Axiom's Edge Science Fiction and Fantasy

By John J. Joex

Have you tuned in for FOX’s adaptation of the DC comic series Human Target yet?  If not, you need to clear you schedule on Wednesdays at 8 PM EST and make this appointment television.  Not only does the show give us a witty, tightly-written, action/adventure yarn each week, it has also packed each episode with any of a number of faces familiar to Science Fiction and Fantasy fans.  This of course begins with the show’s excellent cast which includes Mark Valley in the lead role (he played Olivia’s late beau John Scott in the early episodes of Fringe) along with his two assistants played by Chi McBride (cantankerous Emerson Cod from Pushing Daises), and Jackie Earl Haley (Rorschach from Watchmen and soon to appear on the big screen as the next Freddy Krueger).

These three along with the  variety of veterans from other Science Fiction and Fantasy shows each episode has paraded across the screen have have really made this a standout series.  I do not know if the producers have intentionally sought after these familiar faces to give Human Target some additional genre cred or if it just happened that way, but it gives yet another reason to tune in each week.  Following are the faces that I have noticed so far across the first six episodes:

Ep 1 – “Pilot”: Two Battlestar Galactica vets joined in for the inaugural episode – Tricia Helfer (Number 6) and Donnelly Rhodes (Doctor Cottle)
Ep 2 – “Rewind”: Yet another ex-BSGer Alessandro Juliani (Felix Gaeta) stopped by along with Sean Owen Roberts (Painkiller Jane)
Ep 3 – “Embassy Row”: Smallville mainstay from that show’s early years Emmanuelle Vaugier (Dr. Helen Bryce) guest-starred.
Ep 4 – “Sanctuary”: Could the presence of William Mapother (Ethan from Lost) suggest a possible connection to that show’s sideways world? Also, Sam Huntington (Superman Returns, Fanboys) made an appearance.
Ep 5 – “Run”: Kristin Lehman (Strange World, Andromeda, Century City) stopped by, and the presence of William B. Davis (Smoking Man from The X-Files) made us a bit nervous (conspiracies and alternate universes colliding?).
Ep 6 – “Lockdown”: Alias uber-geek Kevin Weisman (Marshall Flinkman) stopped by to play, well, an uber-geek.  And yet another X-Files vet, Mitch Pileggi (Assistant Director Skinner), made an appearance along with Autumn Reeser (Valentine).

The series returns tonight after taking a break for a few weeks and has a couple more faces that genre fans might recognize as well in Leonor Varela (guest-starred on Stargate: Atlantis) and Kim Coates (various guest-star and supporting roles including Smallville and the Hercules mini-series from 2005).  In addition, an article on Sci Fi Wire reveals that Lenny James (Jericho), Grace Park (Battlestar Galactica), Amy Acker (Dollhouse), and Moon Bloodgood (Journeyman, Terminator: Salvation) will be showing up in the coming weeks.  So be sure to tune in and play the game of “what genre show did that guest-star appear on?”  Or just sit back and enjoy this comic book come to life which delivers a fun, very entertaining, over-the-top hour of television.

Watch Full Episodes of the Human Target Online at Hulu.com

Go to TV.com for more info on the Human Target including Episode guides and Cast bios

Pickup the first issue of the all-new Human Target comic book series as well as the collections of his previous adventures at TFAW.com:

Do you reddit?  If not, then perhaps it’s time to join the conversation.  Reddit.com is a social networking site that has many sub-reddits that would interest Science Fiction and Fantasy fans.  Axiom’s Edge sponsors one such sub-reddit called The Sci Fi Scroll where we post links to news, updates, reviews, rants, and so on from the genre.  We basically just post links to articles we believe our readers would want to read.  You can join in on our reddit and submit your own links as well, whether it is to articles you stumbled across and want to share with other Science Fiction and Fantasy fans or to your own blog posts.  In addition, you can upvote the posts that you like (and downvote the ones you don’t, though we prefer to limit those clicks) and thus the more popular links will rise to the top of each group’s main page.  We encourage everyone to get involved, and you’ve got nothing to lose because it’s free to join.

