Sci-Fi TV News Round-Up: Dark Matter Returns, Silo Reaches Its Finale and Stargate Secrets Emerge

Welcome to the first Sci-Fi TV Guide weekly news round-up, collecting the transmissions worth knowing about from across the science-fiction television universe. This opening edition includes returning shows, approaching finales, one cancelled project that refuses to stay quiet and the possible resurrection of a character from the earliest days of televised science fiction.

Future round-ups will arrive every Friday, assuming the timeline remains intact and nobody at the streaming services presses the cancellation button while Skully is compiling it.

Now Transmitting

Dark Matter returns for a second journey through the multiverse

Apple TV’s Dark Matter returned for its second season on Friday 28 August, bringing Joel Edgerton and Jennifer Connelly back into Blake Crouch’s increasingly complicated collection of alternate realities.

The second season contains ten episodes, with a new instalment arriving every Friday until 30 October. It continues beyond the ending of Crouch’s original novel, giving the television series considerably more freedom to explore the consequences of the first season’s multiplying timelines.

That also means the story is entering largely uncharted territory. The various versions of Jason Dessen may have escaped their boxes, but successfully putting them all back inside was never likely to be quite as simple.

Apple TV confirmed the second-season schedule.

More realities, more Jasons and presumably even less chance of anyone receiving their correct post. Skully approves.

Silo reaches the end of its third season

The third season of Silo concludes on Apple TV today, Friday 4 September, with its tenth episode, “Troy”.

Season three has continued expanding the history and purpose of the silos while moving Juliette Nichols and the inhabitants of Silo 18 closer to open rebellion. Anyone who has not yet caught up should approach online discussions with extreme caution. This is precisely the sort of finale that turns innocent-looking headlines into spoiler-delivery systems.

The good news is that this is not the end. Apple previously commissioned third and fourth seasons together, with the fourth intended to complete the television adaptation of Hugh Howey’s novel trilogy. Production on the concluding season has already taken place, although Apple has not yet announced its release date.

Apple TV lists “Troy” as the season-three finale.

Nobody inside a silo is allowed to know what is happening. Rather inconsiderately, the same rule now applies to anyone avoiding finale spoilers.

Strange New Worlds continues its fourth voyage

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds released the seventh episode of its fourth season on Paramount+ this week. “Like Chronitons Through the Hourglass” arrived on Thursday 3 September, with the season continuing weekly until 24 September.

The current run contains ten episodes and remains part of the franchise’s 60th-anniversary year. Paramount+ has also confirmed that the programme will return for a fifth and final season, bringing Captain Pike’s pre-Original Series adventures towards their planned conclusion.

Paramount+ has the fourth-season schedule.

A title containing both chronitons and an hourglass is extremely committed to letting viewers know that temporal trouble lies ahead.

Cancelled, But Not Forgotten

New details emerge about Amazon’s abandoned Stargate series

Amazon’s cancelled attempt to revive Stargate returned to the news this week when further information emerged about what the proposed series would have contained.

The project was being developed by former Stargate Atlantis showrunner Joseph Mallozzi and Dark Matter creator Brad Wright, but Amazon ultimately decided not to move forward with it. New details shared around the end of August indicate that Michael Shanks’ Daniel Jackson would have played an important role in the story.

The proposed programme reportedly intended to continue the established television continuity rather than begin with a complete reboot. That would have allowed familiar characters to introduce a new generation while acknowledging the events of Stargate SG-1, Atlantis and Universe.

None of this means the cancelled version is returning. Amazon MGM Studios still controls the franchise and may pursue a different approach, but this particular expedition through the gate appears to be over.

GateWorld reported the newly revealed Daniel Jackson details.

Discovering the gate plan after the mission has been cancelled feels painfully appropriate for Stargate. Somewhere, an iris has closed at exactly the wrong moment.

Development Watch

Could Colonel Bleep return to television?

One of television’s earliest science-fiction characters may be preparing for an unexpected comeback.

Colonel Bleep was produced during the 1950s and is commonly recognised as the first colour animated series created specifically for television. Its short adventures followed the extraterrestrial Colonel Bleep from his base on Zero Zero Island.

A new independent project titled Colonel Bleep ’69 is now attempting to reimagine the character. A test pilot and early development material have been released, although the project should currently be treated as an independent production in development rather than a fully commissioned television series.

It is nevertheless an intriguing example of a public-domain character being revived by modern creators. In a television landscape dominated by enormously valuable franchises, there is something rather appealing about a forgotten space ranger wandering back in through an unlocked copyright door.

The independent project has released information and a test pilot.

After nearly seven decades, Colonel Bleep may be ready to transmit again. Skully recommends checking whether Zero Zero Island has upgraded its broadband.

Release Radar

Blade Runner 2099 arrives in November

Prime Video’s Blade Runner 2099 is scheduled to premiere on 25 November, with all eight episodes becoming available together.

Set fifty years after Blade Runner 2049, the limited series stars Michelle Yeoh as Olwen, a Replicant approaching the end of her life, and Hunter Schafer as Cora, a fugitive forced to assume another identity. The two become connected to a secret capable of destabilising what remains of Los Angeles.

Jonathan van Tulleken directs the opening episodes, while Ridley Scott serves as an executive producer. Silka Luisa developed the series and acts as its showrunner.

Amazon has confirmed the date, cast and eight-episode release.

Replicants, stolen identities and a fragile dystopian city. November suddenly looks considerably less cheerful, which is excellent news.

Skully’s Story of the Week

The return of Dark Matter takes this week’s honour. Its first season transformed a familiar alternate-universe idea into an increasingly ambitious exploration of identity, regret and the roads not taken. The decision to continue beyond the original novel gives season two an unusually unpredictable journey ahead.

However, Silo deserves an honourable mention for reaching another major stopping point with its final season already secured. In the current streaming climate, knowing that a carefully constructed mystery will be allowed to reach its intended conclusion is practically a science-fiction concept in itself.

That completes the first weekly transmission. Skully will return next Friday with the latest renewals, cancellations, new commissions, production updates and release dates from across the science-fiction television landscape.