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Sci-Fi Media Television

Sci-Fi Channel to Pick Up John Doe 203

Posted by Zonk from the next-show-planned-for-pickup-is-alf dept.
KrayzieKyd writes "The Sci-Fi Channel will be showing 'John Doe', another dead series that premiered with cult hit Firefly. It features a man with no memory of who he is but, but somehow has infinite knowledge. With his gift, he solves crimes which are hinted through his monochromatic sight with color. The show will re-premiere Friday, Jan 20 at 9pm ET." It's raining new shows on Sci-Fi, apparently.
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Sci-Fi Channel to Pick Up John Doe More

Sci-Fi Channel to Pick Up John Doe

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  • can be found here http://www.mininova.org/tor/182793 [mininova.org]

  • Now (Score:5, Insightful)

    by OverlordQ ( 264228 ) on Saturday January 14, 2006 @04:32PM (#14472526) Journal
    If only somebody could convince Sci-Fi to stop making a new 'oh no monster' craptastic movie each month, and instead maybe make a couple really good ones a year.

    • Re:Now (Score:2, Interesting)

      by no_pets ( 881013 )
      IMHO SciFi makes a couple of good movies a year and some fun-to-watch "B" movie escapism movies to help fill the void.

      I like them and hope they keep up the work.

    • Re:Now (Score:3, Interesting)

      by luna69 ( 529007 ) *
      > If only somebody could convince Sci-Fi to stop making
      > a new 'oh no monster' craptastic movie each month

      Precisely.

      I'd rather they spend their money on making maybe one great show per season (and fill the rest of the time with reruns, old movies, independently produced shows by up-and-coming directors, etc) than continue to try and force feed us a steady diet of "Stargate: [$x]" or "[$deadly_animal_name]: The Lost City" or "[$any_show_in_space]".

      They're far too conservative (not taking chances with n

      • Re:Now (Score:3, Interesting)

        by Belgand ( 14099 )
        Well if you look at their current schedule they really don't have very smart people running the show over there.

        Most days tend to be 8am-3pm being filled with re-runs of some sort often with only the vaguest sci-fi connection (e.g. Knight Rider). Not re-runs of multiple shows, but re-runs of the same show all day long. Then we get some time for the X-Files, maybe a Stargate SG-1 re-run and a some random crap. They'll usually toss in a movie at night. Sometimes it's something worth seeing (e.g. Stargate, Arm
        • "currently, though bringing Dr. Who to the US is a smart move"

          I know this thread is dead but, for the record, it irks me that Doctor Who is coming to SciFi. It forced their hand to delay a US DVD release that I was looking forward to and capping or VCRing anything on SciFi is worthless with all their flying ads during shows. Entertainment News [darkhorizons.com]

    • Re:Now (Score:3, Funny)

      by Kohath ( 38547 )
      I like their creative choices of monsters too. I think the next one is going to be about people who are attacked by giant squirrels.

      Here is some inspiration from the news:
      Truce called in war on squirrels [thisislocallondon.co.uk]
      Squirrels Gone Wild [miaminewtimes.com]
      Russian squirrel pack 'kills dog' [bbc.co.uk]

      That's going to be a good movie.

      • Re:Now (Score:2, Funny)

        by odourpreventer ( 898853 )
        Squirrels Gone Wild

        Mmm, Furry Porn.

        No, wait... D'oh!

      • What I don't get is how they get John Rhys-Davies to star in every single one of them. Did the Sci-Fi Network kidnap his kid or something?

        I mean, this is the guy who laughed at Indiana Jones for being named after a dog and now he's playing the role of the cruise ship captain of the ship that got invaded by the chupacabra!

        http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0435617/ [imdb.com] - not making this up!

        John Rhys-Davies, please, call the police. They know how to handle hostage situations... and if they screw up, seriously man, los
    • Oh no, a monster! Oh no, a monster! Oh no, oh no, oh no a giant monster Monster! Monster! Oh no, a giant monster! Shut the window, bolt the door! Don't wanna see that monster no more! Monster in my pants [lyricsandsongs.com] by the B-52s

    • ...are they? I mean, they advertise them as "Sci Fi world premieres," but I've just been assuming that these were B movies that studios make to go straight to video but that get picked up by Sci-Fi as filler material to avoid showing yet another rerun of some old series. (Not that there's anything wrong with old series, unless you've watched them a million times already.)

