The Sun and The Guardian both report that James Nesbitt, star of Cold Feet and Jekyll, may become the next Doctor Who when David Tennant leaves at the end of Doctor Who's fifth season. The 42 year old would be the first Irish Doctor Who.

Apparently James Nesbitt is a good friend of Doctor Who writer Steven Moffat, who may replace Head Writer Russell T. Davies. Like Tennant, Davies also leaves the show at the end of Season 5. Steven Moffat created both Cold Feet and Jekyll.

It's only a rumour at this stage, but it's a good choice if true. While I like David Tennant, lately the episodes have become more and more flippant. If his past acting work is anything to go by, Nesbitt would give the show a darker, more eccentric edge.

In the last show of the current series of The Graham Norton Show, James Nesbitt was told that bookies are offering odds of 6-1 on him being the next Doctor Who.

"I know nothing about that," he told Graham. "I wouldn't put a lot of money on it."

He also added "I would find it very hard to follow David Tennant [but] my daughters would worship me forever because they're obsessed by it".

According to the BBC's official website, Doctor Who will return with three specials starring David Tennant in 2009. The full length fifth series will be transmitted in 2010.

BBC's Jekyll stars James Nesbitt 

Bad news for fans of Battlestar Galactica: the rest of Season 4 will not be shown until early 2009. At a special screening in Los Angeles Executive Producer Ron Moore said the remaining Season 4 episodes will be shown in the first quarter of next year.

Apparently the delay is due to post production work on the series, as well as production and scheduling competition from new shows and sports programs at the end of this year.

"Realistically,” Moore said, “there's no way to get back on the air faster."

"We don't have a locked in schedule yet," said NBC Universal executive Bonnie Hammer. "We just know that it's always better to leave the fans just titillated a little bit, but it will definitely be back."

This is annoying news. The midseason finale and the episodes leading up to it have been excellent. What has happened on Earth? Who is the final cylon? And most importantly, how will they wrap up the series?

I guess we’ll have to wait and see. The final episodes of Season 4 are being filmed now.

Early previews of Battlestar Galactica Season 4

Battlestar Galactica ends with Season 4

Battlestar Galactica spin-off series Caprica in 2010?

This is the best news I’ve heard all year. The satellite channel Sky One has commissioned two hour-long pilots of the classic BBC science fiction television series Blake’s 7.

"The time is ripe for a revival of a show that represents the best traditions of the genre, not to mention one of the best-loved and most successful dramas of all time," said Elaine Pyke, commissioning editor for drama at Sky One, Two and Three.

Originally created by Terry Nation, the man responsible for the Daleks in Doctor Who, Blake’s 7 ran for four years between 1978 and 1981 and had a massive cult following.

Who can forget the cynical but charming computer wizard Avon (Paul Darrow), the boxed super computer Orac, and the cowardly safe cracker Villa (Michael Keating) who was pretty much scared of everything.

Blake’s 7 had it all: space adventure, cardboard sets, crazy costumes, and plenty of great science fiction moments.

With the first series of Ashes to Ashes rating so well, the BBC has commissioned a second series to air on BBC One in 2009. Made by Kudos Film and Television, the fantasy drama has averaged well over 6.5 million viewers per episode. The first episode alone achieved audience figures of more than eight million.

Ashes to Ashes stars DCI Gene Hunt (Philip Glenister) and DI Alex Drake (Keeley Hawes). As in the original series Life on Mars, upon which Ashes to Ashes is based, the main character wakes up in the past after being injured in the present.

DI Drake, a forensic psychologist, is shot in 2008 and wakes up in 1981. Since she has studied Sam Tyler's medical notes, the main character from Life on Mars, she decides she too is in a coma, either a second away from life or a second away from death.

Just as Life on Mars played with the fashion, attitudes and music of the 70s, Ashes to Ashes has an equally entertaining time with the fashion, attitudes and music of the 80s.

