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Doyle & Houdini Team Up for New Syfy Show

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Now this sounds like fun.

Historical figures Arthur Conan Doyle and Harry Houdini are joining forces for a new Syfy drama called Among the Spirits, in which the duo will solve mysteries in the 1920s. In the show, which is based on a graphic novel by Steve Valentine and Paul Chart, the two team up with a female cop to solve bizarre crimes and supernatural-appearing events with the help of steampunk technology (similar to Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes).

Syfy describes the potential show as “a turn of the century Fringe,” but it sounds more like The X-Files to me, with Doyle and Houdini filling out the archetypal roles of skeptic and believer. The show has been put into development at Syfy, which is no guarantee of going into production, but it sure seems like a no-brainer.

Valentine and Chart will write the show and produce with Daniel J. Frey.

Galactica’s New Adama

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Now that Caprica has gone (sniff, sniff) to make way for a different spinoff of the flagship show, titled Battlestar Galactica: Blood & Chrome, is ramping up for the start of production. Like the first two Galactica-related shows on Syfy, this one also follows the story of both the Cylons’ struggle against the 12 Colonies, as well as zeroing in on the life of William Adama.

Memorably played by Edward James Olmos in Battlestar Galactica, the character was also introduced briefly as a young child at the end of prequel Caprica (after we spent some time getting to know his dad, Joseph). British actor Luke Pasqualino (picturedhas been cast as 20-something William Adama for Blood & Chrome, where the character is fresh out of the Academy and assigned as a rookie fighter pilot to — what else? — the Galactica.

Pasqualino is primarily known for his starring role on the U.K. version of Skins (you know, that racy MTV soap that everyone’s up in arms about). Also just cast for the new show: character actor Ben Cotton as Adama’s superior officer Coker. The two men fly together on a dilapidated Raptor and butt heads at first, but eventually forge a bond during a routine mission gone awry. Industry insiders familiar with the pilot’s script suggest that it pits the young Adama in a “cocky pilot” role with some similarities to Kara “Starbuck” Thrace.

Battlestar Galactica: Blood & Chrome is picks up during the tenth year of the first war against the Cylons. The show’s first season is expected to debut in early 2012.

Battlestar Galactica: Blood and Chrome Concept Art

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Syfy’s Blastr.com has posted the very first concept art from Battlestar Galactica: Blood and Chrome, which is currently in development for the network. The four pieces of art — by illustrator Peter Rubin — show some truly tantalizing scenes that depict just how action-packed this series will be.

There’s a shot of an older-model Raptor tearing through Galactica‘s hangar bay, which itself is being blasted to bits. Love the “teeth” on the Raptor!

Another image depicts a mechanical Cylon that’s taken on the shape of a human female, with just a few hints of skin on its exoskeleton. The female Cylon is standing in a rather Six-like pose, don’t you think?

This particularly intriguing illustration shows a snowy battlescape with a Dune-ish giant snake on the attack, which Blastr says is called a “Cython.”

Finally, there’s an entirely new model of Cylon Centurion.

I haven’t been terribly excited about this Galactica spinoff… until now. If the show can actually be made at this level of production values, while taking us deeper into the history of the Cylon/Human war… then okay, I’m in.

Canceled: Stargate Universe

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Syfy has officially pulled the plug on the third (and last?) Stargate series, Stargate Universe. Currently only half of the show’s second season has aired, and in typical Syfy fashion, the network will burn off the final 10 episodes sometime next Spring.

Following lower-than-hoped-for ratings, Syfy opted not to renew the show for a third season.

Maybe Syfy would get better ratings if they’d quit jerking fans around with their shows’ air schedules. Viewers are often left scratching their heads when Syfy’s original programs find their seasons halved, with the second half of a season assigned an unspecified air date that’s months or even a year or more (*cough* Battlestar Galactica) after the first half was shown.

1st Look at Syfy’s Americanized ‘Being Human’

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Syfy has started airing their first commercial for Being Human that shows actual footage from the show. With a 13-episode first season premiering in January, Being Human is an American remake of a BBC show that follows a vampire, a werewolf, and a ghost who live as roommates while they attempt to lead double lives as normal humans.

The video quality’s not great, but it’s still worth checking out.