The unlikely duo of Mark Cherry (Desperate Houswives) and Don Mancini (Child's Play - yes I said Child’s Play) are creating this pilot for ABC. No, the series won’t be about Desperate Killer Dolls living on Elm Street. Cherry describes the one-hour SF drama, Kill Switch, as Touched by an Angel meets Quantum Leap. An odd writing combo, with an odd example series amalgam, indeed. I would have personally stayed away from the Touched by an Angel example. I wonder if Tru Calling meets Quantum Leap would work? That is what I think of when I read this description: The series centers on a woman who is executed for killing her daughter's murderer and then enters a type of purgatory. Every episode she finds herself in the body of someone about to be killed. She must figure out who the murderer will be and prevent it from happening.
"Instead of a whodunit, it's a who-will-do-it," Cherry said. The series supposedly will have a tone similar to Desperate Housewives. "The tone isn't exactly like Desperate Housewives" he said. "But it has humor and wit in it. [It] seemed like something in his wheelhouse." I’m not sure how to take this one. This could be really, really campy or interestingly different. I would normally give this a low chance of making it, but Desperate Housewives is big - like Godzilla standing on King Kong’s shoulders big - so ABC will probably take a chance on it. Hmmm…lets give it a 75% chance of being picked up.
Midnighters / Pretty Little Liars
The WB is so pleased with Supernatural’s performance that two new one-hour supernatural dramas are in the works. The WB has ordered scripts for both of them. Pretty Little Liars revolves around four 16-year-old girls whose fifth best friend went missing two years ago. The girls then become haunted by messages that start appearing from her. Midnighters revolves around teens who were born at the stroke of midnight who have gained access to a 25th hour of the day. Both series are being adapted from their Alloy book series published by HarperCollins.
To early to give a prediction on either one of these yet, but I’ll keep my eye on them.
Pen and the Sword / Warehouse 13
Ronald D. Moore (Battlestar Galactica) is developing these two series for NBC and the Scifi Channel. Pen and the Sword, being developed for NBC, is about a young man working in a building that is a portal to a medieval alternate universe. Warehouse 13, being developed for the Scifi Channel, centers on a pair of government officials that are banished to a storage facility in North Dakota in which every item has a supernatural or fantastical backstory.
It is waaaay to early too tell if these will make it, but with Ronald Moore’s success with Battlestar Galactica, I would be surprised if we don’t see one of these soon. I predict a 50% chance.
Skrull Kill Krew
There is little detail on this live action TV project at this time, except that Marvel mentioned it was in the works. I’m not sure who thought about this one. Of all things to pick, this wouldn’t have been my first choice. But, perhaps with a good showrunner, this project could be successful, or at least fun to watch. It could be sort of a funny version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Hmmm..I don’t know about this one.
But for those of you (which are probably many) who have never heard of Skrull Kill Krew here is a run-down on the comic. Skrull Kill Krew was a short lived 1996 Marvel comic book series. The comic book was created by Grant Morrison, Mark Millar, and Steve Yeowall. This comic book focused on a team of humans with the viral affliction Skrullovoria Induced Skrullophobia (SIS). The characters were infected with this virus after eating beef from Skrull alien shape shifters that had been trapped in cow form. Now, they have varying degrees of shape shifting powers and can recognize a Skrull no matter what form it takes. Unfortunately, the virus also damages their brains causing progressive episodes of neurological disease. The Skrull Kill Krew would travel across America, killing any Skrull shapeshifters they find in an attempt to stop them from taking over the Earth. Members include: Ryder (leader of the Krew with the ability to animate his dreadlocks and teleport), Catwalk (Kimberly Dee - a former supermodel with the power to take the form of a feline-human hybrid), Dice (Rob Fortune - surfer dude from LA with the power to transform his hands into various types of weapons), Moonstomp (a skinhead white supremacist from the UK whose skin is turning black), and Riot (Heidi Sladkin - a punk-rock chick that can turn into a giant insectoid creature).
It is still in the very early stages, but for now I have to predict a cloudy 30% chance of making it to TV.
Torchwood
The BBC has ordered 13 episodes for a spinoff series of its new Doctor Who series that will air on the BBC Three network. The new series, from Russell T. Davies, is called Torchwood—an anagram of "Doctor Who"—and will feature the character of Captain Jack (John Barrowman), a swashbuckling spacefarer who was introduced last season on Doctor Who. The series is set in modern-day Cardiff. Torchwood will launch in the Christmas special and second season of Doctor Who. The series will center on Torchwood, a renegade group of investigators. No stories will cross over between Torchwood and Doctor Who, the BBC said. "Torchwood is a British sci-fi paranoid thriller, a cop show with a sense of humor," Davies said in a statement. "It's dark, wild and sexy. It's The X-Files meets This Life. It's a stand-alone series for adult audiences, which will have its own unique identity. I have just begun working on the scripts with a team of writers and cannot wait to see the results."
I, like so many of my American friends, have not seen much of the new Doctor Who yet. Darn you DVD Regions! I’m eager to see it and hope to pick up the DVD in February. Sigh, but until then, what can I say? British SF is apparently taking an upturn with the success of Doctor Who, now this spin-off, and the recently announced The Prisoner remake. I look forward to hearing more about Torchwood, though, and chances are good it will do well. But I doubt it will ever make it to America’s (sometimes nationally egotistical) airwaves.
Hmmm…perhaps the British could remake Blake’s 7. Imagine that airing back to back with Battlestar Galactica.
The End...
That's all of my 2006 predictions for now. How many of these shows do you think will actually make it? Goodbye, paalom, hasta la vista, lehit, bai bai, tchau...later.
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