TVSquad

And when I say Sci Fi, I mean the network, not necessarily the content. I'm sure we could easily open up that oldie, but goodie, about what is science fiction and why certain things are ending up on the channel. We'll save that for another time though, as right now we should talk about JAG, with swords. Elliott (JAG) is set to star in Mirabilis. The four-hour mini tells the story of four knights who must come together to save their land, the titular town.

Elliott plays John, a knight seeking vengeance after his family was killed. He'll be joined by Natassia Malthe (DOA: Dead Or Alive. Yes, I watched it) as another of the knights, Perfidia. Perfidia is also John's love interest. The script is by Sam Egan (Jeremiah) and is being produced by Reunion Pictures. If you are wondering about the quality of production, I'll add that RHI Entertainment is involved and they are responsible for such Sci Fi treats as The Lost Empire. To be fair though, they also had a hand in Tin Man, so it could go either way. I'll watch it, but then I'm kind of the Mikey of bad sci fi. I'll watch anything, even SS Doomtrooper. It had Corin Nemec!

Topless Robot has posted a list of the top 10 sci-fi television shows that were canceled too soon.

I've never seen most of the other shows (and if a lot of America followed my example, that could somewhat explain their early cancellation), but I have watched numbers 1,2 and 7. Star Trek is an obvious choice for number 1 given that it is still the icon of science-fiction television.

I've heard good things about Max Headroom (number 3) and would probably at least watch it on DVD should it ever be released in the format. I disagree about the 1981 Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series (number 2) and think it works best at its current length. I find it interesting how the only reason the author wanted to extend Buck Rogers In the 25th Century was to see more of Erin Gray ("Off think. Off think. Off think").

Friends telling you Lost is the best thing since sliced bread? Everyone laughing at you at work because you're lost when they talk about that wacky island? Don't know who Jack, Kate and Sawyer are and whether or not John Locke is more than just some old dead philosopher? Ridiculed for being a Lost-less moron but too cheap of a bastard to go out and pick up those DVD sets? Well, good news.

Rarely does a show hit television that's so serialized it's almost impenetrable to come late into. And even more rarely does a network let it last past ten episodes; FOX'll yank it in one if they think they can get enough videos of aquatic life attacking compiled in time for a special. Well, never fear ... it's Sci Fi to the rescue!

That's right, starting September 15th, you can catch four episodes of Lost every Monday on Sci Fi. And Lost is a show that works even better in large chunks like that. I recorded the entirety of season three to my DVR before I even started it and wolfed it down in a weekend! But wait, there's more ... like what that picture has to do with this story!

Fans of the almost late, definitely great Battlestar Galactica over at Sci Fi can keep their hopes alive that the series may return in the form of those oft-rumored movies. On June 27, Grace Park said that rumors of a Battlestar Galactica made-for-TV film have reached the set, where they recently had their wrap party for the four-year series. None of the actors have been contacted, and as we've been reporting all over the place here on TV Squad, the various actors and actresses are getting snatched up left and right for new shows.

Park's rumor had shooting beginning in August, which seems a tremendous stretch, as most of the new fall shows the actors are appearing in will be filming at that time. It would make more sense to try and film it during breaks. Or maybe it's going to go the route of Razor and feature mostly non-regular actors. Hell, she may have heard about the filming of prequel series Caprica.

Who knows what the hell is going on, but this is the new media. Facts be damned, I love Battlestar Galactica, and if Park had said this shortly before vomiting and passing out drunk off her ass, it'd still be worth a post. Anyone hear anything more?

[via AICN]

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!

Well, replica, that is. But hey, it's life-size!

NBC / Universal Pictures is making available full-size replicas of the familiar Cylon Centurions, both the one from the original Battlestar Galactica series and the series airing now on Sci Fi. These suckers stand at seven feet tall and weigh around 300 pounds, made of fiberglass and even sport red LED lights in the visor.

The company making these replicas, Fred Barton Productions, produces a bunch of other familiar replica-robots. They have Robot B-9 from Lost in Space, some Silent Running drones, Gort from The Day the Earth Stood Still, Robby the Robot, C3PO & R2D2, and Tobor the Great.

So, how much will this set you back? Try $7900 fraking clams. Sadly for many, there's no skinjob Cylon model replicas at the store. I imagine the Sixes and Eights would have been sold out by now. And I don't want to even imagine what would be done with them.

[via THR LiveFeed]

If nothing else, you have to give the team over at Sci Fi a couple points for thinking outside the box. This latest rush of creativity finds them partnering with Trion World Network to build their very own massively multiplayer online game to coincide with a companion series. In a nutshell, TV writers will partner with game designers with the end result being a game and series that will work in unison. The kicker being that those fans that play the game will influence the direction of the series.

