(S07E08) Last week, I wasn't thrilled with the CBS Monday night sitcom schedule. In fact, I thought all four shows were a bit off, and more than a few readers thought I was off the rails for speaking my mind. Fortunately -- for me -- this week's shows were back on track and I have only good things to say. That's especially true about Two and a Half Men. Seven years into the show, an episode like this one stands out as very original and really funny.
This was also the episode in which Battlestar Galactica's Tricia Helfer guested as Chelsea's old college roommate. That's not a spoiler; that's in the picture. More about the show -- including spoilers -- after the jump.
Question: is it possible for Heroes to add enough actors and actresses from cool, hip shows so it also becomes cool and hip again?
Kate Vernon, who played Ellen Tigh (and a Cylon - hope that wasn't a spoiler!) on the Battlestar Galactica remake, is joining the cast of the NBC show. Greg Grunberg first unveiled the news on his Twitter account a couple of days ago. Seems like that's where a lot of breaking news happens nowadays, eh?
Did you miss the series premiere of V last week? If so, no need to despair, because it's on SlashControl and I've embedded it below. The show scored good ratings, and Jason had great things to say about the premiere, noting some similarities to Battlestar Galactica. He was also glad to see how the writers updated the storyline from the classic 1980s miniseries.
"I wasn't sure how they could modify the storylines from the series I remembered to accurately find parallels to our war on terrorism, and the terrorist movements themselves, but they did," writes Jason. "And they did it all while staying true to the struggles and fears that's kept the original series fresh in our minds for 26 years now."
Have the Visitors arrived on Earth with a message of peace? Time will tell, but not before they fully and irretrievably embed themselves into our society.
Why didn't somebody tell me that they were going to release The Guardian on DVD? I really liked that show. I don't know if the show is being released because Simon Baker and The Mentalist are a hit or if it has been in the works long before that, but it's a nice surprise.
The Barbara Stanwyck Show - Vol. 1
Battlestar Galactica - The Plan
CBS News Sunday Morning - On The Road with Charles Kuralt: Set 1
Leoben, that tricky toaster, was right: All of thishas happened before, and all of it is happening again.
Battlestar Galactica: The Plan retells major events from the first two years of the celebrated sci-fi series through the eyes of the Cylons. It weaves together recycled scenes from the series with new footage to reveal a first-hand account of the Cylon agenda, or "plan."
The result is a film that feels incomplete, episodic and disjointed. It plays less like a movie and largely like a disk full of high quality bonus material. Most of what happens here feels irrelevant to the series -- almost like it was tacked on to the BSG mythos to satisfy completists and hardcore fans. Still, it's worth watching to see Dean Stockwell carry the film with a fearless performance as the scheming and duplicitous Brother Cavil. The veteran character actor takes center stage in The Plan, and your enjoyment of the film will rest largely on how much you like, or dislike, Cavil and his major role in the series.
Mike will have a review of the new Battlestar Galactica: The Plan film soon, but I wanted to show you a couple of clips from the straight-to-DVD movie directed by Edward James Olmos.
The first clip is a meeting of the Cylons, and after the jump is a look at some of the visual effects.
The geek-friendly guest stars just keep rolling into Big Bang Theory central ... Battlestar Galactica's Katee Sackhoff will appear in the Nov. 23 episode of the CBS comedy. This news comes less than a week after former Squadder Wil Wheaton showed up to crush Sheldon's spirit and help boost the show's ratings.
Sackhoff will play herself in the episode, but don't expect her role to be as big as Wheaton's or Summer Glau's last season. The former Starbuck is only dropping by for a cameo, says the Chicago Tribune's Maureen Ryan, but that won't stop Wolowitz from stalking her, and I doubt it'll stop her fans from tuning in and boosting the show's ratings again.
In celebration of the upcoming DVD and Blu-ray release of the Battlestar Galactica movie "The Plan," Maxim is having a cover and series of photos of the two sexiest Cylons in the 12, Tricia Helfer and Grace Park. Not that we need anything to be released in order to appreciate the half-naked bodies of Ms. Helfer and Ms. Park. Dictionary Day would be an adequate reason for me to admire these hard-working actresses.
Notice how all the female Cylon models are quite attractive and the males ... aren't quite. For the females, we have Grace Park, Tricia Helfer, Lucy Lawless, Rekha Sharma and Kate Vernon (who is older, but still quite the knockout). On the male side there are more attractive male-model types (Callum Rennie and Michael Trucco, most notably), but we also have folks like Dean Stockwell, Michael Hogan and Aaron Douglas. When will the latter three be posing for Maxim?
Tricia Helfer is a really, really good actress. Before she was killed on Burn Notice, I wanted her dead for what she did to Michael. On Battlestar Galactica, as Six, she was a stone cold Cylon killer. She's very good at convincing me that she's dangerous. But can she do comedy? Hmm ... I guess we're going to find out. Tricia Helfer will guest on Two and a Half Men in an upcoming episode.
