• Coming soon: Battlestar Galactica MMO.  Slated to be a browser-based space strategy game, offered exclusively on syfy.com for its first 30 days, this is being developed by obscure (and relatively unproven) Norwegian developer Artplant- which leads one to assume their app (or bid) wowed the Bigs behind such a high-profile and expensive license.

• Comic Book Resources has an exclusive preview of next week’s big release, Siege #3.

• Tor Books is offering 200 free copies of Cory Doctorow’s next YA novel For the Win to video gamers under 19 years old to review.  Says Cory:

If you’re under 19 and want a free early look at the book for review on your blog/paper/whatever, send a note with your address to torpublicity@tor.com with “FTW” for the subject-line.  Also include the name of your blog or school paper.  For fun, also share a game you enjoyed recently and why.

We did this with Little Brother a couple years back, on the grounds that books for young people should be available for young reviewers to write about, rather than just adult reviewers who try to figure out whether young people will enjoy them.  It was a real success and I’m happy to be repeating it.

• And because I think it’s effin’ funny that I could probably start my own Tron blog at this point (“Daily Recognizer” anyone?  Or how about “Bits?”), Disney is renting a Hollywood billboard (Santa Monica and Westwood) through December 2010 and posting new teaser images from Legacy every six weeks.  Here’s yesterday’s, the third poster (click to enlarge and bask in its total radness):

Battlestar Galactica Tigh & Gaeta 2-pack

Accessories included:  sidearms, Dradis display, clipboard, and, of course… HOOCH!

Transformers Revenge of the Fallen N.E.S.T. Battlefield Bumblebee & Infiltration Soundwave 2pk.

Classic Monster Funko Force figures:

Dracula

Werewolf

Creature from the Black Lagoon

and Frankenstein.

Fantastic?  Yes. But where’s the frggin mummy????

• “The Usual Suspects” writer Christopher McQuarrie said he will be writing “Wolverine 2″.  Apparently, the Oscar winning screen writer helped on the last film’s script but declined credit.
• McQuarrie’s collaborator on “The Usual Suspects” (Bryan Singer) may direct a Battlestar Galactica film remake.  File this under why does this need to exist?
• X-Men killer Brett Ratner wants “Twilight” star Robert Pattinson in his “Youngblood” movie.  Hahahaha, go on. Take him. Not like I’m going to see it anyway.
• Cameron Diaz says her character in Seth Rogen’s “The Green Hornet” will be quite different than previous incarnations.  Previously, Lenore “Casey” Case was Rogen’s Britt Reid’s secretary and knew everything about the newspaper editor’s late night activities. However in this version, Casey is a television obsessed amateur sleuth who is stalking the Green Hornet and Kato.
• One part of the superhero power team of the Ryan Reynolds/Scarlett Johannson team spoke about “Iron Man 2.” I don’t know, I really liked Emily Blunt.

Torchwood: Children of Earth poster

Over the weekend, Graeme McMillan over at io9.com had an interesting story that got me thinking about the differences between American science fiction and British science fiction television.

I can’t agree with any argument that disses Blake’s Seven while holding Quantum Leap up as an ideal of good science fiction – but there’s a certain ring of truth to it, nonetheless… For all of British TV’s genre successes, whether they’re Primeval, Being Human or even Jekyll, there’s always something weirdly… apologetic about them. It’s not just a question of budget and ill-conceived special effects – although, yes, that as well – but almost as if they can’t quite conjure up enough abandon to let themselves not be slightly embarrassed and/or arch about the whole thing.

For me, the difference has always been similar to the DC vs Marvel Universe argument.  British Sci Fi tv has always been fun, whimsical and adventurous, and American sci fi television has always played in real world themes but in fantastic settings. This is probably why the Fox attempted revival of “Doctor Who” in 1996 didn’t work. It was trying to put a character in American Science Fiction, making him half human and all of that business which, so far, I think hasn’t even been touched by the hugely successful British restart.  And I love the revival, I get hives thinking about a new episode its so good and so fun.

Where American Science Fiction, like Marvel, puts you in a fantastic setting but works in themes that are very much the real world with real people concerns. You know, literally, “Your Universe” as Marvel pushes.  “The Twilight Zone” literally started this thought process, and it continued to today with “Battlestar Galactica.”  The idea behind American Science Fiction plays with things that are reminiscent of today’s issues but putting it in a fantastic setting.

Where British, like DC, just puts it in a fantastic, completely unrealistic setting and just gets more and more fantastic and out there.  I mean the season ender of “Doctor Who” season four was the TARDIS towing multiple planets back to their original locations. Sorry, that just can’t be done in American television without being totally laughable.

Though apparently where these two roads meet is in “Torchwood.” According to some of the early reviews of the Children of Earth miniseries that aired in the UK this past week shows a combination of these two thoughts. I guess, I’ll just have to wait with baited breath until it airs on BBC America on July 20th.

Also, for the record, I’m a Doctor Who guy over Star Trek.