Sci-Fi Bulletin: Exploring the Universes of SF, Fantasy, Horror and Spy-fi!

The CW has given pilot orders to six further genre-based series, adding to their roster of superhero-based shows.

Kevin Williamson has a third pilot in consideration for next season with his as yet untitled paranormal script now attracting prolific pilot diector David Nutter on board. The series is about a young woman who seeks help from a parapsychologist when she begins to experience paranormal phenomena.

Toby Emmerich’s movie Frequency is also getting a TV version, although with the lead’s gender twist. Rather than a male detective (played by Jim Cazaviel in the movie) making contact with his father, the new series focuses on a female police detective in 2016 discovers she is able to speak via a ham radio with her estranged father (also a detective) who died in 1996. They forge a new relationship while working together on an unresolved murder case, but unintended consequences of the ‘butterfly effect’ wreak havoc in the present day. This one comes from Supernatural’s Jeremy Carver.

Jeff Pinkner, Josh Appelbaum, Andre Nemec and Scott Rosenberg’s Midnight Radio is behind Transylvania, yet another “origins of monsters” show. Set in 1880, it’s about a headstrong young woman in search of her missing father who ventures from New York City to Transylvania where she teams up with a wrongfully disgraced Scotland Yard detective. Together they “witness the births of the most famous monsters and villains in history”.

The mystery of the Roanoke Colony is given an SF twist in the currently-untitled Mars project from CBS TV Studios and the Kennedy/Marshall Co. (It was known as Colony prior to the currently airing series about an alien-run LA.) Written by Doris Egan, this version follows a team of explorers who arrive on Mars to join the first human colony on the planet, only to discover that their predecessors have vanished. Led by a woman whose husband is among the missing, the colonists are forced to change their mission from exploration and settlement to investigation and survival, while navigating the hostile planet and their own personal demons.

Brazilian series How to Enjoy the End of the World is the basis for No Tomorrow, a comedy with a genre edge. Sarah is a risk-averse, straight arrow, female procurement manager at an Amazon-like distribution centre who falls in love with Xavier, a freewheeling man who lives life to the fullest because he believes the apocalypse is imminent, to comedic and poignant results as they embark on a quest together to fulfill their individual bucket lists.

Finally, Riverdale will focus on Archie Comics characters Archie, Betty, Veronica and co. as they explore the surrealism of small town life — the darkness and weirdness bubbling beneath Riverdale’s wholesome façade. This was originally in development at Fox.