I've just finished watching Red Dwarf's latest, the Back to Earth special on DVD (the Director's Cut) and while it doesn't live up to the glory days before co-creator Rob Grant left and Doug Naylor took over solo, it's a worthy continuation of the series that ended with Season 8 in 1999. If you're a fan of Ridley Scott's Blade Runner, you might want to take a look too, you'll already be familiar with a lot of the scenes and dialogue (more on that later).

Three months ago, following severe financial losses, British television broadcaster ITV announced that it was axing science fiction series Primeval after three successful seasons. This came as a shock to most as the series had continued to rate highly in the UK and had acquired a very strong following internationally, especially in the US where it was aired by BBC America. Yesterday Variety reported that a ground breaking deal to share costs had been hammered out between ITV, BBC America and pay channel operator UKTV which would see this superb series return to our screens. Under the new funding arrangements BBC Worldwide will replace ITV as the prime investor, and BBC America and Germany's ProSieben will become co-production partners.

So why the mixed feelings? Watching the season over again is a sad reminder that the axe has fallen well before its time on Primeval and we may never know how the climactic Season 3 cliff-hanger is resolved! [Update: Primeval saved from extinction!]

You've probably all heard that David Tennant is finishing up as the tenth Doctor Who all too soon, to be replaced by 26 year old Matt Smith, the youngest actor to play the Doctor in the BBC’s iconic series. David Tennant will make his final appearance in the last of the television specials that are scheduled to be aired in 2009 and early 2010. But how will it all come to pass? Who or what will cause David Tennant to regenerate?

MGM has released a remastered version of the pilot for the first Stargate television series, Stargate SG-1, entitled Stargate SG-1: Children of the Gods The Final Cut.

The original Stargate movie, directed by Roland Emmerich in 1994 and starring Kurt Russell and James Spader, has spawned a remarkable number of television series, including Stargate SG-1, Stargate Infinity, Stargate Atlantis and the upcoming Stargate Universe, due for release in October this year. For those unfamiliar with the premise, the Stargate is an alien artefact, a ring-shaped device that creates a wormhole in space allowing travel to similar devices scattered in a network across the galaxy. The US government keeps the existence of the Stargate a secret and in the first series a special team led by Jack O'Neill (Richard Dean Anderson) must deal with the alien visitations and the new worlds the Stargate opens to them.

In what could be interpreted as an act of atonement for its first attempt at adapting Philip José Farmer’s Riverworld novels for the small screen, the Sci Fi Channel has announced that it is producing a new four hour “movie event” based on the classic science fiction series. According to screen writer Robert Hewitt Wolfe (Andromeda, The Dresden Files), there is a chance that a TV series will follow. For those who missed the 2003 Riverworld pilot, just count yourselves lucky. As adaptations of classic science fiction and fantasy go, only the Sci Fi Channel’s Earthsea mini series surpasses it as an act of literary vandalism.

The science fiction comedy TV series Futurama has been so popular in reruns and DVD sales, especially recent direct to DVD movies, that 20th Century Fox has revived the show for 26 new half hour episodes. Set in New New York at the turn of the 31st century, Futurama was originally broadcast from 28 March 1999 to 10 August 2003.

There’s been no word on the sequel we reported a couple of months back, but just when we thought there was nothing left to say about Blade Runner, director Ridley Scott announces a new Blade Runner web based series that will be released under a Creative Commons license.

[Feel free to insert your own expletive, I did and believe me it wasn’t Frak!]. If those who claim to be in the know are to be believed, it’s now official and Fox has once again axed a quality science fiction series: Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles will not be returning for a third series.

Ok, for now let it be Frak!

If you’re feeling nostalgic for the original Star Trek series after watching the first meeting of Kirk and Spock in J. J. Abrams recent Star Trek reboot, you’re in luck. The original Star Trek series, first broadcast in 1966, has made its way onto blu-ray, enhanced beyond belief. The attention to detail in this restoration and upgrade is stunning. Original 35 mm episode film prints were scanned into a computer frame-by-frame, cleaned to remove cracks and blemishes, the colours brightened, and new special effects added.