Media outlets across our corner of the universe are giving props to SCI FI Friday, the cable network’s 3-hour block of original programming.
Stargate SG-1,
Stargate Atlantis, and
Battlestar Galactica will air their season premieres this Friday, starting at 8 p.m. Eastern/Pacific.
Here’s a running list of the coverage we have seen so far (with links to the full story when available). We’ll continue to update this list throughout the week!
- Don’t forget to pick up this week’s TV Guide magazine, now on newsstands! Four collectable covers feature the casts of SCI FI Friday’s three series, with a feature article inside. TV Guide is also running a SCI FI Friday sweepstakes to win complete DVD collections of the three shows, autographed TV Guide covers, and an Apple Sci Fi Ipod Photo.
- Sci-Fi Channel Sends Friday into Outer Space (Zap2It). Ben Browder talks about joining Stargate and about his new castmates, including Beau Bridges. “You can quote me: as a confidently heterosexual male — Beau’s gorgeous. He’s tremendous fun to have around. He knows his business; he’s got great stories.”
- Blast off (U Daily News). “The guys, however, seem kinda interchangable. There’s even a joke on Stargate about how the new team member Ben Browder (Farscape alum) looks like Michael Shanks (Dr. Daniel Jackson).”
- ‘Stargate’ nabs ‘Farscape’ stars Browder, Black for 9th season (Wilmington Star, registration required). The Star doesn’t care much for Stargate, and will no doubt be tuning in solely for Farscape‘s Browder and Black: “Stargate will never be Farscape. And stealing all the cast members in the galaxy won’t change that.”
- Sci-Fi Summer (Winston-Salem Journal). “Browder’s character is similar to John Crichton, the character he played on Farscape — heroic, a bit befuddled, with a wry sense of humor. Black, however, is playing a far different character than before. Her Farscape character, Aeryn Sun, was a stern and noble warrior woman. Vala Mal Doran, by contrast, is a flirtatious, devious con artist.”
- TV Tonight (New York Daily News). The Daily News calls out SCI FI’s July 11 behind-the-scenes special in their TV highlights, making note of Browder and Black’s presence on Stargate SG-1. “Ten points for casting; 20 for her costume.”
- ‘Stargate’ crew gets a new leader (Bremerton Sun, registration required).
- Tonight’s Best TV (Entertainment Weekly / CNN.com). “Stargate SG-1 shows it’s over Richard Dean Anderson by casting a younger, hotter version of him, Ben Browder, as Lieut. Col. Cameron Mitchell.”
- SciFi Channel’s New Season Begins (BellaOnline). “In part one of ‘Avalon,’ the season opener, the new commander takes his crew on a mission to recover an ancient treasure. Will these cast changes bring the show new life? We can’t wait to find out.”
- Sci Fi Fridays returns with Stargate and Battlestar Galactica (The Mercury News). “With all due respect to the Stargate franchise — the original is now in its ninth season — the crown jewel of the night is Galactica, the revisionist remake of the 1970s TV hit.”
- Stargate SG-1 Still Going Strong for Season Nine and ‘Avalon’ (About.com). “I have to admit, I wasn’t expecting to like the ninth season premiere. I mean, Richard Dean Anderson will be as scarce as Richie Cunningham in the final seasons of Happy Days. … But what do you know? The show still rocks.”
- Stargate Atlantis Season Two Starts with Wrapping Up ‘The Siege’ (About.com). “I like this show a lot, but little that makes me like it is in appearance in this ho-hum season premiere/cliffhanger finale, ‘The Siege, Part 3.'”
- Sci-Fi appears everywhere (North County Times). “Stargate SG-1 offers interesting characters and good action. It’s not so laden with technological jargon that a viewer couldn’t pick up the series now, even though it’s in its ninth year. You just have to understand the basic premise —- the people travel through time and space using a gate that looks like a pool turned on its side.”
- Farscape’s Ben Browder blasts off as new ‘Stargate SG-1’ lead (Boston Herald). “It’s like coming in senior year at a new high school,” Browder says. “It’s challenging and exciting. The biggest challenge is learning how things are done on Stargate. Shows going for a long time have their own rhythm and feel. There are a lot of similarities, but every set has its own culture.”
- Voyage to Sci Fi worlds less than stellar (Boston Herald). “Never very good to begin with and aging rapidly in its ninth season, SG-1 has wisely recast several roles and returned to its roots in Xena-style campy action. The season opens with a deliciously silly story about Merlin and aliens, and only gets wackier from there, a perfect fit with the show’s amiable goofiness.” But the reviewer actually appears to have enjoyed the show, and is glad to see Anderson gone. And Claudia Black (“Vala”) is a good addition: “SCI FI could probably score the same ratings by simply airing a still photo of her for an hour.”
