Marsters will play dangerous terrorist leader Barnabus Greeley. Driven by moralistic and yet carnal desires, this unpredictable villain is constantly torn by his conflicting motivations.

Sounds like a role he was born to play!

It’s funny, years ago, I interviewed James when he was just starting out on Buffy. I asked him what he loved most about playing the role of Spike and he said he loved that he could fight all night long and not wake up in jail the next morning. That, and the boots.

In other casting news, Firefly’s Gina Torres will be joining Gossip Girl for a short arc. According to TV Guide, she’ll be playing Vanessa’s free spirit, home-schooling mother.

If you watch CBS this season, you’ll see a few more familiar sci fi faces. Point Pleasant’s Grant Show is a regular on the new Jenna Elfman comedy Accidentally on Purpose and I’m pretty sure I saw Reaper’s Christine Willes (Gladys) in the pilot for The Good Wife.

James Marsters, who stars in the new action film “Dragonball Evolution,” responds to reporters’ questions during a publicity event in Seoul on Feb. 18.

Photo: Newscom

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Davies says Torchwood’s season four is ready to go

Torchwood creator and executive producer Russell T. Davies told the British press Friday that the fourth season of the sci-fi show is ready and waiting, depending on how the show’s third mini-season (“Children of Earth”) performs.

Read the full story at TVSquad.com

Joss Whedon on Dollhouse

Whedon says. “Really, just every meeting is like, ‘What’s the most fun we can have with this actor?’ about the whole cast. All I can say — ’cause I’m gonna be Mr. Un-Spoiler — is that we’re having a crazy amount of fun, and usually, that tends to translate onto the screen.”

Read the full story at EW and careful, there ARE spoilers.

Would FOX or NBC Be Willing To Bring It Back?

Yes. I think from my talks with the people running FOX that they would bring it back under the right circumstances. However, you must understand that right now Nathan Fillion, Adam Baldwin, Morena Baccarin, and Alan Tudyk (plus he was killed in SERENITY) all have gigs for the foreseeable future. However don’t underestimate the power of a movie.

Read the full story at TVbytheNumbers.com

DOLLHOUSE: Alpha (Alan Tudyk, L) imprints Echo (Eliza Dushku, R) as a natural born killer. ©2009 Fox Broadcasting Co. Cr: Carin Baer/FOX

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Yeah, right.

Stock the bomb shelters and get those bullshit detectors out of storage because come January 2010, The Visitors will have landed. It’s “V”, the reimagining of the 1980’s scifi series about pretty alien people with a very dark secret.

I got to watch a little bit of the series and now I’m even more excited to see this new show.

V has several things going for it right out of the gate. First, there’s name recognition. Even if you weren’t around to see the first incarnation, you’ve probably heard vague rumblings about it in the scifi community. Second, the plot is even more relevant today than it was back then. With the bad economy, the war, terrorism – aren’t we all struggling to find a little ray of hope out there? And then there’s the cast. Smart, I tell you.

V is loaded with familiar scifi faces that will have people tuning in just to see their favorites. Firefly’s Morena Baccarin is perfectly cast as the engaging leader of the alien advance guard. Alan Tudyk (Firefly and Dollhouse) plays an FBI agent partnered with Lost’s Elizabeth Mitchell. Mitchell is the show’s anchor and she handles it well.

For the fangirls, you’ve got the puppy-dog angst of Logan Huffman. He’s got a thing for a young alien girl played by Smallville’s Laura Vandervoort. The 4400’s Joel Gretsch plays Father Landry, a man left to deal with an ever increasing panicked congregation as people look to religion for answers after the invasion. A young priest isn’t usually the kind of character that has fans running to fic, but I think it’s going to happen when you see this guy on screen. There’s something about him that just makes me want to write pages and pages and I’ve only seen a few minutes of him on screen.

Scott Wolf is also in the series playing a news anchor and somewhere in there you’ll find a very grownup Barry from Land of the Giants, aka Stefan Arngrim.

Man, I wish we didn’t have to wait until midseason for this one. It looks exciting and new and perfect for Fox or SCI FI Channel. The question is, can something this unique last on a network like ABC.  I hope so.

