NBC will wait two weeks to announce the scheduling for its shows, so we’ll be waiting to see if Heroes remains on Monday nights. And if so, what shows will share that night with it. The Christian Slater spy vehicle My Own Worst Enemy was NBC’s big plan for Monday nights last season but it quickly vanished. Combined with Heroes’ well-documented problems and Mondays haven’t exactly been sunshine and lollipops.

Jay Leno will take care of the 10 p.m. hour on Mondays and the rest of the primetime week. That will leave potential pilots with precious few primetime hours to scrap over.  The drama behind the scenes at NBC is even better than the stuff in front of the camera.

NBC Photo: Chris Haston

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Doesn’t look like a leaked copy of the film sans special effects had any impact, unless it was to increase anticipation for the finished product. Bringing in that kind of cash, it’s almost a certainty we’ll see more X-films. As a matter of fact, as long as these things keep making money, X-Men Origins:That Mutant That Was In One Scene in X-Men 2 is not out of the realm of possibility.

Heroes star Ali Larter is turning heads in Obsessed, a thriller that paints her as a psychopath trying to steal Beyonce Knowles’ man.  Ali Larter or Beyonce? Only in the movies are men faced with such decisions. Obsessed cost only $20 million but has already pulled in nearly $50 million.

As for our favorite mutant, he will likely only have a one week reign at the top as a little Star Trek movie opens next week. It is a great time to be alive, SFUniverse faithful.

Image: Bauer-Griffin

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You would expect something less from TV’s most plot-twisted, confusing but always exciting show? With a firm end date in sight and the answers to at least a few questions in place, the most popular castaways not involved in a three-hour tour are keeping us captivated. 

In a 100th episode, you can almost guarantee somebody’s going to get bumped off. In terms of shock value, it was more the way Daniel Faraday died that was a surprise.

Anyway you slice it, getting blown away by your own mother years before you were born sucks. Even more so when Daniel performed his last bit of logical thought and realized this meant his mother sent him to the island knowing he would die.

From a character standpoint, he wasn’t a character that I can’t believe they killed. He was a relatively late visitor to our island in the grand scheme of things. I think the only deaths that would totally blow me away at this point would be Kate, Jack or Sawyer. And I suspect all those characters are safe and I have nothing to worry about. But, apparently the island can bring people back to life if it chooses. Add in the elements of time travel now in play and just about anything is possible.

Even with Daniel gone, he’s changed the way folks on the island think about time travel. At first, his stance was a hardline “If it happened, it happened” and there’s nothing that can change it. But once he put the idea in everyone’s head that the catastrophic events surrounding Oceanic 815 could be prevented, all bets were off.

Of course, if they somehow prevent the explosion that leads to everything, what happens? I don’t think we have a show. If we’ve learned anything from science fiction, it’s that messing with time often has undesirable consequences. I could totally see them changing the course of history and then realizing they were better off before. Whatever happens, you can be certain that it won’t lead to sunshine and flowers for the Oceanic survivors. That’s just not how it works on this show.

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We learn more about the history between Wolverine and Sabretooth, the Weapon X program and there are a few cameos from other mutants such as Cyclops, Deadpool and Gambit.

The commercials say that “summer begins here” and in terms of the summer box office, that is probably not an untrue statement. It’s certainly anticipated to be the summer’s first blockbuster. As journalists, we’re watching to see what impact the leak of an unfinished cut will have on the box office, if any. Readers, do you plan to spend at least part of your weekend with some X-Men?

Images: X-Men Origins: Wolverine, TM and Copyright 20th Century Fox Film Corp.

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This week he looks at the shows that got illegally file shared the most and NBC’s embattled drama Heroes tops the list with an estimated with 1.6 million downloads. The top 10 also includes SFUniverse faves Supernatural, Smallville and Fringe. Second on the list is now canceled Prison Break, which was also suffering from low ratings. That is to say, at least the way we’re calculating ratings these days.

I’ve said for years that I don’t think we really know what the majority of people are watching out there. For all we know, the highest rated show on TV could be Samantha Who. 

NBC Photo: Adam Taylor

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Spoilers, intricate plot details and possibly (OK probably) some ranting about Season 3. So don’t read further if you don’t want to know!

NBC Photo: Chris Haston

Danko gets cocky and knives Sylar in the back of the head. But using his shapeshifting powers, Sylar has “moved” his off switch. Oops! Rather than kill Danko, he shapeshifts into Danko and sets it up to look like Danko has killed his own agents.

Danko ends up in Building 26, along with HRG who had let himself be captured to give Angela and Claire time to escape. They both agree the mission is now to kill Sylar, provided they can figure out how.

Armed with a secure cell from HRG, Claire and Angela set out to find Nathan and make sure he’s Nathan. Angela tracks down Matt Parkman, who wants only to shut down Building 26. Angela explains that having Nathan on their side will make that easier so now Parkman’s on the team.

Also en route to Building 26 (this season’s hot new vacation destination) are Ando and Hiro. Ando is begging Hiro not to use his time-freezing power as he gets a nosebleed every time now. Hiro says he will do whatever he has to do.

