SyFy Cancels 'Eureka'

After first announcing a 6-episode season six, SyFy abruptly pulled an about face and cancelled the sixth season of Eureka, the science fiction comedy/drama created by Andrew Cosby and Jaime Paglia. The series, which debuted in July of 2006, is not going to disappear immediately. It will end with the 12-episode season 5 that is set to air on SyFy in 2012, so diehard fans will have some time to attempt to convince SyFy to keep the property going in some form.

One of the most original American science fiction TV series in years, Eureka takes place in a fictional high tech community in Oregon where nearly everyone is a scientist working on major technological breakthroughs at a corporation known as Global Dynamics. The key dynamic in the series is the tension between Sheriff Jack Carter (Colin Ferguson), a man endowed with considerable practical intelligence and the numerous resident Eureka double-domes, who either on purpose or inadvertently create problems for the community that Sheriff Carter has to deal with.

BOOM! Studios, which was co-founded by Eureka co-creator Andrew Cosby, has published several issues of a Eureka comic book, which are based on storylines provided by Cosby.

Stargate Universe Cancelled!

Syfy has canceled Stargate Universe, according to Deadline Hollywood. The remaining ten episodes of the show’s second season will be aired in the spring, with no more to follow. This apparently marks the end of the Stargate franchise, at least as far as series are concerned. The first series ran ten seasons; Stargate Atlantis was canceled after five seasons.

A Stargate Atlantis-Stargate Universe crossover movie was greenlit last summer. At one point a Stargate movie, Stargate: Extinction was also planned

SYFY Developing 7 New Shows

With the exception of a teenage vampire romance (and maybe pimply bloodsuckers are already passé) the list of Syfy Channel projects under development covers most of the current trendy subjects including superheroes, zombies, and aliens. The cable channel announced this week that it is developing seven new scripted series including Ball & Chain, the story of 2 ex-lovers who are given superpowers when they narrowly escape a meter impact. The twist is they only have the powers when they are in close proximity with each other.

Another new series Me and Lee stars former Six Million Dollar Man Lee Majors in a show that echoes the adventures of TV’s original bionic man. Three other science fiction-inflected series include Orion, a swashbuckling space opera about a female relic hunter that is described as “National Treasure meets Firefly,” Sherwood, a Robin Hood saga set in the 23rd Century, and Human Relations, which focuses on an office temp in a high tech ad agency who discovers that his boss and co-workers are all aliens scheming to conquer the world.

Legendary is a half-hour mockumentary featuring Kevin Sorbo as an exaggerated version of himself, a former syndicated TV star who uses his knowledge of the myths of Hercules to defeat an assortment of modern day monsters.

If AMC’s adaptation of The Walking Dead is a hit, Syfy will be ready with its half-hour series about the ZEROS (Zombie Extermination and Removal Operations) squad charged with defending Marshall City from a constant stream of zombie invasions.

"The Phantom" Gets Short Shrift From SyFy

The SyFy Network has announced that it will air all four hours of The Phantom mini-series, which is based on Lee Falk’s classic adventure comic strip, on Sunday night June 20th, starting at 7pm (ET, PT). The fact that all four hours of the new Phantom, which was originally conceived of as a 2-part pilot movie for a new on-going series, will air on just one night certainly does not bode well for the prospects of the new Phantom getting a continuing series unless the ratings are extremely high.

The new 4-hour Phantom saga, which was produced by RHI and Muse Entertainment, features a bulkier costume that is impervious to bullets and doubles the masked hero’s strength and speed

'The Phantom' On SyFy in June

Six months after The Phantom mini-series debuted on Canadian TV, it will get its American debut when the SyFy Channel airs it June. The three-hour Phantom movie, which stars Robin Carnes as Kit Walker the new Phantom, aired as a two-part mini-series in Canada in December. The Phantom movie, which features the 22nd incarnation of Lee Falk’s masked crimefighter, was ordered as the pilot for a possible Phantom series by the SyFy (then the "Sci-Fi") Channel .

Produced by RHI and Muse Entertainment and directed by Paolo Bartzman, the new Phantom also stars Isabella Rossellini as the villainous Lithia. Sandrine Holt plays Guran and Cameron Goodman portrays Kit’s girlfriend Rennie. The new Phantom wears a bulkier costume that is impervious to bullets and doubles his strength and speed. Moonstone Books is currently in the midst of its Phantom Generations Maxi-Series, which will include an issue for each of the first 21 incarnations of The Phantom, and has also announced a Phantom/Captain Action 2-issue crossover.

SciFi Rebooting "Alien Nation"

The SciFi Channel is developing a new television series based on Alien Nation, a 1988 science fiction movie that spawned a TV series and a handful of made-for-TV movies. Written by Rockne S. O’Bannon, the Alien Nation movie was a dark police procedural with a science fiction twist. Aliens known as “Newcomers” who crashed in the California desert formed a colony of sorts in the Los Angeles area, and a human policeman (Matthew Sykes) teams up with an alien cop (Sam, later “George” Francisco) to investigate a number of crimes in the Newcomer community.

According to Variety, the cable channel sees Alien Nation, with its prominent police procedural elements, as being more than just hard sci-fi, and thus a perfect choice for the network, which is trying to “widen its footprint” as it prepares to re-brand itself as the SyFy Channel starting next week in what has become a controversial marketing maneuver.

Tim Minnear, who has worked on Angel, The X-Files, and Firefly, is creating the backstory and mythology for the new Alien Nation. The series is likely to take its cue more from the Alien Nation TV series, which was essentially a series of morality plays about the evils of racism with the Newcomers standing in for racial, ethnic, and even gender minorities, than from the original feature film.

The TV series only lasted on year on Fox before it was cancelled (along with all the other dramatic series on the fledgling network because of a cash crunch), but it made a definite impression. It developed a cult following and inspired a number of spin-offs including a series of novels, a comic book from Malibu’s Adventure Comics imprint that was published from 1990-1992, and five made-for-TV-movies, which Fox began airing in 1994.

The ratings success of the updated Battlestar Galactica is behind the cable network’s desire to reboot Alien Nation for 21st Century audiences. The new version of Alien Nation will take place in the Pacific Northwest in the 2020s after the Newcomers have grown to a minority of over 3 million living in ghettoized communities. Like the original TV show, the new Alien Nation will be a “buddy cop” series that takes on the issues of racism, immigration, assimilation, and the clash of cultures, and like the original it will also include some satire and humor.

SciFi Becomes Syfy

SciFi Channel will change its name to Syfy Channel on July 7th, when it launches the new series Warehouse 13, according to TV Week. The network believes that the new name more accurately reflects content on the channel, which is broader than traditional science fiction. Warehouse 13, about a secret government facility where mysterious relics are stored, exemplifies this broader content.

The new name may make it easier to attract audiences not traditionally attracted to science fiction, particularly female viewers.