Eureka returns in July, something we tend to expect these days. But this time it comes in on Friday nights instead of Tuesdays, joining the strong tradition of ScfFi Friday shows like Battlestart Galactica, various Stargate incarnations, Doctor Who, Primeval, and more. It also coincides with their branding switch to SyFy, so all we need to round it out is the new Riverworld TV series they commissioned. While over at BBC America, Ashes to Ashes hits its season 1 finale tomorrow night, with season two kicking off the following Saturday. New episodes of Primeval and Torchwood are coming soon, as well as another original series,
At least for this competition, but I have to agree with the majority of results. The poll was put together at Total SciFi, and coming in at number one was the Doctor Who Theme, by Ron Grainer and Delia Derbyshire. By the first note, there is no doubt in anyone’s mind what the show is; how many theme songs have that power? In second place was the Red Dwarf theme (and did you check out the Terry Pratchett interview about this months Red Dwarf special?), with The X-Files in third. Hot on its heels came Buffy the Vampire Slayer in fourth place, and Star Trek TOS came in at 5. The rest include the 7) Twilight Zone, 8) Battlestar Galactica, 9) Quantum Leap, and 10) The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. I have no clue how Thunderbirds ended up on the list. Here are a few variations on a theme…
For those lucky enough to be in the UK, tonight was the first segment of the new Red Dwarf special on Dave TV. Robert Llewellyn, who plays the part of Kryten in that series, is being Tweeted to death about it, with a reported over 2,000 received so far tonight. For his last several Car Pool segments (he interviews people while driving them around in his car with web cams, very entertaining) he has had fellow Dwarfers Chris Berrie (Rimmer) and Craig Charles (Lister). He will be interviewing Danny and Holly (Norman, not Hattie) in the next week or two, I haven’t heard if Chloe Annett is going to do one or not. For myself, I will be waiting on the release of the DVD in July to watch it and add it to my collection.
A report from SciFi Wire says that Fox will not air episode 13 of Dollhouse, which would either be the season or series finale. After the way they let Idol run long, making sure those of us who depend on recording Fringe in order to see it would never see the end of the episode, I am scratching the network off my good-guys list. Wait, I did that last year. And the year before. And pretty much every year since they canceled Firefly (or was it Buffy?). So just like Firefly, Harsh Realms, and so many shows before it, you will have to wait for the DVD in July before you can see all the episodes. John Scalzi has a nice article in praise of Dark Star and other B movies, which is appropriate. The site he posted on, AMC, has just launched a B Movies Classics site, where you can watch many of them online for free. They also have the original Prisoner series and some other goodies.
Starting with the fact there is a new trailer from the BBC for the next Doctor Who special. There is also a trailer for the K9 spinoff. I haven’t found one for Torchwood yet, but it should be soon.
When new ones come out, I link to Anime streaming presentations you can watch online. There are a few places you can watch more than a single episode, and Funimation is in the process of releasing some new series for online consumption. So it seemed like the perfect time to mention that group, and a few other of my favorites. Veoh is where the new Funimation titles live, with series including Aquarion, Ghost Hunt, and xxxHolic being added to a library that already had titles like Kiddy Grade, Moon Phase, and Slayers. The folks at Anime News Network also have a library of legally watchable series, including some of those mentioned as well as Blue Gender, Origin, and Shuffle, to name a few. And then there is Crunchy Roll, where you can watch new series episodes the day after they first aired in Japan (a small fee is required for full access, other series and episodes are free). There are more, but these should get you started; got your Internet-Aware TV with the Ethernet/Wireless interface to your cable modem yet?