Things have been a little quiet on my blog lately, but I’ve been hard at work on various reviews for Outpost Skaro, so I thought I’d just include a batch of links, for anyone who’s interested 
Doctor Who
Big Finish 140 – A Death in the Family
Chuck
Chuck Versus The Suitcase
Chuck Versus The Cubic Z
Chuck Versus The Coup D’Etat
Nikita
Episode 2
Episode 3
Episode 5
Leverage
The Maltese Falcon Job
Just another quick update with some reviews I’ve done for Outpost Skaro. I’ve been fortunate enough to get some of the first episodes for LivingTV’s new show Nikita, and season 4 of Chuck, so I’ve got reviews for the first episodes of both up now for your reading pleasure
Look for reviews for the second episodes next weekend, and with two new Green Lantern books out this week, and Ubuntu 10.10 released I should get some stuff up here as well
Fellow Blogger and regular commenter Pie Man 70′s done his own TV awards, and it was such a good idea, I thought I’d rip it off. It helps that I agree with a lot of his choices, thus making it easier to cut and paste most of this post 
You can check out his awards here: The Pie Man Television Awards 2009.
The only real rule I’m sticking to is that its focusing on cult/sci-fi/fantasy type TV shows. The time frame is fairly vague, but pretty much anything in the last 12 months.
Best New Series
There’s been a load of good new shows over the last year. Sadly most of them are now axed thanks to the recession and the usual keenness of US networks to axe anything that doesn’t have brilliant ratings from the get-go. I was personally very tempted to give this to My Own Worst Enemy, which is currently airing on Sci-Fi UK and is ruddy brilliant. However, its still halfway through its run, so in fairness I should give it to a show that’s shown all its episodes. And this is the first award where I’m in complete agreement with Pie Man 70.
The Middleman
Its difficult to understate just how much I enjoyed this series, and how gutted I was when it was axed. Apparently ABC completely failed to realise what a potential hit they had on their hands and neglected to advertise it. Which has been a real shame, as every review I’ve seen of the series raves about it. Gloriously silly, great sense of humour and visuals and a great cast. Grab the DVDs, buy it on iTunes, pray Sci-Fi UK buy the rights, but see this show.
Best Returning Series
I’ve slightly tweaked the name of this award from PieMan’s version just for clarity. There were loads of really good returning series this year. Heroes followed up its slightly lackluster volume 2 with a great volume 3, but volume 4 didn’t click nearly as well for me. Battlestar Galactica headed towards its finale with confidence, Prison Break delivered a brilliant payoff in its finale that was a real treat for fans following the show from the beginning, Dexter continues to be superb television, delivering a great story every year and Lost continued to be must-watch TV, revelling in its own backstory. However for me, the ultimate winner has to be:
Chuck
Despite barely escaping cancellation this year, season 2 delivered on everything that made season 1 so popular. A brilliant sense of humour, great action sequences, a stellar cast and most of all, heart. Be it Chuck dealing with the carnage his double life causes to those closest to him, the Buymore staff dealing with their latest evil deputy manager, you really care about all these characters. Cap it off with some superb guest stars, and really, its amazing this show had to struggle for a third season.
Most Improved Series,
This one’s very tough. Partly due to so many shows getting the axe these days after their first season. Galactica was a serious contender for me. I felt that season 3 seemed to lack focus, and I wasn’t hugely impressed with the first ten episodes of season 4. However the final ten episodes turned everything around and reminded me how much I loved this show. Ashes to Ashes also improved a lot over its not-brilliant first season.
However for me the winner has to be:
Torchwood
Granted, the time period this is covering is pretty vague, but for me it works for either series 2 or especially series 3. See the numerous other blog posts about how good series 3 was, but even series 2 was a marked improvement over a ropey first season, dispensing with the almost adolescent aspects in its approach to being the “adult” Who spinoff (a feeling they nailed with the third series), giving us a great new character in Captain John and delivering a great storyarc with Owen’s “death” leading up to his and Tosh’s final sacrifice.
Most gratuitous T&A in a series.
Dollhouse is probably the only other contender in this award, but even it doesn’t match up to the winner:
Knight Rider
Really the only choice. Its arguably one of the main areas in which the show was misjudged and thankfully calmed down as the show went on. They were a bit too fond of the gratuitous numbers of women in bikinis in the first half of the season.
The Andromeda WTF is this still running award.
Like Pie Man, I can’t really give this award to anything. As shows have been axed left, right and centre. There’s probably a soap opera or something that it applies to, but there’s nothing particularly on my radar for this. Dollhouse is a potential contender for this next year unless it really blows me away, and Heroes is dangerously close to going off the bubble unless they manage to recapture some of that series 1 magic.
This is going on a bit long, so I think I’ll split it up a bit. Look for parts 2 and 3 in the near future.
Just wanted to link to this great fan-made music video tribute to Chuck. Really enjoyed this one
As many reading the blog will know, I’m a big fan of NBC’s Chuck. So I was suitably intrigued when I noticed a listing for Chuck #1 in Diamond Comcs’ DC section of its new releases this week.
Actually being released under the Wildstorm label, this was a really good first issue. The creative team have captured the look and voices of the show well I thought. The bit with Casey explaining he speaks “Gun-in-mouth” was great.
I’m looking forward to the rest of this mini and seeing where it goes. The idea of Fulcrum having their own version of the Intersect is an interesting one.
Don’t know if anyone else is watching this, but I’ve seen the first two episodes and its great. Well worth a look
