My Fall TV Picks

Wow does time fly or what?  The fall TV season is already here!  I've gone through the schedule of new shows and picked the ones I'm looking forward to.  By no means is this any kind of prediction for which ones are going to last or a review blog.  It's just the series premieres that I'm looking forward to.  


Free Agents


Premieres September 14th at 10:30/9:30 p.m. CT and will air Wednesday nights at 8:30/7:30 CT on NBC starting September 21st. 

Based on the British comedy series of the same name, it follows the lives of two public relations executives, a recently divorced guy and a woman trying to move on after the death of her fiancee, who discover that they seem to have an attraction for each other, even after having slept together during a drunk-filled one night stand, while at the same time trying to stay professional at work, where their friends will do anything to get them to re-enter the dating scene.


New Girl


Premieres September 20th and will air Tuesday nights on Fox at 9/8 central.

The show will star Zooey Deschanel as Jessica "Jess" Day, a well-liked, bubbly, and adorable woman in her late 20s who is trying to get over her surprise breakup with her model boyfriend. She eventually finds a new place to stay when she moves in with three single guys, who try to help her learn about love, life and herself, while at the same time learn a lot about themselves.


Person Of Interest


Premieres September 22nd and will air Thursday nights on CBS at 9/8 central.

Based on a screenplay by J.J. Abrams and Jonathan Nolan the show, which stars Michael Emerson, Jim Caviezel and Taraji P. Henson follows a mysterious billionaire who has developed a computer program that predicts the identity of a person connected to a violent crime that will take place some time in the future. However, the program has its limitations: for example, it cannot predict whether the person will be a victim, perpetrator, or witness, nor can it predict when or where the crime will take place. 


Pan Am


Premieres September 25th and will air Sunday nights on ABC at 10/9 central.

Is centered around the iconic airline Pan American World Airways during the 1960s. The period drama, from writer Jack Orman (ER) and director Thomas Schlamme (The West Wing), will focus on the pilots and flight attendants working for the world-famous airline in 1963.


Terra Nova


Premieres September 26th and will air Monday nights on Fox at 8/7 central.

The show begins in the year 2149, a time when all life on planet Earth is threatened with extinction. In an effort to save the human race, scientists develop a time machine allowing people to travel 85 million years back in time to prehistoric Earth. The Shannon family join the tenth pilgrimage of settlers to Terra Nova, the first human colony on the other side of the temporal doorway. However, they are unaware that it's in the middle of a group of carnivorous dinosaurs.


Grimm


Premieres October 21st and will air Friday nights on NBC at 9/8 central.

Set in present-day Portland, Oregon, the series puts a new twist on the stories of the Brothers Grimm in which a homicide detective learns that he is a descendent of a group of hunters known as "Grimms", who fight to keep humanity safe from the supernatural creatures of the world. Upon learning of his destiny and that he is the last of his kind, he has to protect every living soul from the sinister storybook characters that have infiltrated the real world.


Once Upon A Time


Premieres October 23rd and will air Sunday nights on ABC at 8/7 central.

The series is loosely inspired by the classic fairy tale stories except set in the present day. The stories hold a key to the mystery that will draw a bail bonds collector and the son that she gave up for adoption 10 years earlier to a New England town called Storybrooke, Maine. This town is actually a parallel world in which fairy tale characters look like normal people and don't remember their true identities or anything about their true lives.

Re-Living My Childhood

During my childhood I was a big fan of the original Battlestar Galactica.  So much so that I ended up building my own Viper Fighter, which were the small ships those humans fleeing from the Cylon tyranny used to defend themselves.

The above is a picture of me circa 1979 wearing a helmet made from a plastic ice cream bucket and masking tape sitting in the pilots seat ready to be shot out of Galactica's launch tubes.

What if that pretend ship of mine had never been dismantled but instead was sitting in a garage someplace?  And, what if, as an adult I were to get back in it, then through some sort of magic, the Viper turned real and I was able to fly off into space to fight along Starbuck and Apolo?      

Well, that's the premise I hope to explore in the next blog story I'm going to write.  Maybe from there the fictitious version of me could land on the moon and serve alongside the characters from Space: 1999 then board the Starship Enterprise. Obviously exact names would change to avoid copyright infringement.

But first, this one needs to be finished http://ablogaboutstuff.com.

Doctor Who Quotes

I only recently started watching the Doctor Who series.  My journey began with Christopher Eccleston's reign as the time lord in 2005 and has continued to the most recent portrayal of the doctor by Matt Smith.

You see, being unemployed and having Netflix streaming has afforded me the opportunity to catch up rather quickly.

At any rate, the show is very good at providing memorable quotes so here are a few of my favorites.

Series one episode "Dalek."


(The Doctor finds a Cyberman head)


The Doctor: "Oh, look at you!"
Rose: "What is it?"
The Doctor: "An old friend of mine. Well, enemy. The stuff of nightmares reduced to an exhibit. I'm getting 
old."


Series six episode "The Impossible Astronaut."
(River, Amy and Rory talking about the Doctor's death under the Tardis's control room while the Doctor is there alone.)


Doctor: "I'm being extremely clever up here and there's no one to stand around looking impressed, what's the point in having you all??"


2009 holiday special "Waters of Mars."

