Legion of Geek

Over the weekend, the BBC announced the casting of the eleventh actor to play the Doctor: the relatively unknown Matt Smith.  Trying to learn more about the latest star of British sci-fi epic may be more challenging than you think: typing “Matt Smith” into IMDB yields 41 results (hint: our boy is the fourth on the list). Though he’s had some exposure in the UK (in The Ruby in the Smoke and Party Animals) he’s a complete unknown to American fans. After head writer Steven Moffat had spoken about casting an older actor in the role, the appearance of Smith (at 26, the youngest yet) has caused tremendous outcry amongst the fans, whom, to put it politely, are concerned about the abilities of a younger actor to carry off the Doctor. (The words “boy band” seem to be tossed around frequently in these discussions, though at 26 Smith is positively ancient by boy band standards.)

To the doubters in the audience (and it’s not like there’s much in the way of acting credentials to sell us on him), I point you towards Smith’s interview with Doctor Who Confidential. Go on. Watch it. I’ll wait. Child-like enthusiasm aside, he won me over by the time he said, “What I did when I got the role… I paced around the room for about three days. Because I didn’t know what to do! So I’d just sort of get up, and then I’d come back, and I’d sit down, watch a bit of TV, and then I’d smile and go ‘I’m the Doctor.’”

Why? Because that’s exactly what I’d do in his place. It’s exactly what any Doctor Who fanboy or fangirl would do in his place. If nothing else, his evident enthusiasm for the role suggest he’s going to give the part everything he’s got. And for those doubting because of his age (I admit, I’ve gone through a bit of a mid-life crisis seeing someone younger than myself cast in the role), remember that…

• in 1974, 40-year-old Tom Baker was the youngest actor to take the role.
• in 1981, 29-year-old Peter Davison was the youngest actor to take the role (Davison only had 3 years on Smith, people!).
• not everyone appreciated the casting of Christopher Eccelston as the ninth Doctor: “He smells of Generation X apathy. I can’t think of anyone worse.”
• not everyone appreciated the casting of David Tennant as the tenth Doctor: “I have watched Doctor Who from the very first episode and am appalled at the way it is going.”

Will Matt Smith have the appropriate gravitas that so many seem to feel is necessary for the character of the Doctor? Until we’ve seen his first appearance in 2010, I don’t think we can safely say — but doesn’t a fellow fan at least deserve a chance?

But now that the eleventh Doctor’s casting is out of the way, we can focus on the important questions for the next season of Doctor Who, namely, who’s going to play the next companion?

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Let’s take a look at the last 3 episodes of Star Wars: The Clone Wars on Cartoon Network.

Episode 8 was the Jar Jar/ C3-PO episode.  I don’t know why Lucas insists on involving the worst character of the series again and again, but what can you do?  Throwing C3-PO into the episode was just the rotten cherry on top of the sludge sundae.

Yes C3-PO can be funny, but only when R2-D2 is verbally bitch slapping him.

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Warner Bros. Studios continues to mine its DC Comics subsidiary for entertainment franchises. Today it was announced that ABC has greenlit a pilot of the comic publisher’s Eisner award winning Fables. Created, written and often illustrated by Bill Willingham, Fables tells the story of characters from fairy tales trying to blend in with the mortals of New York City after being thrown out of their native lands by The Adversary. The ones that can’t pass for human are stationed in the countryside at The Farm.

As with most recent fantasy/sci fi television projects, the network promises that the fantastical elements will be downplayed in favor of the human elements. In other words, they won’t be alienating the viewing public with scary things like, you know, fantasy elements. No wonder Legend of the Seeker is doing so well.

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Showtime announced today that they are developing a new scifi series titled Syns. The series, about synthetic humans will be spearheaded by Jericho consulting producer John McNamara and Supernatural supervising writer/producer Sera Gamble. The project was initially developed for the BBC and was originally called “Doll’s Hospital” which is already driving speculation that it is similar in tone to Joss Whedon’s upcoming Dollhouse. Gamble and McNamara worked together previously on the short lived Eyes.

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John Rogers, he of Transformers and The Jackie Chan Adventures fame, has the premiere his new show Leverage on TNT tonight at 10/9c. It’s about a group of cons who act as modern day Robin Hoods, taking down corrupt CEOs and others who think they are untouchable.

As well as being a television writer, John is an avid World of Warcraft player, blogger and Dungeons & Dragons geek. Clearly he is here to make the rest of us feel bad about not making a living off of our own geek passions. Bastard.

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Legend of the Seeker episode 7 “Identity” premieres this afternoon. The promo above promises a story of a witch who prophesies betrayal for Richard by his closest ally. Whatever. Is the chick in the white flowy robes and the wicked daggers going to kick some more armor-clad ass? Because we can’t get enough of that and we’re not getting our fix otherwise until Eliza Dushku brings her A game back to TV in February’s Dollhouse.

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We here at LoG HQ are big fans of two things: damn good television and media companies that understand the Internet. Put the two together and you get the Legend of the Seeker video widget above. Legend is inspired by the Terry Goodkin series of fantasy novels, Wizards First Rule. The team that brought us fondly remembered Saturday afternoon syndicated one hour action fare Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and Xena: Warrior Princess have revived the form. And this time they are taking advantage of the Internet to bring you video goodness. What more can you ask for?

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Access Hollywood, not a usual source of good SciFi tv news, brought home the bacon with three videos on the set of Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse. The first clip, above, has both Joss and Dollhouse star Eliza Dushku give a tour of the main stage, talk about how Dolls are created and Eliza breaks a prop. If that’s not enough for you, there are two more clips after the jump.

Dollhouse premieres on Friday, Feb 13th at 9p on Fox. (more…)

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All you Cylons out there should start rejoicing.  Right now.

Ronald D. Moore’s prequel to Battlestar Galactica, Caprica, has been given the green light by the Sci Fi channel.

The series will focus on life on the planet Caprica fifty-one years before the events of the re-imagined BSG series took place.  Caprica will follow the lawyer Joseph Adama (father of Bill Adama) and his family as they deal with tragedy and strife.

The series is highly anticipated and promises to give all of us BSG fanbois the fix that we need after BSG finishes its run in March of 2009. Caprica is set to primer in early 2010.

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First, we must say that this is a beautifully crafted promo trailer. It does a masterful job of recapping Season Four while giving just a tease of what lies ahead without being too spoilery. And it hits on key moments from last season that reminds us why we were sucked back in despite the questionable direction of Season Three.

That being said: what’s with the “Grey’s Anatomy” approach to the music? This isn’t a feel good night time soap. This is a dark, dangerous and twisty tale of fate, friendship and random number sequences. It needs music with a little more edge, not the soulful ballads of The Fray. We’re not saying it has to be Nine Inch Nails (though we would be thrilled to see that), but how about the Smashing Pumpkins “The Beginning is the End is the Beginning” recently used on “The Dark Knight” trailers or even Israel Kamakawiwo’ole’s hauntingly pure rendition of “Somewhere Over The Rainbow“?

That’s all were sayin’.

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