The Herald reviewer didn’t like the Galactica premiere any more, giving it two stars. SG-1 gets three, and Atlantis‘s “The Siege, Part 3” a dismal one star.
- What to watch this weekend (USA Today). “More space adventure than deep drama, Stargate [SG-1] places no great demands on its audience — unless you’re determined to keep track of its increasingly complicated plot. While it’s not a great series, it can be an entertaining one. And that entertainment quotient jumps immeasurably tonight with the addition of Farscape‘s Ben Browder.”
- The Shows We’re Watching Tonight (TV Guide). “Farscape‘s Ben Browder and Claudia Black give the ninth-season launch a considerable energy boost. Browder’s cocky persona is perfectly suited to the role of SG-1’s new leader, whose flirtatious byplay with Black’s seductive thief highlights the team’s hunt for Arthurian relics.”
- ‘SG-1’ adds a little ‘Farscape’ and a lot of goofy (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette). “I never saw the ‘Stargate’ movie, never got hooked on the TV spinoff, Stargate SG-1. … To my pleasant surprise, Stargate SG-1 proved to be a more lighthearted, jokier sci-fi / military-themed show than I expected with well-drawn characters. But the plots … oh, the plots. The first two episodes featured goofy fantasy plots — Treasure hunting in booby-trapped ruins! Discovering King Arthur’s sword, Excalibur! — the kind that make science fiction seem silly and immature.” (Reviewer Rob Owen has apparently never seen Indiana Jones, The Mummy, or two-thirds of science fiction and fantasy in the last 50 years, either.)
- ‘Battlestar’ leads 3 season debuts (Arizona Republic). “Who knew a fairly mediocre movie starring Kurt Russell would result in two TV series, one of them lasting more than eight years? Maybe there are too many TV channels.”
- TV tonight: ‘Stargate’ tops trio of Sci Fi’s (the HUB / Lansing State Journal). “As its ninth season begins, this show gets a nimble and clever makeover. It’s the best of tonight’s three SCI FI openers.”
- Space-time shift (Sun-Sentinel). “After years in Australia doing Farscape, Browder says, ‘I stepped through a wormhole and wound up in another portion of the universe — Vancouver.'”
- (Knoxville News Sentinel, registration required). The Knoxville paper talks to hometown boy Ben Browder, who once lived in the area.
- Alive and Well (Eclipse Magazine). Michael Shanks offers a much-needed word on the new direction of Stargate SG-1: “Bringing in new characters doesn’t do squat for anything,” he said. “Bringing in dynamics that create drama, chemistry, entertainment, comedy action and all those things is what we are here for.”
- 7 shows to tune in over the weekend (Chicago Tribune). “Big changes are afoot on this long-running series, and fans will be glad to know they’re all for the good. … What’s impressive is how smoothly, in the two-part season opener (Part 2 airs next week), SG-1 moves between comedy, adventure and ensemble drama. The show, which is in its ninth season, is one well-oiled, entertaining machine.”
- Today’s headlines invade returning Sci-Fi network series (Courier-Journal). “All of the returning SCI FI channel shows have something different up their spacey sleeves, but Battlestar Galactica, in the sophomore season of its resurrection, is boldly borrowing headlines from today’s newspaper in a no-holds-barred attempt to gain fans.”
- Ask Matt (TV Guide Online). “Bringing Ben Browder and, in a recurring role, Claudia Black aboard on SG-1 has made the show lots of fun as a new season begins tonight. (I don’t really understand any of it, but who cares.)”
- Three series start a new season tonight on Sci-Fi (Denver Post). “Earth to science-fiction devotees: Turn off your cellphones, rustle up some popcorn and settle in. Tonight’s the night for not one but three season debuts of your faves on the SCI FI Channel.”
Battlestar Galactica only:
- Jettison expectations: ‘Battlestar Galactica’ is serious drama, not kiddie sci-fi (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette). “The writing has just gone through the roof this year,” Edward James Olmos (“William Adama”) said. “The first seven episodes we’ve done this season have been better than any of the episodes in the first season.”
- Reality: a special effect (Los Angeles Times). Executive producer David Eick talks about Season Two and how Galactica reflects contemporary politics and social issues.
- Quality guides ‘Galactica’ as second season takes off (Cleveland Plain Dealer). “On a lesser show, tantalizing plot threads left hanging from last season would be neatly snipped in an episode or two. But on Battlestar, actions have dramatic and deep-seated consequences that reverberate for a long time.”
