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The SciFi Diner Podcast
Please call the listener line at 1.888.508.4343, email us at scifidinerpodcast@gmail.com
or visit us on Twitter @scifidiner.
Tonight’s Diners: Scott, Miles, & Mary, the DVD Geeks Televixen
Welcome to the Diner.
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On the menu tonight:
On tonight’s science fiction podcast, we bring you part 1 of an interview with Richard Hatch from Battlestar Galactica. Mary the Televixen from DVD Geeks joins us to talk about Robert Beltran Interview, what’s up with Hulu, Fox’s Bonehead Dollhouse Move, Heroes, is Friday really the Dead Zone, Harlan Ellison wins his suit with Star Trek, Nathan Fillion reprises his Captain Mal Firefly role, Paranormal Activity, and lastly we get some thoughts on the Legend of the Seeker DVDs.
Our Interview:
In our interview with Richard Hatch, we talk about food and survival on Battlestar Galactica, some of things he’s been doing since BSG. He talks about his convention experience as an actor, fan, and teacher. He talks about what drew him into science fiction and how he believes it reflects the world. He challenges anyone to defeat him as the World Champion Thumb Wrestler. He talks about his real passion as a teacher and instilling hope. He goes on to talk about the transition that our world is in and give dating advice (that is for you Herne).
Promos this Week:
Show News:
- News items: if you want our thoughts on something, you gotta let us know.
- Geek Squared Podcasts quest to honor geeks.
- Dictionary.com defines a geek as:
- a peculiar or otherwise dislikable person, esp. one who is perceived to be overly intellectual.
- a computer expert or enthusiast (a term of pride as self-reference, but often considered offensive when used by outsiders.)
- a carnival performer who performs sensationally morbid or disgusting acts, as biting off the head of a live chicken.
- Spread the word! 8^)
- Facebook Fan Page
The Trivia Question from last Week:
Question: What does Stargate Universe, Labamba, Young Guns 1 & 2 have in common?
Prize: Smallville season 6
Answer: Lou Diamond Phillips is an actor in all of these.
Our Winner: Wendy
For our trivia question this week:
Submit an iTunes review and copy us on it along with your name and address should you win. All entries get a chance to win either Blu-ray or DVD copy of Battlestar Galactica: The Plan. This needs to be in to us by Wednesday 6 PM EST November 4th. Again we need your address if you want us to send you the prize.
If you know the answer, call us at 1.888.508.4343, e-mail us at scifidinerpodcast@gmail.com, or contact @scifidiner on Twitter with your answers!
SciFi News: The 10, 10, and 10
Our First Course: Scifi TV:
Some people think he might have been kidding. I thought he was being sincere.
I want say this is a joke because at one point he references it being a MAD skit
The Hulu News
PC MAG – Well, it was good while it lasted. New Hulu board member Chase Carey said that Hulu must start charging for at least some of its content as early as next year, according to Broadcasting & Cable.
At an event hosted by the publication, Carey said that the pay wall could be limited to special or advance programming, but that Hulu in general “needs to evolve to have a meaningful subscription model as part of its business.”
This comes after reports several months ago that Hulu was planning several tiers of programming in order to draw in cable networks reluctant to participate in anything that could affect their subscriber base. But as the report points out, the announcement highlights how broadcasters are now looking for new revenue streams specifically from content distributors in order to supplement traditional sources of income from advertisers.
Fox pulls Dollhouse from November schedule
Fox can’t seem to make up its mind about Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse. On the one hand, it renews it despite some of the lowest ratings ever. Then it buries it on Friday night, where its ratings continue to plummet before stabilizing. Then it decides to air all 13 season-two episodes once it’s clear a lot of people are watching it on DVRs.
But now comes word that it’s pulling it from the schedule entirely during the all-important month of November, the so-called “sweeps” period when the network tries to boost ratings to set its advertising rates.
Entertainment Weekly‘s Michael Ausiello tweeted the news first:
@EWAusielloFiles Exclusive: Hearing FOX will bench DOLLHOUSE for November sweeps and air back-to-back eps on Friday night in December….
Then the FutonCritic chimed in:
Network sources have confirmed Friday entries “Brothers,” “‘Til Death” and “Dollhouse” will all go on hiatus after their October 23 airings. A rebroadcast of “House’s” two-hour season premiere will sub in for the night on October 30 with additional repeats of “House” and “Bones” taking over for the rest of the month.
“Dollhouse” will then return with back-to-back originals starting at 8:00/7:00c on December 4, 11 and 18.
This sounds a lot like Fox has decided to burn off the new episodes it just ordered. Sounds like there’s some confusion at the network about what to do with the troubled show. What do you think?
The Death Zone for TV
Friday Night – where TV shows go to die.
- Smallville – 5th lowest network show 2.52 million – 8 Oclock
- Dollhouse – 4th lowest network show 2.15 million – 9 O’clock
Network versus cable:
- How has DVR changed the Friday night?
- Has it changed it enough?
- Stargate Franchise very successful Friday night as well as Sanctuary. Stargate Universe dropped 14 percent from the previous week’s 2.447 million. Meanwhile Sanctuary dropped, but not nearly as steep, off 4.5 percent from last week’s 1.85 million. But Ghost Hunters was up 6 percent from last week’s 2.74 million.
