Via the Telegraph comes an interview with Doctor Who producer, Russell T. Davies: Doctor Who .

h/t: The Daily P.O.P.

So reports Variety: Sci Fi Channel celebrates success

Sci Fi starts another season of “Dr. Who,” which it bought from the BBC, on April 18, after beginning the first season of another series purchase, “The Sarah Jane Adventures,” a spinoff of “Dr. Who,” one week earlier.

io9 has the images that Paramount asked Ain’t it Cool News to take down. They are interesting as I think one can see the classic TOS influence.

It’s here: Iron Man TV Spot! | Filmonic

Via Reuters (Sci Fi keeps fight going with Battlestar prequel) there is news of Caprica and other SciFi Channel programming (which is the emphasis here):

Sci Fi also has given the go-ahead to “True Believer,” a two-hour back-door pilot created by Rosario Dawson and David Atchinson — who co-wrote the comic book series “Occult Crimes Task Force” — about a comic book enthusiast who hires a former superhero to teach him about crime-fighting. It joins “The Stranded,” a two-hour pilot of a Sci Fi/Virgin Comics joint venture.

The network also plans an “Alice in Wonderland”-based six-hour miniseries titled “Alice.” A two-hour comedy-drama pilot, “Deputized,” follows a man who fights crime around the galaxy after getting super powers.

[…]

Sci Fi’s reality slate includes “Estate of Panic,” a series about seven people who compete to find millions of dollars at an estate, and “Brain Trust,” in which geniuses bands together to solve problems. The channel also announced new seasons of “Scare Tactics,” now hosted by “30 Rock’s” Tracy Morgan; “Mind Control With Derren Brown”; and “Ghost Hunters International.” And a May 18 special by NBC News correspondent Lester Holt will feature “Mystery of the Crystal Skulls,” about the real-life search for what the objects at the center of the latest “Indiana Jones” movie.

None of the above, at least as described, sounds too compelling. It is a mystery to me how SciFi can produce BSG, but otherwise not bring us any other really good original programming. I do like, Eureka, but it hardly is in the same class.

More on Caprica: Caprica Very Different From Battlestar

Headline reaction: given that the show would be pre-apocalypse and on planets rather than spaceships, I would think it would have to be quite a bit different.

Says Moore:

Instead of Galactica’s action-adventure space-based war show, Caprica will tell a story that takes place before any of the wars happened. “This is really more of a sci-fi Dallas,” Moore said. “It’s a political story, a family story. It’s about the creation of the Cylons, and it’s about a company. It’s planet-based. It’s very character-oriented, very serialized and very much about the characters. It’s a whole different genre, and that’s what makes it exciting.”

This could be interesting and Moore’s work on BSG and Trek (especially DS9) gives me some hope that it could, in fact, be good. However, I have to wonder exactly what the story arcs will be–and how much we will simply creep towards the Cylons and how much we will actually get to the Cylons. The show will be more interesting if it could actually build through the introduction of the Cylons and their rebellion. If it just hints at it and never delivers, I think that the show will fall short.

The BSG prequel is a go–so reports (amongst others) TrekWeb: Sci Fi Channel Green-Lights Battlestar Galactica Prequel 2-Hour Pilot, Caprica

The Watcher has some details: ‘Battlestar Galactica’ prequel has ‘Friday Night Lights’ connection

Click

Via the BBC: Writer Arthur C Clarke dies at 90

Peter Davidson talks Who over at the BBC: Doctor Who - Interview - Peter Davison (’Doctor Who’)

Of the more interesting questions was the following (based on Davidson’s appearance in Timecrash:

Has it whetted your appetite for another, perhaps longer appearance in a future story? Russell T Davies certainly likes the old mythology.
“He does to a certain extent. I would certainly be able to do it. I’m not suggesting for a moment that it would ever happen. I think it won’t happen. But I would have done it anyway. I have two young boys, six and eight, who love Doctor Who, so I sit there and I watch all the new series Doctor Whos about three or four times. And now my daughter [Georgia Moffett] is going to be in it…”

An intriguing possibility, to be sure. However, since all of the other Doctor-Doctor encounters (apart from Timecrash, which technically didn’t “happen” I would think) were driven by the Time Lords and their technology (e.g., to fight Omega in the The Three Doctors, the use of the timescoop in The Five Doctors, and some Time Lord mission (if memory serves) in The Two Doctors), it makes one wonder how such an encounter might happen, and what it would mean to the post-Gallifrey Whoniverse.

io9 deals with the story as if Davidson might could be considered to replace Tennant once he leaves (which is widely rumored (or should that be rumoured?) to be happening after the 2024 “specials”). Part of me thinks that would be fascinating, part of me thinks it couldn’t work (at a minimum, he would need a new set of clothes!).