer it or maybe tell him she'll call him back? What is she, 14? She's probably also mad that she's has to, like, totally work and everything, at the same time there's a new Gossip Girl on The CW!

(S01E06) "I bet you haven't seen a movie made before 1983." - Tom, to Jaime

Does anyone else think that Jaime is sort of dumb? I mean, she's hot and can fight and seems to be an OK spy-type person, but there doesn't seem to be anything else going on up there. If she wasn't a spy, she'd be back at the bar, banging random dudes and drinking a lot and arguing with her sister all the time. The above quote from Tom illustrates that. I bet she's not really interested in anything and seems rather dull to me. Or maybe it's just the way Michelle Ryan is playing her. Did I mention she's hot?

(S01E05) "How's your British accent?" - Jonas, to Jaime

So I'm curious: did they have Michelle Ryan use her real British accent in this episode as a funny, insider-ish sort of joke, or did she just get tired that week and not want to fake an American accent? Regardless, it brings up the question, why is Ryan even faking an American accent? Can't she just play a Brit who lives in America? When she kept using her "fake" British accent while talking to Nathan on the phone, I thought it was a really lame mistake. Thankfully they had Nathan ask her why she's faking it even on the phone with him. It's good they explained that, but still...

(S01E03) "$50 million and you didn't think we'd throw in a GPS?" - Jonas

OK, I have to admit it: with this episode Bionic Woman has me hooked for the long haul.

Where the first two episodes were way too heavy on the set up, this one was actually intriguing, lively, and jam-packed with witty lines. I'm actually beginning to think that the highlight of the show is Miguel Ferrer's Jonas character. Unlike Arvin Sloane over on Alias, Jonas is sarcastic and funny. And he's not the only one who had good dialogue in this episode. It's like the show was taken over by other writers or something after the first two episodes. The words were meatier, funnier.

(S01E02)"God you're a douche." - Jaime, to Jonas

Last week I mentioned that Bionic Woman had a lot of Alias in it, and the opening scenes of this second episode solidifies that viewpoint a little bit more, with Jaime's fiancee dead and her friends moving on with their lives ("I'm gonna to be a scumbag lawyer, you guys!") and Jaime stuck at a bartending job and feeling a little lost, a little unfulfilled.

Time to save the world!

He hasn't even made his debut on the show yet (he starts tonight at 8 on NBC), but Isaiah Washington says that NBC has already said they might want to spinoff his Bionic Woman character because "there's been some relative excitement about my presence."

First of all, who the hell talks like that about themselves? There's been excitement about his presence? Um, OK. Second, Washington is only slated to do five episodes so far, and I think that if NBC really thought he was great then they would want to sign him to a full-time contract on Bionic Woman before taking the chance of spinning him off on his own show.

(S01E01)"I guess that makes me your landlord." - Jonas Bledsoe, explaining to Jamie Sommers who he is and all the money he spent on her

Sometimes I really hate first episodes of TV shows. They have to have so much exposition and explain everything and set everything up so fast. In the first 15 minutes of Bionic Woman, the following occurs: we meet the evil killer bionic woman, who is killed by one of her cohorts after a rampage; we're introduced to Jamie and her job as a bartender; we meet her kid sister and see them argue about their absent father; we meet her boyfriend the professor/scientist; and we find out that Jamie is pregnant.