Flesh and Blood: "Torchwood: Children of Earth" Day Five

"Sometimes the Doctor must look at this planet and turn away in shame."

"Day Five" of Torchwood: Children of Earth, written by Russell T. Davies and directed by Euros Lyn, proved to be absolutely gut-wrenching television, as evocative as it was gripping. In the hands of Davies and his writing staff, Torchwood: Children of Earth is one of the most powerful and moving pieces of television making this year.

As a whole, Torchwood: Children of Earth is about what happens when we reach that tipping point, when the hard choices have to be broached, and sacrifices made. It's also about how the sins of the past always have a nasty habit at catching up to us and how truth will always out in the end. It's a heartbreaking testament to the enduring spirit of the human race and also how easily we as a society can turn on ourselves.

You've read my advance review of Torchwood: Children of Earth as a whole but now that "Day Five" has aired, we can discuss this installment in detail. (And, if you haven't yet watched the fifth and final episode of Torchwood: Children of Earth, beware: SPOILERS aplenty below here.)

I have to begin by saying how absolutely amazing Peter Capaldi was as John Frobisher. For a role that deceptively starts out as little more than a paper-pushing civil servant, his performance in the final installment of Torchwood: Children of Earth turns Frobisher into a tragic figure the likes of which are rarely seen on television. Forced by Prime Minister Brian Green (Nicholas Farrell) to give up his own daughters to the inoculation scheme (read: turn them over to the 456), Frobisher reaches his own tipping point and requisitions a firearm, which he then uses on his two daughters, his wife, and ultimately himself, rather than give them over to a hellish eternal existence.

In Capaldi's gifted hands, Frobisher becomes a wholly sympathetic character, who is forced to perform an unspeakable act in order to safeguard his children's safety. Is it murder? Or an act of mercy? Could he have stood by and let his beloved daughters become the personal fix of an alien race? The way that Green so cruelly and matter-of-factly informs Frobisher of his decision--a calculated ploy to paint the government as dupes of the 456--send chills up my spine. This is a man who values his own power more than humanity itself.

"Day Five" also gives us a street-level view of what the crisis with the children is causing around the world. Davies was wise to develop the character of Ianto's sister Rhiannon (Katy Wix) and here she plays a vital role when Jack tasks Gwen with keeping Ianto's niece and nephew safe. These are the very children who are at risk of being taken and the scenes with Gwen and Rhys running with the children were utterly heartbreaking.

As I said earlier this week, it was especially brave, in a series about the victimization of children, to make the female lead pregnant and in "Day Five" Gwen questions having a child in a world like the one they're living in. How can you bring life into a world that would give up its children callously? Where they could be at risk if the 456 returned?

And yet there's always hope. After making her taped confession about the end of the world, Gwen admits to Rhys that she wouldn't go through with an abortion, that she wouldn't do that to him. Even in a world as topsy-turvy as this one, children still represent hope for a better future.

It's also a world where people are willing to take a stand, whether it's Rhiannon's no-good husband Johnny (Rhodri Lewis), the imprisoned Lois Habiba (Cush Jumbo), Gwen's former copper colleague PC Andy Davidson (Tom Price), Frobisher's long-suffering PA Bridget Spears (Susan Brown), or cabinet minister Denise Riley (Deborah Findlay), the latter of which turn on the Prime Minister when he expresses relieve at saving his own political career after the 456 incident, intending to blame what happened on the Americans. I loved that Davies withheld the reveal that Spears was wearing the Torchwood contact lenses until the very last minute and then she intended to expose Brian Green for the coward he really is... and that Denise Riley took over without so much as a political coup. Justice will overcome, one imagines.

But "Day Five" also finally revealed the truth of what the 456 wanted the children for. A "hit" of chemicals that creates a euphoric effect on them; these children--kept alive forever--are walking bodybags of recreational drugs. That the truth behind the abductions comes down to pharmaceuticals is a stroke of genius. During "Day Four," I couldn't figure out what the 456 would possibly need the children for if the kids weren't keeping the 456 alive. I never could have imagined that this what what they wanted them for, that after getting a taste (from those twelve kids) they now want millions of them. They're little more than alien junkies jonesing for their next fix.

Jack and the British government enabled this situation by handing over those twelve kids in 1965 and even if they turn over millions of children now, there's no guarantee that the 456 won't come back at any point in the future and demand even more. In fact, it's more than bloody likely that they would keep demanding more and more as time goes on. So how to stop them?

Despite still reeling from the death of Ianto in "Day Four," Jack Harkness is able to come up with a plan that could destroy the 456 and prevent the crisis from unfolding. But there's a price to pay for this. In 1965, Jack sacrificed twelve orphans in order to save the planet. But now, faced with the loss of millions of children, there's a different cost, a personal sacrifice that has to be made. And despite his feelings for his grandson Steven (Bear McCausland) and with the knowledge that it will destroy what little love exists between him and his daughter Alice (Lucy Cohu), Jack uses Steven as a conduit for a signal that will damage the 456.

Despite the fact that Jack can't bear to look at Steven as he does it, the fact that he has had to sacrifice his grandson--his own flesh and blood--kills Jack inside more than any bullet wound or explosion. He once offered up strangers to save Earth but now he's forced to give up his own flesh and blood. Is it cruel that he prevents his daughter from seeing her child one last time? Or does he know that there's no way she'll ever be able to let him go? After all, it's both of their lives that Jack gambles away and the dark look that passes afterward between Jack and Alice confirms that their relationship is dead and beyond repair.

It's no surprise then that Jack runs away. He blames himself not only for the deaths of Ianto and Steven but also those of Tosh, Owen, and Suzie as well. But there's nowhere he can go that he can escape his crushing guilt, even as he tells Gwen that he's off to the other side of the solar system. The Doctor knows better than anyone that it doesn't matter where or when you go, you can't outrun your past or your sins.

So is this the end of Torchwood? I don't think so, though the team is completely fractured, battered, and broken. Ianto, Tosh, and Owen are dead, Jack is running, and Gwen is six months pregnant. Something tells me, however, that this isn't the last we've seen of the team. Jack will come home eventually, Gwen will have her baby, Lois will join a new incarnation of Torchwood and the team will continue to safeguard the planet against alien threats.

In the meantime, just keep your fingers crossed for Season Four of Torchwood. I know I am.

What did you think of Torchwood: Children of Earth? Were you surprised by the twists and turns along the way? Is this the end of the team and the series? Will Jack return from the stars and what will happen to Gwen's baby? Discuss.

Torchwood: Children of Earth is available for purchase on DVD Tuesday, July 28th for a suggested retail price of $29.98. Or you can pre-order a copy today in the Televisionary store for $17.49.

They Have a Plan: "Caprica/Battlestar Galactica: The Plan" Panel at Comic-Con 2009

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 Plan all came together rather quickly. "It all happened very quickly," said Espenson. "There was an idea that we would do movies. All of the sudden, we're going to do one and right away. It was a rubik's cube of a script." Espenson said much of the challenge came from being locked into events from the series and trying to match up scenes and scenarios based on what aired.

Edward James Olmost said that "The Plan to Battlestar Galactica is almost like The Bible... You will have to go back and rewatch the whole show" over again, after you watch The Plan.

As for Caprica, executive producers Ron Moore and David Eick were quick to point out that the series can be enjoyed by viewers new to the BSG franchise as it's not limited to "die hard fans." Caprica is decidedly not an action-adventure but rather shows "the beginning of the mythology that informs Battlestar Galactica [but it's] not following specific storylines in BSG," according to Moore. For one thing, Caprica is set further in the past--58 years, to be precise--and Moore says that the series should be "approached as a separate project."

Eick agrees, saying that the plot of Caprica is "tangential" to that of BSG and doesn't "require viewers to bring Battlestar baggage to it." Eick says that it will ask tough questions about our own society, where we are headed, morality, and artificial intelligence. (It is, after all, about the creation of robots.) And, like Battlestar Galactica before it, Caprica will ask what it means to be human, which is really the central theme of the series, according to Eick, who said that there will be some rather "strange bedfellows" in the series and will lead the audience to question whether they are rooting for the right side. He likened the series to Rome before the fall, pointing out Caprica's "decadence, hedonism, and naughiness."

Just don't expect the casual nudity seen in the direct-to-DVD release of Caprica's pilot to appear in the series. "Sadly, no," said Eick when asked whether there would be shots of nude breasts in the series. Still, the on-air version of the Caprica pilot will have some extra goodies when it airs on Syfy next year.

What there will be are different cultural aspects of the twelve colonies that we've not seen to date and these sort of touches--from hats, ties, vintage cars, and cigarettes--will act as a flavor throughout the production. (Or as Morales put it, a mix of "neo-punk and 1940s.") Caprica isn't as "wild or as verite as Battlestar," said Eick, "it's not as visually chaotic but more subtle and elegant, and [having a] more serene, beautiful quality."

Still, it's not static and there's a whole mess of conflict seething underneath the surface as Caprica is set "before the political unification of the colonies," according to Espenson, who said that the series will definitely differentiate between the disparate inhabitants of the colonies and one episode of the first season would actually be set off-world on the Scorpion colony.

And Caprica will have decidedly more humor than BSG did. "There are lots of ways to use humor that doesn't undercut the drama," said Espenson, who is no stranger to humor, having crafted some of the most articulate and humorous episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

The most impromptu and heartfelt moment of the Caprica/BSG panel? When Eick lashed out at the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences for failing to recognize the amazing performances of the cast. "It is a frakking crime that the cast of BSG was never nominated," said Eick.

Best part of Caprica panel? Esai Morales hugging Eddie Olmos, kissing him on the head, and saying "my baby!!!"

So is The Plan the last we'll see of BSG? "It depends," says Eick. Hmmm. "I can guarantee you it won't be the last BSG movie," said Olmos.

For his part, Olmos joked that he wrote a script in which Adama is living in rustic log cabin when there is a knock at the door and it's Colonel Tigh, who says, "We have a problem." (Ahem.)

And Moore responded to a question about a DVD release for Virtuality, the FOX drama pilot he co-created by Michael Taylor by saying that the DVD release was up in the air but he promised future smoking/drinking commentaries for Caprica and Virtuality "whether they put it on the frakking DVD or not."

The video for the full Caprica/BSG: The Plan panel can be found below:



Caprica is set to premiere Friday, January 22nd, 2010.

"Eureka" Gets Surprise Fourth Season Pickup, Birthday Wishes for Colin Ferguson

In a move likely to send Eureka fans into a frenzy, Syfy EVP Mark Stern used the Eureka panel at Comic-Con to announce the popular sci-fi series will be getting a 22-episode fourth season pick-up.

While an auditorium full of screaming Eureka fans might seem like a perfect venue to make such an announcement, the move appeared to be totally impromptu as it came about after the panel's moderator Josh Gates (host of Syfy unscripted series Destination Truth) playfully decided to phone up star Colin Ferguson in Bulgaria (who is currently there shooting telepic Lake Placid 3 for Syfy).

