Television

The Most Ridiculous Science Fiction Plots From Actual Soap Operas

Science fiction and fantasy on television have gone full-on soap opera, thanks to shows like Lost, Battlestar Galactica, True Blood, Once Upon a Time and Being Human. But long before genre shows were doing soap-opera storytelling, actual soap operas were featuring totally insane science fiction plots. Here’s our tribute to the nuttiest soap operas that…

io9 Meredith Woerner Jan 26

On Touch, math and total bullshit reveal the secrets of the universe

Last night, Fox aired a preview of its new series Touch, which kicks off properly in March. What we saw was a just barely decent show about connectivity, fate, lost cellphones, and the mysterious, mystical powers of numbers. Spoilers ahead! I might as well start by addressing the colossal elephant in the room and say…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins Jan 26

Gorgeous Star Trek: TNG gifs show off the series sexy new Blu-Ray upgrades

You’ve seen the glorious, crystal clear footage from the first Star Trek: The Next Generations Blu-Ray collection. And now a handful of Star Trek: TNG gifs have been uploaded, beautifully demonstrating the amazing transformation Captain Picard and his crew have made from blurry to Blu-Ray. Remember, the folks behind these DVDs had to go back…

io9 Meredith Woerner Jan 25

Why do we want autistic kids to have superpowers?

Tonight sees the launch of Touch, Kiefer Sutherland’s show about a father whose non-neurotypical son turns out to be able to predict future events. This comes on the heels of Alphas, which also gave us Gary, another person who appears to be on the autism spectrum but who has the ability to see hidden energies.…

io9 Charlie Jane Anders Jan 25

Watch 48 years of Doctor Who adventures in less than 10 minutes

Youtuber BabelColour has lovingly condensed almost five decades of Who history into this 10-minute supercut that catalogs “every Doctor Who adventure from ‘An Unearthly Child’ in 1963 right up to ‘The Doctor, The Widow and the Wardrobe’ Christmas Special.” The spliced quotes also interlock to create one of the stranger Eurhythmics remixes out there. [Via…

Television Cyriaque Lamar Jan 25

Two Beauty and the Beast shows could be on TV at the same time. Yikes.

Honestly, this isn’t terribly surprising. TV studios are particularly proficient at copying off each other, and with the currently popularity of Once Upon A Time, we’re surprised there aren’t more fairy tale TV shows. But two adapted from the same story? That’s a lot. Entertainment Weekly reports that ABC has ordered a pilot based on…

Television Meredith Woerner Jan 25

Artist transforms constipated Victorian photos into flamboyant scifi heroes

We’ve seen kaiju inserted into yard sale paintings and vampiric 1800s facsimiles of Nicolas Cage. In the spirit of such portraiture comes Alex Gross’ series of science fiction cabinet cards, in which he takes poor dead bastards who kicked it 100+ years ago and repaints them as pop icons. Gross will be presenting a new…

io9 Cyriaque Lamar Jan 24

It’s official: Jorge Garcia is the best thing about Alcatraz

We’ve always liked Jorge Garcia on Lost, but he’s really stretching his acting muscles on his new show, Alcatraz. And somehow he’s managing to act rings around not just Sarah Jones but Sam Neill too. Actually there are two things to love about Alcatraz, especially based on last night’s episode — Garcia’s performance, and the…

io9 Charlie Jane Anders Jan 24

Watch what happens when you punch a ghost in the balls

Last night’s episode of Being Human was one of my all-time favorites. There was ghost-on-ghost violence, a new crazy lady vampire, and Nora finally snapping. It’s about time. With each wispy sad-girl song and cheeseball voice-over this series is really starting to become the ultimate Syfy soap opera. And that’s a good thing! Plus watch…

io9 Meredith Woerner Jan 24

10 Most Undignified Deaths in Science Fiction and Fantasy

Death comes for everyone — but it doesn’t always come in style. Sometimes instead of a heroic death or a cool death, a fictional character will get kind of a crappy death. (Often literally.) Sometimes a beloved character will die in a totally motifying fashion. Here are 10 of the most undigified deaths in science…

Movies Charlie Jane Anders Jan 24

Please let Once Upon A Time’s “Sexy Stranger” be the Big Bad Let’s-Get-Naked Wolf

Last night our favorite cheesy fairy-tale series plundered the vast world of melodramatic make-ups and and break-ups. Even the men were crying! But when Once Upon A Time wasn’t exploring the sad backstory of Snow White and Prince Charming, we got a little extra time with Private Webster, whose fairytale identity has yet to be…

io9 Meredith Woerner Jan 23

Your Spoiler Forecast for 20 Movies and TV Shows

Spoilers. Some people love them, but others regard them as the bane of our existence. The tricky part about spoilers, though? Information wants to be a free-for-all, with people sharing top-secret plot twists in public and on message boards. Avoiding spoilers can require ninja-like stealth and discretion. So to help you out, here’s our patented…

io9 Charlie Jane Anders Jan 23

Bring Back Robotech: Why the Macross saga deserves another shot

Robotech rocked our worlds in the 1980s with its complicated characters and dense mythology. But where’s our Robotech movie? Why can’t we see Rick Hunter and Lisa Hayes on the big screen? Veteran book editor Jen Heddle makes a passionate case for why we need more Robotech now. Top image via Concept Ships. The 1980s…

io9 Jen Heddle Jan 23

This Week’s TV: Could Kiefer Sutherland’s new show look any more ridiculous?

