Firefly fans take note - starting next week, the SciFi Channel will be running the series as a lead-in to its Friday night lineup. It's a good strategic promotional move - they should finish showing all the episodes right about the time that the movie version hits the theaters. On the other hand, if last night's season premieres are any indication, it's going to be tough for Firefly to compete with SciFi's heavy hitters.



The SciFi lineup started with Stargate SG-1 - or maybe it should be Farscape SG-1 instead. When Ben Browder was announced as a new member of the SG-1 cast, I didn't realize he was going to be the top-billed star. But there he was in the (hideously abbreviated) opening titles, and there he was, front-and-center on the screen.

Even so, it worked. The SG-1 writers did a clever thing - they put Browder's character in a position where what he wanted most was the same thing the audience wanted most - to get the SG-1 team together again. It'll be a few weeks before Samantha Carter is back in action, but at least Daniel Jackson and Teal'c are on board. The new general, played by Beau Bridges, is tolerable, too. And then there was Claudia Black, who's filling in while Amanda Tapping's on maternity leave. Another good bit of writing is that on SG-1, Ben Browder is playing the military character while Claudia Black is playing the crazy character - on Farscape it was the other way around. Also good is that Claudia's character is more interested in Daniel Jackson, so she and Ben aren't onscreen together very often. All in all, it was a solid opening episode. I hope the new cast lineup holds the fans well enough for SG-1 to get picked up for a tenth season, at which point it will go where no American SFTV show has gone before.

Stargate: Atlantis brought us another familiar face - Mitch Pileggi has joined the cast in a recurring role, as commander of the USAF starship that comes to the Atlantis crew's rescue. I may like this character even better than Assistant Director Skinner. Even so, Atlantis still holds my attention the least among the three Friday night shows - and I'm not looking forward to the other new character they're introducing in the next episode or two. But we'll see how things go.

In any given year, there are probably a dozen or more shows that have one critic or another raving it's "the best show on television." Rarely does that happen for a science fiction show, though - and even more rarely does that claim have merit. But Battlestar Galactica shows every sign of becoming one of those rare shows. The season premiere grabs you by the throat and takes you right back to where they left off in the spring - with everything going berserk. But even as the action races along, we get fabulous looks at what all the characters are going through as human beings (even if they're Cylons). Last night, that was especially true for Colonel Tigh, who suddenly finds himself in charge of the human race. It looks like we're in for quite a ride.



Between the Friday lineup on SciFi and the Sunday lineup on USA, this is shaping up to be a great summer for SFTV fans. Bring it on!