There are plenty of other sub-reddits that Science Fiction and Fantasy fans would enjoy as well.  Many of these are more discussion oriented where you can submit a link to an article (or just a rant if you want) in order to generate a dialogue with the other members of the group who have similar interests to your own.  Following are several that we recommend and I’m sure you can find even more that interest you if you poke around the site for a while (and feel free to share your findings with us).

Sci Fi Reddit

Their description: Science Fiction, or Speculative Fiction if you prefer. Fantasy too.

This one is more of a discussion reddit, though plenty of people submit news stories and/or commentaries relating to the genre as well.  They highly emphasize not including spoilers in your post title.

Fantasy Reddit

Their description: This reddit will focus on literature, gaming, graphic novels, websites, movies, art, pictures and more. Anything related to Fantasy.  Tolkien, steampunk, A Song of Ice and Fire, The Wheel of Time, World of Warcraft, Discworld, medieval genres, magic, etc.

Zombies Reddit

Their description: The Zombies subreddit was created to host submissions regarding gatherings, movies, books, music, theater, speculative science, and games featuring the flesh (and/or brain) eating dead.

Star Trek Reddit

Their description: Welcome to the Star Trek subreddit! The most active (well, as far as we know) Trek hangout on the web!

Stargate Reddit

Their description: All things dedicated to the Stargate TV series. SG-1, Atlantis, Universe, Games and everything else.

Lost Reddit

Ongoing discussions about all things Lost.  A great place to hang out as the series wraps up with its sixth and final season.

Writing Reddit

Their description: A subreddit for the written word: fiction, nonfiction, your own creative writing, popular authors, and so on.

By John J. Joex

Genesis II – Rating

Pilot: 4 out of 5 Stars

Series Potential: 4 out of 5 Stars

Planet Earth – Rating

Pilot: 3 ½ out of 5 Stars

Series Potential: 4 out of 5 Stars

Roddenberry productions recently announced that they were developing Gene Roddenberry’s long-abandoned pilot The Questor Tapes as a television series.  Last week I looked back at that television movie and assessed its potential to branch out into a decent series, so now it’s worth looking at the Star Trek creator’s other failed pilots from the 70’s to see what potential they left dormant.

Rodenberry’s first post-Star Trek television project was a pilot called Genesis II.  In this, a scientist gets trapped in suspended animation when a project he is working on goes awry and he wakes up 150 years in the future to find that society has collapsed.  His revival comes at the hands of an organization called PAX which are actually the remnants of the group he worked with in the past.  Now they have a goal to seek out the technology and knowledge from the world before the fall in order to build a new and better society.  They already have control of a vast system of magnetic levitation transports (“subshuttles”) which they can use to quickly travel to any point in the world.  They currently utilize this network to monitor other pockets of civilization that have sprouted up across the globe, though they practice a policy of non-interference with the development of these societies.

Sound vaguely familiar?  Yes, Genesis II definitely has elements of Star Trek and it kicked off a brief television sub-genre that I call “Earth Trek”.  As that name implies, these shows paid a debt to Roddenberry’s previous series because they follow a semi-anthology pattern of having their protagonists encounter different societies each week.  The difference between these and Star Trek, obviously, is that these are land-based instead of charting an exploration across the stars.  Also, they tended to take place on post-apocalyptic Earth.

This concept easily lends itself to the small screen because of its versatility and its budget-friendly economics (post-apocalyptic worlds require fewer sets and less special effects).  However, for some reason the idea never took off.  Genesis II failed to go to series as did Rodenberry’s second attempt with the concept, Planet Earth.  Several others took a shot as well with such shows as Logan’s Runs, Fantastic Journey, Otherworld, and the Saturday morning show Ark II.  The failure of the Prime Time entries may have been in part due to the short-sightedness of the network executives who had lost interest by the 70’s in offering compelling social drama, to which this format easily lent itself.  Instead, they preferred fluff-TV as demonstrated by shows such as Happy Days, The Love Boat, and Charlie’s Angels.  This preferred direction by the networks may explain why several of the non-Rodenberry shows mentioned above seemed so bland in delivery despite the attachment of such top-notch talent as D.C. Fontana, David Gerrold, and Harlan Elison (all veterans of Star Trek).

