Do we have a lack of Faith?

February 25, 2003
[Originally a Billie's Bytes column]

Welcome to my new column!

My major obsession first:

No solid news yet on the fate of Buffy, with only six episodes left and counting... but the handwriting is certainly on the wall that this is The End. Sarah Michelle Gellar is in negotiations to do a movie in August, after filming the (ick) sequel to Scooby-Doo, and August is when shooting on Buffy usually begins. Do the math.

And there's a rumor out that Eliza Dushku has signed to do a new series, and it's NOT a Buffy spinoff.

The good news, and I do mean super news, is that Spike is back -- still in possession of his hard won soul, but back in his duster, and fighting demons with an attitude. I must admit that the main reason I'm excited about a possible Buffy spinoff is the marvelous James Marsters; I can't imagine life without Spike. Marsters has gotten a lot of positive press this year, and he said in an interview recently that he's willing to continue as Spike.

"Get It Done" and the episode before it, "First Date", brought back a character from season five, "the subway slayer" -- but this time, the role was played by another actress. For the inside story of what happened, check out my interview with the "Subway Slayer," April Weeden-Washington.

The next new episode of Angel airs March 5. Unfortunately, we still don't know about a fifth season for Angel, yet... and the WB has chosen NOT to air Angel episodes during February sweeps. This is quite possibly not good, folks. Frog, my ass; as far as I'm concerned, the WB is the turkey network.

The Dead Zone continues to surprise and delight me. Anthony Michael Hall is just terrific as coma victim and genuine psychic Johnny Smith, who must deal with "seeing" murder, kidnapping, and the end of world, as well as the attentions of psychotic fans who are obsessed with his gifts. The Dead Zone manages to give us a mix of suspense, horror, romance, and comedy, and it keeps getting better. If you're not watching this show, you really should check it out; that is, if you can find it. USA runs it at very odd times, mostly late.

Fabulous Alias episode this week. Does Sloane give the word "devious" a whole new meaning, or what? Alias is still having ratings trouble, though; I don't understand why people aren't watching this show! Hopefully, the success of Daredevil will help get people watching Alias. Scheduling it after the StupidBowl didn't work because they had this long, idiotic post-game show with Jon Sell-out Bon Jovi, and everyone got tired and went to bed.

I hear that the Sci-Fi Channel is planning to bring back a new version of Battlestar Galactica, with Jamie Bamber (who?) as Apollo, and Katee Sackhoff (who?) as a female Starbuck. Okay, I'll try it out when it arrives, and I'll keep an open mind, but frankly, I didn't care all that much about the old Galactica.

And I'm still pissed at the Sci-Fi Channel for canceling the strange and wonderful Farscape. The new episodes started out wonderfully this January with that hilarious trip to Earth, but they seem to be reverting to old ground here, with Crichton once again searching for Aeryn. Maybe it really has run its course, but I'm still dreading the final episode, which is fast approaching; since they had no warning the show was canceled, I bet they leave us, permanently, with a killer cliffhanger.

Enterprise is having serious rating trouble, and serious writing trouble as well. I'm just about a loyal as a Star Trek fan can be, and I'm ready to give up on the franchise. If Star Trek: Nemesis had pulled in more of an audience instead of getting kicked to death by hobbits, it might have given Enterprise a much-needed shot in the arm. Surprisingly, according to an article in the SciFi Wire, UPN plans to hang on to Enterprise for at least another season. Expect rating gimmicks to warp in fairly soon.

Having said all that, I must also say that last week's episode, "Future Tense," was not entirely bad. We got an old Earth ship from the future that was bigger on the inside than the outside, a little Next Generation with time-looping, a little original series with Tholian ships. There was even a bit of outright flirting, with Archer casually asking T'Pol, "If a human and a Vulcan did have a child, I wonder if he'd have pointed ears?" But the infamous Star Trek re-set button was back at the end.

Twilight Zone was advertising a retread of a classic episode, "It's a Good Life," so I tuned on in. The new episode, "It's Still a Good Life," revisited the same characters forty years later, as Anthony (played once again by the wonderful Bill Mumy, from Lost in Space and Babylon Five) as an adult finds that his small daughter (Liliana Mumy -- any relation?) is very much a chip off the old block. The story was fairly good, but I felt a bit let down by the ending. I fell asleep during the second segment.

Just FYI, folks, I am now the "L.A. correspondent" for The Warp Zone, a radio show that you can catch on the web. (I've always wanted to be someone's L.A. correspondent.) You can hear me yakking away with the guys at The Warp Zone in the last half hour of the shows that aired January 12 and February 16; check the archives page.

That's all for this geekgirl's week in sci-fi,

Billie
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Billie Doux loves good television and spends way too much time writing about it.