When Gates asked Ferguson if he had anything to say to the assembled crowd, Ferguson replied that he wanted to know if the show was coming back for another season.

After some urging from both the crowd and the Eureka panelists in attendance (which included creator Jaime Paglia and cast-members Joe Morton, Erica Cerra, Salli Richardson-Whitfield, Neil Grayston, and Jaime Ray Newman), Mark Stern finally took to the stage and ignited a prolonged ovation by promising fans at least one more season of Eureka.

However the one caveat that Stern threw in as an aside to Paglia was his hope that they do at least one "musical" episode where the characters break into song and dance, much as they did in these Season Three promos from 2008 (which can seen here).

This part of the announcement was met with considerably less enthusiasm by Ferguson who vowed to have a "smaller role" in that episode. (Also not a fan of the song and dance: Erica Cerra, despite her knock-out torch song performance in the recent Eureka episode "Your Face or Mine.")

An audio excerpt of the panel where the announcement is made (as well as the crowd serenading Ferguson with Happy Birthday) can be found below.



Meanwhile, the panel also broke the news that Matt Frewer will return to the series as Taggart and revealed that Richardson-Whitfield's real-life pregnancy altered plans that the writers had for Allison down the line. "We had an entirely different part mapped out for her character," said Paglia. "We got to really re-conceive the relationship" between Allison and Ferguson's Jack, who will become Allison's birthing coach.

Paglia promised that the episode where Allison gives birth will be "definitely memorable," especially as Richardson-Whitfield was eight months pregnant herself at the time.

Eureka airs Friday evenings at 9 pm ET/PT on Syfy.

Reporting by Mark DiFruscio

Innocence Lost: "Torchwood: Children of Earth" Day Four

"Three-two-five-zero-zero-zero."

The latest episode of Torchwood: Children of Earth ("Day Four"), written by John Fay (who scripted "Day Two") and once again ably directed by Euros Lyn, was absolutely heartbreaking on a number of levels.

It was inevitable that death would once again cast its pall over the Torchwood team but what was wholly unexpected were the callous actions and behavior of the PM's cabinet as they debated the criteria for deciding which of the nation's children will be offered up as human sacrifices to The 456, especially in light of what happened to the original twelve children taken in 1965 in the United Kingdom's first dealing with the alien race.

Just what happened to these children? What are the criteria for choosing the next sacrifice? What is the cost of one child's live? And can Torchwood stop the 456 in time to prevent an outright war? Hmmm...

You've read my advance review of Torchwood: Children of Earth as a whole but now that "Day Four" has aired, we can discuss this installment in detail. (And, if you haven't yet watched the fourth episode of Torchwood: Children of Earth, beware: SPOILERS aplenty below here.)

While there's still one last installment left to go, "Day Four" of Torchwood: Children of Earth proved itself to be the most harrowing and poignant yet. It also managed to transform a taut sci-fi-tinged political potboiler into a full-blown ethical debate about the value of life, the eternal struggle between the classes, and the nature of sacrifice.

There have been few sights more shocking--in any drama series, really--than the reveal in "Day Four" of that poor child hooked up to the monstrous 456 inside the tank. It was a stunning twist that I did not see coming at all. The 456 promised Jack Harkness that the children they took would "live forever." And, in a way, they have: confined to a hellish existence as little more than a parasitic host for their captors. Just what the 456 is using them for remains to be seen but the fact that they have been kept in a state of arrested aging does not bode well. These creatures aren't after our natural resources or our planet itself: they are harvesting our very future, using these children for their own ends, and they've proven to have developed an appetite for them in the forty-odd years since they last dropped by Earth.

What's upsetting about "Day Four" isn't just the fact that children are being brutally victimized, it's also the ease with which the government decides WHICH children are more expendable. When Prime Minister Brian Green (Nicholas Farrell) and John Frobisher (Peter Capaldi) sit down with Gold Command to discuss their counter-offer to the 456, who have demanded ten percent of the Earth's child population, is the very moment that Torchwood: Children of Earth becomes something more than just suspenseful entertainment; it's become a thought-provoking examination of the choices we make under pressure, the decisions that are made when governments are up against the wall, and the value of human life.

Their debate quickly descends into the grim murkiness of moral relativism. If they have to provide the 456 with ten percent of their children, it not only won't be their children getting sacrificed. Unaccompanied asylum seekers are the first to be thrown on the fire; after all, "no one will miss them," the very same argument that Jack Harkness made about the orphans in 1965. But the government also needs to plan for the future, to ensure that the factories and hospitals of tomorrow will be staffed with tomorrow's workers. That means targeting the underperforming schools whose students won't grow up to offer society all that much: the poor, the unemployed, the hoodlums, and the council estate inhabitants.

And yet the very idea of these children should be sacrificed is sickening. That each child should be judged as unimportant or non-essential because of the circumstances of their birth and childhood. Who is to say that they won't grow up and improve the planet we live on, that they won't rise above their station in life and make a difference? But there's no scientific way to predict that and in their blindness and hubris the government--who quickly deem these children "units" to be bartered with--decides that this is the best way to ensure stability. But what price stability compared to a parent's love?

Still, there's a spin for everything. Find a civil servant and they'll be able to turn any situation around for the better. And so they do here. After all, Earth's population is spiraling out of control and putting a strain on the planet's natural resources; a culling of ten percent of the future population could actually be "good." That this ten percent would reflect the unwanted or missable elements of society is an additional perk.

I think I threw up in my mouth a little bit. I don't think that a US network would have ever approved this storyline and I have to applaud the BBC, Russell T. Davies, and the cast and crew of Torchwood: Children of Earth for having the courage to produce a series that is asking some tough questions.

As for The 456, it is a protection racket they're running. We learn that in 1965 the Earth was threatened with a mutated strain of Indonesian flu that could have wiped out much of the world's population and the 456 provided them with an antivirus in exchange for twelve children. Did Jack make the right decision? Does the good of the many outweigh the good of a few? Are the lives of twelve children worth that of billions of people? Jack Harkness would argue yes, that he made the only decision available to him: save as many people as possible. After all, The 456 promised to stay away. But, like any protection racket, it was only for a time and now they're back and they want even more children.

They're more than willing to prove their point, to demonstrate their power by unleashing a virus in Thames House and initiating a complete lock-down of the facility. I'm not sure quite how they were able to pull off this gambit, other than the fact that their technology is far more advanced than our own (see how they silenced remnant Clem) but the results are devastating, not least of all for Torchwood itself.

Which brings us to poor Ianto.

I'm sure a lot of people are extremely angry that the writers have killed off Ianto Jones (for a full explanation of why, come back on Friday evening for Part Two of my exclusive interview with Torchwood executive producer Julie Gardner) but I feel that his death was necessary for the story at hand. It was inevitable that someone would die during Torchwood: Children of Earth as the stakes were so high, but it couldn't be Jack (he's immortal) and Gwen is the audience's entry point to the story, so it couldn't be her.

Much of the action in these episodes has focused on Jack and Ianto's relationship--and the secrets which Jack kept from his lover--making it only fitting that one of them should die before they get their happy ending. (Torchwood fans know there's never a happy ending to be had.) And it was a hell of a way for Ianto to go, standing at the side of his lover, guns blazing as he was poisoned by an alien virus. But even as he died, his thoughts weren't of going softly into the night but rather that Jack would forget him in time.

Like I said, absolutely heartbreaking. Ianto won't be forgotten, not by Jack nor by Torchwood's fans. The look of realization and sorrow on Jack's face as he comes back to life spoke volumes about how Ianto's death has struck him. And remember at the end of the day, it was Jack who colluded with the aliens back in 1965. If he had taken a stand against them, none of this would have come to pass, not the current situation or Ianto's death. If anyone blames themselves for Ianto's death, it's Jack. And I'd say that it will be a long time before he can unload that guilt.

If Ianto's death seemed to prove that one person can't make a difference in the face of unbeatable odds, the bravery of Lois Habiba (Cush Jumbo) in standing up to the Prime Minister and Gold Command and unmasking herself as a spy for Torchwood proved that it only takes one whistle-blower to reveal the truth. So much of what has happened has been buried--blank pages, off the record conversations, conspiracies designed to suppress the truth--that it becomes easy to keep silent, to avoid taking a stand, and to allow horrors to unfold before your very eyes. Despite being just a PA and tea girl, Lois does set off a revolution right there in the cabinet room. Can these people hide behind the Official Secrets Act when everything can be made public record?

The truth about what they're proposing comes as a shock even to Johnson (Liz May Bryce), whose mission has been to ruthlessly hunt down and exterminate Torchwood and hold Jack's daughter Alice Carter (Lucy Cohu) and grandson Steven (Bear McCausland) as leverage against Jack getting involved with the 456 affair. But as Torchwood managed to trick Johnson and her militia into "finding" Gwen and Clem at Torchwood Hub 2, Johnson is stunned by what her employers are proposing. Could it be that Torchwood has some new allies?

As for Jack himself, his daughter Alice sums it up best: "A man who can't die has got nothing to fear." She meant it in reference to Johnson, but it applies to the 456 as well. He's got nothing to fear but also, after Ianto's death, nothing to live for either. All of which makes him extremely dangerous...

On the finale of Torchwood: Children of Earth ("Day Five"), the future of the human race is in jeopardy as the world descends into complete anarchy.

Channel Surfing: Russell T. Davies Defends "Torchwood" Twist, "Dexter" Animated Prequel for Fall, T.R. Knight Dishes on "Grey's" Departure, and More

Welcome to your Friday morning television briefing.

Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello has an interview with Torchwood creator/executive producer Russell T. Davies, in which Davies defends the latest plot twist in Torchwood: Children of Earth (MAJOR SPOILER alert if you haven't yet seen "Day Four"), which has resulted in some angry fans. "It's not particularly a backlash," Davies corrected Ausiello. "What's actually happening is, well, nothing really to be honest. It's a few people posting online and getting fans upset. Which is marvelous. It just goes to prove how much they love the character and the actor. People often say, 'Fans have got their knives out!' They haven't got any knives. I haven't been stabbed. Nothing's happened. It's simply a few people typing. I'm glad they're typing because they’re that involved. But if you can’t handle drama you shouldn’t watch it. Find something else. Go look at poetry. Poetry’s wonderful." (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

Dexter fans have something to look forward to before Showtime launches the next season of Dexter. The pay cabler will release "Earl Cuts," twelve animated webisodes that will serve as a prequel to the series that explore how Dexter (Michael C. Hall) honed his craft as a serial killer, this fall. Hall will provide the voice for the titular killer. (Hollywood Reporter's The Live Feed)

Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello has an exclusive interview with T.R. Knight, who candidly discusses the true reasons behind his departure from ABC's Grey's Anatomy after appearing on-screen for just 48 minutes during the entire fifth season of the series. Rather than confront Shonda Rhimes, Knight opted to just leave the series. "My five-year experience proved to me that I could not trust any answer that was given [about George]," Knight told Ausiello. "And with respect, I'm going to leave it at that." (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

Drama project Exit 19, from CBS Television Studios and writer/executive producer Jeffrey Bell, isn't quite dead. The project, which was shot as a pilot presentation for CBS in 2008, has been brought to cabler Lifetime, where it is being redeveloped. Bell will write a new version of the pilot script for Lifetime. (Variety)

Warren Leight (In Treatment) has come aboard FX drama project Lights Out, where he will serve as executive producer/showrunner alongside creator Justin Zackham should the project be ordered to series. Lights Out stars Holy McCallany and Melora Hardin. Elsewhere, Leight has signed a script deal with Peter Chernin's new production venture and, should HBO pick up another season of In Treatment, Leight will not stick with the series. (Hollywood Reporter)

TBS has ordered twenty additional episodes of comedy House of Payne--that's in addition to the twenty-six it recently ordered--bringing the series' total episodic count to 172 installments. (Variety)

ABC will launch reality competition series Crash Course on Wednesday, August 26th at 9 pm, following the run of I Survived a Japanese Game Show. (Variety)

30 Rock scribe Donald Glover--who also co-stars in NBC's Community this fall--has signed a two-year talent holding deal and blind script commitment under which he will write and star in a project for Universal Media Studios. (Variety)

AMC has hired former Brillstein-Grey Television executive Susie Fitzgerald as SVP of scripted series (though her title seems to still be under discussion), where she will spearhead series development at the cabler, which is quick to point out that she won't be a direct replacement for Christina Wayne, who resigned from the network in February. (Hollywood Reporter)

Reality shingle A. Smith and Co. is developing unscripted series Shark Boat, which follows diver Stefanie Brendl and the crew of Hawaii Shark Encounters, the only company in the US that allows people to free dive with sharks. (Variety)

American Idol executive producer Ken Warwick has signed a three-year deal to continue on as showrunner on the musical competition series, a deal that would making him "one of the highest-paid showrunners in TV -- if not the highest paid," according to Variety's Michael Schneider. (Variety)

UK network Channel Five has purchased the UK terrestrial and digital rights to ABC's upcoming drama series FlashForward for a sum believed to be between $500-600,000 per episode, significantly lower than the enormous sums paid by UK outlets for such Disney ABC Television series such as Lost and Desperate Housewives. (Hollywood Reporter)

Meanwhile, ITV has acquired the rights to US series The Vampire Diaries and Gossip Girl from Warner Bros. International Television Distribution. (Variety)

Stay tuned.

Comic-Con 2009: See You in San Diego

Well, guys, it's time for me to hit the road and head off to San Diego Comic-Con 2009.

I'm taking the train down this morning and will be reporting from the convention and covering panels for such television series as Lost, True Blood, Doctor Who, 24, Bones, Caprica/BSG, The Mighty Boosh, Fringe, V, and much, much more. (And hopefully I'll find time to relax a little bit too at one of the multitude of official parties going on this weekend in San Diego.)

In the meantime, you can discuss Day One, Day Two, and Day Three of BBC America's Torchwood: Children of the Earth, talk about my review of Dollhouse: Epitaph One, read my interview with Mad Men's Rich Sommer, check out my advance review of Doctor Who: Planet of the Dead, sneak a peek at the new Doctor and his companion, and check out the plethora of other original content here at Televisionary.

I'll be posting as much as I humanly can amid the madness down in SD, but you can also follow my adventures via Twitter as well.

See you down in San Diego and be sure to say hi.

New Tricks and Old Ghosts: "Torchwood: Children of Earth" Day Three

"We are here."

"Day Three" of Torchwood: Children of Earth, written by Russell T. Davies and James Moran, certainly brought with it some rather unexpected twists, along with an extra heaping of tension, suspense, and terror as The 456 arrived at Thames House and announced just what it is that they want.

Meanwhile, Torchwood attempted to use PA Lois Habiba (Cush Jumbo) as their literal eyes on the inside and get their new base of operations--nicknamed Hub 2--up and running so that they could stop The 456. That is, until Jack took off without so much as a by-your-leave.

So what do The 456 want? What does Clem know? Why is Frobisher so hell-bent on keeping the previous encounter between Britain and The 456 off the record? Let's discuss.

You've read my advance review of Torchwood: Children of Earth as a whole but now that "Day Three" has aired, we can discuss this installment in detail. (And, if you haven't yet watched the third episode of Torchwood: Children of Earth, beware: SPOILERS aplenty below here.)

I thought that "Day Three" was absolutely bloody brilliant. Despite the fact that the episode, scripted by series creator Russell T. Davies and James Moran, had a hell of a lot to cover in an hour's time, it never felt rushed or overblown, instead slowly building the tension towards The 456's arrival--via a pillar of fire no less--at Thames House and escalating things until the realization of Jack's involvement in the 1965 Scotland encounter and the reveal of what The 456 what for their "gift."

But before then, there were some nice character moments: Ianto taking the team to an old Torchwood One holding facility, Rhys using the grease to dub the place Hub 2 (making him an honorary member of the team) and cooking the gang beans, Jack letting the cat out of the bag and telling Rhys he knew about Gwen's pregnancy before Rhys did; Ianto looking for some shenanigans in the dark with Jack, despite the world coming to and end; Gwen's meeting with Lois in which she begged her to use the Torchwood contact lenses, which would allow them to spy on the proceedings at Thames House.

Speaking of which, Cush Jumbo is quite a remarkable find; she gives Lois a steely quality while keeping her absolutely sympathetic and engaging. On lesser series, there would be a bit of Mary Sue-ness about her but here Lois is a conflicted character torn between her duty to her job and her duty to her country, embodying a might versus right debate that seems hardwired into Torchwood: Children of Earth's DNA. The scene in which Gwen pleads with her and forces the contact lenses into her hand is fantastic; both women clearly share the same agenda but only one can put herself on the front line. It's a nice echo of PM Brian Green (Nicholas Farrell)'s assertion that Frobisher being put on the front line isn't an honor: he could be the first to fall. Both Gwen and Lois are aware of the risks involved so when Lois does put in those contact lenses, it's a victory for Torchwood, giving them the ability to remain in the game.

And make no mistake: the stakes are higher than they've ever been. Frobisher (Peter Capaldi) proves this when he holds a private audience with The 456 before the aliens can speak to anyone else. He wants it made absolutely clear that any previous conversations or encounters between the UK and the 456 are to remain completely off the record. Why exactly? Because Frobisher doesn't want the rest of the world learning just what happened last time The 456 showed up on British soil... and walked away with twelve children as a result, a "gift" handed to them by Jack Harkness himself.

We know the what now but not the why. Why would the British government willingly give over twelve innocent children to a possibly hostile alien race? And why would Captain Jack Harkness of all people agree to deliver these souls to them? What were The 456 holding over their heads? What price do the lives of twelve children have? That's the mystery now. Jack says that The 456 have shown themselves to be untrustworthy by dint of the fact that they have returned, which makes me believe that these twelve were a virgin sacrifice, a necessary evil to ensure that The 456 went away peacefully.

But, if that's the case, why cover it up? Why order the execution of Jack Harkness and others who were there that night in 1965? Because they could blow this thing sky-high, of course. They could let the other nations of the world know that the United Kingdom negotiated with these creatures, delivered children to them, and swept it all under the rug. There's no way to manage the potential fallout from such a realization nor the damage it would do to the British government.

Which is why Frobisher isn't taking any chances. As soon as he and Johnson (Liz May Bryce) become aware of the existence of Jack's daughter Alice Carter (Lucy Cohu) and his grandson Steven (Bear McCausland), they make their move and bring them in. But Alice is Jack's daughter through and through. Cohu is sensational and she proves the depth of her parentage, grabbing a kitchen knife and her son and sneaking out of the garden when she realizes things have gone too quiet outside. Loved that she clobbered one of the agents and took his firearm (very Jack) and reminded Steven to play the game that his grandmother--ex-Torchwood operative Lucia Moretti--had taught him. Hell, even her grey overcoat nicely echoed that of her father Jack's military coat. (Nice little visual cue there to link them together.)

As for The 456, they are even more terrifying than I could have imagined. Kudos to Davies and Co. to actually avoid showing them outright, making the unseen even more eerie and menacing than something tangible and visible. The fact that they are obscured by poison smoke, vomiting, screeching, and flailing about makes them even more unknowable, even more dangerous, and even more of The Other. The disembodied voice that hisses out of the speakers is far more ominous and forbidding than a prosthetic alien.

And then there's poor Clem (Paul Copley), a man tortured by ghosts from the past, by his memory, by scents on the air. He's still connected by some invisible thread to The 456 and is aware of their movements. He knows what they want, he can sense them, and he recognizes Jack as one of the instruments of men which delivered him into their care. (Or tried to, anyway.) Why was Clem spared? Just what will this knowledge do to the already-battered Torchwood team? How on earth will Jack be able to justify his actions? And will there even still be a Torchwood when this is all over? Find out tonight...

On Day Four of Torchwood: Children of Earth, the mysterious events of 1965 become clearer and the true intentions of the 456 are finally revealed.

Mystery Box: The Master Chefs Make Secret Ingredients Sing on "Top Chef Masters"

One thing that has separated Top Chef Masters from its predecessor is that these master chefs--for the most part, anyway--really do seem to love and support one another in a way that the hungry chefs on Top Chef really don't seem to do.

This week's episode of Top Chef Masters ("Trick In A Box") could have been a prime opportunity for the chefs to stab each other in the back but the elimination challenge--in which Art Smith, Jonathan Waxman, Roy Yamaguchi, and Michael Cimarusti all had to shop for one another and prepare a mystery box of ingredients--resulted not in sabotage and subterfuge, but rather a celebration of both ingredients and one another.

Aw.

I thought that this week's gathering of master chefs was one of the toughest groups yet and each of them had some major strengths they were playing for, plus they each had such different, individual styles of cooking. Cimarusti of Los Angeles' Providence excels at seafood; Yamaguchi is the creator of Hawaiian fusion; Smith is the epitome of Southern cooking; Waxman was one of the forerunners of today's ingredient-obsessed culinary attitude. Each of them brought something different to the table.

So how did they do? Let's discuss.

For their Quickfire Challenge, the four master chefs had to prepare dishes constructed entirely of ingredients found in a specific supermarket aisle (a flashback to Season Three of Top Chef) and in the Top Chef kitchen. But they wouldn't know what they got stuck with until they arrived at Whole Foods.

Given the time constraints and the ingredient specifications, I was curious to see just what these four guys would come up with in the time they had. I was especially worried right off the bat by how Roy Yamaguchi would do as he was the first to admit that he doesn't think very well on his feet and usually takes more time to construct a menu.

Smith prepared a multi-grain risotto with a crispy rice salad. I wasn't sure how the combination of rices would present itself but the judges--a group of Whole Foods employees--seemed to be extremely pleased by his dish. I think the difference in textures played a large role in keeping the two elements unique but complimentary. Meanwhile, Waxman offered a mint, lentil, and roasted pepper salad that looked extremely messy on the plate (he admits that he cares more about the taste than presentation) but sounded incredibly tasty.

