Grant Kempster checks out the fantastic
world of entertainment

X-ed Gen

When Duchovny publicly fled The X-Files a few months ago with no hope of returning, it seemed as if the ninth season would be a strange one indeed as talk of Chris Carter waving a fond farewell to his creation began to circulate while Gillian Anderson stated her wish to leave. Happily though, things have been resolved, with Anderson definitely sticking around and Carter signing a new deal to stay behind the series for the coming year.

In an open letter published in the press recently, Carter stated, 'The decision to return was a difficult one. I felt we ended last season just right. With David Duchovny's announcement that he wouldn't be returning, it created the opportunity for a natural exit.' He then cryptically added, 'If I may steal a little bit from Star Trek, I'm looking forward to the Next Generation of The X-Files.'

Meanwhile, at the San Diego Comic Con (you'll hear that a lot this month), Fox honcho Sandy Grushow commented on the ninth year, "I'm not going to be too specific with you, but I will tell you to pay attention to Scully's baby," adding that it's a "very important part of what's to come."

So what could be happening to the show after series nine? Are we to believe that Scully and Mulder's child will be the principal player in a new slightly futuristic series? We'll just have to wait and see.

Dan Dare Goes CGI

A new 26-part CGI series featuring the UK's positively ancient space hero Dan Dare has begun to make waves, with a slick-looking website and several pictures of the show. It follows in the footsteps of the Roughnecks TV series by rendering its heroes entirely in computer animation.

Dan Dare: Pilot of the Future promises to be a retro-ride into the future, featuring the much-loved character from the Eagle comics as a daredevil pilot chosen by the World Council to pilot an experimental rocket ship - the Anastasia. Of course, no Dare adventure would be complete without his freaky green-skinned Venusian enemy The Mekon, with his heavily armed hover-sled and a forehead you could park a shuttle on. Other characters which flesh out the series are Digby, Prof and Hogan on the good guy's side, and fellow Venusians Sondar, Ares and Ronald Wall, a wealthy oil baron, doing the bad guy stuff.

At present there is no airing date for the show, but from the trailers, photos and information that www.dandare.com offers, it does indeed seem as if this could be an adventure that could run and run.

Cine-Farscape

Yes, it's a great concept isn't it? Well, it looks as if a cinematic version of the quirky, irreverent sci-fi series isn't a far-off dream, as the creators of the hit show told Cinescape recently.

"There's been talks [of a Farscape movie] from the very beginning," Rockne S O'Bannon told the magazine. "It's been a passion of Brian Henson to make a feature out of the project. Of course, the difficulty initially was just getting the series made. Now we're having more serious conversations about a movie, but it's an issue of where to fit it in the production. Do we do it during the Farscape hiatus? However, scheduling is not the only obstacle standing in the way of a potential Farscape feature. The question of where to place the film within the series' continuity also poses a challenge. Creating a movie based on a television series that's still on the air is really tough to do because where do you put it? [Chris] Carter did it with The X-Files by essentially designing a season that led up to the movie, then the movie came out in the summer, and then the next season tailed off. Seriously, I don't know how successful that was - it gives the movie a short shelf life."

So indications are that a feature film will happen, but we might just have to wait until the series has reached an end first.

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