So what about Genesis II itself?  Would this 1973 pilot have made a good series?  Most definitely, in my opinion.  Both it and its follow-up Planet Earth could have spawned a strong Science Fiction and Fantasy franchise if given the chance (and if Roddenberry maintained control and did not have to contend with network “dumbing down”).

In Genesis II, we meet the hero from the 20th century named Dylan Hunt, played here by Alex Kord.  He seems to have a Buck Rogers-style origin but is anything but the gallant hero from that comic strip.  Kord is presented as a flawed human who must unlearn the ways of violence that lead to the downfall of society.  In this movie, he and PAX encounter a militant race of mutants determined to maintain control of the nuclear power they inherited.  Hunt eventually allows them to fall victim to their own desires and perish in a nuclear explosion, but PAX informs him that such violent notions can no longer be tolerated if they hope to rebuild the world.

When Genesis II did not fly, he reworked the concept a bit for ABC in 1974 and tried again with Planet Earth.  This time around, B-Movie mainstay John Saxon stepped in as Dylan Hunt and they tinkered with a few other aspects of the concept this time around (i.e., PAX was more technologically advanced now), but it was still basically the same storyline.  The framing story of the pilot was not great, though, following a society of women who treat men as inferiors and keep them as slaves (“Women’s lib? Or women’s lib gone mad,” quipped Hunt).  There was a good idea in there somewhere, but it ended up  like one of those Star Trek episodes that did not quite live up to their potential.  Still, like the first movie, it showed promise and could have provided a decent start to an ongoing series.  And I have to admit that I preferred the more Kirk-like John Saxon in the role of Dylan Hunt over Alex Kord (I could never get past Kord’s pornstar mustache).

There was one more stab at this concept in 1975 called Strange New World, but Gene Roddenberry had bowed out by this point.  In this movie, three astronauts awake from cryogenic sleep in space and return to an Earth devastated by a massive meteor shower.  They travel around the planet in an all-terrain vehicle trying to make contact with the pockets of society that still existed.  John Saxon returned for this one, though his character’s name was changed to Captain Anthony Vico.  The pilot was only so-so, but it still had some potential to develop into a decent series.  One detail I like about this one was that the three astronauts travelling around this post-apocalyptic world were actually dirty most the time like you might expect and unlike the later Logan’s Run that followed a similar pattern but had the leads constantly looking picture perfect.  Still, this movie, like Genesis II and Planet Earth before it, failed to generate much interest and now all three exist as relics from a past era.

Warner Brothers has recently issued both Genesis II and Planet Earth on DVD (and they are also available as downloads) and I highly recommend checking them out (just prepare yourself for the 70’s cheesiness factor, though).  And with the renewed interest in Roddenberry’s Questor Tapes pilot, perhaps these could see a revival at some point as well.

Read more about Genesis II, Planet Earth, and Strange New World at Wikipedia.  Also, check out TVParty.com’s entry on the Roddenberry pilots.

Next week, I take a look at Gene Roddenberry’s occult pilot Spectre. Also see my review of The Questor Tapes.

Buy or Download Genesis II and Planet Earth on DVD from the Warner Bros. Store:

By John J. Joex

WARNING: THIS ARTICLE CONTAINS SPOILERS!!!

So Heroes wrapped up its fourth season (and fifth volume) this week. But it did so by teasing us with where the story could go next with Volume 6, titled “Brave New World”. (SPOILERS TO FOLLOW) Claire, who wants the world to know about people with abilities, demonstrates her healing powers to a flock of reporters as she jumps off the top of a Ferris Wheel. The episode concludes with the news cameras zooming in on her as she “reassembles” herself and heals before their eyes.

Okay . . . Interesting idea . . . Could be the next logical step for the show and it could give us a few interesting stories . . . but . . . I think I’ll pass this time.

I have watched—make that endured—Heroes for four seasons now and I don’t know that I can take anymore. The first season, of course, was the best. Almost universally accepted as an exceptional collection of episodes for any television series (despite its anti-climactic ending). But the show has since failed to follow up on the accomplishments of its inaugural run. In fact, it has sunk to incredible lows (middle of the second season and middle of the third volume) and only managed to sporadically reach anything close to the quality of its first season over the past three years.

