(S05E09) "I have a bad feeling about this one. A very bad feeling." - Melinda about the ghost in the closet
Melinda's bad feeling was, pardon the pun, dead on. Very bad things happened in this November Sweeps episode: Aiden was put in danger, the dead girl from the closet was front and center, the Shadows came back full force and in a way we hadn't see yet, Bedford gave more warnings to Eli, as a hurting Carl the Watcher gave warnings to Melinda.
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.
Can shoes or cologne be considered fanboy collectibles? We'll find out together as a very different breed of Star Trek collectibles arrives in time for the post-Thanksgiving gift buying frenzy.
J.J. Abrams made Trek sexy again -- especially the original TV show from the 1960s. So Paramount and CBS put their marketing and licensing people to work. What did they come up with from just inside the Windsor Gate on Melrose?
The Vermont Teddy Bear Company is offering shorter, furrier versions of Captain James T. Kirk and Mr. Spock (right) for about $100 each. I've acquired one of these, and they're well made with a lot of attention to detail in their little uniforms.
Also, make sure you check out the Airwalk Terrain Hi Skate Star Trek StarFleet Edition sneakers from Payless. For $50, you get a really well-made urban sneaker that just happens to bear a Starfleet insignia. And they come in the departmental uniform colors of the original Enterprise crew -- gold, blue and red.
I'm a little behind on my viewing of The Prisoner, but I'm up to episode three, "Anvil," and really digging it so far. It's like The Twilight Zone, Road Warrior, and The Truman Show all rolled into one. And I don't have the slightest idea where it's headed.
I haven't seen the original 1960s series, but will definitely have to check it out. If it's anything like this one -- and many say it's better -- I'm sure I'll love it. Not only is the series an intriguing mystery, but it also seems to be a social commentary on fear, guilt, conformity, and control.
Are we all prisoners of something, one way or another? Are we all striving to break free of the social norms that shackle us? Am I off my rocker and reading a whole lot more into this show than is necessary?
Are you liking The Prisoner so far? I'm sort of hoping they turn it into a regular TV series.
Many sci-fi fans wonder what classic Doctor Who might look like if the BBC bosses of the '70s and '80s could have budgeted more than £6 per episode for visual effects.
A new Who DVD set from BBC Video features a specially remastered episode that offers you just that experience.
Doctor Who: "The Black Guardian Trilogy" serves up a trio of 1983 Who episodes featuring Peter Davison as the Fifth Doctor in a life and death struggle against a supernatural evil force.
A team of restoration and digital effects artists took the final episode of that trilogy ("Enlightenment" -- a well-written, high-concept adventure featuring a simulated sailing race in deep space) and laid in 21st Century CG visuals.
If you're like me, and I know I am, you've wondered what it would like if the U.S.S. Enterprise descended on the Hollywood Hills.
Fortunately, Paramount held the big DVD and Blu-ray release party for J.J. Abrams' Star Trek movie at the Griffith Park Observatory Monday night, and the Enterprise took up a standard orbit around the famous planetarium landmark.
While the film's creators and cast mingled inside the observatory, a high-definition multimedia system projected video images of Trek visual effects up against the building's walls.
So, for a few moments, the Enterprise (almost to scale) swooped in for a visit before heading away at warp factor one.
Director Stephen Sommers might want to discourage the production of animated lead-ups to his feature films. They keep outdoing the movies they're supposed to set up for audiences.
Before his Van Helsing reached theaters in 2004, Universal released Van Helsing: The London Assigment. Written by Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens, the animated half-hour was clever and action-packed. Van Helsing? It was not clever and action-packed.
Now, the DVD release of G.i. Joe: Resolute, an 11-episode series of animated shorts that originally aired on Adult Swim before the release of Rise of Cobra, brings a cooler and more visually compelling "Yo, Joe!" to screens.
The first thing I noticed about AMC's reboot of the classic Patrick McGoohan series The Prisoner was its style. The original is a very stylized piece of work, but as someone who didn't see it back in 1967-1968 when it first aired -- I'm not that old! -- I'm not sure if its visual presentation was wholly unique in itself, or more a reflection of the '60s style in general. Certainly the '60s have become infamous for some weird fashion and design choices.
Some of that '60s nostalgia creeped into the architecture and dress of the Villagers this time around without overwhelming the tone, and I think it's a wonderful homage to the original. But I'm more impressed that this re-imagining manages to capture the same sense of paranoia and confusion that the first did, without simply retelling the same story in the same way. And it's those differences that are truly modernizing the story in a great way.
(S05E08) "How did you find this one?" - Det. Sam Blair to Melinda and Eli
Eli and Melinda quickly came up with a fake story as to why they often discover bodies or are around crime scenes. Detective Blair bought it this time but it wouldn't surprising if she decides to dig a little deeper to get real answers. After years of being around deceased, one would expect that the Grandview police would start investigating why Melinda, and now Eli, are involved in a lot of their cases, no?
While we wait for Det. Blair to start to investigate Melinda and Eli, we are treated to one of the wackiest and lightest episode of the season thanks to Greg Germann and Perrey Reeves guesting on the episode.
So Heroes is probably on its way out this season or next, so how about a new series where a group of people find themselves with super powers?
