The TV Addict 

TheTVaddict.com is thrilled to have teamed up with our friends at SyFy Portal to give you a weekly round up of some of the biggest news in nerd SCI FI entertainment.

For some inexplicable reason, HEROES has cast another former Trek legend. This time, bringing on Nichelle Nichols for five or six episodes. Which begs the obvious question — does anyone else think it’s far too early in HEROES run to be going to the ’stunt casting’ well this many times? How are they going to revitalize the show in season seven? [click for more]

SCI FI has announced their fall schedule and four of the five Cylon Gods agree — it rocks thanks to a November BATTLESTAR GALACTICA mini-series, and the upcoming holiday movie event TIN MAN. [click for more]

JERI RYAN’S former stalker has been arrested again. We have a feeling, Jeri Ryan’s new co-star Sebastian SHARK won’t be defending him. [click for more]

Executive producer Joel Silver promises that his new show MOONLIGHT will not be ANGEL 2.0. That sigh you heard, thousands of really disappointed ANGEL fans. [click for more from SyFy] or check out the original article at classic-horror.com

And finally, In spite of predominantly negative reviews, SCI FI’s latest series FLASH GORDON pulled in decent ratings. Having seen the second and third episode, this TV Addict can’t help but hope fans give the show another look. The show’s second and third episodes are a vast improvement over the first. With the writers realizing that FLASH GORDON is supposed to be light-hearted escapist fun, not serious and dull.

Why not brighten up the start of another dreary work week with FREE TV DOWNLOADS courtesy of our friends at iTunes. Scared off by FLASH GORDON’s mixed-to-negative reviews? Judge for yourself by downloading the pilot for free. Wish you jumped on board THE NINE bandwagon when the show premiered last fall (it really might have helped keep the show on the air!). The pilot’s now available as a free download by clicking here. And finally, while not technically ‘free’, iTunes is having a SIZZLING SUMMER SALE, offering some of the TV Addict’s favorite shows at a great discount. Click here to check out seasons of BATTLESTAR GALACTICA, THE OFFICE, ANDY BARKER P.I., SAVED BY THE BELL and more at great low prices.

The most unfortunate thing about SCI FI’s re-imagined take on FLASH GORDON isn’t that it fails to live up to the network’s previous re-imagination — BATTLESTAR GALACTICA. Rather, it’s that the show’s title makes it far too easy a target for negative headlines. Here’s a few of our favorites:

‘Flash Gordon’ Missing the Flash — SyFy Portal

‘Flash Gordon’ not out of this world — Newsday

‘Flash Gordon’ Fizzles — The Tampa Tribute

You’ll pan this ‘Flash’ as soon as you see it — USA Today

Lost in Space — NY Post

Super zero: ‘Flash Gordon’ likely to pass quicker than speed of light — Boston Herald

Poor writing leaves ‘Flash Gordon’ grounded — Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Proving yet again the art of subtlety is lost on The Hollywood Reporter comes, “Flash Gordon” remake a little ridiculous. With the award for least flashy headline going to Cleveland.com’s ‘The Plain Dealer’. Who gives us, ‘Sci Fi Channel brings back Flash Gordon.’ (well duh!) That said, the newspaper does have the word ‘plain’ in the title. We probably shouldn’t have expected anything flashy.

For theTVaddict.com’s recent take on FLASH GORDON, click here.

By: Amrie Cunningham (My Take on TV)

The summer of interviews continued this week as I got some time to chat with the disarmingly beautiful and incredibly down to earth Karen Cliche (pronounced CLEESH), who plays Baylin on Sci-Fi’s newest action adventure series, FLASH GORDON. She had so much great stuff to say about her cast, her character, her support for women’s issues, and her love for a certain classic TV show.

Amrie: Hey Karen – we’re so excited about the premiere of Flash Gordon!
Karen: There’s a lot of excitement buzzing. It’s so cool.