Yamaguchi cooked up pasta with vegetables, a fried egg, and Asian flavors. I was concerned by the construction of this dish; I can see doing a strand pasta--rather than penne--with egg but I probably would have made the dish a little lighter and more focused on spring, introducing some asparagus and parmesan to the mix, and poaching the egg rather than frying it. Not sure how the fried egg really related to the rigidness of the penne.

And finally, Cimarusti tempted the judges with a chocolate parfait with ginger syrup, Sauternes, and sesame crackers. This to me was the perfect dessert effort for a chef who doesn't focus on pastry. It was innovative, delicious, and beautifully presented and executed. Dessert doesn't need to be pastry or poached fruit; there's a number of alternatives that make sense and are easy to prepare. Cimarusti was extremely clever about this and walked away with a full five stars for his dessert course. Top Chef contestants: let Cimarusti's performance be a lesson for you when "stuck" with a dessert course. (Well done, Michael!)

If the Quickfire was tricky, the Elimination Challenge this week would really test the chefs and see just how truly supportive they are of one other. Each of them drew knives to determine who they would be shopping for and then would then prepare a dish using ingredients from their mystery boxes.

Art Smith prepared fried chicken two ways: a classically crisp fried drumstick and smothered fried chicken, which he served with a teeny-tiny mango pie with a flaky crust. I think he was smart to include that sweet offering on the plate and then entire dish just screamed down-home comfort food. Did he need to do two chicken dishes? Not really but I do think it elevated the offering from home dining to fine dining with the inclusion of three distinct yet interconnected elements on the plate. He would be the one to beat here.

Joanthan Waxman created a monster of a plate with pork sausage and pork chop with cauliflower and celery root puree studded with black truffles. While again the presentation was a little spotty--too huge of a plate, too much saucing all over the place--the taste was incredible, earning raves from the culinary students and judges alike. (Save the uber-picky James Oseland, who seemed not all that pleased about the truffles being microplaned rather than shaved.)

Michael Cimarusti created a gorgeous dish of lamb loin with sunchoke puree, broccoli rabe, purple cauliflower, roasted mushrooms, and mandarin orange sauce... the latter of which didn't end up on all of the plates. Some of the judges liked the inclusion of the sauce, which tied everything together, while Gael Greene thought she liked it better without the sauce. Never a good move not to get everything plated in time but Gail Simmons raved about the roasted mushrooms, which sparkled with the acidity and sweetness of the mandarin orange juice Cimarusti added at the very end.

Roy Yamaguchi paired a short rib kalbi and mahi mahi fillet with noodles, a plate that seemed almost schizophrenic. I'm not sure how the two elements on the plate were supposed to relate to one another and they seemed almost in competition, with one judge exclaiming that it seemed like two separate courses on the plate. We know Yamaguchi isn't one for improvisation but this seemed like a major misstep, especially as some of the mahi-mahi was overcooked. I think he was out of the mix right away.

Ultimately, it was Art Smith who moved on to the next round for his exquisitely prepared fried chicken. I was really pulling for Waxman or Cimarusti to make it to the champion round; both seemed like such passionate chefs in their own right and Smith's constant name-dropping rubbed me the wrong way throughout this episode.

Do you agree with the judges that Art Smith should have been the one to move on to the champions round? If not, who do you think should have won this round and why? How do you think the master chefs fared overall? Discuss.

Next week on Top Chef Masters ("Champions Round Begins"), the six heat-winning chefs prepare to cook their signature dishes, with a surprising twist as they must then recreate one of their competitors' offerings for the critics to sample.

Top Chef Masters Preview: Rick vs. Michael



Top Chef Masters Preview: Mise En Place Relay Race



Top Chef Masters Preview: Elimination Spin

Spontaneous Crimp: The Mighty Boosh on "Late Show with Jimmy Fallon"

This is the week of the Boosh.

After releasing all three seasons of their eponymous series on DVD the other day, The Mighty Boosh--or at least the Julian Barratt and Noel Fielding parts of The Mighty Boosh--appeared last night on The Late Show with Jimmy Fallon to dazzle and confuse Jimmy with their crimps, outrageous style, and just general all-around fabulousness.

The Boosh will be down at San Diego Comic-Con later this week to present a panel and a DJ mix set late Friday night but in the meantime, you can catch Barratt and Fielding (or Howard and Vince, if you prefer) on Fallon via the full clip of their appearance last night below.

In their first American talk show appearance, Jimmy talks to British comedy duo The Mighty Boosh.



Pick up copies of The Mighty Boosh: Seasons One to Three for a suggested retail price of $29.98 apiece. (N.B.: each season box set is sold separately.) Or pick up copies today in the Televisionary store for $19.99-$24.99.

Days of Wine and Roses: Televisionary Talks to Rich Sommer of AMC's "Mad Men"

There won't be any Lost-style jumping through time for the cast of AMC's Mad Men, which returns next month.

I caught up last week with Mad Men's Rich Sommer--who plays the bow-tied Harry Crane, the head of television at Sterling Cooper--the day after the Emmy nominations were announced to try and ferret out some information about Season Three of Mad Men and what circumstances we'll find Sommer's Harry Crane under when the series returns with new episodes on August 16th on AMC.

While Sommer was slyly tight-lipped about revealing any concrete information about the season (or whether it takes place before or after the JFK assassination), he did promise that the first episode of Season Three "pretty much kicks down the door right away" and assumes that viewers have been with the series since the very beginning. (In other words, make sure you refresh your Mad Men knowledge by picking up the second season on DVD straightaway!)

Televisionary: Congratulations on Mad Men snagging sixteen Emmy nominations yesterday!

Rich Sommer: Thank you. Very, very exciting day.

Televisionary: Were you surprised at all by the outpouring of Emmy love for the show?

Sommer: Well, last year we got sixteen [nominations] as well and I thought we'd get some love because I think that the people who work on the show are incredible but I did not expect to meet what we did last year. I thought that people would be kind of... I dunno, I just thought that some of the shine would have come off of it but I'm happy to know that people feel about the show the way we do.

Televisionary: What's amazing is that, over the past two seasons, Mad Men has become an absolutely important part of the TV landscape. Did you have any idea when you first joined the show that three seasons later it would be quite as iconic as it is today?

Sommer: Not in the least. I mean, people after the first season would ask me did you know it was going to be this good or this interesting or different and I always said "yes" to that. Absolutely. I knew it was something very unique from the beginning. At this point did I know that it would be as impactful as it's been or as, sort of, well-received as it's been? Absolutely not. I never anticipated the level of success we seem to have gotten.

Televisionary: So, Season Three kicks off next month and everybody's very anxiously awaiting the start of the new season. I'm wondering if you can give us any hint as to when exactly it takes place. Can you tell us if it's set before or after JFK's assassination?

Sommer: I can't tell you any of that. It is certainly in the future from where the last episode was. I can tell you that we don't go back in time. Um, but I can't really nail down any specifics.

Televisionary: I think you saw the first episode of Season Three already?

Sommer: I have. I just saw it this week.

Televisionary: Can you tell us anything about what Season Three is about thematically?

Sommer: It's my understanding the way Matt [Weiner] has put it, it's about change. It's about people changing... It's so hard. (Laughs) I feel bad because there's so little not only that I'm allowed to say but I also am always so nervous about blowing people's enjoyment of the show. As an avid TV viewer, I know how much I like to be surprised and so it's hard for me to like to give anything away at all.

I mean, thematically it's about change. And I can say too that this first episode of the third season is different from the first episode of the second season where, personally--and maybe Matt or the other writers would disagree with me--but I felt that the first episode of the second season was sort of a breath of relief that we were back because we had no idea if we'd be back at the end of that first season... I don't know if you remember how it opened but it opened with "Let's Twist Again Like We Did Last Summer" and sort of like a happy dance.

And this season does not waste any time on that. It pretty much kicks down the door right away. It assumes that you've been there for the entire story and requires that you've been there the whole time and it starts right out of the gate. It's really great.

Televisionary: Season Two saw Harry go through a lot of changes himself and had him standing up for himself and becoming the head of the TV Department at Sterling Cooper. What kind of situation do we find Harry in at the start of Season Three in terms of his emotional context?

Sommer: I think you get to see a guy who got what he asked for. I mean, he got what he wanted and kind of got what he asked for and any kind of connotation that could mean. The change that you see is big things but you just kind of see how a promotion like that, for a guy who was sort of on the same level with everyone else, can affect someone's mentality and not only that person's mentality but the mentality of the people around him in dealing with him.

Televisionary: When we last saw Harry, his wife Jennifer was going to have a baby and I'm wondering, as a father yourself, are we going to see this baby change the relationship between Harry and Jennifer? Should we be looking for any pained looks from Harry towards Hildy?

Sommer: (Laughs) I have to sort of plan my route of attack on any of these answers... Babies always impact a relationship. Certainly, I know that in my real life, it's changed ours for the better. We're kind of a team on this weird, human project which is awesome. And different people react to it in different ways. How it affects Harry and Jennifer is unique to Harry and Jennifer's situation. Sorry to be so vague! (Laughs)

Televisionary: It often seems that Don and Roger treat Harry as though he's somewhat beneath them. Do you think that Harry will ever be able to earn Don's respect?

Sommer: I hope so. I mean, I hope for Harry, speaking sort of from the point of between Seasons Two and Three, I hope he can. I mean, it only seems to make sense. He's a guy who is on the cusp of what is going to be one of the biggest media revolutions ever and somehow he got in on the ground floor and I'm positive he didn't even know he was doing it. Yeah, I think that if he doesn't completely screw it up there's got to be, at some point, some deference to that.

Televisionary: Matt Weiner is very particular about every period detail. Is it frustrating or liberating to work on a show that pays such strict attention to the small details?

Sommer: Oh, it's so liberating. It makes our jobs so much easier. Not only on the period detail, but on the detail in the writing--the way it's so carefully written--it makes our jobs so much easier. We truly have to learn the lines and say them out loud and that would be it.

Ronnie Pipes, who is one of our makeup artists, and I were talking last night--we had a little gathering to celebrate the Emmy nominations--and Ronnie was saying (this is a guy who was just nominated for another Emmy for the makeup on the show), it's not a show that's just about the look, it's not a show that's about the costumes, this is a writers' show. This is a show that's totally about the writing. And we could do this thing in black capes and sweatsuits that had no definition at all (laughs) and you would still get a story that we'd argue would be as compelling as any other on television.

You look at the Emmy nominations yesterday. Four out of the five nominations for drama series [writing] were for our show, which is ridiculous! It's crazy and it's wonderful and I think it's a testament to how well these people do their jobs.

Televisionary: Obviously you're working on a period show. Does it ever force you to step back and kind of make you see our own times in a different way?

Sommer: Sure. We used to talk about it during the first season. This show is less about how much things have changed and more about how much they haven't. It seems to me that the only real difference between how the characters behave and speak on our show and how people behave and speak now is they were slightly more brazen about how they did it, in general.