      In most of them, you can tell that the dirty words have been silenced out. Why would Sci-Fi make a movie that they know they'll be ai

    • It's fast food film making. It's kind of like saying why doesn't MacDonald's food taste better? Better to eat one good meal a day than three really bad ones. Well you spend most of the day hungry. Advertisers don't want to hear they're making one decent film a month instead of four cheesy ones. Even cheap films can be good but that requires talent and as many have noticed most of the talent has been run out of Hollywood. It's nearly impossible to get a script read and most can't tell the difference between
    • If you keep an eye on the ratings, very often those crappy random monster movies are the highest-rated shows on sci-fi every week, and at the very least tend to stay neck-and-neck with Stargate and BSG. But I've seen many weeks where things like "Pterodactyl 3: The Birdening" garnered much higher ratings than everything else.
    • And what would they show the rest of the time? Reruns? (ever watch the channel during the day?)

      These movies make them MONEY, they're cheap to make and get good ratings. Without money they can't make any series/movies period, and it's not like these movies are all they show. They fill in the voids where they can't put in a better show, and do better than yet more reruns.

      Don't like them? Then don't watch them (if they weren't made, other shit would be put in those time slots), althrough without them you also
  • They're probably just out of new series, so they're going to air old series as much as possible before anyone notices the lack of anything new...

  • Farscape! (Score:1, Redundant)

    by vjl ( 40603 )
    I wish they would bring back Farscape. That, and Firefly, would be good for the network, me thinks.

    /vjl/
    • Here's hoping this starts a trend. It would totally rock if they picked up a new season of Roswell....

      (Starts playing the eighth episode of season 2 from his DVD boxed set. Only TV show I own on DVD.)


    • I wish they would bring back Farscape.

      For what purpose?

      <SPOILER ALERT>

      Did you see the special movie finale? Crichton opened up a wormhole that threatened to tear apart the space-time fabric of the universe, and in so doing forced the Scarans and the Peacekeepers to the bargaining table; a treaty was signed, with the entire process being overseen by Scorpie; Chrichton lost his best friend in the final battle, became a father of a boy by Erin Sun, and named his newborn son after his fallen comrad

    • Yes exactly, the SciFi channel is the right place for Firefly, not fox. Firefly on SciFi would be huge and get them
      lots of extra interest for other shows.

    • They did... (Score:3, Funny)

      by schon ( 31600 )
      I wish they would bring back Farscape.

      They did, only they dropped the muppets, and renamed it Fargate SG-1.

  • Cliffhanger (Score:5, Insightful)

    by pantropik ( 604178 ) on Saturday January 14, 2006 @04:33PM (#14472535)
    The series ended with a cliffhanger (first season finale), which I've always thought is a pretty nasty thing to do to your audience, not that I'd expect anything better from Fox. I watched it the first time around in tandem with Firefly and was looking forward to some payoff in the second season, but I can't see a reason to watch it again knowing there will never be a payoff at all. You can bet Sci-Fi won't mention that when they are promoting it.

    • Re:Cliffhanger (Score:3, Informative)

      by halcyon1234 ( 834388 )
      The series ended with a cliffhanger (first season finale), which I've always thought is a pretty nasty thing to do to your audience, not that I'd expect anything better from Fox.

      I always thought there should be a law that prevents any show from having a cliffhanger unless they have already been guarenteed a next season.

      As you mention, Fox is notoriously bad for this. Right off the top of my head, I can think of VR5, Brimstone and American Gothic. All great SF(ish) shows that had cliffhangers and were

      • you forgot (Score:3, Interesting)

        by www.sorehands.com ( 142825 )
        You forgot about Strange Luck [tv.com]. Like John Doe, it is one of those shows that cannot be explained in 1 sentence.
        • I was just going to reply about this show! It was excellent, and I couldn't wait for the 2nd season to start... but then there was something else aired in its place... and that was the end of that.
      • VR.5's cliff-hanger still haunts me to this day. What the hell happened to Sidney? Also, where's the damn DVD release?

        -Erwos
      • I now don't watch anything with a continuing plot on FOX until it makes it to season 2, at which point I start watching at season 1.

        There was a time when they'd give shows time to find an audience, but now they just bounce them around the schedules, show them 10 minutes late so your TiVo misses the end, and randomly cancel episodes in favor of two guys talking about whatever sporting event just happened.

