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Joe Mallozzi, Showrunner, on Stargate Atlantis Season Four

Stargate Atlantis season four launches tomorrow night at 10 (9/C) on SCI FI Channel. This year, Colonel Samantha Carter (Amanda Tapping) takes command of the base and Jewel Staite (Firefly, Serenity) dons scrubs as the new doctor. Behind the scenes, executive producers Joe Mallozzi and Paul Mullie take over the showrunning duties for the first time.

Last July, at Comic-Con, I sat down with Joe Mallozzi to discuss the new season and the trajectory of season four.

CLICK HERE FOR THE TRANSCRIPT of our chat.

SCI FI Makes It Official: Paul McGillion Returns to Stargate Atlantis

In a press release distributed this morning, SCI FI Channel made it official: Paul McGillion, the actor who captured fan hearts as the compassionate Scot on Stargate Atlantis, will reprise his role for a fourth season, two episode arc. McGillion's character, Dr. Carson Beckett, was abruptly offed in an explosion during a third season episode titled "Sunday."

The series’ fourth season launches Friday, September 28 at 10pm ET/PT.

This isn't the first tiime that Stargate producers have nixed a favorite doc., however. Fans are still stinging from the death of another well-liked Stargate physician, SG-1's Dr. Janet Frasier (Teryl Rothery). Beckett's demise touched off an on-going and well-organized protest headquartered at savecarsonbeckett.com

But this is Stargate and anything's possible.

Anyone with an Internet connection has known for months that McGillion was set to appear in at least two fourth season episodes. But fans want more. They've been lobbying SCI FI and the producers to have McGillion permanently reinstated for season five.

CLICK HERE FOR THE REST OF THE STORY

Comic-Con Overview: Torchwood, Spike, MGM's Charlie Cohen, Stargate, More

Comic-Con overview written for this week's Multichannel book. Contains some information (Stargate in particular) not included in my blog.

CLICK HERE TO READ IT ON THE WEB

MGM Resurrects Dead Like Me

MGM Studios just finished wrapping a Dead Like Me direct to DVD movie, revealed MGM's Senior Executive Vice President Finance and Corporate Development Charlie Cohen during a chat at the SCI FI Channel/Entertainment Weekly Comic-Con party.

Cohen, who oversees the studio’s new Home Entertainment Productions division along with the studio’s Stargate franchise, said the movie would be released in "about a year." He also discussed cast changes and said the studio is "open" to producing more movies and even bringing the series back for another television run.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST OF THE STORY

ComicCon: BET Executives Tout Hannibal, Bufu & More

CLICK HERE TO READ PART ONE OF THIS POST!!

PART TWO

Okay - back to our regularly scheduled blogging.

Orlando Jones' Bufu is an animated sketch comedy. BET aired several segments, including "Who Needs They Ass Whooped!?," a skewed take on old game show formats like The Dating Game.

"Let's meet the panel!" enthuses the host. Says the first lanky panelist, "uhhh, I'm a first round, NBA draft pick. I have ten kids w/ six different women...two Ferraris and a Hummer...and I don't pay child support. I need my ass whooped."

And a belt-swinging midget runs out on stage to administer the whooping.

Then there's the "History in The Making" skit: "A black man swimming on television, the first African American male to qualify for the 200 meter freestyle," says the voice-over. He sinks but sprints on foot along the bottom of the pool.

One of the running gags is Tyra Banks big forehead. One segment took a swipe at the entertainment industry and "misogynist music videos." No one is safe and it's all killer funny.

When an audience member begged for a black super-hero series, the panelists provided no details but they assured the audience that a project would eventually get the greenlight.

Said Jones : "By next year there will be one out for sure. I'm working on one."

Hudlin: "We're developing some properties. That's an inevitability"

Cowan: "Get ready for it. It will be another revolution."

During the discussion of Hannibal, Cowan spoke passionately about what they are trying to accomplish at BET. "Black culture is a vast cultural oasis that hasn't examined," he explained, "there haven't been that many successful black animated shows, only four or five which is pretty sad....we're creating a black mythology. It's very important. [The European culture has] Conan, and Superman. Hannibal is vitally important to us as a people. Hannibal is North African. We're developing this stuff with intent to expand, to bring forth this great culture that we have. It's a real mission for us. I just wanted to get that out there."

At one point Hudlin addressed some of the recent controversies and defended the network. "The backlash has been great," he said with good humor, "I declare victory! We've launched five shows this month. They've all been ratings successes. We also have a show called Baldwin Hills about middle class black people in an LA suburb. But journalists have no interest in writing about middle class, smart black kids who sit around talking about what college to go to....there are always are going to be people who don't watch BET but who swear they'll never watch BET again....