What about Legend of the Seeker?
The lawsuit between Harlan Ellison and CBS Paramount—in which the litigious and irascible writer accused the company of cheating him over a Star Trek episode—is over. Ellison filed in March 2009 against CBS Paramount, alleging failure to pay for merchandising, publishing and other exploitations of “The City on the Edge of Forever,” an episode he wrote for the original Star Trek series, which first aired in April 1967.
Ellison conveyed the news on Harlanellison.com (specifically the Unca Harlan’s Art Deco Dining Pavilion message board), but did not disclose any specifics, Variety reported.
“I am pleased with the outcome,” Ellison said. Ellison, who filed the suit in March in federal court in Los Angeles, also sued the Writers Guild of America for its alleged failure to act on his behalf but sought only $1 in damages plus attorneys fees and court costs from the guild. CBS Paramount and the WGA had no comment.
Ellison’s suit accused CBS Paramount of failing to notify him about the “Crucible” trilogy of books based on the teleplay and merchandising that included a “talking” Christmas ornament. (Even though Star Trek aired on NBC, CBS Paramount owns the rights to the franchise.)
Firefly’s ‘Capt. Tightpants’ lives again on ABC (video)
We don’t watch ABC’s romantic comedy detective series Castle, starring Nathan Fillion, though we’ve heard good things, but after watching the following promo, we give them high marks for sci-fi cred: Among other things, Fillion’s character dresses up for Halloween in a very familiar Browncoat and tight-pants outfit.
Added to that, he actually references a certain teen-vampire-slaying series in which Fillion once had a prominent role, and also a certain vampires-versus-werewolves franchise that, as far as we know, he has nothing to do with.
So great to see Fillion with the familiar suspenders and sidearm, isn’t it?
You can watch the episode below.
Our Second Course: SciFi Movies:
Paranormal Activity: Indie megahit or smart marketing?
The indie film Paranormal Activity made a solid $22 million in theaters this weekend, which was enough to finish ahead of Lionsgate’s Saw VI. Although the “torture porn” Saw series has traditionally brought in a lot of money in October, this year’s installment made an all-time low $14.8 million during its opening weekend.
What’s interesting here is that Paranormal Activity has been playing in theaters for weeks, but only in what Hollywood calls “limited release.” That means the film played in a few cities, but it wasn’t in theaters all across the nation until just this weekend.
Paranormal Activity distributor Paramount claims it only put the film into wide release after it received a million votes for it on the Eventful Web site, saying its success comes from grassroots support. Some skeptics think Paramount planned to release the film wide all along and only used the vote-to-see-it technique as free marketing.
Either way, Paranormal Activity is a true success. Allegedly made for just $15,000, it’s so far earned $65 million and has a legitimate shot at reaching $100 million (it will be shown in even more theaters on Halloween weekend). That’s leading a lot of people to compare it to another indie sensation with a well-publicized marketing campaign, The Blair Witch Project, which was filmed for $35,000 and made close to $250 million.
Do you think Paranormal Activity is attracting crowds because it’s a great indie film, or have a lot of people just been falling for savvy marketing?
Is Klingon viral video teasing a new Star Trek project?
A propaganda film that just went viral calls for us to embrace our invaders as Earth joins the Klingon Empire. But is the animated video merely one fan’s Trek tribute? Or could it be the promise of something greater?
Check out the video below to learn more.
The Klingon language experts over at TrekMovie noticed that the final frame of the video contained Klingon letters spelling out a Web site address—http://www.tlhingan.org/.
One of the things they discovered at that site—in addition to cool Trek-related content—was that the Flash animation was made by Bad Monkey Studios, which was involved in the 2008 immigration-related Star Trek parody “Don’t Deport Me Scotty” on behalf of one of its clients, Breakthrough:
So—why the new video and site? Is it just a fun project by avowed Trekkie Mark Farinas, head of Bad Monkey Studios? Or is he laying the groundwork for a larger campaign on behalf of one of his clients?
We haven’t figured that out ourselves yet. But whatever the answer, the more we watch the new video, the more we’re ready to bow to our new alien overlords!
3rd Course SciFi DVD/Video:
Legend of the Seeker – The DVDs came out
Herne Watched the first three episodes of LEGEND OF THE SEEKER last night… good stuff, nice budget. Definately not Xena.
Kevin from Tuning into SciFi Podcast had this to say about Legend of the Seeker:
I heard you mention Legend of the Seeker on your show last week and
thought I’d share some details about it.
I watched the first season and was very happy with it. Initially my
expectations were pretty low just expecting a little sword play and
some fantasy elements but the show quickly developed into one of my
favorites from last season. The shows are very well done and the
characters and stories are ones you can easily get attached to.
The reason why it’s on at such an odd time is that it’s one of the few
syndicated shows on the air nowadays so local stations buy it and
choose to air it whenever they want. I’m in the Boston area and
during the fall when college football games run late on Saturday
afternoon my local channel airs Legend of the Seeker at 11:30pm. Once
we get into January and the college football season is over they move
it to 7pm on Saturdays. Not a big deal for me since I DVR almost
everything anyway.