The View from Ballroom 20: Spoilers, News and Fun from Saturday at Comic-Con

Hey, guys, Jen here! I spent Saturday camped out in Ballroom 20 at the San Diego Convention Center, soaking in the geektastic television panels at Comic-Con. Read on for highlights of the Bionic Woman, Heroes and Battlestar Galactica events, including some extra bonus info from the TV Guide panel about the state of sci-fi on television, as well as the Battlestar press conference backstage.

Watch out for spoilers...and for Danny Bonaduce. Yes, you heard me.

BIONIC WOMAN

• Executive producer Jason Smilovic, our new geek-writer crush, on the title of the show: "Bionic Chick didn't clear with legal."
• FYI, there will be no remakes of the Bionic Woman Sasquatch and shampoo brainwashing eps from '70s.
• Per the writer-producers, the real world incorporates many tones, it's only TV and movies that try to pick only one. Bionic wants to be like the real world and have a little of everything.
• They thought a lot about where or if to use the famous bionic sound effect in the new show. Maybe she puts bread in the toaster and pushes the lever. Dundundundun... Or maybe as somebody's ringtone. Now, when the camera zooms into Jamie's body, and you see the bionic anthrocytes pour into her organs, you might hear a familiar sound...

THE CHARACTER

• Cocreator David Eick: This woman is not cut out for this situation; the character has a "Peter Parker ethos." Heroes like Sydney Bristow and Max Guevara knew their s--t, this one's still learning.
• Smilovic: Michelle's Jamie is thrown into deep end of the swimming pool without her waterwings. She's not a Navy SEAL.

BIONIC CHICKS

• Look for an ep focused on the conflict between Sarah Corvis and Jamie Sommers. (Yay!)
• Katee Sackhoff on her character, "the first Bionic Woman": Sarah Corvis loves being evil. The characters I play save me from having to go to therapy. During that fight scene in the pilot, I kept texting my manager, "I hate working with rain towers and stilettos!"
• Katee and Michelle Ryan are well aware of the sexual tension between Jamie Sommers and Sarah.
• According to Eick, Sarah and Jamie develop a "very special" relationship early in the first season. Lesbians! Right? Well, hopefully. Did I mention the boyfriend in Bionic is a total schmuck?
• Balancing Bionic and Battlestar? There are preplanned BSG production hiatuses, and Katee will slot into the Bionic storyline during those. Eick: "Katee just has to do a lot of amphetamines, and she’ll be fine." Okay, he's kidding.

INTERLUDE:   AWESOME
Danny Bonaduce is sitting on the floor behind me. Dude is built like a Sherman tank with red hair.

 

HEROES

• Greg Grunberg is wearing a shirt that says, "Milo is my hero." Masi Oka is wearing a shirt that says, "Hayden is my hero." Jack Coleman is wearing a shirt that says, "I’m just a paper salesman."
• Sendhil Ramamurthy and Greg made out for a while onstage.
• Michelle Ryan of Bionic Woman and Oka of Heroes seem to be two of the sweetest people in or around television. Maybe someone at NBC could introduce them?
• Hayden Panettiere is a beauty, inside and out. But you knew that.
• Reason number one (of many, no doubt) to love new regular Dania Ramirez, who plays Maya: "Hiro, I will give you some play."
• Milo Ventimiglia and Hayden put the kibosh on Peter-Claire (just in case you really needed it spelled out for you): "They’re related! End of story," says Milo, while Hayden points out her character is not just unavailable, she’s 15 and therefore underage.

SPOILERS

• Sendhil: I'm bring something from my personal life into the fifth episode of season two.
• Volume II: Generations may or may not be a full season.
• There’s a new character named Monica who comes from a Katrina-ravaged area of Louisiana.

INTERLUDE:   NEKKID
Until you see a real woman in a Leia slave girl costume you don't realize just how naked Carrie Fisher really was...

 

BATTLESTAR GALACTICA

RAZOR

• The Razor film airs Nov. 24 and features the Original Cylon War, the Pegasus under fire during the initial Cylon attack on the 12 Colonies, a new character named Kendra Shaw and the original Centurions and Raiders from the '70s series.
• Battlestar Galactica show runner Ronald D. Moore: There will be a series of two-minute promos, pieces of the movie that were cut from the original long version of Razor so it would fit it into the on-air time slot. You will see these minisodes of Razor, then you will see a feature-length version on the air, and then the DVD has it all together in one extended-edition movie.
• Razor does not address the cliffhanger. It is resolved in the first episode of season four, which airs in January 2008.

THREE

• Lucy Lawless will be returning to play Cylon model Three, aka D'Anna Biers. She says, "Oh, yes, I'm coming back...to cause some trouble." She’ll appear in two or three eps, beginning around episode 10.
• Moore on the return of Three: "Why is Lucy back?…There are a lot of people interested in unboxing D’Anna, because she knows things. There’s a long plot leading up to that. It’s a pivot point for the season, and after that, things change and drive us toward the finale." Lawless: "She’s coming back to participate in someone's plan. Can you keep her vicious? What I loved about her was she was the grit in everybody’s eye."
• Mary McDonnell and Lucy Lawless will have a scene together.

SIX

• Which of the characters has the most surprising destiny? Moore: "Baltar and Six have an interesting journey."
• If you read hairstyles like spoiler tea leaves, you should know Tricia Helfer is sporting Gina hair, not Six hair.
• Tricia Helfer: "Baltar’s getting a lot of action this season—and not with me."

OLD, NEW AND HYBRID CYLONICITY

• Someone in the front row of the ballroom has a sign that says, "I'm the last Cylon." Moore says: "Oh, that makes things so much easier."
• The last Cylon is not revealed until the latter half of season.
• According to Tricia, "We're doing some of the 'Cylon parties' stuff right now." The beginning of the season is a lot about the inner turmoil of the new Cylons.
• And per Katee, "Michael Hogan is still in denial [about Tigh]. He will not admit he's a Cylon. And as he's an actor, he's really pissed off."
• Moore: "We're going to learn, over the course of the season, who, what, where and when they got all those [new Cylon] people into positions of power."
• Moore: Baby Hera has a role, she's always been sort of specific in the mythology, but with Nicky we go back and forth on what we're going to do...

KARA THRACE AND HER SPECIAL DESTINY...

• Katee on Starbuck: "She has a mission she believes in 100 percent. She always questions herself, and this is a time where she knows she's capable. She's just as hotheaded and as crazy as ever, but she's…heightened."