Next month, Syfy launches a new show created and produced entirely in someone's basement.

No, I'm not talking about their latest made-for-cable giant bug movie. The show in question is Outer Space Astronauts, which premieres Dec. 8 (following the season finale of reality series Scare Tactics) and is set to air Tuesday nights for a total of five episodes.

Outer Space Astronauts is a live-action/animation mix that, we're told, was completely developed, executed, and edited by executive producer Russell Barrett from his own home, and stars Barrett's friends and childhood buddies. Read more...

MOVIES--Opening this week:

• The Twilight Saga: New Moon (2009). Bella has all the luck: not one but two dreamy supernatural hunks are totally into her. The best thing about the first film was the direction, so naturally Catherine Hardwicke was dropped in favor of Chris Weitz--whose most recent credit, the hugely overdirected Golden Compass, does not inspire confidence. Synopsis: When the Cullens decide they are a danger to Bella, she turns to her friend Jacob, who harbors his own secret. Directed by Chris Weitz. Starring Kristen Stewart (Bella Swan), Christina Jastrzembska (Gran/Bella), Robert Pattinson (Edward Cullen), Billy Burke (Charlie Swan), Anna Kendrick (Jessica), Michael Welch (Mike), Justin Chon (Eric), Christian Serratos (Angela), Taylor Lautner (Jacob Black), Ashley Greene (Alice Cullen), Jackson Rathbone (Jasper Whitlock), Russell Roberts (Mr. Berty), Cam Gigandet (James), Michael Sheen (Aro), Jamie Campbell Bower (Caius), Christopher Heyerdahl (Marcus).
  -- Trailers, clips, and video for The Twilight Saga: New Moon.
  

HOME VIDEO--Out on DVD this week:

• Star Trek (2009). Yes, it literally destroys established continuity, and yes, some of the lower-tier casting is wonky (Simon Pegg?), but I loved this movie. It's not as great as Wrath of Khan, but it stands alongside the best of the Trek films and took a lot of risks to bring us a much-needed new incarnation of a flagging franchise. Synopsis: Starfleet cadet James Kirk encounters an angry Romulan from the future who changes the destinies of the Enterprise and its crew. Directed by J.J. Abrams. Starring Chris Pine (James T. Kirk), Zachary Quinto (Spock), Leonard Nimoy (Spock Prime), Eric Bana (Nero), Bruce Greenwood (Capt. Christopher Pike), Karl Urban (Bones), Zoë Saldana (Nyota Uhura), Simon Pegg (Montgomery Scott), John Cho (Lt. Hikaru Sulu), Anton Yelchin (Pavel Chekov), Ben Cross (Sarek), Winona Ryder (Amanda Grayson), Chris Hemsworth (George Kirk).
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  -- Trailers, clips, and video for Star Trek.
  -- Movie Review of Star Trek.
• Farscape (1999). A special edition of the fourth season and a box set of the complete series are both coming out this week. Saddled with a lightweight reputation in some quarters because the cast included Jim Henson creatures, this was a powerful, sharply written show with some great characters: Claudia Black's Aeryn Sun and Ben Browder's John Crichton are two of the best-explored figures in sci-fi. (The main problem was continuity lock-out.) If you missed it before, check it out. Synopsis: Astronaut John Crichton, on an experimental space mission, is accidentally hurled across the universe into the midst of an intergalactic conflict. Trapped among alien creatures wielding deadly technology and hunted by a merciless military race, Crichton ends up on an epic odyssey to try to find his way home. Directed by Rowan Woods. Starring Ben Browder (John Crichton), Claudia Black (Officer Aeryn Sun), Anthony Simcoe (Ka D'Argo), Lani John Tupu (Pilot / Capt. Bialar Crais), Jonathan Hardy (Dominar Rygel XVI), Gigi Edgley (Chiana), Wayne Pygram (Scorpius / Harvey), Virginia Hey (Pa'u Zotoh Zhaan), Paul Goddard (Stark).
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  -- Trailers, clips, and video for Farscape.

New episodes this week from:

• Heroes,
• The Prisoner,
• V: The Series,
• FlashForward,
• Vampire Diaries,
• Fringe,
• Supernatural,
• Ghost Whisperer,
• Smallville,
• Medium,
• Stargate Universe,
• Sanctuary, and
• Legend of the Seeker.

Guest stars this week include Tom Verica (American Dreams, The 4400) and Mitch Pileggi (The X-Files, Stargate Atlantis) on Medium; Mark Sheppard (Crowley), Samantha Ferris (Ellen), and Alona Tal (Jo) returning on Supernatural.