        And they wonder why people download torrents instead...
      • Brimstone.. man.. that show was frigging awesome. Not really what I'd call a nerd show, but it definitely had a lot going for it. Amazing casting for one; the main character and the devil were both absolutely awesome.

        I really can't say enough good things about that show. I really wish they'd bring it to DVD.

        [Whoop whoop, not for kids..]
      • What about the cliffhanger for Space: Above and Beyond?? I hate FOX.
    • It was pretty obvious from watching even a few episodes of the show that the writers had no idea of where they were going with the main plot of the show and were just winging it as they went. That tells me it's pointless to watch and try to figure out what will happen on the show, since the illusion of any logic behind the story is only created later.

      The supposed cliff hanger certainly reinforces my belief. And knowing that there will never be anything resolved, one has to wonder why anyone would watch thi

      • The supposed cliff hanger certainly reinforces my belief.

        I disagree. I was able to predict the cliff-hanger almost from episode 1, just based on the choice of actors. Thus it was clear to me that the show did have an internal logic. They did create a few "filler" episodes, but even those ended up playing a part in later episodes.

        For those wondering about how to predict the cliff-hanger, here's the spoiler.

        SPOILER:
        SPOILER:
        SPOILER:
        SPOILER:

        Rule of thumb - big name actors do not take unimportant bit parts.

      • Re:Cliffhanger (Score:2, Interesting)

        by DavidTC ( 10147 )
        Actually, you want to know where the story was ultimate going? It did have an overall premise behind John Doe, which was revealed after the show to be:

        Basically, when you die, God, or something, tells you everything that happened, every single known thing. Basically, it's nethack's 'Do you you want your possessions identified?'

        Somehow, those Phoenix people figured this out (probably someone else in history did it), and figured out a way to get a guy, whoever John Doe was, to this point without him actual

    • Re:Cliffhanger (Score:2, Interesting)

      by DavidTC ( 10147 )
      Actually, that cliffhanger was the show's fault. (Not that I give fox any slack for canceling the series.)

      The revelation of the guy at the end (I'm trying not to spoil it.) was not intended to be that guy. They apparently were going to cast and bring in someone, playing that guy, as the villian of the next season.

      They literally threw it in at the last minute when they realized the show was canceled, basically to confuse the hell out of people.

      Hell, if you've got to go out, go out with a bang, right? Or a

      • What?! (Score:3, Funny)

        by Aero Leviathan ( 698882 )
        And... unlike... unlike what? WHAT HAPPENED? This post was cancelled? That's BULLSHIT! It was just starting to get good! DAMN YOU SLASHDOT!
    • Indeed! I actually managed to get my wife interested in this show on the basis of the first few episodes, which were VERY good. Sadly things really degenerated towards the end of the series and it really felt like the writers had lost direction and were throwing things together for shock value. Anyways, pity it wasnt at least given time to wrap things up.

      Incidently this aired on the UK latenight soft porn^H^H^H^HSciFi channel about 2 years ago and reminded me of "Now and Again" initially.....and of course i
  • It's true. SciFi seems to murder its best shows.
  • I watched every episode when it first aired on Fox. I loved the show. I hated how they left a cliffhanger at the end and then cancelled it. Any plans to at least tell the story of where he came from? I'm still curious about it.

  • Took a little suspension of disbelief, but not bad (Score:5, Interesting)

    by koreth ( 409849 ) * on Saturday January 14, 2006 @04:43PM (#14472594)
    I was pretty skeptical about that show when it started, but it grew on me. Its big saving grace is that the lead does a great job of acting like a bit of a dork most of the time.

    The show has an ongoing storyline, which stars off kind of slow but takes a pretty wild turn late in the season. Sadly, we'll never know how it ends, since the season-ending cliffhanger was the last episode. So beware if you start in on it -- you will be left hanging.

    I suppose it's possible Sci-Fi could do a movie-of-the-week or two to wrap it up, like the "Alien Nation" movies did for that show. That would be swell. But I'm not holding my breath.


    • The show has an ongoing storyline, which stars off kind of slow but takes a pretty wild turn late in the season.

      This is what is wrong with a lot of science fiction shows today; they are following the soap opera gotcha format. BG is a good example of this.

      Science fiction is supposed to challenge viewers' beliefs and make them think, not to rope them into some "story arc" or "backstory" (both are terms which, of course, are bandied-about by those who would like to be screenwriters someday).

