1. Prepare For Warp Speed!
After multiple delays and some behind the scenes shake-ups, the newest entry in the Star Trek television franchise finally has a target launch date. Discovery will have its debut on CBS on September 24th, then the rest of the show’s first season will stream on CBS All Access. One episode per week of the fifteen-episode season will be released through November 5th, before going on hiatus. And then the show will resume in January with a weekly release of its remaining eight episodes.
In addition to the release date, some more information was revealed this week about the show’s lead character played by Sonequa Martin-Green. She is apparently the first human to go to the Vulcan Learning Center and the Vulcan Science Academy, and she has ties to Spock’s father Sarek because of her attendance at those institutions. That gives her character an interesting connection to Vulcan which I am sure will be explored further in the series.
2. Damon Lindelof To Adapt ‘Watchmen’ For HBO
Lost veteran and The Leftovers creator Damon Lindelof has his next television project in the works already. He plans on tackling the classic comic book series Watchmen for the premium cable channel HBO. That Alan Moore series has already received a big screen turn with Zack Snyder at the helm, though that version has been rather polarizing for fans. HBO had previously talked with Snyder about adapting the story to the small screen, but he was busy working on Batman v Superman. It is unclear at this point whether the television adaptation will be a spin-off from the movie or take another shot at telling the story from the beginning. Personally, I believe the latter would be preferable, because the 12-issue mini-series has more than enough material for two seasons, and could be fleshed out to go further similar to what Bryan Fuller is doing with American Gods for Starz.
3. The CW Will Take Another Stab At A #Supernatural Spin-Off
Supernatural is heading into its record-busting thirteenth season this coming Fall, and The CW is considering giving viewers even more of the show with its latest attempt at a spin-off. “Wayward Sisters” will have recurring character Sheriff Jody Mills (Kim Rhodes) as its lead and according to The Wrap the show will follow
a group of troubled young women, all of them orphaned by supernatural tragedy. Under Mills’ training and protection, these women will emerge as a supreme monster-fighting force.
The pilot will air as an episode in the show’s thirteenth season with the network deciding later if they will continue it as its own series. In the Supernatural‘s ninth season, the episode “Bloodlines” introduced a possible spin-off, but it was not well received. And other spin-offs have been considered throughout the show’s run. I always thought they should have done a show with Felicia Day’s Charlie teaming up with Dorthy (yeah, the one that went to Oz who we met in the ninth season), but I guess that won’t happen based on events that I won’t spoil for those who are not caught up.
4. Steven Moffat And Mark Gatiss Are Working On A Dracula Series
Steven Moffat is departing from Doctor Who after the current season, but will be re-teaming up with his Sherlock partner on a new television adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula for the BBC. Variety refers to this as a “new take” on the story that will follow the same format as Sherlock “with a miniseries run of feature-length episodes”. It is not clear yet on whether their version will be a period piece that follows the original story or if it will deliver a modern take on the vampire tale as the two did with Sherlock. Since Moffat and Gatiss currently have other projects in the works, they will likely be looking at 2018 at the earliest to get this on the air.
5. RIP Stephen Furst
Babylon 5 regular Stephen Furst passed away this week at age 63. The actor played the character Vir Cotto throughout B5‘s five seasons who started off as the naive and good-spirited the assistant to the rather dour Ambassador Londo Mollari (played by Peter Jurasik). Vir’s character grew and matured throughout the series, and he eventually worked his way up in the Centauri government (trying not to be too spoilerly for those who have not seen the show). Furst is also well know as one of the regulars on the 80’s medical drama St. Elsewhere and his breakout role came with the 1978 film Animal House.
6. Sci-Fi TV Status Report: ‘Blood Drive’ Slows In Its Second Week
On Wednesday, Syfy’s new series Blood Drive shifted down to second gear as it slipped to a 0.18 rating based on the overnights for the 18-49 demographic with 627K total viewers. That was a 25% drop from its premiere numbers, but it is still at acceptable levels for its network and is not in danger of getting sent to the junkyard just yet. On Monday, Freeform’s Shadowhunters improved to a 0.24 rating with 588K total viewers while Sitchers improved to a 0.13 rating with 333K total viewers. The former show has been renewed for a third season while the latter one could use a push from its fans on the social nets to help it into a fourth year.
7. #WinterIsHere In The Latest ‘Game Of Thrones’ Trailer
Game of Thrones fans have eagerly been awaiting the seventh season of the show, and its debut is now less than a month away. HBO has released a new trailer to whet our appetites, and it promises an epic showdown. The Season 7 premiere date is set for July 16th, and while there will be only seven episodes, several of those will be super-sized to over one hour. You can see the full Summer schedule of #scifi and #fantasy shows here, and next week I will have the full rundown of July premieres with trailers.
8. News Bites: Judge Dredd Series Targets A 2019 Debut And More
The previously announced series Judge Dredd: Mega-City One is moving forward, but not at a fast pace. It currently looks like that one will not make it to the small screen until 2019.
Teen Wolf and Arrow veteran Colton Haynes will be joining American Horror Story in its seventh season, but there is no word at this point on the character that he will play.
Vampire Diaries alum Kat Graham will be joining the cast of the Netflix apocalyptic film How it Ends. Forest Whitaker and Theo James are already onboard for that one.
