Geek in Review: Mars attacks? Uninterrupted ‘Stargate’ and more ‘Battlestar’

Here’s a roundup of nerdy happenings over the last week or so …

>> After Battlestar Galactica ends its run in 2009, fans won’t have to wait for the spinoff Caprica to get some prequel action. A two-hour movie, directed by star Edward James Olmos (Adama), will go back to the days following the holocaust and deal with how the Cylons didn’t account for survivors. It will focus on the Cylon characters of Cavill (Dean Stockwell), Anders (Michael Trucco) and Tyrol (Aaron Douglas), all pictured below:

>> Late last week I blogged that the Internet was on fire with rumors of an impending announcement concerning the possibility of life on Mars. Then NASA hit the microphones to clear the air and say they believe the Phoenix Mars lander had discovered perchlorate in Martian soil, and that this could be interpreted as both positive and negative indications that the Red Planet can support life. It’s all very confusing but it’s fascinating anyway. Stay tuned. And watch the skies ….

>> Rather than take a long break until January as they usually do, voyages through the Stargate will continue throughout the fall after a weeklong midseason break. Sci Fi Channel wants Stargate Atlantis to lead into former series star Amanda Tapping’s new, original venture, Sanctuary, which is set to premiere Oct. 3. The two-hour pilot, based on a web series of the same name, will be followed the next week by Atlantis and a regular hourlong Sanctuary episode.

>> Comic-Con has been over for a while, but the annual nerdgasm in San Diego continues to reverberate around the blogosphere. If you missed it, you can still bask in the afterglow with Tribune blogger Scott Kirchhofer’s dispatches and photos. It was Scott’s first time at Comic-Con, but he made the pilgrimage with seasoned veterans so he knew where to go and what to do.