Synopses below the jump. For details see the listings (regular or alphabetical). Read more...

Previously on Supernatural: Sam and Dean went to a Sam and Dean convention.

Before that: Let's see. Sam was turned into KITT the talking car. Dean huffed up stairs as an old man, having gambled away 25 years of his life to a male witch. Before that, Dean grew hair on his palm (don't ask), and Sam was attacked by Gandhi and Paris Hilton.

Has anyone else been shouting back at the screen, Apocalypse? Hello?

Don't get me wrong, I totally love a goofy Supernatural episode as much as the next guy. But after five goofy episodes in a row, Lucifer (Mark Pellegrino) is starting to lose some credibility as a serious threat. It's like, "I want to destroy humanity, but I'm not in a hurry. You guys go and play poker and hunt down James Dean's key-chain." Goofy episodes of Supernatural are supposed to leaven the dark stuff that's going on, not supplant it.

Thankfully we have an "Oh yeah, the world is ending" apocalypse story-line episode this week, with Bobby (Jim Beaver), Ellen (Samantha Ferris), and Jo (Alona Tal) joining Sam, Dean, and Castiel in the hunt for the Colt--that magical gun that the Winchesters think is their only hope of killing Lucifer.

The bad news is, it's the last episode of 2009--the next new episode is Jan. 14, 2010. So after a month and a half of comedy, we return to this season's Big Bad for one episode, with another month and a half of reruns to follow. Supernatural is still one of my favorite shows, but I'm wondering whether they've lost track of how to balance the smirks and the screams.

• Clip 1--Sam and Dean lay a trap to retrieve the Colt, but Crowley (Mark Sheppard) beats them to it.
• Clip 2--Ellen, Jo, and Castiel join Sam and Dean in investigating a seemingly empty town.

With the premiere of their adaptation of The Prisoner about to start, AMC is also publishing a Prisoner online graphic novel.

The graphic novel's storyline starts with "Book One: As the Air, Invulnerable," involving not Six, but Rebecca, who's looking for her missing sister. It's part of a story that will span ten chapters. Chapter 2 will be posted immediately following The Prisoner finale on Tue., Nov. 17.

Be advised: it's animated in that flat-things-moving-in-front-of-flat-things way, which uses a bit of memory, and the first installment is only 10 panels long.

The Prisoner airs over three consecutive nights, with two episodes each evening, from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. on AMC.

ABC has canceled the worst network sci-fi/fantasy series this year, the ill-conceived adaptation of John Updike's The Witches of Eastwick.

Eastwick, starring Rebecca Romijn, had some series potential but was fundamentally flawed. After all, how do you keep three women whose powers are geared toward manipulating men from seeming like--well, witches?

Also deep-sixed by his character, the smarmy Darryl van Horn, was poor Paul Gross, too nice a person to be trapped in this morass. The only character I actively enjoyed watching was Chad, the boytoy played by Matt Dallas, whose bright-eyed energy perked up every scene he was in. But they killed him off a couple weeks ago in the most preposterous way possible (a statue of Darryl fell on him), and that coupled with the jarring kidnapped-by-the-suddenly-insane-preacher plot had me writing off the show then and there.

ABC said it will air the episodes of Eastwick that have already been produced. Thirteen were produced, which leaves six episodes left to air.

It's official. After taking it off the air for sweeps, universally recognized as a sign Fox had no faith in the show, the network has decided the Joss Whedon basement-rated drama Dollhouse has had all the breaks it's going to get.

The series is still in production--they're putting together the last few episodes now--which means that Fox, thoughtfully or accidentally, canceled the show in time for Whedon to be absolutely certain he was turning in a series finale for the 13th episode. On the other hand, the axing came before the debut of much-loved Whedon alum Summer Glau, who joins the show with episode 6.

The cancellation was confirmed by the writing staff via Twitter. "Yes. Canceled. Sad but true," tweeted Maurissa Tancharoen, a writer on Dollhouse as well as Whedon's sister-in-law. This is the second time the show has been through the cancellation wringer, and at least compared to last spring's protracted fussing and fretting before its surprise renewal, the end this time was relatively swift.

"I don't have a lot to say," Whedon wrote in a post on Whedonesque.com. "I'm extremely proud of the people I've worked with: my star [Eliza Dushku], my staff, my cast, my crew. I feel the show is getting better pretty much every week, and I think you'll agree in the coming months. I'm grateful that we got to put it on, and then come back and put it on again."