After the laughter died down, Hudlin continued, "I don't care...because we program 18-34, we're gong to program provocative content. Any network who targets that audience is going to face controversy...Fox had it w/ Married with Children, FX had it w/ The Shield, Comedy Central had it w/ South Park, MTV had it w/ pretty much every show they ever put on. It comes w/ the territory. It means you're making noise."

(Orlando Jones. photo by M. McNamara)
Jones also had something to say about pushing the envelope and he used basketball to illustrate his point. "There will always be someone will come along to say it wasn't right... it used to be that you shot the jump shot at the top of jump. And kids who didn't know better came along and shot on the way down, did 360's ...dunking balls, as opposed to lay ups. Innovative culture is about doing it the way it hasn't been done, and facing that fall-out....Don Imus said something and all of a sudden hip hop is under fire? I'm confused by the whole thing. I truly am! I hope you push the envelope and do something I didn't think of."

But the best line of the hour definitely belonged to Hudlin. At one point, a young black man in the audience approached the mic and complained that he hadn't been invited to sit on the panel, "My boys, we been doing comics for ten years. We were the first to use hip-hop in comics," he groused. "We should be up there with you all. We sill don't get the support..."

Hudlin said something about "letting the marketplace decide." The panel was sympathetic and Cowan invited him to visit the BET convention floor booth to present his material.

"Will you support good black characters with your dollars!? Miranda Mercury - a black female sci fi heroine written by Brandon Thomas," the audience member then hyped, "coming out in February. Buy it!!"

Hudlin was lightening fast on the uptake. "And any Asian girls in audience," he announced, "will you date a black man?"

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ComicCon:Chris Judge Readies for Rage of Angels

Walking down the street you might not recognize Stargate SG-1 co-star Chris Judge (Teal'c). Judge has refashioned himself. His new look was on display at the SCI FI Channel/Entertainment Weekly bash last night. Judge's transformation is striking. Handsomely outfitted in an understated checked sportcoat and black shirt strategically unbuttoned by three or four, it was obvious that he's slimmed down. For years Judge shaved his head and bulked up for his role as Teal'c. But now his hair is long and gelled.

What can I say. It's a fabulous look for him.

UPDATE: oh, my gosh - it looks like I can finally access my Multichannel blog again! yessssssss! so click here to read the rest of this post. And to access the link to photos.

P.S. I'm closing comments here. But y'all can comment on Multichannel if you're inspired. Hopefully some of the thorny problems w/ the comment function have been ironed out.

ComicCon: Stargate Panels

MGM and SCI FI Channel kicked off their ComicCon presentations this afternoon. MGM was promoting their straight to DVD Stargate SG-1 movie Continuum. SCI FI was there to support the SG-1 spin-off, Stargate Atlantis, soon to enter its fourth season on the network.

The back-to-back panels were held in one of the largest convention center rooms available - at least 5,000 seats. The hall was filled to capacity for Stargate SG-1 but there were a few empty seats in the back during the Atlantis panel (but not many).

[Sunday, July 29. Correction: I double-checked w/ the ComicCon folks today. The official capacity of Ballroom 20, where the Stargate panels were held, is 4,500.]

That said, ComicCon itself doesn't feel quite as manic as last year. Crowd control is better. I was told that a decision was made to sell fewer tickets, although this is unconfirmed. (ComicCon 2006 was chaotic.)

Some of this afternoon's Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis panels might have been rehearsed or even choreographed. (It's hard to say just how much.) But who fraking cares. Everyone had a rockin' good time anyway.

How can you not with Pied Pipers Chris Judge (Teal'C) and Gary Jones, SG-1's loveable, ever-present GateGuy, Walter Harriman.

UPDATE: my Multichannel blog is up and running again, so everything - the audio files etc. and the rest of this post - have been migrated. Click here to go directly to my Multichannel post about the Stargate panel. Apologies for the hassle. Technology is hell sometimes.

P.S. Comments are now closed here. But thanks for all the nice feedback. Much appreciated!

ComicCon: Crowds Go for Torchwood.

Yesterday's BBC America ComicCon panel celebrating the U.S. launch of Torchwood, the Dr. Who spin-off, attracted a capacity/SRO crowd in the 1500 seat room. Lines formed 90 minutes before the presentation's start and snaked down and around the hallways.

Once seated, fans were treated to lengthy clips from the pilot episode. They cheered loudly when star John Barrowman (Captain Jack Harkness) appeared on screen. The panelists took the stage and the moderator slogged through the required softening up questions like (paraphrasing) "were you nervous about doing a spin-off of an iconic series" and "was it intimidating?"

