TVSquad

I haven't even gone to get my badge yet, where I hear from Cinematical that there's lots of goodies to have, and lookee here -- Sci Fi stuff! The fine folks over at Sci Fi Channel were nice enough to drop off a ginormous purple bag full of loot, like the Raider model above; t-shirts, breath mints, temporary tattoos ...

Check the gallery for more, and check out what they're giving to registrants over at Cinematical.

As I said earlier, most of Sunday was taken up by panels for NBCU's cable channels. I heard, for instance, that the Oxygen panel for Coolio's Rules was a bit of a trainwreck, with Coolio actually getting up and singing. I wouldn't know, since I skipped most of the afternoon panels to check in at home and do some writing for you fine folks.

But I came down in time for the SciFi Channel's press conferences, which had the cast and producers of the series Sanctuary and the Battlestar Galactica prequel Caprica.

Let's start with Caprica. Right now, it's a two-hour backdoor pilot; the SciFi Channel will decide to pick it up as a series once they see the pilot. I can see why they might be a bit reluctant. From the scenes I saw, it felt more like The Godfather with some science thrown in, rather than the BSG everyone knows.

(S04E11) With this episode, Donna has become my favorite Doctor Who companion of all time. Yes, better than Sarah Jane. Yes, better than Rose (who finally reappears as a person and not in a cameo or on a video screen). I love her quick temper yet human personality (it's reminiscent of Rose's mother from the first two seasons), which makes sense since this episode is about the Doctor's adventures from the human perspective.

(S04E10) Russell T. Davies proves me wrong...and right. I have said since the first season of Doctor Who's relaunch that the man can't write science fiction. I still believe that. But I never said he couldn't write. Actually, he's a very good writer in terms of writing about emotions and relationships (which is why we're introduced to each companion's family in the new series). Fortunately, this episode's writing plays more upon his strengths.

(S04E09) In our last episode, the Doctor and Donna were trapped on a planetary repository of books called The Library along with a archaeological team and a microscopic, carnivorous species that hides in the shadows called the Vashta Narada. And somehow, all this is linked to a little girl who seems to be watching the events within the Library the same as the viewer.

And now, part two.

Usually we here at TV Squad try not to post news when we don't have an online article as reference (except perhaps in the Spoilers Anonymous columns), but this is one I couldn't pass up. Plus, it will give Doctor Who fans a head's up with regards to this season's finale.

According to Doctor Who Magazine (and repeated on several Doctor Who message boards online), the finale of Season Four ("Journey's End") is going to be 65 minutes in length, as opposed to the usual 45 or 50 minute length of the season's episodes so far. This length, of course, deals with the original broadcast on the BBC and not the American broadcast.

Get ready for many, many Friday nights of having to find something better to do than sit in front of television to watch Battlestar Galactica. You could always dig into your past-season DVDs to reminisce on what's happened before ("and will happen again?") or simply watch BSG online. There's also the unimaginable: spending time with friends and loved ones, stepping out of the house or, gods forbid, getting some extra sleep.

While we all think of what to do with that extra hour we have every week, let's go over a few things going on since last week's mid-season finale.

The New York Times has an article up profiling Russell T. Davies, the man who brought Doctor Who back to television. Davies is openly homosexual and the article describes Davies' sexual orientation as it relates to Doctor Who and Torchwood, the Doctor Who spin-off he created. As a reminder, any gay-bashing comments will be removed.

The article goes on to discuss a situation in which he responds to some homophobic comments. It also discusses Captain Jack Harkness, one of his "omnisexual" characters from both Doctor Who and Torchwood.

(S04E09) Well now, how was that for a surprise ending? Well, that is, for those who didn't get to see the screening in L.A. Wednesday night. I was invited to go but, seeing as I live on the other side of the country, it wasn't really all that practical to be there.

While this was an amazing episode, I've got mixed feelings of sorts. I'm elated that this isn't the finale episode of the series, that we've got another slew of episodes to go through before "the end." However, this episode felt like it possibly could have ended the series -- will the real final episode pay off as well as this one did?

(S04E07) The Doctor and Donna are caught in the middle of an Agatha Christie murder mystery adventure. Literally.

