WayneLigon
Adventurer
From AICN, FilmFreak, and other sources:
NYPD 2069
Steven Bochco, the creator/producer behind the cop genre-defining "Hill Street Blues" and "NYPD Blue," will bring "NYPD 2069" to Fox for the 2003-2004 season. The story focuses on New York City Detective Alex Franco, who is investigating the murder of a millionaire named Harlan Kroger’s wife in the year 2003. Det. Franco quickly deduces that the husband is the murderer, but before he can make his case he is run down in the street by a speeding van. The last thing he sees is Kroger turn and walk away from the scene. The detective’s distraught wife is told that her husband is a vegetable and makes the decision to remove him from life-support. However, he keeps breathing on his own. The doctor tells her that there is a secret government project that cryogenically freezes fallen members of the NYPD and FDNY and that he could be brought back to life in about ten years due to advances in nano-technology.
Sixty-six years later, Alex Franco awakens with a new prosthetic arm and the stunning realization that his wife is dead and that his son is a 77 year-old vegetable (due to a viral outbreak that killed 300,000 in the year 2039 that was most likely terrorism). More incredulously, his murderer is now 99 years old, but with the benefits of money and scientific advancements has the mind and body of a 50 year-old man. He is given a new identity as Alex Bohlander and is assigned to his old precinct, where he will work alongside his grandson Paul Franco.
What follows is the classic fish-out-of-water story. Detective Franco must adjust to a world he knows little about without giving away his secret (the secret government project was a failure, with him as the one unknown and illegal success, and was terminated). New York City is now devoid of vehicles, except for government use. Despite the population of New York being 15 million, it looks like the streets are abandoned. Most of the city has been segregated into rich gated areas (“Chelsea Gardens”) with their own private police force. Very few people ever venture outside. The skies are filled with buildings much taller than the standard skyscraper and there are holographic billboards and “police drones” floating around monitoring the citizens’ every move.
Police work has changed dramatically and Bohlander, as he is now known, must adjust accordingly. Weapons are now mostly laser and microwave technology, although he is allowed to carry a nine-millimeter pistol. Police all wear the latest technology. The glasses that they wear can show all pertinent information on any suspect, give on the spot and instant lie detector tests, and allow a judge to render real-time decisions. A suspect can be found guilty and terminated right in the field.
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There are a number of interesting new sci-fi projects this year. One of the network dicta, in fact, must have been to deal with sci-fi crime, because both Fox and NBC have future crime dramas in the works. Steven Bochco's 2069, written by Bochco with Nick Wooten and Matt Olmstead, deals with a present-day police detective who is wounded, frozen and awakened in the future.
The NBC project, which deals with a team of futuristic police officers (no refugees from our era, thank you), is called Future Tense, and is written by Javier Grillo Marxuach (formerly of seaQuest DSV, Charmed and The Chronicle).
Then there is the future law drama, Century City, from Ed Zuckerman (Law and Order), which tackles the moral and ethical issues we and our children will be facing a generation from now.
Kamelot is the futuristic adventures of a young King Arthur type set in a post-apocalypse world. Wes Craven and Marianne Maddelana produce, with writers Ron Milbauer and Terri Hughes. This one is for UPN.
UPN also has Weapon X, also known as Tech, the adventures of a lowly computer geek for the National Security Agency who becomes—well, a sort of superhero. The script is by Silvio Horta, who scripted the feature Urban Legends, and developed the late SCI FI Channel series The Chronicle.
A third UPN sci-fi project—do you think the network is going to miss Buffy?—is Shadow Walkers, the adventures of a married couple of scientists and their brilliant, quirky children. Writer-producers here are Dan Angel and Billy Brown.
Lifetime has 1-800-Missing, a supernatural series based on the novel 1-800-Where R U, by Meg Cabot. This one, like Wonder Falls, might be airing this summer.
For those of you who, like me, enjoy quirky shows (like Northern Exposure or even Eerie, Indiana), there is Wonder Falls from Fox. This series deals with a young woman in Niagara Falls. Wonder—formerly known as Maid of the Mist—has already been picked up for 13 episodes to air this summer, a cunning strategy by Fox to avoid having promising new programs (can you say John Doe?) murdered by the World Series.
Wonder was created by writer Bryan Fuller (who also created Showtime's upcoming Dead Like Me) and director Todd Holland.
My personal favorite is Newtown, the bizarre adventures of a typical American family that moves to a very unique city. The script for this UPN series is by Craig Silverstein, veteran of Invisible Man and The Dead Zone.
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Other SciFi Channel articles call 'Newtown' 'Newton'. basic premise: That pilot tells the story of a family that moves to a new town, which also happens to be the testing site for an array of high-tech gadgetry.
