Club Jade

Fresh off the Emmy broadcast, the Gemini Award nominations, recognizing achievement in Canadian English-language television, have been released.  And, unlike in the US, they tend to appreciate good genre television.

Stargate Universe did pretty well for itself:

• Best Dramatic Series
• Best Performance by an Actor – Robert Carlyle (Human), Louis Ferreira (Justice)
• Best Direction – Andy Mikita (Air, Part 1)
• Best Original Music Score – Joel Goldsmith (Light)
• Best Photography – Light
• Best Editing – Human
• Best Sound Series
• Best Visual Effect – Air, Part 1

Other genre nods:

• Alice – Matt Frewer (Best Performance by a Supporting Actor, Mini-Series), Andrew Lee Potts (Best Performance by a Lead Actor, Mini-Series), Caterina Scorsone (Best Performance by a Lead Actress, Mini-Series), Makeup, Costume Design, Best Writing Mini-Series
• Sanctuary – Christopher Hyerdahl (Best Performance by an Actor, Guest Role), Best Sound Series

Stargate Universe is back tonight with the episode “Light.”  (As opposed to last week’s episode, “Darkness.”  Seeing a pattern?) 

Ratings were down 14%, but it was considered to be okay as it was in competition with baseball and a new horror film.  We’ll see if they’ll still be happy if the ratings are that way this week; although I think there’s more baseball.  Still, November will be critical as Dollhouse will be off the air.  I think they’ll be expected to gather some eyes from that audience.

At any rate, one of the more interesting parts of SGU are the Kino diaries.  The Official Site is now starting to post them.

In other Stargate news, Atlantis won two Gemini Awards.  One for makeup in the episode “Vegas,” and the other for writing in “The Shrine.”  (One of my favorite episodes ever.)  SG1 alum Amanda Tapping’s series Sanctuary won for VFX.

And finally, as reported on our Twitter feed, Jason Momoa will be in HBO’s Game of Thrones series.  (Women everywhere rejoice.  Nude scene!)

The Emmy Award Nominations are out and the geeks seem to be doing the same as always.  But hey, the folks who do all the technical stuff work hard on it.  Let’s congratulate the great crew of our favorite geeky shows on jobs well done.  (And there are some major ones in there.)

• Robot Chicken - Animation Series,  and Voiceover for the Star Wars Episode II episode
• The Big Bang Theory – Best Comedic Actor, Art Direction
• Lost - Best Drama Series, Best Supporting Actor, Sound Editing (Series), Writing (Drama)
• Heroes – Art Direction, Visual Effects (Series)
• Battlestar Galactica – Directing (Drama), Single-Camera Editing (Hour-Long), Sound Editing (Episode), Sound Editing (Series), Visual Effects (Series) and Short-format Live-Action Entertainment Program
• Legend of the Seeker – Original Music Composition
• Smallville - Sound Editing
• Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog - Short-format Live-Action Entertainment Program
• Terminator – Sound Editing
• Sanctuary – Visual Effects (Series)
• Chuck – Stunts

We scour the complete PDF so you don’t have to!

It’s no wonder genre shows are struggling when you have to wait so long to see new episodes.  But NBC is trying to rally us back around to their Monday night line-up with gimmicks and fun.

Chuck will not only be in 3-D, but will feature appearances by Dominic Monagahan and Scott Bakula (as Chuck’s dad?!).

And Heroes will try to stop hemorrhaging viewers by doing a spot during the SuperBowl in which we explore what it would look like if Heroes played football.  (It’ll also be the start of the supposedly-tightened-up Volume 4.)

Another NBC-owned show, Battlestar Galactica, gets some squee from the Watch with Kristin staff who are celebrating them some love.  (By the way, have you been catching the Best Of…series on the website?)

And finally, an interview with Sanctuary star/producer Amanda Tapping, who talks about having a great first season and what might be to come if they make it back on air by October.

Entertainment industry strikes have an interesting way of shaking up the following season.  This one is no exception.

• Heroes is steadily dropping with each episode:  down 18% from the already-sluggish season premiere.  However, according to EOnline, it’s doing really well on Hulu.  (Have you people learned nothing from Stargate?  TV execs and advertisers don’t understand this whole alternative viewing thing, yet.  Watch it live if you want to keep it!)
• Sarah Connor is, according to SyFyPortal, on the verge of cancellation, but also thriving in the alternative market.
• Chuck is holding on, but has also dropped 11%. 

So let’s focus on the happy, shall we?

• Clone Wars set a new record for Cartoon Network with 4 million viewers.
• Fringe won the coveted 18-49 demographic
• And even Sanctuary drummed up strong numbers for SciFi with 2.7 million viewers.  (Although I suspect this will be another that soon bleeds off to online and DVR viewing.)

Remember, fellow geeks, only you can save TV shows:  watch them live!

The best part about shows with names like this is that you can make horribly annoying subject lines for quite a while with them.

At any rate, the first trailer is up for Sanctuary. This was the first attempt to sell a series strictly online and using fan interaction to help shape the story. Sadly, they just couldn’t make the model work financially. But it was enough to get SciFi to notice and pick them up as a series. So it can’t all be bad.

Series star and producer Amanda Tapping (formerly of the Stargate franchise) catches everyone up on what’s been happening with the show. A nice interview for those who watched it and those who are thinking about it.

This week’s geeky auction fun is brought to you by the Waterkeeper Alliance. Apparently there are a lot of celebrities who are supporting it, so dig on into it to see who’s offering. (Some mighty cool vacation opportunities, as well!)

Of geek interest:

• Lunch on the set of Stargate Atlantis with Jewel Staite (Also big fun for Firefly fans.)
• Lunch on the set of Stargate Atlantis with Joe Flanigan
• A paddle signed by David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson from the X-Files Movie
• A paddle signed by the casts of SG1 and SGA
• A script signed by the BSG cast. (Sadly from last season, but still….)
• More lunch! This time with Amanda Tapping from the Sanctuary set

How did they score so much geek cred? One of the organization’s biggest supporters is Richard Dean Anderson. He MacGyvered them into it, I’m sure.

Thanks to James and The Browncoats for the heads up!

Three nods for sci-fi in the 2007 Online Video Awards.

- Sanctuary won for Original Web Drama Series.
- Star Trek: The New Voyages won for Sci-Fi Webisodes.
- And Heroes won for Best TV Show Site.

Still no word from its creator as to whether or not Sanctuary has done well enough to support itself. (Only two episodes in, though, so it might be too soon to say.)

But Damian Kindler does have ideas for two more web-based productions.

Start saving up for those bigger monitors!

The long-awaited original internet series Sanctuary has finally launched with the first webisode.

The series, created by ex-Stargate producer Damian Kindler, stars Amanda Tapping (Sam Carter) and Christopher Heyerdahl (Halling), and features guest appearances by Stargate Atlantis actors David Hewlett (Rodney McKay) and Paul McGillion (Carson Beckett).

The first few webisodes are free. Afterwards, there will be a small subscription fee to watch the show.