Misfits is a British show about a group of teens who are struck by lightning and find they can do incredible things, including turn invisible, hear people's thoughts, control time (of course!), and send people into a sexual frenzy. Wow, all this time I've had a superpower and I didn't even know it (I'm talking about hearing people's thoughts). Here's a sneak peek, though it doesn't show that much. It premieres tonight at 8 on E4. It's Heroes + swearing!
[via HeatWorld]
The miniseries Torchwood: Children of Earth was a huge ratings and critical success. It was only a matter of time before show creator Russell T. Davies started talking, officially, about moving ahead with another season of Torchwood.
"The recession has hit British television, but fingers crossed, it will be a go. We expect things to start to move in January. We've got great ideas for the show. I think there's a further lease on life for many years to come, but certainly for a [fourth season]," Davies said.
If there aren't already enough Star Wars video games for your liking, you can make your own with Cartoon Network's Star Wars: The Clone Wars Game Creator.
With the animated action show continuing to draw big numbers on Friday nights, its home network is serving up a chance for fans to build their own Clone Wars game and share it with other gamers.
According to the network, these game creators aren't a stunt to generate TV show buzz. The Ben 10: Alien Force Game Creator posted more than 630 million game plays since it went live a year ago, with more than 4.6 million games created by online visitors.
Once fans open their game creator, they choose their character (Anakin Skywalker, Captain Rex or Cad Bane) and their vehicle (AT-TE, AT-RT or Speeder), allowing nine different combinations of character abilities and vehicle powers.
There are plenty of sci-fi TV shows made up in Canada. The Stargate series comes out of Vancouver -- as does Fringe. There's a proud ongoing fantasy tradition deeply rooted up there.
But, the city's local newspaper insists the best show in production in Canada's Pacific Southwest isn't on broadcast TV. It's a web series called Riese. The Steampunk-themed action series is set in another time in the kingdom of Eleysia. The title character (Christine Chatelain) battles through the countryside with a wolf avenging the death of her family.
She's fighting off a crazed, fundamentalist religious group -- the Sect. So, you can set your watch by how long the tunnel-vision crew over at Big Hollywood jumps on Riese as some sort of attack on traditional religion. (It's not.)
Cartoon Network is getting deeper into the live action series game.
Yes, I know that's like Fox Sports getting into the daytime soap opera business, but you can't get too upset about the network inappropriate name game. Remember when Bravo was the fine arts network? I rest my case.
As for Cartoon Network's new non-animated shows, a release from the network says Tower Prep and Unnatural History are headed our way in January, 2010.
According to the network, Tower Prep is "an action thriller telling the story of rebellious teen, Ian (Drew Van Acker), who wakes up one morning to find himself trapped at a mysterious prep school." In other words, it's a teenage remake of The Prisoner -- the original 1960s version -- or "Jim Henson's The Prisoner Babies."
Apple's iPhone and iPod are emerging as the preferred delivery device for online comic books. They're portable, hand-held and feature vivid screens capable of delivering any necessary colors. You can use the touch screen to flip the pages back and forth.
An online comics website, Comixology, is a central point for scores of online comics available via iTunes' App Store, including several titles based on popular genre shows of the recent and not-so-recent past.
You'll find that 80's anime after school favorite, Voltron living here. Marvel's animation-influenced X-Men flourishes in multiple versions. The Middleman, a now-canceled creative comic-book inspired children's live action show, continues in iPhone form. In fact, The Middleman stories on Comixology were written to continue the TV show's storyline.
(S05E09) "I have a bad feeling about this one. A very bad feeling." - Melinda about the ghost in the closet
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. 
Can shoes or cologne be considered fanboy collectibles? We'll find out together as a very different breed of Star Trek collectibles arrives in time for the post-Thanksgiving gift buying frenzy.
I'm a little behind on my viewing of The Prisoner, but I'm up to episode three, "Anvil," and really digging it so far. It's like The Twilight Zone, Road Warrior, and The Truman Show all rolled into one. And I don't have the slightest idea where it's headed. 
Many sci-fi fans wonder what classic Doctor Who might look like if the BBC bosses of the '70s and '80s could have budgeted more than £6 per episode for visual effects.
Director Stephen Sommers might want to discourage the production of animated lead-ups to his feature films. They keep outdoing the movies they're supposed to set up for audiences.
The first thing I noticed about AMC's reboot of the classic Patrick McGoohan series The Prisoner was its style. The original is a very stylized piece of work, but as someone who didn't see it back in 1967-1968 when it first aired -- I'm not that old! -- I'm not sure if its visual presentation was wholly unique in itself, or more a reflection of the '60s style in general. Certainly the '60s have become infamous for some weird fashion and design choices.
The miniseries Torchwood: Children of Earth was a huge ratings and critical success. It was only a matter of time before show creator Russell T. Davies started talking, officially, about moving ahead with another season of Torchwood. 
If there aren't already enough Star Wars video games for your liking, you can make your own with Cartoon Network's Star Wars: The Clone Wars Game Creator.
There are plenty of sci-fi TV shows made up in Canada. The Stargate series comes out of Vancouver -- as does Fringe. There's a proud ongoing fantasy tradition deeply rooted up there.
Cartoon Network is getting deeper into the live action series game.
Apple's iPhone and iPod are emerging as the preferred delivery device for online comic books. They're portable, hand-held and feature vivid screens capable of delivering any necessary colors. You can use the touch screen to flip the pages back and forth.
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 ...