Take this season’s finale was a good example of the erratic nature of the show since its heyday. It had its moments (though few and far between), but it just could not maintain a consistent level of quality throughout the episode. It just had too many situations that stretched credibility and demanded excessive suspension of disbelief along with stock, “feel good” bonding moments (Claire and HRG, Peter and Sylar) and yet more character flip flops (Puppetmaster’s bad again, does anybody really believe Sylar has changed his ways?). Then, after this season-long build up around Samuel Sullivan (one of the show’s best characters) and his carnies which showed a ton of promise, they fumbled it all away with an after-school-special “do the right thing” speech.

Basically, I believe that series creator Tim Kring and the writers he has assembled had enough creative energy for one season and now they just don’t know what to do with the show. So let it rest in peace. They keep dragging the show on trying to rediscover the magic, but instead keep embarrassing themselves and making the fans (the few still hanging) hate it even more.

I know that NBC has hinted that Heroes could return for another season. But its recent ratings lows suggest otherwise (it sunk below four million viewers a few weeks ago which puts it in CW territory). Of course that network continues to struggle, so who knows where they will go?

But if they absolutely refuse to let it die, here’s a suggestion: consider doing a few television movies instead of continuing it as a weekly series. That keeps the property alive (which NBC seems to want to do), but gives it to us in smaller, more manageable doses. And close-ended movies might help to focus the writers and possibly deliver some stronger stories. Try a couple and see how it works out, and they don’t have to bring back every character for every movie (please, don’t bring back every character). Pick an interesting story that works for a select numbers of characters, tell it across two hours, then move on.

I believe that direction has potential. The concept still has some life and can continue to deliver some interesting stories. Just not in the format of a weekly series any more. The writers have shown that they cannot sustain the quality across a full season (heck, they struggle with sustaining it through a full episode). So try the movies. Perhaps NBC could even shift these to its sister-network Syfy. But let the weekly series rest in peace because it’s not working anymore and really has not worked for some time.

Buy Previous Seasons of Heroes on DVD from Amazon.com at Up to 58% Off:

By John J. Joex

WARNING: THIS ARTICLE CONTAINS SPOILERS!!!

Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse has ended its run. After two short seasons and perennially low ratings (that actually went from bad to worse), the series wrapped up last Friday with its final episode: “Epitaph Two: Return”. But what a finale it was! Those who did not see the DVD only episode “Epitaph One” from the Season 1 set, had to catch up on the run, but those of us who did see that episode were right there with Joss as he ushered out his series about people who could be implanted with different personalities. And you had to think that the ending suggested a vast set of possibilities for a whole new series in a very different vein.

SPOILERS TO FOLLOW

In “Epitaph Two: Return”, we jump ten years in the future where rampant misuse of the implant technology has had an apocalyptic impact on the planet. A few people control the technology and can mind-wipe people at will and place their minds in younger, more-fit bodies if they wish. This has led to the collapse of society and anarchy reigns over much of the planet. A few “actuals” (people whose minds have not been tampered with) still exist, though, and act as a resistance against Rossum and the others who control the implant technology. One such group lead by Echo rescues Topher from Rossum and he reveals that he could set off an explosion that would cause a chain-reaction and reset everybody across the planet to their original personalities. They decide to try this, though, Echo and several others will stay underground for a year because they want to retain the knowledge in their heads and the mind-wipe signal could affect them if they come out before then.

Topher’s plan is a success, though he has to sacrifice himself to pull it off. But as the episode ends, it leaves open the question of what’s next. And that’s where I see the possibility of a completely new series. Already, the final episode had some Road Warrior stylings about it with the tech-heads lead by Victor along with their fortress on wheels. We could imagine that the global mind-wipe Topher set off was only partially successful or that its effects were only temporary. And what’s to stop the Rossum people from starting up their implant activities once again after the effects of the signal have faded? So now, the group that reversed Rossum’s actions from the past ten years would start the process of rebuilding society, but would still have fight against the remnants of Rossum and also contend with any other side-effects from Topher’s bomb.