Here’s a clip of V, coming to ABC next year. (Photo copyright: ABC)

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Tudyk, known to scifi fans as Wash from Firefly, is the face behind the mysterious Alpha that we’ve heard so many scary tales about. Which is funny, because on the surface, Alan Tudyk isn’t a scary person, but he sure made us believe when he switched from the nutty and neurotic engineer Kepler, to a man you wouldn’t want to meet up with in the dark.

“I had so much fun playing Kepler, all this stupid physical stuff was great. And then turning into a bad ass was also fun,” said Tudyk, when he spoke to reporters on the phone after last week’s episode.  “Mentally speaking, and in this next episode, I’m only Alpha. I’m even more crazy, like he’s insane, insane.”

Playing the crazed killer was a new thing for Tudyk, and as much as he enjoyed the opportunity, it wasn’t something he’d sign up for on a long term basis.

“I like goofing around on set and joking around with the crew and everything. When you’re playing somebody who’s as intense as this guy is, I kind of have to be quiet and to myself from time to time and kind of keep my focus. If I was signing up for seven years of one or the other, I’d go with the fun loving, funny guy because it’s more fun to play. But luckily I don’t have to choose and Joss gave me this guy, which is both and many.”

By “many,” Tudyk means the other forty-two personalities that reside inside Alpha’s head.

“In this coming episode,” says Tudyk, “you see the effect of what forty-three people is on one person. We all have inner monologues, different voices that chime in throughout our day, different opinions on situations. Alpha has a little less control of his opinions. They are full people who all want voices. It takes an effort to maintain order in his brain.”

The actor admit that playing such a character was a little “crazy making” particularly when he’s contradicting himself as the various personalities battled for dominance. 

It was, however, this very character description that had Tudyk hungry for the role in the first place.

“[Joss] set me up really well because he didn’t tell me he wanted me for the role when he first described it. It wasn’t like we were in his office discussing work. We were over at Nathan Fillion’s house for Pictionary. We were on a Pictionary break when I brought it up. ‘What’s going on with the show? I want to hear about your new show,’ because it had yet to start and we were just getting into the strike time.

“He gave me a full scope of the guy, that he was this person who was obsessed with Echo and was forty-three people at once and has all of these skill sets crammed into one, but because he’s forty-three people at once, he’s mad. But he can do many things and he’s sort of godlike in his own mind. I was like, ‘Oh, my God, that’s sounds so amazing. Who’s playing that?’ ‘I want you to play it.’ I was really blown away that he wanted me for it and I was excited. As you said, I don’t get to play bad asses very often.”

And bad ass he shall be as Alpha sets off on his quest for world domination that starts with bringing Echo up to his personal, god-like standard. According to Tudyk, it’s going to be one heck of a finale. As for the future he says. . .

“My fate beyond the episode, totally alive, living a healthy life in Venice, California. But Alpha’s fate? It’s uncertain.”

Which in a world of Dollhouse, could mean anything.

The Dollhouse season finale airs tonight on FOX and now I’m actually sorry to see it go.

Cr: Carin Baer/FOX

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According to Variety one of our favorite actors, Firefly/Serenity’s Nathan Fillion will be lighting up ABC’s airwaves soon. The Castle, which stars Fillion as a novelist who helps the police solve crimes, is one of five shows ABC placed orders for Monday.

Here’s hoping this one connects with audiences. Fillion has had two Fox shows that got the axe, Firefly and Drive, the story of a mysterious cross-country race. Since being on ABC’s radar, he had a couple of appearance on Lost as a former boyfriend of Kate. He was a lawman unfortunately unaware of his lady’s criminal past. Looks like ABC’s enamored of casting Fillion as a crimefighter.

Fantasy-themed show Captain Cook’s Extraordinary Atlas was not screened because of a late shooting schedule.

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Warner Bros. video-on-demand service The WB.com will be offering some of our favorite genre shows when it launches later this month. According to the Hollywood Reporter, the list of shows that will be available day one include Buffy the Vampire Slayer, its spinoff Angel, Firefly, Babylon 5, Smallville and Roswell.

