eS ‘Yahoo! TV 10f4 /ftv.yahoo.com/yahoo'gist/yfe...feed~/tv/scif/data/&adf=sf1092498 ye YaxooL vena] __™_ Gistiv ant AOR NTN ii1-) Yahoo! TV Coverage: Feature Story Yahoo! TV Home Fall 1998 Sci-Fi/Fantasy Preview By Frank Lovece It's less Tomorrowland than Fantasyland this fall, as TV's incoming sci-fi/horror/fantasy series trade straight science fiction for more supernatural stuff. Why? Blame a dubious TV-programmer tradition: If one thing becomes a hit, then ten more will all become hits. And gosh, that's why we now have so many hit X-Files clones like Dark Skies and The Visitor, and...well, you get the point. Ironically, last year’s batch of failed sci-fi series (Timecop, Sleepwalkers, the comedy ‘Mego and the hugely hyped The Visitor from Godzilla flopsters Roland Emmerich and Dean Devilin) didn't fare any worse than last year’s failed supernatural series (You Wish and Teen Angel). But since those latter two shows' demises were so low-profile, and since such other shows in that vein, like Touched by an Angel and Sabrina the Teenage Witch, continue to do well, it's not surprising we've now got so many angels, witches, sorcerers, immortals, goth zombies and mythological-figures-other-than-Hercules this, season that we'll have to start raking them up like leaves. So which witch is which? How do you tell The Crow from the The Raven? And what's the Mercy Point of all this? Tune in below. Brimstone FOX, Tuesdays, 9 to 10 p.m, ET Premiere: Oct. 27 Peter Horton's character on thirtysomething died in a bicycling accident. So who knew Horton would come back from to the dead to star in his next series? Could it have beceeeennnnnn...Saian (the devilishly delightful John, Glover)? Horton plays the late NYPD detective Ezekiel Stone—nothing too Biblical there, right?—who after being killed in the line of duty went to Hell for having murdered his wife's rapist. But down in the depths there's been a great escape, and now 113 of Hell's most wanted, all with supernatural powers, are on the lam—and we don't mean the lam of God, either. And so, of course, the Devil casts the first Stone back to Earth, with orders to bring ‘em back alive. Or dead, as the case may be. If Stone succeeds, he's been promised a heavenly reward. If he faiis..oh, he is so dead. As will be the rest of the world. "It was Ezekiel who saw the glorious vision," says Sirach in the Bible's Apocrypha. Hopefully viewers will see some glorious television. Charmed 9/28/98 11:35 AMEee ‘Yahoo! TV http:/tv.yahoo.com/yahoo/gistyfe...feed=/tv/scif/data/&adf=sfT092498 WB, Wednesdays, 9 to 10 p.m. ET Premiere: Oct. 7 Those endearing young Charmed are sisters Prue, Piper and Phoebe Halliwell (Shannen Doherty, Picket Fences' Holly Marie Combs, and Alyssa Milano, who replaced newcomer Lori Rom after the pilot). They're each genetically disposed to a pethaps mutant ability to control transformative energy. ‘They're witches, in other words. Sure, Doherty has been called worse; the actress herself jokes she used a hex to get series executive producer Aaron Spelling to work with her again after Beverly Hills, 90210. But then, TV makes even stranger bedfellows than politics. Last season's Timecop, T.W. King, co-stars as Inspector Andy Tru. Fantasy Island ABC, Saturdays, 9 to 10 p.m. ET Premiere: Sept. 26 This lead-in to ABC's romantic drama Cupid involves another mythological figure conceived of ages ago: Mr. - Roarke (Malcolm McDowell, succeeding the '70s Ricardo Montalban), the Prospero of Fantasy Island. You'd think this ‘would make co-star Madchen Amick the Miranda, but she's instead (literally) the Ariel. Can she magically morph? Well, she's certainly turned us into wolves. The fantasy and slightly sci-fi elements get notched up a bit in this new version of the '70s semi-anthology about genie-like wishes and ironic twists. Helping to trip up the light fantastic on this new exotic isle are concierge Harry (Edward Hibbert), bellhop Cal (Louis Lombardi), and the Scylla and Charybdis of travel agents, Cal and Clia (Picket Fences Emmy-winner Fyvush Finkel and beloved veteran actress Sylvia Sidney, last seen in Mars Attacks!). Mercy Point UPN, Tuesdays, 9 10 10 p.m. ET Premiere: Oct. 6 Forget the midnight shift—these folks work the "mednaut" shift. That's what you're called when you're a medical technician and the ER is in Zero-G. Welcome to Mercy Point, the galaxy's premiere deep-space hospital, where Chief Surgeon Dr. Grote Maxwell (Joe Morton) is a 7 xenobiologist—a specialist in alien lifeforms—and the head nurse (Julia Pennington) is an android, The resident medical expert is none other than Hippocrates himself—a hologram, not a resurrection. The cast includes Maria Del Mar as Dr. Haylen Breslauer, Brian McNamara as Aron "A.J." Jurado and Alexandra Wilson as Dr. Dru Breslauer, as well as Gay ‘Thomas and Jordan Lund. (The pilot, originally titled Nightingale One, was reworked with new sets and new characters.) Seven Days UPN, Wednesdays, 8 to 9 p.m. ET Premiere: Oct. 7 Talk about a "week" premise: Ex-CIA Agent Frank Parker 2of4 9/28/98 11:35 AM‘Yahoo! TV 304 , http:/tv.yahoo.com/yahoo/gist'yfe...feed=/tv/scifi/data/&adf-st1092498 Talk about a "week" premise: Ex-CIA Agent Frank Parker (Jonathan LaPaglia, brother of actor