Have a question about something fantasy-related? Ask the Oracle! (Be sure to include your first name and the city, state, and/or country you are writing from.)
Q: Will Renee O’Connor guest-star on Lucy Lawless’ upcoming series Spartacus: Blood and Sand? — Jan, Albuquerque, NM
A: The Oracle can reveal that she definitely won’t be appearing in the first season.
“Once Lucy’s there, [having Renee join her] spins it all different for a different group of people and so it’s just not appropriate,” Xena creator (and Lucy Lawless’ husband) Rob Tapert tells the Oracle.
Still, Tapert does leave the door open for a possible future guest spot. “That’s this season,” he adds.
Q: What in the world is going on with V? — James, Key West, FL
A: Whatever it is, it’s not good. ABC will still air the first four episodes of the series in November as scheduled (leaving the series on a cliff-hanger), then hold the remaining nine episodes until March. This was a major surprise, because the buzz for the show has been great (and the Oracle has seen the pilot and can confirm that it’s terrific). ABC says they don’t want the show to be interrupted by the Winter Olympics, which the network is also airing. But ABC has long known about the Olympics.
So what gives? The Oracle thinks it’s two things: the network was genuinely unhappy with the direction the show was going. They shut down production for an initial two weeks (and then an additional four weeks), replacing many of the key creative players.
But there also suddenly seems to be renewed skepticism in the industry for sci-fi in general, what with unexpectedly disastrous ratings for the Fox’s returning Dollhouse and Fringe. NBC recently announced that they’re airing a sci-fi thriller called Day One as a four-hour mini-series, and not as the series it was originally planned to be (it’ll be interesting to see how this works out, because two hours of the “series” had been shot before they decided to turn it into a “mini-series” — something that required creative writing to, more or less, wrap-up the storyline after the fourth hour.)
If Day One, the mini-series, does well, a full-fledged series could still be green-lit. But the fact remains, industry folks are openly wondering if sci-fi can maintain the viewership needed to produce these often expensive, effect-laden shows.
The Oracle cautions viewers to expect more “SyFy”-like rebranding of “sci-fi” projects in the years ahead. Already Flash Forward, whose numbers are also down, is being sold as more of an “action-drama” than as the science fiction series it actually is.
Q: What is the air-speed velocity of an unladen swallow? — HolyGrailFan, Prince Edward Island
A: Oh, you’re proud of that one, aren’t you? And you think the Oracle doesn’t know, don’t you? Well, the Oracle knows all: the velocity is eleven meters per second, or 24 miles an hour.
How do I know this? Somebody figured it out.
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Have a question about something fantasy-related? Ask the Oracle! (Be sure to include your first name and the city, state, and/or country you are writing from.)