WB.com will be supported by premium and is scheduled to launch Aug. 27. B5 and Buffy on demand? Sign me up twice, please! What shows are you looking forward to checking out again online, readers?

Post from: SF Universe

Top Ten Reasons I’d Love to see the Firefly Crew on the Lost Island

Lost season four deals with time travel, or at least they’re hinting at it enough to make fans wonder about the possibility (I will neither deny or confirm having mapped out this entire conspiracy on the inside of my closet door). So, it could be quite plausible for the crew of Serenity to end up on the mysterious Lost island.

So – boom! (Sorry, I have no budget for sound effects.) The ship lands. It wasn’t a scheduled stop so Mal is especially annoyed. River would make a coy!face, and say something both poignantly relevant but also uber confusing about why they ended up there. And that’s when things would start to get interesting.

10.) If Charlie’s band, Drive Shaft was mentioned in passing by Claire, it would be just plain neat if someone from Serenity actually recognized that band. Talk about loving the oldies, huh? P.S. I miss Charlie.

9.) Someone cracking a joke about the four-toed left foot statue on the island being yet another statue dedicated to Jayne, and then jokingly asking to see his left foot. Even better- what if Jayne refuses and gets defensive because he only does have four toes on his left feet? Suddenly we’d have to wonder – was Jayne predestined to land on the island?

8.) Jayne would feel threatened by Sawyer, and vice-versa. Is there room for both of them on this island? I think emphatically not! I can even picturing Jayne trying to be serious and sizing Sawyer up as he said, “There ain’t room enough on this island for the two of us.” Sawyer might then roll his eyes and suggest that Jayne go for a very long swim. Do you see how the tension could play between them? They both let their ID’s (as opposed to Ego’s and Super Ego’s) rule their actions at times. It can make them seem a little immature. This is not to say they are always immature, but if you feel like your place is being challenged, that ID might take over. Jayne and Sawyer would have conflicts because they’re way too alike. And even worse? What happens if they actually become friends?

7.) Poor, abandoned Vincent needs someone to really watch out for him. He needs pettings! Kaylee is the girl for the job since she is sweeter than anyone in any universe. Although Kaylee deals with mechanical things, she is a nurturing type of person and I think she would really enjoy having a pet. I bet she likes animals. If seeing the way she reacted to a strawberry is any indication…I think she’d be very pleased with this arrangement.

6.) We’ve never seen Mal interested in another girl besides Inara. Kate is pretty but also has a huge rebel streak. She’s broken the law and Mal might be impressed. Call me a sucker for love triangles, but I would like to see this.

5.) Simon is a doctor, but will his advanced technology work on this island? Would he have to forgo the Dermal Mender and Hydrozapam and get advice from Jack?

4.) I want to see Zoe get competitive about golf. (The islanders have a make-shift golf course and some clubs – or whatever you call those sticks. Don’t tell me. Golf is not something I want to know anything about.)

3.) River vs. the island’s monster. Who wouldn’t pay to see that fight? Can she really kill something with her brain?

2.) We would have a good chance at finding out Inara’s secret. We know that she has a secret. She had a mysterious box with a syringe that she took out once when she thought Reaver’s were about to board the ship. She also said “I don’t want to die at all.” That didn’t seem like a casual remark. On this island there is already some crazy stuff with people who don’t age. This could be an Inara-centric storyline that would go into her backstory. We might finally learn why she left the comfy world and a possible position as a house priestess to board Serenity.

1.) Mal bought Serenity so he could stay away from all things Alliance. While the others might want to find a way off of the island and back into orbit, Mal might find this to be a bit of a (rough) paradise and be content to stay. A lawless environment might be just what they’re looking for. They might be safe there. Then again…Mal really likes to fly. (And pie, I bet he likes/would like pie. Cherry or Apple. Blueberry pie is for suckers.) This would become an interesting angle to see who would want to stay and who would want to go. Mal is ultimately in charge, so what would he decide to do? And this also becomes a question of do they try to get off the island back to their time, or do they try to leave the island but stay on earth? To this crew, who never knew much about ‘earth that was’ it might be the ultimate destination for adventure and freedom.

Plus, tons of pie.

Post from: SF Universe