      I imagine

  • Now pick up - Threshold (Score:3, Interesting)

    by gadlaw ( 562280 ) <gilbert@NOsPAm.gadlaw.com> on Saturday January 14, 2006 @04:50PM (#14472616) Homepage Journal
    I broke my own rule of not even looking sideways at a television show until it has at least two years in the can by watching and enjoying Threshold. I look for it after the Christmas break and find it has been cancelled. Most annoying. Now I'm waiting for Surface to be cancelled and of course the crapfest Invasion will probably be on air for years to come. No justice.
    • They are running Threshold on SciFi soon it looks like.
    • Of course, if everyone did that there'd be no shows, because everybody would be waiting for it to reach the magical two years. I just accept the fact that it might be cancelled, but it is good while it lasts...
    • that's odd. i had trouble watching all of the first episode of Threshhold because it was a carnival of cliche, yet i've enjoyed Invasion. i guess beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
    • of course the crapfest Invasion will probably be on air for years to come.

      I certainly hope so. Invasion has two very hot babes: the sheriff's daughter (yum yum!) and the girl I call "Daylight" for reasons best left unexplained (second wife of the ranger guy). Really, the babes are enough to keep my interest for years to come....

      Max

  • I used to watch it (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Kohath ( 38547 ) on Saturday January 14, 2006 @04:53PM (#14472631)
    The most noteworthy thing about this show is how it's exactly like "The Pretender".

    • Re:I used to watch it (Score:2, Interesting)

      by DavidTC ( 10147 )
      No it's not. The Pretender actually made sense.

      The only secret Jerrod was trying to figure out is who his parents were and what happened to them, and that's completely unrelated to his abilities, which is basically just incredible acting talent combined with very good problem solving.

      The two series may look superficially the same, but Jerrod part of The Pretender was actually much more like Quantum Leap. Show up, pretend to be someone, solve problems with your superior skills and knowledge, leave. Althoug

  • Jan 20?!?!? Does this mean the new Stargate and Battlestar Galactica episodes are already finished?

    Hm, well I suppose this could run before Galactica. I am rapidly losing enthusiasm for SG-1 (they had a nearly golden cast until they offed Claudia Black [imdb.com], PLEASE bring her back she brought 2/3 of the energy to the show since RDA left), and Atlantis is only so-so, but don't frack with Galactica, man.

  • The Fox Friday Rerun Channel (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Ray Radlein ( 711289 ) on Saturday January 14, 2006 @05:04PM (#14472668) Homepage
    I eagerly await the remainder of their backwards trek through Fox's collection of excellent prematurely-cancelled Friday night shows. Firefly and John Doe, check: How long before they work their way back to Strange Luck [imdb.com] and VR.5 [imdb.com]?

  • now... (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    they need to pick up dark angel.
    • God no. How do you take a show about a hot girl with superpowers and make it SO GODDAMNED BORING? In one of the few episodes I saw, she got captured and put in prison and she was going to die because she needs an injection of some chemical to keep her alive. Then she tried to escape from the prison, but couldn't jump high enough. And that was about the most action-packed thing that happened whatsoever. And I'm sitting there thinking, "wow, great superhero here. She should team up with Aquaman. But at
      • I can't think of more obvious way to come out to the world as gay than to say that ANYTHING with Jessica Alba in it is boring.

        Max

  • re-premier??? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by advocate_one ( 662832 ) on Saturday January 14, 2006 @05:19PM (#14472726)
    surely a contradiction in one word... I think the word we are looking for here is "repeat"...
  • Fridays at 9pm (eastern) is the time for Stargate Atlantis, I hope they aren't dropping that.

    Hmm I just checked the shedule on Scifi.com and it seems this John Doe show is actually on at 7pm eastern, so its not going to interfere with the normal scifi friday lineup (phew)
    • Ya, they're actually replacing Firefly with it, not anything from the core SciFi Friday lineup. They will however be moving things around apparently when Doctor Who hits SciFi in March.

  • Sci-Fi Channel, R.I.P. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by dada21 ( 163177 ) * <adam.dada@gmail.com> on Saturday January 14, 2006 @05:28PM (#14472763) Homepage Journal
    I think we need to see this one go away.

    We're geeks. We like to be ahead of the game. We like it our way, hold the ketchup and the onions, thank you very much.

    In-your-face, take it or leave it TV is dead, or it should be. The horse is beaten, the flies have eaten, it's time to bury it. A la carte TV is so 90's, even if it wasn't really available. The iTunes format is cool. but it isn't quite what we need or want.