I mean, there are still people who are just as brazen but anything that these characters are saying people are still thinking now whether it has to do with gender or race or religion. Any of that stuff. I just think we've sort of put this veneer of "PC" over it but I don't actually think attitudes have changed that much. I mean that's a little bit of a dismal outlook, a little bit jaded but that's kind of what I've come to think from the show.

Televisionary: And is there any issue that stands out that you'd like to see the writers tackle?

Sommer: Oh,gosh, is there any issue that stands out? No, I feel like I don't think we're missing anything. I don't feel any stone is going unturned. And I love how--and any good television show should do this--any of these themes or issues are explored through the characters that we've already gotten to know. And, again, I know this is what TV is supposed to do but it is particularly exciting to be one of the sort of vessels through which things are explored. It's a very exciting process.

Televisionary: I've heard you're a huge fan of board games, so I'm wondering are there any new board games that you and the cast have been playing lately?

Sommer: No, actually a few of us have gotten more into video games this year. A couple of us picked up Xboxes and have been bringing them to the trailers and, whenever we have a free moment, we're kind of sitting in there playing video games. Which, in a way to me is sort of a step back. It's good and I am loving these video games, although, when I step back from what I do I kind of miss the old "Scoobyness" of a good, old-fashioned board game.

But this year, the one board game a couple of us have played that's brand new, it came out a few weeks ago, it's called Space Alert. It's a really nerdy, wonderful, stressful CD game that, as you play the game there's a a CD sort of with a robot voice telling you what to do. It sounds really, kind of like all those games that came out when we were in 5th grade but it's actually really, really intense. It's a great cooperative game.

Televisionary: Yet I love the idea of you in a bow tie playing Xbox.

Sommer: (Laughs) Someday when the show is over we will put out all the pictures we have of ourselves in costume doing very, very modern day things. Right now, obviously, we don't want to burst that bubble and it would be unfortunate to see Harry Crane with an Xbox controller in his hands, but someday it will be fun to let people in on what those trailers are like. It's a pretty fun place to work.

Televisonary: If the writers could have Harry do anything, no matter how crazy or out there, where would you like them to take the character?

Sommer: I kind of came up through comedy; that was where I started. I did a lot of improv when I was coming up through school and I've always sort of been tapped as a comedic guy. As much as I love Harry Crane and I don't wish harm on him, I am always interested to see how dark a character can get. Whatever it is, I don't know what the trigger would be, but I'd love to see Harry in the absolute depths of despair. That's something that would be interesting to get to play.

Televisionary: Well there was a rumor a few years back that he was supposed to be killed off in the first season.

Sommer: That is true. He was, as my understanding, supposed to commit suicide near the end of the first season. I am very grateful he didn't.

Televisionary: And a lot of fans are as well, I'm sure.

Sommer: (Laughs) I appreciate it!

Mad Men's third season begins Sunday, August 13th on AMC. Mad Men: Season Two is available on DVD for a suggested retail price of $49.98 but you can pick up a copy now in the Televisionary store for just $24.49.

Concrete and Conspiracies: "Torchwood: Children of Earth" Day Two

"We are coming tomorrow."

Never before have just a few words held such terrible import as they did at the end of the second installment of Torchwood: Children of Earth ("Day Two"), written by John Fay, in which the Torchwood team dealt with the aftermath of the explosion which ripped apart the Hub, their Cardiff base of operations, and their leader, Captain Jack Harkness (John Barrowman), and struggled to survive in the light of a massive political conspiracy that sought to silence them permanently.

But just why would PM Brian Green (Nicholas Farrell) and Permanent Secretary to the Home Office John Frobisher (Peter Capaldi) want to eliminate Torchwood from the playing field when they might just be the few people in the world who have any chance in hell at stopping The 456? Hmmm...

You've read my advance review of Torchwood: Children of Earth as a whole but now that "Day Two" has aired, we can discuss this installment in detail. (And, if you haven't yet watched the second episode of Torchwood: Children of Earth, beware: SPOILERS aplenty below here.)

"Day Two" had a lot to live up to, following so closely as it did on the heels of the killer opener to Torchwood: Children of Earth and I felt that it didn't quite match the level of tension and drama as the first installment. That said, the second act is always a tricky one and often compels characters to be more reactionary than they normally would.

It's no different here in "Day Two," where a separated Gwen (Eve Myles) and Ianto (David Gareth-Lloyd) must deal with the fallout from the destruction of the Hub and plot a course to safety on their own. For Gwen, it's a quick stop at home to grab her husband Rhys (Kai Owen) and head to London. But not before Gwen gets to kick ass on two separate occasions. The first: grabbed by some suspicious-looking EMT blokes, Gwen manages to pummel them into submission with a fire extinguisher in the back of the ambulance and then grabs their firearms. As a laser target hits her eye, Gwen jumps out of the ambulance and fires simultaneously with both her guns. (Fanboys everywhere must have leapt out of their seats as it was seriously hot.) The second: with Johnson's military strike force bearing down on her, Gwen calmly stands in the middle of her street and then fires right at their vehicle, taking out their wheels with a calculated air and without blinking an eyelash. Like I said, hot.

I'm loving that Rhys has a more integral role in the plot here and clearly seems to be along for the ride. Not only did he manage to secure them a ride to London (concealed in the back of a potato lorry) but Rhys also poses as an undertaker in order to gain access to the military facility where Jack is being kept. (More on that in a bit.) Throughout Torchwood's run, Rhys has often been painted as a bit of a liability for Gwen, a reminder of the fragile hold she has on normalcy and a target to be used against her. So it's only fitting then that Rhys has more to do here than just hold Gwen's bag (though he does that too in order to keep her trigger-finger handy); he's transformed from an outsider to a valuable member of the Torchwood team.

Ianto, meanwhile, kept on the low down and cautiously avoided making contact with anyone once he learned that Gwen was alive. With nowhere else to turn, he made contact with his sister Rhiannon (Katy Wix) via a letter secreted in their delivered newspaper and arranged a meet. While the objective was to obtain a laptop and a car, Ianto's meeting with Rhiannon revealed more of his own hidden backstory as they meet in a park where Ianto claims their father broke his leg as a boy. Was it an accident as Rhiannon claims? Or is Ianto accusing his dead father of assaulting him outright?

For a story about family bonds, it's interesting to see just how each of the main characters in Torchwood: Children of Earth reacts to the threat at hand. Ianto reconnects with his sister; Gwen tells Rhys about her pregnancy; Jack's daughter Alice (Lucy Cohu) nervously tries to reach Jack; Frobisher tells his daughters to keep their phones on all day even as he tries to tell his wife everything is fine.

But everything is not fine, not by a longshot. Besides for ordering Torchwood to be executed, Frobisher has a lot on his plate. Not least of which is new PA Lois Habiba (Cush Jumbo), who takes it upon herself to meet with Gwen and Rhys after they contact Frobisher's office. Given that it's only her second day, Lois is making some huge strides with treason, already breaking the Official Secrets Act after only 24 hours in Frobisher's employ. I have to give Lois credit: she's plucky. She not only meets with Gwen and Rhys but offers them valuable intel, maps to the facility where Jack is being held, and the knowledge that Frobisher wants them dead. All this plus a meal and tea and the very PA-like offering of salt and sugar. (Have I mentioned I already love Lois?)

And then there's the matter of the room which The 456 order constructed for their own purposes, sending the building instructions to Thames House via a concentrated burst of information over the 456 frequency. And, is just me or is the shady Mr. Dekker (Ian Gelder) way too into this entire process? The way that he blew on the glass as it filled up with poisonous gases made me very, very uncomfortable. While I don't think he's in league with The 456, his methods and behavior are not exactly on the up and up. I loved his speech to Frobisher about elected officials like the PM coming and going but the civil service, the "cockroaches of government" outlasting them, just like The 456.

Johnson (Liz May Bryce) proved herself even more cunning in "Day Two," realizing that even an internal blast couldn't kill Jack Harkness for good. The scene in which the body bag slowly filled as Jack's body regenerated itself was a thing of beauteous horror, even as it dawns on Johnson that, if killing Jack is no longer an option, containment will have to suffice. The look of horror on Jack's face as he realizes that Johnson is going to encase him in concrete was palpable and I actually squirmed in my seat as he was pelted with liquid concrete, a sentence of perpetual suffocation, death, and rebirth carried out. Stunning visual and a horrific testament to how far Johnson is willing to go to carry out her plans.

I loved that it was Ianto who managed to save Jack, using the nearby construction equipment to rip the concrete cell from the facility itself but the escape sequence after that seemed a little clunky and cheesy, a rare misstep in a mini-series that has been utterly grounded and believable. That they were able to outrace Johnson's goons in a slow-moving piece of equipment, move a lorry in front of the road and explode it, and drive off without fear of anyone catching them taxed my credibility a little. But still, it's a minor quibble for a story arc that has me on the edge of my seat and it enabled Ianto to free Jack from his prison by dropping the concrete chunk into a quarry.

I'm thrilled that the team is reunited by the end of "Day Two" (love that Jack fittingly just slings Rhys' coat over his shoulder rather than covering up his naked body) and it's just as well that they are, with The 456 promising their arrival tomorrow. Just what do The 456 want? What demands will they make when they arrive? How does it connect to their use of Earth's children as their unwitting spokespeople? And what exactly happened in 1965? Find out tonight...

On Day Three of Torchwood: Children of Earth, an ominous pillar of fire descends upon London; things get personal for the members of Torchwood when their loved ones are targeted.

Busman's Holiday: An Advance Review of BBC America's "Doctor Who: Planet of the Dead"

While it's only been a month or so since the last Doctor Who special aired in the States, this weekend's David Tennant and Michelle Ryan-starring installment appeared on UK screens after a wait of a few months back at Easter following "The Next Doctor," the Doctor Who Christmas special. Here, it's set to air on Sunday evening on BBC America and--for the first time for Doctor Who--will also be available in high-definition.

The first of final four specials featuring David Tennant as the Doctor, Doctor Who: Planet of the Dead, written by Russell T. Davies and Gareth Roberts and directed by James Strong, features the Doctor trapped on an alien world without the TARDIS as he must figure out how to get himself and his unwitting traveling companions back to Earth.

I had the chance to watch the sexy, scary, and fun "Planet of the Dead" a while back and I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed it both as a Doctor Who installment and as one of David Tennant's final performances as the Doctor. While the previous outing, "The Next Doctor," was a lightweight trifle, "Planet of the Dead" begins to set the stage for Tennant's swan song on the series.

There's an element of danger and risk that was somewhat lacking in Christmas' "The Next Doctor," but there's a very potent mix of those elements at play here as the Doctor, teaming up with aristocratic jewel thief Lady Christine de Souza (Michelle Ryan), must find a way back to Earth after he and everyone aboard a double-decker bus take a wrong turn through a wormhole and end up on an alien planet covered in sand. Their pairing is both exciting and cheeky and Ryan turns out a winning performance as thrill-seeker Lady Christina, a heady mix of sexiness, sophistication, and sass.