The British have always been proud of their history. This is evident in the excellent quality of most historical dramas done by the BBC. Doctor Who, being a BBC production, has displayed this in spades having had the Doctor already meet two of their most famous writers in previous seasons (Charles Dickens and William Shakespeare). The tradition continues in this episode when the Doctor and Donna travel to England in 1926 and meet Agatha Christie in the midst of a set of murders.

Spoilers after the jump...

I mean seriously, what the frak? Why the frak do we have to wait until frakking 2009 for the final frakking season of Battlestar frakking Galactica. Those motherfrakking skinjobs, and I know they're Cylons or they wouldn't do this to us, really like to frakking torture us diehard frakking fans, don't they. Frakkers! Wow, that does make it incredibly frakking easy to drop frakking curse words all the frakking time without really frakking cussing. How frakking liberating is that!

But back to business. Executive producer Ronald D. Moore spoke at a Wednesday night screening of this Friday's summer finale and broke the news that the remainder of this fourth and final season of BSG probably wouldn't air until early 2009. The show just doesn't want to have to face off against the new fall slates on the networks or football and baseball, which I guess I can understand. Why not wait until January so all you have to deal with is those crappy shows nobody watches like American Idol and 24? And nobody will be interested in the build-ups to the season finales of shows like Lost and Heroes. It's a frakking no-brainer!

It's not often that I write up about an episode of Ghost Hunters, but this one was quite different than the rest. Unfortunately I'm not talking about something spectacular the GH team caught on video or a wild EVP recording.

During the second half of the 'Widow's Watch' episode, Grant, Jason and crew headed out to the Moss Beach Distillery in Moss Beach, California, to investigate reported sightings of a mysterious "Blue Lady" ghost. Spencer Gray, the exec chef at the restaurant, gave the team a hammy tour of the place, pointing out the various places where sightings and sounds had been reported.

(S04E09) I've been reading a lot lately from people who've become disappointed with this show the past few episodes or so. I've felt the same way. I'm happy to say, though, that while this episode didn't exactly make up for the lack of luster, it was certainly enjoyable.

Even without seeing the previews for this week (which, I admit, I can't even help but watch), we knew this episode would start with a flashback to what happened when Roslin and the occupants of the stolen Base Star jumped away. Right away we saw that a Cylon ship jumping has a strange effect on humans, though it's not clear if anyone other than Roslin had those brief visions.

This was a very close race, both in the Readers' Choice poll and among the TV Squad team. In fact, the RC poll has been ping-ponging back and forth for the past few days, and I had to wait until the last moment to declare that winner by a slim margin of only two points! But before we get to who you, the readers chose, let's get on with the TV Squad choice: Heroes.

Heroes is one of those shows that evolved over time with respect to the special effects presented to us. The pilot episode, for example, had much to be desired. When I first commented about the pilot back two years ago, I wasn't at all impressed with what we saw. I thought the effects of showing Nathan fly looked amateurish and with crappily edited wire tricks.

Move ahead through last season of Heroes, and it's been a whole different story. We've got the impressive effects of Hiro's time time-stopping ability, Claire's regenerating wounds, the numerous powers of Peter and even the other times we've seen Nathan fly.

Among the TV Squad team, it was a race between Heroes and Battlestar Galactica. When it came down to voting, these were the only two in contention to win. The readers has roughly the same idea, putting Heroes and BSG neck-in-neck throughout the voting process. By only two points, Battlestar Galactica takes the Readers' Choice award this year. Supernatural had a very tough showing, coming in a rather close third.

This award isn't just about great special effects. There are lots of different ways a show or movie can display effects that dazzle and wow us. This is about a show that uses special effects in ways that, as closely as possible, make us believe what we're seeing could be "real" -- if what we're watching on TV were ever a reality, this is what it would look and sound like, what it would be like. For example, this is what it would look like if someone were to stop time. To pass through walls. To fly.

Congratulations to you, Heroes, for taking the first annual Most Real Unreal award. And a congrats to Battlestar Galactica for taking the Readers' Choice award this time around. As for the other shows that didn't win this time around: make us believe in your reality next year.