(Holding a gun pointing at The Doctor)

"State your name, rank and intention."
"The Doctor: The Doctor. Doctor. Fun."
Tarak: "What the hell? It's a man. A man on mars. How?"
Steff: "He was wearing this thing. I have never seen anything like this."
Tarak: "What did mission control say?"
Steffi: "We're out of range for 10 hours, with the solar flares."
Brooke: "You could cut the chat everyone."
The Doctor: "Actually chat is second on my list. The first being gun pointed at my head. Which puts my head second and the chat third. Gun-Head-Chat, yeh, I hate lists. But you could hurt someone with this thing, just put it down."

Series three episode "Blink."


The Doctor: "People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but *actually* from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint - it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly... time-y wimey... stuff."


Series one episode "End Of The World."


Doctor: "Tell you what. With a bit of jiggery pokery..."
Rose: "Is that a technical term, "jiggery pokery"?"
Doctor: "Yeah, I got a first in jiggery pokery, what about you?"
Rose: "Nah, I failed hullabaloo."

Sacrificed SciFi Shows

Have you ever had a TV show that you really, really liked but then all of a sudden, out of the blue the network cancels it?

Well, that's happened to me time and time again!  And you know why?  Because I'm a science fiction fan and for some reason it's not a very popular genre.

Anyway, this blog is all about some of my favorite shows that have ended way too early.

Here's the top 3.  Feel free to add your own in the comment section below.

Space: Above And Beyond - 1995, 96

A show set in the years 2063–2064 which focused on a group of United States Marine Corps Space Aviators. The "Wildcards" which they were known as, are based on the space carrier USS Saratoga, and act as infantry and pilots to fight a race of aliens known as "Chigs."  It was very character-driven with numerous sub-plots which made the series deep and compelling.  I feel like there was so much more they could've done with the story lines.

Defying Gravity - 2009

A space travel series set in the year 2052 which follows eight astronauts on a six-year mission through the Solar System while their lives are being constantly recorded and broadcast back to Earth as part of an ongoing documentary. In spite of a libido-suppressing device worn by each crew member, romantic entanglements develop. Further complicating their lives is a mysterious storage pod which contains something referred to as Beta.

I knew this show was doomed from the start, pretty much because it was being aired on one of the major networks.  Let's see, has that ever worked?  Nope!  They actually released the complete first season/series on DVD with the rest of the un-aired episodes but I've been unable to watch them knowing that there could've been so much more!

Journeyman - 2007



This is kind of the odd man out on my list because it doesn't take place in space.

The plot centers around Dan Vasser, a San Francisco reporter who involuntarily travels through time.  He soon learns that each series of jumps follows the life of a person whose destiny he seems meant to change. Dan's jumping affects his family life and his job, and instills suspicion in his brother Jack, a police detective. While in the past, Dan reconnects with his ex-fiancée, Livia, whom he had believed was killed in a plane crash but is actually a time traveler like him.

It really reminded me of shows like Quantum Leap and Sliders, which wasn't a time travel but an alternate Earth travel program.  I'm a sucker for a series that shows what could've been or other possibilities and was really looking forward to seeing more of Dan's travels but that was not too be.

Like I said at the top, if you have suggestions for SciFi shows that ended too early, leave them in the comment section below.

Thanks for reading!

My Summer Scifi Guide

Now that the "regular" television season has come to a close, a small crop of "summer" shows are about to start airing.  Okay, I'll stop with the quotations.

I'm sorry to say, there isn't a whole lot out there! Mainly a bunch of reality-based programs.  Even less of a choice if you're a sci fi fan like me.  Stargate Universe is ending for now but that just makes way for the long-awaited return of Warehouse 13.  What else is out there you may ask.  Well, here's a "filtered" list of programs picked by me.  Woops, there I go again with the quotations!  Sorry about that.

By the way, we're just sticking with Sci Fi themed shows here.  Well, that, Last Comic standing and Ghost Hunters Academy, which in mind are the only watchable reality shows.  That is, until they bring back Rock Star (?), Who Wants To Be A Superhero, American Inventor or On The Lot.

Alright, no more rambling and on with the list.

Ghost Hunters Academy (June 2nd on Syfy)

This paranormal reality series makes it's return tonight!  In case you don't know the premise, TAPS members Steve Gonsalves and Dave Tango lead a group of prospective investigators on various ghost hunting cases.  And in this, the second season they're joined by TAPS founder Jason Hawes as the ultimate judge, voting a different contestant off the show every week.

Also premiering on July 14th is Ghost Hunters International

The Gates (June 20th on ABC)

Yuck!  I can't stand undead-based shows but like I said at the top, the pickings are pretty thin so any port in the storm right?

This show explores the supernatural elements that lurk behind the shadows of a gated communited aptly named "The Gates."  By the way, given ABC's history with Sci Fi over the last couple of years (Defying Gravity, Flashback, etc) I really don't blame them for going the easy, vampirish way out.

Warehouse 13 (July 6th on Syfy)

It'll be almost a full year since the show premiered and fans are more than ready for season 2!  This program, which has been Syfy's most successful series to date, follows U.S. Secret Service agents Myka and Peter Lattimer as they are reassigned to the government's secret Warehouse 13, which houses supernatural objects. They are tasked to retrieve missing objects and investigate reports of new ones.

Haven (July 9th on Syfy)

Based on Stephen King's novella The Colorado Kid, this series follows FBI agent Audrey Parker who arrives in the small town of Haven, Maine, to solve the murder of a local ex-con, only to discover that the place is a longtime refuge for people with supernatural powers, and holds a lot of secrets, including links to her own past.

So, that's it.  Quite the letdown aint it?