Both Lady Christina and the Doctor are running from things; for her it's a last-ditch effort to avoid arrest but for him it's something deeper. The Doctor is running from himself, from his past, and from the fact that tragedy seems to befall anyone who steps into the TARDIS with him. There's the youthful glee we normally associate with Tennant's Tenth Doctor but it's tempered by sadness here, by a sense of loss over Donna, Martha, and Rose. He's open to adventure but he's still closed off from forming any bonds. Yet Christina manages to get under his skin so much so that I almost wish we could get another season of David Tennant as the Doctor with Michelle Ryan's Lady Christina as his companion.

What follows after they meet-cute on a Brixton-bound bus is a traditional Doctor Who adventure (in the very best sense of the words) in which the Doctor must beat the odds and save the day. But just when you think it's all sunshine and roses, there's a specter at the feast, courtesy of the bus' psychic passenger Carmen (Ellen Thomas). Her words to the Doctor at the very end of "Planet of the Dead" not only rattle the Doctor in a way we haven't seen before but also beautifully set up the darkness ahead.

Just what lies ahead for the Doctor remains to be seen but with only three more Tennant specials left before he turns over the role to Matt Smith, it looks to be quite an epic ride.

Doctor Who: Planet of the Dead Preview: "I Think We've Gone a Little Further than Brixton"



Doctor Who: Planet of the Dead airs Sunday evening at 8 pm ET/PT on BBC America.

Channel Surfing: Richardson to Reign on "Tudors," Ty Pennington on "Great British Adventure" for ABC, Jamie-Lynn Sigler Gets "Ugly," and More

Welcome to your Wednesday morning television briefing.

Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello is reporting that Nip/Tuck's Joely Richardson has been cast in the fourth and final season of Showtime's The Tudors, where she would play King Henry VIII's final wife, Katherine Parr. The Tudors is set to return in Spring 2010 and Showtime would not comment on the casting. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

In a first, British channel UKTV has sold lifestyle special Ty's Great British Adventure to ABC. Special, which will air Sunday, August 2nd at 8 pm on ABC, features Extreme Makeover: Home Edition's Ty Pennington transforming the rundown Cornish beach down of Portreath, including commissioning a children's park, a sports shop, and walking routes, along with other improvements. (Broadcast)

Jamie-Lynn Sigler (The Sopranos) has joined the cast of ABC's Ugly Betty, where she will recur as Natalie, Daniel Meade's new assistant who is described as "sexy, spiritual, [and] funny," according to Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello. Sigler's first appearance is set for the second episode of Season Three, which kicks off October 9th on ABC. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

ABC has ordered a third season of unscripted series Wipeout, which it will air next summer. The exact episodic order was unclear but producers say that they will be constructing a whole new course for Season Three. "We're planning a completely new course next year that's nothing like anybody has ever seen," executive producer Matt Kunitz told the Hollywood Reporter. "What keeps this show running is keeping the show's course fresh." (Hollywood Reporter)

E! Online's Watch with Kristin has an interview with Nurse Jackie's Peter Facinelli, in which the actor talks about Dr. Fitch Cooper's sexual Tourette's and what's coming up on the fantastically addictive Showtime series. (E! Online's Watch with Kristin)

Also on E! Online, the Watch with Kristin crew has a new interview with Leverage's Christian Kane, in which he talks about his hair, Eliot's love life (and anger management issues), and why Kane does his own stunt work on the series. "It's gonna be fun over the course of this season" for both Eliot Parker, said Kane. "These two people don't have hearts, but Nate [Timothy Hutton] has given them a heartbeat again. It's a little uncomfortable for both of them because they are starting to care about people. But Eliot in a sense is still going to be the James Bond of the show...It's not so much about love, as it is about beautiful women." (E! Online's Watch with Kristin)

Actress Mischa Barton is said to be "seeking treatment but making improvements," according to her spokesman Craig Schneider. It's still unclear what Barton's future will be with the CW's new fall drama series The Beautiful Life, but Schneider says that the actress plans to return to work. (Hollywood Reporter)

E! has renewed docusoap Kendra for a second season of twelve episodes (plus a one-hour special), set to launch in 2010. (Variety)

TV Guide Network has acquired off-network rights to ABC dramedy Ugly Betty, which it will strip weekdays beginning Fall 2010. Deal covers all existing and future episodes of the series and the cabler will repurpose episodes from series' upcoming fourth season, which it will begin airing this fall, airing new episodes within two weeks of their broadcast on ABC. (Episodes will also be available on Hulu and ABC.com after transmission on ABC.) (Hollywood Reporter)

Spike has renewed Deadliest Warrior for a second season of thirteen episodes, slated to air next spring. Cabler is also said to be discussing commissioning a stand-alone special that would air before the launch of Season Two that would pit champions from the first season against one another. (Variety)

Bruce Greenwood (Star Trek), Noel Fisher (The Riches) and Linda Emond (Julie & Julia) have been cast in CBS' holiday telepic A Dog Named Christmas, based on Greg Kincaid's novel. Project will be written by Jenny Wingfield and directed by Peter Werner. (Hollywood Reporter)

Stay tuned.

Blank Pages and Executive Orders: "Torchwood: Children of Earth" Day One

No bones about it: Torchwood: Children of Earth certainly kicked off with a bang.

Written by Russell T. Davies, the first installment ("Day One") of the five-episode event--which comprises Torchwood's third season--certainly ramped up the tension and intrigue and brought the team to the brink of destruction even as they face their greatest threat yet, an alien incursion on Earth that seems to be using the planet's children as a sort of advance warning system.

Just who are The 456? What do they want? And why are they speaking through Earth's children? Those are the burning questions yet to answer. That is, if Torchwood survives long enough to get to the bottom of a political conspiracy that has ensnared the prime minister, Thames House, and a black ops organization with no qualms about killing whoever gets in their way.

You've read my advance review of Torchwood: Children of Earth as a whole but now that "Day One" has aired, we can discuss this installment in detail. (And, if you haven't yet watched the first episode of Torchwood: Children of Earth, beware: SPOILERS aplenty below here.)

As the start of Torchwood: Children of Earth, I thought Davies did a fantastic job of setting up the overarching plot and raising the stakes completely. While previous Torchwood excursions have included dangerous situations for the team, none have resulted in the outright destruction of the Hub, the team's underground Cardiff base of operations.

The explosion at the end of the episode--resulting from a bomb being implanted inside the stomach of an unconscious Captain Jack Harkness--was as shocking as it was thrilling, the announcement that nothing would be the same after this five-episode arc and that there were no sacred cows here. Everything is up for grabs: the team's base, their lives, the very fabric of society.

And Davies pulled a nice bait-and-switch with Rupesh Patanjali (Rik Makarem), the Anglo-Indian doctor who seemed a most likely candidate to join Torchwood after his introduction, especially as it was arranged that Jack and Ianto would meet Rupesh by chance at the hospital. What plays out is a nice callback to Gwen's introduction to the team after she stumbled onto something inexplicable and alien. But Rupesh isn't an idealistic recruit; rather, he's a member of the very same black ops task force that is sent to take care of Jack Harkness and several others on a blank page organized by the Permanent Secretary to the Home Office, John Frobisher (Peter Capaldi), a civil servant with knowledge of the so-called 456 and how their arrival ties into an incident in 1965 Scotland.

It's that knowledge that sets him on a path of destruction, targeting Jack Harkness and several others even as the Prime Minister Brian Green (Nicholas Farrell) denies all involvement in these matters. If there's blame to be assigned, it's going to fall on Frobisher and not the PM. But just what are they concealing? For one thing, it's connected to that 1965 incident, an incident which resulted in the disappearance of several children and which left one--Clement McDonald--an unwitting witness to all that passed.

Clem (Paul Copley) is now a grown-man living in an institution. His history and true name are shrouded in mystery but we learn that he was the sole survivor of what appears to be the 456's last visit to Earth in 1965.... and he has sensed their return--smelled it, more precisely--on the air for the last few months. He's also targeted by the black ops force overseen by the ruthless Johnson (Liz May Bryce) but he manages to slip out of the facility before he's nabbed.

That is, after he meets Gwen Cooper and comes clean about his real name and, in a rather surprising twist, tells her that she's pregnant. It's a stunning twist that's nicely juxtaposed with the threat facing the planet's children. In a world where aliens are seemingly controlling the planet's youth and speaking through them, is a pregnancy something to celebrate? Or rather to fear?

Eve Myles' performance with Clem was a study in underplaying a scene; she slyly wins over Clem's trust with her sweet gap-toothed smile and playful touches and reminds the viewers just why Gwen is the heart and soul of Torchwood. It's her innate kindness and sympathy that make her the perfect entry point to the series for viewers.

And families seem to be on the forefront of everyone's mind in this installment as Ianto goes to see his estranged sister Rhiannon (Katy Wix) in an effort to borrow his niece and nephew for testing (no dice there). Instead, their meeting becomes a heart-to-heart where Ianto comes clean about his relationship with Jack, a major turning point considering that Jack refuses to use the word "couple" to describe them. We also learn that Ianto broke off relations with his sister after the death of their father and that he doesn't tell her anything about himself. That does for his sexuality as much as it does for Torchwood itself. It's all secrets all the time for Ianto.

Jack, meanwhile, has a family of his own. Or namely, an adult daughter named Alice Carter (Lucy Cohu) and a grandson named Steven (Bear McCausland) with whom he maintains a fiction that he is Alice's brother. For her part, Alice has a natural suspicion of Jack and well as a need to protect her son from her father. It's not easy to explain why you are older than your father or why your father never seems to age while you get older and older. Suffice it to say: things are strained even before Jack turns up looking to borrow Steven for a little while.

Meanwhile, at Thames House, there's a new PA in Frobisher's office named Lois Habiba (Cush Jumbo) who stumbles onto the fact that her new boss is dealing with an extraterrestrial threat and furtively uses the login of Frobisher's PA Bridget Spears (Susan Brown) to uncover the execution order on Jack Harkness. It might just be me but she seems to have the makings of a crack Torchwood recruit and she's perfectly positioned to help the team, no?

Johnson herself is terrifyingly efficient. The way that she called out "sides!" when Rupesh attempted to flee after he shot Jack (and realized that Johnson was going to have him killed) was stunningly cold. She's a worthy adversary for the Torchwood team and is just as dogged in her pursuit of the government's agenda as the Torchwood team is in stopping alien threats. Could it be that they're outnumbered and outwitted this time?

Best line of the evening: "Big science fiction super-base. Honestly!" - Gwen on what's inside the Hub's relatively unassuming exterior.

What did you think of tonight's installment? What do the 456 want? Why are they coming back? Why must Jack Harkness and Torchwood be eliminated? And just what does the 456's latest message--"We are coming back"--actually mean? Find out tonight...

On Day Two of Torchwood: Children of Earth, the fractured Torchwood team is forced to go underground as the government attempts to hunt them down and eliminate them.

TV on DVD: "The Mighty Boosh: Seasons One to Three"

"Come with us now on a journey through time and space... to the world of the Mighty Boosh."

