Intro - Anniversaries 2023

2023/08/30

Since a few years I also highlight the anniversaries of the various SCI-FI TV shows. I am not writing blogs for every Anniversary but for the ones I feel have something to say. I have created this blog for 6 TV shows which have an anniversary in 2023. I already wrote several anniversary blogs earlier this year, and for Blake's 7's 45th Anniversary I asked someone else (The Preacher711) to write it. Below these 6 blogs you'll find all anniversaries of 2023, at least, the ones I could think of, does not mean I am certain I am complete. But here you'll see the shows I found, and if the TV show is in green, a link to the actual Anniversary blog, it means I already wrote a blog for it! For Battlestar Galactica 1978 & 2003 there will be a solo blog coming, same for SeaQuest DSV, Almost Human and The X-Files.

7 Days (1998 - 2023) - 25 Years Anniversary

I can’t believe it, 25 years already, on October 7^th, since 7 Days first aired UPN, same as Jake 2.0 and Star Trek Voyager and Enterprise.

I think I have watched it for the first time during its original airing back in 1998-2001 and about 8 or 9 years later, in 2009 or so, I was able to see it again in rerun somewhere. When it aired for the first time I probably missed a lot of episodes also. But it always kinda stuck with me. The time travel device looks similar to the device used on TV show “Timeless”, but as the title says, it was only possible to go back in time 7 days and it always was a 1 persons job. I always like time travel shows such as this one. Timeless, Journeyman, 12 Monkeys  and so on, something about the this concept always makes me wonder, what if, it can be mindboggling.

It had a good cast, Jonathan LaPaglia as Frank Parker, Don Franklin as Craig Donovan, Justina Vail as Dr. Olga Vukavitch, Nick Searcy as Nathan Ramsey, Alan Scarfe as Dr. Bradley Talmadge, Norman Lloyd as Dr. Isaac Mentnor, Sam Whipple as Dr. John Ballard and Kevin Christy as Andrew 'Hooter'Owsley. Original cast member Sam Whipple, who played Dr. John Ballard, left the series four episodes into the third season, due to a cancer diagnosis that was eventually fatal. He was replaced by Kevin Christy as young physics prodigy Andrew "Hooter" Owsley for the rest of the season.

Apparently there was some tension between the cast, Justina Vail, who played Dr. Olga Vukavitch quit before the end of the third season but she did agree to film additional scenes to wrap-up her characters arc. This tension among the cast and the low ratings made UPN decide not to renew 7 Days for a 4th season.

Rewatch / physical media

Late last year I was finally able to purchase 7 Days on DVD, released by company VEI from the United States. For a long time it was unavailable to me via Amazon because I live outside of the USA and on websites like EBAY the asking price was out of this world. It is a nice release, good picture quality overall and a nice compact package also. Here you can see an “unboxing blog”. I was finally able to rewatch the complete series, I had a good time watching it again, thought Frank Parker and Olga were the Mulder and Scully of 7 Days. If you are interested, here you can find my rewatch blogs for 7 Days.

Final Word:

If you get a chance to rewatch this again, do it, it is fun, it has some interesting characters, entertaining stories. There is no story-arc, it is just episodic TV but it was a nice ride after 14 years again to revisit these episodes. I am happy to finally have the complete series into my collection! 

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (2013 - 2023) - 10 Years Anniversary

In 2023 it has already been 10 years since the launch of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., it was born out of the first Marvel’s Avengers movie where Phil Coulson (lead character in the series) dies. Of course in science fiction no one ever dies, although Phil Coulson did! Anyway Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. started in September 2013 and it was set against the popular NCIS. With the success of the Avengers movie I was convinced it would blow NCIS out of the water! Nothing was further from the truth, NCIS did not only win the hour, it won with ease from this new ABC show. As the weeks continued this did not change, NCIS kept being way more popular and this I really didn’t understand, NCIS was in its 9^th or 10^th season, it is a procedural crime drama, it still runs! How can people keep watching this after 9, 10 or even 20 seasons? Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., was a new show, granted it had to find its footing first but this happened gradually over the course of the first season.

The ratings were okay, but that was all, okay. A good thing was that Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. was being watched on a later time by many, within 7 days (Live-plus-7) of the original airdate and this also counted as ratings in a different way. In that aspect Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. became a hit that way and also overseas it was a much bigger hit apparently than in North America itself. So although the show was almost never in the top of the ratings, it did become a hit and it even lasted 7 seasons. Although the last two seasons contained only 13 episodes each, still you cannot say it bombed, it has been a success!

