Here’s one to watch: Syfy Channel is prepping its new original drama Alphas for a premiere this July. The announcement headlined the cable channel’s 2011 development slate, which was unveiled to the media at an upfront presentation this week in New York.
The new series stars David Strathairn as Dr. Leigh Rosen, who leads a team of people with supernatural abilities who work together to solve crimes. The premise sounds a bit like Heroes meets Mutant X. Here is the network’s description:
Alphas follows a team of ordinary citizens whose brain anomalies imbue them with extraordinary mental and physical abilities. Taking the law into their own hands, the unlikely team, led by Dr. Leigh Rosen (Emmy Award-winner and Oscar nominee David Strathairn) investigates cases that suggest other Alpha activity to uncover what the CIA, FBI and Pentagon have not been able, or willing, to solve. These gifted individuals must balance their quirky personalities and disparate backgrounds with their not always visible powers as they work to solve crimes, stop the ticking time bomb and catch the enemy.
Also among the cast is Laura Mennell, who had guest roles on both Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis. She played Mary in SG-1‘s “Demons,” and later turned up in the Pegasus Galaxy as Sanir in “The Brotherhood.”
The 30-year-old Canadian beauty plays Nina Theroux on Alphas. “Seductive, intelligent and confident, Nina’s Alpha ability allows her to influence people into doing whatever she wishes,” according to Syfy — “but her power can sometimes spin out of control. Her skill also comes with a personal drawback in that she can never be sure if anyone’s feelings for her are real. Nina was the first team member enlisted by Dr. Rosen to whom she remains extremely loyal.”
“Strathairn plays the unconventional, eccentric Alphas team leader Dr. Lee (sic) Rosen. Though he comes across as somewhat of an absent-minded professor at times, he is also a cunning and manipulative power-player willing to bend the rules in pursuit of his objectives and in support of his Team.”
Malik Yoba (Defying Gravity), Warren Christie (October Road), Ryan Cartwright (Bones, Mad Men), and Azita Ghanizada also co-star. Callum Keith Rennie (Battlestar Galactica) is another familiar genre face who will guest star in the pilot episode.
In a new interview at Syfy news site Blastr, Yoba talked about how the new show is setting itself apart from other recent shows and films. “We aren’t heroes. We aren’t mutants. We don’t have superpowers,” he said. “We have odd little behaviors that kind of collectively work as a unit and let us solve mysteries and crimes that the normal agencies can’t solve.”
Alphas also has an impressive pedigree behind the camera, with Zak Penn (writer of feature films such as X-Men:The Last Stand, The Incredible Hulk, and The Avengers) and Michael Karnow (Time Squad) as creators. Penn executive produces along with showrunner Ira Steven Behr (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine), plus Gail Berman (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel), Lloyd Braun and Gene Stein for BermanBraun (The Cape, Accidentally on Purpose).
LOST‘s Jack Bender directed the pilot.
The first season of Alphas is filming in Toronto, and will be comprised of the 90-minute pilot plus 11 regular episodes. Check out Syfy.com for the first (short) teaser!
NEXT: Syfy’s development slate is 71 percent reality shows
Ordinary citizens with superhuman mental and physical abilities fighting crime? How many times is this going to be done? I am so sick of unoriginal ideas. A brilliant show like stargate gets tossed in the trash and we get more recycled garbage.
Its already being done like a dozen times in the new TV season. There’s like 5 or 6 shows popping up with that idea.
..wait did I just see a reboot of Quantum Leap? I’m all for that, just finished watching the original series, but I think I’d rather get a reunion movie that brings Sam home first, I mean, the poor guy – he has a wife AND a daughter in the series yet can never get home to see them again? Either way, I’ve been mulling around the idea of a Quantum reboot in my head to see if I’d be interested in it, I’m not sure if it can be done without Scott. I mean, its a good concept but what… Read more »
shermacidal
Couldn’t have said it better myself.
Very sad.
Another crime solving show!? WOW SyFAIL! Really looking forward to these making me ‘imagine greater’…. some definitely challenging science fiction here!
I know a lot of people are dissing this show (before they even watch it), but it’s the one new series of 2011 that I’m looking forward to the most. “Ordinary citizens with superhuman mental and physical abilities fighting crime? How many times is this going to be done?” Apparently, not as often as you think. I’ve been waiting for a “superhero” series where the main point is solving crimes. “No Ordinary Family” did a fairly good job, but that had other premises besides crime-fighting. Finally, there’s an investigation series with super-powered characters doing the investigating. I really can’t think… Read more »
Forgettable.
I love it when people, especially SGU fans, bash another series for its unoriginality. I mean, seriously? You seriously want to go there?
I just saw the first trailer for this show today and I liked it. Looks very action-oriented and it has a great cast. I will judge this series on its own merrits.
“I love it when people, especially SGU fans, bash another series for its unoriginality. I mean, seriously? You seriously want to go there?”
Humm what is this site? Gateworld? Hummm dedicated to Stargate? Hummm…No vampires, Superheros, Monster Crocks, snakes with 16 heads, we SGU, SGA & SG-1 want Stargate..I realy do not care in what flavor it comes in…
there are a few more episodes of SGU and no reason to ever watch Systink again….
Will not watch this show, they will propably cancel it after second season anyway.
ok, people with varying superhuman abilities fighting crime? Can someone say X-Men ripoff. This further reinforces my decision to quit the SyFy channel after the last episode of SGU airs. I mean seriously, the only place I want to see Tommy Lee is on stage at a Crue concert, not going around the world on a show that’s ripping off National Geographic’s Taboo.
