The NYT looks into the new show that premieres this week: Bionic Woman.

Via the SyFy Portal: Mark Sheppard Teams Up With ‘Bionic Woman’.

Sheppard played the role of defense attorney Romo Lampkin in the final three episodes of season three of BSG, and did a mighty fine job of it. Further, in listening to him on some of the podcasts he seems to be an interesting and engaging fellow, so this is good news as far as I am concerned.

Katee Sackhoff’s evil bionic character has also been given a recurring role on the series.

SyFy Portal reports: Sackhoff ‘Steals The Screen’ In ‘Bionic Woman’, which ends up meaning that instead of just being in the pilot, she will have a recurring role as a villain on the new show:

Sackhoff’s character originally was slated to be offed in the pilot, but executives liked her so much that she is now going to be pulling double duty between both shows which are filmed in Vancouver and produced by NBCU.

“In theory she can do both because it’s the same company,” Bromstad said. “There are just [Actors Guild] rules you have to be able to agree on involving the number of guest star episodes. It’s still being figured out how much she would reoccur and what role she will play. We’ll work with ourselves to make it work.”

Also of interest to BSG fans:

Sackhoff apparently isn’t the only BSG alum to be making the show either, Hibberd wrote. While the reporter wouldn’t reveal any other names, he would say there are two more actors familiar to “Battlestar” fans who have some type of role in the pilot. However, Internet Movie Database lists Mark Sheppard, who played Romo Lampkin — Gaius Baltar’s defense attorney in the back half of the show’s third season — as having an unspecified role on the show.

Sheppard was great as Lampkin and it would be great to see him get a nice role on the new show.

Technorati Tags: Bionic Woman, Katie Sackhoff, David Eick, Mark Sheppard

This time via the LAT, ‘Bionic Woman’ gets a makeover:

pretty much only the bionics have survived from the original series. But even those are improved: This time, in addition to her super-sensitive synthetic ear, Jamie has a computerized eye with a built-in magnification function, much like Steve Austin’s.

[…]

Comparing the new version with the old underscores, in fact, how much the imperatives of TV drama have changed over the last three decades. Specifically, the new “Bionic Woman” reflects a much broader industry trend toward darker, more complicated stories and characters than would have been imaginable in the three-network era. The pilot has a lot more in common, visually and conceptually, with “24″ or “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” than it does “The Six Million Dollar Man.”

[…]

This is a “Bionic Woman” for anxiety-ridden grown-ups, not lunchbox-toting kids.

Which, quite frankly, works for me.

I will say this: the show may be doomed from the start, as NBC is going to put it in the same time slot as American Idol. Now, granted, Idol doesn’t start until well into the traditional Fall schedule, but once it premieres it crushes all comers. Unless BW starts strong, it could be rolled by the Fox juggernaut when the times comes.

Sometimes I wonder why networks do what they do…

NBC has a page set up for the Bionic Woman, including video clips.

While clearly a very different show than the original, it looks quite intriguing. Of course the typical comments left by fans of the old show who tend to expect any remake to be identical to the original are amusing to read. I must confess, the notion that there are folks who think that the original Bionic shows are sacrosanct is amazing, as we are hardly talking about the apogee of Western Civilization here…

Via the Sci Fi Wire: Sackhoff Is Original Bionic Woman

Katee Sackhoff told SCI FI Wire that she will play the original cyborg in NBC’s Bionic Woman SF series. “I play Sarah Corvus,” Sackhoff said in an interview at the Saturn Awards in Los Angeles on May 10. “She’s the original bionic woman. The first bionic woman. She doesn’t let anyone forget it. And she’s kind of gone off the reservation. She’s a little crazy.”

Sackhoff, who plays fighter jock Starbuck in Battlestar, will star in The Bionic Woman opposite Michelle Ryan, who plays Jamie Sommers. Sackhoff revealed that her character will have two bionic arms, “both legs, two eyes, one ear, part of my chest.”

This could be interesting, as I was a big fan of the bionic shows when I was a kid and Eick’s BSG credentials gives him a great deal of cred.