Despite hiding the show away for November sweeps, Fox has committed to air all 13 episodes starting up again December 4. Four episodes had already aired in September and October, so nine episodes remain to be broadcast. To burn them off as quickly as possible, Fox will be airing two episodes a night.

Despite a promising start Dollhouse has been very uneven this year, so Fox's decision, alongside the dire ratings, is not wholly mystifying, though it's so early in the season that we haven't seen where Whedon was trying to take us. There's a very good chance--especially given Whedon's own assessment that the show has been improving weekly--that we'll be watching the bottom half of this season muttering about how Fox cancels Joss's shows just when they're getting good.

There is a silver lining: Whedon is now free to devote his attentions to his next project, which rampant speculation suggests will be a sequel to the instant classic Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog.

Good news for sci-fi anthology fans. Sci-fi master Ray Bradbury has made a deal with White Oak Films to develop a miniseries inspired by six of his short stories.

The Bradbury Chronicles will be presented over six hours, with Bradbury himself executive producing and helping to select the material and to adapt the stories for the project. Hopefully this will turn out at least as good as the last major sci-fi anthology miniseries.

It would not be the first time Bradbury, 89, adapted himself for TV: The Ray Bradbury Theater ran for six seasons from 1985-1992, two on HBO and four on USA, for a total of 65 episodes -- many based on Bradbury's previous novels and short stories. White Oak's John Dayton, who will also be executive producing, worked with Bradbury on Theater.

Bradbury also wrote segments for other series like Alfred Hitchcock Presents and The Twilight Zone. Many Bradbury stories have been adapted to film, notably Fahrenheit 451 (1966) and The Illustrated Man (1969), new feature film versions of which are in the pipelines for release in 2012 and 2010, respectively, as well as Something Wicked This Way Comes (1983) and The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit (1993). Less successful was a more recent attempt at a Bradbury blockbuster, A Sound of Thunder (2005).

Any thoughts on what Bradbury story you'd like to see adapted?

David Tennant, the outgoing star of Doctor Who, has a chance to make himself known to a broader American audience in the lead role of the NBC pilot, Rex Is Not Your Lawyer.

The basic idea is that Rex Alexander (Tennant) is a really great lawyer, but he suffers from panic attacks--so he ends up coaching clients to represent themselves in court. Wacky! Tennant's casting is being likened to that of fellow Brit Hugh Laurie, who after being cast on House went from a cult favorite in America (from several British hits including Jeeves & Wooster) to a huge American star.

The creative team backing Tennant is led by writers Andrew Leeds (more visible as an actor--he was recently seen on House) and David Lampson (together they created Stephen's Life, the winning entry on Bravo's reality series Situation: Comedy in 2005). More promising is tapping of David Semel to direct (he directed the excellent pilots for Heroes and Life). The showrunner is the seasoned executive producer Barry Schindel (Numb3rs, Castle, Law & Order). The project has been in development since 2007.

Meanwhile, the three final David Tennant Doctor Who specials will air soon in the United States, starting with "Waters of Mars" on Dec. 19.

MOVIES--Opening this week:

• 2012 (2009). Having tried to create mindless blockbuster spectacle at the dawn of humanity with 10,000 BC and natural catacylsm (The Day After Tomorrow), director Roland Emmerich (Stargate, Independence Day, Godzilla) now tries for another world-smash, this time picking up the myth that Mayans predicted the end of the world in 2012. Synopsis: An epic adventure about a global cataclysm that brings an end to the world and tells of the heroic struggle of the survivors. Directed by Roland Emmerich. Starring John Cusack (Jackson Curtis), Amanda Peet (Kate Curtis), Chiwetel Ejiofor (Adrian Helmsley), Thandie Newton (Laura Wilson), Oliver Platt (Carl Anheuser), Tom McCarthy (Gordon Silberman), Woody Harrelson (Charlie Frost), Danny Glover (President Thomas Wilson).
  -- Trailers, clips, and video for 2012.
  

HOME VIDEO--Out on DVD this week:

• Up (2009). Not as amazing as other Pixar films, but a fun movie with some very cute moments. Synopsis: Before they can take him to a retirement home, Carl and his house fly away, accidentally bringing with him an 8 year old stowaway named Russell. Together, they embark in an adventure, where they encounter talking dogs, an evil villain, and a rare bird named Kevin. Directed by Pete Docter and Bob Peterson. Starring Ed Asner (Carl Fredricksen (voice)), Christopher Plummer (Charles Muntz (voice)), Jordan Nagai (Russell (voice)).
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  -- Trailers, clips, and video for Up.
  -- Movie Review of Up.