Here’s the latest sci fi news.  There’s isn’t a lot which I suppose makes this an easy read.

Terminator: Salvation – Christian Bale made headlines this week with a dummy spit aimed at the Director of Cinematography on the set of Terminator: Salvation.  The anger episode occurred some time ago but a recorded audio of the event only found its way to the internet this week.  In the audio Bale uses more ‘F’ words than is worth counting and threatens to not only bash Shane Hurlbut but also to destroy his lighting set up.  Have a listen here.  Enough said (and, in my view, hilarious)!  In other Terminator: Salvation news, an image was also released of the T600 (left/below) which looks pretty damn cool.

Heroes - NBC’s Heroes returned this week and recorded strong ratings with Season 3 Episode 14, A Clear and Present Danger (which forms part of Volume: 4 Fugitives).  Despite the strong ratings, I have to review this episode as very average.  The script was poor to say the least and continuing the plot outline of ’super powered people just trying to be normal’ is now quite unbelievable.  That said, after whining about how poor the series had become, the last twenty minutes of the episode really ramped up and set the scene for a potential turn around in what can only be described as a continuing deterioration since Season 2.  If Tim Kring can stop making Hiro seem like an idiot and stop the ‘I just want to blend into society and be normal’ routine, and stop taking away powers from the main characters, and add some common sense to the characters, that’d be a good start.  The last part of this episode sort of started this process.  Let’s hope it continues. Read the rest of this entry »

Not long after the SCI FI Channel announced the green-light for a second season of its new sci-fi series ‘Sanctuary‘ comes the news that its first season finale raked in 2 million viewers.  As a result, Sanctuary made it into the top 10 most watched cable television shows for its screening day.

But that’s not all.  Sanctuary has been doing extremely well episode by episode, with viewer numbers continuing to climb throughout the first season (after an impressive 3 million viewers tuned in for episode one).  With the success of the finale, Sanctuary averaged more than 2 million viewers for its full season making it the best performing first-year original scripted series to appear on SCI FI since the debut of Eureka.

Sanctuary is the first television series of its kind to be filmed entirely in front of a green-screen, using virtual sets much like Zack Snyder did to create his smash-hit 300. Read the rest of this entry »

The fifth episode of Eureka season 3, titled Show me the Mummy, tells the story of an ancient Egyptian tomb that, despite warnings from resident Egyptologist Dr. Wilding, is opened to unleash a serious threat on Eureka and the world.  Though originally warned of a curse, the threat turns out to be much worse with a previously extinct ‘super bug’ that, when it gets inside you, dehydrates you to death in, well, no time.  A few people die before Carter stumbles upon a solution.

The episode was a good one, far superior to the first three episodes of the season, but not as good as the previous episode, I do over. The story flowed on from the previous episode well and continued to tie off loose ends regarding the demise of Stark, as well as delving deeper into the secret agenda of Eva Thorne, aka ‘The Fixer’.  But, despite enjoying the episode,  I’m left wondering why Carter’s sister (Aunt Lexie) is necessary.  The actress, who reminds me somewhat of Uma Thurman, might possibly be a good actress – if her character is designed to be annoying.   I can’t really tell if she is a good actress though as, well, every time there’s a scene with her in it, all I notice is how chronic her character is.  Still, even Aunt Lexie’s character is likeable by comparison to this episodes Dr. Sebastian Marx who, fortunately, was killed early in this episode. Read the rest of this entry »

Not long ago I posted my dissatisfaction with the first three episodes of Eureka and, moreso, voiced my disdain at the concept behind the fourth episode, I do over. Firstly, any TV show or movie with a wedding in it automatically makes me want to puke and, secondly, just how many times has the GroundHog day thing been done. So, it was with the expectation of the worst that I sat down to watch the latest Eureka episode. Here is where I eat humble pie. I do over was a great episode.

The storyline follows Carter as he continues to relieve the wedding day of Allison and Stark, piecing together the puzzle of his daily time loop as each day progresses. Fortunately, there really wasn’t a lot of wedding in the episode, it was 90% Carter as he struggled to unravel the time loop mystery and as he struggled to deal with his slow physical break down with each time reversal. I’m not going to go into the storyline, you can read that here. Instead, I’m going to comment that my fears that Eureka had degenerated have now been put on hold. The episode had all the traits of the season 1 and season 2 quality that originally put the series in my good books. Read the rest of this entry »

Season 1 of Eureka was excellent. Season 2 of Eureka was excellent. The Sci Fi channel were calling Eureka their number one science fiction show and, if you ignored the existence of Battlestar Galactica, I thought it was a fair call. At least, the ratings made it a fair call. Then, after what seemed like an eternity of waiting, came season 3.

Having just watched the third episode of season 3, “Best in Faux“, I’m left wondering – did they change writers? There was a writers strike after all, so perhaps yes, perhaps they did. We know the writers strike apparently lead to Eureka being commissioned for 21 instead of 13 episodes for season 3. Perhaps the rush to produce more quantity has led to the unfortunate side effect of less quality. It seems the only possibility, since a quick check shows its the same writers. It’s the same actors, it’s the same characters, and its the same writers. But somehow, the show isn’t the same.

Eureka currently isn’t what it used to be. Instead of a nice, cohesive and ongoing storyline spread with enjoyable character driven humor, it now seems to be a try hard comedy with impossible to believe scenarios. After looking forward to Eureka for almost a year, I have to say, I”m quite disappointed. I also have a friend who had listed Eureka as her favorite television show for its first two years, but like myself, has watched the first three episodes of season 3 and asked, “What’s going on?” Read the rest of this entry »