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. usually did a season arc storyline, which meant almost no filler episodes, almost every episode was a little movie of the week. It was SCI-FI, no doubt, but in the later seasons it even went to outer-space, season (s) set in space, this for me was the icing on the cake. It also had a number of exciting guest stars like Samuel Jackson as Nick Fury, Haley Atwell as Peggy Carter, Cobie Smulders as Maria Hill, Jamie Alexander as Lady Sif from the Marvel Universe. It is handy when your TV show is in that Marvel Universe so that stuff like that can happen!

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. has definitely become one of my favorite shows of the last decade, it had a terrific cast, exciting episodes, good storylines and well, some good SCI-FI. In terms of my favorite character, well that is difficult, I always tend to say the “captain” of the show, in this case Agent Coulson (Clark Gregg) and indeed, he is definitely a favorite, but I have two favorite characters, Fitz & Simmons (Ian De Caestecker & Elizabeth Henstridge). I have been loving those two from the very start and that has never wavered. But as I said, they are a terrific cast.

Availability:

Well Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is currently on Disney+, all 7 seasons, if you, like me, prefer physical media, well in Japan all 7 seasons have been released on Blu-ray, in the UK only the first 5 seasons have been released and I don’t expect these last two seasons appear on short notice to be honest. You can think, well than I will buy them on DVD but there is also no DVD’s available of the last two seasons at this point, perhaps in Japan, but nowhere else anyway.

Final Word:

This show has so much re-watch value, as I described it earlier, each week was a mini-movie, so much happened each episode, it was such a fun ride! I rewatched Agents of SHIELD 2-3 years ago, it was very entertaining, fun, action, drama, emotions, it has everything. If I have to choose between watching Agents of Shield or NCIS, I don’t have to think very long….goodbye NCIS! Happy anniversary to Agents of SHIELD, a show to stay, to be remembered by us SCI-FI fans!

Fringe (2008 - 2023) - 15 Years Anniversary

Fringe was released in the fall of 2008, the same year as The Eleventh Hour (US) with Rufus Sewell. In Fringe’s first season I did compare them a bit. Fringe ran five seasons while The Eleventh Hour was cancelled after one season. Fringe is best to compared with The X-Files I guess, a modern day X-files. The first season it was a bit more episodic but with season two it became more and more story-arc driven. A very complex show, I remember in 2020/2021 I wrote 3 rewatch blogs about the last three seasons and I remember having a difficult time because it just was so damned complex.

Complex, but also very exciting, big stories, a mini movie every week. The show aired on FOX and while the first season had more than okay ratings, each follow-up season this eroded very quickly and each season it was the question if it got renewed and because FOX had a very bad track record regarding SCI-FI shows, as a fan you expected FOX to pull the plug. But thankfully in this case they didn’t and they even renewed it for season 5, giving it a 13-episode season order so the story could be solved satisfactory.

It had a fantastic cast, which made the stories even more convincing, Joshua Jackson (Dawson’s Creek), John Noble (24, Sleepy Hollow, Elementary, Lord of the Rings, much more), Anna Torv (Mindhunter, The Last of Us), Jasika Nicole (Scandal, The Good Doctor), Lance Reddick (Bosch, The Black List, Intelligence, John Wick) and Blair Brown (Person of Interest, Forever, Orange is the new Black). Beside this regular cast the were numerous great recurring cast members like Leonard Nimoy for instance, Kirk Acevedo, Jared Harris and Seth Gabel. My favorite character can only be Dr. Walter Bishop, the way John Noble portrays this character, simply amazing. He steals every scene he is in, no doubt about that.

I did never understand why Fringe had such a hard time keeping viewers from week to week, year to year. For me, this was an open and shut case, Fringe was one of the best shows out there, in that period, still is one of my favorite shows, rewatched it in 2020/2021 and I still was amazed by it. Sure it has its occasional filler episode but all in all it was a movie each week.

Alternate Universe:

The Alternate Universe story-arc is, for me, by far the best piece of Fringe, it was so well set-up, it created so many more wonderful storylines than had Fringe remained a clone-like X-Files tv series, this was the icing on the cake and is the reason why Fringe has so much rewatch value. It enriched the show, the actors got to play their characters on many different levels, which made it probably more fun for them and great television for the viewer!

Season 5:

I’ve read on more than one occasion that the fifth and last season isn’t so loved as the first 4 seasons. I myself really did enjoy the fifth season, thought it was quite original, something fresh after 4 seasons. For me season 5 is just as good as the earlier seasons. I also really was taken by Peter Bishop and Olivia Dunham’s daughter, Etta, Henrietta Bishop. She was not only beautiful but I also thought she was a wonderful actress and I really was shocked when she was killed, really didn’t like the fact that she died. Of course this was all relative in the end.