    AKIMBO is cool, but I'm sure it's plagued with lame shows and whatever "it isn't open source" problems people have with it.

    So the answer is where should we go next? I'd love to see viewer funded "television" -- maybe geek television at its finest. Firefly, BsG, hell, even bring back Monty Python with a newer funnier cast. Give us an option -- tell us how much it will cost, how many episodes we can assume to be paying for, ask us what video formats we'd like to see, and then do it. Start a website or a blog or whatever we need to find you. Let us pay for it, in advance, with a contract stipulating some refund if you don't meet the requirements.

    I'll put up $500 of my own money, right now, for Firefly to come back. I'd pay $500 for 2 guaranteed seasons (22 episodes per season). I'd cancel cable TV in a heartbeat (I bet we're paying over $1000 a year) and put that money towards 6 or 8 good shows, a la carte. Film them in Canada, give the actors a piece of the action (call them producers, skip the unions) and let's find some good TV. I can't handle anything aimed at the mainstream (maybe L&O: CI on occasion) anymore.

    There are 1 million people coming to /. this week (or more?) $50 a year per user is $50 million. This is enough to get 20 shows going for a year.

    Why are we still talking about Sci-Fi again, we have money, let's use it. Any 10 of you want to match my $500 and get something started?
    • even bring back Monty Python with a newer funnier cast

      BLASPHEMER!!!
    • There are 1 million people coming to /. this week (or more?) $50 a year per user is $50 million. This is enough to get 20 shows going for a year.

      I'd say that's just barely 30 episodes of some shows. Futurama averages at about US$1.5 Million per episode.
    • I'm in -- on two conditions:
      1. On every show there is a character named "Brannon Braga" who is horribly mutilated in the first five minutes of the show.
      2. On every show there is a machine capable of raising the dead, so we can revive "Brannon Braga" for the next episode.

      Bemopolis
    • So the answer is where should we go next? I'd love to see viewer funded "television" -- maybe geek television at its finest.

      There's a few reason it not likely to work:
      a) The waiting game - you wait for everyone else to pay
      b) Lead time and cost - you can't simply set up a few episodes with cast, crew, location, props and everything else for a few episodes, except at an outragous cost. You need to have secured funding for at least half a season.
      c) Lead time and continuity - actors will disappear if there are
    • I think we need to see this one go away.

      Some would say the Sci-Fi Channel died when they showed Braveheart [imdb.com].
  • I read about this a couple of months ago, and never knew it about the time. Apparently after the got cancelled, they revealed what was going to happen: http://www.scifi.com/sfw/issue326/news.html [scifi.com]
    • Fox didn't reveal it, Gail Berman did. And you can bet the bitch/cunt/whore did it out of spite, probably after it was revealed that the show was going to be sold to SciFi. She has a reputation in the business for poisoning everything she touches, but knows where so many bodies are buried that nobody dares to take her down. She is personally attributed with killing at least a half-dozen shows because she hated one or more of the women on those shows - not because of some personal conflict, but simply bec
  • The actor, Dominic Purcell, also plays the older brother on this season's hit Prison Break - another show with an annoying cliff-hanger last fall. Fortunately it will be on again in the spring but I expect they will leave us hanging before next season.

  • pretender (Score:2, Insightful)

    by chigun ( 770799 ) *
    wasn't this show on NBC before, except called The Pretender?

  • Oh, that painful first episode... (Score:4, Informative)

    by dmorin ( 25609 ) <dmorin@gmail . c om> on Saturday January 14, 2006 @07:21PM (#14473247) Homepage Journal
    Scene : John Doe, having just realized his "powers", is in some sort of mall taking questions from strangers.

    Doe: "....010111010101101..1011."

    Stranger: "Wow....he actually knows the assembly code for DOS."

    Or something like that. But it did actually get good, especially as it progressed toward the eventual cliffhanger that others have mentioned. If SciFi channel has ordered new episodes I'd be thrilled, but I don't think they have.

  • The show had some promisse, but they really needed a smart person to help out the writers. There were so many logical inconsistencies that it made watching the show difficult. Of course they could easily explain it through some convoluted logic at the end, but it doesn't make it any easier to watch.
  • Bring back Coronet Blue!!!

    And be snappy about it. Frank Converse ain't gonna live forever, you know.

  • At least they should negotiate to get Exene Cervenka to come on for a guest appearance occasionally...

    adéu,
    Mateu

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