Roundup: Sci-Fi Central Casting (Guest Star Edition)

A few high-profile guest star roles have recently been announced, including a few more examples of how Syfy series keep recycling the stars of previous Syfy series. (Once you go Syfy, do you just get stuck?)

Once Upon a Time--The news that has some folks particularly excited is that Ethan Embry will be guesting on ABC's eclectic fairy-tale series Once Upon a Time. Embry will be playing a rare visitor to Storybrooke, says TVLine, and, since even visitors to the town tend to be linked somehow to the storybook characters who live there, speculation is running rampant as to just who he is. ABC probably wants us to think he'll turn out to be Rumpel's lost son Baelfire, so he almost certainly won't be--unless it's a double fake-out. Either way, Embry is almost always riveting, so this is a tale to look forward to.

Defiance--Strapping Stargate Universe alumnus Brian J. Smith is set to guest star in an episode of Syfy's video game/drama series, Defiance, set to premiere April 2013--appropriately enough, playing an astronaut. Smith will portray Gordon McClintock, a NASA hero from the pre-Arkfall days who was presumed dead following a space station catastrophe in 2013. He's discovered to still be alive when he is revived from an induced sleep, and is overcome with shock and disbelief at the dangerous new world of Defiance. Why am I suddenly wondering if he'll have a robot sidekick named Twiki?

Warehouse 13--Also part of Syfy's spring season will be the 10-episoode season 4.5 of Warehouse 13, on which Caprica refugee Polly Walker will figure in a 5-episode arc as a new enemy of the Warehouse team. Walker will appear as Charlotte Dupres, who, we're told, has lots of secrets and layers of intrigue.

The Vampire Diaries--We finally get to meet Bonnie's dad, and it turns out he's a Cylon. No wonder he's been so aloof. Well, okay, what I mean is that he'll be played by the lush-voiced Rick Worthy, who has the uncanny ability to surface as a provocative but peripheral new recurring character in any given sci-fi series, from the unnerving alpha vampire on Supernatural to Simon/Number Four on BSG to the Xindi scientist Jannar on Enterprise. "It's time!" executive producer Julie Plec told TV Guide. "This year is a big year of transitions. It's the end of senior year, and there's a rich home life for everybody we're going to explore." Rudy Hopkins, as played by Worthy, will surface in episode 10 of the new season.

Tags: Once Upon a Time, Defiance, Warehouse 13, The Vampire Diaries Follow me on Twitter  |  Follow me on Facebook