According to Michael Ausiello of EW.com, Tricia will be playing a good friend of Charlie's fiancee, Chelsea, who has recently ended a bad relationship. As an act of kindness, Chelsea asks her to come out to Malibu for a visit.
The "Ask TV Squad" column, published every Wednesday, answers your questions about current and past TV shows, as well as about the celebrities appearing on TV. Every week, I will pick a question (or more) sent to us and provide answers in the column. If your question is not picked for a column, it may be answered in a subsequent column or in TV Squad's APB Podcast. To submit questions to the "Ask TV Squad" column, you can post them below in comments or email them at asktvsquad@gmail.com.
This week, I answer questions about Battlestar Galactica, 30 Days, Trauma and how to find titles of songs that played in episodes.
Ron Moore owes a lot to Richard Hatch for keeping the Battlestar Galactica franchise alive long enough for his marvelous reboot. So much so that he gave Mr. Hatch a significant role in his series (Of course his character did end up being killed in front of a firing squad. Make of that what you will).
With that in mind, I present to you the promotional trailer for the 1999 reboot of the franchise that never happened. Subtitled "The Second Coming", it was intended as a continuation of the 1970's series (I'm not sure whether it ignored the mistake that was Galactica 1980). The concept starred Hatch as the new fleet commander (with a cameo by the original Commander Adama, Lorne Greene) as well as a few other familiar faces from the original series. Sadly, it never got picked up. That's a shame because it was around the time of Babylon 5 and the explosion of CGI use on television. It looked more mature and less kitschy than its previous incarnation and might have made for fine television.
I was lucky enough to participate in a conference call today with Dollhouse (and Buffy and Angel and Firefly and Dr. Horrible) mastermind Joss Whedon. While he was very good at giving vague answers to questions asked so as not to spoil the storylines for season two of the show, he did drop a few tidbits that certainly make me want to watch.
The most interesting of this is that Amy Acker, who plays Doctor Saunders a.k.a. Whiskey, is only contracted for three episodes this season (apparently she's committed to another show). I found that surprising considering her important role in the apocalyptic future of "Epitaph One," but I'm sure the writers have figured out a way around it. It was stated that the world of "Epitaph One" will be revisited later in this season.
Warehouse 13 has welcomed a number of geek-friendly guest stars during its first season, including Battlestar Galactica's Tricia Helfer and former Stargate Alantis lead Joe Flanigan. Another BSG alum, Michal Hogan is set to play Agent Myka's father later this season.
The trend continues tonight with Eureka's Erica Cerra and Niall Matter guest starring as a pair of grifters looking for a big score in Las Vegas. Another Eureka vet, the awesome Joe Morton, will appear on the show in episode nine. (Minor spoilers ahead...)
Apollo has landed ... in Joss Whedon's Dollhouse. The first (very tiny) promo pics of the season premiere of Dollhouse, "Vows," have popped up online. The pics feature former Battlestar Galacticacast member Jamie Bamber apparently tying the knot with Eliza Dushku's Echo.
The ep follows Echo on her latest engagement as the bride of a wealthy financier who might be involved in arms trafficking. The engagement is set up by do-gooder and former FBI agent Paul, played by Bamber's former Battlestar co-star Tahmoh Penikett, who wants to use the Dollhouse to do some good for the world.
The folks at Capricacentral are making a lot of geeks happy this week. First, we heard that comedian and professional nerd Patton Oswalt was joining the Battlestar Galactica prequel series as a Caprican talk show host. Now comes news that Buffy the Vampire Slayer vet James Marsters is joining the show for a sizeable arc.
Marsters will do what he does best on Caprica: play a dangerous and unpredictable baddie driven by his carnal and moralistic desires. EW tells us that Marsters will play a terrorist leader named Barnabus Greele in at least three episodes of the upcoming Syfy series.
Question: is it possible for 
Here are the new TV DVDs, in stores tomorrow.
Leoben, that tricky toaster, was right: All of this has happened before, and all of it is happening again. 
The geek-friendly guest stars just keep rolling into Big Bang Theory central ... Battlestar Galactica's 
In celebration of the upcoming DVD and Blu-ray release of the Battlestar Galactica movie "The Plan," Maxim is having a cover and series of photos of the two sexiest Cylons in the 12, 
Tricia Helfer
The "Ask TV Squad" column, published every Wednesday, answers your questions about current and past TV shows, as well as about the celebrities appearing on TV. Every week, I will pick a question (or more) sent to us and provide answers in the column. If your question is not picked for a column, it may be answered in a subsequent column or in 
I was lucky enough to participate in a conference call today with 
Call it Syfy's answer to The Love Boat. 
Apollo has landed ... in Joss Whedon's 
The folks at 
The TV Squad Podcast: The Prisoner, '80s TV, soap news and more
Let's talk about spoilers ...
The Prisoner -- An early look
