2007 Fall Preview: New Sci-Fi / Fantasy Series

This steamy spin-off of the British hit series Doctor Who stars John Barrowman as Jack Harkness, a man from the far future who's now busy tracking down alien criminals for a present-day extragovernmental outfit called Torchwood. Jack and Torchwood are drawn from recent Who stories, but both have been sexed up and given a big shot of adrenaline for the new series. Jack's cavalier attitude toward sexual identity (he's described as "omnisexual" and is regularly seen kissing men, women, aliens, and miscellany) has aroused some comment; more interesting is his mysteriously acquired ability to stave off death. Also starring is the charming Eve Myles as a police officer who stumbles into Jack's world and provides him a bracing dose of normality.

Zachary Levi (from Less Than Perfect) stars as dork-next-door Chuck Bartowski, a computer electronics expert who gets a big chunk of ultra-classified spy data downloaded into his brain thanks to an email from an old buddy who happens to be a rogue CIA agent. Chuck must now endure occasional bursts of knowledge spurred by various subliminal triggers, as well as the presence in his life of rival CIA and NSA agents (played by Adam Baldwin, from Firefly/Serenity, and newcomer Yvonne Strzechowski, respectively) trying to recover the data lodged in Chuck's brain. Yeah. Chuck was developed by Josh Schwartz, creator of The O.C., and Chris Fedak; at least some of the episodes were directed by McG (Charlie's Angels, The O.C., Supernatural).

Kevin McKidd (from Rome) stars as Dan Vassar, a San Francisco reporter who finds himself wandering inexplicably through the recent past. In the course of this he realizes he might be able to prevent the unexplained death of his fiancee, Livia (Moon Bloodgood). Show creator Kevin Falls has a history of smart writing behind him (his credits include The West Wing, Sports Night, and Shark), and McKidd has the depth and range to handle whatever Falls throws at him, so conceptually there's a lot of promise here. The supporting cast includes veterans Reed Diamond (Homicide) and Gretchen Egolf (Martial Law). Settle in for the ride: McKidd has warned that full revelation of why Vassar jumps into the past will take the entire first season.

Sam finds out on his 21st birthday, after a lifetime of being allowed to slack off, that his parents sold his soul to the devil before he was born. Now Satan expects to collect, but instead of hauling Sam down to the netherworld, he gives him a job as a bounty hunter, tracking down escapees from Hell. Probably beats working at Wal-Mart. Bret Harrison (from the little-seen Fox office drama The Loop) stars as Sam, with Ray Wise as Satan, Missy Peregrym (Candice, the shapeshifter from Heroes), and Tyler Labine as "Sock," the inevitable fratboy sidekick. Though the promos are built around Kevin Smith, who directed the pilot, the show's creators are Law & Order: Special Victims Unit veterans Tara Butters and Michele Fazekas. A real wild card.

Probably the highest-profile newcomer of the season, Bionic Woman is a very loose reboot of The Bionic Woman, which originally aired for two seasons (on ABC and NBC, respectively) from 1976 to 1978. The original was a spin-off of The Six Million Dollar Man, but the new show is a standalone with an entirely new origin story which does not involve Six Million Dollar Man characters Steve Austin or Oscar Goldman. In this version, Jaime Sommers is a bartender with a kid sister (Becca, a "budding hacker" played by Lucy Hale) to take care of who suffers a crippling car accident; but her boyfriend, Dr. Will Anthros (Chris Bowers) uses his expertise in bionics to save her life. Katee Sackhoff (from Battlestar Galactica) plays a bionic villain.

So far the buzz has not been good for Moonlight, which over the last several months has seen a revolving door of producers, a complete overhaul of the entire cast below the lead character, a shift in tone and concept, and even a change in title (originally it was called Twilight). Created by Ron Koslow (who helped create Beauty and the Beast, but that was twenty years ago) and Trevor Munson, the show stars Alex O'Loughlin (from the peculiar, obesity-fetish thriller Feed) as a vampire who tries to use his supernatural abilities to help the mortals around him. The (new) supporting cast includes Sophia Myles (who was fantastic in the season 2 Doctor Who episode "The Girl in the Fireplace") and Jason Dohring (Logan from Veronica Mars).

This is the one to set your TiVo for, even if you skip all the rest. From all appearances, Pushing Daisies is fresh, imaginative, irreverent, smart, and fun: How many shows start with "pie-maker" as the hero's occupation, before you even get to the actual concept? But the show's premise is the real grabber: Ned (Lee Pace, from Wonderfalls, where he worked with Daisies creator Bryan Fuller) can bring the dead back to life by touching them, but he has to touch them again to return them to death or someone else nearby will die instead. Ned uses his ability to help a private detective friend (Chi McBride) by doing things like asking murder victims who killed them. He also revives, and keeps alive, his childhood sweetheart, "Chuck" (Anna Friel).