[Televisionary]

"You are what you choose." Syfy has released a new 90-second promo for its upcoming drama series Caprica , the prequel to Battlestar Galactica launching in January. Featuring all-new footage of the series, the promo depicts some of the storylines and imagery slated to appear on the series, which is being overseen by showrunner Jane Espenson . And, yes, it just happens to also feature a brief shot of James Marsters as terrorist leader Barnabus Greeley. (He's slated to appear in at least three episodes this season.) Caprica is slated to launch January 22nd at 9 pm ET/PT.

Welcome to your Thursday morning television briefing. CBS has given full season orders to freshman dramas NCIS: Los Angeles and The Good Wife , which are respectively the first and second best-rated new series of the season and have assisted in CBS winning the last three Tuesday ratings matches. (via press release) Ellen Page, Alia Shawkat, and Sean Tillmann will write and executive produce a single-camera comedy pilot script entitled Stitch N' Bitch for HBO. The project will follow "two painfully cool hipster girls as they relocate from Brooklyn's Williamsburge neighborhood to Los Angeles' Silver Lake enclave in hopes of become artists -- of any kind," according to Hollywood Reporter 's Nellie Andreeva and Matthew Belloni. The trio might also star in the project if it's picked up to pilot but any decision of that kind will be made at a later date. ( Hollywood Reporter ) SPOILER! E! Online's Jennifer Godwin has details about Hayden Panettiere's

Welcome to your Wednesday morning television briefing. CBS is said to be developing a potential spin-off from its crime drama series Criminal Minds that will be created by showrunner/executive producer Ed Bernero and executive producer Chris Mundy, the latter of which will write the script for the potential spin-off which will air as an episode of Criminal Minds later this season. No concrete details are available but the series is thought to revolve around a new team of FBI agents, rather than focusing on any of the existing Criminal Minds characters. ( Hollywood Reporter ) John Simm ( Life on Mars ), who returns to Doctor Who to reprise his role as The Master this winter, has said that David Tennant's swan song on the British sci-fi series is a "brilliant send-off" for Tennant and the Tenth Doctor. "It'll be a brilliant send-off for Mr Tennant," said Simm. "Last time I did it it was such fun to do. It was wonderful to be asked back and to be in th

Welcome to your Wednesday morning television briefing. Buffy and Angel 's James Marsters--who appeared last year in Season Two of Torchwood to boot--has been cast in a multiple-episode story arc on Syfy's upcoming Battlestar Galactica prequel series Caprica . Marsters, who is slated to appear in at least three installments, will play Barnabus Greeley, a dangerous terrorist leader who is described as being "driven by desires both moralistic and carnal" and is "as lethal as he is unpredictable." Caprica premieres January 22nd on Syfy. ( Entertainment Weekly 's Ausiello Files ) ABC has given a script order to Clive Barker's Hotel , described as a "series of ghoulish incidents at a haunted hotel," from writers Marcus Dunstan and Patrick Melton. Project, from Warner Bros. Television and Wonderland Sound and Vision, will be executive produced by Clive Barker and McG, who could direct the pilot episode if the network moves forward with the pro

Welcome to your Monday morning television briefing. Patton Oswalt ( United States of Tara ) has been cast in a recurring role on Syfy's upcoming Battlestar Galactica prequel series Caprica , where he will play Baxter Sarno, the comedian talk show host of a Caprican-based television series on which Eric Stoltz's Daniel Greystone and Paula Malcomson's Amanda Greystone appear. Oswalt is no stranger to genre-based series; he did a memorable guest turn on FOX's Dollhouse last season in the game-changing episode "Man on the Street" (pictured here). Caprica is slated to launch in January 2010 on Syfy. ( Hollywood Reporter ) NBC has ordered a pilot script for Midnight, Mass , a series adaptation of DC Comics/Vertigo title about Adam and Julia Kadmons, a married couple who travel the world solving mysteries and tackling bizarre supernatural crimes. Pilot script will be written by Gretchen Berg and Aaron Harberts, who will executive produce along with Pushing Daisies

Welcome to your Tuesday morning television briefing. Battlestar Galactica 's Jamie Bamber will guest star in the season premiere installment of FOX's Dollhouse next season. According to E! Online's Watch with Kristin, Bamber will play a character who is "heavily involved in an engagement Echo (Eliza Dushku) and her new handler Paul Ballard (Tahmoh Penikett) have been assigned to." ( E! Online's Watch with Kristin ) In other Dollhouse -related news, Joss Whedon has confirmed that Season Two of the FOX drama will feature some familiar faces from the Whedonverse including Dr. Horrible 's Felicia Day (who appeared in the unaired "Epitaph One" episode), Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles ' Summer Glau, and Angel 's Alexis Denisof. ( TVGuide.com ) Syfy has announced that Battlestar Galactica spin-off Caprica will debut on Friday, January 22nd at 10 pm. Of course, if you read my coverage of the Caprica/BSG: The Plan panel at Comic-Con ,

This morning's panel at Comic-Con 2009 for Syfy's Caprica and Battlestar Galactica: The Plan certainly did not disappoint. For one, there was some new footage of BSG: The Plan to see and there was finally a firm announcement about when BSG prequel series Caprica would debut: Friday, January 22nd of next year. Caprica 's executive producers Ronald D. More and David Eick, showrunner Jane Espenson, Esai Morales, The Plan 's director/star Edward James Olmos and Grace Park were on hand to unveil the footage and discuss what lies ahead for the Battlestar Galactica franchise. The footage of BSG: The Plan was fast and furious and left me wanting more right now. It gave me chills and will present the Cylon's plan of human genocide from their own twisted POV, enabling the audience to see the events of Battlestar Galactica from the Cylons' perspective. Jane Espenson, Caprica 's showrunner who wrote the script for BSG: The Plan , said that the, er, plans for The P

Welcome to your Tuesday morning television briefing. TVGuide.com talks to Lost 's Titus Welliver, who played the mysterious man in black seen in the fifth season finale (that many of us are referring to as Esau). "The way that I interpreted it, on a biblical level, is that it's a sort of Cain-and-Abel scenario," said Welliver of the showdown between Jacob and his character. "So by destroying Jacob, what does that prove — that [the man in black] can ultimately have power over the island? Do the castaways become solely his playthings? And why was it so important that he find the loophole to be able to kill Jacob? That moved me in the direction of thinking that if he needs this loophole, there's a greater power than the two of them that they're answering to." ( TVGuide.com ) FX has ordered six episodes of animated comedy Archer (working title), about the eccentric employees of an international spy agency, from writer/executive producer Adam Reed. Proj

After weeks of anticipation (and speculation), Syfy has finally announced which series they will be bringing down to San Diego Comic-Con next month. The cabler will be offering panels based around Caprica and telepic Battlestar Galactica: The Plan , Eureka , Sanctuary, Warehouse 13 , and Stargate Universe . Additionally, Syfy will be taking over the Hard Rock Cafe and will re-brand the eatery as Eureka ’s own “Cafe Diem” for entire breadth of the convention. Cafe Diem will be the focal point for many of Syfy's planned activities throughout the convention. The full press release from Syfy can be be found below, along with dates and times (and descriptions) of each of their panels. SCI FI FEATURES FAN FAVORITE SERIES AND STARS AT COMIC-CON INTERNATIONAL 2009 New York, NY – June 30, 2009 – In keeping with its longstanding tradition of hosting some of Comic-Con’s most popular, crowd-pleasing events over the years, SCI FI Channel will once again feature some of its biggest hits – as we

Welcome to your Thursday morning television briefing. E! Online caught up with Lost star Matthew Fox in Monte Carlo, where he was on hand to attend the Monte Carlo Television Festival, and got the actor to tease some details about Lost 's sixth and final season. Fox, who said that Lost will end with "an incredibly powerful, very sad and beautiful way," went on to say " "I think it is going to be very satisfying and cathartic and redemptive and beautiful. I've talked to Damon pretty extensively and every time I talk to him it's sort of surprising how moving it is just to talk about it." As for the beginning of Season Six, look for the action to begin with the reveal of just what happened after Juliet seemed to detonate the hydrogen bomb, with Fox teasing, "It's very surprising and probably fairly confusing initially to the audience... Like a third of the way in [to the season] I would guess we are going to [settle] in one time frame and it

Welcome to your Wednesday morning television briefing. With the 100th episode of Lost set to air tonight on ABC, many are already looking to the series' next milestone: the all-important series finale, set for May, 2010, and viewers are bound to have high expectations when creators Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse wrap up the series. "We can't let those expectations terrify us," said Lindelof in an interview with Variety 's Shawn Malcom. "The reality is, we've known what the series finale is going to be for a while now." In fact, the real variable is how the series' characters wind up at the end point charted by Lindelof and Cuse. "The path that we take to the end still has some room for surprises and changes and discoveries along the way (in terms of) the characters' journeys and how their relationships evolve," said Cuse. While the duo wouldn't reveal any specifics about the finale, they did say that fans will be left wanting

While Battlestar Galactica may have ended about a month ago, fans of the award-winning Sci Fi series have been eagerly awaiting Caprica , the next (or is it previous?) chapter in the BSG saga, set roughly fifty years before the start of BSG 's mini-series. (You can read my advance review here .) With Caprica 's two-hour pilot now available on DVD and as a digital download, I had a feeling many of you would be curious about what to expect when the Battlestar Galactica prequel series Caprica returns in 2010 as a full-fledged series of its own on Syfy. To that end, I caught up with Caprica 's showrunner/executive producer Jane Espenson a few weeks ago to find out what is in store for the residents of the doomed planet, how the series will be different from the two-hour pilot, how the notion of the One True God plays into things, and what fans of BSG should anticipate from this sleek series. Televisionary: How would you pitch Caprica as a series to viewers of BSG who ar

When Sci Fi's Battlestar Galactica ended in March, many fans mourned the loss of one of television's most compelling and intelligent series. Fortunately, the folks at Sci Fi (soon to be renamed Syfy) are giving fans a bit of a belated Easter present today, as the network (via Universal Studios Home Video) releases the 90-minute pilot for Caprica on DVD. Caprica , the prequel to Battlestar Galactica , is set approximately 50-odd years prior to the events in the Battlestar Galactica mini-series and is slated to air as a new series on Syfy beginning next year. However, rather than force fans of Battlestar Galactica to wait at least eight months to see the next (or is it former?) chapter in the BSG saga, Syfy is giving fans the opportunity to watch the backdoor pilot for the series now. I've already offered my glowing review on the pilot episode of Caprica here , so I wanted today to take a look at the DVD's assorted extras and bonus features. In addition to the gorge