Basically we had the seeds of a potentially great post-apocalyptic series in the “Epitaph: One & Two” epiosdes. Personally, I see any of a number of directions they could go with the show, all of which could deliver some strong storylines. Of course I would want them to alter what happened in “Epitaph Two” just a bit so that Topher survived, because you have to have him around (and who knows, he could have had a spare body stashed somewhere). But I would think that a series along these lines would surpass the rather uneven (though still enjoyable) Dollhouse and potentially attract a larger audience. I don’t see it really happening, though, because Joss Whedon has already said that he is done with this one and that he will not carry it on into another medium like he did with Buffy, Angel, and Firefly. But still, we can dream, right? And maybe some fan fiction will realize the potential of the bigger post-apocalyptic story that Dollhouse suggested with its two best episodes.

Buy Season 1 of Dollhouse on DVD from Amazon.com:

By John J. Joex

You can’t include everything in a “best of” list, but you can acknowledge those that you considered and then discarded. Over the past two days, I looked at the best shows in the genre from the double-naught decade, so now it’s time to take a look at a few that got cut in the nomination process. First, I have to admit to two toothy omissions from the list as neither True Blood nor Angel made it to my “best of” because I have not seen enough of either of those two shows to consider them Top 10 material. However, I know the buzz surrounding each series and I have it on my “to do” list to catch up with both of them. So maybe at a later point I will reconsider the order.

Here are some others that did not make it to the list. All of them are good shows and I can see arguments for including them in a Top 10 from the 00’s, but they didn’t quite make the cut on my list (Links are to the series page for each entry at TV.com):

Heroes – This show’s first season almost qualifies it for the list. But it has been so erratic since then that I’m holding it off. Maybe as we look back on the show a year or two down the road, the subsequent season will sit better with us.

Fringe – I’m really liking where they are going with this show, but I’d say it’s too early in its run to make a judgment just yet. The series needs to focus more on its unique mythology and break away from the X-Files-clone episodes.

Supernatural – I really count this one more as a guilty pleasure. Great fun to watch and it has a great cast, but it also has plenty of gaping holes in its writing and story arcs. Let’s see how it wraps up, then maybe I will reconsider.

Stargate: Universe – This one has jumped off to a strong start, but half a season is just not enough of an indicator (with Heroes as the prime example of how quickly a show can go south).

Stargate: Atlantis – Many would argue that this one should make the list, but I never got attached to the show. Like its predecessor, Stargate: SG-1, it had plenty of good episodes, but not many great ones. They just never managed to kick this franchise up to the next level (until Stargate: Universe, at least).

The Middleman – It only lasted one season on ABC Family, but this peppy, wit-a-minute romp did a great job of bringing Javier Grillo-Marxuach’s comic book series of the same name to television. Not quite strong enough to make the list, but worth checking out.

Torchwood – I’ve only caught a few episodes of this so far. I like what I have seen, but would not quite count it as Top 10 material. Perhaps a larger sampling would change my mind, though.

The Tick – This short-lived series which showed up briefly in Prime Time on FOX gave us the perfect super-hero parody. You have to believe that Patrick Warburton (Putty from Seinfeld) was born to play the role of the Tick.

By John J. Joex

Yesterday, I covered slots 10 through 6 of the Top 10 Science Fiction and Fantasy shows from the past decade (plus a first alternate), now I will take a look at the five who took top honors on the list.  (Links are to the series page for each entry at TV.com)

5. Battlestar Galactica – Sure, this remake of the iconic 70’s series ended on a rather lame note, but it still managed to deliver more than its fair share of hard-hitting Science Fiction during its four seasons.  Unlike the more family-friendly original version (with cute kids and cuddly robot dogs), this series showed the last remnants of the human race in a desperate struggle for survival and did not shy away from the morally questionable decisions people in that position would have to make.  That’s where this series made its mark.  Ignore the more mystical storylines that suggest the writers had a plan for how this show would eventually wrap up (they didn’t) and focus instead on the hard-hitting drama of survivors fighting for their lives.  You will find yourself less disappointed with the ending that way.  (DVD Availability: Entire Series)

