(S01E09) There was a lot going on in this episode, as the folks aboard Destiny started to adjust to their new lives away from Earth. The adjustment, of course, is easier for some than it is for others.
Chloe has made new friends like Eli and has found a partner in Scott, who comforts her and makes her feel less lonely. So she's content to pass the time doing yoga on the observation deck. People like Young, Rush and Eli are busy exploring the ship and trying to unlock its hidden wonders. That at least keeps them occupied and somewhat hopeful.
But things aren't nearly as happy-go-lucky for people like Spencer (aka "Baldy"). He's running out of his medication (my guess is that he's taking anti-psychotics, or is that too obvious?) and it seems like only a matter of time before he kills someone, or kills himself.
The producers of Tin Man, Syfy's dark and splashy spin on The Wizard of Oz, are back with Alice, a twisted take on Lewis Carroll's classic Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. In a conference call with reporters, Alice director Nick Willing and star Caterina Scorsone talked flying flamingos, Tweedledee and Tweedledum's torture tactics, and what Wonderland would look like 150 years after Alice's original adventure.
We'll have an advance review of Alice next week, but for now you can head after the jump for an inside look at the miniseries, premiering December 6 on Syfy. Spoilers follow.
(S01E08) So that was bleak. But don't worry, Stargate Universe will hit the reset button next week, and everything will be peachy. Well, as peachy as things can get aboard The Destiny.
While some fans have been pushing for SGU to ditch the drama for more action and adventure (like SG-1 or Atlantis), this week's episode tried to offer a compromise: An off-world adventure that turned dark and caused a lot of drama for the characters.
The crew faced death – you know, like they do every week -- but this time they were struck by a dangerous virus and attacked by a pack of nasty fang-toothed worm things. But this episode wasn't really about combating a virus or an evil alien entity. It was about seeing how the characters would react after staring into the dark abyss of certain death.
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 to asktvsquad@gmail.com.
This week, I answer questions about Eureka, The Prisoner and how to leave comments on TVSquad.com.
The Ghost Hunters name is starting to rival CSI and Law & Order in the spinoff department. What else do all three of these franchises share? There's just as much hard paranormal evidence in the last two as appears in the first.
Please don't misunderstand me -- since I've gone off on this topic before. I'm not saying ghosts don't exist. I'm not saying there's no afterlife. I don't begrudge any scientific investigation into parapsychology or realms described as paranormal. I'd just like any of the endless march of "ghost-based" shows to dig up one scintilla of proof that they found something and, therefore, deserve to be on TV every week.
The latest entry is Syfy's Ghost Hunter's Academy -- sort of Most Haunted meets The Rookies from the 70s. Each week, ghost hunting "professors" (the show's conceit, not mine) Steve Gonsalves and Dave Tango welcome first-time paranormal investigators onto The Atlantic Paranormal Society (TAPS) team.
(S01E07) With the IOA and Stargate Command planning a risky rescue mission aboard The Destiny, Eli, Chloe and Young used the communication stones to head back to Earth and... indulge in a little drinking and sex!
The crew faced death again, Col. Telford came aboard to annoy everyone again, and Rush hovered on the fringe, skulking and whining about the military's plan of action. Again.
Still, I really enjoyed how everything played out this week. Finally Eli, aka the Star Wars-referencing funny guy, was given more to do than make jokes and pine for Chloe. David Blue really sold the scenes with Eli talking to his mother. I sensed a real longing from Eli to want to take care of his mom and prove himself to her out of love and respect. It was a good idea to have him pose as a co-worker. That way, we got to see what he really thinks about himself, his mother, and his current situation.
Syfy has become known not just for cheesy sci-fi and horror flicks but also remakes, or "reimaginings," of several classic films and shows. They had Children of the Corn recently, they had Tin Man (a modern take on The Wizard of Oz), and they have an Alien Nation remake in the works (not to mention Quantum Leap).
They're also doing Alice, which is their take on Alice in Wonderland. Here's the trailer. It premieres December 6.
According to the New York Times, Comcast is set to own NBC Universal and all channels that are part of it as early as next week.
This could change the entire television landscape and pretty much give us less of a selection in terms of entertainment. The rumor is that Comcast is going to keep the cable channels, then sell the NBC network. News Corporation expressed interest in the property, but the Comcast talks progressed along far enough to eliminate other potential buyers. It could be argued that having MSNBC partially owned by the same owners of Fox News is a bit of a conflict of interest.
Who would step forward to buy NBC network? The ratings haven't been great and they did do that silly thing with Jay Leno and their 10 p.m. slot. NBC is too much of a name brand to let fall by the wayside. Who do you think should step up and buy the network?
On this week's episode of Stargate Universe, "Water," we saw a return of those swirling sands of ... something ... that appeared in the earlier episode on the desert planet. Only on the desert planet, they were helpful. This time, they were a bit more nefarious, attacking a crew member and, apparently, depleting the ship's water supply (which, quite frankly, must be ancient water; let's hope they've got some good purification systems in place).