@tb1342: You might like the concept or not, it’s up to you, seriously, and nobody’s forcing you to watch it. But after the latest SG show was a combination of BSG, ST:Voy, Lost in Space and others times two, to bash Alphas for its “unoriginality” is rather laughable.
Oh,my God..more crime fighting and now within this 4400 meets Heroes package,spiced up with a dozen of other sci-fi,fantasy and completely non genre shows!But the saddest thing is this is indicative of all of their announced shows. 70%of it being reality tv. And if something needs to be ripped off or payed an “homage” to,I’d rather it be a great space oriented sci-fi show,than monsters and superheroes! @Browncoat1984 I hear you,and I’ve a feeling we have similar tastes in tv sci-fi,starting with your nick that alludes to Firefly,which was pure awesomeness!!But unfortunately,I think you can forget about Farscape..you and me… Read more »
Done with SyFy channel. Exit Stargate, exit moi. SyFy has not had it’s hand on the pulse of it viewers for several years now. IE Wrestling. On SyFy?
Does anyone know if there is any news on Ben Browder’s Naught For Hire, or Chris Judge’s proposed pilot project? They seem to have fallen to the floor?
Didn’y they send a bunch of these special people to the Island in lost ahahaha
wow syfy #$@^&%*$%# for taking off all the good shows stargate sg1 atlantis universe farscape and all the other syfy. what does wrestling have to do with this channel and all those reality shows. i will stop watching this channel as soon as stargate Universe is over. all the crap that is played on this channel is unbelievable
@Browncoat1984 @Jim
I’m with you there. A reboot of Quantum Leap would be pretty cool, if they did it right. And as for “a great space oriented sci-fi show”, how about one that the current generation probably hasn’t even heard of: Space 1999 !!! I would love to see a renewed version of that show. I remember being glued to my TV every week when it aired.
lol
Doesn’t sound very good, but I’ll watch the first episode. Can’t judge a book by it’s cover, even though it sounds like a book you’ve read before.
Ah,the good old days,when there was music on MTV and sci-fi on Sci-Fi Channel.. But yet another one bites the dust and goes down the UPN drain.There are some good reality shows out there,I love Deadliest Catch and Mythbusters,but what they did is took the cheeziest of the cheezy of the reality too.And so,once a great channel becomes a 1pm channel for housewives.SyFy is not only confused about it’s name and what it wants,but is promoting this move and the new line-up as a huge,historical venture,all the while insulting the intelligence of it’s former viewers,while at the same time not… Read more »
SGU is not a rip off a BSG, im not a BSG fan but i have seen enough eps to not make a ridiculous statement like that. Destiny’s mission couldn’t be more original, backround radiation from god??? I really wish they would finish the story. At least let me get a SGU movie. There are no space exploration shows left, i guess people care more about cupcake wars and “the situation” doing laundry.
@shermacidal: Well, considering that BSG turned really religious in its last season, with the whole search for God and Starbuck being an angel or something… I would say SGU followed BSG pretty closely, down to Rush=Balthar, Young=Adama and Wray=Roslin as the main scientist-soldier-civilian trio. I’m not saying it’s bad, mind you, it’s about what you do with the theme. But when I see SGU fans bash another show that hasn’t even aired yet for its “unoriginality”, I can’t help but laugh.
we need some kind of new sci fi channel. i am done with this station
The plot sounds very unoriginal and immediately I thought of Heroes before I got to the line that mentioned said show as a comparison. That said I’m unfortunately not surprised. This is a symptom of the recession we are all in. Everyone, even multi million (or billion) corporations are feeling the pinch and their bean counters are telling them that they can’t take big risks on original ideas and easily recover if they are a flop. Even franchises that are well established like StarGate are not exempt as we saw not that long ago with the nonrenewal of SGU. The… Read more »
@katikatnik You know what they say;Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery,or something like that.But I am a huge BSG fan and those parallels you draw are completely incorrect.On that level you could say that anything is a copy of everything else,especially on tv. No SGU is most definitely not a rip off of Galactica,it still exists whithin it’s own canon.The only real similarities are in the cinematography,visual style..but since BSG wasn’t the first show to use it,that comparisson falls flat too. And people are mostly bashing the trend,not just this particular show,for the sake of this show.And that IS… Read more »
I hope syfy picks up the new pilot that the crew of SGU is working on.
I didn’t like it at all that they canceled SG-1 for SGA and then canceled SGA for SGU where only the Gate was a original Stargate element.
And now they do uncreative shows like Alphas they really dig their own grave since they changed their name.
@ib1117 Why would you wish something like that? So it can get cancelled before it gets off the ground? SyFy needs to go out of business. I hope someone OTHER THAN SyFy picks up their new show.
@Xyla: I worded that wrong, I hope someone picks up their new show.
I’m a long time fan of Space, been watching the channel for over thirty years. I’ve seen more unoriginal shows and films on this network than I can count.
I can say for one thing for sure, Sy Fi needs to go back to its roots.
@ todd89
I assume that you are not referring to the Canadian channel SPACE: The Imagination Station. SPACE first aired in October, 1997.
Syfy goes dumb,dumber,,dumbest. I would like to know Science fiction do they still have? It is pure fiction that they have any science fiction of merit anymore. All I see is what has been rightly critiqued here-wrestling,reality shows only a troglodyte could watch,and of course wrestling-ambrosia for the Walmart people! There is no science fiction channel anymore.We are doomed to re-runs of past series.