Final Word:

One of the few times that FOX did not intervene by cancelling another great SCI-FI show. I am not sure how of why they left it “alive” every following season but I am thankful they did. A great show to have on Blu-ray also, all five season in the best possible quality. If you haven’t watched it again since its original run, I suggest you pick it up again, to celebrate its 15^th Anniversary!

Jake 2.0 (2003 - 2023) - 20 Years Anniversary

In 2003 this show aired for the first time on September 10^th on UPN. It was Christopher Gorham’s second big gig because before this he played Neil Taggert, the son of Chuck Taggert on the SCI-FI TV show Odyssey 5. When I first watched this show, Jake 2.0, I saw it wasn’t perfect, it wasn’t original, think “Six Million Dollar Man”, but I immediately was a fan of the show. A normal person, Jake Foley, a computer technician, who works for the N.S.A, secretly longing for a job in the field. During a battle, a vial containing an experimental serum explodes, covering Jake with shrapnel. But it turns out that the serum is actually nano mites, microscopic machines that heal his injuries and alter his body.

It had a good cast, all experienced actors, Philip Anthony-Rodriguez (as Kyle Duarte), Judith Scott ( as Lou Beckett), Keegan Connor Tracy (as Diane Hughes), Marina Black (as Sarah Carter) and Miranda Frigon (as Susan Carver) and also guest spots from Linda Park (Battlestar Galactica 2003 & Hawaii 5.0) and Tyler Labine (Reaper, Revolution). In the early part of the one and only season, like most SCI-FI series, it has to develop, introduce the characters, explain the situation etc. During the 2^nd part of the season, it got better, it got more story-arc driven, it got exciting, bigger stakes.

Unfortunately viewers quickly moved away from this TV show, perhaps also due to the fact it aired on UPN which wasn’t available for a big chuck of the American viewers. Jake 2.0 got cancelled on January 14^th 2004, 13 episodes aired at that time and UPN did not bother to air the remaining 3 episodes at first, because there were 16 episodes produced at that time. These last 3 episodes are probably the best of the whole series!

Physical Media:

Very early on there was talk of a DVD release, unfortunately for 15+ years it remained just talking, Jake 2.0 never materialized on DVD, till a few years ago it finally got a release on DVD by company VEI. For a long time it was not clear to me if the last 3 episodes were also on it, but recently I could confirm it was the case, it has all 16 episodes on this boxset. Pity is, when you live outside North America, it is rather expensive to purchase it.

Final Word:

Although Jake 2.0 was cancelled after one short season, Chuck (2007) which was basically same premise, got 5 seasons. I love both shows and as I am writing this, if Jake 2.0 is on this webpage, should Chuck also be on it? Anyways, it as been 20 years already and Christopher Gorham is a big TV star nowadays, shame his first two shows, Odyssey 5 and Jake 2.0, weren’t a hit. But if Odyssey 5 would have been a hit with 3 or 4 seasons, Gorham of course wouldn’t have been on Jake!

Sanctuary (2008 - 2023) - 15 Years Anniversary

Strictly taken, Sanctuary celebrated its 15^th Anniversary in 2022 instead of 2023, because Sanctuary began as a web series in 2007. But because Sanctuary proved to be popular, it was decided to create a TV show in 2008. They used the webseries episodes from 2007 in the first episodes of the actual TV series. So the web series celebrates its 15^th anniversary in 2022, the actual TV show on October 3^rd  2023.

It probably leans a bit more to fantasy but there definitely are SCI-FI elements in this TV show. Amanda Tapping, who played Sam Carter on Stargate SG-1, is Dr. Helen Magnus, she is over 274 years old and she is blessed with apparent eternal youth because of a vampire blood-based serum. She is founder and elected leader of the Sanctuary network. Amanda Tapping was for me the main reason to watch this show, she’s  a great actor and I loved her Stargate SG-1. Robin Dunne is Dr. Will Zimmerman, I always thought he was kind of a Daniel Jackson kinda type. Emilie Ullerup is Helen’s daughter, Ashley Magnus, unfortunately she was mostly there in the first season, also in the first 3 episodes of season two, but not so much in the follow-up seasons, only flashbacks. Here you can read reasons/assumptions why Emilie Ullerup’s character Ashley was killed off essentially.

Ryan Robbins is Henry Foss, Henry Foss is an abnormal member of Dr. Helen Magnus' team in the Old City Sanctuary. A self-proclaimed geek, Henry is both a weapons designer and a brilliant computer scientist, not only supplying new gear to the team for missions, but regularly maintaining the Sanctuary's defenses, and keeping them working just as well. Robbins is also know from Stargate and Falling Skies and much more other SCI-FI roles. Christopher Heyerdahl has two roles, Bigfoot and John Druitt, Bigfoot is very close with Helen and Druitt, at one point he is considered dangerous but later on he becomes an ally, more or less. He also is a lot older, he is born in 1857. Last one main character, Kate Freelander (Agam Darshi), essentially a replacement for Emilie’s character Ashley.