They find all the captured super people including Mohinder, who tells Hiro that his body is rejecting his powers. It’s imperative that he doesn’t use them again as his left side is now going numb. You might as well tell the sun not to come up tomorrow. Sure enough, Hiro uses his power to stop Danko from tranquilizing HRG. Hiro collapses.

The man everyone is looking for, Sylar, has to quickly absorb as many of Nathan’s memories as he can to fool Claire.  Somehow that works and they head for the president. But she catches on when Sylar signs in with his left hand. Nathan is right-handed. Doh!

HRG of course places a phone call to Claire, who’s now been captured by Sylar. HRG heads for Sylar, as do Nathan and Peter so we have an impending showdown.

The Secret Service doesn’t know why Nathan Petrelli is asking to get into the building – again. Nate explains everything and then flies to get the point across. The guards draw down on him. I just love how they try to act like this flying power makes Nate dangerous in some way. The same applies as Nate and Pete prepare to take down Sylar. I want you to know I’m not foreshadowing here. In the grand scheme of superpowers, I have never found flying to be that impressive. Especially when surrounded by the people that he is. If you could take Peter, pre-sickness Hiro or Nathan into a fight who are you gonna bring? Just sayin.

Claire gets tossed out of the suite and the Nate and Pete Show is on. But when Nate and Sylar fly away, Pete loses flight. This gives Sylar time to thrash Nate, throw him back into the room and slit his throat. Yes, that’s the big death they have been teasing. Here’s where things get strange.

HRG, Claire and Pete convince the Secret Service they need to get to the President first. There’s a cool moment where Claire stares down a Secret Service guy and says she’ll kill him after he shoots her. You go invulnerable girl!

Sylar, still shaped as Nathan, gets into the limo with the President. It’s Michael Dorn, everybody! What up, Worf? Don’t say to that to him, by the way. I’m betting he hates it. Call him Coldstone from Gargoyles.  He loves that reference.

But it’s not the Prez – it’s Peter. He jacks Sylar with a tranquilizer and pause for, the dumbest idea the Petrelli/Bennets have ever had on this show. That’s saying something.

Angela and HRG are drinking the Nathan Petrelli as savior of all of them Kool-Aid. I’m sorry, but wasn’t Nathan for all intents and purposes the villain of the Fugitives arc? It was his abuse of senatorial influence that set all this up to begin with. Sure, in true Petrelli fashion he realized he screwed up and got on board but he really, really screwed up.

Angela plays the “protect your son” card and tells Matt Parkman that if word gets out that Sylar killed a senator, there will be 100 Dankos out there. So Matt “mindwipes” Sylar into thinking he’s Nathan. Um, does anyone really think this is going to work?

They burn the body of the original shapeshifter, who still looks like Sylar. Only HRG, Angela and Matt know the real deal. Several weeks later, Angela goes to see “Nathan” because he hasn’t called her in weeks. He tells her he hasn’t been feeling like himself. Then he notices the clock is off by a minute and a half. Angela gets a terrified look and begins to realize this was the dumbest Petrelli/Bennet idea yet.

In other news, one of the Ali Larter clones is killing off government agents by turning into water and drowning them. I’m assuming this is Tracy since she turned into water after getting shot while she was iced. But with that storyline, who can really say? And the fourth installment of Heroes is to be called Redemption. Considering the mixed reviews over the past two seasons, I wonder if that refers to the characters in the show or the show itself?

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Starting July 10, the dramedy about a town full of geniuses and their numerous mishaps is back on what will then be known as Syfy. Taking over the old Eureka Tuesday night timeslot is new series Warehouse 13. Hopefully the move won’t hurt the audience Eureka has already established.

When last we left the town, Carter had saved it for the I don’t know – 100th time now. But he disobeyed a direct order from the government to do so, thus losing his job. I’m betting the bigwigs realize the error of their ways sooner rather than later.

Sci Fi Channel Photo: Liane Hentscher

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He really can’t do that, or else we don’t have much of a show. It seems like we just started Season 3 and we’re at the end already. The word going around is that a major character is going to die and it’s actually going to stick.

Heroes has always maintained a strong connection to other sci-fi shows including Star Trek. Guest starring tonight as the president is Star Trek:The Next Generation star Michael Dorn. Readers, how do you think it’s going to end? Who’s going to die? Who would you like to see killed off, if anyone?

NBC Photo: Trae Patton

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Shows such as Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Angel took a little time to hit their stride, but they were on smaller netlets in better economic climate. Networks are understandably quicker to push the panic button these days. They’re competing not just against each other but cable shows, blockbuster movies and all other sorts of entertainment.

Nowadays execs actually take time to ponder things such as what effect the release of a big video game will do their movie launch. There were plenty of voices among sci-fi faithful that questioned the wisdom of running Sarah Connor Chronicles and Dollhouse against the release of Watchmen.

There are just so many things competing for our fickle eyes. We really need to be wowed out of the gate and I think even the diehard Whedonites (I count myself among them) weren’t this time. I still hope Dollhouse gets another shot, though. The show’s been heating up lately and I’d love to see where subsequent seasons take us.

©2009 Fox Broadcasting Co. Cr: Darren Michaels/FOX

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