Exactly what that influence will be is one of the many questions left up in the air after the guarded announcement. The only real details that were given up about the setting and direction of the show are that it is set 80 to 100 years in the future and Earth looks very different. It's not a lot to go on, but it's understandable why they are excited about it. Reading through the quotes from those involved you see things like Sci Fi president Dave Howe saying, "This is the Holy Grail for us, without a doubt." So, if you had Aztec Rex in the Sci Fi Holy Grail pool, you were wrong.

(S04E06) More than a few people thought last week's episode was filler. Things picked up again this week, with a lot of reveals along with a few more questions. Throw in another "red shirt" death and some other surprises (that I won't mention here in case there are spoiler-phobes about), and you've got the makings of a good episode.

This week I didn't bother with the ten minute preview online. In an interview with Mark Verheiden regarding last week's episode, he indicated that this episode was originally going to start off at a different point. So, in essence, if you were watching the preview today, you were seeing what was meant to be in last week's episode, originally.

(S04E05) It looks like Sci Fi took to heart some of the complaints over last week's online preview. This week they weren't so vague, making it crystal clear how much of a preview we were going to get. If nothing else, I could skip over the first ten minutes of the episode when it aired on TV.

As we heard tonight, the mission of the Demitrius is nearing the end of its 60-day mission, and there's noticeable tension on-board. Two months doesn't really seem all that long, but then I got to thinking -- what is a "day" to the humans as related to Earth time? Are we to assume Caprica has the same cycles as Earth? I know, I'm digressing here, but I do wonder how they differentiate a day amongst all of the different colonies, then simply say "a day" on Galactica. Most likely they have a military-set definition for it.

(S04E04) I went on earlier today about how a lot of us were cut short in the early viewing of tonight's episode, which made me think perhaps something "big" happens later that they didn't want revealed early. With the exception of one "maybe big" moment, I can scratch that theory.

I wouldn't exactly call this a throw-away episode, though with what we saw in the past three episodes it did drag is places.

For the past few weeks, SciFi.com has been giving viewers an early look at that week's episode, online. The first and second episodes were shown only at noon Eastern, while the third (last week) was shown every hour throughout the morning and afternoon. In all cases, you couldn't rewind or pause the feed, and there are short commercials throughout. This was fantastic for fans eager to see the episode early -- until today, that is.

Sci Fi's website promised a noon "preview" of tonight's episode, which to most meant would be the same, full-episode preview we've been seeing this season. Instead, viewers got the shaft after about 20 minutes of the episode airing, including ending the viewing with a commercial.

Now that we got the confirmed greenlight for the Battlestar Galactica spin-off series, Caprica, of course we can expect to see more details of the series trickle in. Just today, for example, sources have provided us with casting information for the series. Cool stuff!

Anyone familiar with the details of the show knows that Caprica will center around two families, the Graystones and the Adamas, and the goings on leading up to the Cylons as we see them on the show now. Now we can get a sense of what the characters on the show will look like and perhaps make our own wishlist of who we'd like to see in the roles. I warn you that there are what to some will consider SPOILERS ahead.

I'm curious to know how many people are newcomers to the current Battlestar Galactica series on Sci Fi. Seeing as this is the final season coming up, are there people more inclined to try to catch up (or have been catching up) so they can enjoy the end of the show in real time?

Sci Fi has put together a short special called Battlestar Galactica Revealed, featuring scenes from past seasons and interviews with the cast and creators of the series. These videos, along with the eight minute "recap" video (shown over on the right of the site as of this writing), should help get those not interested in picking up past seasons on DVD caught up with things (though shame on you for your intolerable disinterest!) Check out the videos after the jump.

Just last week, TV Squad reported that the creators and executive producers of the ABC drama Women's Murder Club, Sarah Fain and Elizabeth Craft, were replaced by Robert Nathan. Before you could say "Holy homicide, Batman," the two writers were quickly offered jobs from their old boss, Joss "Firefly" Whedon. Whedon has a development deal with Fox for a project called Dollhouse. He contacted Fain and Craft because he knew their work from Angel where they were co-story editors.

In a move that should only help the sophomore science fiction series, Sci Fi Channel and CBS announced today that Sci Fi has nabbed up rerun rights for the first two seasons of Jericho. Do you think they paid for the rights in nuts? Ahahaha! ... see what I did there? ... haha ... er, because of the campaign to-- ... uh ... *ahem* Never mind. To begin their exclusive six month broadcast portion of the overall three year deal, Sci Fi will air a four-episode prime time marathon on February 11th, one day before the new season premieres on CBS.