Stargate influence:

Martin Wood directed 27 out of the 59 episodes, Damian Kindler, creator of Sanctuary, is also known from Stargate SG-1, Peter Deluise also directed 4 episodes, besides Amanda Tapping obviously, a lot of actors who also were in Stargate, also show up here, so yes you can say Sanctuary is heavily influenced by Stargate, which in my book is a good thing.

The CGI, Blue and Green screen:

Well that is for me a major disappointment, it is so obvious it is all fake surroundings most of the time, as a viewer it is very difficult to be swept away in this other universe, you are constantly being reminded that it is just a TV show, same goes for the V 2009 version. I understand it has to do with budgets, but for me, it has to be believable to really get into it, not constantly being reminded that it is all fake because of the obvious blue and green screen background.

Blu-ray:

In North America, Australia and Germany Sanctuary has been released on Blu-ray some time ago already. I can confirm that unfortunately the German set does not have any subtitles on it, it does have an English soundtrack, but no subs whatsoever.

Final Word:

There have been rumors the last few years about a reboot, I wrote about this in my “Upcoming” blog in December 2020. It has been a while now so I don’t know if this is still in the cards, would be nice though, but hopefully with much better special effects and hopefully Amanda Tapping would return, although they would have to find a “reason” for her to be aging. But as I said, not really confident that this is still viable to be honest…hope I am going to be proved wrong! Happy 15^th Anniversary Sanctuary!

Tru Calling (2003 - 2023) - 20 Years Anniversary

It is debatable if Tru Calling indeed belongs on this website, I understand if some of you, or most of you disagree. At one point a few years back I started thinking about the concept of this show. Tru does go back in time…sort of, so in essence, time-travel and my second reasoning, when you check out the Wikipedia of this TV show you see that had the show continued beyond this shortened second season, the creators were playing with the thought of parallel dimensions (checked this today again but has been removed by someone, see history). So for me this were two reasons why I added this show to this website and it will remain here.

Eliza Dushku, who of course plays Tru Davies, had just come off Buffy, The Vampire Slayer and it was rumored that Joss Whedon was ready to do a spin-off about Eliza’s character on Buffy, Faith. In fact it was offered to her but she turned it down in favor of this series. Apparently she didn’t want to be branded as Faith to immediately go and play the same character in a new show for a number of years.

The show first aired on October 30^th, 2003, on the FOX network! The first seasons consists of 20 episodes. FOX wanted to cancel the show after its first season but from midway, towards the end of the first season the ratings improved and thus was Tru Calling granted another season. Although the number of episodes was cut in half, from 13 to 6 episodes. On the last day of filming the cast and crew were told that the show was cancelled. It almost took a year before the 2^nd season started airing on the FOX network. In favor of Point Pleasant, Tru Davies was pulled and the final episode first aired on Sci-fi channel in the US on January 21^st, 2008!

Tru Calling was cancelled in favor of Point Pleasant. FOX thought that this show would work better following the O.C. than Tru Calling, but Point Pleasant was cancelled before it finished its 13 episodes.

Tru is a twenty-two-year-old medical school student who works in the city morgue and is able to repeat the same day when she is asked by a victim of a crime when he or she is deceased. The dead victim asks Tru: help me. When this happens the day starts to repeat again where Tru gets the chance to save the victim. Nobody but her seems to remember the repeat, but there is another person with the same kind of “powers”.

Apparently Eliza wasn’t really happy with her role, especially in the first 6 episodes, she was promised her character would be a strong women, a role model for young women but she felt her character wasn’t that at all. I am not sure if she thought this improved over the course of the rest of the first season and the second season. It is possible that with 20 years later, she looks back on it differently. What I thought of the first batch of episodes that Tru was always running to something, all episodes she was filmed running, that got tired quickly but thankfully this changed of the course of the first season. The addition of Jason Priestley’s character Jack Harper made the show much more interesting.

Final Word:

Although this show never really got the chance it deserved, I think I am happy that circumstances made this show possible because Eliza did not want to do the Faith show. Especially with the arrival of Jack Harper, this show becomes better instantly and I would have really liked to see a bigger second season or even a third season. This is all we have, 26 episodes, I guess it will have to do. Happy 20^th Anniversary to Tru Calling, it holds up today, check it out, see for yourself, but give it a chance, don’t give up too soon!

Anniversaries 2023 - Overview