NYPD 2069
Steven Bochco, the creator/producer behind the cop genre-defining "Hill Street Blues" and "NYPD Blue," will bring "NYPD 2069" to Fox for the 2003-2004 season. The story focuses on New York City Detective Alex Franco, who is investigating the murder of a millionaire named Harlan Kroger’s wife in the year 2003. Det. Franco quickly deduces that the husband is the murderer, but before he can make his case he is run down in the street by a speeding van. The last thing he sees is Kroger turn and walk away from the scene. The detective’s distraught wife is told that her husband is a vegetable and makes the decision to remove him from life-support. However, he keeps breathing on his own. The doctor tells her that there is a secret government project that cryogenically freezes fallen members of the NYPD and FDNY and that he could be brought back to life in about ten years due to advances in nano-technology.
Sixty-six years later, Alex Franco awakens with a new prosthetic arm and the stunning realization that his wife is dead and that his son is a 77 year-old vegetable (due to a viral outbreak that killed 300,000 in the year 2039 that was most likely terrorism). More incredulously, his murderer is now 99 years old, but with the benefits of money and scientific advancements has the mind and body of a 50 year-old man. He is given a new identity as Alex Bohlander and is assigned to his old precinct, where he will work alongside his grandson Paul Franco.
What follows is the classic fish-out-of-water story. Detective Franco must adjust to a world he knows little about without giving away his secret (the secret government project was a failure, with him as the one unknown and illegal success, and was terminated). New York City is now devoid of vehicles, except for government use. Despite the population of New York being 15 million, it looks like the streets are abandoned. Most of the city has been segregated into rich gated areas (“Chelsea Gardens”) with their own private police force. Very few people ever venture outside. The skies are filled with buildings much taller than the standard skyscraper and there are holographic billboards and “police drones” floating around monitoring the citizens’ every move.
Police work has changed dramatically and Bohlander, as he is now known, must adjust accordingly. Weapons are now mostly laser and microwave technology, although he is allowed to carry a nine-millimeter pistol. Police all wear the latest technology. The glasses that they wear can show all pertinent information on any suspect, give on the spot and instant lie detector tests, and allow a judge to render real-time decisions. A suspect can be found guilty and terminated right in the field.
============
There are a number of interesting new sci-fi projects this year. One of the network dicta, in fact, must have been to deal with sci-fi crime, because both Fox and NBC have future crime dramas in the works. Steven Bochco's 2069, written by Bochco with Nick Wooten and Matt Olmstead, deals with a present-day police detective who is wounded, frozen and awakened in the future.
The NBC project, which deals with a team of futuristic police officers (no refugees from our era, thank you), is called Future Tense, and is written by Javier Grillo Marxuach (formerly of seaQuest DSV, Charmed and The Chronicle).
Then there is the future law drama, Century City, from Ed Zuckerman (Law and Order), which tackles the moral and ethical issues we and our children will be facing a generation from now.
Kamelot is the futuristic adventures of a young King Arthur type set in a post-apocalypse world. Wes Craven and Marianne Maddelana produce, with writers Ron Milbauer and Terri Hughes. This one is for UPN.
UPN also has Weapon X, also known as Tech, the adventures of a lowly computer geek for the National Security Agency who becomes—well, a sort of superhero. The script is by Silvio Horta, who scripted the feature Urban Legends, and developed the late SCI FI Channel series The Chronicle.
A third UPN sci-fi project—do you think the network is going to miss Buffy?—is Shadow Walkers, the adventures of a married couple of scientists and their brilliant, quirky children. Writer-producers here are Dan Angel and Billy Brown.
Lifetime has 1-800-Missing, a supernatural series based on the novel 1-800-Where R U, by Meg Cabot. This one, like Wonder Falls, might be airing this summer.
For those of you who, like me, enjoy quirky shows (like Northern Exposure or even Eerie, Indiana), there is Wonder Falls from Fox. This series deals with a young woman in Niagara Falls. Wonder—formerly known as Maid of the Mist—has already been picked up for 13 episodes to air this summer, a cunning strategy by Fox to avoid having promising new programs (can you say John Doe?) murdered by the World Series.
Wonder was created by writer Bryan Fuller (who also created Showtime's upcoming Dead Like Me) and director Todd Holland.
My personal favorite is Newtown, the bizarre adventures of a typical American family that moves to a very unique city. The script for this UPN series is by Craig Silverstein, veteran of Invisible Man and The Dead Zone.
===
Other SciFi Channel articles call 'Newtown' 'Newton'. basic premise: That pilot tells the story of a family that moves to a new town, which also happens to be the testing site for an array of high-tech gadgetry.