TVShowsonDVD.com recently reported the landing of Bionic Woman Volume 1 on DVD. Yes folks, that’s the Michelle Ryan version – which hits stores from March 18 2008.

Hold on, let’s think about this – ‘Volume 1′. Which would suggest that there will be a ‘Volume 2′at some point – more evidence that the show will return after the WGA strike? If there is to be a follow-up DVD, then it will mostly likely be the remaining 5 season 1 episodes which NBC have yet to shoot. Or perhaps it will be a completely re-tooled remake of the, erm, remake? I hope for the latter, although I would like to see much of the current cast keeping their (re-tooled) roles.

Anyway, back to the Volume 1 DVD: It will cost you $29.98 SRP for a 2-disc set,which will feature Pilot commentary from creator David Eick, ‘the making of the car crash’, Stunts, Profiles, and of course the 8 aired episodes, with a few other treats chucked in for good measure.

For what it’s worth, NBC, I LOVE the artwork on the DVD!

You can find more information on the Bionic Woman Volume 1 DVD here.

Thanks to David M for the heads-up!

It appears that the TV networks in New Zealand haven’t heard about the ‘negative vibes’ Bionic Woman has received in the States and on the Interweb, as the show is set to premiere “soon” on TV3.

Good for them, it kinda reminds me of the excitement I had for the show before it began in late September. But this isn’t a negative post, far from it! I’m actually MORE excited about the prospect of the show being re-tooled than I was about the show premiering in the Fall! I’m now convinced that television NEEDS a cool sci-fi show in the mould of Alias or Dark Angel to help fill the bleak void this “new media age” has promised. I mean honestly, apart from LOST, which other TV series can even begin to incorporate all of the things which make sci-fi cool and intelligent and fun, all at the same time? I’m not saying that BW came close to achieving that, but it certainly had the potential to go in all kinds of crazy-cool directions.

Anyway, I hope that the New Zealanders enjoy the show and have an even better product waiting for them by the time they reach episode 8.

Okay, so some GOOD news for a change – hear that..Bionic Woman and ‘good news’, those two haven’t been seen in the same sentance for some time - but according to reports the show has NOT been cancelled..yet.

Last week I reported on reports that the show had been reportedly cancelled – this week NBC have apparently confirmed that the series will see out it’s full 13 episode quota..that is, when the strike finishes. Apparently, finishing the remaining episodes will be NBC’s ”first order of business.”

It seems that NBC ordered 13 episodes and by Jove they’re going to get 13 episodes! Bravo NBC, that’s the spirit!

So that means we should expect a further FIVE episodes sometime in 2008. Let’s hope those aren’t the last 5 episodes that we see of the show. In this topsy-turvy world of media entertainment, who can predict what will happen with this show? One minute it appears dead and the next minute it has an extended lifespan. No-one can claim to know exactly what is going on except the top-dogs at NBC. As fans we react to the slightest bit of news, and that’s natural. With a show like BW I think many of us have learned to expect the worst, so we prepare ourselves for the worst..but sometimes, just sometimes you get a nice surprise.

Let’s hope this latest rumour is true. If it is, MAYBE the Bionic Woman will be around for longer than we think?

Folks, today I bring you some potentially sad news – various sources are reporting that NBC has finally taken the decision to cancel Bionic Woman. Like many of you I had some hope that NBC’s delay over any announcement on the future of the show would lead to good news, in the shape of a series re-launch. However it appears that NBC have decided to cut their losses.

This news is hardly surprising, however it’s so sad that we never saw the show reach it’s potential. In truth, it got nowhere near. How this show failed is a mystery – of course it’s flaws were obvious – but with all that it had going for it, it is truly amazing how this show failed so badly.

This news isn’t official just yet, but as soon as I hear confirmation from NBC, I’ll be sure to let you know.

Last week news broke that Katee Sackhoff had distanced herself from ‘Bionic Woman’ and crisitsed co-star, Michelle Ryan.

