What’s on TV these days? This weekend has a full blast of stuff for genre fans, and Monday kicks off the new season of Warehouse 13
Let’s check out the sci-fi and fantasy forecast for the weekend and beyond…
On Saturday night: BBC America starts off their block with a new Doctor Who episode: ‘Journey to the Center of the TARDIS’ – The Doctor’s mysterious companion, Clara, ends up lost in the crashed TARDIS, and she might not be alone in there. Meanwhile, TheMarySue squees over the appearance of a library inside the Doctor’s blue box. Last week’s episode, ‘Hide’, was a fairly solid episode, starting off as a scary ghost story, but transforming into different directions, and so far, has felt to be the best episode with Clara Oswald.
I’ve been more intrigued by the show that comes after Doctor Who on BBC America, Orphan Black, and last week, they managed to build things up even more in this tale of a young woman stealing a dead detective’s identity only to discover that she and the cop and several others are clones – and are being hunted. It’s been a good thriller so far.
On Sunday, a new episode, ‘Kissed by Fire’, is up for Game of Thrones fans, but lacking HBO, I’ll be more likely watching this month’s installment of Doctor Who: Revisited – focusing on the Fourth Doctor, played by Tom Baker, as well as having to pick which to watch first, Mad Men or The Borgias. There’s also a new Once Upon A Time.
Monday night marks the mid-season return of one of my favorite SyFy shows: Warehouse 13. Artie’s dying, a plague threatens the world, and James Marsters makes an appearance in ‘The Living and the Dead’. (And if you can’t wait until Monday, you can watch the episode online. While the past half-season has been a little more serious (with an over-arching storyline as well), I’m hoping that the fun quirkiness of the show will come through as they wrap up the big scary stuff.
Leading into Warehouse 13 is the new Syfy series, Defiance, which I’m still on the fence about – it seems to be a cross of Firefly and Terra Nova, set in a terraformed Earth where humans and several alien species seek to cooperate in a town built over the ruins of St. Louis. The pilot was full of action and some sex and lots of archetypal characters, and the aliens seem leftover from the Buffyverse. Also on Monday night is a new episode of NBC’s Revolution. I like the world building on this show, and am glad that the show has moved beyond the same plot used every episode in the first half of the season. Interesting that NBC would put its own post-apocalyptic shows against each other on the same night on broadcast and cable.
And speaking of Syfy, this past week’s episode of The Big Bang Theory had Sheldon seeking closure over Syfy cancelling Alphas.
Do you like these sorts of posts about genre TV? Do you wish we’d make them more regularly? Leave us a comment on whether you like this or not.
Yes, please make more posts about genre TV! Me likey.
I’ve been kinda meh with this season of Doctor Who, so far. It’s just not pulling me in like it used to, but I can’t put my finger on what’s missing for me. I’m intrigued by Clara. I should enjoy them.
As for Defiance? I am really liking it. I like the clash of cultures stuff. And the silver aliens (whatever they’re called) are all sorts of love-to-hate.
Paula: same with me on Doctor Who right now – Clara was brilliantly introduced in the Christmas episode, but most of what we’ve seen since then, I’ve just felt meh about. ‘Hide’ was good, but the rest… meh. this most recent episode.. again, meh.