The Fantastic Adventures of H.G. Wells: A Warehouse 13 Spin Off in the Works

This past week marked the end of an era.  Stargate, the science fiction franchise that began as a spin-off to a movie and spawned North America's longest running science fiction television series came to an end on Monday with the last episode of Stargate Universe, the franchise' third live-action series.  While there will be no more Stargate in the foreseeable future (and the release of the Series 5 SG-1 action figures is even less likely now), there may still be some ray of joy in the the dark, Stargate-less future:

"Syfy Prepping 'Warehouse 13' Spinoff Centered on H.G. Wells Character (Exclusive)"

On Thursday, The Hollywood Reporter published an exclusive made of flowers, puppies, and steampunk Tesla guns.  While the franchise of my favorite live-action series of all time has ended, there's a chance that one of my favorite currently airing shows will get a spin off of its own and be the start of a quirky, steam-and-Tesla-powered franchise.  Not only that, but this spin-off would be centered around the amazing and complex character of H.G. Wells (portrayed by Jaime Murray), a morally ambiguous time-traveling, inventor-super-agent.  Who is a woman.

She's the one with the gun.  Note the lack of mustache.

In case you're wondering: yes, she is that H.G. Wells, but the "H" stands for Helena instead of Herbert and she leads an active life-style of inventing and crime-fighting.  No, really.  In the wonderfully wacky world of Warehouse, H.G. Wells' stories are written by her brother but based on her life and inventions.

The spin-off would follow Helena's crime-fighting adventures in the 1890's.  According to the article:

"In this incarnation, she would enlist the help of a mechanical engineer and utilize her relationship with the police commissioner to solve what appear to be unsolvable cases. Both the skills and style she employs will become the framework for the well-known stories of H.G. Wells, as written by her brother."

 I love this idea.  Last season, H.G.'s complexity, intelligence, back story, style, moral ambiguity, and jet-pack (as well as Murray's fantastic acting) made her one of my favorite characters in the series (I have twitter proof).  She was a good character, whose motivations you could never be completely sure you understood until the end.  She kept you guessing and was just fun to watch.

While this announcement about the development of a new series is more detailed than many initial press releases (Buffy, Spidey, I'm looking at you), that doesn't prevent me from speculating about it.  So, because I love bullet points, here's a list of questions about the spin-off:

WARNING: There may be spoilers about the second season of Warehouse 13, so you should go watch all of it now.  This post won't go anywhere.

Old Poll, New Poll, and May the Fourth

First off: Happy May Fourth, Day of Bad Star Wars puns!  Which is to say that StarWars.com has announced it "Star Wars Day" and is releasing information about the Star Wars Blu-ray set.  Because it's May the Fourth.  If you can't/don't want to dig through the official sight, Club Jade posted much of the info here.

My last poll asked which of this year's superhero movies you were most looking forward to, and the results were three votes for Captain America, one vote for Thor, and both Green Lantern and Green Hornet were unloved with zero votes.  I personally was most looking forward to Cap's movie, but I have to admit, I'm getting pretty excited about Thor coming out later this week.

The new poll asks your favorite "Star" franchises.  You may select more than one because, hey, I don't think I could choose between my favorite two.  Let me know which are your favorites in the comments or, if your favorites aren't listed, let me know what they are, why you love them, and why you consider them a "Star" franchise.  Just because I only listed science fiction franchises starting with "Star" doesn't there aren't others with legitimate claim to the designation.

Remember When SG-1 did that Spoof Episode: SGU Season 1 Retrospective (Also: Guess Who Won The Hugo)

First of all, the Hugo awards have come and gone and I never said anything so: congratuations on getting two "Best Graphic Story" Hugos in two years, Girl Genius!  Keep up the amazing work!  I sadly was unable to complete the Captain Britain and MI13 post before the winners were announced, and should apparently never mention what I'm planning on writing a post about in advance because it never happens.  I am still going to write the point, but don't expect it soon.

Anyway, I've been wanting to compare Stargate Universe with the Stargate SG-1 episode "200" since the series premier, so I figured I may as well do this before I catch up on season two, which just recently started.  "200" the two hundreth episode of Stargate SG-1 spoofs many different science-fiction cliches, tropes, and trends, and I shall be going through the episode looking for ones that have been used in season 1 of SGU, and some SG-1 and Atlantis as well (not all of those, though. that would make this way too long).  This will be done completely from memory, so if I miss any, feel free to post a comment.

WARNING: There will be spoilers and I shall be poking gentle fun at series that I love.  People who that everything seriously all the time be warned!

Let us begin!

First Thoughts on Stargate Universe

Hello, internet! In honor of the premier of the latest series in one of my favorite sci-fi franchises, I shall start my ramblings with Stargate Universe. I'm sorry this is so long, but I've had a week to think about the pilot.

I have to admit, I approached it with extreme skepticism. All I had read and seen about it previously had made it look like Star Trek: Voyager with Battlestar Galactica flavor and a Stargate setting. I have nothing against BSG, but I love the light-heartedness of Stargate and the sneak peaks of SGU made it look ever so grim and unwilling to laugh at itself and the press releases declared the attempt to be darker and more gritty than the previous shows.

I approached the two-hour pilot with caution, and noticed some interesting things they did to make the show "darker":

1. The Stargate's event horizon is grey in SGU instead of the cheerier shade of blue it's been in the previous series. Whether this is supposed to be a special property of the Destiny gate or not, it definitely adds visually to the darker tone of the series. (side thought: Would Sam eat grey jello in SGU? What flavor would that be?)
2. The Ancient technology on board the Destiny is rougher and alien-seeming or streamlined than the other examples of Ancient tech we've seen. It feels far more like a Daedalus-class Earth ship than like the Ancient city of Atlantis, except in scale. This is probably because the ship is older than Atlantis, but it still adds to the gritty feel of the show.
3. The characters lack the optimistic attitude the characters of previous shows had in even the most dire of situations. I mean, they're in pretty much the same situation as the crew from Atlantis was at first, minus the threat of Wraith attack, but where Atlantis characters would tackle puzzles and crack jokes, the Destiny's passengers freak-out and argue.
4. The lighting is done at such angles as to increase the sharpness and to make everything feel darker. The quarters in Icarus base are decorated pretty much the same way as quarters in Stargate Command if you pay attention, but the way they use lighting makes them feel darker and more oppressive.
5. There is already signs of intrigue and power struggle. Usually, it takes a few episodes (or seasons) for that to come along.
6. They are definitely willing to use content the previous series wouldn't touch (except for SG-1's original pilot, but we don't like to talk about that...). Call it daring if you want, I did not need to see that scene...
   

So those are the major differences I've noticed from SG-1 and Atlantis. The show comes to a dark, serious start. SGU has not completely departed the beloved (by me, at least) grounds of it's predecessors. The character Eli is definitely showing more of the lighter attitude of the Stargate-verse. Even his back story for why he joined the program is light-hearted (and strangely reminiscent of The Last Starfighter). Also refreshing: the end of the pilot has them start exploring through the gate. That made me feel warm and fuzzy...

All in all, I found the pilot intriguing, though different. There was already evident character growth and I found myself wanting to know more about (some of) the characters. While I still feel that it can never take the place of light-hearted and never too serious SG-1, and it still seems like Voyager with a BSG color scheme, I look forward to the next episode and I plan on watching at least the first season to see how it develops.

Now, if only Hulu had the next episode up! Curse my lack of the SyFy channel!