Summer is around the corner. For some, that means cookouts with friends, catching a baseball game or heading to the beach. The last thing you may be thinking about when temperatures rise, is television.
Cable networks are hoping they can convince you to tune in, and they are focusing heavily on the scifi genre. There will be alien invasions, extraordinary abilities, mystical objects and vampires coming to the small screen. We have rounded up show summaries and video previews, where available, for the genre shows vieing for your loyalty.
BATTLESTAR GALACTICA - BBCAmerica
Network Premiere June 11 @ 10pm EST/PT
Courtesy of BBCAmerica
A gripping saga of humanity’s last remnants and their struggle to find a new home while fleeing from their deadly Cylon enemies.
Faced with an un-winnable battle against a deadly enemy, they are forced to flee under the protection of their one remaining warship, the outdated Battlestar Galactica. Pursued by the Cylons, some of whom have now taken human form, Commander Adama (Olmos) and President Roslin (McDonnell) lead these last remaining humans in search of a new home – a planet called Earth.
OUTCASTS – BBCAmerica
Series Premiere June 18, 2011 @ 9pm EST/PT
Courtesy of BBCAmerica
With Earth no longer habitable, a group of courageous pioneers have traveled to another planet to begin again. They’ve built the town of Forthaven on Carpathia and have the unique opportunity of creating a new and better future on another planet. Led by President Tate (Cunningham) and his core team of Stella (Norris), Cass (Daniel Mays, The Bank Job, Atonement) and Fleur (Amy Manson, Being Human), they’re determined to run the civilization in a democratic way, but some tough decisions in the past may prove divisive.
FALLING SKIES – TNT
Series Premiere June 19, 2011 @ 9pm EST/PT
In the devastating wake of an all-out invasion of the planet by an alien military force, ordinary people must do extraordinary things to survive in TNT‘s powerful new series, Falling Skies. The show stars Noah Wyle (ER) and comes to TNT from DreamWorks Television and executive producer Steven Spielberg.
TRUE BLOOD – HBO
Series Returns June 26, 2011 @ 9pm EST
Thanks to a Japanese scientist’s invention of synthetic blood, vampires have progressed from legendary monsters to fellow citizens overnight. And while humans have been safely removed from the menu, many remain apprehensive about these creatures “coming out of the coffin.”
TORCHWOOD: MIRACLE DAY - Starz
Premieres July 8, 2011 @ 10pm EST
- Courtesy of Starz Entertainment, LLC
One day, nobody dies. All across the world, nobody dies. And then the next day, and the next, and the next, people keep aging — they get hurt and sick — but they never die. The result: a population boom, overnight.
With all the extra people, resources are finite. It’s said that in four month’s time, the human race will cease to be viable. But this can’t be a natural event – someone’s got to be behind it. It’s a race against time as C.I.A. agent Rex Matheson (Mehki Phifer)investigates a global conspiracy. The answers lie within an old, secret British institute. As Rex keeps asking “What is Torchwood?”, he’s drawn into a world of adventure, and a threat to change what it means to be human, forever.
EUREKA – Syfy
Series Return July 11, 2011 @ 8/7pm C
With the help of Albert Einstein and other trusted advisors, President Harry S. Truman commissioned a top-secret residential development in a remote area of the Pacific Northwest, one that would serve to protect and nurture America’s most valuable intellectual resources. There our nation’s greatest thinkers, the über-geniuses working on the next era of scientific achievement, would be able to live and work in a supportive environment.
With the population’s unique talents, troubled psyches and limitless resources, small-town concerns have a way of becoming big-time problems.
WAREHOUSE 13 – Syfy
Series Return July 11, 2011 @ 9/8pm C
After saving the life of the President, two Secret Service agents find themselves abruptly transferred to Warehouse 13 — a massive, top-secret storage facility in windswept South Dakota that houses every strange artifact, mysterious relic, fantastical object and supernatural souvenir ever collected by the U.S. government. The Warehouse’s caretaker Artie (Saul Rubinek) charges Pete (Eddie McClintock) and Myka (Joanne Kelly) with chasing down reports of supernatural and paranormal activity in search of new objects to cache at the Warehouse, as well as helping him to control the warehouse, itself.
ALPHAS – Syfy
Series Premieres July 11, 2011 @ 10/9pm C
In the series, five ordinary people become one extraordinary team of Alphas — people with the power to stretch the capabilities of the human mind due to brain anomalies that have imbued them with hyper-normal mental and physical abilities.
HAVEN – Syfy
Series Returns July 15, 2011 @ 10/9pm C
Based on the novella The Colorado Kid from renowned author Stephen King. The series follows the shrewd and confident FBI agent Audrey Parker (Rose) who has a lost past, and arrives in the small town of Haven, Maine on a routine case. Before long, her natural curiosity lands her in the epicenter of activity in this curious enclave, which turns out to be a longtime refuge for people that are affected by a range of supernatural afflictions.
As the townspeople’s dormant abilities begin to express themselves, Audrey helps keep these forces at bay while discovering the many secrets of Haven — including one surrounding her own surprising connections to this extraordinary place.