Anthony) is given the means and the mandate to time-trip up to seven days into the past in order to plant cover-up evid...er, that is, to right grave wrongs. The two-hour premiere finds Parker trying to prevent the assassination of the President and Vice President of the United States. (That's easy—just take out Ken Starr. Oh, wait, that was character assassination.) Justina Vail (Highlander) co-stars as Russian scientist (and evident pin- up girl) Olga Vukavitch, who's there to provide (here comes that phrase all TV producers love) sexual tension. The supporting cast includes Don Franklin as Donovan, Norman Lloyd as Isaac Mentor and Nick Searcy as Nate Ramsey. But if Parker goes into the past and changes things, how come they weren't changed already in the "future" where he started from? Ouch! Our brains hurt! ers The Crow: Stairway to Heaven Premiere: Week beginning Monday, Sept. 21 One of two new movie-based fantasy series named after birds (see below), this supernatural smorgasbord isn't a sequel to the 1994 cult-hit The Crow (which had hatched an only semi-related movie sequel with a different character), but a retelling of the story. Make that a re-retelling: The story originated as a comiic-book series by James O'Barr, published sporadically from 1989 to 1992 by the independent publishers Caliber and Tundra, Designed for maximum Goth appeal, the moodily shot Crescent Entertainment-Polygram series offers the late musician Eric Draven (Mark Dacascos), a sensitive zombie in Kiss-like makeup, who with the help of a mystical crow avenges the murders of both himself and his fiancée, Shelly (Sabine Karsenti). We're not sure whose deaths he avenges after he's done. Ironic aside: The movie's Brandon Lee, son of famed martial artist Bruce Lee, was accidentally killed by a prop gun on the film set. This past August 16, the series’ veteran stunt coordinator, Marc Akerstream, tragically died of injuries sustained from explosive debris that had struck him two days earlier during a pyrotechnics effect. Highlander: The Raven Premiere: Week beginning Monday, Sept. 21 He's a handsome ex-cop in this thirties! She's a gorgeous 1,200-year-old thief! Can they find love and romance as she tries to go straight and fight crime with her mortal man? That's the wacky premise behind Rysher Entertainment's serious yet lighthearted supernatural spin-off from the seriously serious Highlander (syndicated, 1992-98). Playboy cover girl and 1982 Miss America Elizabeth Gracen stars as the cat-like cat burglar Amanda a.k.a. The Raven. Paul Johansson (Beverly Hills, 90120) plays her partner, Nick Wolfe. There's lots of swordplay and lightning and real cool rustling sounds when Amanda flourishes her big black- leather duster. Pity poor Nick, though, if the sexual tension (there's that phrase again) ever goes further. Who wants to be compared to guys with names like Alfred the Great? 9/28/98 11:35 AM‘Yahoo! TV hutp:/tv.yahoo.com/yahoo/gistyfe...feed~/tv/scifi/data/&adf=sf1092498 Mortal Kombat Krusades Premiere: Week beginning Monday, Sept. 28 Sure, Hercules and Xena have often faced mortal combat. But now they have to face Mortal Kombat, the live-action series spun off from the two bombastic movies based on the various Mortal Kombat video games. As in the films, good guy Kung Lao and other superheroic masters of martial-arts mayhem defend Earth against the forces of Outworld and their awesome quasi-mystical crap. The New Line-Warner Bros. series has special effects by Threshold Entertainment, the source of the number-one selling game and its movies, toys, CD, stage show, animated series, et al. Much of the filming is done at Splendid China, Florida, a theme park with replicas of famous Chinese locales. Be wamed, however, that it's being released practically in secret: None of the companies involved offers so much as a cast list. Bulletins in Brief UPN begins a weekly slot of sci-fi/fantasy movies under the umbrella title Way Out There beginning Thursday, Oct. 8....the miniseries Invasion Earth runs on the Sci-Fi Channel Sunday, Dec. 6 to Tuesday Dec. 8....Gary Cole stars in Babylon 5: Crusade, the sequel to Babylon 5, starting Jan. 6 on TNT; the TV-movies Babylon 5: River of Souls and Babylon 5: A Call to Arms run Nov. 8 and Jan. 3, respectively... TNT in January also conjures up Witchblade, based on Image Comics' series about a female cop who symbiotically bonds with a powerful mystical gauntlet....The Henson Company's sci-fi kids’ series Brats of the Lost Nebula gets found on WB Oct. 10. The quasi-network begins the future-set animated Batman Beyond on Nov. 14....also in animation, MGM's syndicated Robocop: Alpha Commando debuts in September....the primetime animated sitcom Futurama by Simpsons creator Matt Groening is set as a Fox midseason show.... Jason Connery (son of Sean Connery) and Deborah Moore (daughter of Roger Moore) star in the upcoming Merlin: The Magic Begins, the adventures of Camelot's famed sorcerer in his young days. Copyright © 1998 Yahoo! All Rights Reserved. Copyright © 1998 GIST Communications, Inc.All Rights Reserved. ee logo is a trademark of GIST Communications, Inc. ee our Important Disclaimers and Legal Information. Questions, comments, or suggestions? Send us feedback.