Today SyFy Portal report that this is simply not true , and they actually have real-life quotes and everything, to back their story up! ;) In response to the accusations that she had been unprofessional in comments made at a recent Battlestar Galatica convention, she said:

“I have no plans to leave ‘Bionic Woman,’ and Michelle Ryan is doing a great job. There’s not one ounce of bad blood between us.”

“It’s sad because you want to connect with the fans, and then they throw it in your face in a negative light,”

Good on her for coming out and putting the record straight – I know what it’s like to have words or gestures twisted or presented in a malicious way, it’s not a nice feeling and the thing you want to do most is speak out and let people know the truth. As for her reference to the fans – I hope she’s not making a sweeping statement here, because a lot of people (certainly myself and many of those who commented on this blog) expressed our opinion, on the story that RoadrunnderDM broke, with honesty but also with the possibility that it may have been a sensationalised ‘story’.

I’m not saying that’s what happened – perhaps the person who broke the news genuinely believed that KS was inferring the things she was said to have been inferring? Who knows? All I know is that it’s a good thing that KS has expressed her side of the story.  However, I do hope she doesn’t make snap judgements about ‘all’ fans. After all we’re in the entertainment business (or rather we respond to news, in and around the entertainment business, that interests us, I don’t want to sound corporate ;-)) and so a ‘story’ like this was always going to provoke a response from fans and cynics alike. KS is now ‘fairly’ big news in the sci-fi fan communities, and these days she will be talked about more than at any other time in her career, I would imagine.

But it’s not just about KS, as fans we (I say ‘we’ to be diplomatic) sometimes go over the top, but I hope that most of us take any news story with a pinch of salt and with the potential that it might actually be untrue. To be fair, most of the comments that I read had this in mind, so maybe KS hasn’t been reading Bionic-Blog lately? ;-)

Anyhoo, it’s disappointing ‘if’ this story was ‘intentionally’ made-up. I know it’s the silly season and there’s also writers strike, so we’re all in need of some new content to speak about, but we also don’t want to be making things up and upsetting people now do we?

Some of you may be wondering whether we should take Katee’s word for it, whether she is just covering her tracks? Well, we simply don’t know but in the absence of real evidence I’m inclined to take the word of someone who I struggled to believe would say these things in the first place. I’ve commented on what she ‘apparently’ said, as I’m a viewer and blogger of BW, but I always left room for the story being a load of you know what.

Now Katee, hows about you tell us how that meeting with the producers went? :-)

Those are my thoughts on the whole affair, but what are yours? Feel free to share them!

Hmm..there’s life over at NBC Headquarters..they’ve reportedly just given both ‘Chuck’ and ‘Life’ full seasons..all this amid the current writers strike! Now why would they do that unless they know something that we don’t?

“Good news”, I hear you cry..well, as I recently posted, it does appear that the strike could soon be over, but I’m not rejoicing just yet because it seems that in the excitement of giving Chuck and Life full seasons, NBC have, um, forgotten about Bionic Woman..

It’s been a roller coaster ride with BW ever since it started, I just wonder whether NBC have one more ride left in them? Watch this space!

Kristen over at E! Online has more.

NBC has apparently initiated their legal entitlement to only pay the actors “half of their paychecks for the next 5 weeks” as a result of the WGA strike halting production of Bionic Woman.

The impact of the strike begins to take effect – I hope none of them have massive mortgages to pay! Incidentally, if the strike lasts longer than 5 weeks, the actors have the legal right to leave their BW contracts and seek alternative forms of income – which means they can choose to leave the show permanently. This is bad news, because although the show cannot continue without any scripts, it also cannot continue if they lose the likes of Michelle Ryan, who is integral to the series. Unless of course they recast the part, but that’s too complicated and too messy for me to even consider right now.

