It will, however, be up against the West Wing, which doesn't seem terribly good news..

I'm a little dissappointed that they're cancelling sci-fi shows left, right and centre these days.

I've only seen the first couple of eps of birds of prey and I think it had nearly as much promise as Buffy did in the first couple of eps. I think the networks are all after the same viewing figures that Buffy had at its peak from the get go or the show gets canned

I personally don't see Angel lasting much longer, but then that's just cos I can't believe folks are still enjoying it like the first season. Having said that I'm a few eps behind, and the promised return to the Wolfram and Hart story arc might be keeping the figures up

Top Sci-Fi show for me at the moment is Smallvile, I can't stop watching that one I think it might be because the whole world knows that there's something BIG on the horizon, it's just when it'll be and what it'll be...

Exactly Mon, they don't seem to realise that all the really sucessful series took a while to gather momentum, for the cast and crew to really gel together and create that screen chemistry that pulls in the ratings.

It seems like they're only in it for the quick buck, and that's very sad.

The list of cancelled shows is heaping up, and sometimes I really fear for the genre.

There are even mumblings that Smallville could be under threat, due to conflicts of interest with the possible upcoming film taking a different route.

Quite why the networks think that we are unable to keep track of different storylines (or if you're technical, "universes" I'll never know..

I really love Smallville, the back story behind the characters is building up, and there is definately the feeling that the whole thing is going to blow-up into something *huge* soon, *if* the network doesn't throw a hissy-fit and cancel it in the meantime..

Smallville is the most popular show the WB has right now. The ratings this season have been fantastic, and the show is still gaining new viewers. I've been wrong about these things before, but I just don't see the WB cancelling Smallville anytime soon.

Do you mean season 2 of Smallville? If so, how long has it been on?

Alan: Smallville season 2 has been running for 11 weeks now in US/Canada

Sandia: Yeah, but it's not WB's decision as they don't own the superman trademarks, it's the new movie that could be causing the problem for Smallville. They want to take it away from the traditional durection, and they don't want Smallville confusing the matter, Smallville could find it's license simply won't be renewed.

I *really* hope it doesn't happen, but there have been enough rumblings to concern a good few people, after all no smoke without fire and all that.

---

by Stoo
Sandia: Yeah, but it's not WB's decision as they don't own the superman trademarks, it's the new movie that could be causing the problem for Smallville. They want to take it away from the traditional durection, and they don't want Smallville confusing the matter, Smallville could find it's license simply won't be renewed.

---

I had no idea all that was going on. I mean, could they be that stupid? Oh, forgive me. Lost my head for a minute. We are talking about Hollywood types. Of course they could be that stupid.

By the way, in what kind of new directink are they thinking of taking Superman? Can't begin to imagine what that's all about.

Well what I've heard is that a few years ago, Superman (blue tights red cape, yellow "S" guy) was redesigned as a comic book series "Superman reborn" I think it was called.

He had a shiny blue and white suit, no cape and so on, and the character itself was more sinister and the comic book a lot darker. Kinda like Frank Miller's "Dark Knight" was to the mainstream Batman comics of the time.

I've heard a long time ago that this is the format the next movie would be taking. I beleive Nicholas Cage was tipped to star.

Not sure I'm liking this new Superman idea. Sounds like a completely different character. It also sounds a bit risky to mess with the franchise. And Nicholas Cage? Interesting casting. But, I'm not sure I'd go out of my way to see that movie.

Yeah, I really don't understand it, the franchise is already well established with the whole Clark Kent in Smallville etc story, it sounds *really* dumb to kill off a highly rated show just to give a very dodgy movie plot a try.

I'd rather they wait until Smallville is further through the story, then do a movie tie-in type thing

I can remember ten years ago when gritty realism was in and no sci-fi/fantasy shows were being made apart from the Next Gen, so perhaps we've hit the top of the wave and we're coming down the other side now. We're in a situation where we have a few long-running shows which are starting to wind down, and these will always attract imitators- remember how 'X-Files' spawned the likes of 'Dark Skies' and so on? It's a little worrying when there's no obvious candidate to take over, but when everybody's trying to follow the money rather than come up with their own ideas, some of the imitators are bound to fall by the wayside.

To an extent, the problem with both 'Birds of Prey' and 'Smallville' will always be that the network and the production company don't have complete creative control- DC have comics to bring out and they don't want their continuity being mucked up by TV series if they can avoid it. The thing with 'Angel' is that it's built around a couple of characters who were initially thought of as semi-disposable characters in 'Buffy', and there's only so much you can analyse them and push them.

All I can say is that we have to hope that the people making the decisions learn the right lessons from the balance sheets, fan mail and protests (when they make the wrong decisions). Although it may sound good, the last thing we really need is studio execs thinking "Buffy is popular, Buffy makes money, let's make Buffy forever".

In SFX this month the Director of the upcoming Superman movie states that he will be returning to the original mythology. I can't remember exact details though, so will check and post the quote for you when I get home. Unless anyone else has this month's SFX lying about!

Well I was 'cross' to say the least when I heard the rumours about Smallville getting cancelled cos of some stupid comic thing (no offence )!

But to can Birds of Prey as well?? That was looking fab, apart from a few basic flaws that could be forgiven on the understanding that it will make the show better. Lots of eye candy, more femme-superheros Ahhh well.. bring on Dark Angel, that will tide me over until someone ressurects yet *another* comic book hero that hasn't been done yet.