Axiom’s Edge Science Fiction and Fantasy

Two Science Fiction and Fantasy Television Icons Die:  This past week Patrick McGoohan passed away at 80 years of age and Ricardo Montalban passed away at 88 years of age.  McGoohan first came to the attention of television audiences with the spy/espionage series Danger Man (aka Secret Agent), but later became an icon in Science Fiction Television when we created and starred in the seminal TV series The Prisoner.  Montalban is probably best known for playing Mr. Roarke on the ABC series Fantasy Island from 1977 to 1984, though Science Fiction audiences recognize him more for his two appearances as the superior human villain Khan Noonien Singh on the “Space Seed” episode of Star Trek: The Original Series and the second theatrical release from the franchise Star Trek II: The Wrath of Kahn.

Jericho Movie Possible:  Jon Turteltaub, former executive producer of Jericho, has indicated that he is working on a theatrical continuation of the series similar to what Joss Whedon did with Serenity, which brought the Firefly franchise to the big screen.  He has said that viewers will not have to have followed the series to enjoy the movie and that it will look at the bigger picture of the nuclear attacks that devastated the country.  The movie is only in the initial development stages and currently none of the original cast members have been approached to reprise their roles.

Chenoweth Suggests Possibility of Pushing Daisies Movie: Series star Kristin Chenoweth has indicated that a movie to cap off the recently cancelled series could happen.  She said that show creator Bryan Fuller has an idea that would wrap up most of the plotlines left unresolved at the end of its second season.  She has said that the core cast would almost certainly reunite for a movie and that Paul Reubens may even reprise his role as Oscar Vibenius from the first season if the movie went forward.  ABC has yet to air the remaining three episodes and currently does not have the show on its schedule (they have even yanked the show from the main page of their website), though ABC President, Steve McPherson has indicated that he would like for the network to air the episodes at some point.  Chenoweth will move on to David E. Kelly’s new series Legally Mad next season on NBC.

NBC Moves Kings Premiere: The peacock network has announced a change to the premiere date of their new drama Kings.  The two-hour debut has moved from Thursday, March 19th to Sunday, March 15th and the show will take up residence in the Sunday 10 PM EST timeslot.  It had originally been scheduled for this slot where it would have been the lead-out for a three-hour fantasy block that would have included the BBC’s Merlin (now in limbo), and returning series Medium.  NBC scrapped that idea and shuffled Kings to Thursdays, but has since adjusted the schedule once again.  The drama series will present a modern-day take on the biblical David and Goliath story set in a fictional kingdom that resembles New York City.

Watchmen Suit Settled: Warner Bros. and Fox have settled their dispute out of court over who holds the distribution rights to Watchmen movie.  Fox had tried to block the release of the movie claiming they owned the rights, but has withdrawn their claim in return for a one-time cash payment along with revenue sharing from the film.  The most recently announce release date for the film of March 6th will now hold.

CBS will use TV.com to Compete with Hulu.com: CBS bought CNet last year which owns TV.com and now plans to bolster the video offerings on that site.  CBS has already added episodes of the shows they own to the site and plans to partner with PBS, Sony, MGM and Endemol to expand their offerings and compete with the successful online video site Hulu.com.

Whoopi Goldberg in FEARnet’s Stream: The actress who played Guinan on Star Trek: The Next Generation will star in FEARnet.com’s new online series Stream.  The series, which will run for six five-minute episodes, focuses on people diagnosed as schizophrenic but who are actually simultaneously channeling portions of their past, present and future.  The first episode is available for online viewing now at FEARnet.com.  The website has also produced other horror/supernatural original web-series such as The Dark Path Chronicles, 30 Days of Night: Blood Trails, and Devil’s Trade

Krod Mandoon Skewers Fantasy Television: Comedy Central will take a stab (figuratively and literally) at fantasy/sword and sorcery television shows with its new ongoing series Krod Mandoon and the Flaming Sword of Fire.  The new series will parody the Hercules / Xena franchise as well as the more recent Legend of the Seeker (all three produced by Sam Raimi).  Krod Mandoon will debut on the cable channel on April 9th.

Network Science Fiction and Fantasy TV Ratings Results for the Week of January 11th

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