4. Carnivale – The fact that this supernatural-tinged HBO entry from creator Daniel Knauf has gone mostly unnoticed is a great injustice.  The show follows a carnival travelling through small-town America during the Great Depression and gives us an engaging, epic story of free will vs. destiny.  It also delivers well-drawn characters and intricate stories in a fully realized world with all of its Dust Bowl grittiness.  Unfortunately, HBO closed the curtain on the show after two twelve-episode seasons, but what an intense ride this carnival gave us across those twenty four episodes!  (DVD Availability: Entire Series)

3. Farscape – Sure, this series started in 1999, but it ran through 2004 (including the Peacekeeper Wars mini-series) so I’m including it on the list (and for those who object, I provided a first alternate on the previous list).  This one follows a human astronaut catapulted through a wormhole where he encounters multiple races struggling to control their section of the universe.  Coming from Jim Henson productions, the show placed muppet-like characters next to human actors and delivered one of the most cinematic productions TV had seen up to that point.  The series has its fair share of downright bad episodes, but it really soared when hitting on all cylinders which it did more often than not.  There are still talks of the show returning in some form (possibly a web-series) and it has also lived on in comic books.  (DVD Availability: Entire Series)

2. Firefly – Joss Whedon gave us a well-written, witty space western with this series populated by an assortment of fully realized characters brought to life by a cast that clicked from the word go.  It only lasted fourteen episodes (with FOX committing one of the greatest injustices in television history by cancelling it), but that short run gave us one of the all-time best shows in the genre.  (DVD Availability: Entire Series)

1. Lost – This series about a group of castaways stranded on an island with many mysterious secrets (both the island and the castaways) changed the game.  It brought Science Fiction back to the broadcast networks (for good or bad), kicked off a trend of serialized shows (again, for good or bad), and actually made the genre cool (people everywhere were talking about this show, not just sci fi geeks).  It’s also a pretty darn good show.  With its well fleshed-out characters and dense, intricately plotted storylines, the show has engaged and fascinated a whole new generation of TV viewers and actually given us an intriguing, heady story that people will watch.  (DVD Availability: Entire Series through prior season)

Battlestar Galactica, Firefly, and Lost are available for online viewing.  See out Sci Fi TV Online page for more info.

Next, the Honorable Mentions.  The shows that did not quite make the list.

By John J. Joex

Now that the double-naught decade has ended, you’ve seen plenty of those “best of” lists covering TV shows, movies, books, etc. that came out over past ten years.  But now it’s time for the definitive list of the best Science Fiction and Fantasy shows from the beginning of the 21st century.  This past decade counts in my opinion as the second Golden Age of the genre on television (the first coming in the 60’s) because of the selection and quality of shows available on broadcast networks and on the cable channels.  Following is Part 1 of my list of the Top 10 (in reverse order) along with a first alternate because one of these shows kicked off in 1999, but actually aired most of its episodes in the 00’s.  And watch in the coming weeks as I provide a full series profile for each of these shows.  (Links are to the series page for each entry at TV.com)

1st Alt. Jericho – This post-apocalyptic series gave us an intense, character-driven tale focusing on a small town in Kansas after a nuclear attack has brought the United States to its knees.  At first it teased us with questions about who started the attack, then it turned its attention to how the nation would rebuild itself.  CBS lost faith in the show after its ratings declined (they have had little patience with Science Fiction and Fantasy shows over the past decade) and cancelled it (twice).  The story couldn’t die, though, and lives on in comics these days.  (DVD Availability: Entire Series)

10. Moonlight – One of the better vampire entries on television of late, this one gave us an interesting twist on the sub-genre with a sexy, sleek look to it.  But it also had well-developed characters and started to expand on its mythology just as CBS put a stake in it after a shortened one season run (despite a nation-wide blood drive organized to show support for the show).  (DVD Availability: Entire Series)