Thus begins each episode of the gleefully surreal British comedy series The Mighty Boosh, which is finally available Stateside on DVD beginning today after brief runs of the series' three seasons to date on both BBC America and Adult Swim over the past few years. Available as three separate two-disc sets, The Mighty Boosh: Seasons One, Two, and Three offer up a delightful look inside the deliciously twisted minds of creators and stars Julian Barratt and Noel Fielding.

Despite their relative anonymity in the States, The Mighty Boosh has long been a watchword for comedians and comedy fans in the know. Each episode of the series, which began as a stand-up act and then a radio series before making the leap to the small screen, follows the unlikely duo of Howard Moon (Julian Barratt) and Vince Noir (Noel Fielding) as they get themselves into a series of acid-trip misadventures.

The three seasons of The Mighty Boosh are positively overflowing with musical riffs, crimping (yes!), animation, image projection, philosophizing moons, talking gorillas, and druggie shamans. There's no real sense of continuity or cohesion; characters murdered on-screen in one episode return in the next no worse for the wear. Everything has a feeling of a waking dream about it. Or in some cases ("Eels" or "The Legend of Old Gregg") an outright nightmare.

Which is what I love so bloody much about The Mighty Boosh: you never know just what you're going to get episode to episode. Season One finds the duo working as zookeepers, Season Two as housemates in a Dalton flat, and Season Three as shopkeepers at Nabootique, a second-hand shop owned by shaman Naboo the Enigma (Michael Fielding) and his familiar gorilla Bollo (Dave Brown). But the setting never matters; it's always a jumping off point for some supremely weird journeys into the psychedelic.

Howard and Vince couldn't be more different: Howard's a jazz freak with a penchant for organizing stationery and worshiping vintage vinyl records of obscure musicians; Vince is the anthropomorphized embodiment of au courant fashion and music, a cutting-edge bohemian who is several steps ahead of the public in every sense. Together, they comprise a winning mix of yin and yang, id and ego, and twisted self-indulgence. There's no scrape that these two don't wind up in, whether it's summoning an evil elderly woman demon named Nana and inadvertently unleashing Nanaggedon, searching for the fountain of youth on a distant planet, battling a flatulent syringe-fingered crack-addicted urban fox, tangling with a green, murderous Cockney alien called The Hitcher, or creating coconut people after getting stranded on a deserted island.

Barratt and Fielding play a host of other characters in addition to Howard and Vince, creating some memorable (and at times terrifying) personalities in the process. In addition to The Hitcher, the half-man, half-fish transsexual Old Gregg (with a downstairs mix-up and a love of Bailey's), the dim-witted Man in the Moon, and the aforementioned Crack Fox remain some of the most stunning and twisted creations ever created for television. (And that's to say nothing of Rich Fulcher's Bob Fossil or the slew of characters he contributes to the mix.)

But words really fail when it comes to the unique magic of The Mighty Boosh, which has to be seen to be enjoyed and understood. There's no way to explain the magic carpet stag party, stationery village, Old Gregg's Bailey's sketches, Tony Harrison's tentacled head, or gun-slinging transvestite Eleanor without actually seeing them for yourself.

The three box sets each feature extended episodes (compared, that is, to those that aired on Adult Swim) along with hours and hours of bonus material on each set, including publicity featurettes, making of documentaries, outtakes, commentary, picture galleries, musical numbers, deleted scenes, promos, trailers, and the original Boosh pilot, just to name a few.

Ultimately, these releases will change the way you look at comedy (and possibly the world around you) and I completely predict that you'll be won over by The Mighty Boosh's winning blend of surreal comedy, out-there musical numbers, and bizarro characters. So why not open the doors of perception, take a magical journey through time and space, and pick up the three volumes of The Mighty Boosh today? After experiencing the loopy charms of one of the most original and unique television series ever, your brain will thank me in the morning.

Pick up copies of The Mighty Boosh: Seasons One to Three for a suggested retail price of $29.98 apiece. (N.B.: each season box set is sold separately.) Or pick up copies today in the Televisionary store for $19.99-$24.99.

TV on DVD: "Pushing Daisies: The Complete Second Season"

I'm hopeful that in the years to come Bryan Fuller's gorgeously technicolored and bittersweet drama series Pushing Daisies will be remembered for not only its wacky and memorable characters but also for being one of the most original, compelling, and groundbreaking series to arrive on the small screen in quite a long time.

Pushing Daisies was, rather sadly, also one of the most mistreated series in recent memory as well, having its first critically-acclaimed season cut short by the writers strike (only nine episodes were shot) and then its sophomore season even more cruelly cut short by ABC, which held on to the final three episodes of its run for several months and then unceremoniously dumped them on Saturday nights.

Today, however, fans of Pushing Daisies have something to celebrate as Warner Home Video releases a four-disc box set of the series' sensational second season, complete with a plethora of bonus features, all in a honey-themed jewel case that deliciously appropriates the honeycomb sweetness of Charlotte "Chuck" Charles and, well, the terror of the Bee-Man from second season premiere "Bzzzzzzzzz!"

The sophomore season of Pushing Daisies was a thing of beauty as creator Bryan Fuller and his talented writing team dove even deeper into the backstories of our main characters, Ned the Pie Maker (Lee Pace), a man gifted (or cursed?) with the ability to bring the dead back to life with a single touch; Chuck (Anna Friel), the alive-again avenger and Ned's childhood sweetheart/current girlfriend whose return to life came with a caveat: she could never again touch Ned; Emerson Cod (Chi McBride), a gruff-talking gumshoe with a penchant for pop-up books on the hunt for his missing daughter; Olive Snook (Kristin Chenoweth), a pint-sized bucket of sass with a serious case of unrequited love; and Lily and Vivian Charles (Swoosie Kurtz and Ellen Greene), Chuck's reclusive aunts (ahem!) and former synchronized swimmer darlings who hadn't recovered from their niece's death.

The second season jangles some skeletons in the closet, most notably those of Ned's errant father (George Hamilton), the truth about Chuck's parentage (double ahem!), Olive's past as a kidnap victim and her true feelings towards Ned (which lead her, surprisingly, to the cloistered confines of a nunnery), and Emerson's search for his daughter Penny, which leads him right to the double-crossing arms of his grifter wife Lila (Gina Torres).

It also deepens the relationships between the characters even as week-to-week they attempt to solve all manner of bizarro crimes, from elaborate murder tableaux in department store windows to falling nuns and everything in between. Early publicity materials for Pushing Daisies likened it to a "forensic fairy tale" and I have to agree with this. Aided by the dulcet tones of narrator Jim Dale, Pushing Daisies does take on the manner of a fairy tale or at least one in which the protagonists also solve crimes between their star-crossed courtship.

The four-disc set includes all thirteen installments from Pushing Daisies' second season, as well as an extra heaping of bonus features including The Master Pie Maker: Inside the Mind of Creator Bryan Fuller, From Oven to Table: Crafting a Script into Reality; Secret Sweet Ingredients: Spotlight on Composer Jim Dooley's Work, and Add a Little Magic: Executing Some Giant-Sized Visual Effects. (If they had included recipes for Ned's truly awe-inspiring pies, I would never leave the house.)

All in all, Pushing Daisies: The Complete Second Season is a must-have for fans of the short-lived (but much missed) ABC series. It's a reminder of the power television has to enchant and enthrall and that certain well-crafted characters can live on forever, even if their series don't.

Pushing Daisies: The Complete Second Season is available today on DVD for a suggested retail price of $39.98. Or pick up a copy today in the Televisionary store for just $22.99.

Channel Surfing: Jennie Garth Returns to "90210," Kelly Carlson Works Black Book for "Melrose," Erika Christensen Offers "Lie" to FOX, and More

Welcome to your Tuesday morning television briefing.

Looks like Kelly isn't going anywhere. Jennie Garth has signed a deal to reprise her role as Kelly Taylor on Season Two of the CW's 90210, where she will appear in multiple episodes, according to Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello. "Garth reappears in episode 3," writes Ausiello, "when Kelly gives Harry advice on how to deal with his, ahem, situation with Annie." (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

Elsewhere at the CW,Melrose Place continues to get more and more crowded. Nip/Tuck's Kelly Carlson (yes, Kimber!) has signed on to join the cast of Melrose Place this fall, where she will play a madam who "eventually entices Lauren (Stephanie Jacobson) to work for her as part of her prostitution ring." (E! Online's Watch with Kristin)

Parenthood's Erika Christensen has booked a guest starring role on Season Two of FOX's Lie to Me this fall. Christensen will play Tricia, a woman who turns to Cal Lightman (Tim Roth) for help when she experiences a vision of a murder and Lightman uncovers that Tricia is actually a woman with multiple personalities. Lie to Me returns on September 28th with Christensen's episode. [Editor: New showrunner Shawn Ryan had teased the casting last week via Twitter.] (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

Melanie Nicholls King (Law and Order), Enuka Okumu (24), Travis Milne (Bionic Woman), Ben Bass (Bury the Lead), Eric Johnson (Smallville), Matt Gordon (The Dresden Files), Noam Jenkins (The State Within), and Aidan Devine (A History of Violence) have all be added to the cast of the Canadian drama Copper, which will air Stateside on ABC. Project is shooting in Toronto and will wrap production in November. (Hollywood Reporter)

Producers on the CW's upcoming fall drama series The Beautiful Life are said to have come up with a contingency plan should Mischa Barton not be able to return to work when production on the series begins, according to unnamed sources cited by Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello. "Said plan involves the addition of a new female character to fill the void left by Barton," writes Ausiello. "While not a direct recast, the new recurring character -- tentatively named Jane -- would bear a striking resemblance to Barton's experienced supermodel, Sonja Stone. Casting is underway." (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

Syfy has announced that Stargate Universe will launch with a two-hour premiere on Friday, October 2nd at 9 pm ET/PT and Sanctuary will launch its second season the following week on October 9th at 10 pm. The cabler also slated telepic Open Graves, starring Eliza Dushku, for September 9th and a remake of Children of the Corn for September 26th and renewed Destination Truth for a third season, kicking off on September 9th while Scare Tactics returns on October 6th. (Variety)

John Schneider (Smallville) has joined the cast of the CW's 90210, where he will recur throughout the second season as the step-father of Matt Lanter's bad boy Liam. (E! Online's Watch with Kristin)

Writer Matt Tarses (Worst Week) has signed a two-year overall deal with Sony Pictures Television, under which he will develop new half-hour comedy projects for the studio and will take the first project out to networks in the next few weeks rather than be immediately assigned to an existing Sony Pictures TV series. (Variety)

ABC has ordered reality series Shaq Vs., featuring Shaquille O'Neal as he competes against athletes at their own sports specialty. Series, from Media Rights Capital and Dick Clark Prods., will launch August 18th. (Hollywood Reporter)

Lifetime has cast Daniel Sunjata, Andie MacDowell, Diahann Carroll, Annabeth Gish, and Ashley Williams in telepics At Risk and The Front, both based on Patricia Cornwell novels. Both projects are written by John Pielmeier and will be directed by Tom McLoughlin. (Variety)

20th Century Fox Television has announced a corporate restructuring that will see marketing and communications split into two separate teams. Chris Alexander will oversee publicity and talent relations under the new organizational structure while Mark Pearson will head up marketing and research. Both report to Gary Newman and Dana Walden. (Variety)

Stay tuned.