However, the panelists - Torchwood producers and writers - were a tough group to crack. While unfailingly polite, they steadfastly resisted handing out spoilers and/or other details of consequence.

Lead writer Chris Chibnall praised Barrowman in a lighthearted manner.

"We knew we had John Barrowman - we knew it had to be fun, it had to be outrageous, it had to be dramatic, we had to build a team around him." said Chibnall. Then, quoting someone else's remark, "'I can't imagine any other actor in the world [playing the part]...it's just the perfect fusion of actor and part.' He's a proper hero, a proper leading man. The kids love him. The adults love him."

Chibnall finished up brightly. "He's an omni-sexual 51st Century guy. That's how we like our heroes in Britain these days."

Then producer Richard Stokes broke in. Stokes wasn't speaking into the mic consistently so his remarks were garbled in a few spots but I believe he was talking about Eve Myles who plays Gwen Cooper.

"He [Russell T. Davies] also knew he wanted Eve [garbled] who is one of the most talented tv actors I've EVER worked with," Stokes gushed like a firehose, "she's absolutely extraordinary [garbled] In every thing she does...she's absolutely extraordinary. and Russell knew and so wrote the part for her."

Thankfully, the fans took the mic and asked the hard questions. One wondered if British television series would ever launch simultaneously in the U.S. Another solicited comment on whether or not persons of color were treated fairly in terms of character development (apparently a subject of debate on the Internet) on Dr. Who. Audience members thanked the writers for developing bi-sexual characters in a complex manner. One said she read that Torchwood - a more adult show that airs in Great Britain at a later hour in the evening than Dr. Who - was heavily censored for U.S. consumption. Chibnall adamantly denied the charge and asserted that only two to three minutes had been sliced from the running time of each episode.

Chibnall's assertion closely syncs with what the press was told during the TCA/BBC America Torchwood panel. (See my TCA/Torchwood post.) Many in the ComicCon audience had already accessed the British version so fans will surely be keeping close tabs on the BBC America edits.

Another audience member observed that Torchwood is "not your typical spin-off" and wondered if there was a "partnership between the two shows." He called Torchwood more of a "sister show." The writers confirmed the observation and said there was a "fantastically collaborative spirit" between the Torchwood and Dr. Who. Much like the Vancouver-based Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis, the productions share writers, directors and, sometimes, actors. Torchwood and Dr. Who share one unit base because it was the only studio tall enough to accommodate both sets, according to the panelists.

ComicCon: Neil Gaiman Receives 2007 ComicCon Icon Award

(The Spike TV display on the convention floor.)

Spike TV just announced that prolific genre writer Neil Gaiman - the British author of science fiction and fantasy short stories and novels, graphic novels, comics, and films - is the recipient of the 2007 ComicCon Icon Award.

(Gaiman speaking.)

Said Gaiman to the crowd immediately after the award was announced: "It's a wonderful thing to learn that you're an icon. I've never been an icon before. Maybe they will make little models of me now. And put me on car dash boards and that will help you get parking spaces. I'm honored, I'm flattered, I'm thrilled."

Gaiman will be honored before a national audience during Spike's 2007 Scream Awards which tape on Friday, Oct. 19 at the Greek Theatre in LA. The show airs Tues, Oct. 23 on Spike. Spike TV started the Scream award to honor the genre of horror, sci-fi, fantasy and comic books, long over-looked by mainstream Hollywood.

ComicCon: SCI FI Coverage Competes w/ G4

SCI FI Channel is competing head-to-head, toe-to-toe w/ G4's Attack of The Show this year. For several years, Attack of the Show has broadcast extensive live ComicCon coverage. This year G4 will be competing w/ SCI FI Channel and SCI FI.com for eye-balls.

SCIFI.com’s coverage allows fans to “virtually attend” the convention through daily news summaries, video coverage, updated photo galleries and more. The channel has five camera crews on site and six reporters positioned throughout the convention. Coverage will include:

Live web updates and broadband video uploads throughout each day.

Special video coverage of star-studded panels and events featuring SCI FI Channel’s Original Series Battlestar Galactica, Eureka, Flash Gordon, Stargate Atlantis, Who Wants To Be A Superhero?, and the upcoming mini-series Tin Man.

Video coverage of selected major panels, as well as exclusive interviews with the panelists of popular programs including Heroes and Bionic Woman.

Video responses to fan questions for SCI FI Channel stars.

Image galleries direct from the convention floor.

Online voting for the day’s best costume.