Sci Fi News

Some good bits over at this week's Sci Fi Weekly:

Sci Fi Channel to air new Doctor Who:

SCI FI Channel announced Jan. 12 that it will air the first season of the BBC's hit SF series Doctor Who, starting in March. The 13 episodes, starring Christopher Eccleston as the Doctor and Billie Piper as Rose Tyler, will air as part of SCI FI Fridays at 9 p.m. ET/PT.

This is excellent news, as the new series is superlative.

Serenity Might Fly Again?

Loni Peristere, visual-effects supervisor for the SF movie Serenity, told SCI FI Wire that there's hope for future flights of the cast and crew of the movie, which just came out on DVD. Director Joss Whedon—who also created the canceled Fox TV show Firefly, on which the movie is based—expected that the movie might draw the low numbers it did in its theatrical release, Peristere said in an interview. But he added that the movie's sales on DVD, which came out on Dec. 20, are running neck-and-neck with the hit comedy Wedding Crashers, which bodes well for a possible Serenity sequel.

I've still never seen Firefly or Serenity, but I've stopped admitting that in public. Too many times my admitting of this lapse has been greeted with that slack-jawed, bug-eyed, lip-flapping, I-cant-believe-you-took-a-shit-in-the-confessional-and-now-I-have-to-go-in-there look I know so well.
I'll catch it on DVD.

OTOH, the Sci-Fi gods give with one hand and take with the other:

WB Nets Its Aquaman
After a three-month search, The WB has cast 28-year-old newcomer Will Toale as the star of its upcoming Aquaman series, created by Smallville producers Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, Variety reported. The Florida-born Toale worked as a model before landing a supporting role in A Streetcar Named Desire at Broadway's Roundabout Theater alongside Natasha Richardson and John C. Reilly. Toale beat out 400 contenders in England, Australia, Canada and several U.S. cities, Gough told the trade paper. The pilot will shoot in March, probably in Miami. The series is expected to be a signature offering next fall for the network and Warner Brothers TV. In the show, the aquatic superhero will be Arthur Curry, who owns a dive shop.

They could do worse than casting the hottie that played Aquaboy in the Smallville episode, but the casting directors never listen to me...