What about Flash Gordon made you want about to be a part of it? Had you seen a script?
Actually I knew nothing about it. I had heard about it through the years, but I didn’t know much about Flash Gordon in general. I wasn’t a huge fan but then my agent brought it up. I knew one of the head writers, James Thorpe, who had written on a couple of the series I had done. He had put in a good word for me so when the role came out, when I auditioned, I just loved it…a lot of the roles I’ve played, I’ve played a man, I’ve played a mutant, I’ve played a vampire….when the opportunity came to play the alien, the physicality to her, she was a tough girl, strong woman. That’s just ideal for me. I really wanted to play her. I thought, what a challenge to play an alien bounty hunter from Mongo. Who gets the opportunity to play this? I was very excited about it.

What does the viewer need to know about Baylin going in?
In the pilot, I come in the last 10-15 minutes. You’re introduced to Baylin in a very in your face, strong kind of way. She comes to Earth on an assignment from Ming to get Aura back to Mongo. She doesn’t care about Earth. She ends up stuck on Earth and befriends Flash and becomes part of their team and so she’s just a really strong independent, unapologetically strong woman. It’s how she is, not because it’s a put on or she tries to be. It’s just because that’s the way that she is. Her parents died when she was very young. She’s been on her own for a long time. She’s been self sufficient her whole life. When she is confident and strong and independent, she’s not trying to be. That’s the way she’s known how to survive all her live. When you’re introduced to Baylin, it’s like a kick ass tough girl and then throughout the episode, you get to feel a little more about her. She sort of has a sense of humor, I think. Maybe she’s funny because of her mannerisms. She doesn’t really know how to be politically correct. You learn more about her throughout. We just shot an episode, 8 or 9, you really find out what it is that happened to her in her life. I think people will really appreciate finding that out about her and it will give her a whole other level. She doesn’t breakdown. It doesn’t destroy her. You just understand her a little bit more. It just makes you love her even more. People are going to love her because she’s just this strong kick ass woman, but then once you learn a little more about her life story, it adds a whole other element to her.

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Couch Tater: When it comes to the Sci Fi channel, I’m willing to cut them a whole lotta slack. After all, they’ve given me hours upon hours of excellent programming in the form of FARSCAPE, BATTLESTAR GALACTICA and EUREKA. And their cheestacular original movies are a major guilty pleasure. But when it comes to the network’s latest offering, FLASH GORDON, I’m afraid they’re eating up a whole lot of my good will toward them. There’s so much wrong with this show that it’s hard to know where to begin, but I’ll start with leading man Eric Johnson. In a way, he’s symbolic of everything those involved with the show did wrong. After all, Johnson was perhaps the most lackluster regular during the early days of SMALLVILLE, where he played Lana-lovin’ footballer Whitney Fordman. Here, Johnson heads up a show that could have been the next SMALLVILLE, but instead plays more like a bad episode of BUCK ROGERS IN THE 25th CENTURY.

theTVaddict: Talk about harsh, Couch Tater! Have the endless summer reruns finally taken their toll? FLASH GORDON is mindless summer fun, and frankly a welcome diversion from the endless horror that is reality TV. That said, if the first episode of FLASH is any indication, the show really needs to find its voice. Is FLASH GORDON going to be a gritty and realistic re-imagination (similar to that of BATTLESTAR GALACTICA)? Or is it taking the same route as the corn-ball cheesefest 80’s movie some of us have come to know and love? I think with a show like this, we really need to give it a few episodes to see where it’s going. Because as of episode one, I’m not exactly seeing how this isn’t simply another STARGATE/SLIDERS/QUANTUM LEAP incarnation.

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One of the most exciting aspects of theTVaddict.com’s SCI FI adventure was getting an early peak at FLASH GORDON. First thing I learned — FLASH GORDON is NOT a re-imagination of the CBS action adventure featuring the fastest man on earth! Turns out, FLASH GORDON is SCI FI’S contemporized version of the beloved 1934’s comic strip originally drawn by Alex Raymond. Hey, don’t blame me, I’m theTVaddict, not theCOMICaddict.That said, FLASH GORDON follows the all-new adventures of Flash (Eric Johnson) and his companions, Dale Arden (Gina Holden) and Dr. Hans Zarkov (Jody Racicot). Ordinary people thrust into extraordinary circumstances, they find themselves as Earth’s last line of defense against the forces of the merciless dictator Ming (John Ralston). The video above is the panel discussion from Wednesday’s SCI FI Digital Press Event.