This week on television, Kiefer Sutherland returns to the network that gave him 24. Plus another new TV show debuts, in which video games invade the real world! And Chuck finally races to its conclusion after five years of spy craziness. Plus Brad Dourif is threatening to destroy Miami with a super-volcano! Check out clips…

Television Charlie Jane Anders Jan 23

Never-before-seen original Thundercats concept art shows off a new side to Thundera

A batch of never-before-seen concept art from the original Thundercats series (and voice actor) Jim Meskimen shows us a whole new version of the space kitties from Thundera. Check out the original concept work on such oddball Thundercats characters such as Captain Cracker (and a handful that never made it to the screen). For more…

io9 Meredith Woerner Jan 23

Watch a Snake Man try and eat a Mouse Man on Grimm!

Last week I was a little hard on Grimm. It’s just frustrating seeing fairy tale monster after monster get tossed into the plot grinder. I just don’t feel invested in these characters’ lives, except for the consistently great Pilates Wolf. And although Nick’s Prince Eric fills the incredibly shallow “sometimes it’s just nice to watch…

io9 Meredith Woerner Jan 22

In 1994, the lost Torchwood/Star Trek crossover went down

In 1994, John Barrowman was a children’s television show host with a devil-may-care hairdo. William Shatner was a man with a Fonz jacket and a movie to promote. Together, they unwittingly participated in the Doctor Who/Star Trek team-up Russell T. Davies was always keen to do. [Via Reddit]

io9 Cyriaque Lamar Jan 22

David Bowie’s wife, the Wonder Woman and Black Widow that never was

Before Scarlett Johansson donned Natasha Romanov’s red tresses and Lynda Carter wore ancient Grecian skateboarding gear, Angie Bowie — a.k.a. the model “Jipp Jones,” the then-wife of David Bowie, and mother of Source Code director Duncan Jones — gave both Marvel’s superspy and DC Comics’ Amazonian princess a shot. Neither of her forays into superheroics…

Movies Cyriaque Lamar Jan 21

On Fringe, the Love of Shapeshifters Vs. the Love of Doppelgangers

Once again, John Noble stole an episode of Fringe despite being largely sidelined. He only had a handful of scenes as Walter, and he was mostly stuck at HQ as Walternate. But there’s no doubt who the most magnetic character on this show is. Both Walters revealed something about themselves and made some tough choices,…

io9 Charlie Jane Anders Jan 21

The half-naked werewolf-beating moment that sums up why we love Vampire Diaries

Behold: a totally insane sequence where HRG whacks a mostly naked, chained Tyler with an axe and yells at him to wolf out, or die. It’s hard to believe that this wasn’t automatically the most awesome or insane moment of last night’s Vampire Diaries. And yet. This was another one of those episodes where the…

Television Charlie Jane Anders Jan 20

The Most Ridiculous Science Fiction Plots From Actual Soap Operas

On Touch, math and total bullshit reveal the secrets of the universe

Gorgeous Star Trek: TNG gifs show off the series sexy new Blu-Ray upgrades

Why do we want autistic kids to have superpowers?

Watch 48 years of Doctor Who adventures in less than 10 minutes

Two Beauty and the Beast shows could be on TV at the same time. Yikes.

Artist transforms constipated Victorian photos into flamboyant scifi heroes

It’s official: Jorge Garcia is the best thing about Alcatraz

Watch what happens when you punch a ghost in the balls

10 Most Undignified Deaths in Science Fiction and Fantasy

Please let Once Upon A Time’s “Sexy Stranger” be the Big Bad Let’s-Get-Naked Wolf

Your Spoiler Forecast for 20 Movies and TV Shows

Bring Back Robotech: Why the Macross saga deserves another shot

This Week’s TV: Could Kiefer Sutherland’s new show look any more ridiculous?

Never-before-seen original Thundercats concept art shows off a new side to Thundera

Watch a Snake Man try and eat a Mouse Man on Grimm!

In 1994, the lost Torchwood/Star Trek crossover went down

David Bowie’s wife, the Wonder Woman and Black Widow that never was

On Fringe, the Love of Shapeshifters Vs. the Love of Doppelgangers

The half-naked werewolf-beating moment that sums up why we love Vampire Diaries

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