9. Pushing Daisies – This whimsical show from the ever-imaginative Bryan Fuller about a man who could bring people back from the dead for sixty seconds brought a dark, adult fairy-tale to Prime Time and gave us one of the most original concepts to make it to the broadcast networks.  Unfortunately it proved too far-out for network television and ABC gave it the axe after two shortened seasons.  Fuller promises to wrap up the storylines in a future graphic novel, though.  (DVD Availability: Entire Series)

8. Jeremiah – Often over-looked, this post-apocalyptic series showed us the world after all the adults had died from a plague and the children they left behind (and who had now reached maturity) started to piece things back together.  Babylon 5 creator J. Michael Straczynski brought the series to Showtime and wrote many of the episodes.  And while it did stumble at times, especially during its second season, it still gave us an engaging show that at times approached the quality of B5.  Unfortunately, Showtime axed it after its second season, though Straczynski did manage to provide a conclusion of sorts.  (DVD Availability: Season 1 only.  Season 2 available for online viewing through Netflix.)

7. Eureka – This series about a small town in the Pacific Northwest populated by some of the world’s most brilliant scientists, who manage to regularly cause headaches for the local sheriff, caught audiences by surprise when it debuted in 2006 and it succeeded in making Science Fiction fun again.  Its first two season were its best and it has become somewhat repetitive in subsequent years, but it still manages to deliver some light-hearted fun along with a nice helping of techno-babble. (DVD Availability: Entire Series through prior season)

6. Doctor Who – The infamous Timelord returned to series television in 2004 and the show had something it never enjoyed during its first 25 year run: a budget.  This allowed the writers to take their whimsical ideas to the next level and deliver some fairly raucous (and at times absurd) Science Fiction stories (including a battle against millions of Daleks).  Some may have trouble digesting this very British series, but I felt like it was the perfect 21st century continuation for the beloved character.  (DVD Availability: Entire Series through prior season)

Jericho, Pushing Daisies, and Eureka are available for online viewing.  See out Sci Fi TV Online page for more info.

Next: The Top 5

By John J. Joex

Over the last two days I looked at the cancellation prospects of the Science Fiction and Fantasy shows currently still on the air, now I will take a look at the two shows that have already fallen to the network terminator this season.

Eastwick: The failure of this dramedy, about three modern day women with supernatural powers, seems fairly straightforward to me. It just was not strong enough in its early episodes to grab onto an audience. The chemistry of the cast did not gel during the first few episodes, the humor fell flat more often than not, and the lead foil—actually the central focus of the show—lacked the charisma needed for such a sinister charmer of a character. The show did improve as it progressed and started to show promise, but by then it was too late. Of course ABC didn’t do the Eastwick any favors seeing as it barely did anything to let people know about the series. I’m thinking that if they had punched up the humor some more (think of what Joss Whedon could have done with this one) and paired it with Desperate Housewives—whose audience this would have appealed to—the show might have prospered. Of course it failed to do much with its not-too-shabby lead-in from Cougar Town, so who can say? Still, and not to knock the acting chops of Paul Gross, but I think that Desperate Housewives’ Richard Burgi (who Gross resembles and who was recently killed off on DH) was born to play the Darryl Van Horne character. All that is a moot point now, and despite a fan campaign to keep Eastwick on the air, the show has been pulled from the schedule (with two episodes left unaired) and will have to settle with being the answer to the future Trivial Pursuit question: “What was the third failed attempt to make a television series from John Updike’s novel The Witches of Eastwick?”

Dollhouse: Why did the latest show from genre whiz-kid Joss Whedon fail? Because it was not a good fit for network Prime Time television. This showed basked in moral ambiguity, something which rarely plays well with your typical broadcast television viewer. Who are the good guys and who are the bad guys? Heck, with only two episodes of the show left, I still can’t answer that question. This makes for engaging viewing in my opinion, but most viewers prefer an easier to digest hour of television. This show would have fared much better on a cable network or one of the pay channels like HBO or Showtime. There, Whedon could have explored more of the adult themes that he wanted to work into the show and that FOX shied away from. Of course FOX’s tinkering with the show did not help either. They forced a lot of changes early on and tried to push Dollhouse in a different direction. If you go back and watch the original pilot included on the Season 1 DVD set, you get a better understanding of where Whedon wanted to go with the show, and that could have worked on the right network. FOX, though, was not the right network. You have to give them some credit for standing by the show and renewing it for a second season despite the low ratings it pulled during its first year. But then they did not do it any favors with their casting it to Friday nights, and they probably could have give it more of a promotional push. In any case, it outlasted Whedon’s Firefly (also a FOX casualty) as far as number of episodes but it will likely fade from our memories more quickly than that beloved show (evidenced by the lack of a fan campaign to keep Dollhouse on the air).