- ‘Galactica’ opens second season in slam-bang style (Beaufort Gazette). “It’s a slam-bang hour that also serves up some “Battlestar” touchstones — religion, politics — while advancing the story a half-step and introducing another Cylon threat to the Galactica crew.”
- Embattled Galactica’ triumphs (Cleveland Plain Dealer). “This is a post-Sept.-11th world, and so … the darker aspects of Battlestar Galactica have more meaning and more heat to the viewer than they would have had in the ’70s,” Mary McDonnell (“Laura Roslin”) said.
- Dual role (USA Weekend). The magazine interviews Grace Park, who plays the many incarnations of Lt. Sharon “Boomer” Valerii.
- Sci-fi seeks critical mass (Newsday.com). Newsday.com talks with Mary McDonnell and SCI FI president Bonnie Hammer.
- Where no TV show has gone before (Salon.com, registration required). The online magazine examines gender roles in Galatica, with attention to the recasting of roles like Starbuck as female characters.
- ‘Battlestar’ reflects social climate (Detroit News / Los Angeles Times). The series is “designed to make you think, to make you question strongly held beliefs,” executive producer Ronald D. Moore said. “Good people can make bad decisions and bad people can make good decisions. I mean, life is much more complicated than it’s usually portrayed on television.”
- Battlestar Galactica Launches Season Two with ‘Scattered’ (About.com). Julia Houston recaps last season’s cliffhangers, adding that “the Season Two premiere, ‘Scattered,’ just adds more cliffs.”
- ‘Battlestar’ goes where we are now (Boston Globe). “This show could be on FX or HBO,” says CFQ/Cinefantastique Magazine publisher Mark A. Altman. “The betrayals, the back-stabbing are all very dark, but very true to the show’s original genocidal premise. Sci-fi in the past has always worked when it was optimistic. But at a time in history when things are so uncertain, this show has found a place.”
- Battlestar Galactica – TV Review (The Deadbolt). “The main reason to watch Battlestar, besides the excellent ensemble, is that it separates itself from the traps of its genre by being about so much more than aliens and warp drives. At its core, the show is about classical human drama from father-son relationships to mortality to belief in free will.”
- Only Human (TV Zone). The genre magazine talks with Katee Sackhoff (“Starbuck”) about Season Two, during the filming of the upcoming episode “Home.”
- Trek‘s problem? It wasn’t enough like Galactica (SignOn San Diego / Union-Tribune). “A panel of Star Trek experts and enthusiasts said Thursday at San Diego Comic-Con that the reason the now-canceled Enterprise series cast the future of the franchise in doubt was that it wasn’t enough like the gritty new Battlestar Galactica.”
- ‘Galactica’ promise isn’t lost in space (Chicago Tribune). “In addition to supplying plenty of action, meaty stories and smart characterizations, the show confronts the big issues of the day — our day — faith and God among them.”
- Meanwhile, back at the Sci Fi Channel (St. Paul Pioneer Press, beware of minor spoilers). “Judging by tonight’s ‘Scattered’ episode, the first of a two-parter with a ‘to be continued’ moment requiring a defibrillator on standby, Battlestar is en route to becoming a legend.”
- ‘Battlestar’ Is Back (Philadelphia Daily News). “Being strictly a 4400 girl myself, I’ll confess to having lost track of Galactica early in its first season, and while there was little in tonight’s episode that I actually understood, it was riveting enough in places to make me think the first-season DVD might be worth a look.”
- ‘Galactica’ back, better than ever (USA Today). “Obviously, having some basic interest in space ships, apocalyptic prophecies and genocidal robots can’t help but add to your enjoyment. But like all great science fiction, Galactica is less about outer space than inner lives.”
- Human drama carries remake (North Jersey Media Group / Scripps Howard). Jamie Bamber (“Apollo”) talks about his character and what makes Galactica special.
- ‘Battlestar’ is back (Rocky Mount Telegram). “So how does the second season open? Total chaos. (Deep breath.) … [Writer/producer Ronald D. Moore] knows the genre inside and out, and has said in interviews that he’s trying to overturn space opera cliches. He’s done a great job: Galactica isn’t just for geeks anymore.”
- ‘Battlestar Galactica’ Is Not Just Special Effects (TheDay.com / Los Angeles Times). “In the new season, one episode will examine whether a fetus should be used to save a life. In another, a journalist at a news conference challenges the president to answer another reporter’s question before moving on to his own.”
(Note that some of these stories may be available online only temporarily. If the link no longer works, try searching that site for “Stargate.”)
(Big thanks to Morjana at SG1-Spoilergate, Sci-Fi, and Julia Houston for contributing!)