Chuck and Warehouse 13: Helping a drab TV season get better

The 2009-2010 TV season is quite drab for people like myself who are primarily interested in science-fiction dramas. First was the cancellation of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles in May, which meant that we would never know how John Connor’s time travelling adventures would lead to the movies.

Next was what seemed like a great news with the renewal of Dollhouse, a fun and dynamic drama. Unfortunately, the series got cancelled before mid-season and ended a few weeks ago.

For the few shows that were interesting, such as Flashforward and V, the Olympics completely messed up their broadcasting schedules and we have been without them for more than three months. I just hope that the episodes will be good when they finally come back.

Thankfully, Chuck finally came back in early January, after NBC decided to cancel the Conan O’Brien show and put Leno back in the late night spot. That show is always a delightful mix of action / comedy and a few sci-fi elements. I am always looking very forward to each episode week after week.

I also just discovered a show whose first season aired last summer on Syfy and which is coming back for a second season in July called Warehouse 13. Offering another fun mix of action / comedy and science-fiction, Warehouse 13 tells the story of two Secret Service agents who get assigned to protect and seek out objects with strange powers that would otherwise wreck havok on people’s lifes. It’s nothing revolutionary, sometimes seeming like just a funny version of the X-Files, but it’s something that helps to come with the lack of other good shows on the tube these days.

For a better idea on the show’s tone, check out a trailer for the first season of the show which contains scenes from multiple episodes.

My TV selections for the fall

Within the next two weeks, the new TV season will be starting and I have already selected that I plan to watch. Check out my recommendations on my TV schedule page, along with a short description and picture for every show.

If you are curious as to how I generated that grid, stay tuned for the release of my new Weekly Schedule plugin for WordPress.

Go back through the Stargate

After 10 years of Stargate SG-1 and 5 years of Stargate Atlantis, the producers behind both hit science-fiction series are going back to the drawing board for a third series entitled Stargate Universe. Not much is known about this series so far, other than the fact that a group of humans from Earth end up in a starship that the ancients set on a course to seed stargates through the universe. With no way to dial back to Earth, the expedition will be stuck on this ship and have to figure out ways to survive. Check out the trailers on Youtube.

See when your favorite TV shows are coming back

Television has been quite boring since Christmas due to the Writer’s Guild of America strike. After starting the strike in November, new episodes finished airing around the time of the Christmas break and never came back.

Thankfully, the strike finished in April and the whole television industry will soon be coming back to life with new episodes from your favorite TV shows. To see a full list of the shows that are coming back, along with a number of episodes and air dates for the first ones, check out this page on TVGuide.com.

One thing that you will notice as you go through the list is that studios took the time off to cancel some shows and have decided to post-pone most that had not started yet (like 24) to the fall or next winter.

My personal favorites these days are CSI: NY, The Unit, The Big Bang Theory, How I met Your Mother, 30 Rock. I was very disappointed to see Journeyman not coming back. I felt that the show had really found its rhythm in the last few episodes that aired. I also saw on this list that Bionic Woman was cancelled. No big loss there. It was more filler television than anything else.

A small nudge to Battlestar in DilbertUn petit clin d’oeil à Battlestar dans Dilbert

The Sunday Dilbert strip made a quick mention to Battlestar Galactica. Just funny.

Battlestar Galactica Wiki for BSG maniacsWiki de Battlestar Galactica pour les maniaques

While doing some quick Google searching, I found a very nice site containing tons of information on Battlestar Galactica, the great science-fiction that I keep raving about. This site is a wiki completely dedicated to storing information about the show. For those who don’t know what a wiki is, it is a database site where anyone can contribute information to try to get the most accurate data possible. This particular wiki uses the same software that the great wikipedia uses as its back-end.
Lors de recherches sur Google, j’ai trouvé un très bon site contenant une foule d’informations sur Battlestar Galactica, l’émission de science-fiction dont je parle souvent ces temps-ci. Ce site est un wiki qui est complètement dédié à accumuler de l’information sur l’émission. Pour ceux qui ne savent pas ce qu’est un wiki, c’est un site de base de données auquel n’importe qui peut contribuer des informations pour tenter d’avoir le contenu le plus complet possible. Ce wiki de Battlestar utilise le même logiciel que le superbe wikipedia pour gérer le contenu

Frakking Toasters

If you watch Battlestar Galactica, you know what this title refers to. Frakking Toasters is an online comic strip set in the Battlestar Galactica universe. They try to have a new strip out every week and what they have so far is pretty funny.
Si vous regardez l’émission Battlestar Galactica, vous savez ce que ce titre veut dire. Frakking Toasters est une bande dessinée sur internet qui se déroule dans l’univers de l’émission. Ils essaient d’avoir une nouvelle histoire à chaque semaine et ce qu’ils ont jusqu’à présent est très amusant.

New Stargate FictionNouvelle fiction de Stargate

I’ve become a fan of the Stargate universe over the last two years, first by reviewing the season DVD box sets, then by watching every episode of the great Stargate: Atlantis. I was then intrigued when I read about a third “series”, Stargate: Horizon. Horizon is a fan-created series that is set seven years after SG-1. They assume that the Stargate project has eventually gone public on Earth and that people are starting to get used to the thought that aliens might be walking among them. Of course, there needs to be bad guys for a series to work so there is a new race of aliens that is menacing Earth in SGH. Instead of filming episodes, the Horizon project currently publishes scripts for their episodes on their site. I will be reading through these episodes where I get a chance.
Je suis devenu un amateur de l’univers de Stargate au cours des deux dernières années, tout premièrement en critiquant les coffrets DVD de la série, puis en écoutant tous les épisodes de l’excellente série Stargate: Atlantis. Par la suite, je fût très intrigué d’entendre parler d’une troisième série, Stargate: Horizon. Horizon est un projet crée par les fans dont l’action se déroule sept ans après SG-1. Ils assument que le projet Stargate a été dévoilé aux habitants de la Terre et que les gens commencent à être habitués à la notion que des extra-terrestres vivent parmi eux. Bien sûr, cette nouvelle série avait besoin de vilains pour fonctionner et les créateurs ont donc crée une nouvelle race d’extra-terrestres pour menacer la Terre. Au lieu de filmer des épisodes, le projet Horizon publie présentement les scripts des épisodes en format PDF sur leur site web. J’en lirai sûrement quelques uns quand j’aurai la chance.

Tripping the Rift is coming back

The computer-animated science-fiction series Tripping the Rift is coming back for a second season on July 27th. Given everything that they did in the first season, I don’t know what they will do for the second one, but it should be fun to watch.

Stargate SG-1 and Atlantis start back up on July 15th

Two great science-fiction series, Stargate SG-1 and Stargate: Atlantis are going to start airing on July 15th on the Sci-Fi channel. SG-1 will be starting its ninth season while Atlantis is going to be on its second. I like SG-1 but have not seen all episodes so I’m not completely into it. Atlantis on the other hand I’ve seen from the beginning last year and is quite an enjoyable show.