By John J. Joex

Mid-season is already upon us! Last Friday, Star Wars: The Clone Wars resumed new episodes and on Monday Heroes began the countdown to its Season 4 finale. Throughout January and into February, shows will be returning and/or premiering (check our Mid-Season Preview for the full rundown), so now it’s time to consider which of these shows are worth our ever-precious time in the coming months. Following are my Top 5 picks for the shows I will definitely watch during the second half of the current season along with several more runner-ups (the links are to each show’s page at TV.com):

1. Lost Season 6 – This is it! Five years of mysteries and conundrums are headed to the final reveal! I’ve already heard any of a number of rumors circulating about the current season, and I am definitely eagerly awaiting the conclusion to this amazing show. What will we do if the series peters out like Battlestar Galactica did about this time last year or if it wraps on a surreal note like The Prisoner (the original series) did without providing any real answers? The series producers have promised that won’t let that happen so we can only hope they will keep their word. In any case, this one should deliver more than a few entertaining moments during its swansong. (Returns February 2nd on its new night and time Tuesdays at 9 PM EST)

2. Caprica – Speaking of Battlestar Galactica, the prequel to that series will finally make it to television. The pilot (completed well over a year ago) came out on DVD last year and indicated a promising future for the show. It focuses on two families of prominence on the planet of Caprica (the Adamas and the Graystones) and their actions which lead to the creation of the Cylons. This epic series will follow a very different path than BSG but looks to be just as hard-hitting as that series as it uses a Science Fiction backdrop to address topical issues. (Premieres January 22nd)

3. Fringe – Wow! This show has really taken it up a notch. It improved on its lackluster first season start during the beginning of 2009 then it kicked into high gear during the first half of the current season. If you gave up on it after its first season, then its time to tune back in. For the most part, Fringe has been hitting on all cylinders lately and looks like it will continue to improve as it wraps up its second season. (Returns January 11th)

4. Stargate: Universe – Sure, several longtime Stargate fans have grumbled about this one, but I’m hooked! The series follows a group of civilians and military personnel trapped on a starship out of their control hurtling across the far end of the universe. And it really makes you believe that these people are in a desperate struggle for their survival. It did stumble a few times across its first set of episodes, but more often than not it soared. And gave us some good hard science fiction in the process; quite a rarity on TV these days. (Returns in April)

5. Chuck Season 3 – I have to admit that I am not one of the Subway-chomping Chuck faithful, but I have kept my eye on this series and enjoyed it when I tuned in. And I like the way that Season 2 ended with Chuck voluntarily agreeing upload Intersect 2.0 into his brain and willingly jump onboard the spy-game (and he knows Kung-Fu, too). Maybe I’ve just fallen for the hype (and NBC has promoted the hell out of this one), but I plan on actually putting this one on my must-watch list as the season begins and I just may end up getting hooked like all the other Chuck-devotees out there. (Returns with a special Sunday two hour premiere on January 10th before settling back into its regular Monday night timeslot)

Along with those five, I will definitely tune in for the premiere of FOX’s The Human Target, though it looks like that one will be more of an Action/Adventure show than a Science Fiction/Fantasy entry. Plus, Heroes kept me interested through the first part of its fourth season so I have to see how that one turns out. And I can’t miss the inevitable showdown between the Devil and the Archangel Michael that Supernatural has been working towards. Plus, The Legend of the Seeker always provides an easy-to-digest hour of entertainment and Dollhouse promises to go out with a bang.  Also, if NBC ever manages to get Day One on its scheduled, that should be worth watching as well.

Check back next week when I look at the cancellation prospects for this season’s new and returning shows.

Get caught up with these shows on DVD: