Who will replace them? ... The cast of Lost
With the fourth seasons of both Battlestar Galactica and Lost bringing plotlines to their none-too-neat conclusions, it's time to scan the far horizons for the next blockbuster show to fill the looming void (it's that or watch Euro 2008 this summer). Fortunately, we don't have that far to look: Fringe, the new Fox show from JJ Abrams, sees him team up once again with Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman and stars Joshua Jackson as Peter Bishop, the son of institutionalised scientist Dr Walter Bishop (John Noble) who tries to untangle the mystery of Flight 627 from Germany, which lands with a plane-full of dead people at Boston airport. At least that's the start of it, as revealed in the latest trailer leaked by Fox.
So far, so promising (although, let's face it, if JJ Abrams can't release a trailer that makes you sit up and take notice, we may as well all pack up and go home now). As you'd expect, Fox are treating the show's tapes like a consignment of enriched uranium, but Wired magazine this week revealed details of the 90-minute pilot. In short, they think it looks quite good.
For BSG fans, there's more good news: the show's creator (or is that "re-imaginator"?) Ron D Moore has also revealed details of his next project - another sci-fi epic, again for Fox, called Virtuality. Set aboard Phaeton, the earth's first starship, the story follows the crew on a ten-long mission to boldly go in search of a distant planetary system, with a virtual reality fun-room to keep them company. Of course, a problem in the virtual reality system means things don't run as smoothly as planned. Sound familiar? Well, maybe. But don't forget Moore cut his teeth on the Star Trek franchise, so he's only ripping himself off.
As ever, the sci-fi blogs are alive with conjecture, half-truths, casting news and potential spoilers. According to Moore, shooting on the two-hour pilot won't start until July, but in the meantime, there's the small question of Caprica, the BSG spin-off for the Sci-Fi channel that will address the Cylon backstory. A preview of the pilot started doing the rounds yesterday. I'm excited.