"The Eighties have had a real revival over the past few months," said Simon Crawford-Collins, Executive Producer and Head of Drama at Kudos, "Ashes To Ashes seems to have captured the imagination of the nation."

Look out for an evil looking David Bowie style clown and DCI Gene Hunt's manic driving and dramatic posing. Luckily the new show hasn't lost its sense of humour.

While we wait for the fourth and final season of Battlestar Galactica, due to hit US TV screens 4 April, news is out that a 2-hour pilot for a spin off series called Caprica has been green-lit by the SciFi Channel.

"I'm thrilled with the chance to expand on the Galactica world and get deeper into the origins of the story we've been telling," said Battlestar Galactica Executive Producer Ronald D. Moore. "It's also great to have a chance at doing a completely different kind of science fiction series, one that's even more character-oriented and doesn't rely on pyrotechnics."

Caprica is set 50 years before the events in Battlestar Galactica, telling the story of the creation of the Cylons and the lead up to the first Cylon war. In a world not unlike our own, two competing families, the Greystones and the Adamas (I'm guessing this is no coincidence…), are first to achieve startling breakthroughs in robotics, marrying artificial intelligence with mechanical bodies to create living robots.

The SciFi Channel has described the show as "television's first science fiction family saga."

You'll have to wait until April before Battlestar Galactica airs in the US, but in the meantime check out this comprehensive preview on YouTube courtesy of the Canadian TV show HypaSpace.

You can also watch a short but intriguing teaser trailer here, with shadows crossing the faces of the major characters as each face blends in with the next.

There's a longer official Battlestar Galactica Season 4 trailer here too.

The plot for the fourth and final season will apparently revolve around finding earth, revealing the last of the "final five" Cylons, and tying up loose ends regarding Starbuck and Baltar.

When asked whether it had been decided who the fifth Cylon would be, Ronald D. Moore, Battlestar Galactica's executive producer, said “It’s definitely been decided who that one is.” He added, “I can’t say when, but we’re certainly not waiting until the last episode to tell you who it is."

Here's a video showing the cast and crew discussing Battlestar's final season at a press conference in August 2007.

The BBC has released an extended trailer for Torchwood Season 2. You can watch the trailer on YouTube here.

The clip shows James Marsters, best known as Spike in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, along with Freema Agyeman, who played Martha in Doctor Who's third season. Playing the same Martha character, Freema Agyman will become a regular cast member, while James Marsters will make a number of guest appearances as an alien life form.

Veteran actor Richard Briers, best know for his work in the BBC's The Good Life, also guest stars as a reclusive millionaire, the keeper of alien secrets.

Torchwood was created by Russell T. Davies, the man responsible for Doctor Who's recent revival. Davies has said there will be some large-scale changes in Season 2.

The Season 2 trailer looks great. Mixing detective work, science fiction, horror, with the occasional flashes of sex and dark humour, Torchwood is a welcome antidote to the more cliché ridden science fiction television studios have been producing lately.

Set in Cardiff, Wales, Torchwood is a darker, more enigmatic offspring than its parent show Doctor Who, with a dash of sex and an edgier outlook. Filming of Season 2 quite literally started with a bang. The BBC was forced to issue an apology for sparking terror fears after an explosion scared passers by and sent a huge pall of smoke over Cardiff's city centre. The explosion was staged in an old courtroom building next to the Millennium Stadium.

Police and BBC warnings on local radio hours before had not been enough.

"We had informed neighbouring businesses but could not tell everyone who might be in the city centre," said a BBC spokesman. "We apologise if anyone was frightened."

Created by Russell T. Davies, the man responsible for Doctor Who's recent renaissance, Torchwood's well-received first season introduced a raft of disparate characters and strong narrative themes that focused on morality, relationships and, of course, weird alien happenings. The title itself is an anagram of "Doctor Who" and the apparently indestructible lead character Jack Harkness (John Barrowman) first appeared in the revitalised Doctor Who's first season.