It makes you wonder if the swirling sands are the reason that particular planet was a sandy abyss, and now that they've been stargated to a planet with lots of precipitation in the form of ice, they should be happy for a while.
So what do you think they are? Aliens, as the crew surmised? And why were they helpful on the planet, but deadly on the ship? Why didn't they attack Johansen? And if they're aliens, could they have the ability to read a person's mind and form visions based on that person's memories and thoughts?
Feel free to discuss the rest of the episode, too. Because of a power outage, I wasn't able to get a full review up in a timely fashion, so decided to focus on the most interesting part of the episode for me -- the swirling sands.
Part of my Halloween tradition is to watch the Ghost Hunters Halloween Livespecial, broadcast (live, of course) from some spooky place somewhere in the country. Tonight, the crew is at the Essex County Hospital in Cedar Grove, New Jersey, along with some recruits from the new Ghost Hunters Academy, which premieres Wed., Nov. 11 at 10/9c.
It's pretty cool because you can log into the Syfy Web site and watch the live feeds on several cameras positioned around the hospital in dark tunnels and ancient rooms. There's even one in the morgue. If you see something suspicious, you're supposed to hit the "Panic Button" and the team will go check it out like hungry hound dogs.
I'm not sure what's so intriguing about all of this, but it's pretty fun. Maybe it's the interactive nature of viewers helping the team search for ghosts. Is anyone else watching? Have you seen anything spooky on the live-feed cameras? I haven't, but I'm still looking!
SyFy has picked up the rights to broadcast an American version of the BBC show Being Human. For those who are unaware, Being Human is about a twenty-something ghost, a werewolf and a vampire that live together, each with their own set of melodramatic problems. It's a bit like a supernatural Melrose Place.
Actually, given the context of the program, it would go much better on The CW. But that's not likely at this point. They already have The Vampire Diaries anyway.
While relaunching Americanized versions of Brit shows has been successfully done on television before (such as The Office), it's the first time that I'm aware that SyFy has tried it. Usually they have new versions of old television shows with hit-or-miss results (there was Battlestar Galactica, and then there was Flash Gordon).
The BBC series was okay but not great. If the British makers of the show are lucky, SyFy won't butcher it beyond recognition.
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 Jamie Ray Newman, FlashForward, Friday Night Lights and Surviving Disaster.
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.
(S01E05) "Why am I watching this on TV?" – Eli Wallace
This week's episode of Stargate Universe picked up right where last week's left off, with The Destiny heading straight for a star and, presumably, oblivion. Thankfully, "Light" featured less of those tired Real World-esque confessionals from last week, but the first few acts really dragged, and it was hard to wrap my head around that out-of-nowhere love scene between Chloe and Scott (more on that in a bit).
With only 17 people able to fit aboard the shuttle, Col. Young came up with a lottery system to decide who would escape to a nearby planet and who would remain aboard the ship to burn. I was expecting a riot to explode during the lottery drawing, but Greer was able to quiet the storm with one swift blow to a Marine's face. The respectful relationship between Greer and the quiet and noble Young is a welcome addition to the series. I like how Greer has Young's back, and it seems like Young might inspire Greer to become something more than just an angry brute with a meditative side. And watching Rush do something other than stress and shout was a nice change of pace.
The writers and producers of Syfy's Stargate Universe could've played it safe and got along just fine with their latest series.
After Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin's 1994 feature film from MGM, the series' first TV adaption (SG1) arrived in 1997. When you throw in the follow-up series, Infinity and Atlantis, the Stargate franchise has run on TV in one form or another for more than 12 years.
When the time came to invent the next step in the franchise, show-runners Brad Wright and Robert C. Cooper could have trotted out more of the same and done perfectly well. Instead, they upped the ante -- bringing a bigger budget and updated production techniques to Stargate Universe.
MGM and Syfy welcomed journalists to Vancouver's Bridge Studios to explore the show's starship Destiny set and discover how this series cruises beyond its successful predecessors.
The producers of Tin Man, Syfy's dark and splashy spin on The Wizard of Oz, are back with Alice, a twisted take on Lewis Carroll's classic Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. In a conference call with reporters, Alice director Nick Willing and star Caterina Scorsone talked flying flamingos, Tweedledee and Tweedledum's torture tactics, and what Wonderland would look like 150 years after Alice's original adventure. 
The "
The Ghost Hunters name is starting to rival CSI and Law & Order in the spinoff department. What else do all three of these franchises share? There's just as much hard paranormal evidence in the last two as appears in the first.
According to the New York Times, Comcast 
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SyFy has 
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Leoben, that tricky toaster, was right: All of this has happened before, and all of it is happening again. 
The writers and producers of Syfy's Stargate Universe could've played it safe and got along just fine with their latest series.
Mike Henry and Daryl Hall on a Cleveland Show Thanksgiving
The TV Squad Podcast: The Prisoner, '80s TV, soap news and more
Let's talk about spoilers ...