Playing with Matches: An Advance Review of the "Epitaph One" Episode of "Dollhouse"

"If the whole human race lay in one grave, the epitaph on its headstone might well be: 'It seemed a good idea at the time.'" - Rebecca West

One of the more intriguing mysteries of this past season was the vaunted missing thirteenth episode of FOX's Dollhouse, entitled "Epitaph One," shot by studio 20th Century Fox Television outside of their license fee agreement with FOX.

Written by Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen, "Epitaph One" takes place outside the continuity established by the first season of Dollhouse and is set in the distant future of 2019 Los Angeles. It has remained cloaked in mystery, though the episode will air internationally, will be offered on the Dollhouse: Season One DVD, and will also be screened later this week for fans at San Diego Comic-Con 2009.

I managed to get my hands on a copy of "Epitaph One" this weekend and watched the enigmatic episode with a sense of wonder and terror as Whedon and Tancharoen painted a terrifying portrait of technology run amok, of unfettered greed and shocking hubris, and of wild anarchy in the streets of the City of Angels.

I don't want to spoil any of the delicious plot twists that lurk within the forty-odd minutes of "Epitaph One," but I will say that there were some terrifically shocking surprises within the episode, which ramps up the tension and stakes while also creating an enduring mystery that fills in the blanks as the installment goes on.

While the majority of the action is set in a post-apocalyptic Los Angeles in 2019, the spine of the episode is a series of flashbacks which give us a glimpse into just what happened to the main characters of Dollhouse. And there are many a familiar face that turn up in these story segments, from Eliza Dushku's Echo/Caroline and Tahmoh Penikett's Paul Ballard to Adele, Topher, Dominic, Sierra, Victor, Claire Saunders/Whiskey, Boyd, and others. (The episode also repurposes a scene from the original Dollhouse pilot, giving it additional heft and prescience.)

In 2019, a group of freedom fighters--Mag (Felicia Day), Lynn (Janina Gavankar), Griff (Chris William Martin), and Zone (Zack Ward)--inadvertently stumble onto the Dollhouse as they escape a group of "hunters." Tagging along with them for the ride (or survival) is Adair Tishler's Iris, a young girl with a sadness in her eyes that bespeaks volumes about the hell she's seen. (Heroes' Tishler is definitely one to watch: she manages to steal most of her scenes, despite being less than fourteen years old.)

So what do they discover eight stories below the street? That would be telling.

But I will say that Whedon and Tancharoen have effortlessly crafted a standalone episode that is haunting in its precise vision of a certain kind of dystopian future and which manages to beautifully fuse together taut psychological thriller, horror, and metaphysical exploration into one gritty package.

There are some hard moral questions at work here and the consequences of bad decisions, of shifting lines in the sand, of identities fragmented and lost. The portrait of the future that "Epitaph One" paints is increasingly bleak yet it ends with a rare note of hope, laced with poignancy for what's been lost.

Just what it all means and whether the series will meet up with this point in time--or if it will remain tantalizingly out of reach for the FOX drama series (or, hell, even remain in canon)--remains to be seen. But regardless of its long-term impact on the series, "Epitaph One" offers a seductive puzzle for viewers to solve: just how did things get to be so bad and what role did the Los Angeles Dollhouse play in the end of the world? Can this future be prevented? Or are we doomed to watch history repeat itself?

In any event, "Epitaph One" speaks volumes about what Dollhouse might have looked and felt like had the series hewed more closely to Whedon's original vision. It's dark, gritty, and compelling, a vivid nightmare etched in blood that will be hard to shake long after the final credits have rolled.

Dollhouse: Season One is available on DVD next Tuesday for a suggested retail price of $49.98. Or pick one up in the Televisionary store for just $31.99.

Reminder: "Torchwood: Children of Earth" Begins Tonight on BBC America

"We are coming."

Just another reminder that the five-episode event Torchwood: Children of Earth begins Stateside tonight at 9 pm ET/PT on BBC America.

Before then, you can read my spoiler-lite review of the five-episode Torchwood: Children of Earth arc and the first part of my exclusive interview with Torchwood and Doctor Who executive producer Julie Gardner about Torchwood: Children of Earth, Matt Smith as the new Doctor, and what to expect from the five episodes that kick off tonight.

Meanwhile, the Chicago Tribune's Maureen Ryan has excellent interviews with Torchwood creator Russell T. Davies and series lead John Barrowman, and The Star-Ledger's Alan Sepinwall talks to Russell T. Davies.

And don't forget to tune in to BBC America an hour before the start of Torchwood: Children of Earth for Torchwood: Inside the Hub, a preview at the mini-series and profiles of Torchwood's main characters... and stick around after the Torchwood: Children of Earth credits have rolled for a fifteen-minute behind-the-scenes look at the mini.

Torchwood: Children of Earth begins tonight at 9 pm ET/PT on BBC America.

Into the Woods: Fawns, Telepaths, and Missing Vampires on "True Blood"

When is a coincidence just a coincidence?

This week's episode of True Blood ("Never Let Me Go"), written by Nancy Oliver and directed by John Dahl, featured not one but two rather huge occurrences of serendipity for two residents of Bon Temps, leading this jaded viewer to wonder if not everything is as it appears.

Adding to my suspicion are the machinations of the truly evil Maryann, who seems hellbent on keeping Tara to herself. This week, Maryann ratcheted up her plans to keep Tara under her thumb by moving herself and her retinue into Sookie's house and engaging in some nefarious behavior that gives new meaning to the term "mind games."

All this plus, Jason and the reverend's wife, Lafayette returning to Merlotte's, Sookie and Bill's search for Godric, revelations about Eric's past, Sam and Daphne, and Barry the Bellhop.

So what are you waiting for? Pour yourself an ice cold Tru Blood, grab a complimentary Danish, and let's discuss "Never Let Me Go."

When I mentioned the plethora of coincidences earlier, several things came to mind vis-a-vis this week's installment of True Blood. For one thing, we witnessed two characters--each with very different abilities of their own--come face to face with someone else who shared their secret gifts. For Sookie, it was the opportunity to meet Barry the Bellhop, a hotel employee terrified of his own telepathy who is unable to control his power and who is beyond freaked out that Sookie has outed him, as it were.

Meanwhile, Sam Merlotte discovers that not only does new waitress Daphne know about his shape-shifting abilities, she too is a shifter, as she ably demonstrates in the woods, transforming into a fawn before his eyes.

So it is providence that brought these unlikely duos together or something far more calculated? I can't shake the feeling that both these meetings spell trouble for our protagonists. After all, as I said in last week's write-up, Daphne did turn up in Bon Temps at the same time as Maryann and those nasty scars on her back match the maenad claw marks on Sookie's.

So are Maryann and Daphne in cahoots as it were? Or are their appearances in Bon Temps and interest in Sam Merlotte absolute coincidence? I'm leaning towards the former. After all, Sam knows about Maryann's abilities and true nature but if he's too distracted by Daphne to do anything about it, Maryann has swept one opponent off the board. And we can't forget about Maryann's attack of Sookie in the woods a few episodes back. What better way to remain under the radar than to remove the nosy telepath from the battlefield?

As for Tara, she's found herself between a rock and a hard place. Maryann has made it absolutely clear that she is there for Tara completely and unconditionally while everyone else around her--exacerbated by Maryann herself--seems to be at Tara's throat. The spell she cast outside Merlotte's was absolutely effective at driving a wedge between Tara and her friends but it paled in comparison for the mind games back at Sookie's house as Maryann made herself over to resemble Adele Stackhouse. Everything about Maryann, from her hair and clothes to her posture at the table reading a book, screamed out Adele; her intention was to lure Tara in, remind her of the safe haven of the Stackhouse's family home, offering comfort, succor, and nostalgia. Insidious and genius, really.

As for Sookie, I'm very worried about her plan to go undercover inside the Fellowship of the Sun and I have a feeling that we haven't seen the last of Barry the Bellhop by a longshot. It was great to see how much Sookie has grown over the past season and a half and how much more control she has over her ability now than she did when the series began. Barry, on the other hand, is spinning out of control and is absolutely ashamed of and terrified by his ability. What concerns me is that someone knew Sookie was coming to Dallas, someone tried to have her kidnapped at the airport, and now there's a telepath working in the very same vampire hotel where Sookie, Bill, Jessica, and Eric are holed up. Again, way too coincidental for me...

Loved the telephone call between Jessica and Hoyt, who might just be the very cutest couple on television ever, as Hoyt told Jessica all about his comic book while she sat in a lonely hotel room in Dallas, the two innocents joined together by their voices and longing. Sweet and well-written, it was filled with the promise and potential of young love uncomplicated by the fact that one of them is dead.

And we finally learned just why Godric's disappearance was so important to Eric as we witness a flashback to when Viking Eric Northman was turned by the wild teenage vampire Godric after a worthy battle. It's clear that Eric not only respects his maker but is deeply concerned about how a 2000-year-old vamp could be taken by the humans so easily. He's also deeply pissed off by the behavior of Godric's lieutenants Stan (Eureka's Ed Quinn) and Isabelle (The Dresden Files' Valerie Cruz). Loved the way that Isabelle asked Sookie how her human/vampire relationship was going and Stan's attitude towards Texan vengeance.

Lafayette returned to Merlotte's to ask for his job back, though he displayed none of the vim or vigor of his previous self. While Sam gave him his job back, it's clear that the bond of trust between them has been broken even as Lafayette refuses to tell Sam where he's been this whole time. The look of absolute sorrow and shame on Nelsan Ellis' face when he asks Sam for his job back was heartbreaking. I'm hoping the Emmy nominating committee is paying attention for next year...

Meanwhile, Jason got the full bath treatment from Sarah Newlin, who--sparked on by her husband's complete lack of trust and faith in her--made a move on Jason Stackhouse as he took a bath. I'm not sure what Sarah's deal is; she seems to be a true believer in the Fellowship of the Sun's message but it's also clear there's some major friction between her and Steve lurking beneath the surface. Does she view Jason as a plaything or a kindred spirit? Regardless, something tells me Reverend Steve is going to be none too pleased when he finds out about their little tryst.

And just what is Bill's maker doing wandering the halls of the hotel in Dallas? I'm seeing some bad, bad things yet to come...

What did you think of this week's episode? What does Maryann want? Where is Godric? What happened to Barry the Bellhop? And just what is going to happen next? Discuss.

Next week on True Blood ("Hard-Hearted Hannah"), Sookie and Isabel’s human boyfriend Hugo set out on a dangerous mission to locate Godric; Bill is shocked when a vampire from his past resurfaces in Dallas; Daphne tries to get Sam to get comfortable in his own skin(s); Hoyt continues to woo Jessica; Andy interrogates Lafayette about his disappearance; Tara and Eggs take a detour while on a road trip.