Saturn Awards are presented annually by The Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films to honour the best works in science fiction, fantasy and horror in film, television and home video. The Academy is a US based non-profit organisation and awards are voted on by members of the Academy.

Winners for this and the Saturn Film Awards tend to be American - possibly because members of the Academy are predominantly American, though more likely because most SF, Fantasy and Horror is produced in America!

Not sure how CSI: Crime Scene Investigation ended up a winner in 2003...

It’s sad, but true, Season 4 of Battlestar Galactica will definitely be its last. Producers David Eick and Ronald Moore have stated that they wanted to end the show on their own terms. They also revealed that Battlestar was always meant to have a definite beginning, middle and end, unlike other science fiction shows and dramas in the US, which don't usually have storylines that extend beyond individual episodes.

Although it will be sad to see it go, at least we won’t have to suffer watching a show’s premise stretched way beyond its use by date.

The first episode of Battlestar’s last season will air in the US in early 2008.

Battlestar back for season 4

A sequel to Life on Mars titled Ashes to Ashes is in production with the action moving to the 1980s.

Life on Mars tells the story of a modern detective, Sam Tyler, played by John Simms, who is struck by a car and ends up in the 1970s. Instead of being part of a modern police department, he is stuck in his own past and strangely working as a DI in a ‘70s police department instead. Is he in a coma, has he gone mad, or has he really jumped back in time?

As a straightforward drama Life on Mars would have made a great gritty detective series, but with elements of fantasy and psychology thrown in, it was one of the most original and entertaining shows to come out of the UK in years.

While the main character Sam Tyler from the original show won’t make an appearance, Philip Glenister, a co-star in the original show returns as DCI Gene Hunt. The new show will star a modern policewoman from the 21st century, a psychological profiler, who is injured trying to rescue her daughter and ends up in 1981.

Ashes to Ashes has already started filming, and should be broadcast in the UK next year. If you haven’t watched the two seasons of the original series, it’s well worth a look.

It's about time someone updated the Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde story for the 21^st century. Created by Jeffrey Taylor, the BBC's new television fantasy drama Jekyll stars James Nesbitt, best know as the lead in the popular UK television series Cold Feet.

Nesbitt plays Tom Jackman, a modern-day descendant of Dr. Jekyll, who has recently begun his unfortunate transformations. He also plays Dr Jekyll's alter ego Mr Hyde.

Jekyll is more a sequel than an adaptation of the Robert Louis Stevenson novel, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, with the writers adding the possibility that Tom Jackman may have been cloned from the original Dr Jekyll, and a secret American organisation is tracking his movements.

Unable to control his alter ego, Tom Jackman separates from his wife, locks himself away in a rented apartment, and hires an assistant to manage the transformations. Each personality has its own lifestyle and secrets, which the assistant keeps for both of them.

If it can sustain the momentum and wit of its early episodes, it should be worth the investment.

Jekyll was first broadcast on BBC One on 16 June 2007.

The US SciFi channel has renewed Battlestar Galactica for a fourth season.

Production will commence in Vancouver, Canada, in July and premiere January 2008.

If the final episode of Season 3 is anything to go by, Season 4 could well see the end of the series. They've put themselves in a tricky position with the loss of a major character and revealing the identities of the "final five" Cylon models.  Let's hope they keep up the high quality scripts and impressive production values of the previous seasons.

The new season will run for the usual 22 episodes.

It's no easy thing to do something original with the legend of Robin Hood, and it is perhaps a measure of the scarcity of originality that movie and TV studios keep on doing something with it. Frequently. It's no surprise, of course. When there's nothing original to say, the same old things keep on being repeated. Every five or six years it seems there is another attempt to breathe life into the Robin Hood legend on film, whether in a movie or a TV series, with the results falling neatly into three categories: the Good, the Bad and the very, very - Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.