On November 7 2007, I reported that Bionic Woman was on the verge of shut-down due to the writers strike – that shut-down officially took place on Friday 9 November. The show has simply run out of available scripts and it’s unclear whether they have even filmed episode 1.08 which was supposed to be airing next Wednesday.

So in a season when many ’experts’ claimed that the show wouldn’t last 2 episodes, it actually gets halted in it’s 8th episode by a writers strike. Assuming there’s no new episode next week, the question now is, when will we see BW again? How will the strike affect the January ‘Re-launch’? Will it even survive the writers strike? Will NBC use this as an excuse to cancel the show and cut their loses?

Or, will the show rise from the ashes like a pheonix through the flames in 2009? Dare we take that bionic leap of faith..?

The Sydney Morning Herald report that ratings for Bionic Woman in Australia have slipped to below 1 million in the main land capitals after initially peaking with 1.5 million with the premiere. This follows the US decline in ratings which has prompted many a commentator to rub their hands in glee at the prospect of the show not surviving the writers strike.

All I can say that it is a sad sad state of affairs that so many people want this show to fail..and I’m not just speaking about now..even before the show started there were many people doing their best to turn potential viewers off from the show before a single episode had aired! Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for people expressing their opinions, but you and I know the difference between constructive criticism and all out flaming. Many ‘media’ sites have flamed BW since June and I for one hope the show turns itself around and becomes the quality series that we know it should be.

As I’ve previously stated, I know the show has major problems, not helped by all the back room re-shuffling, but what we are witnessing is a show that is undergoing an evolution right before our eyes. I’m not ready to give up on BW just yet – if I truly didn’t think the show had potential then trust me I wouldn’t be blogging about it. I have criticised BW when I felt it was deserved, but I feel that my criticisms have been constructive and honest..too many ‘media’ outlets (I wont name names) are too happy to give unsubstantiated and often unfair comments in order to make traffic building headlines and gain cheap clicks. As an owner of several dedicated fansites, I blog primarily because I enjoy talking about my favourites shows (although BW doesn’t quite fit into that bracket yet, but still, it has potential), to interact with others who either agree or disagree with my outlook and to hopefully provide a good resource for the show. In fact I sense that most of the BW ‘fansites’ out there give much fairer reflections of the show than these “smash and grab” sites.

I just feel that I had to stand up for the show and the BW community because along with Margie over at WBW.com, I feel that certain quarters have been too quick to put the boot into the Bionic Woman. Like I said, I will always be honest in my opinion of the show, but I will also be ‘fair’.

So come on BW, you may be the underdog but every dog has it’s day!

No, not because it’s being cancelled, but because of the writers strike. Obviously this is bad news because not only will it halt production of Bionic Woman (and many other US TV shows) but it will also put a lot of people out of work.

I’d just like to make it clear that I do support the writers rights for fairer pay, however it is still disappointing that no resolution could be reached.

Canada.com has more:

Bruce Scott, secretary treasurer of the Teamsters Local 155 whose members work in the film and television industry, said between five and six U.S. television shows are going to run out of scripts starting anywhere from the middle of the month to next January. He named Bionic Woman, Reaper and Men in Trees as three of them.

Tracey Wood, director of industrial and external relations for the B.C. branch of the Canadian Film and Television Production Association, said the television series Bionic Woman is on the verge of shutting down because it has no stockpiled scripts. The sci-fi series is shooting at Vancouver Film Studios. She estimates this show alone employs about 100 local people.

It’s a shame that BW didn’t stockpile more scripts (like LOST has been doing since June). I assume that they have scripts up to episode 8 or 9 (only a guess mind), which would mean that show only has another 4 episodes to write before the projected season ends.

Of course the strike might only last a few days and then production for BW can resume, however there’s no real way to tell how long it will last. Also, I feel that it is important to mention that this strike is affecting the entire industry and not just BW. It’s time that Hollywood shared the wealth..that’s my opinion.

You can read the above Canada.com article in full here and another article on the likely Bionic shutdown here. Thanks to Margie for the headsup on the second article.