For true Science fiction fans, the Syfy channel has been a disappointment for a while now as it seems to have turned into The Paranormal Channel.  But it seems there is hope for them yet.

On Monday April 15^th, the premier of Defiance will air.  If you’ve been living in a deep cave somewhere and are unaware of Defiance, this is a post-invasion/apocalypse story about a group of survivors manning a resistance base in St Louis fighting back against the aliens who have practically destroyed the earth.  OK, not exactly an original story line, but what makes this one different (aside from the promise of some outstanding special effects) is the fact that the TV series is to be tied to the video game and (eventually) top players in the game will be helping to steer the show’s progress.  This will either become a ground-breaking multi-media tie-in or the most shameless video-game promotion ever.  I suspect the latter, but I’m willing to give it a chance. More on Defiance is available here: http://www.defiance.com/

In addition, Syfy has several other promising science fiction projects in the works: (Most of the following was gleaned from io9.com) 

In the Pipe

Helix: Syfy is currently filming 13 episodes of an intense thriller about a team of scientists from the Center for Disease Control. After being sent to the Arctic to investigate a possible disease outbreak, they soon become entangled in a far more apocalyptic affair, facing a terrifying life-and-death struggle that holds the key to mankind’s salvation or total annihilation.

Blakes 7: Syfy has approved a reboot of Blake’s 7, with a pilot written by Joe Pokaski (Heroes) and directed by Martin Campbell (Casino Royale). The original series, which ran on the BBC between 1978 and 1981, followed the exploits of a group of renegades and convicted criminals. According to FremantleMedia, the new series will be set in 2136 and will tell the story of seven criminals – six guilty and one innocent – on their way to life on a prison colony in space, who together wrestle freedom from imprisonment. They acquire an alien ship which gives them a second chance at life and become the most unlikely heroes of their time.

Potential Candidates

Ringworld: Yes, Larry Niven’s classic science fiction book series about the coolest megastructure in space could finally be getting a four-hour miniseries, according to Entertainment Weekly. EW describes this as a story about human explorers traveling to the farthest reaches of space to investigate “an alien habitat the size of one million Earths.” They crash land and discover ancient civilizations, miraculous technology, and a possible salvation for Earth. Syfy considered making a Ringworld miniseries nine years ago, with a different crew. Let’s hope this turns out better than Syfy’s two Riverworld miniseries, and its Earthsea mini. This is being written by Michael Perry (The River, Paranormal Activity 2). And it’s a co-production of MGM Television and Universal Cable Productions (UCP).

Childhood’s End: Another miniseries based on a classic science fiction book, this one by Arthur C. Clarke. This is the novel about which Upstream Color director Shane Carruth said he loved for its clever take on an alien invasion: “even the victims don’t know that they’re victims. It’s a closed loop of a story, to have a race show up and provide everything, and that’s the way that they conquer, in a way that nobody would ever recognize or resist.” All we know about this miniseries is it’s being executive produced by Michael DeLuca (The Social Network). (Also via EW.)

Infinity: This is one of several space shows that Syfy is putting into development, but this one is notable for being the creation of Javier Grillo-Marxuach, creator of The Middleman. It’s being produced by Berman/Braun and Universal Television. According to The Hollywood Reporter, this one starts out with an alien “armada” appearing near Pluto. Earth sends the only interstellar ship we have, created by a billionaire industrialist out of secret alien technology we discovered in the 1960s. But after the ship engages the alien fleet, it falls into a wormhole and winds up in deep uncharted space, searching for a way home. Expect lots of Middleman-style humor and insanity in this one.

Orion: The second space-based show comes from Alphas writers Ron Milbauer and Terri Hughes, and it focuses on Orion, a “female relic hunter” who tracks down valuable items in space, while also trying to piece together her own mysterious past. And meanwhile, the human race is in the middle of an intergalactic war with an alien race. Orion has special abilities, but she can’t decide whether to use them to save herself, or to find the hidden artifacts that could save the human race. (No guesses which one she’ll choose.)

Sojourn: A third spaceship show — or fourth, if you count Blake’s 7. The first detective in space has to solve a murder on a starship that’s on its way to colonize a new planet, and gets drawn into a “vast conspiracy” that has to do with a terrible crime that was committed when the ship was launched 50 years ago. This one comes from writer Phil Levens (Smallville) and producer Jason Blum (Paranormal Activity).

Clandestine: And a fifth space show. They should just show all of these pilots over a week, and let us vote. This one comes from writers Todd Stashwick and Dennis Calero, but it’s executive produced by John Shiban (X-Files, Supernatural, Torchwood). In this one, there’s a clan of bandits who are attacked and “left for dead” by Coalition forces, and they’re forced to take refuge inside a derelict Coalition spaceship that’s just floating in deep space. Once on board, they decide to masquerade as Coalition officers while continuing their life of piracy — until they stumble on a secret about the true nature of the Coalition. This sounds very Blake’s 7, actually. Gale Ann Hurd (Walking Dead) is also producing.

High Moon: Another space show, albeit one closer to Earth. This one has Bryan Fuller (Pushing Daisies) as an executive producer, although the pilot is mostly written by Jim Danger Gray (also Pushing Daisies). In High Moon, Earth’s nations all start establishing colonies on the Moon to exploit all the natural resources up there — and then they discover “a new form of life.” Chaos breaks out “in a genuinely emotional, humorously thrilling and always unexpected fashion,” according to the logline quoted at Deadline.

Silver Shields: And now, a non-space-based, not-so-much Science Fiction show, which means this one has better odds of making it to television. It comes from writer Robert Hewitt Wolfe (Alphas, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine) who had the space show Defender in development this time last year. In Silver Shields, Caymer is a farm boy whose father is murdered by assassins connected to the government of the nearby city Pont Royal. So Caymer goes to the city and becomes a police officer, like his father was, and tries to solve his father’s murder — in a city full of orcs and other magical creatures.

Shelter: A massive meteorite is on a collision course with Earth, so 30,000 people have to go live in an underground shelter, where things quickly descend into infighting and scheming. Meanwhile, life on the surface is not what everyone expected, and the survivors soon realize that they may have been meant for a greater purpose. This comes from writer/producers Bruce Joel Rubin (Deep Impact) and Ari Rubin.

No Place: Suburbanites living in a gated community wake up and discover that the rest of the world outside their gates has vanished, in this series based on the Top Cow comic The Test by Matt Hawkins and Joshua Hale Fialkov. According to the official logline, “residents of a high-tech gated community awaken one morning to find themselves alone and cut off from the rest of reality – nothing exists beyond the community’s walls. Only one man has contact with the powers responsible for what is known as ‘The Rift,’ and he must lead his fellow residents beyond the void to discover the truth.”

If ANY of these science fiction shows make it to the screen, they should help to draw nose-thumbers like me back to the Syfy Channel. Which ones do you especially want to see made?